Recordings of Contact North/ATD’s Learning and Technology Conference now available

The conference

I’m still catching up on all the posts I meant to write during 2020 but have been too busy to do. 

Contact North and the Association for Talent and Development have now made available video recordings of all the presentations at their virtual conference on December 8-9, and there are some jewels amongst them.

The  unique selling point of this particular conference is that it brought together the often separate worlds of k-12, post-secondary education and corporate training. They each have something to learn from each other.

For time reasons, I have not viewed them all, at least not all the way through, so I am selecting those I personally found most interesting. Most of the presentations are fairly short, 20 minutes or so, sometimes with more than one speaker. The Q&A sessions are usually well worth waiting for.

The full list of presentations is at the bottom of this page. Note however the presentations for some reason are available only until March 19, 2021.

My favourites

Preeti Raman, OISE, University of Toronto Rethinking Assessment for Blended Learning: Developing authentic assessment for and of learning.

I really enjoyed this very clear and practical presentation on authentic assessment in online and blended learning. Every instructor who went online for the first time in the Spring should view this – as well as more experienced online instructors. A complete answer to technology-based online proctoring.

Jake Hirsch-Allen, LinkedIn A Bold Scenario for Learning, Teaching and Training Online During and Post-COVID-19

This is a presentation of the ways in which LinkedIn and more specifically its sub-unit, Lynda.com, is partnering with the public sector to provide online learning resources, particularly but not exclusively in the vocational and trades areas. This made me more aware that Lynda.com and other commercial providers are a real competitor to the idea of open educational resources, and raised in my mind in particular where Ministries of Education/Advanced Education should invest: in licensing commercial products, often of high quality; or in ‘home-grown’, locally produced open educational resources, which may not match as well the quality of the commercial products.

Stephen Downes What’s Next for MOOCS?

I have to say that this was not what I was expecting from Stephen. In this presentation he indicates the ways in which MOOCs can and are being automated. There is no way I am going to try to speak for Stephen, but as usual, a highly thought-provoking presentation. 

Phil Hill What’s Next for Learning Platforms?

Phil Hill provides an excellent overview of the situation regarding various types of learning platforms and in particular the likely next moves with regards to video-conferencing and LMS/VLEs. Lots of both hard data and practical insights about the future of online learning platforms.

Jim Hewitt and Clare Brett, OISE, University of Toronto The Path Forward

This session complements nicely my own session with Stella Lee, but for the k-12 sector. Clare and Jim focus on three trends: developing computational skills; microlearning; and emerging technologies. Interestingly their choice of emerging technologies for the k-12 sector, especially VR/AR, mirrors my own for the post-secondary sector.

Nicole Johnson, Canadian Digital Learning Research Association What’s happening in online learning in Canada? Taking the pulse of Canadian higher education institutions.

This presentation looks at the results of two ‘quick and dirty’ surveys of mainly faculty, but also some administrators, in Canadian post-secondary institutions during both the Spring and Fall semesters, during the Covid-19 pandemic, and suggests a number of necessary actions for instructors, administrators and institutions.

Stella Lee, Paradox Learning, and Tony Bates, Contact North Education and Learning Technologies in a Post-Covid World

Well, I had to mention this session, which is about newer technologies, both simple and complex, that are having, or will have, a major impact on post-secondary and corporate training.

Full program

There are many other sessions that I either just scanned or missed entirely, so below is the full set of recordings. Happy viewing!

Available only until March 19, 2021