5 Things We Learned at the Chicago Online Learning Summit 2014

By Jeff Dunn, Senior Director of Devry Education Group’s DV X & Lauren Kaufman, 1871 Intern

As part of the 2014 Chicago Online Learning Summit, the DeVry Education Group and Huron Education co-hosted a community of leaders from Chicago’s top universities in the 1871 auditorium. During the event, Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies Associate Dean of Academics Joel Shapiro, Huron Education Managing Director Edwin Eisendrath, and DeVry Online Services President Eric Dirst shared best practices for teaching online courses and managing online programs.

We asked Jeff Dunn, Senior Director of DeVry Education Group’s R&D function (a.k.a DV X), for some key takeaways from the Summit. Here are his insights:

1. On online learning: Online education is expanding rapidly, but it’s difficult for educators to know what works and how to get started. Chicago is second to none when it comes to the quality, quantity, and diversity of higher education institutions. Local professors, administrators, and technologists all have insights to share and problems to solve. Our goal was to bring them together for a collaborative discussion and build a community of practice around online teaching and learning, right here in Chicago. There’s no reason why Chicago should not be the epicenter for innovation around online teaching and learning.

2. From computer to classroom: Online learning eliminates time and location barriers. With a computer or mobile device and internet access, anyone can engage in a learning experience anywhere, anytime. How does this ability affect professors and administrators, or the technology capabilities required of educational institutions? Online education presents unique challenges and opportunities. What works in the physical classroom may not work online, but online technologies can enable approaches not possible on campus.

3. Startups & online learning: Technology can inspire and enable new ways of thinking about teaching and learning, but technology already in place at many colleges and universities may be dated and not particularly inspiring. Startups can bring talents and perspectives that may not exist at many educational institutions, and the real magic happens when startups and universities work together to reimagine education for a digital age.

4. On the Summit: The great thing about the Summit was that everyone became speakers. Everyone engaged in a highly productive dialogue about the challenges and opportunities for online education.

5. On the future: Nobody knows. That’s why this Summit is so important. We’re all learning as we go. Now we can learn together, online and off.