Iowa Insights from 2018 ELI Conference

Published May 11, 2018

Hosted in New Orleans, the 2018 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) conference brought together instructors and staff from across the country to discuss “Achieving Student Success Through New Models of Learning.”

The University of Iowa Office of Teaching, Learning & Technology (OTLT) presented on a variety of topics ranging from “The Impact of Learning Environments on Student Success in an Engineering Course,” to “(Re)filling the Talent Pool: Programming, Practice, and Talent Development in Higher Ed.”

UI staff also collaborated with colleagues from across the Unizin Consortium to share insights on how Unizin tools and activities are advancing our vision for student success.

OTLT Senior Director Maggie Jesse presented alongside colleagues from Ohio State, Nebraska, and Wisconsin-Madison. Their presentation, “Collaborating Across Consortia” explored outcomes and opportunities that come from working with groups that have a similar mission. In this case, Unizin, the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), and the University Innovation Alliance discussed their shared goal to enhance student success.

“Content Camp, which supports faculty in adopting OER in large courses (sponsored by Unizin and the BTAA), is a great example of an initiative that has emerged through our partnerships across the Consortia, “Jesse says.

ELI also provided Jesse and UI Enterprise Instructional Technology Director Annette Beck an opportunity to meet with their Unizin colleagues at the Unizin Teaching and Learning Community Meeting. The meeting provided Unizin Members an opportunity to connect face-to-face and further discuss their Unizin efforts including eTextbook initiatives and learning analytics.

“Meeting face-to-face offers an opportunity to network, collaborate and work strategically on Unizin’s common vision for sharing content, learning analytics and planning efficient use of vended solutions in our digital learning ecosystems,” Beck explains.

ELI has always been an extremely important community resource for OTLT. This year’s conference, in particular, was especially useful in re-emphasizing the abundant resources available through our Unizin Membership.