Session 15

Title: Online Career Training for Remote Alaskans

Session Description:

Alaska is a physically large state with a dispersed and small population, making online learning the only economically feasible delivery method for many professional advancement situations. I will describe the program developed at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) Sitka over the last 4 ½ years to address the problems of remoteness, slow internet speed and students with little computer literacy. UAS Sitka campus is a community college within the University of Alaska system. Our primary focus is on distance students, with a strong non-academic component. The interactive courses in our professional development program provide the latest in instructional design and require minimal instructor monitoring. The presentation will focus on the steps followed to develop these trainings: identifying organizations and businesses with a need, identifying content experts to provide content for our team of instructional designers and educators, developing materials to streamline the process, creating a procedure for interaction between content experts (who are not educators) and the instructional design team, and supporting both our content expert instructors and students once the courses are launched. Important qualities that help the program work will be addressed, describing the interaction between the various team members. One purpose of the program is to bring revenue into this university campus and this will be addressed briefly as well.

Presenter: Marian Allen

Marian Allen has a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, a Teaching Credential from California State University Hayward, a CELTA degree from International House, London and an MA in Teaching English as a Second Language from Union Institute and University. She has authored or co-authored four curricula in the areas of cold water safety and survival for children, specialized first aid and one curriculum to accompany a National Public Radio series on Alaska women in science and technology. She has worked for 23 years teaching workshops on topics important for survival in Alaska. For the past two and a half years, she has been on the staff at the University of Alaska Southeast Sitka, where she is a member of the team that develops short-term online training for professionals. She also teaches ESL.