ATLAS Institutional Remote Learning Initiative Award Winner: Walsh University Video

The ATLAS Institutional Remote Learning Initiative Award, intended to recognize the efforts of our organizations to respond to the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic was granted to Walsh University at Open Apereo 2020. The ATLAS committee wished to grant recognition to Walsh University for their response to the crisis in a comprehensive way. Criteria categories included Learning Effectiveness, Scale, Access, Faculty Satisfaction, and Student Satisfaction. 

Walsh University uses Sakai to design and facilitate their online courses offered through the Digital Campus. All courses offered each term, whether face to face, hybrid, or online, are loaded into Sakai. Instructors are encouraged to use resources for teaching via Sakai even if they aren't teaching an online course. During the pandemic, when students were home, all courses were required to move online and to use tools within Sakai to teach courses. 184 faculty converted 455 courses to distance learning in approximately a day in a half.

Learn about Walsh University's remote learning initiative and the process they took to ensure that the Spring 2020 semester was able to continue successfully for the students and staff through the pandemic.

Presented by:

Jennifer Loudiana, Director, User Support and Classroom Technology Walsh University

Jennifer Loudiana is the Director of User Support and Classroom Technology in Information Technology Services at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio . She has been the Sakai Administrator for the past 6 years. As the administrator she works with faculty, students and our Digital Campus that runs all of our online programs. She coordinates issues, upgrades and implementations of Sakai. In addition to being the Sakai Administrator her I.T. duties include managing the help desk and project management for some enterprise software updates/implementations that any users will be working with.

Mary Beth Messner, Director of Elearning Walsh University

Mary Beth Messner is a learning and development professional with over 20 years experience in teaching and training audiences in academic, corporate, and healthcare settings. Mary Beth began her career as a teacher of high school English and junior high language arts before transitioning into higher education. She delivered training sessions at The University of Akron in Akron, Ohio before embarking on a career path focused on instructional design. Dedicated to designing, developing and facilitating engaging learning courses according to Quality Matters and other nationally recognized standards, Mary Beth designed online courses at Stark State College, as well as elearning modules for both the Cleveland Clinic health system and Signet Jewelers (the parent company of Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared the Galleria of Jewelry and Piercing Pagoda).

For more videos from Open Apereo 2020 visit: https://video.ethz.ch/events/opencast/openapereo/2020.html