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About EOLC
Since its inception, the Excellence in Online Learning Conference has served as UTRGV’s premier forum for advancing innovation, scholarship, and excellence in online and hybrid education.
Each year, EOLC brings together faculty, instructional designers, researchers, and educational leaders to share evidence-based practices and emerging technologies that enhance student success.
Explore Past Conferences
2017 – The Year of Accessibility in Online Education
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Keynote Speaker: Raymond Rose
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Conference Agenda:
- Access Equity in Online Learning: Strategies for Fully Including Deaf & Hard of Hearing Students
- Accessibility, Accommodations, and Student Success
- How to Create Online/Flipped ‘Screen Capture’ Video for Free
- Literature Review on Best Online Practices for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students in Higher Education
- Panel Discussion: Convergence of Minds in Accessibility
2018 – Sparking Innovation in Online and Hybrid Learning
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Keynote Speaker: Dr. Darcy W. Hardy
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Conference Agenda:
- Accessibility in Online Education (Pre-conference)
- Innovations in Online and Hybrid Learning (Pre-conference)
- Discovery, Evaluation, Creation: The role of librarians in supporting open educational practice
- Writing of/in/about the Online/Hybrid Classroom
- Create Instructional Videos from Scratch with iPad!
- Two Course Development Narratives: F2F to On-line to Hybrid
- Myths, Issues, and Realities about Plagiarism in Online Learning: Strategies for Promoting Academic Integrity
- Sparking Presence and Community with Adobe Spark Tools
- Collaborate(ing) Asynchronously: An Innovative Approach in Interpreter Education
- Making Life Easier for Faculty and Students through Innovative Use of Teaching and Technology
- A Hybridized Approach to STEM Laboratories
- Connecting Online: Social Integration through group development
- Using Interactive Technology in a Flipped Classroom
2019 – The Art of Leveraging Resources
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Keynote Speaker: Dr. Anthony Piña
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Conference Agenda:
- A Treasure Trove of Instructional Technology Tools: Free and Accessible for Instructors and Students (Pre-conference)
- Building Community in Merged Realities: Using Augmented Reality with a Real-World Experiential Approach (Pre-conference)
- Free/Open Educational Resources: What They Are, How to Use Them and Where to Find Them (Pre-conference)
- The Magic of Genially (Pre-conference)
- Discovery, Evaluation, Creation: The role of librarians in supporting open educational practice
- Effectiveness of Online Teaching: Challenges, Alternatives, Examples
- Online Collaboration as a Higher-Education Internationalization Strategy
- Podcasting: A practical guide to producing audio based instructional material for online & hybrid education
- 4 R’s for Online/Hybrid Teaching: Realities, Redundancies, Rubrics, and Reconstructions
- Cultivating Integrations In Your LMS
- Incorporating Group Projects in Online Courses
- Online Learning: What Instructors Need to Know about Accessibility
- Affordable Textbooks and OER at UTRGV and Beyond
- Learning Communities to Improve Student Success in Online Learning
- Stuff On my Mind: Using Google Docs for Collaborative Note-Taking
- Using Zoom in Blended/ITV: Practice Sharing Session
- 10 Features You Might Not Know Are in Blackboard Learn
- Expanding Instructional Contexts: Why Student Backgrounds Matter to Online Teaching and Learning
- Graphic Design and Multimedia; Creating Your Own Podcast
- How to Manage Group Work for an Online Class
2021 – Elevating Instruction for the Digital Learner
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Keynote Speaker: Dr. Rob Robinson
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Conference Agenda:
- Creating Digital Textbooks using Top Hat's Authoring Tool (Pre-Conference)
- Building Community in Merged Realities: Using Augmented Reality with a Real-World Experiential Approach (Pre-Conference)
- Free/Open Educational Resources: What They Are, How to Use Them and Where to Find Them (Pre-Conference)
- Welcome to the Excellence in Online Learning Conference 2021
- Changing the Digital Learner “Virtually” at Texas A&M University-Kingsville
- Lessons Learned: Applying Professional Development to Online Teaching during a Pandemic - Round Table
- Active learning strategies in technical online courses: The case of graduate level
- Accounting courses - Seminar
Accommodations and Universal Design: Tools for Creating Equity and Inclusion - Seminar - Tools and Policies to Increase Instructional Time by Decreasing the Time Needed for Class Management - Seminar
- Data Analytics for Decision Making in Higher Education
- AOP Panel
- Connecting with Students in Online Courses - Seminar
- Gamifying the Learning Experience - TED
- Wiki Projects for Adult Learners in Creative Writing - TED
- Supporting Students in the Age of COVID - Seminar
- Testimonios: Knowing the Historical and Current Context of our Student's lives - TED
- Guided Lecture Process - Round Table
- Move Your Manipulatives Online: How to Integrate Virtual Manipulatives and Resources to Increase Student Engagement - Workshop
- Harnessing LMS engagement data for student success
- Coaching Toward Victory: Collaborating with Academic Coaches to Ensure Student and Faculty Success - Seminar
- Student Panel: The Benefits of OER Textbooks - Panel
- Using Nearpod to Create Inquiry-Based Instruction in a Virtual Environment
- Resources for College Students with Disabilities - Seminar
- Top 3 Blackboard tools to use in your web-augmented course
- Experiential Learning in Online Instruction: transforming students and business communities - Seminar
- STEAM Ahead: Reaching outside the online interface - TED
- Kahoot: An Innovative Formative Assessment - Workshop
- Awards & Closing
2022 – Designing with the Learner in Mind
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Keynote Speaker: Valary Oleinik
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Conference Agenda:
- Rapidly Prototyping a Gamified Solution (Pre-Conference)
- Reimagining Feedback & Assessment Practices through Equity-Mindedness: A Look into Labor-Based Grading Contracts (Pre-Conference)
- Engage Your Students at First Contact: Create an Interactive Syllabus with iPad and Pages (Pre-Conference)
- Incorporating Google Tools and Menti for Fostering Student Engagement and Teacher Presence (Pre-Conference)
- Welcome to the Excellence in Online Learning Conference 2022
- Adjustment and Resilience Project: What I Learned About Students from their Reflection
- Podcasting for Student Success
- Interactive Lecture
- Put Me In! How Academic Coaches Help You Level Up Your Online Course
- Chatting with your Class: An Introduction to Telegram & Microsoft Teams
- From the Horse’s Mouth: Student Expectations in our Next Normal
- How to Post Effective Messages in Online Teaching
- Virtual Reality
- Addressing Accessibility in the Classroom
- Highly Interactive Remote Lectures with Live in-class Assignments using Tablets
- Mentoring throughout the Course: Graduate Preparation and Application
- Research Librarians, Faculty and Online Learning: A Powerful Partnership
- Using Microlearning Tools to Apply Mayer’s Principles of Multimedia Learning
- Enhancing the Engagement of Students in Online Physics Courses using Modified
- Team-Based Learning (TBL) approach
- Integrating LinkedIn Learning Content in Academic Curriculum – UTRGV Faculty Examples
- Using Panopto Quizzes to Increase Student Engagement in Online Classes
2023 – Digital Generation: Learners in the 21st Century and Beyond
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Keynote Speaker: Dr. Shana Garrett
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Conference Agenda:
- Pre-Conference Workshop
- Navigating Today's Classroom
- Conference Sessions
- Session 1: Cultivating Agency & Engagement in Online Courses: 7 Strategies
- Session 1: Navigating the Shift in Learning Culture: Transforming Student Support in Today's Educational Landscape
- Session 1: Online Global Classroom: Integrating Collaborative Online International Learning Into the Curriculum
- Session 1: Switch the Traditional Classroom to virtual International Learning Environments
- Keynote: The Complex Community of Higher Education
- Session 2: Teaching Online in Interdisciplinary Fields
- Session 2: COLTT Blueprinting: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!!
- Session 2: Let’s Team-Teach It! How Technology Facilitated Faculty Collaboration for a New Graduate Course
- Session 2: Extended Reality in Education and Beyond
- Session 3: Decolonizing the Classroom: Nepantla on the Rise
- Session 3: SoftChalks, a Fun and Engaging Tool in the Classroom
- Session 3: Guest Speakers as an Enhancing Learning Experience
- Lightning Sessions (Student Engagement)
- Feedback Loops, What Are They and How Do We Use Them in Course Design?
- Menu Choice Boards: Giving Students Focused Autonomy with Technology
- Proyecto Aula Virtual: Self as Teacher and The Power of Imagining the Bilingual Classroom
- Students’ Satisfaction in the Virtual Learning Environment
- Motivation Monday: Creating weekly alumni interview videos to motivate & encourage current students.
- An Introduction to Top Hat — Disrupting Higher Education with Active Learning
- Bringing the UTRGV Library to Our Students: Integrating Library Services within Blackboard
- First Year Experience
- Other Sessions
- Reading Together: Social Annotation with Hypothes.is at UTRGV
- Pre-Conference Workshop
Faculty Excellence Awards
Each year, the Center for Online Learning and Teaching Technology (COLTT) recognizes faculty who demonstrate exemplary teaching and innovative use of instructional technology to enhance student success in online and hybrid learning environments.
Conference Impact
Over the years, EOLC has:
- Showcased faculty innovation in online and hybrid teaching
- Highlighted research on student engagement and retention
- Advanced accessibility and inclusive design practices
- Supported institutional alignment with Quality Matters standards
- Strengthened collaboration across campuses