The Master of Distance Education

Newsletter
Spring 2006
Editor: Gene Rubin

The MDE is now Founding Directors

beginning its 7th year! step down…
It’s hard to believe that we have been doing
this for six years. It seems just like yesterday
that we had just received approval from the
Maryland Higher Education Commission and
were offering our first course in the program.

That first course was, of course, OMDE601,

team taught by Uli Bernath and Gene Rubin.
The 601 course was an expansion of a similar
course that was developed to train distance
educators and administrators (titled: The Virtual
Seminar in Distance Education) that Uli and
Gene had developed using a grant from ICDE
and the AT&T Foundation. Just like today, that
course featured Drs. Otto Peters and Boerge
Holmberg and also featured guest
appearances from Dr. Tony Bates and Dr.
Gary Miller.
Our first classes (Two sections of 601)
contained 50 students. A number of these
students are now in our distinguished group of
MDE graduates.
How many graduates from the MDE program
you ask? 84 as of December 2005!
Have a great term and send us some news
about you too!
_____________
Gene Rubin and Uli Bernath
Of course, the above kind of reminiscing is
natural since both Uli Bernath and Gene
Rubin have made the decision to step down as
the respective Program Directors of the Master
of Distance Education program. For several
years there has been discussion about the
need to recruit and develop new leadership for
the program. In many ways, the MDE has
become mainstream… less experimental
(although we still would like to feel we will
remain on the leading edge of distance
education) and more of a fully developed and
ongoing program. Both Gene and Uli felt that
now was the ideal time to implement this
change since Uli is retiring from Oldenburg in
September, 2006 and Gene is also stepping
down from the Program Director’s position at
the end of June, 2006 to pursue other interests.
Continuing as faculty is still both their goal.

1
Introducing: The
MDE’s new leadership
The first MDE business meeting in 2006 was
held at UMUC January 11-15. Uli Bernath,
director of the Center for Distance Education at
Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg in
Germany introduced Thomas Hülsmann as
Oldenburg's new MDE Program Director.
Thomas is well known to MDE students from
teaching OMDE 601, 606, 625 and 626. His
appointment is a consequence of
organizational developments, which are taking
place in Oldenburg due to Uli's early retirement
beginning Oct 1st, 2006. On UMUC's side,
with Gene Rubin stepping down as Program
Director as of June 30, 2006, Stella Porto, the
new acting Program Director of the MDE has
taken over planning and administrative duties.
Stella has an extensive background in
Computer Science and has been in the past
the Program Director for Applied Computer
Systems and the MDE. She is now the
Associate Chair of the Information and
Technology Systems Department (the MDE's
home department) at UMUC.
Both Stella <sporto@umuc.edu> and Thomas
<thomas.huelsmann@uni-oldenburg.de> are now
fully responsible for administrative aspects of
the MDE program and all students and faculty
should now be addressing their questions and
concerns to them.
L to R: Mark Parker, Stella Porto and Thomas Hülsmann
2
The MDE and ODLLA
The 17th Biennial conference of the Open &
Distance Learning Association of Australia
attracted a number of UMUC faculty. Held in
Adelaide South Australia from November 9-11,
Keynote speakers included Michael Moore,
Tony Bates and Terry Hilsberg (visiting
faculty on MDE 622). Our Australian faculty,
Som Naidu and Anne Forster (president of
ODLAA) were deeply involved in the
organisation of the conference.
A highlight was a special life time achievement
award to Boerje Holmberg at a special
ceremony during the Conference dinner. Many
conference participants received a signed copy
of Professor Holmberg's latest book, The
Evolution, Principles and Practices of Distance
Education, Band 11 in the ASF series which
was generously donated by Uli Bernath .
Michael Moore's keynote focused on
professional development issues. He
advocated competitive post graduate education
as the most appropriate form, challenging the
audience to reflect on their experiences of
institutionally provided programs.
Tony Bates provided a comprehensive and
provocative presentation on opportunities and
challenges in the development of international
online learning.
Terry Hilsberg drew on his extensive
experience in the international for-profit sector
to highlight the emerging role of China's private
higher education sector as a serious
competitor. Terry pointed out that the market
was shifting from the school leaver to the mid
career professional, challenging existing
marketing and service strategies.
_____________
 MDE Faculty News
Michael Beaudoin (OMDE604 and
OMDE690) authored a book chapter
entitled “The Impact of Distance Education
on the Academy in the New Century” in
Issues in Higher Education, Nova Science
Publishers, Inc. (2005).
Michael has been elected for a three-year
term to the International Board of
Standards, Performance, Training and
Instruction, a worldwide consortium of
fifteen scholars and practitioners who
conduct research, writing and presentations
in areas related to online and distance
education.
A current project is a book entitled The
Changing Learner Landscape, to which
Michael is contributing a chapter entitled
“Reflecting on the Invisible Online Learner.”
Michael also served as a lead panelist at an
interactive session entitled “The Changing
Learner Landscape” at the annual
conference of the Association for Education
Communications and Technology in
Orlando, FL in November.
Zane Berge (OMDE621) has been quite
productive. Here are a number of
publications from Zane over the past 6
months:
Clark, T. & Berge, Z.L. (2005). eLearning,
virtual schools, and the National Education
Technology Plan. Proceedings of the 21st
Annual Conference on Distance Teaching
and Learning. Madison, WI, USA: August
3-5.
Carmody, K. & Berge, Z.L. (2005).
Elemental analysis of the online
experience. International Journal of
Education and Development using ICT,
1(3). Retrieved November 2, 2005 from
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu//viewarticle.php?id=10
3&layout=html.
Dobbins, B.W., Smelser, L., & Berge, Z.L.
(2005). Knowledge management within a
learning organization. International Journal
3
of Applied Knowledge Management, 1(2):
pp. 1-12.
McLaughlin-Graham, K. & Berge, Z.L.
(2005, October-December). Strategic
planning and online learning. Journal of
Educational Technology (India),
2(3): 24-29.
Berge, Z.L., Clark, T., Freedman, G.,
Jordan, A., & Stefanski, R. (2005).
Lessons learned in planning for success.
Panel presentation at the North American
Council for Online Learning (NACOL) 2005
Virtual School Symposium. Denver, CO,
USA, October 23 - 26.
Berge, Z.L. and Collins, M.P. (2005).
Providing effective feedback online. Paper
presented at the 2005 International Council
for Open and Distance Education (ICDE)
Conference on Open Learning and
Distance Education, New Delhi, India. 19-
23 November 2005.
Berge, Z.L. (2005). What doesn't work:
Students' perceived barriers to online
learning. In the Proceedings of The 3rd
International Conference on Education and
Information Systems: Technologies and
Applications (EISTA). Orlando, Florida,
USA. July 14-17.
Berge, Z.L. (2005). Providing effective
feedback. Presented at the North
American Council for Online Learning
(NACOL) Regional Professional
Development Symposium. Baltimore MD:
April 15-16.
Berge, Z.L., Clark T., Freedman, G.,
Jordan, A., & Stefanski, R.J., (2005).
Lessons learned in planning for success.
Plenary panel session presentation at the
North American Council for Online Learning
(NACOL)
2005 Virtual School Symposium. October
23-26.
Collins, M.P & Berge, Z.L. (2005). Helping
faculty help themselves:
Design consulting for online teaching.
Paper presented at the 2005 International
Council for Open and Distance Education
(ICDE) Conference on Open Learning and
Distance Education, New Delhi, India. 19-
23 November 2005.
Collins, M.P. & Berge, Z.L. (2005). The
online, scholarly discussion group: An
historical perspective. Paper presented at
the Association of Internet Researchers
Conference. Chicago, IL, USA. October 6-9.
Ulrich Bernath (OMDE690) has also been
quite productive:
In a two-year project, beginning in July
2005, funded by the German development
agency (GTZ) he served as a consultant at
the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT),
School of Management (SOM) for the
"Implementation of E-Learning in MBA
Programmes at AIT". In November 2005 a
workshop with all faculty of the School of
Management was held on "Teaching and
Learning Scenarios in the Electronic Age".
http://www.som.ait.ac.th/e-learning/index.html
In 2005 Uli became a member of the
Advisory Board of the European
Foundation for Management Development
(EFMD) Certification of e- Learning (CEL)
and am actually trained by the Swiss
Center for Innovations in Learning (SCIL) in
St. Gallen to become an EFMD- CEL
auditor
http://www.efmd.net/html/Accreditations/cont_d
etail.asp?id=041004mkeo&aid=041115dbvf&tid
=1&ref=ind
Uli’s latest public speeches & presentations
have been:
December 1, 2005. The "e" in German
Distance Education. Lecture given at the
Kongelig Norsk Ambassade (Norwegian
Embassy); a special event in conjunction
with the Online Educa in Berlin
http://www.online-educa.com/de/.
October 20, 2005. Critical Issues of Online
Distance Education and the Educational
Reform. Keynote given at the 2005 China
International Distance Education
Conference, Beijing, October 20 - 21.
http://www.chinaonlineedu.com/2005/intr_e.asp
September 21, 2005. The European
Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN).
4
Lecture given at the 12th Congress of
Brasilian Association for Distance
Education (ABED) in Florianopolis,
September 18 - 22
http://www.abed.org.br/congresso2005/
September 15, 2005. Quality Issues in E-
Learning. Lecture given at UNIRIO, Rio de
Janeiro/Brasil.
April 20, 2005. Code of Good Practice in
Distance Education.
Presentation at the eLearning Quality
Assurance and Return on Investment
Working Forum in Vancouver.
http://www.lifia.ca/van0504_FinalProgram.pdf
And finally here are the Dr. Bernath’s latest
publications:
BERNATH, U. (2005). Der online Master of
Distance Education (MDE). In B. Lehmann
& E. Bloh (Hrsg) Online-Pädagogik, Bd. 3:
Referenzmodelle und Praxisbeispiele
http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/zef/literat/COL-
casestudy-D-2.pdf
BERNATH, U. (2006). The online master of
distance education and certificate in
distance education programmes jointly
offered by the University of Maryland
University College and Carl von Ossietzky
University of Oldenburg. In A. Hope & P.
Guiton (eds.) Strategies for Sustainable
Open and Distance Learning, World review
of distance education and open learning:
Volume 6, London/New York: Routledge
Falmer.
http://www.col.org/worldreview/volume6.htm
Tom Brown (OMDE620) has been very
busy. Here are his recent activities
Brown, TH. (2005). Issues for m-learning
research. Invited guest lecture at the
University of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel, 7
June 2005.
Brown, TH. (2005). New trends and some
thoughts on the future of m-learning.
Keynote address delivered at the MEITAL
Conference, Ben-Gurion University, Beer
Sheva, Israel, 8 June 2005.
Brown, TH. (2005) Beyond constructivism:
Exploring future learning paradigms.
Education Today, issue 2 of 2005, Aries
Publishing Company, Thames, New
Zealand.
Brown, TH. (2005) Towards a model for m-
learning in Africa. International Journal on
E-learning, (2005) 4(3), 299-315, AACE,
Norfolk, USA.
Brown, TH. (2005) M-learning: Doing the
unthinkable and reaching the unreachable.
Keynote address at the Ericsson
International Conference on mobile learning
and mobile technologies, Dublin, Ireland, 9
September 2005.
Brown, TH. & Van der Merwe, HJ. (2005)
Mobile Technology: The future of learning
in your hands. Invited guest lecture at the
Open University, Milton Keynes, UK, 15
September 2005.
Brown, TH. (forthcoming 2005) M-learning
in Africa: Doing the unthinkable and
reaching the unreachable. Article accepted
for publication in Open and Distance
Learning Praxis in Africa, Unisa Press,
South Africa.
Brown, TH. & Henn, E. (forthcoming 2005)
Anticipating future learning paradigms: Will
m-learning survive? Article submitted to
the British Journal of Educational
Technology.
Member of the Steering Committee and
Programme Committee of DETA 2005, the
international conference on Distance
Education and Teacher Training in Africa,
Pretoria, South Africa, 7 – 9 Augustus
2005.
Co-chair of the Steering Committee and
Programme Committee of mLearn 2005,
the 4th international world conference on
mobile learning, Cape Town, South Africa,
25 – 28 October 2005.
Organising as well as invited member of
the Future Scenario Planning Workshop of
the International G1:1 Technology
Enhanced Learning Group, Cape Town,
South Africa, 24 October 2005.
5
In addition to her role as president of
ODLAA and chairing an international
conference, Anne Forster (OMDE622) has
made a number of presentations, including
a keynote address via videoconference to
the Lustrum Conference held at the
International Training Centre in the
Netherlands. Her presentation was on the
impact of E-learning implementation on the
organisation, its staff and resources. She
also gave presentations to the Hanoi
meeting of the Global Development
Learning Network, and to senior executive
of the National Science and Technology
program for e-learning in Taiwan.
Gila Kurtz (OMDE603 and OMDE631) and
Michael Beaudoin (OMDE690) both
attended the UMUC Center for Teaching
and Learning Summer Faculty Leadership
Institute this August. The Institute brings
together close to fifty distance education
(DE) faculty and faculty development staff
from Europe, Asia, and the United States.
The institute's purpose is to improve
instruction at UMUC by acquainting
participants with recent UMUC research on
best instructional practices, introducing
them to the effective use of multimedia in
online teaching, and bringing about a
greater awareness of the concept of peer
leadership
L to R: Stella Porto, Christine Walti and Gila Kurtz when
Gila attended the Summer Faculty Institute
Judy Roberts (OMDE603) reports that she
was one of five people who designed and
delivered a three-week residential
workshop for the Canadian International
Development Agency's 11th annual
Strategic Information Management
Program (SIMP) that took place in Ottawa
September 17 to October 5, 2005. Twenty-
nine delegates from developing countries in
Asia, the Americas and Africa participated
and developed action plans for strategic
initiatives that they will implement in their
home countries where they hold senior
leadership positions. (see http://www.acdi-
cida.gc.ca/SIMP). One of Judy's specific
responsibilities was to mentor delegates
having a specific interest in ehealth and
elearning. If any MDE faculty or students
think that they might know people who
could be interested in the 2006 SIMP,
please encourage them to monitor the
website above on a regular basis starting
April 2006
Merrily Stover (OMDE604) presented a
paper at the meeting of the American
Anthropological Association in Washington,
DC, November 30- December 4. The
paper was entitled "Surviving Evolutionary
Events in Academia: Strategies to Save
Anthropology Programs using
Technology." It was co-authored with
Susan Krook, from Normandale College in
Bloomington, Minnesota.
Dr. Olaf Zawacki-Richter (OMDE620) has
had several academic achievements:
Publications
Zawacki-Richter, O., & Hasebrook, J.
(2005). Soft Skills online? Lernziel
interkulturelle Kompetenz. In D.
Tavangarian & K. Nölting (Hrsg.), Auf zu
neuen Ufern! E-Learning heute und morgen
(S. 17-26). Münster: Waxmann.
Zawacki-Richter, O. (2005).
Einsatzkonzepte für E-Learning zur
Integration in nachhaltige Support-
strukturen. In M. H. Breitner & G. Hoppe
(Hrsg.), E-Learning: Einsatzkonzepte und
6
Geschäftsmodelle (S. 37-52). Heidelberg:
Physica-Verlag/Springer.
Zawacki-Richter, O., & Hasebrook, J. (2005).
Entwicklung interkultureller Kompetenz in
internetbasierten Lernumgebungen. QUEM
Bulletin Berufliche Kompetenzentwicklung,
7(3), 7-12.
Zawacki-Richter, O. (2005). Online Faculty
Support and Education Innovation – A
Case Study. European Journal of Open and
Distance Learning (EURODL), Volume 1.
http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2005/Za
wacki_Richter.htm
Zawacki-Richter, O. (2005).
Organisationsstrukturen für e-Learning
Support: Eine Analyse aus internationaler
Sicht. In D. Euler & S. Seufert (Hrsg.), E-
Learning in Hochschulen und
Bildungszentren (S. 105-120). München:
Oldenbourg.
Reviewer:
Gutachter: E(lectronic)-Learning -
Technologiebasiertes Lehren und Lernen,
Teilkonferenz der Multikonferenz
Wirtschaftsinformatik, 20. - 22. Februar
2006 in Passau
Member of the International Review Panel;
4th World Conference on Mobile Learning
(http://www.mlearn.org.za ) in Cape Town
(South Africa), October 25-28, 2005
L to R: Uli Bernath, Stella Porto, Mark Parker, Christine
Walti, Thomas Hülsmann and Gene Rubin at a recent
MDE social event at Stella’s home.
Keeping you
informed…
A reminder:
MDE Program Planning
Worksheet
There is a Program Planning Worksheet
available to MDE students on the MDE student
website (under “Tools/Guides”). This is an
Excel spreadsheet that shows several
examples of programs of Master’s study over
2-4 years. Also included is a blank study plan
for you to fill out for yourself. It is a way to plan
and keep on track, and can be adjusted to your
life circumstances.
It can also be used as a formal planning
device. Several of you are required to submit a
formal study plan for financial support. You
can simply fill out the Worksheet, send it into
us, and we will return it signed.
To download a copy, go to:
http://info.umuc.edu/mde/ProgramPlanning2.xls
7
MDE Student and
Graduate News
Paul U.E. Blackman sent along this report
of his tour of distance teaching institutions
in Europe :
During the month of February and a part of
the month of March, 2005, I visited a
number of distance teaching institutions in
Europe. The visit started with the Open
University in Milton Keynes, U.K, then on to
the CNED in France and culminated with a
visit to the University of Oldenburg,
Germany. The visits were organised as a
part of a European Union funded project for
the construction of a new Language Centre
at the Barbados Community College and
formed a part of the staff training
component.
The purpose of the trip was to observe
distance teaching institutions first hand, to
observe the teaching of foreign languages
at a distance, to look at systems for student
support and to seek to improve my
knowledge of distance teaching and
learning as a student and practitioner.
The trip was exhausting but a huge
success. In this brief report I focus on the
visit to the University of Oldenburg.
During a period of 4 to 5 days I was the
guest of the Director and Staff of the
division of Distance teaching and learning
at the University of Oldenburg. I was
introduced to the staff, had a chance to see
some of the courses they were working on,
had an extensive tour of the university, got
to meet Thomas Huelsman and have some
of my fears concerning OMDE 606 allayed!
I also got a chance to speak some German.
The highlight of the visit was having the ear
of an experienced distance manager in
Professor Uli Bernath who very kindly
shared not only his office and one of his
computers with me during my brief visit but
his extensive experience in the field of
distance teaching and learning as facilitator
and manager. For a few days I had the very
interesting experience of seeing a distance
manager functioning up close.
Professor Bernath holds the kind of position
which I hope I might have one day, which is
heading a distance teaching department on
a traditional campus.
I take this opportunity to express my thanks
to Uli, his staff and his family for putting up
with me during my visit. I learnt much and
look forward to a time in the not too distant
future of returning the compliment.
Tiffany DePriter (Graduate, 2001 and one
of our very first graduates) is studying
toward her Doctor of Mathematics
Education degree. She is working on a
quantitative research study which looks at
learning characteristics held by adult
distance learners and the relation to
student satisfaction.
Tiffany says, “In this paper I also address
the idea that not all students will succeed in
a distance learning environment. This
notion actually served as the foundation for
this paper because I have witnessed many
students who mistakenly assume that an
online class will be easier and less work
than a traditional face-to-face class. Upon
obtaining IRB approval, I plan to collect and
analyze the data for this study.
I find myself in a very interesting position at
Morgan State, in that I am studying
mathematics education from an adult
distance learning perspective. In teaching
the online algebra classes at UMUC, I have
found that many of the students are terrified
of taking the required math credits. I believe
that their anxiety and fear can significantly
affect their performance. With this under-
standing, I hope to align my dissertation
research with creating an intervention for
adult learners who are anxious about taking
mathematics courses online. “
Charlotte Donaldson (Graduate, 2005)
writes us and says: "I thought everyone
might like to see this white paper, in case it
hadn't come on their radar yet. Here is a
great white paper written by Allison Rossett
8
and Rebecca Frazee, both of whom are
wonderful educators, and also friends and
former professors of mine.” Strategies for
Building Blended Learning by Allison
Rossett, Felicia Douglis, and Rebecca V.
Frazee.(http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/jul
2003/rossett.htm)
“Storytelling is the hottest thing right now in
corporate training. I am on a year long
project to re-do all our new hire orientation
world-wide. Some will be face to face
(including trips to our headquarters for
every newbie) and some synchronous
sessions and fairly extensive home-grown
internal resources and commercial off the
shelf Microsoft applications training. Every-
one loves that term blended, don't they?”
Charlotte's Center team has also received
the American Society of Training and
Development (ASTD) Excellence in
Practice Citations for People Talk, Web
Radio; Market Focused Learning; and
Project Mercury which will be recognized at
the ASTD annual conference in May, 2006.
Reiko Koyama (Graduate, 2005) says, "I
am more than happy to share my career
shift since I received the master's degree
last August. I found a new job to
concentrate on designing distance learning
programs in Japan and other countries in
Asia. My new company, Waseda Research
Institute (http://www.w-ri.jp/), hired me
especially because I had an MDE and an
instructional design background. I certainly
had an advantage of completing the
master's degree in English here in Japan.
My new job duties are the promotion of
information dissemination for the Waseda
University Environmental Research Institute
(http://www.waseda.jp/weri/) and designing
potential projects related to distance
learning programs. The working language
is Japanese."
Heidi Maston (Graduate, 2003) sends
along the following: “In July 2005 I
presented at in Santa Cruz, CA at the
UCCP Online and Teaching Institute
http://www.uccp.org/institute/presenters.htm on
"ISD Variables: An Analysis of the
Components of the Course Development
Process".
I've recently accepted the position of
"Research Assistant" with Fielding
Graduate University. I'm working on,
"Instruction Technology Doctoral
Competencies of Students and Faculty at
Fielding Graduate University".
Additionally I will be presenting at ADEC
Summit XVII in March with "The History of
Distance Education: 2,400 years in the next
55 minutes".
Independently, I'm currently working on
"Motivation Techniques for the Online
Learner" as I enter my 2nd year as a
Doctoral Student at Fielding Graduate
University in Ed.D. - ELC.”
Paula Raimondo, who is just beginning the
MDE program has news. “I'm still at the
beginning of my MDE, and at this point not
sure when I'll be taking another class. I
immediately applied what I learned in
OMDE601 and have been teaching
sessions of the LIBS150 class. I am also
slated to teach a session of the graduate
level research skills class this fall. I'm
enjoying the work very much.”.
Jeff Rand, (Graduate, 2005) tells us: “I'd
like to share the results of an exciting
project I worked on just after graduation,
culminating in a large system test for the
Army in Oct. of '05.From May through Nov.,
2005, I was the training manager for the
development of the training curriculum for a
test of the Warfighter Information Network -
Tactical (WIN-T), a new approach to
tactical communications networking for the
Army. Throughout the summer of 2005, I
was part of a team of 5 instructor/
developers working closely with engineers
and subject matter experts to build the
training products that were to be used in
soldier training course that would be part of
the WIN-T Developmental Test/
Operational Test (DT/OT).
During the weeks of Oct. 17 - 28, 2005, 23
Signal soldiers participated in a 2-week
9
training course at Ft. Huachuca, AZ that
included traditional classroom training,
hands-on equipment training, and a
computer based training component.
During the subsequent record test
conducted from Nov. 1 - 15, 2005, the
newly-trained soldiers successfully
demonstrated the capabilities of the WIN-T
system and proved its potential for
supporting the Army's modernization goals
for its forces.
The confidence and experience I gained in
the MDE program definitely helped me take
on this project and work through the
challenges we faced as a team in achieving
its successful outcome.
Jeff is presently a Teaching Assistant in
OMDE602 and OMDE607. Welcome Jeff!
Raul Rivera tells us, “After returning from
11 month in Iraq in July 2004, I continued
my service to the Army. There were some
ups and many downs during that academic
year. Life is now one moving upwards. I
have a 4 month old baby daughter Liliana.
I recently took Command of a Company in
Livorno Italy and I also serve as the
Director of Human Resources. I will
continue with school this Spring and hope
to graduate in May of 2007.”
In October of 2005, Gary Trimble was
named task team lead for a training project,
supporting new military equipment. Gary is
the lead analyst, conducting manpower and
training requirements analysis for the new
system.
Gary Trimble
The analysis data will be used to design a
training system, which will provide the skills
and knowledge to qualify military personnel
as a system operator or maintainer. Gary
 will also manage the instructional design
team, which will create the training system,
providing individual self-paced and team
training. The training will need to be
accessible at any time from any place,
using stand-alone or networked computer
systems. System training will also need to
be tracked through the Navy's LMS for
personnel qualification.
For the past two years, Gary has also been
working on an initiative to create an
instructional systems design unit that will
better support the company's customer's
training and performance needs. On
Monday, January 9, 2006, Gary will be
promoted to manage the new Human
Performance Solutions (HPS) cell. HPS will
provide human performance analysis and
solutions for customers within the division
he supports.
Charlene Templeton (Graduate, 2004) has
a new job in the Technology Training
Department in the School of Continuing and
Professional Studies at Anne Arundel
Community College. One college wide
initiative is to develop online training for
continuing education. She is working on a
Quality Matters (Quality Assessment
Rubric) FIPSE grant and will be presenting
on her research at the Maryland Distance
Learning Association conference being held
at UMUC in March, 2006.
_____________
MDE student Candance Hall, teachers and students from
Harriet Tubman Elementary school, are awarded 500
backpacks from Office Depot
10
Come to the EDEN
Research Workshop
October 25-28, 2006
in Barcelona, Spain
Every two years, the European Distance
Education Network offers a research workshop
for practicing professionals in Distance
Education. This year’s workshop will be
sponsored by Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
(University of Catalunya) in Barcelona, Spain.
As with the last EDEN Research Workshop
held at Oldenburg, the MDE is planning on
holding a regular faculty meeting as well as
sponsoring an MDE student-run workshop. All
MDE students and graduates will be invited to
submit papers/proposals on a specific topic and
a reasonable sized stipend will be offered to
those whose papers are accepted.
As of the publication of this newsletter, the
main theme of the Workshop has not yet been
announced. As soon as the details of the
workshop are released, we will announce the
opportunity for MDE student/graduate
participation and all MDE students and
Graduates will invited to submit papers for
inclusion.
Those students who attended the previous
workshop will attest to the fact that this
workshop is a high powered event, with lots of
big names in the field, lots of opportunities to
network and rub shoulders with folks, and lots
of social event (not to mention the papers!). It’s
an event not to be missed!
Want to see some photos of the previous
Oldenburg workshop? Go to:
http://info.umuc.edu/mde/photos/Oldenburg-04/EDEN-04.htm
http://info.umuc.edu/mde/photos/Oldenburg-04/EDEN-04-2.htm
http://info.umuc.edu/mde/photos/Oldenburg-04/EDEN-04-3.htm
http://info.umuc.edu/mde/photos/Oldenburg-
04/EDEN_AutoUni.pdf
A number of MDE students who did not present
came too… so don’t let the idea of a paper
deter you. Keep an eye on the EDEN website
at http://www.eden-online.org/eden.php.
Fall 2005 Graduates
William Armstrong The MDE Website
Reiko Koyama
Susan A. Pollack You have probably visited our website -
http://info.umuc.edu/mde. But, maybe you don't
Kenneth Tercero
have the habit of visiting it often. Maybe we
Christopher Thompson have good reasons to invite and advise you to
Pamela Volzone stop by more frequently…
Job offerings are frequently posted in the
Timothy Waxenfelter job section
Cynthia Ybanez News about faculty and students are
Lealan Zaccone frequently posted in the announcements
page.
You will find all the syllabi for the MDE
courses available.
You will find many resources that can help
you with APA, html, etc.
There is a forum where you can
communicate with the "whole" MDE
community, instead of being restricted to
the people you already know or who are in
your current class.
You have the latest announcements about
what is happening in the program, such as:
revised courses, additions to the schedule
of future terms, important events, events in
which the MDE will be represented, etc.
May 2005 Graduation: L to R: Cynthia “Tea” Willets,
Stella Porto, Gene Rubin, Jeff Rand
and Charlotte Donaldson

UMUC University of Oldenburg

3501 University Boulevard East 26111 Oldenburg,
Adelphi, Maryland, 20783-8030 Germany
USA Tel.: +49 441 798 4415
Phone: (301)985-7391 Fax +49 441 798 4414
Fax: (301)985-4611 URL: http://www.uni-
URL: http://info.umuc.edu/mde oldenburg.de/zef/mde

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