I have some personal news that will have an impact on this blog. After 8+ years in the consulting world, I am moving over into the world of higher education. I am delighted to announce that I have accepted a position with the State University of New York (SUNY) as part of the SUNY Learning Network (SLN). I will be joining a dynamic team that already has a fantastic track record of success. Currently offering about 4,000 courses to 70,000 students each year, SLN has won awards for excellence from both EDUCAUSE and the Sloan Consortium. The existing program has focused so far on pure distance learning courses.
My job will be to build a complimentary program within SLN that focuses on web-enhanced and hybrid courses. Even if you ignore the hybrid courses altogether and look exclusively at web-enhancing existing on-campus courses, this is a huge challenge. SUNY serves 413,000 students at 64 campuses. (That’s a student population that’s roughly halfway between the total population of Pittsburgh and the total population of Albuquerque.) The eventual goal is to persuade every single professor in every single SUNY course to web-enhance the class, which would easily mean over a million courses per semester.
Yowza!
MindWires, my company, will continue to exist for a while longer as a legal entity, although I don’t expect to be doing anything significant with it in the foreseeable future. I’m strongly suggesting to my clients (especially epiplex customers) that they work with friend and colleague Gary Dickelman at EPSSCentral.
Regarding e-Literate, expect two changes. First, the mix of content will tilt a bit more in the direction of higher eduction. I tend to blog about whatever I’m thinking about and struggling with in my work life, so this is only natural. Second, expect my posting rate to remain slow for a while (at least a couple of months) as I take the time necessary to learn my new job and get my new team settled and productive. That said, I remain committed to this weblog. In fact, I intend to find ways to integrate it into my job and even encourage others within SLN to start their own blogs. If we’re lucky, maybe I’ll be able to persuade more of the bright people within the SUNY system to bring their lessons learned out into the light of the blogosphere.
