MERLOT, Open Resource for Teaching and Learning Materials, Featured on LearningWeek Live Webcast
New York – December 5, 2001 – This week’s episode of LearningWeek Live – the first interactive weekly webcast featuring stories about the people, technology and business of learning today – features a discussion about MERLOT, the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching.
MERLOT is a consortium of institutional and system partners who sponsor and help develop an open online resource of learning objects and tools designed for faculty, instructional designers and students in higher education.
The show’s featured guest is Ed Cooper, CEO of MERLOT. Prior to his current position, Dr. Cooper was dean of graduate programs at Regis University.
Joining Dr. Cooper on the program is Peter Shea of the State University of New York (SUNY). Shea is the Director of Teaching, Learning, and Technology at SUNY, a project to advance the use of technology for the improvement of teaching and learning across the sixty-four SUNY colleges. Project activities include participation in the MERLOT Consortium.
MERLOT serves over 1,400 campuses which serve over 350,000 faculty and about 8 million students. With a continually growing collection of online learning materials, peer reviews and assignments, the MERLOT helps faculty enhance instruction. MERLOT is also a community of people who strive to enrich teaching and learning experiences.
LearningWeek will explore with the show’s panelists the successes, challenges, and emerging trends in the building and use of this open community.
This edition of LearningWeek Live (LWL) takes place at 1:00 p.m. EST (New York time) on Wednesday, December 5th at LearningWeek.com.
Each show features a dialogue on a learning news story and interviews with industry and thought leaders. Participants interact with special guests and colleagues around the globe.
Guests and show topics are drawn from the worlds of primary, secondary, and higher education, corporate training, publishing, libraries, web-based instruction –- anywhere concerted teaching and learning efforts are taking place.
The show concludes with the selection of the “LearningWeek Site of the Week”, recognizing achievement in providing access to quality learning in a connected world.
LWL is produced by Jonathan Finkelstein and John Walber, recognized experts in the learning and technology fields.
“The show has created a virtual space for real-time interaction among thousands of people united by their interest in improving education and accelerating learning,” said Finkelstein. “Human interaction is a basic ingredient for creating effective learning experiences, and it’s important to bring this approach to the discussion of learning issues themselves, live on the Internet.”
The format of this week’s live webcast, which will run about 45 minutes, allows participants to offer their perspectives, ask questions of the featured guests, and recommend topics for future shows.
Previous guests have included: Casey Green of The Campus Computing Project, Richard Katz of EDUCAUSE, Matthew Pittinsky of Blackboard, Inc., Bobbi Kurshan of bigchalk, Bill Evans of Cal-State Chico, Denis Gilhooly of the UN Development Programme, Donavan Vicha of the American Library Association, Brandon Hall of brandon-hall.com, Kristin Hirst of About.com, Bernard Percy of Converge magazine, and Gene Smarte of eLearning magazine. All archives are available on the LearningWeek site.
Sponsorship of the weekly show is provided by HorizonLive.com, Inc., Distance-Educator.com, and The Technology Source, and The Employment Channel. Registration for events is free of charge at LearningWeek.com.
For additional information, visit LearningWeek.com or email learningweek@learningweek.com.
