The Sloan-C International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning is designed to bring together individuals interested in the technological aspects of online learning. Experts, intermediate users and novices are welcome to participate in Symposium activities that will include face-to-face and virtual components. This event will be held May 7-9, 2008 at the Carefree Resort in Carefree, Arizona. See the location page for more information.

Symposium tracks highlight and demonstrate research, application and best practices of important emerging technological tools related to social networking, assessment, open educational resources, new media and support services. A call for papers will be available September 19, 2007. Presentations will be provided in both the face-to-face event and the virtual event held in Second Life and the Moodle Learning Management System.

There are a variety of ways to attend this symposium. Please read the descriptions below for more detail on what each includes:

Face-to-Face Symposium - $470 - May 7-9 in Carefree, AZ

Why attend the face-to-face event? This year's event will be limited to just 300-400 attendees and will showcase many new techniques for optimizing networking and learning opportunities. The Carefree Resort provides the perfect setting for a highly interactive and engaging experience both inside and out. Expect incredible weather as well, as Carefree, AZ is located just far enough north to give some of the best temperatures of the year in early May at this popular Arizona destination.

Online Symposium - $470 (or Six (6) Sloan-C 2008 College Pass seats) – January-May in multiple online environments - Includes:

• 5 Online Workshops Beginning early January – Each workshop will be developed in the popular Sloan-C online workshop model and will focus on a topic relating to one of the tracks. These Sloan-C online workshops can also be taken individually and start at $295 each. The Online Symposium provides the opportunity to take them in package of 5 online workshops, providing over 60% in savings compared to the general pricing per workshop and includes all of the additional benefits listed below.
  
• Basic Training Boot Camp Course – At a typical conference, you can talk about applications, but you rarely get a chance to fully test them yourself with the guidance of experts in the field. This boot camp provides just that and will include a set of ongoing sessions running from February through May. Designed to provide hands on and immersive training on how to use the technologies discussed to improve online courses, the basic training boot camp will be offered exclusively through the Online Symposium.
• Streaming-from-the-Dessert – Select sessions from the live event in Carefree, Arizona will stream online May 7-9. Special attention will be paid to integrate the face-to-face event with the virtual event in a way that makes the virtual attendees true participants of the symposium. In addition, some presentations will be held online only in a virtual world and in our course management system.

Why attend the online symposium? The online symposium gives you a chance to not only talk about the applications, as we would at the face-to-face event, but it lets you test drive them in a safe environment while having access to experts that can help you understand their uses. If your schedule or budget does not allow for the trip or your institution does not support travel outside of your state, the online symposium provides a full scale online experience that rivals any face-to-face event. Please keep in mind that a great deal of resources will be put into the online symposium to make this one of the premier online events of the year.

Combination Pricing Range - $752 (20% less than if separate) - includes all of the above

Why attend both? Each delivery mode provides its own valuable characteristics. It is tough to beat the face-to-face interaction with colleagues and learning experiences you can have at a face-to-face event away from the distractions of the office. But, as we've seen in our own classrooms, online events provide their own value in the way individuals can interact, learn from each other, and have access to information for much longer periods of time increasing the absorption of what is learned. We encourage you to consider doing both to gain the full benefit of what this event can offer while also taking advantage of highly discounted package pricing. In fact, if your institution is a premium member and will be attending in a group of 3 or more, you can take advantage of both the 40% combo discount and a 10% early bird discount, bringing the price of the combination down to just $38 more per person than if you were attending just one.