In this forum, we will openly discuss the development of the Sloan-C International Symposium, allowing you to provide you input into what this symposium should address. We look forward to your ideas, suggestions, and feedback.

Assessment can mean many things from measuring application of standards to measuring changes in learning. In this forum we specifically wish to examine how emerging technologies impact assessment of all types - from the explicit (acquisition, display, understanding) to the implicit (built-in, not noticeable, but always there) assessment. The interplay of assessment with action (e.g. immediate feedback) is of interest.

A wide range of Web 2.0 (and 3.0) media and tools are being designed and deployed in online education. The focus of this forum is to determine which emerging technologies make sense for use in everyday instruction and to examine data that demonstrates improvements in learning and in both faculty and student satisfaction. The track is appropriate for practitioners - the use of specific tools for accomplishing targeted learning objectives are of interest. Implemented examples, results of studies and descriptions of applications of inventive approaches using emerging technologies are sought.

New social networking applications have greatly democratized the ability of both faculty and students to form learning communities. This forum explores how new applications (blogs, wikis, virtual environments, etc.) are affecting student access to learning and how they are changing learning communities. What are the implications for empowering individual students, for creating diversity, and for the learning environment itself? What is the impact on the teaching role and on learner performance and satisfaction?

How are teaching and learning impacted due to the availability of new technologies? How must instructional design be changed to utilize emerging technologies? What has actually been done to improve pedagogy using new tools and new processes for enhancing learning? Open educational resources, collaborative efforts, design paradigms, and affordable and sustainable delivery models are among the areas to be considered. Cost considerations are of interest - what is the "bang for the buck" of new technologies - what improvements can be demonstrated in each Sloan-C pillar area? (The Sloan Pillars are quality principles for online learning: access, student satisfaction, faculty satisfaction,learning effectiveness, and cost effectiveness/institutional commitment)

This forum focuses on issues related to the technological infrastructure needed to support the ever-changing online learning environment. Areas of particular interest include creative applications of technology for staff and faculty development/training, library, academic and student support services, open source utilization and partnerships, peer learning, and self-learning paradigms.