Core Initiatives

This website is intended not only as a tool to inform the public about what the LiDA Center is doing, but more importantly as a vehicle to disseminate valuable information about Learning in the Digital Age and facilitate sharing and collaboration among members of the LiDA community we aim to support.

These are 1.5 hour seminars/ workshops, each focusing on a specific topic and/or set of “related” project about LiDA, which are offered regularly throughout the academic year and open to anyone interested. Whenever possible, we put together panels or combine presentations from people working in different fields, or settings, as appropriate, to invite exchanges that break traditional silos. The first event of the year is dedicated to sharing updates on current projects and interests, to facilitate collaborations and networking. These colloquia are free and open to the public.

We are encouraging and supporting the creation of small groups of individuals within our LiDA community who have similar interests and commit to meet on a regular basis to share experiences and support each other – following some of the principles and practices developed in the “mastermind groups” used by entrepreneurs.

These programs currently include:

• The Advanced Certificate in Digitally-Rich Teaching in K-12 School
• The Advanced Certificate in Online Teaching
• The Advanced Certificate in Education for Health Care Professionals
• M.S. in Online Teaching and Learning
• M.S. in Health Professions Education
• The 6-credit course sequence recently created specifically to prepare UR faculty.

LiDA Center staff will continue to support individual Warner faculty and adjunct instructors as they engage in designing and implementing new fully online and hybrid-online courses for Warner.  The Director and Associate Directors will also support the dean, associate dean for academic programs and program chairs in making strategic decisions about new online courses and programs – and how to best develop capacity for these new initiatives.

The LiDA Center will continue to support Dr. Eric Fredericksen, in his role as Associate Vice-President for Online Learning for the university, as he designs and implements professional learning opportunities for UR faculty as well as launches other initiatives to promote high-quality online teaching and learning across the University. The LiDA Center will also partner as needed to provide program evaluation for specific projects and/or participate in research projects organized by Dr. Fredericksen for the University.

Doctoral students have the potential to be a very important resource as we implement the mission of the LiDA Center – as they can teach online courses, design new online courses, provide professional development and work on externally funded projects. To fulfill any of these functions, however, they need specialized training.  The LiDA Center will offer such training in a number of complementary ways — including access to specialized courses and/or workshops, unique opportunities to participate in LiDA projects (on a paid and/or voluntary basis), and structures to develop an intellectual community.

The LiDA Center has offered to “incubate” the K-12 Digital Consortium – a growing collaboration between the Warner School and selected BOCES and school districts in the region that have come together to help each other in their quest to leverage digital technologies to provide more effective learning opportunities to their students. In this role, the LiDA Center is facilitating the articulation of Consortium goals and expectations for members, the creation of structures and procedures, the design of key professional learning opportunities, and the development of a robust website that can foster communication and collaboration among consortium members.