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CFP: Learning 2000: Reassessing the Virtual University

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Call for Proposals: Papers, Panels, and Roundtables for:

Learning 2000: Reassessing the Virtual University

webpage:                  http://www.cddc.vt.edu/learning

Submission system:  http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/lol

September 27-30, 2000

Hotel Roanoke

Roanoke Virginia

Deadline for Submission is June 1, 2000

Many have been exploring ways for building a "virtual university" either from scratch or by virtualizing the educational experiences at already existing colleges and universities. Yet, a few institutions of higher learning, such as Virginia Tech, have been laying the foundations for such online learning environments since 1993. With its support for the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV), a state-wide broadband ATM network (NET.WORK.VIRGINIA), the Faculty Development Initiative (FDI), the Cyberschool project in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the campus-wide Institute for Distance and Distributed Learning (IDDL), Virginia Tech has been uniquely positioned as a site to assess the benefits and costs of virtual university instruction.  Drawing upon this six years' experience, the College of Arts and Sciences at Virginia Tech will continue the serious, sustained, and on-going debate about the merits of online teaching and distance education launched at "Learning Online '98" in June 1998 with "Learning 2000: Reassessing the Virtual University."

The purpose of this conference is to gather colleagues from around the world who are interested in the shape and substance that the virtual university is acquiring in practice. In addition we hope to debate the advantages or disadvantages of digital discourse, learning online, and virtual university life. By reviewing the quality of faculty life, the pressures on support staff, the impact on student learning, the demands on university administrators, and the potentials for reaching new types of learners, a series of paper sessions, round-table discussions, panels, and keynote speakers will address the wide range of issues that emerge in this domain.

Included in these discussions will be a meeting for the university administrators and faculty involved in creating the Electronic Campus of Virginia (E-CVA). E-CVA is the Commonwealth of Virginia's experimental effort at creating a statewide virtual university, and this group will have much to contribute to the discussion with the other conference participants.   

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:  

Carole Barone, Educause
Keith Fulton, Urban League
Katherine Hayles, Professor of English at University of California Los Angeles
Michael Joyce, Professor of English at Vassar College
Stuart Moulthrop, Associate Professor of Communications at the University of Baltimore
Mark Poster, Professor of History at University of California Irvine

Some Suggested Topics:

Administering Online Universities
Best Practices in Online Learning
Digital Discourse
For Profit and Not For Profit Virtual Universities
Hypertext/Hypermedia
Intellectual Property and Online Learning
Legalities and Illegalities Online
Meanings of and Motives for Virtualizing University Education
Online Learning Environments: Creating Communities
Scholarship and the Teaching Profession Online
What Fails Online and Why?

If you have questions about the conference contact Len Hatfield at

Len.Hatfield@vt.edu or Tim Luke at twluke@vt.edu

Call for Proposals: Papers, Panels, and Roundtables.

Submit your individual paper, entire panel, or roundtable proposal by clicking below and filling in the form:

http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/lol

Jeremy Hunsinger                     http://www.cddc.vt.edu
Instructor of Political Science    Center for Digital Discourse and Culture
Webmaster/Manager CDDC
526 Major Williams Hall 0130  http://www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy --my homepage
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061             (540)-231-7614


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Last updated: April 1, 2000