Keynote Speakers

Using Online Program Management Solutions for Delivering Quality Academic Programmes

Jan 9 (Tuesday) 14:00

Prof. Kai S. KOONG

Professor and Dean, Andrew F. Brimmer College of Business and Information Sciences, Tuskegee University

Biography

Dr. Kai S. Koong is a Professor and Dean of the Andrew F. Brimmer College of Business and Information Science at Tuskegee University. Professor Koong has more than 20 years of experience as an educator and administrator in public and private higher education institutions — including four minority serving institutions.

Prior to joining Tuskegee University, Dr. Koong served on the faculty of the School of Economics and Management at Xidian University (Xi’an, Shaanxi, China) as a Distinguished Professor and a Foreign Expert certified by the Chinese Central Government. In the United States, he previously served on the faculty and as an administrator at the University of Texas Pan American, Southern University at New Orleans, and Dakota State University. His previous experience also includes faculty appointments at Kentucky State University, Mount Olive College and Virginia Commonwealth University. Both the Caritas Institute of Higher Education (soon to be called St. Francis University) in Hong Kong and Xidian University in Xi’an, China have named him an Honorary Professor.

As a result of his research specializations and teaching interests in the areas of e-commerce, energy markets, global information systems, health information technology and labor issues, Professor Koong has published more than 100 manuscripts in peer-refereed journals and books.  He has also presented works at many peer-reviewed conferences. He currently serves as the editor-in-chief for two global peer-refereed journals: the International Journal of Electronic Healthcare and the International Journal of Services and Standards. He was the featured keynote speaker at the 2015 International Conference on Technology in Education in Hong Kong, the 2017 Information and Communication Technologies in Organizations and Society Conference in Paris and the 2017 Lebanese Conference on Information Systems in Lebanon. Additionally, he has been invited to conduct workshops and seminars at many institutions of higher learning in Southeast Asia and in the United States.

Dr. Koong’s numerous accolades for his academic and professional endeavors include the Decision Sciences Institute-Southwest Region’s Outstanding Educator of the Year Award (2012), the Province of Shaanxi’s (China) Outstanding Foreign Educator Award (2017), and a Senate Resolution in his honor from the Louisiana State Senate (2008). As a result of his mentoring efforts, his students frequently have been honored with awards for their research, research writing and academic success.

Abstract

An increasing number of universities are using Online Program Management (OPM) solutions to deliver education programs.  OPM solutions are an integrated suite of online services that support university leaders, faculty, staff and students in the delivery of educational program offerings.  Online Program Management has no boundaries as students from any geographical location can be recruited.  This is a lucrative opportunity for tradition rich and geographically restricted campuses and programs needing accelerated numerical growth to engage.  Solution components are offered in the form of a fully integrated system approach to online program management comprising of core services delivered under the brand of the university partners.  Such services may include, but are not limited to, online enablement, academic services, marketing services, enrollment services, legal compliances (accreditation and multi-state or national certifications) retention services, faculty and other personnel support, program financing, and most recently data science and analytics support.  Typically, Online Program Management companies market their solutions/partnerships as capable of helping universities launch, grow, and sustain quality degree programs within a short time period.  Typically, the costs can range from 45 to 80 percent of tuition revenue generated from student enrollment and the average contract range is 5 to 7 years, depending on the vendors and the array of services selected. 

As expected, cases of successful as well as failed partnerships have been reported in the literature and there are many lessons that can be learned from these joint ventures.  Apart from providing sufficient insight about this growing practice in higher education, this keynote addresses strategic, tactical, and operational issues that administrators, faculty, and students must understand when using Online Program Management Solutions to launch, grow, and sustain degree programs.  Specifically, this presentation based on several high profile cases will 1) demonstrate the necessities of having critical success factors and detailed preparations, 2) showcase best practices that have generated revenue, and 3) highlight costly mistakes and consequences that took years to remedy.  University administrators contemplating OPMs as a means of support, faculty members who are developing programs and courses for online delivery, and prospective students looking for quality degree programs online will find this keynote useful and interesting.

Deploying Peer-learning Community as the Pedagogy: Critical Success Factors for Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’ Schools

Jan 10 (Wednesday) 09:00

Prof. Kongkiti PHUSAVAT

Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering, Kasetsart University

Biography

Dr. Kongkiti Phusavat is a Professor at Department of Industrial Engineering, Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand.  Dr. Phusavat is the author of the book- the title of “Productivity Management in an Organization: Measurement and Analysis” and has contributed the chapters to several texts in the areas of process management.  Moreover, Dr. Phusavat has published over 90 referred journal articles for the past fifteen years in various academic disciplines.  Dr. Phusavat is currently the Editor in Chief of International Journal of Innovation and Learning.  Furthermore, Dr. Phusavat is working with Thailand’s Board of Trade in two capacities- the Chairman of Education and Skills Committee of Joint Foreign Chamber of Commerce in Thailand and a committee in Thai Chamber of Commerce’s Education Committee. 

Dr. Phusavat has played a prominent role in the international collaboration in education between Thailand and Finland. For his work with Finnish education, Dr. Phusavat was later awarded the Order of the Lion of Finland with the honor title of Knight First Class in 2015. In addition, Dr. Phusavat was granted the title of Honorary Professor in 2017 from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Poland.  Dr. Phusavat is a regular examiner for the universities in Australia, Finland and Malaysia.  He has frequently given the lectures and speeches at several universities in Australia, Finland, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Poland, Taiwan ROC, Slovenia, and the U.S.

Finally, Dr. Phusavat earned his master and doctoral degrees from Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Sate University or Virginia Tech in the U.S.  Dr. Phusavat attended Texas Tech University in the U.S for his undergraduate study in Industrial Engineering.  His research and work interests include productivity measurement, quality improvement, performance management, acquisition logistics, system design, pedagogical development in basic education, and public-sector reforms.

Abstract

The study aims to identify the critical success factors for adapting Peer-learning Community (PLC).  PLC represents one of several changes in the pedagogical practices for the secondary-level schools at Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).  The initial assessment shows that PLC has improved the life skills for the students as well as has raised the level of students’ enthusiasm.  The study is based on the observation over the period of 3 years from 2015 until the present.  Three schools under BMA’s Department of Education decided to integrate PLC as part of the students’ problem-based learning.  The teachers and students from these three schools have used the environment and ecology as the main premise on applying PLC.  This premise represents how students view the environment and ecology nearby their schools and in their communities.  The theme allows the students to learn either how to solve the environmental problems or how to live with their environment in a more sustainable way.  As earlier mentioned, PLC is applied to help strengthen the pedagogy in the environmental and ecological subject.  The success factors in PLC stems from external knowledge to give the actual illustration of PLC, careful planning with student’s involvement and the theme for projects or problems for students, the ability to sustain the motivation among teachers and students, use of ICT, and patience and trust.  PLC does not only contribute positively to teachers but also stimulates students in a way that they feel that they have achieved in acquiring these life skills.  Due to the success, these teachers have extended their experiences and are working with ten schools extensively outside Bangkok.

Learning Behavior and Interactive Pattern Analysis - Methodologies, Tools and Practices

Jan 10 (Wednesday) 14:00

Prof. Gwo-Jen HWANG

Chair Professor and Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology

Biography

Dr. Gwo-Jen Hwang is currently a Chair Professor at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. He is also Dean of College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the university. Dr Hwang serves as an editorial board member and a reviewer for more than 30 academic journals of educational technology and e-learning. He has also been the principal investigator of more than 100 research projects funded by Ministry of Science and Technology as well as Ministry of Education in Taiwan. His research interests include mobile and ubiquitous learning, flipped learning, digital game-based learning, and artificial intelligence in education. Dr. Hwang has published more than 550 academic papers, including more than 200 journal papers and 300 conference papers. Among those publications, more than 150 papers are published in SSCI journals. Owing to the reputation in academic research and innovative inventions in e-learning, he received the annual most Outstanding Researcher Award from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan in the years of 2007, 2010 and 2013. Moreover, in 2016, he was announced by Times Higher Education as being the most prolific and cited researcher in the world in the field of social sciences (https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ten-most-prolific-and-most-cited-researchers).

Abstract

Learning analytics refers to the analysis and interpretation of data related to learners’ behaviors, interactive content and learning contexts recorded during learning process as well as their profiles and portfolios. The objective of learning analytics is to provide helpful information to optimize or improve learning designs, learning outcomes and learning environments based on the analysis results. In this talk, Prof. Hwang would review the current states of learning analytics research and the design considerations. To this end, the methodologies and tools for analyzing students’ online learning behavioral patterns and interactive patterns are introduced. Several relevant applications are presented to show how the methodologies and tools work. It is expected that this talk can inspire researchers to discover potential research issues of e-learning or blended learning and to apply the methodologies and tools to their studies in the future.

Five Principles of MOOC Design and Development: Lessons from Two MOOCs

Jan 11 (Thursday) 09:00

Prof. Jianli JIAO

Professor and Director, Future Education Research Center, South China Normal University

Biography

Dr. Jianli Jiao is Professor of Educational Technology and Director of the Future Education Research Center at the School of Information Technology in Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China. He is a pioneer in teaching and learning with the web in mainland China. His research interests span educational technology, blended and online learning, technology-enhanced learning in K12, higher education, and continuing professional education. He has spoken at numerous local, national and international conferences about educational technology, MOOCs, blended and online learning, and published over 10 books, more than 60 articles in refereed journals, and 2100 posts in his own weblog (www.jiaojianli.com) in past 18 years. Currently, he is researching MOOCs, technology-enhanced learning as well as blended learning in K-12 and higher education settings.

Abstract

The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) has been the latest disruption in online education and one of the fastest-growing segments of the education system in past ten years. It delivers open educational resources online and hence provides opportunity for people all over the world to learn anything they want to learn, anytime, anywhere. However, although MOOCs are gaining popularity in higher education, very few best practices or research in designing, developing and implementing MOOCs have been reported so far. This status quo makes it difficult for educators, course designers, and university administrators to make decisions around MOOC design and deployment given the lack of references.

Since April of 2016, the speaker and his team have provided K-12 teachers with two MOOCs: "English Teaching and the Internet" and "ICT Teaching Competencies for 21st Century Teachers: Big Five". More than 50,000 learners have registered and participated in these two MOOCs. In the keynote speech, the speaker will report his work on the design, development and implementation of these two MOOCs, and share lessons he and his team learned from them. Based on learner needs, as well as a set of best practices in implementing the courses with a variety of instructional techniques supported with Web 2.0 technologies, he will propose five principles for MOOC developers and instructors. The principles cover aspects of Iterating, Engaging, Peer-coaching, Social, and Mixed.