Advanced Online Academy (AOLA) is a structured environment for faculty to explore, collaborate and learn. AOLA is not a training course, nor is it a professional development workshop. It is an opportunity for experienced online faculty to come together in small cohorts and share their experiences, discover new technologies and contribute to the improvement of online teaching and learning.

For the first eight weeks, the faculty cohort will be divided into small groups of 3-4 members. Each group will research a topic of its choosing and create materials that can be added to the Learning Object Repository. These materials could be in the form of a list of best practices, suggested assignments/assessments using specific tools/technologies, basically any materials that will contribute to the overall community of online faculty. During the final week of AOLA, the groups will come back together as a cohort and present their materials, ideas and suggestions to the entire cohort.

Advanced Online Academy will be 9 weeks in length and each cohort will be comprised of no more than 12 faculty members. In order to participate in AOLA, a faculty member must have at least 3 semesters of online teaching experience.

The second cohort is scheduled for February 1 through April 9, 2010. If you would like to join this cohort please email Dave or Chris no later than January 11, 2010. We are looking forward to this very exciting experience and we hope you will join us.