Save the date – OCLC Americas Member Meeting and Symposium: The Hype and Hope of MOOCs

Join OCLC member-leaders and staff at ALA Midwinter for updates on OCLC programs, a Regional Council business meeting and a debate-style symposium on MOOCs. The meeting will take place on Friday, January 24, 2014, from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, Eastern Time. Lunch will be provided and a reception will follow the symposium, which begins at 1:00 pm. Please make plans now to attend this event in person or virtually!

–Jane Treadwell, Americas Regional Council Chair; University Librarian & Dean, Library Instructional Services, Brookens Library, University of Illinois at Springfield

About the symposium

Accessibility and cost of education are on everyone’s minds—administrators, faculty and librarians, politicians and parents. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) seem to offer a lifeline to schools and communities seeking to reinvent education and lifelong learning. But the conversation about MOOCs is complex and evolving. New partnerships are being formed to deliver tools and curriculum. New business models are emerging. Questions about accreditation and measurement abound. Do MOOCs represent a sea change for both public and academic libraries? Or just a new twist on distance learning? Join OCLC at the ALA Midwinter Symposium for a debate among MOOC practitioners, promoters and skeptics. Bryan Alexander, author of The New Digital Storytelling, an editor of the Horizon Report and a frequent writer/speaker on digital technology in education, will be our moderator.

ALA Midwinter will take place in Philadelphia and this meeting will also be streamed live from the Web.

Click here to read more and register.