One of the goals of USC’s strategic plans is to enhance the online experience for students. Through the efforts of the Office of Distributed Learning (ODL) and the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), the University of South Carolina is now a member of the Online Learning Consortium (OLC). The OLC is a collaborative community of higher education leaders and innovators dedicated to improving best practices for quality online learning and programs. The organization focuses on advancing quality online teaching and learning experiences designed to reach and engage the modern learner – anyone, anywhere, anytime.
OLC members have access to the interactive OLC Quality Scorecard Suite that helps to determine the strengths and weaknesses of online programs and courses and identify areas for improvement.
Trena Houp, Director for Academic Programs and Director of the Office of Distributed Learning said,
One of the reasons we were interested in it is because it has the Quality Scorecard Suite, so not only can we use that to help assess online courses, we can help assess our online program administration. OLC members can also use the blog to post questions and receive feedback, share ideas, and innovate.
Faculty, staff, and students can create an account to access a variety of additional resources including the member blog, OLC Insights, free live and on-demand Webinars and the Online Learning Journal, an open, peer-reviewed, quarterly journal.
Houp continues to say that the OLC is another resource for faculty, staff and students to take advantage of because of its flexibility.
The good thing about it is, it gives access to resources and many of the webinars are offered on demand so faculty and staff can watch them at a time that fits their schedule.
OLC members receive discounts on Workshops, Certificate Programs, and Mastery Series programs that are offered as well as discounts to attend conferences and other OLC events. OLC members also receive discounts on all publications and OLC will help promote up to 6 member publications per year on social media.
Aisha Haynes, Assistant Director at the USC Center for Teaching Excellence said,
The OLC will be a very good resource for the university as a whole, as well as individual faculty, staff and students who would like to increase their knowledge of online learning and share knowledge of online learning with other people.
To enjoy all of the OLC membership benefits, set up an account following the steps below.
- Go to https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/ and create a free user account using your sc.edu email address.
- During the account creation process, you must choose “Allow” when asked to allow access.
- Once you create your account you will be automatically logged in and also sent an email with a link to access your account.
- Once logged in, the system will now recognize you as a member and you can use your OLC Institutional member benefits.
ODL and CTE are excited to offer this membership to USC faculty, staff and students. If you have questions about USC’s OLC membership, contact Trena Houp at thoup@sc.edu.