Anthony Picciano | Graduate Center of the City University of New York (original) (raw)
Papers by Anthony Picciano
Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy
holds faculty appointments in graduate programs in Education Leadership at Hunter College, the Ph... more holds faculty appointments in graduate programs in Education Leadership at Hunter College, the Ph.D. Program in Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), and the doctoral certificate program in Interactive Pedagogy and Technology at the CUNY Graduate Center. In 1998, Dr. Picciano co-founded CUNY Online, a multi-million dollar initiative funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that provided support services to faculty using the Internet for course development. He was a founding member and continues to serve on the Board of Directors of the Online Learning Consortium (formerly the Sloan Consortium).
Select communication and collaboration tools that will best support learning objectives. When sel... more Select communication and collaboration tools that will best support learning objectives. When selecting technologies to support communication and collaboration, instructors should consider which tools are best suited to help students meet the objectives for the course or for individual activities within the course. Among several types of technologies to choose from, instructors might fnd it helpful to use one or more of the following types of communication and collaboration tools:
A Guide to Administering Distance Learning, 2021
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 License. chapter 5
Online Learning, 2019
In Spring 1997, Hunter College offered the first asynchronous learning course in the City Univers... more In Spring 1997, Hunter College offered the first asynchronous learning course in the City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban university system in the United States enrolling 200,000 students in undergraduate and graduate programs. This graduate course, entitled Administration and Supervision of the Public Schools - The Principalship, was offered in theDivision of Programs in Education. Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, this course was intended to serve as a model for other courses at Hunter College and CUNY.While many colleges have begun to offer asynchronous learning courses, the model presented here may be of special interest since it takes into consideration several variables of importance in large urban environments. First, all of the students in this course were adult, part-time students who delicately balance studies, careers, and families in their daily lives. In this respect, theyrepresented a typical urban commuter population that would benefit from th...
Online Learning, 2019
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on issues of growth and access in blended learning enviro... more The purpose of this paper is to reflect on issues of growth and access in blended learning environments. Increasingly decision makers throughout higher education are considering blended learning as an important component of their academic programs. It is hoped that this paper will help to provide insight for these decision makers. Many of the thoughts and ideas in this paper evolved out of discussions on Growth Paradigms held at the 2005 Sloan-C Summer Workshop in Victoria, British Columbia, and the 2004 and 2005 Sloan-C Workshops on Blended Learning held in Chicago.
Online Learning, 2019
This article speculates on the future of higher education as online technology, specifically adap... more This article speculates on the future of higher education as online technology, specifically adaptive learning and analytics as infused by artificial intelligence software, develops and matures. Online and adaptive learning have already advanced within the academy, but the most significant changes are yet to come. These evolving technologies have the potential to change the traditional roles in our colleges and universities to the point that many educators will reconsider their purposes as teachers, researchers and administrators.
Online Learning, 2012
Data-driven decision making, popularized in the 1980s and 1990s, is evolving into a vastly more s... more Data-driven decision making, popularized in the 1980s and 1990s, is evolving into a vastly more sophisticated concept known as big data that relies on software approaches generally referred to as analytics. Big data and analytics for instructional applications are in their infancy and will take a few years to mature, although their presence is already being felt and should not be ignored. While big data and analytics are not panaceas for addressing all of the issues and decisions faced by higher education administrators, they can become part of the solutions integrated into administrative and instructional functions. The purpose of this article is to examine the evolving world of big data and analytics in American higher education. Specifically, it will look at the nature of these concepts, provide basic definitions, consider possible applications, and last but not least, identify concerns about their implementation and growth.
Online Learning, 2019
The research literature on Web-based learning supports the assumption that interaction is importa... more The research literature on Web-based learning supports the assumption that interaction is important for a successful course, yet questions exist regarding the nature and extent of the interaction and its effects on student performance. Much of the research is based on student perceptions of the quality and quantity of their interactions and how much they have learned in an online course. The purpose of this study is to examine performance in an online course in relationship to student interaction and sense of presence in the course. Data on multiple independent (measures of interaction and presence) and dependent (measures of performance) variables were collected and subjected to analysis. An attempt was made to go beyond typical institutional performance measures such as grades and withdrawal rates and to examine measures specifically related to course objectives.
Online Learning, 2019
For a special issue of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN), Conducted March 9, 2... more For a special issue of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN), Conducted March 9, 2007 by Anthony G. Picciano.
Online Learning, 2019
Blended learning can be seen as the means to achieving a greater sense of “localness” on the part... more Blended learning can be seen as the means to achieving a greater sense of “localness” on the part of colleges and universities. Blended learning has been evolving for several years and while definitions vary from one institution to another, it is defined in this paper essentially as a combination of face-to-face and online learning. Localness is a term used at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as part of a new funding initiative to support academic programs designed to strengthen a college or university connection to its core constituencies. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship of blended learning and “localness”.
Online Learning, 2019
In 2006–2007, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded a grant to the Sloan Consortium and Hunter C... more In 2006–2007, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded a grant to the Sloan Consortium and Hunter College to conduct a survey of online learning in K–12 schools. For more than a decade, the Foundation had been most generous in awarding grants for online learning that focused on higher education, however, this was the first award directed specifically to the K–12 environments. The timing of this grant coincided with the growing perception of the importance and use of online learning in K–12 schools. During the past several years, the editors of JALN also noticed an increase in article submissions related to teacher education. As a result, a decision was made to publish a special edition of JALN focusing on online learning in K–12 schools and teacher education.
Online Learning, 2019
In April 2008, the University of Illinois-Chicago hosted the Fifth Sloan-C Workshop on Blended Le... more In April 2008, the University of Illinois-Chicago hosted the Fifth Sloan-C Workshop on Blended Learning and Higher Education. This workshop attracted 180 educational leaders, faculty members, instructional designers and researchers who discussed, shared and considered effective practices in the design and delivery of blended learning environments. Presentations on best practices, lessons learned, and research on the phenomenon of blended learning stoked the discussion for two days.The theme of the workshop, Blending with Purpose, attempted to focus the discussions on the importanceof designing blended learning courses and programs with specific educational goals and objectives in mind. The theme developed out of a growing concern that many faculty were using the latest technology simply for the sake of the using technology without carefully considering the pedagogical benefits and “purpose”. The organizing committee for the workshop also understood that blended learning was not just...
Online Learning, 2011
In 2004, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded an invitation-only workshop on blended learning. I... more In 2004, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded an invitation-only workshop on blended learning. It was one of the first such events to focus entirely on the concept of combining online and face-to-face instruction into a new instructional modality and since has evolved into the Annual Sloan Consortium Blended Learning Conference and Workshop. Over the past seven years, this Conference and Workshop has added significantly to the research base and best practices that apply to blended learning. Its scholarly production includes a plethora of important studies and resources that have contributed significantly to what is known about blended learning. For example, the work of this Conference and Workshop has produced: • a comprehensive look at a definition of the term “blended learning”; • the first book dedicated entirely to the research on blended learning [1]; and • an extensive review of blended learning instructional models. [2] In April 2010, the 7th Annual Sloan Consortium Blended ...
Online Learning, 2008
Every child has a right to an education. In the United States, the issue is not necessarily about... more Every child has a right to an education. In the United States, the issue is not necessarily about access to a school but access to a quality education. With strict compulsory education laws, more than 50 million students enrolled in primary and secondary schools, and billions of dollars spent annually on public and private education, American children surely have access to buildings and classrooms. However, because of a complex and competitive system of shared policymaking among national, state, and local governments, not all schools are created equal nor are equal education opportunities available for the poor, minorities, and underprivileged. One manifestation of this inequity is the lack of qualified teachers in many urban and rural schools to teach certain subjects such as science, mathematics, and technology. The purpose of this article is to describe a partnership model between two major institutions (The American Museum of Natural History and The City University of New York) ...
Online Learning, 2015
The purpose of this article is to revisit the basic principles of technology planning as applied ... more The purpose of this article is to revisit the basic principles of technology planning as applied to online education initiatives. While not meant to be an exhaustive treatment of the topic, the article is timely because many colleges and universities are considering the development and expansion of online education as part of their planning activities. The article suggests that purposeful planning is key to the successful implementation of online education as opposed to disruption or radical transformation that may be damaging to an institution’s culture.
Online Learning, 2016
This article reports the findings of a study on the perceptions of faculty governance leaders to ... more This article reports the findings of a study on the perceptions of faculty governance leaders to online and blended learning. For the purposes of this study, faculty governance was defined as formally established bodies in colleges and universities such as senates, councils, and collective bargaining organizations that are affiliated with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). While there have been many studies on the perceptions of students, faculty, and administrators, there has been very little research on the perceptions of faculty governance leaders who hold critical positions in colleges and universities. Governance leaders are at the crux of approval processes that influence the development of curricula, faculty personnel policies, and academic programs, all of which can impact the implementation of online and blended learning initiatives. The research methodology for this study included a survey sent to a sample of governance leaders at U.S. institutions o...
Online Education Policy and Practice, 2016
This article will discriminate between kinds of robot, point to its burgeoning development and ap... more This article will discriminate between kinds of robot, point to its burgeoning development and application in the home and workplace, and describe its growing use in the classroom as a teacher. It will describe its potential to support, for instance, language development, social, and emotional training [e.g., for children with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)], and teaching and assessment, and will review researchers', teachers', students', and parents' responses to this use. Some of these responses recognize the potential usefulness of humanoid robots, but also show an awareness that digital "thought" (AI) is not the same as human thought (HI), and show some caution about using robots as teachers. This disparity generates problems and dilemmas. These stem from, for example, a lack of discretion in decision-making, a lack of emotion (other than by simulation), a limited creative ability (in the foreseeable future), the nature of AI/HI relationships, ethical/legal matters, and culturally unsuitable programming. These matters point to the need for forethought about robot roles and for a code of practice for teachers who work with them. Derived from the discussion, such a code is proposed. The introduction of robot teachers will have significant implications for teachers' roles and their professional identity as human teachers move from being often solitary sources of learning to becoming teaching and learning managers who need to provide learning opportunities creatively. The change in teacher identity and the teacher's roles is described.
Online Learning, 2017
The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) is the leading professional organization devoted to advancin... more The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) is the leading professional organization devoted to advancing quality online learning, providing professional development for administrative leaders, support service individuals and faculty, and producing high-level research and best practice publications. OLC (formerly the Alfred P. Sloan Consortium) started in the 1990s when a small community came together to promote the idea that online learning could be of great benefit to providing access to a quality education. Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, this community embarked on a number of activities designed to promote the concept that the design and implementation of online and blended learning applications needed to be well-planned and based on sound pedagogical approaches. In 1995, a one-day meeting of grantees of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Anytime, Anyplace Learning Program met in Philadelphia to discuss their work and share their experiences. Ninety individuals attended this first gathering. This meeting grew into an annual event for the next five years. In 2001, it was decided that the event be expanded into a full conference with a formal, peer-reviewed call for proposals and workshops, and would include exhibit areas. The University of Central Florida agreed to host the conference in Orlando in November. That was a fateful decision as the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 followed by the anthrax scare in Florida in October of that year severely limited the number of people willing to fly to Orlando to attend the conference. Still, three hundred and sixty participants attended to share and discuss research, effective practices, student services, and administrative support for online learning. Since 2001, the conference has grown and has evolved into the premiere event for presenting current ideas, research, and best practices in online learning. In 2016, the Online Learning Consortium celebrated the 22nd anniversary of the International Conference on Online Learning by giving it the new name of ACCELERATE. Over 2,000 individuals attended this conference either in person or virtually. Six hundred and seventysix proposals were submitted for presentation, of which 341 were accepted.
Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy
holds faculty appointments in graduate programs in Education Leadership at Hunter College, the Ph... more holds faculty appointments in graduate programs in Education Leadership at Hunter College, the Ph.D. Program in Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), and the doctoral certificate program in Interactive Pedagogy and Technology at the CUNY Graduate Center. In 1998, Dr. Picciano co-founded CUNY Online, a multi-million dollar initiative funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that provided support services to faculty using the Internet for course development. He was a founding member and continues to serve on the Board of Directors of the Online Learning Consortium (formerly the Sloan Consortium).
Select communication and collaboration tools that will best support learning objectives. When sel... more Select communication and collaboration tools that will best support learning objectives. When selecting technologies to support communication and collaboration, instructors should consider which tools are best suited to help students meet the objectives for the course or for individual activities within the course. Among several types of technologies to choose from, instructors might fnd it helpful to use one or more of the following types of communication and collaboration tools:
A Guide to Administering Distance Learning, 2021
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 License. chapter 5
Online Learning, 2019
In Spring 1997, Hunter College offered the first asynchronous learning course in the City Univers... more In Spring 1997, Hunter College offered the first asynchronous learning course in the City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban university system in the United States enrolling 200,000 students in undergraduate and graduate programs. This graduate course, entitled Administration and Supervision of the Public Schools - The Principalship, was offered in theDivision of Programs in Education. Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, this course was intended to serve as a model for other courses at Hunter College and CUNY.While many colleges have begun to offer asynchronous learning courses, the model presented here may be of special interest since it takes into consideration several variables of importance in large urban environments. First, all of the students in this course were adult, part-time students who delicately balance studies, careers, and families in their daily lives. In this respect, theyrepresented a typical urban commuter population that would benefit from th...
Online Learning, 2019
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on issues of growth and access in blended learning enviro... more The purpose of this paper is to reflect on issues of growth and access in blended learning environments. Increasingly decision makers throughout higher education are considering blended learning as an important component of their academic programs. It is hoped that this paper will help to provide insight for these decision makers. Many of the thoughts and ideas in this paper evolved out of discussions on Growth Paradigms held at the 2005 Sloan-C Summer Workshop in Victoria, British Columbia, and the 2004 and 2005 Sloan-C Workshops on Blended Learning held in Chicago.
Online Learning, 2019
This article speculates on the future of higher education as online technology, specifically adap... more This article speculates on the future of higher education as online technology, specifically adaptive learning and analytics as infused by artificial intelligence software, develops and matures. Online and adaptive learning have already advanced within the academy, but the most significant changes are yet to come. These evolving technologies have the potential to change the traditional roles in our colleges and universities to the point that many educators will reconsider their purposes as teachers, researchers and administrators.
Online Learning, 2012
Data-driven decision making, popularized in the 1980s and 1990s, is evolving into a vastly more s... more Data-driven decision making, popularized in the 1980s and 1990s, is evolving into a vastly more sophisticated concept known as big data that relies on software approaches generally referred to as analytics. Big data and analytics for instructional applications are in their infancy and will take a few years to mature, although their presence is already being felt and should not be ignored. While big data and analytics are not panaceas for addressing all of the issues and decisions faced by higher education administrators, they can become part of the solutions integrated into administrative and instructional functions. The purpose of this article is to examine the evolving world of big data and analytics in American higher education. Specifically, it will look at the nature of these concepts, provide basic definitions, consider possible applications, and last but not least, identify concerns about their implementation and growth.
Online Learning, 2019
The research literature on Web-based learning supports the assumption that interaction is importa... more The research literature on Web-based learning supports the assumption that interaction is important for a successful course, yet questions exist regarding the nature and extent of the interaction and its effects on student performance. Much of the research is based on student perceptions of the quality and quantity of their interactions and how much they have learned in an online course. The purpose of this study is to examine performance in an online course in relationship to student interaction and sense of presence in the course. Data on multiple independent (measures of interaction and presence) and dependent (measures of performance) variables were collected and subjected to analysis. An attempt was made to go beyond typical institutional performance measures such as grades and withdrawal rates and to examine measures specifically related to course objectives.
Online Learning, 2019
For a special issue of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN), Conducted March 9, 2... more For a special issue of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN), Conducted March 9, 2007 by Anthony G. Picciano.
Online Learning, 2019
Blended learning can be seen as the means to achieving a greater sense of “localness” on the part... more Blended learning can be seen as the means to achieving a greater sense of “localness” on the part of colleges and universities. Blended learning has been evolving for several years and while definitions vary from one institution to another, it is defined in this paper essentially as a combination of face-to-face and online learning. Localness is a term used at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as part of a new funding initiative to support academic programs designed to strengthen a college or university connection to its core constituencies. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship of blended learning and “localness”.
Online Learning, 2019
In 2006–2007, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded a grant to the Sloan Consortium and Hunter C... more In 2006–2007, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded a grant to the Sloan Consortium and Hunter College to conduct a survey of online learning in K–12 schools. For more than a decade, the Foundation had been most generous in awarding grants for online learning that focused on higher education, however, this was the first award directed specifically to the K–12 environments. The timing of this grant coincided with the growing perception of the importance and use of online learning in K–12 schools. During the past several years, the editors of JALN also noticed an increase in article submissions related to teacher education. As a result, a decision was made to publish a special edition of JALN focusing on online learning in K–12 schools and teacher education.
Online Learning, 2019
In April 2008, the University of Illinois-Chicago hosted the Fifth Sloan-C Workshop on Blended Le... more In April 2008, the University of Illinois-Chicago hosted the Fifth Sloan-C Workshop on Blended Learning and Higher Education. This workshop attracted 180 educational leaders, faculty members, instructional designers and researchers who discussed, shared and considered effective practices in the design and delivery of blended learning environments. Presentations on best practices, lessons learned, and research on the phenomenon of blended learning stoked the discussion for two days.The theme of the workshop, Blending with Purpose, attempted to focus the discussions on the importanceof designing blended learning courses and programs with specific educational goals and objectives in mind. The theme developed out of a growing concern that many faculty were using the latest technology simply for the sake of the using technology without carefully considering the pedagogical benefits and “purpose”. The organizing committee for the workshop also understood that blended learning was not just...
Online Learning, 2011
In 2004, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded an invitation-only workshop on blended learning. I... more In 2004, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded an invitation-only workshop on blended learning. It was one of the first such events to focus entirely on the concept of combining online and face-to-face instruction into a new instructional modality and since has evolved into the Annual Sloan Consortium Blended Learning Conference and Workshop. Over the past seven years, this Conference and Workshop has added significantly to the research base and best practices that apply to blended learning. Its scholarly production includes a plethora of important studies and resources that have contributed significantly to what is known about blended learning. For example, the work of this Conference and Workshop has produced: • a comprehensive look at a definition of the term “blended learning”; • the first book dedicated entirely to the research on blended learning [1]; and • an extensive review of blended learning instructional models. [2] In April 2010, the 7th Annual Sloan Consortium Blended ...
Online Learning, 2008
Every child has a right to an education. In the United States, the issue is not necessarily about... more Every child has a right to an education. In the United States, the issue is not necessarily about access to a school but access to a quality education. With strict compulsory education laws, more than 50 million students enrolled in primary and secondary schools, and billions of dollars spent annually on public and private education, American children surely have access to buildings and classrooms. However, because of a complex and competitive system of shared policymaking among national, state, and local governments, not all schools are created equal nor are equal education opportunities available for the poor, minorities, and underprivileged. One manifestation of this inequity is the lack of qualified teachers in many urban and rural schools to teach certain subjects such as science, mathematics, and technology. The purpose of this article is to describe a partnership model between two major institutions (The American Museum of Natural History and The City University of New York) ...
Online Learning, 2015
The purpose of this article is to revisit the basic principles of technology planning as applied ... more The purpose of this article is to revisit the basic principles of technology planning as applied to online education initiatives. While not meant to be an exhaustive treatment of the topic, the article is timely because many colleges and universities are considering the development and expansion of online education as part of their planning activities. The article suggests that purposeful planning is key to the successful implementation of online education as opposed to disruption or radical transformation that may be damaging to an institution’s culture.
Online Learning, 2016
This article reports the findings of a study on the perceptions of faculty governance leaders to ... more This article reports the findings of a study on the perceptions of faculty governance leaders to online and blended learning. For the purposes of this study, faculty governance was defined as formally established bodies in colleges and universities such as senates, councils, and collective bargaining organizations that are affiliated with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). While there have been many studies on the perceptions of students, faculty, and administrators, there has been very little research on the perceptions of faculty governance leaders who hold critical positions in colleges and universities. Governance leaders are at the crux of approval processes that influence the development of curricula, faculty personnel policies, and academic programs, all of which can impact the implementation of online and blended learning initiatives. The research methodology for this study included a survey sent to a sample of governance leaders at U.S. institutions o...
Online Education Policy and Practice, 2016
This article will discriminate between kinds of robot, point to its burgeoning development and ap... more This article will discriminate between kinds of robot, point to its burgeoning development and application in the home and workplace, and describe its growing use in the classroom as a teacher. It will describe its potential to support, for instance, language development, social, and emotional training [e.g., for children with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)], and teaching and assessment, and will review researchers', teachers', students', and parents' responses to this use. Some of these responses recognize the potential usefulness of humanoid robots, but also show an awareness that digital "thought" (AI) is not the same as human thought (HI), and show some caution about using robots as teachers. This disparity generates problems and dilemmas. These stem from, for example, a lack of discretion in decision-making, a lack of emotion (other than by simulation), a limited creative ability (in the foreseeable future), the nature of AI/HI relationships, ethical/legal matters, and culturally unsuitable programming. These matters point to the need for forethought about robot roles and for a code of practice for teachers who work with them. Derived from the discussion, such a code is proposed. The introduction of robot teachers will have significant implications for teachers' roles and their professional identity as human teachers move from being often solitary sources of learning to becoming teaching and learning managers who need to provide learning opportunities creatively. The change in teacher identity and the teacher's roles is described.
Online Learning, 2017
The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) is the leading professional organization devoted to advancin... more The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) is the leading professional organization devoted to advancing quality online learning, providing professional development for administrative leaders, support service individuals and faculty, and producing high-level research and best practice publications. OLC (formerly the Alfred P. Sloan Consortium) started in the 1990s when a small community came together to promote the idea that online learning could be of great benefit to providing access to a quality education. Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, this community embarked on a number of activities designed to promote the concept that the design and implementation of online and blended learning applications needed to be well-planned and based on sound pedagogical approaches. In 1995, a one-day meeting of grantees of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Anytime, Anyplace Learning Program met in Philadelphia to discuss their work and share their experiences. Ninety individuals attended this first gathering. This meeting grew into an annual event for the next five years. In 2001, it was decided that the event be expanded into a full conference with a formal, peer-reviewed call for proposals and workshops, and would include exhibit areas. The University of Central Florida agreed to host the conference in Orlando in November. That was a fateful decision as the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 followed by the anthrax scare in Florida in October of that year severely limited the number of people willing to fly to Orlando to attend the conference. Still, three hundred and sixty participants attended to share and discuss research, effective practices, student services, and administrative support for online learning. Since 2001, the conference has grown and has evolved into the premiere event for presenting current ideas, research, and best practices in online learning. In 2016, the Online Learning Consortium celebrated the 22nd anniversary of the International Conference on Online Learning by giving it the new name of ACCELERATE. Over 2,000 individuals attended this conference either in person or virtually. Six hundred and seventysix proposals were submitted for presentation, of which 341 were accepted.