We invite you to listen to the inaugural broadcast of The Magellan Podcast: Navigating Education in the 21st Century. The general purpose of the podcast is to engage and discuss some of the biggest questions and issues in higher education, often with a focus on the ever-changing online realm.
Our first episode grapples with the Department of Education’s new standards for online learning, RSI, or Regular and Substantive Interaction. Many institutions are asking: what does RSI mean, and how might our online division seek to meet its stipulations?
Join the Magellan Partners and guest Terri Milroy, Coordinator of Education Technologies at Southside Virginia Community College, for a conversation.
An overview of the questions we will tackle:
- The Magellan Team has been working in the online space for a long time, and we’ve seen online learning go from the Wild West to, in some cases, a beautifully organized, well-run educational machine. But in some places, it’s still the Wild West. So—given that background—can we put RSI in context? Where did the need for it come from, and why do we suddenly see this federal regulation?
- What specifically does this RSI regulation require?
- Doing RSI-related things in individual courses is a good practice—but of course, institutions are going to have to show system-wide compliance. This will tie to creating standards, training to those standards, and verifying those standards are being met. How do you bring about the sort of culture shift that you need to accomplish that?
- One of the big concerns that is often articulated about higher education has to do with its value—is a degree worth what people pay for it, will people really learn enough that the time and effort they spend is worthwhile, etc.? How does RSI play into this conversation?
We hope the conversation is edifying and helpful. Please feel free to reach out to us with questions and comments.
It is our intention to produce a podcast every month. We are already working on our next topic, Developing a Healthy Online Ecosystem, and are looking towards a future episode or set of episodes on the important issue of cognitive load.
Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.
Wayne Patton
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer