In this plenary panel, we will close the virtual conference week and transition into the onsite conference with a compelling amplification of the voices of our students, gleaning their perspectives and ideas for the future of online learning that centers quality, equity, and care. Weaving together the emergent themes from the conference as well as diverse narratives of the lived-in experiences of our featured students, this panel will leverage the wisdom of our students in collectively charting a path from the pandemic into a new reality where access to quality education within online, blended, and digital learning is open to all learners, anytime and anywhere.
Back in September 2021, OLC Board Member, Dr. Tanya Joosten, reached out to the field via Twitter requesting ideas for names of who should keynote for the OLC Innovate 2022 conference. She received this compelling response from Dr. Amy Garrett Dikkers: "Kids. Teenagers. Youth. Undergrads. They’ve got a lot to share. And we can learn a lot from them." OLC Fellow and co-chair of OLC Live, Dr. Kelvin Thompson, amplified this tweet, sharing that "if we are to 'innovate' we need to stay attuned to the current and near term needs of our students. Too often we assume we know what they want and what they need. Especially given the disruptive effects of the pandemic and ad hoc remote instruction, hearing from students directly could benefit our community and really frame the overall direction of this year's Innovate conference." In this plenary panel, we will close the virtual conference week and transition into the onsite conference with a compelling amplification of the voices of our students, gleaning their perspectives and ideas for the future of online learning that centers quality, equity, and care. Weaving together the emergent themes from the conference as well as diverse narratives of the lived-in experiences of our featured students, this panel will leverage the wisdom of our students in collectively charting a path from the pandemic into a new reality where access to quality education within online, blended, and digital learning is open to all learners,