FORUM INFORMATION
SPEAKER BIOS
SUSAN C. ALDRIDGE, PhD
President of University of Maryland University College
Co-Chair, United States-China Forum on Distance Education
Dr. Susan C. Aldridge joined University of Maryland University College (UMUC) as president on February 1, 2006, bringing with her more than two decades of experience and passion for creating educational opportunities for students around the world. She is also the co-chair for the United States-China Forum on Distance Education.
Dr. Aldridge comes to UMUC with a wealth of ideas for promoting and strengthening the university, increasing enrollments, and expanding UMUC's international, corporate and military presence. Her goal is to strengthen UMUC’s position as the premier institution providing quality educational options to adult students—Maryland students searching for coursework to fit their schedules and career goals, corporate executives, adults who need flexible class times to accommodate the demands of jobs and family, distance learners (both stateside and abroad), and military personnel.
She brings an energy and unwavering commitment to academic quality and world class student services. Dr. Aldridge serves on the Maryland Council of University System Presidents, on the PreK-12 Leadership Council, on the board of the Servicemembers Opportunities Colleges (SOC), and as an elected board member of the International Academy of Business Disciplines. Most recently, Dr. Aldridge served as vice chancellor for Troy University’s University College and eCampus in Alabama. As vice chancellor, Dr. Aldridge oversaw Troy’s graduate and undergraduate degree programs outside of Alabama at 62 teaching sites in 17 states and 14 countries. She expanded satellite campuses and international operations in nations including Ecuador, Germany, Malaysia, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Vietnam.
Prior to joining Troy University, Dr. Aldridge served as a faculty member of the National University of Singapore. She has held leadership positions in government and corporations. For her academic research and professional contributions, Dr. Aldridge has received numerous awards and recognitions from services such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Administration on Aging, U.S. Social Security Administration, and the Governor of Colorado.
Dr. Aldridge received her doctorate and master’s degree from the University of Colorado, and her bachelor's degree from Colorado Women’s College.
NICHOLAS H. ALLEN, DPA
Provost Emeritus of University of Maryland University College
Dr. Nicholas Allen was the first provost and chief academic officer of UMUC from 1998 until his retirement from that post in 2007; he was interim president following resignation of Gerald A. Heeger in 2005 until Susan C. Aldridge’s appointment as president in 2006. During the years of dramatic growth in online education, Dr. Allen provided academic leadership and strategic direction to UMUC's worldwide operations as the institution emerged as the 12th largest public university in the United States and one of the world’s major virtual universities with online enrollments reaching 177,000 in 2007. Dr. Allen is a collegiate professor in the university’s Graduate School of Management & Technology.
Dr. Allen first joined UMUC in 1987 as a senior faculty member and director of general management and executive programs in the university’s Graduate School. He became dean of the school in 1991 and led it through a time of significant program innovation and expansion. Prior to UMUC, Dr. Allen served twenty-three years in various leadership positions with the U.S. Coast Guard, a public humanitarian agency of some 40,000 members. He received his BS degree from the U.S. Coast Academy, MBA from Oklahoma City University, and MPA, and DPA degrees from The George Washington University.
Dr. Allen is a frequent and strong voice for continuing and higher education, and an advocate for using technology and process reengineering to achieve access to high quality, affordable education on a scalable basis. He currently serves on the Commission for Lifelong Learning of the American Council of Education, the Executive Strategic Council of IMS Global Learning Consortium, and the Interim Board of Trustees for the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE).
ULRICH (ULI) BERNATH, PhD
Adjunct Professor, Graduate School of Management & Technology, University of Maryland University College
Dr. Ulrich (Uli) Bernath graduated with a degree in economics from Justus-Liebig University of Giessen/Germany and holds a PhD in Education from the School of Education of Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg.
From 1978 until his early retirement in 2006, he served as director of the Center for Distance Education at Oldenburg University.
In 1993/94, Dr. Bernath served as a visiting exchange scholar at Towson University, Maryland in the United States. In 1999, he co-founded the online Master of Distance Education (MDE) program, jointly offered by UMUC and Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. In 2002, UMUC appointed Dr. Bernath to their graduate faculty at the rank of adjunct professor.
In 2006, he established the Ulrich Bernath Foundation for Open and Distance Learning and chairs the board of trustees and directors.
Dr. Bernath was one of the founders of the German Association for Distance Education. In 2002, he became an elected member of the steering committee of the Network of Academics and Professionals of the European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN); in 2003 he was elected a member of EDEN's executive committee.
Until recently, Dr. Bernath has been the main editor of the ASF series on distance education. He is the author of numerous articles reflecting organizational and conceptual issues in distance education and open learning at the university level.
Dr. Bernath also serves as a member of editorial boards of EURODL, IRRODL, the American Journal of Distance Education, the Asian Journal of Distance Education, Distance Education, and the Journal of Distance Education/Revue de l'Education à Distance, and as an auditor for EFMD-CEL Program Accreditation for Technology-Enhanced Learning.
JANE E. BRINDLEY, PhD, CPsych
Director, Centre for Psychological Services
Department of Psychology, University of Windsor
Jane E. Brindley has over 20 years of experience as a clinician, educator, researcher and administrator in open and distance learning. She is a chartered psychologist who specializes in the development, delivery, and evaluation of support services for adult learners using alternate delivery modes. Jane has held a variety of positions in post-secondary settings, including director of Student Services at Athatabasca University in Alberta, coordinator of Planning, Development, and Review at Cambrian College in Ontario, and special consultant to The Centre for Innovation in Learning at Contact North/Contact Nord in Ontario. She has also worked as a researcher, consultant, and trainer in distance education in Canada, England, New Zealand, Scandinavia, and South and Central American. She holds a BA from the University of Alberta, an MA in counselling psychology from the University of British Columbia, and a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Ottawa.
JOE FLOYD
Reference Librarian, University of South Florida in Tampa
Joe Floyd is a reference librarian at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, since 1985. He holds BA degrees in anthropology and psychology and a master's in Library & Information Sciences from USF.
ILENE FRANK
Adjunct Professor, Graduate School of Management & Technology, University of Maryland University College
Ilene Frank has been a reference/instruction librarian at the University of South Florida since 1974 and an adjunct for UMUC since 2001. She has also taught courses both face-to-face and at a distance for the University of South Florida’s School of Library and Information Science. She offered her first distance learning course in 1996, which spurred her interest in the use of technology for teaching and learning. Ms. Frank has an undergraduate degree and a masters in painting in addition to her Masters in library science.
SUSAN KO, PhD Executive Director, Center for Teaching and Learning
University of Maryland University College
Dr. Susan Ko has been executive director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at UMUC since October 2003. The Center, under the Office of Faculty Affairs, is responsible for providing faculty development for more than 3,000 worldwide faculty, including administration of CTLA 201, the award-winning online teaching training course required for all UMUC faculty teaching online.
Dr. Ko holds a doctorate from Yale University in Chinese language and literature and previously spent more than ten years teaching world literature, Asian studies, and humanities in the California State University system. Her teaching experience included both traditional classroom-based programs as well as distance education. She also spent more than five years working in the area of faculty development in the for-profit education sector and as a consultant to develop online teaching training programs before coming to UMUC.
Dr. Ko is currently a collegiate associate faculty member at UMUC, teaching courses in Asian studies for the School of Undergraduate Studies as well as teaching in the Masters of Distance Education program of the Graduate School of Management & Technology.
Dr. Ko is co-author with Steve Rossen of a leading book on the subject of online teaching, widely adopted by faculty development programs nationwide, entitled Teaching Online: A Practical Guide, now in its 2nd edition from Houghton Mifflin. She has frequently given presentations and workshops on the subject of online teaching and learning at conferences over the past decade.
FREDERIC M. LITTO, PhD
President of the Brazilian Association for Distance Education
Dr. Frederic M. Litto, a New York City native, received his BA at the University of California, Los Angeles, his PhD at Indiana University, Bloomington, and his Livre-Docente degree at the University of São Paulo.
Dr. Litto recently retired from University of São Paulo after thirty-six years as professor of communications. From 1989 to 2006, he directed University of San Pãolo’s "School of the Future," a self-sustaining research laboratory investigating Web-based digital learning materials and practices.
He is currently in his fourth four-year term as president of the Brazilian Association for Distance Education (ABED), a 2,400-member learned society which hosted the 22nd International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) World Conference of Distance Education, in Rio de Janeiro in 2006. At the end of 2007, he was elected to the six-member Executive Committee of the ICDE and served this position from 2008 to 2011.
Dr. Litto is also a member of the editorial boards of American Journal of Distance Education (USA); Advanced Technology and Learning (USA); Open Learning (U.K.); International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning (Canada); and Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia (Spain). He has served as a consultant to the World Bank, and is a member of the ICDE Task-Force on Open Educational Resources. In the second semester of 2006, he was the “Rio Branco Scholar” in Education & Technology in the Institute for Education of the University of London, researching the issues involved in Open Educational Resources in developing countries.
STELLA PORTO, DSc
Director of the Master of Distance Education Program, Graduate School of Management & Technology, at University of Maryland University College
Dr. Stella Porto is currently the director of the Master of Distance Education program in the Graduate School of Management & Technology at UMUC. She joined UMUC in 2001, after relocating from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to the Washington, D.C. area. At UMUC, she has also performed roles as director for the Master of Information Technology program, associate chair and acting chair in the Information and Technology Systems Department in the Graduate School.
Dr. Porto earned a BS in electrical engineering in 1986 at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). She then worked for a few years as a hardware designer and went on to obtain her master's and doctoral degrees in informatics in 1991 and 1995, respectively, at the same institution.
After her experience as a computer hardware designer, Porto became a professor in computer science at Universidade Federal Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a researcher, her worked focused on the fields of parallel processing and heuristic methods for combinatorial optimization problems. As a teacher, her experience includes a variety of different courses in computer science, such as: algorithm design, parallel programming, computer architectures, parallel and distributed computing, and parallel algorithms.
Since 2001, Dr. Porto has worked in the field of distance education. She has been published in several conferences, including the EDEN Workshop, ALN, DLA, ICDE, and UCEA in the past six years. Combining her knowledge in information technology and her more recent experience and study in the field of distance education, her research interests include topics related to learning objects, new technologies, multimedia and course development models, as well as education in information technology.
CHRISTINE WALTI
Assistant Director of Continuing Education and Workforce Development ELearning, Anne Arundel Community College
Christine Walti is assistant director of Continuing Education and Workforce Development eLearning at Anne Arundel Community College. Her focus is on the development and implementation of distance learning courses and programs in the continuing and professional education environment. Christine teaches in the MDE program for UMUC’s partner, the University of Oldenburg, Germany. She teaches the Foundations in Distance Education and Student Support in Distance Education and Training. In 2004, Christine co-edited "Learner Support in Open, Distance and Online Learning Environments" with Jane Brindley and Olaf Zawacki as part of the ASF Series used in the MDE program. She designed the MDE tutorial for the development of Web-based portfolios and worked on creating a rubric to assess the quality of vendor courses used at community colleges. She has developed training programs for different groups of adult learners including volunteers and seniors. Christine is an MDE graduate and also holds a MSW; is a member of the UMUC and MDE Alumni Associations, the MDLA, the NASW and the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and the 2008 winner of the UMUC GSMT Teaching Recognition Award.
SHAOZHONG YOU, PhD
Minister Counselor of the Education Office of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America
Dr. Shaozhong You graduated from the University of International Business and Economics with a bachelor’s degree in commercial economics in Beijing, China. He earned a master's degree from the Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management in Arizona and holds a PhD of economics from Wuhan University in China. He received professional training and practice at Johnson & Johnson International and the World Bank headquarters.
Dr. You taught international business and trade strategy as an assistant professor at the University of International Business and Economics from 1983 to 1986. From 1986 to 1990, he worked as program officer and deputy director of the Projects Division at the Office of Foreign Investment and Loan, State Education Commission of the People's Republic of China. Dr. You then served as assistant director general of the Office of Foreign Investment and Loan, State Education Commission, from 1990 to 1992. From 1992 to 1996, he served as deputy director general of the Office of Foreign Investment and Loan, State Education Commission. After years of international business and international educational investment, Dr. You started his foreign service for education diplomacy as chief consul at the consulate general of the People's Republic of China in Chicago, from 1996-2000.
Upon returning to China in 2000, he served as deputy secretary general of the Chinese Education Association for International Exchange, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. He then became secretary general of the Education Association for International Exchange, Ministry of Education, from 2001 until June 2005.
Dr. You is currently minister counselor of the Education Office of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America.
Shaogang Zhang
Assistant President, China Central Radio and TV University
Professor Shaogang Zhang, a researcher, is the assistant president of China Central Radio and TV University. He was awarded a bachelor’s degree in sciences at Jilin University, a master’s degree in education at Peking Normal University, and studied as a visiting scholar at Nottingham University. He has led and participated in instructional design of various courses and resources development, construction of audio-visual teaching materials, and development of a research works management platform. In addition, he has undertaken research upon management rules and regulations of distance education administrative permission, studies in distance education resources bank, and policies for rural distance education. His number of papers published and research reports submitted total more than seventy. Currently he is leading ‘Evidence-based and Comparative Studies Upon Distance Education Cost Effectiveness of Radio and TV Universities’, and acts as the standing director of the China Continuing Engineer Education, standing director of the China Association of Education Technology, and secretary general of the Higher Education Committee of Distance Education.
Professor Zhang was the executive president of the organizing committee of the first and third Sino-American Distance Education Forum.
Forum Information
IMPORTANT DATES
March 15, 2008 Abstracts Due
March 28, 2008 Authors/Presenters Notified of Acceptance
May 15, 2008 Early Bird Registration Ends
May 2, 2008 Final Paper Due in Camera-Ready Format for Presentations
June 29 - July 2 U.S.-China Forum