Can “unconferences” improve online pedagogy? A case study from Santa Barbara City College

While demand for online courses is booming, faculty often are isolated from one another and thus limited in their ability to share information about effective teaching strategies. This presentation covers the development and outcomes of a one-day “unconference” on online pedagogy held at Santa Barbara Community College in February 2017. Given the explicit desire to increase collaboration among faculty, the unconference model allowed participants to structure the agenda through suggesting workshop session topics and facilitating them independently. The results of a post-conference survey will be presented to evaluate the unconference’s success, and its applicability to other educational settings will be discussed.