Angela Neal-Barnett, Associate Professor, Psychology, participant; Lyle Barton, Professor, Educational Foundations and Special Services, Co-facilitator; Jane Beckett-Camarata, Assistant Professor, Political Science, participant; Richard Berrong, Professor, Modern & Classical Languages, participant; James Flick, Instructor, English, participant; Sherona Garrett-Ruffin, Learning Community Coordinator, Undergraduate Studies, participant; Gayle King, Director, Writing Center, participant; Jackie Laplace, Assistant Professor, History, participant; Theresa Minich, Lecturer, Modern & Classical Languages, participant; Vic Perera, Assistant Professor, Mathematics, participant; Lenora Sawyer, Outreach Program Manger, Continuing Studies, participant; Karen Swan, Professor, Research center for Educational Technology, participant; Anita Varrati, Assistant Professor, Teaching, Leadership and Curriculum, participant; Evonne Whitmore, Assistant Professor, Journalism and Mass Communications, participant; Kamaria Wolf, Graduate Student, English, participant

The goals of OLT are:

• 1. To provide an atmosphere where members can complete individual projects for implementing online learning in their courses.
• 2. To conduct research on how best to begin the online learning process.
• 3. To develop a set of procedures and materials that will assist faculty new to online learning in implementing it in their classes. Using existing research, our own experience, and studies that we conduct within the community, we will provide a way for others to avoid the mistakes we have made and to maximize the effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal of their online and blended courses.

Kent State University has made a substantial commitment both to learning and teaching in general and to online and distance education in particular. This FLC exists at the intersection of those two efforts. The individual projects that the members are working on will directly instantiate the goal of improving teaching in blended and online courses. This is important but still their effects do not necessarily go beyond the specific courses involved. The second two goals aim more at institution-wide effects. Our goal as a community is to research and disseminate information about the best way to transform from traditional instruction to online learning and teaching.