After another productive Executive Board meeting, we have some exciting updates:

 Website Migration Begins

After the approval of the new website address at the last board meeting, GSOLE.org is beginning to take shape. The content migration will continue into September.

New Website Benefits

Through the new website, members can now choose to be listed on our Member Directory. This is a great space for our members to connect and share their institutional affiliations. We encourage all of our members to add your information and connect with our growing membership community.  

GSOLE 2021 Conference: Call for Proposals Released

GSOLE invites proposals for its fourth annual online international conference to be held on Friday, January 29, 2021. Proposals can range from Individual Papers, Individual Praxis Post(er)s, Site Share Panels, and Spark Talks and are due by October 5. For more information, see the Call for Proposals. 

GSOLE has been busy—busy listening to the needs of an increasingly engaged citizenry, hungry for the tools to make our society more equitable and accessible. In response to this call to action, we’ve added professional events that invite myriad voices to explore the connections between these important conversations, broadly, and online literacy education, specifically.

To that end, we have three programs that cull together the questions educators are asking right now, expert opinions, and the voices of interested educators: our 4^th annual virtual conference, our 2020-21 webinar series, and our new certification program. Keep reading (below) for details. 

GSOLE's Annual Conference (2021)

GSOLE’s 4th annual conference is scheduled for Friday, January 29^th, 2021. This conference is—and always has been—hosted virtually, so that educators across the world can gather to explore practical online classroom activities, to hear about the new research in online education, and to attend presentations that link theory to praxis.

For those who want to add to the conversation, GSOLE invites individual paper proposals, praxis posters, site share panels, and Ignite Talks (either individual or panel). No matter the preferred format of delivery, we seek proposals that address the broad aspects of GSOLE’s mission:

Global Society	Honoring our collective international and intercultural experience and knowledge of online literacy practices, facilitating the crossing of physical boundaries and connecting at great distances.
of Online	Addressing the varied, and often new, learning experiences, and ever-morphing and ever-growing learning spaces, from both experienced and new online literacy educators.
Literacy	Exploring the many approaches to literacy education that are developed within local contexts and/or across disciplines, helping us identify approaches to literacy that advance more sustainable, equitable, and effective environments for supporting each other and our students.
Educators	Recognizing ways that writing and reading instructors, tutors, and administrators experience a wide range of constraints and support for teaching so that we might critically examine the institutional, professional, and technological frameworks shaping the work of online literacy educators.

Proposals are due October 5^th, 2020.

GSOLE's 2020-21 Webinar Series

However, there is no need to wait for the annual GSOLE conference to start engaging with the big questions related to the role online literacy education plays in reinforcing “the cultural and communal values of linguistic and social diversity.” GSOLE’s 2020-21 webinar series comprises events focused on: antiracist writing center practice (with Zandra Jordan on August 31^st) in addition to antiracist and translingual pedagogies (with Cristina Sanchez Martin on October 9^th), practices honoring intersectionality in FYC (with Iris Ruiz on November 2^nd), incorporating Black language in Composition classrooms (with Wonderful Faison on February 23^rd), and sustaining cultural sovereignty through critical literacies practices in online learning spaces (with Les Hutchinson on April 14^th).

Check out the details and register today for an upcoming webinar in order to engage in the conversations that help us reshape equity, inclusion, and accessibility in online literacy instruction for all students.

GSOLE's New OLI Certification Program

For educators who see the possibilities of online literacy instruction, but are eager for more support in designing that learning, GSOLE offers a new certification program. This program is composed of two back-to-back courses: (1) Foundations of Online Literacy Education & Digital Pedagogies (to explore the principles of OLI and the contexts affecting writing pedagogies) & (2) Online Literacy Pedagogies (to practice designing assignments, activities, and assessments).

By the end of this two-course certification program, educators walk away with a professional ePortfolio that includes a comprehensive plan specific to your own institutional context, justification for that plan with the latest research, and a sense of confidence that you can make the online learning environment a rich space for quality writing instruction.

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If you're new to GSOLE, welcome, and if you're returning for more quality events, welcome back. We're glad to have your voice included among the many who believe that quality online literacy instruction is a critical contribution to our progress toward social justice. 

GSOLE has moved to <gsole.org>!

Besides better accommodating our growing variety of OLI resources, this new website provides fuller member services, including the option for members to display a customizable GSOLE profile page and manage e-mailings. These services are provided through the Wild Apricot <wildapricot.com> member management system—which will mostly remain in the background, although you will see the name every once in a while.

Activating Your Membership on the New Site

To fully take advantage of the new member services, as well as legacy benefits, like free webinar attendance, access to conference and webinar archives, and research support, you’ll need to update your account information. Here’s how to access the benefits of membership:

• Active members: You’ll use the same e-mail you used with our old site to log into the new site, but you’ll need to update your password. The new site does allow for single-sign-on (SSO) validation through Google and Facebook logins (if one was used for your GSOLE username), in which case you won’t need to change your password.
• Lapsed members: You’ll follow the same process as active members, but after you login, you’ll see a message encouraging you to renew your membership. We’ve lowered our rates while increasing our services, so we hope you’ll find it valuable to renew.
• Prospective members: We’d love to have you! If you know already you want to join, please go directly to the “Join Us” page. If you need more convincing, please take a look at our excellent program offerings for the 2020-2021 academic year.    

For a full listing of member benefits please go to our Member Portal page.

The July Executive Board meeting was busy and productive. Here are some important outcomes:

New Website Address Approved

When GSOLE was first founded in 2016, the most logical domain name, <gsole.org>, was not available. Now it is! The board approved the acquisition of this domain, which will house a refurbished website including fuller member services. The migration will take place early in August 2020.

New Individual Membership Rates Approved

The board approved a new fee schedule for annual individual memberships, which includes reduced rates. Here’s I the new fee schedule:

• Student/Contingent Members: $20
• Regular Members (pre-tenure or full-time non-tenured faculty and administrators): $30
• Sustaining Members (tenured faculty and executive-level administrators: $50

Jude Miller to serve as New Member and Communication Officer

Jude Miller was approved to replace Kim Fahle-Peck as Membership and Communication Officer. We want to welcome Jude, who has also been added to the OLOR editorial board. We also want to express our appreciate to Kim for her excellent service to GSOLE over the past two year. Thanks Kim!

2020-21 Webinar Series Approved

In response to this summer’s vocal demonstrations about the need to address racial inequities head-on, Webinar Co-chairs Jenae Cohn and Mary Stewart have put together an excellent program on antiracist online pedagogies. To see the full list of speakers, please visit the GSOLE Webinar Series home page.

Certification Program Offering a Two-Course Basic OLI Certificate.

Following a successful pilot program this summer, Certification Co-Chairs Kevin Depew and Amy Cicchino proposed a two-course Basic OLI Certificate curriculum for the 2020-2021 Academic Year. The board approved the appointment of instructors for the program. For more information, visit the GSOLE Certification hub.

Some important outcomes of the June Executive Board meeting:

New Executive Board Members Welcomed

In July, Meghan Velez and Pavel Zemliansky will join the Executive Board as At-large members, starting two-year terms. In addition, Jennifer Burke Reifman will join the Executive Committee as Secretary. Along with these new members joining the Board, the following Board members will shift positions, starting new two-year terms at the beginning of July:

• Scott Warnock will move from President to Immediate Past President.

• Dan Seward will move from Vice President to President.

• Cat Mahaffey will move from Treasurer to Vice President.

• Tess Evans will move from Secretary to Treasurer.

Finally, founding President Beth Hewett will exit the role of Immediate Past President, while remaining engaged in GSOLE as a member of the Research Support Committee. The entire Board would like to thank Beth for efforts in launching GSOLE and for her early leadership of the organization. Thanks Beth!

GSOLE Statement on Antiracist OLI Approved

To reaffirm GSOLE’s commitment to access and inclusion in online education, the Executive Board approved a Statement on Antiracist OLI Pedagogy and Administration. Discussions are already underway for how GSOLE can support this important movement with real action, in particular, to diversify the organizational leadership and representation in GSOLE programs and membership. Toward that end, Webinar Committee Chairs Jenae Cohn and Mary Stewart proposed inviting scholars of antiracist pedagogies to lead GSOLE’s 2020-21 webinar series, as opposed to making an open call. Given the demands on these important scholars at this crucial moment, the Board approved offering honoraria for invited webinar leaders.

Certification Program Pilot Underway

At the end of May, the Certification Committee announced they would begin a free pilot program for a handful of GSOLE members. The pilot includes 10 students and will provide a useful test run of the certification’s course-contract and ePortofolio methodologies before the program starts in earnest this Autumn. Some key questions remain for discussion at the next Board meeting, including the cost of the program and how certification program instructors will be appointed and supported.

Jude Miller and Jen Cunningham Approved for the OLOR Editorial Board

Jason Snart, editor for the Online Literacies Open Resource (OLOR), proposed Jude Miller and Jun Cunningham for the OLOR editorial board. The Executive Board unanimously approved the appointments.