GSOLE Conference Registration is Open!

We are pleased to announce that registration is officially open for the 2021 GSOLE Conference on January 29th. To register, please click on the following link:  https://gsole.org/event-4051542

Our Keynote Speakers will be Dr. Lou Maraj and Dr. Scott Warnock. 

Current GSOLE members can register for our conference at these low rates:

• Regular GSOLE members – $10.00

• Student and contingent faculty GSOLE members – $5.00

Webinar Co-Chair and Web Content Curators Needed

We invite GSOLE members with any level of experience to get more involved as Assistant Web Content Curators and Webinar Co-Chairs. This is a great way to contribute to our community and gain valuable experience. Read more about these positions and ways to get involved here. 

GSOLE is a fast-growing organization, and there are many ways to engage besides participating in our events. By dedicating just a few hours a month, you can ensure we continue to offer compelling, insightful, and inclusive programs throughout the year. Below are just a couple of ways you can help:

Become an Assistant Web Content Curator

As an online organization catering to online educators and scholars, we know our website is crucial for providing access to our services and support. Besides hosting just-in-time resources and professional events, such as webinars and our annual online conference, our website also hosts two peer-reviewed publications and archives of our multimodal events. Altogether, this content requires multiple volunteers to maintain and make it accessible—and we’re adding new material every month!

You can help! We invite GSOLE members with any level of experience to get more involved as Assistant Web Content Curators. Besides helping to facilitate online community and improve access to important OLI resources, you’ll have an opportunity to work with GSOLE administrators and the leaders of our program development committees.

We especially encourage GSOLE members interested in the following OLI topics to apply:

• Multimodal composition
• Accessible design
• Online discourse communities
• Collaborative composition

Interested members should send a CV and a paragraph explaining their interest in the Web Curator role to president@glosole.org.

Become a Webinar-Coordinator-in-Training

For five years, Jenae Cohn and Mary Stewart have served as Co-Chairs of the GSOLE Webinar Committee, year-after-year putting together a schedule of engaging and timely offerings. Thank you Jenae and Mary!

Now, however, they are ready hand off the role of Webinar Coordinators. Are you interested in continuing this important work for GSOLE?

We invite GSOLE members who have enjoyed and benefited from our webinars to join our Webinar Committee, helping Jenae and Mary to put on the remaining webinars for the 2020-2021 season, while also looking ahead to next year’s offerings.

Interested members should send a CV and a paragraph explaining their interest in the webinar series sto president@glosole.org.

The September Executive Board meeting has brought in some exciting updates. 

New Pricing Structure for Institutional Memberships

The Board has moved forward with a new tiered pricing model for institutional memberships that are based on the size of the membership. Institutions can choose from the following tiers:

1. $300 for up to 15 members 
2. $500 for up to 30 members
3. $700 for up to 50 members. 

Learn more about signing up your institution here.

CFP Deadline Extended for GSOLE's 2021 Online Conference & Keynote Speakers Announced

The new deadline for proposals for GSOLE's Online Conference is October 19th. Please read more about submitting here.

We are also very excited to announce the two keynote speakers for the Conference: 

Lou Maraj, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh who specializes in anti-racist digital rhetorics and is an award-winning poet. He also co-founded the Digital Black Lit & Composition (DBLAC) national graduate student organization. 

Scott Warnock, Ph.D. is a Professor of English and Director of the University Writing Program at Drexel University. He specializes in the use of technology in online writing instruction and is the immediate Past President of GSOLE. 

Dear GSOLE colleagues,

My time as GSOLE President is in the past. My two-year term ended June 30. I took a vacation. I then took a few weeks to work on some big projects. But I wanted to send you a brief note of thanks and to say how proud I am of what the people of GSOLE have accomplished since 2016, when a group of us led by Beth Hewett hatched an idea for a professional organization that became GSOLE. 

The GSOLE website shows what we are and what we have accomplished. On this (just recently improved!) site, a visitor sees our many OLI resources, such as our two journals, webinar series, research support, conference, certification courses, affiliates, and of course principles and tenets.

It may be less apparent to see who we are. Behind that site and those resources are volunteers who say “yes” over and over again to project and task requests, who carve out time to attend monthly executive board meetings, and who help those in our field. I think the extraordinary spring Just-In-Time response to the international COVID crisis demonstrated well who we are. People inundated with work on their local campuses, who were being called on during long weeks as resident/local online learning experts, somehow found time to create resources and provide support to colleagues for the good of the overall education mission. That is who the people of GSOLE are.

Challenges lie ahead. We will refine and develop our resources. We must continue to grow our membership, a task that will take ongoing, steady work. Part of this membership goal is the specific aim to diversify the organization. People across the United States are seeing our culture, again, at a crossroads in terms of race, and, like many of those people, I am hopeful that this time we may finally, collectively get it right: Black Lives Matter. I believe our organization has articulated concrete ways that we will contribute to that collective choice for good, and the organization is in great hands to meet these challenges with the core leadership of Dan Seward as President, Cat Mahaffey as Vice President, Tess Evans as Treasurer, and Jennifer Burke Reifman as Secretary.

It has been an honor and pleasure to work with all of you as President. I want to thank you for taking my many calls and answering my emails. You have worked so hard for the good of the organization and the good of online learning—which means, ultimately, you are working for students.

While I suppose part of me wishes that my role as Immediate Past President entailed merely wearing a sash and showing up to cut virtual ribbons, I know that is not the nature of GSOLE. I will continue to work hard for the good of the organization. After all, I’ll be in good company.

See you in cyberspace,
Scott

Hello GSOLE members,

The Global Society of Online Literacy Educators (GSOLE) and the Two-Year College English Association (TYCA) will be hosting a series of free, open events for online instructors in mid-October. These virtual events will be short (20-30 minutes) with the expectation that attendees could join for one, some, or all of the presentations. We would like your help identifying potential topics that would interest you. 

Please take this short survey, which asks about your needs as an online, or “remote,” instructor this semester. We estimate this survey will take no longer than 5 minutes to complete. By responding to this survey, you will help us design events that address topics which are meaningful and relevant to our field and its practitioners. 

Thank you for your time.

Best,

Amy Cicchino (GSOLE Affiliates’ Liaison), Jason Snart (OLOR Journal Editor and GSOLE leader), Cheryl Hogue Smith (TYCA President), and Sarah Johnson (TYCA Vice President)

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.