Highlights of this week’s Bulletin include:
- Teaching Tip(s): A Dozen-Plus Ways You Can Foster Educational Equity
- Minnesota Equity Education Partnership: Supporting Racial Equity in Distance Learning
- Brightspace and Beyond Week August 10-14
- CTL Teaching Consultations
- WeTeach August 3-September 25
- More Summer Events and Development Opportunities
- Minnesota State highlight: Designing Your Course for Student Learning (3 week short course)
- National and Vendor-Sponsored highlight: Quality Matters Bridge to Quality: A QM Online Course Design Guide
Teaching Tip(s):
A Dozen-Plus Ways You Can Foster Educational Equity
In Inside Higher Education, Viji Sathy, Kelly A. Hogan and Calvin M. Sims detail ways for Non-Black faculty members can help dismantle educational inequities. Their suggestions are many, and include the following for starters:
- Recognize trauma and make students feel safe.
- Acknowledge and interrupt microaggressions in your classroom.
- Create a sense of belonging for your students.
- Use inclusive teaching and grading practices.
- Develop empathy and self-awareness.
- Get to know students holistically.
- Be open to writing letters of recommendation.
- Find ways to recruit, admit and hire more faculty and students of color.
Read the full article here: https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/07/01/list-practical-ways-non-black-faculty-members-can-help-dismantle-educational.
For more ideas on supporting racial equity in your online courses, I strongly encourage you to visit the Minnesota Equity Education Partnership’s set of resources on this topic: https://mneep.org/toolkit/distance_learning.
Brightspace and Beyond Week
August 10-14, 2020
Arranged: synchronous and asynchronous
Online via D2L and Zoom
Registration: https://ihcc.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0HF078elTtEjq3X
This week-long workshop is designed for all faculty. Whether you have been teaching online for several semesters or will be for the first time this year, this hands-on workshop will be of benefit to you. Facilitators will focus on beginning tools and recent updates made to D2L Brightspace, as well as other academic technology such as: Teams and the entire suite of O365 tools; MediaSpace and Kaltura Capture; and Zoom.
Each day consists of two hours of instruction followed by one hour of guided work/application time. Supplementary materials will be available in D2L. Join us online (Zoom invitation will come following registration).
Schedule
Monday: Brightspace I (Announcements; Content and Content Templates; Discussions)
Tuesday: Brightspace II (Quizzes, Gradebook, Assignments, Course Templates)
Wednesday: Zoom and MediaSpace
Thursday: Brightspace III (Groups, Rubrics, Checklists, Intelligent Agents)
Friday: Teams and Microsoft O365 Tools
Learning Outcomes
Participants will:
- Describe the key elements of a well-designed online course (consistency, logical organization, clarity of expectations, and accessibility).
- Demonstrate the use of best practices in the design of their online courses.
- Describe the relationship of student learning outcomes, learning activities, and assessments in a well-designed online course.
- Use D2L tools and components effectively and appropriately to deliver their online courses.
- Incorporate academic technology appropriate to the design and delivery of their online courses.
Register today at https://ihcc.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0HF078elTtEjq3X!
CTL Teaching Consultations
The Center for Teaching and Learning offers teaching consultations designed to meet the needs of faculty members who prefer to work one-on-one with staff. Whether you need just-in-time training or advice in the application of a specific teaching tool, or are planning for next semester or next year, our staff are available to offer support.
Examples of topics addressed through consultation services include, but are not limited to:
- Course design
- Academic technology, including D2L Brightspace
- Implementing a change in your course(s)
- Applying student or other formative feedback to course redesign
For staff information and scheduling, visit Teaching Consultations pages at Inver Hills Community College and Dakota County Technical College.
WeTeach
Online
August 3, 2020 – September 25
Winona State University is offering a fall section of WeTeach: Online/Blended Design and Delivery. This online course will help you:
- Develop your own online teaching skills
• Learn how to use technology more effectively to save time
• Start to design components of your online/blended course
• Gain an online student perspective
• Share online teaching experiences and best practices with colleagues
The next WeTeach offering starts August 3, 2020 – September 25, 2020. The weekly virtual meetings will be offered:
- Mondays at 12: 00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. CST
- Thursdays at 5:30 p.m.- 6:30 p.m. CST
Participants are expected to attend ONE of the 1-hour virtual meetings each week.
The cost of this course is $400. For more information about WeTeach, visit the WeTeach Overview page contact Linda Kingston.
More Summer Events and Development Opportunities
Additional Campus Programs and Services
Faculty Teaching Online Group
We are excited to be continuing this group at DCTC all summer! If you are experiencing some success in this environment and would like to share with your colleagues, these sessions are for you. If you are struggling and need to draw upon on the wisdom of your peers, these sessions are also for you. Or if you’re anywhere in between, again – these sessions are for you.
These sessions will run without agendas. We’ll simply talk about whatever faculty bring to the meetings. Several members of the Faculty Development Committee will participate on a rotating basis. Join us any or every Thursday from 3:30-4:30 pm. Registration is not required. Come as often or as infrequently as you need. See the Zoom invitation from Martin Springborg in your campus email to join.
From Minnesota State
Summer 2020 Long and Short Course Opportunities
Visit www.asanewsletter.org/academic-continuity to find resources for moving your courses online. Also see Upcoming OER Opportunities.
Upcoming Webinars
- August 1: Five Ways to Humanize Your Online Course – Option 2 (Webinar)
- August 6: Designing Your Course for Student Learning (3 week short course)
- August 6: Improving Student-to-Content Interaction (3 week short course)
- August 7: Kaltura MediaSpace Webinar: Using video to support learning strategies like retrieval practice and elaboration
- August 7: Writing Good Questions for Assessments (Webinar) – Option 2
- August 13: Humanizing Your Course – Section 2 (3 week short course)
- August 13: Improving Online Assessments – Section 1 (3 week short course)
- August 13: Improving your Online Course via Quality Matters (2 week short course)
- August 13: What’s New in D2L 20.20.07?
- August 14: Establishing a Library Presence in D2L (Webinar)
- August 16: CRP and Trauma Responsive Practices – Option 2 (Webinar)
See https://asanewsletter.org/events for a full list of upcoming webinars and other opportunities! Also see resources on the NED Resource Site focused on course design, assessment, and instructional strategies.
In addition, the Minnesota State Educational Innovations Office maintains a page of resources for students at www.asanewsletter.org/academic-continuity-students.
The Minnesota State Learning Technologies Team offers a variety of faculty resources opens in new window on the IMS opens in new window (Instructional Management System) SharePoint site, including:
- Recorded Training Webinars opens in new window,
- D2L Brightspace announcements,
- D2L Brightspace monthly update and refresh calendars opens in new window, and
- View reported or fixed issues opens in new window in D2L Brightspace.
Navigate to the IMS opens in new window SharePoint site (https://mnscu.sharepoint.com/sites/IMS), and use YourStarID@minnstate.edu as your username and your StarID password. View the PDF for how to login instructions opens in new window.
Recordings
Recordings for most webinars can be accessed from the Minnesota State D2L Support SharePoint site. Use your StarID@minnstate.edu credentials to login. Contact Martin Springborg if you can’t find a recording you’re looking for.
National and Vendor-Sponsored
Quality Matters
Bridge to Quality: A QM Online Course Design Guide
If you’re looking for a way forward from Emergency Remote Instruction that is rooted in QM Standards and focused on the learning experience, this guide is just what you need. This web-based guide provides a step-by-step approach to complete the hands-on, iterative work that is central to creating a quality course. This includes:
- Alignment of foundational course elements
- Promoting engaged, active learning
- Creative work and organization to develop the course within a digital learning environment (LMS)
Turnitin
Whether you’re a new user or need a refresh, join our training sessions to learn how to get started with Feedback Studio and Originality Check Plus, or how to enable remote learning and assessment with Gradescope. We have expanded our training calendar to provide recurring training throughout the rest of the academic year.
More information and registration at https://www.turnitin.com/resources/training-webinars.
D2L Fusion Conference
For the safety and well-being of our guests, we’ve determined that it is necessary to move Fusion 2020 entirely online with an all-new virtual experience that will launch this summer. While we can’t all be together in person this year, we’re fully committed to bringing you the absolute best Fusion experience possible.
The virtual Fusion program includes sessions of interest to K-12, higher education, and corporate learning audiences, and will take place three consecutive days each month (July-December) from noon–3:45pm ET (9am–12:45pm PT) each day.
See the full schedule at https://www.d2l.com/events/fusion/schedule.
Register at https://www.d2l.com/events/fusion/register.
The Faculty Resource Bulletin is one of many steps we’re taking to improve communication about local and statewide faculty professional development information and opportunities. Please visit our Faculty Resources sites (see links in the header of this blog) for more information and resources to support teaching and learning!