Blog

Highlights of this week’s Bulletin include:

• From Your Colleagues:
  • Course Design: Leah Greuel
  • Faculty Success Story: Kathy Paukert
• Podcast: Student Wellbeing during the Fall Term
• New Starfish Kudo – You Made It!
• LinkedIn Learning Now Available
• IHCC Peer Review Program
• Mentoring Groups: Course Design
• Equity and Inclusion Free Virtual Training Series
• Campus Compact Engaged Faculty Institute
• More Events and Development Opportunities
  • Minnesota State highlight: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Trauma Responsive Pedagogy (January 21)
  • National and Vendor-Sponsored highlight: Turnitin Training Webinars

From Your Colleagues

DCTC Architecture faculty member Leah Greuel attended this summer’s Online Course Design Institute. Since then, she has redesigned her online courses to include tools and practices proven to be effective in increasing student success rates:

• Open discussion forums
• Including the course syllabus as pages in course content
• Widgets on homepage for Starfish office hours, etc.
• Advising students on altering D2L settings, so they receive notifications of important announcements
• Hyperlinks in announcements that take students directly to course content
• Intelligent Agents
• Informal assessments (hers are in Microsoft Forms)
• End-of-semester reflection

Leah reflects on her experience in the Institute in this video, and describes the above course design improvements.

(Click on the image below to watch Leah’s video in MediaSpace.)

 

Kathy Paukert, DCTC Medical Assistant faculty member, uses recorded feedback and HTML content templates to help her students succeed. The work she put into redesigning her courses between semesters has made less work for her during the semester. The recorded feedback she gives to students has also made grading more enjoyable. Most importantly, both have contributed to increased student success in her courses!

Read Kathy’s success story and see examples from her courses at http://facultyresources.oneboldfuture.com/faculty-success-stories-kathy-paukert/.

Podcast: Student Wellbeing during the Fall Term

If you have been concerned about the health and wellbeing of your students during the pandemic, this podcast is well worth 39 minutes of your time. Don’t be turned off by the short opening and Notre Dame’s representative’s mention of their COVID Response Team. Keep listening for 18 minutes and the first segment, in which Paul Quinn College’s president Michael Sorrell talk about his institution’s response to this crisis.

President Sorrell talks about being in a COVID hotspot, and how Paul Quinn College offered mental health exams to all its students this fall to gauge how they were dealing with the pandemic and its ramifications. He talks about why “we in higher education have to accept who are students are today”, the majority of whom are coming from low income families. (80 percent of students at PQC are there on Pell grants. 90 percent of their students are working 40 hours per week.)

Some of President Sorrell’s advice to anyone working in higher education:

• In the best interest of students, be honest about the pandemic and the uncertainty surrounding it.
• Be unapologetic about putting your students’ needs first.
• Make mistakes “out loud” and then make it known to students how you’re fixing those mistakes.
• Make good on the “implicit promise” of higher education: that students’ lives will be improved by it.
• Don’t fear crisis. Welcome the opportunities presented by crisis.

Listen to Student Wellbeing During the Fall Term.

New Starfish Kudo – You Made It!

Today, we will be adding a new Kudo for the end of semester called “You Made It!” you can raise this manually and we will also be sending out a progress survey with only this Kudo that will be open for the remainder of the semester. It will have a default creation comment so you don’t have to write anything if you don’t want to, but you can edit or personalize the message as you wish.

For more about Starfish:

At IHCC https://invernet.inverhills.edu/directory/starfish/SitePages/Home.aspx

At DCTC https://intranet.dctc.edu/index.cfm/resources/starfish/?DynamicContentaction=public:main

LinkedIn Learning Now Available

Inver Hills Community College and Dakota County Technical College are now offering access to the LinkedIn Learning online platform (formerly Lynda.com) for all employees and students, providing access to thousands of self-paced courses led by professional instructors.

DCTC LinkedIn Learning access

Inver Hills LinkedIn Learning access

Select “Sign in with your organization account” when you sign in using your MinnState StarID credential:

• Employees = StarID@minnstate.edu
• Students = StarID@go.minnstate.edu

Courses consist of a series of short videos designed to help develop creative, technical, and business skills. LinkedIn Learning provides continuous, self-service access to videos via multiple devices, at home or on the go, online or offline.

Instructors can curate collections of LinkedIn videos, share them with students, and monitor their progress. Participants can download a certificate of completion and share it through social media plus post to an online resume, where employers can identify skills and professional interests.

IHCC Peer Review Program

Faculty Peer Review of Online Courses

The Teaching and Technology Committee (TTC) and the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) have worked to bring back the Peer Review of Online Courses as an internal process at Inver Hills Community College.

What is peer review?

Peer review is an entirely optional and confidential collaboration among faculty to ensure that course designs are easily navigable, user-friendly, and align with the course goals.  It’s a review by faculty, but as perceived from the student’s perspective.  Our goal is to provide meaningful, actionable feedback that helps faculty improve their course in a non-judgmental way.

Who will be doing the reviews?

Your fellow Inver Hills faculty will complete the reviews.  Faculty interested in being peer reviewers will be asked to complete a short training that will expose them to the faculty-developed peer review rubric.  Training will also be provided to give meaningful, positive, and constructive feedback to fellow faculty. A stipend will be provided for those who choose to participate as a peer reviewer. 

What this means to you:

We’re looking for faculty to participate on both sides of this process!  We could use your help as a faculty reviewer.  If you’re interested in providing meaningful, constructive feedback, please let us know!  We also are looking for faculty who are interested in improving their course.  Don’t be shy! We want to help!  If interested, please send an email to the TTC: TTC@inverhills.edu.

What others have said:

Dr. Mary Petrie, faculty in English, participated in the pilot implementation of this new process.  Mary indicated that the suggestions she obtained were practical, useful, and insightful.  Mary plans on incorporating the feedback into both her current courses and future course designs. See Mary’s video on her experience with the Peer Review process.

IHCC faculty: please contact the TTC with any questions, or to sign up for a review TTC@inverhills.edu.

DCTC faculty: the Faculty Development Committee is developing a similar program to begin spring semester. More information on that soon!

Mentoring Groups: Course Design

Mentoring Groups are comprised of a novice and two or more faculty experts who have agreed to serve as mentors on a specific topic. Mentoring groups have proven to be effective at other institutions, do not rely on or place all pressure on a single mentor, and, like Communities of Practice, draw on the strengths and perspectives of a group in the teaching and learning process.

This academic year, faculty who completed our summer Online Course Design Institute are serving as mentors to colleagues who would like help redesigning their courses for spring semester and beyond. These groups of faculty have started meeting, and invite other faculty to join at any time. Contact Martin Springborg if you are interested in joining.

Equity and Inclusion Free Virtual Training Series

At Dakota County Technical College and Inver Hills Community College, we believe equity and inclusion improve all aspects of our communities and we strive for an environment that encourages excellence and innovation. Successfully building inclusive campuses and workplaces relies on the fundamental principle that human diversity is our strength and these trainings are directly connected to this success.

More information and registration at https://mnscu.rschooltoday.com/public/getclass/category_id/500/program_id/5/subcategory_id/5982.

Campus Compact Engaged Faculty Institute

Campus Compact is offering an online version of their Engaged Faculty Institute. The Institute is a two-week, asynchronous learning experience for faculty interested in teaching community-engaged courses. The institute works best for those who are ready to design or re-design at least one specific community-engaged course and is open to all faculty (tenured/tenure-track and instructors). At this time, it is only open the instructors from Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact member institutions.

2020-2021 Scheduled Institutes:

January 8-25, 2021, application deadline January 4

For application and more information: https://iacampuscompact.formstack.com/forms/engaged_faculty_institute_application_online.

More Events and Development Opportunities

Additional Campus Programs and Services

Faculty Teaching Online Group

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.

CTL Open Lab

The agenda for CTL’s Open Lab, scheduled from 12:00-1:00 every Tuesday, is always open. Bring any topic related to teaching online – whether it is a question, a success, or even a failure. CTL staff and your faculty colleagues are here to help and share. See the Zoom invitation from Martin Springborg in your campus email to join.

CTL Teaching Consultations

The Center for Teaching and Learning continues to offer 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
• Preparation for course review

For staff information and scheduling, visit Teaching Consultations page and use the Bookings feature to arrange a consultation time.

From Minnesota State

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 their SharePoint site, including:

• Recorded Training Webinars
• D2L Brightspace announcements
• D2L Brightspace monthly update and refresh calendars
• Reported or fixed issues

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.

National and Vendor-Sponsored

New Respondus Instructor Training Series

Join Respondus trainers for a free webinar and learn how to use LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor to address the integrity of final exams. Or see how Respondus 4.0 and StudyMate Campus allow you to easily create online tests, flash cards, or learning games.

Register for individual sessions here: https://web.respondus.com/webinars/

Quality Matters

You can now register for QM ConnectLX professional development workshops.
Choose from over 24 two-hour, half- and full-day options such as:

• HE Teaching Online
• Designing Your Online Course
• K-12 Designing an Engaging and Active Learning Environment

QM Live! Workshops are also available! These two-hour, hands-on workshops are a great way to access learning experiences that are currently only offered as dedicated sessions for institutions. Topics include:

• Creating Discussion Forum Rubrics
• Active Learning Strategies
• Rethinking Assessments for Application and Engagement

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.

 

 

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!