Highlights of this week’s Bulletin include:
- From Your Colleagues:
- Don Cassidy: Course Organizer
- Amy Matthys: VoiceThread Demonstration
- Christine Petrich: Open Educational Resources
- New Course Design Template
- Zoom Closed Captioning and Live Transcription
- Academic Technology Innovation Funds Available
- Respondus Live Proctoring
- Instructional Technology Council Annual Conference – eLearning
- WeTeach
- Equity and Inclusion Free Virtual Training Series
- More Events and Development Opportunities
- Minnesota State highlight: D2L Webinars
- National and Vendor-Sponsored highlight: VoiceThread Workshops
From Your Colleagues
IHCC Business faculty member, Don Cassidy organizes his most important course items in advance of each semester and shares this document with his students. Don says he has “found including ‘Big Picture’ icons helpful for students when they first start the course and as a road map as we work through the details.” You can download this document and modify it for your own classes: BUS 2400-91 Spring 2021 Calendar and Grading
IHCC Nursing faculty member Amy Matthys is using VoiceThread, the newest addition to our academic technology licenses, to better engage her student in case studies and other aspects of her online courses. VoiceThread allows users to share any media and create a threaded voice and video discussion around that media. It’s great for student presentations, for making lectures more participatory, and is especially helpful wherever visual representations are important. Amy provided us a video demonstration of her use of this tool.
Visit our Academic Technology page or schedule a CTL consultation to learn more about how to use VoiceThread in your own classes.
IHCC Health and Physical Education faculty member Christine Petrich is one of __ faculty to design new open educational resources under our OER program. In this new Faculty Success Story interview, Christine talks about the use of her newly curated OER and the positive impact it has had on her course design, student experience, and teaching practice.
New Course Design Template
Last summer and into this fall semester, System Office staff helped coordinate a system-wide effort to create an educational course design template for use by faculty, instructional designers, and D2L administrators at all system institutions. Many faculty and staff, including John Bayerl, former D2L administrator at IHCC and myself contributed to the design of this course.
This new template was reviewed by faculty at both IHCC and DCTC, updated for use at our colleges, and is now ready for use. All faculty at both colleges have student access to the course, and can refer to the template as a guide for course design. If you are interested in copying course elements, the full course package is available for download in the last module under course content. This course package can then be uploaded into any of your existing D2L courses and used to design your courses prior to student access. Note that use of this new course design template is in no way mandated; it is meant as an instructional aid for the design of online courses.
Please follow up with Martin Springborg if you have any questions about the template, or how you might use it to aid in course design and development.
Zoom Closed Captioning and Live Transcription
Closed captioning allows the host, another meeting attendee assigned by the host, or an integrated third-party closed captioning service to add closed captioning in a meeting. In a webinar, closed captioning can be typed by the host, co-host, a panelist assigned by the host, or an integrated third-party closed captioning service. Closed captioning can also be viewed while in Zoom Rooms.
Learn more in Zoom’s Help Center.
Academic Technology Innovation Funds Available
This funding opportunity was paused temporarily due to new technology requests being routed through CARES. Instructional Technology Services, the Teaching and Technology Committee at IHCC and Faculty Development Committee at DCTC are pleased to continue to support faculty innovation in the use of technology in teaching and learning contexts.
If you have a new idea for classroom technology, please send requests for funding to ttc@inverhills.edu (IHCC) martin.springborg@dctc.edu (DCTC). Please note the technology you hope to purchase as well as courses that will benefit from it.
Respondus Live Proctoring
If you give remote tests in D2L Brightspace, you may be interested in a new option that comes with LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor called “Instructor Live Proctoring.” In short, it enables LockDown Browser to be used with Zoom, Teams, and other web conferencing tools. LockDown Browser locks down the student’s computer during the online exam, while the instructor can watch students via web conference. This option is recommended for small, synchronous classes where instructors can effectively manage and observe students during the exam.
The following web page includes a brief video and guide on how to use Instructor Live Proctoring: web.respondus.com/instructor-proctoring/. Contact Martin Springborg with questions.
Instructional Technology Council Annual Conference – eLearning
Online
February 22 and various dates continuing through April 9
The ITC Annual Conference – eLearning is an opportunity to collaborate with community college colleagues from across the country and around the world, at one of the friendliest and most comprehensive annual conferences for eLearning practitioners.
Interested DCTC faculty should contact Anne Johnson prior to registration.
Interested IHCC faculty should contact Monica Ibarra prior to registration.
Learn more at: https://intc.memberclicks.net/annual-conference-elearning.
WeTeach
Online
February 1-April 2 & May 31-July 15
WeTeach is an interactive, collaborative course intended for instructors who teach online or blended courses. Instructors will become an online student in the course to develop their own online teaching and design skills. WeTeach is for instructors looking to expand their skills, explore new ways to engage students and use technology more effectively, and is great for instructors who are new to online teaching. Quality Matters standards, technology tools, D2L training, best practices, and research will be integrated throughout all modules.
COST: $400.00
Course Format: This eight-week course consists of eight online modules with 1-hour weekly virtual meetings. Expect to spend up to four to seven additional hours per week reviewing lectures/readings and completing assignments to strengthen your online teaching and design skills. You will also start to develop components for your own online/blended course.
More information and registration at https://www.winona.edu/adult-learners/ce-training/weteach.asp.
Funding for up to 10 faculty is being provided through the Title III grant. Interested faculty should contact Monica Ibarra prior to registration.
Equity and Inclusion Free Virtual Training Series
Online
Various dates
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.
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
D2L
Do you have a fun idea or unique learning experience that you’ve created? We want to hear about it! We’re accepting proposals for 2021 D2L event presentations until Friday, March 19, 2021.
D2L is committed to providing various presentation opportunities to our customers. Presenting at events like D2L Fusion 2021, Affinity Networks, and D2L webinars provides you with a chance to share your story and make sure your voice is heard.
Each accepted presenter will have the opportunity to:
- Share ideas, new industry trends, pedagogical practices, or noteworthy projects
- Earn recognition as a subject matter expert
- Join peers and other speakers in leading conversations about transforming learning
Visit the Call for Proposals (CFP) Website for more details!
VoiceThread Workshops
Upcoming workshops include:
These workshops are completely free. The sessions are led by our instructional designer and online educator George Haines. George will share his expertise to help you get the most from VoiceThread.
See more details and register.
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
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!