Highlights of this week’s Bulletin include:
- Book Your Consultation
- Brightspace and Beyond Week
- DCTC and IHCC Course Design Institute Archive
- Distance Teaching & Learning 2021 Conference
- More Events and Development Opportunities
- Minnesota State highlight: Summer Calendar (there are MANY opportunities here)
Book Your Consultation
Summer is a great time for reflection and preparation, and now is one of our busiest times for talking with faculty about course design. When you’re ready to redesign a course, or if you just need another perspective on an activity or assessment, Center for Teaching and Learning staff are here to help. For staff information and scheduling, visit our Consultations page and use the Bookings link to arrange a consultation time. Not ready just yet? Book ahead to hold the date and time that works best for your schedule!
Brightspace and Beyond Week
Online via Zoom (invitation sent to all registrants)
August 9-13
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 VoiceThread, Teams and 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. Join us online (Zoom invitation will come following registration) from 9:00-12:00 Monday through Friday, August 9-13.
View/download full description and schedule
DCTC and IHCC Course Design Institute Archive
Online via D2L Brightspace
Perpetual
Our second annual Course Design Institute focused on four important topics:
- Universal Design for Learning
- Humanizing Online Courses
- Academic Technology
- The D2L/Brightspace Course Design Template
These topics were addressed over four weeks of synchronous sessions and asynchronous content, with ample opportunity for questions, collegial sharing of examples, and discussion.
If you missed this year’s Course Design Institute, don’t worry. You can now access a full archive of the course, sans discussion and collegial sharing. You will find all of the content, including recordings of many synchronous sessions, including Thomas Tobin’s keynote webinar on Universal Design for Learning.
To access the full course archive, login to D2L Brightspace and click on Self Registration in the top navigation.
Distance Teaching & Learning 2021 Conference
Online
Pre-Conference Events: Friday, July 30 and Sunday, August 1
Main Conference Events: Monday, August 2–Thursday, August 5
Are you prepared to take the next challenges in online or hybrid instruction in stride? Rub elbows with international thought leaders in education, including Maha Bali, Sîan Bayne and Jeremy Knox, at the fully virtual 2021 Distance Teaching & Learning Conference, August 2–5. While there, you’ll discover new ideas, strategies and tools to fill your plan. With a registration fee of only $329 and an offering of 75+ sessions, keynotes and workshops dedicated to online pedagogy, the conference is a great investment in your professional development.
If you choose to sign up for a conference certificate package during conference registration, you’ll also receive access to the 2021 DT&L Conference Certificate Courses, which begin July 27. The package price is only $599, almost $450 less than if purchased separately. For more information, contact dtl@dcs.wisc.edu.
2021 DT&L Conference Certificate Courses include:
More Events and Development Opportunities
Peer Review Rubric
Need some feedback on your online courses? Consider the peer review process, now scheduling for fall semester. Or if you aren’t ready to have others look at your course, feel free to use the Peer Review rubric as a checklist as you prepare your courses to go online. You’ll find the rubric in D2L. Search “Course Design Template” under your course list and navigate to course content.
CTL Calendar
Visit and subscribe to updates from the CTL Events Calendar to view all campus professional development opportunities mentioned in this Bulletin.
From Minnesota State
Improving Online Assessments
July 12 – August 1, 2021 | Register – 30 participant limit
In this short course, you’ll examine and apply principles of validity and reliability and writing effective quiz and test questions. You will then have the opportunity to evaluate and revise or develop your own online assessments. Additionally, you’ll learn D2L specific strategies to improve test security and provide feedback.
Accessible Digital Media
July 19 – August 8, 2021 | Register – 30 participant limit
This short course will help you understand the important definitions surrounding accessible media, the existing laws and policy standards that help ensure equitable access. The course will show the importance of having accessible features for media as well as effective ways to add audio descriptions, captions, and transcripts with our existing technology services.
Improving Your Online Course
July 19 – August 1, 2021 | Register – 20 participant limit
The “Improving Your Online Course” workshop explores the Quality Matters Rubric and provides a framework to improve the quality of online courses. Participants use the QM Rubric to review their own online courses and develop a course improvement plan.
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. 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.
National and Vendor-Sponsored
VoiceThread Workshops
Upcoming workshop: New Assignment Features
Workshop recording: Using VoiceThread in D2L/Brightspace
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.
Access VoiceThread’s full workshop archive.
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
QM offers a number of free resources to help support your quality assurance goals. Here are a few to check out:
- QM Success Stories — find out how other institutions are using QM processes and resources to meet their students’ needs
- QM IDA Membership — join this special interest group for instructional designers to engage with peers and numerous professional development opportunities
- Accessibility and Usability Resource Site — find solutions to common accessibility and usability challenges on this community-led resource site
- Elements of Quality Matters: Deliver on Your Online Promise — discover QM’s tools and resources in this one-hour, self-paced course
Online Learning Consortium
The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) is a collaborative community of higher education leaders and innovators, dedicated to advancing quality digital teaching and learning experiences designed to reach and engage the modern learner – anyone, anywhere, anytime. OLC inspires innovation and quality through an extensive set of resources, including best-practice publications, quality benchmarking, leading-edge instruction, community-driven conferences, practitioner-based and empirical research, and expert guidance. The growing OLC community includes faculty members, administrators, trainers, instructional designers, and other learning professionals, as well as educational institutions, professional societies, and corporate enterprises.
OLC resources are available to all Minnesota State faculty. Learn more here.
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!