Highlights of this week’s Bulletin include:
- Establishing a Classroom Culture that Fosters and Encourages Student Feedback
- CTL Events and Calendar
- TILT Community of Practice (now with stipend)
- South Central Biannual Global Conference
- Conversations with Colleagues: Guiding Difficult Conversations
- More Events and Development Opportunities
- Minnesota State highlight: Fall Short Courses
- Vendor highlight: LockDown Browser & Respondus Monitor | multiple dates
Establishing a Classroom Culture that Fosters and Encourages Student Feedback: A Faculty Focus Live Podcast
It’s the time of the semester to really consider switching gears from giving feedback to gathering it – from your students. The summative course evaluations administered at the end of the semester give us the opportunity to learn about our teaching from our students’ perspective. Formative feedback collected during the semester also gives us that opportunity, but goes a couple of steps further. It gives us a chance to adjust our teaching to unique aspects of our class, and it gives our students a sense of investment in their learning – especially when instructors follow up on the feedback they collect.
Episode 18 of the Faculty Focus Live Podcast addresses this topic: https://www.facultyfocus.com/faculty-focus-live-podcast
And for practical tips on using Microsoft Forms to collect formative feedback from your students, see Matt Boudinot’s (Automotive faculty at DCTC) example: https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/0eb518b8-efef-4c6d-bdf8-caa547cc7386.
CTL Events and Calendar
Our events calendar is updated for fall semester! Visit and subscribe to our online calendar to see information and get updates on all our fall trainings on D2L and academic technology, as well as CTL Open Lab and DCTC Faculty Teaching Online times.
Upcoming training sessions include:
October 4: Microsoft OneNote
October 6: D2L D2L Brightspace Groups
October 11: D2L Brightspace Checklists
October 13: D2L Brightspace Groups
TILT Community of Practice
This community of practice, on Transparency in Learning and Teaching, is in its third year at both DCTC and IHCC. Faculty who have redesigned assignments in the TILT framework, and with input from their colleagues in this community, report positive impacts on student success in their courses.
In this collaborative community, you’ll meet with fellow faculty to discuss the book Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Leadership, review the findings and educational research behind the concept of transparent teaching and learning, and apply transparent design to your teaching practice.
Faculty participants in this Community of Practice (limited to 10 per semester) will receive a $200 stipend and a copy of Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Leadership. Meetings will begin in late September, take place approximately every three weeks, and will be arranged by participant consensus. Contact Martin Springborg to sign up for this community of practice.
TILT not your thing? Visit the Faculty Resources site for information on other communities of practice, including:
- Faculty Teaching Online
- Community-Based Learning
- Prison/Correctional Education
South Central College Biannual Global Conference
Online
October 14 – 15
South Central College is hosting its biannual Global Conference in a FREE virtual format. The conference is free and will provide participants with an opportunity to learn about global topics and a wide variety of cultures from around the world. This year’s focus is on Asian culture, which will be highlighted in events throughout the conference.
Register today to secure your complimentary conference pass to join us virtually.
Highlights
- Thursday, October 14 Keynote Speaker: Kao Kalia Yang, author of many books including Somewhere in the Unknown World, a collection of stories of refugees in Minnesota.
- Friday, October 15 Keynote Speaker: SATHI, meditation/mindfulness teacher in Buddhist monastic training.
- And many excellent breakout sessions each day!
More information? Visit the conference website or contact the Conference Coordinator, Dr. Amy Magnus.
Conversations with Colleagues: Guiding Difficult Conversations
Online
October 19 12:00 – 1:00
Teaching controversial topics and concepts is part of many courses and disciplines. Topics like race, culture, gender, and/or sexual orientation are inherent discussions in many fields, and any course dealing with current events presents an opportunity for socially-challenging topics to arise purposely and spontaneously in class discussions. Guiding those discussions can impact the usefulness these conversations to learning. This session of Conversations with Colleagues will allow us to review and practice a process for guiding difficult conversations.
Guest Speaker
Dr. Kristen Cvancara, Professor of Communication Studies
Minnesota State University, Mankato
RSVP required at https://asanewsletter.org/event/conversations-with-colleagues-october-2021
More Events and Development Opportunities
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. 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: 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
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!