Faculty Resource Bulletin
Highlights of this week’s Bulletin include:
- A note from Fran Kennedy
- CTL Open Labs and Consultations
- Tech Training – How to use Teams
- CTL Resources for Students
- Digital Learning Labs
- Minnesota State Network for Educational Development
- In Case You Missed It: Incorporating Guided Learning Pathways into Teaching Practices – Experiential Learning
- Course Design Resources
Other Opportunities:
- From Minnesota State
- From National Vendors
A Note from Fran Kennedy, the new Interim Director of Teaching and Learning/Guided Learning Pathways
Hi everyone! I have enjoyed meeting those of you who have reached out to me to chat. I am excited to be stepping into a role that allows me to support faculty in their teaching practices. Prior to working at Inver Hills and DCTC as the Guided Learning Pathways Project Director in April 2022, I taught developmental and college-level writing and literature courses at community colleges across the country. As an instructor, I worked to support students by providing transparency in my teaching and empowering students to navigate the hidden curriculum.
To support my practices, I participated in ongoing professional development opportunities, including Quality Matters, OnCourse I, the national SEED project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity), and Mental Health First Aid. I am a huge proponent of professional development and look forward to learning more about your professional development interests and needs.
If you would like to set up a time to meet or would just like to say hi, feel free to send an email to fran.kennedy@inverhills.edu
CTL Open Labs and Consultations
CTL Open Lab sessions are available every Tuesday from 12:30-1:30 pm for faculty to attend. The purpose of these drop-in sessions is to provide just-in-time assistance to faculty. If you are unable to participate in our Open Lab on Tuesdays, or if you’d prefer to meet one-on-one instead, please schedule a consultation with CTL staff for a time that fits your schedule: https://facultyresources.oneboldfuture.com/faculty-resources/programs-services/consultations.
Tech Training – How to use Teams
Don’t forget that the CTL virtually provides technical training to faculty every Monday and Wednesday from 12-12:30 pm!
As part of program review this year at Inver Hills, faculty will be using Teams. If you are interested in learning more about how to use Teams, please join us on Wednesday, October 26th from 12-1 pm. Refer to the CTL’s calendar of events for more information.
Additionally, there will be two brown bag sessions held to support Inver Hills faculty with program review and Teams. These sessions will take place on:
- Wednesday, November 2nd from 1-2 pm in FA 270
- Monday, November 21st from 12-1 pm on Zoom
CTL Resources for Students
| Services for Faculty:
Options for you to book and use yourself! |
Services for Students:
Options to recommend to students! |
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Digital Learning Labs
Did you know you can book time in the Digital Learning Lab? Reserve the Digital Learning Lab in Outlook by making a new meeting and inviting either Room2104@dctc.edu or fa250@inverhills.edu to that meeting. Add Jamie Zukic (IHCC), Chad Anderson (DCTC), or Fran Kennedy (both colleges) to the meeting invitation if you would like a CTL staff member to assist you. CTL staff will receive the meeting invitation and accept the room reservation. Read more about Digital Learning Labs here.
Minnesota State Network for Educational Development
The Network for Educational Development (NED) is offering programming, including short courses and webinars. If you are interested, see the NED flyer for more information.
These opportunities are designed by Minnesota State faculty and staff for Minnesota State faculty and staff and help build awareness, develop knowledge, skills, and abilities, and provide space for reflecting and revising.
In Case You Missed It: Incorporating Guided Learning Pathways into Teaching Practices – Experiential Learning
What it is and why it’s important:
Experiential learning may sound like an academically jargonized term, but really, it is referring to hands-on applied learning. Students learn in different ways. Some students thrive in lecture settings, whereas others may benefit from an experiential learning setting. One college defines “experiential learning” as “the application of theory and academic content to real-world experiences, either within the classroom, the community, or the workplace, which advances program or course-based learning outcomes that are specifically focused on employability skills. It may be undertaken independently or in teams” (Carleton University CA). Experiential learning then entails internships, service-learning opportunities, simulations, and volunteering, among many other practices.
How instructors at DCTC and IHCC incorporate experiential learning into their classrooms:
At DCTC: Renee LeMieux, Director of Nursing and Nursing Faculty
“The nursing curriculum consists of a vast amount of content that students not only need to understand, but they also need to be able to apply the content in often stressful real-life situations. I began ‘flipping’ my classroom prior to the pandemic as I felt like I spent my entire class lecturing at students without much time for engagement. Traditional lectures are recorded and posted in D2L for students to access at any time. While we are in class, I utilize different activities to help students dig deeper into the content, make it interactive and engaging and offer opportunities to apply what they learned from listening to the pre-recorded lectures. I utilize games, such as Kahoot! and Quizziz which creates friendly competition, while providing a platform to talk more about a specific concept. I also use games such as ‘beer pong’ (without the beer of course) where students are divided into teams, and the opposing team needs to answer the question that is in the cup the ping pong ball falls into, or Jenga where each block is associated with a question that student or team needs to answer. Escape rooms, whether live or using Google forms, help students solve problems in order to ‘escape’. Case studies and simulation are also used in class to apply concepts into real life scenarios.”
At IHCC: Amy Zsohar, Communication Studies Faculty
Where to learn more:
- Article: How Experiential Learning in College Could Launch Your Career
- Guide: Experiential Learning Guide
- Podcast: Experience Matters with Steve Shapiro
- Video: This is Experiential Learning
The next topic will be “Diverse Perspectives” which will cover the importance of including diverse voices and varied learning opportunities within the classroom. If you use Universal Design Learning, multimodalities, or incorporate multiple viewpoints within your classroom and would like to have your experience featured in the next newsletter, please email me at fran.kennedy@inverhills.edu. I would love to hear from you!
Course Design Resources
The Faculty Resources site contains a collection of resources to assist faculty with the design of online courses. Our Course Design page has instructions for accessing the Course Design Template and archives of past Course Design Institutes. The 2021 Course Design Institute, for example, was focused on Universal Design for Learning and contains many helpful guides for faculty. There is also a new semester checklist available.
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 that opens in a 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
Access VoiceThread’s full workshop archive and schedule of upcoming workshops. 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.
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.
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!