CTE Ed Tech News October 13, 2014

This is my last newsletter until November. I'll be gone for two weeks, back on November 3. Yes, I'll be someplace warm with a beach for some of this vacation. However, I am teaching a 500-level class and will continue with those responsibilities while away.

eTech Fair

The eLearning Workgroup is hosting its 4^th annual eTech Fair during Distance Education Week, November 10 - 14. I'll send out an announcement once the schedule is final. Faculty and staff who are members of the eLearning Workgroup teach all these sessions in Collaborate. The sessions will be recorded so you can watch them later if you want.

If you're curious, here are the sessions from last year, though some of the recordings have broken. At least you can get an idea of the kinds of offerings to expect.

IDEA for classes with 10 or less students

Last week I stated:

The survey is only available to classes with more than 10 students. For more information on the IDEA survey, contact Mu En Hu in Faculty Services."

A colleague reminded me that if your class has fewer than 11 students, you can request the survey by contacting Mu En Hu.  Additionally, for stacked classes, you can request one survey for all the sections.  Make the IDEA survey work for you!

Thoughts on Using Technology in Instruction

This article from Prof Hacker describes something I deal with quite often: how much direction to give students on using the technology to complete assignments. My experience is that in online classes I need to give lots of support. For instance, I linked to tutorials from Blackboard on how to use blogs and journals in the 590 class that I am teaching right now. I have written specific instructions on how to take tests in Blackboard so that the tests are unlikely to crash or freeze on students  (all bets are off if the network goes down, though). I tend to be judicious in the introduction of tools to students and recommend the same to faculty.  

It's also important to have a clear, simple organization in Blackboard. My mantra is that students are here to learn our content, not our organization system.  

CTC Ed Tech News October 7, 2014

Hello everyone,

Well, it's been a couple weeks since the last newsletter. I was wrapping up my grant obligations and was, well, swamped.

New Position. My work has transitioned from grant-funded to a CTC position. I have some projects assigned from the CTC Directors and Chairs: 

• Develop three online courses
• Identify how Quality Matters impacts CTC online courses and how it will be implemented in CTC
• Outreach to CTC units - Inventory instructional design needs for CTC beyond AY14-15
• Inform units what services are provided from this position for faculty and how to request support
• Identify how this position can assist/support adjunct faculty and their professional development needs

I am working on a plan to implement these projects. You'll be hearing from me on these items.

Stacking classes. In Blackboard, it used to be when there were cross-listed courses and a faculty member wanted to use just one shell for both courses, she had to merge the enrollments by hand into a master course and track them. This was not sync'd with Banner, so there was some manual tracking of students. Now, the Call Center can merge the courses so that it appears to the students that they are logging in to their original course and the enrollments for the new master course are automatically sync'd with Banner. This is a big timesaver if you stack courses. When I taught 2 sections of the same course, I stacked the Blackboard course shells (and used groups). Now, I'd ask the Call Center to combine them.  

IDEA Faculty Information Form (FIF) now available. IDEA is our online course evaluation system; The FIF link was emailed to faculty in late September. If you want to customize the course evaluation to get more accurate results, complete the FIF. Here is a guide for completing it. You will receive the reminder emails to your UAA email account to complete the FIF each week, so doing so sooner means those emails cease.  

The survey is only available to classes with more than 10 students.  For more information on the IDEA survey, contact Mu En Hu in Faculty Services.

An inspiring way to use passwords.  Passwords are a drag. Particularly when we have to change them. Here is one man's story about how he used his work password to change his life. For the better. This inspires me because he took a tedious task and found a way to make it work for him.  

Disclaimer: Use this only on one site that you use frequently (like UAA).  Do not use the same password on multiple sites.

Workshops at Academic Innovations and CAFE.  Check the lineup of offerings.  If you are curious about Quality Matters, there is a session this Friday at 2 pm at the library. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the list of recorded sessions.

Warm regards,

Lee

Lee Maria Henrikson

Instructional Designer

Community and Technical College

University of Alaska Anchorage

http://ak-lee.blogspot.com

907-786-4903