CTC Ed Tech News August 31, 2014

Dear Colleagues,

I want to focus on the Quality Matters rubric over the next few newsletters. Developed to improve the design of online classes, it's also useful for setting up Blackboard course sites. I'll start with an update on Blackboard, then Quality Matters, followed by a Blackboard tip, and conclude with some teaching advice from the Faculty Focus newsletter.

UPDATE: Student Email from Blackboard Change

Due to problems with student email delivery, IT Services changed the students' default email address in Blackboard from the student's UAA email address to the preferred email address that students set in UAOnline.

I recommend that you tell students to go in and set the preferred email address in UAOnline and then verify that it works by copying the email address from UAOnline and pasting it in the To: line of an email and sending a test message.  They then have to set forwards from their separate university accounts to the preferred account.

Email is a complicated issue at UA and the mutual dependencies between the three universities have introduced some logistical problems for students taking classes at more than one of the UA universities.

What is Quality Matters?

From their website:

Quality Matters (QM) is a faculty-centered, peer review process that is designed to certify the quality of online courses and online components.

QM has received national recognition for its peer-based approach to quality assurance and continuous improvement in online education.

UAA has a statewide subscription to Quality Matters with the goals of improving the design of online classes through faculty peer review. The core principles of QM are:

Continuous process designed to ensure all courses eventually meet expectations.

Centered on research, student learning and on quality.

Collegial faculty-centered process with balanced and constructive feedback.

Collaborative team-based peer reviews, including the course developer. (from UAA QM site)

All this is based on a rubric on the design of online courses. Access to the rubric is via the QM website – sign up with your UAA email address. I am a certified Quality Matters peer reviewer – one of the first at UAA. Feel free to ask me questions or do an informal course review with me.

Next newsletter:  Overview of the QM rubric.

Quality Matters Professional Development

Academic Innovations offers Quality Matters classes for free to UAA faculty and adjunct faculty. Here are the upcoming sessions:

October 5-19 - Improving Your Online Course. Explores the QM Rubric and provides a framework to improve the quality of online and blended courses. Participants use the QM Rubric to review their own online/blended courses and develop a course improvement plan. This is a rigorous two-week asynchronous online course and the time commitment is 16-20 hours to complete.

November 6-20th - Applying the Quality Matters Rubric. Become familiar with the QM rubric and how the standards inform online course design. Participants will leave with specific and measurable ways to improve their online courses. This is a rigorous two-week online asynchronous course and the time commitment is 16-20 hours to complete.

November 13th - Improving Your Online Course. Explores the QM Rubric and provides a framework to improve the quality of online and blended courses. Participants use the QM Rubric to review their own online/blended courses and develop a course improvement plan. All day, in person in LIB 214. Registration is limited and must be completed 48 hours in advance to secure a seat.

Blackboard Tip of the Day

That edit box in Blackboard is pretty small. One of the icons in the text editor toggles between the small size and full window size. Just click it to toggle on full window, do your writing, click the icon again to see the submit button. I use this all the time so I can see everything I am writing in a Blackboard text box. You can also use preview mode to see what your finished product will look like. And don't forget the spell check!  Your students have access to these text box options too!

Give Eight-Minute Lectures a Try

Darlene Gill shared this article with me to share with you. It give a rationale and a methodology to implement short lectures.

I am a fan of short lectures for many reasons: 

1. We all have working memory that holds about 7 pieces of information.
2. When the student's brain doesn't have time to commit the information to long-term memory before the information is dumped and replaced by newer information, that bit is lost.
3. Even with that, the brain needs time to process information and encode it into memory.
4. Lastly, our brains are drawn to variety.

Chunk lectures with activities in between and see how attention and retention shift. Let me know how it goes.

CTC Ed Tech News August 17, 2015

Dear Colleagues,

Oh my gosh, I have some great resources to share with you to help be awesome next week.

Collaborate orientation

I will host an orientation of Collaborate on Wed. Aug 19 at 1 pm. You can join as a guest via this link or in the *CTC Faculty Resources Blackboard shell. If you cannot attend this session and are interested in attending a session, let me know.

If you have not used Collaborate before, the directions for downloading the launcher (first time only) are in any of your Fall Blackboard shells under Student Help > Technology.

Syllabus

Here is the current version of the syllabus template that I developed for use at CTC. It is not required to use and it includes most, if not all, of the standard language for syllabi. Take a look, use it, copy language from it, and edit any of it to suit your needs.

The syllabus is your plan for the semester. Here's Prof Hacker Anastasia Salter on Teaching a Class Again and what she does to prepare for a new semester with a course she's taught before.

First day of class

Carnegie Mellon University has good ideas for the first day of class. Plan to introduce yourself, set the ground rules for the class and engage your students. You set the tone of your class on the first day.

Become a Blackboard Ninja

There was a great turnout for the Become a Blackboard Ninja workshop at the CTC Inservice last Thursday. Everyone came away with at least one tidbit to make working in Blackboard easier.

For those who attended the and for those who didn't, you can find and review the information in the *CTC Resources shell. If you are not in the shell, you can enroll as a student.

CTC adjunct website

There are some great resources on the Adjunct Orientation website. Take a look. Use it. It was built for adjunct faculty, but everyone can use it.

And, in case you haven't noticed, Labor Day falls in the third week of the semester this year.

Warm regards,

Lee

Lee Maria Henrikson

Instructional Designer

907-786-4903

http://ak-lee.blogspot.com

UAA Community and Technical College

Building Alaska's Workforce

CTC Ed Tech News August 10, 2015

It's that exciting beginning time.  We're busy getting ready for students, and there's a buzz of enthusiasm.  I hope you can take time to learn something new before the rush.

Professional development opportunities

CAFE Professional Development Day 

CAFE is hosting a series of sessions starting at 8:30 am on Tuesday, August 11.  Drop in for one session, or take in the whole day. See the schedule for your choices. 

Register on line (preferred) or show up and register at 8:30 in Lib 307.

Applying the Quality Matters Rubric 

Wednesday, August 12th, 2015, 9:00 am - 4:30 pm in LIB 214

Earn your Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) certificate in this full day interactive session.  Faculty, administrators and staff will become familiar with the QM rubric and how its standards inform online course design. Participants will leave with specific and measurable ways to improve their online courses. Register now.

From Academic Innovations and eLearning

Fall Boot camp- August 17-19 Most sessions are offered online as well as in person.

Check out the Calendar for boot camp and other AIE and CAFÉ offerings. Click on the session you want to attend to register.

Report: Clear Objectives and Ease of Use Key to Successful Online Courses

This Campus Technology article by Leila Meyer summarizes research from Eduventures. For all classes, clear objectives and ease of use enable student success. They know where they're headed and there aren't confusing roadblocks.  More details on the Eduventures Blog.

One of the standard ease of use techniques is to group all the tasks for a week in a weekly folder in Blackboard.  Don't make the students to one place for the reading, another for the homework, another for a quiz, another for supplemental resources.  Another ease of use technique is to standardize your due dates, instead of jumping around each week.  Midnight the day before class, Sunday at midnight, or whatever works for your class.

The future is now

The Did You Know video was first created for high school inservice in 2008.  It became a worldwide phenomenon. It's been updated since then, and its message of the future still hold true.  What does the video mean for what and how you teach students?

For a more light-hearted look at our world

Complexity induced mental illness by Scott Adams on the Dilbert Blog is a commentary on our world. Maybe our world is making us crazier. And what about the Intelligence Deficit Syndrome (IDS) as described by educator Doug Johnson? These humorous pieces do have a basis in reality. I am reminded of my piece of advice on Blackboard: learn three new things each semester (not 6, not 12.).  This leads to success and enjoyment  in teaching with Blackboard rather than IDS.