CTC Ed Tech News October 24, 2016

Dear Colleagues,

In this high tech world, we are forced to reframe our work or be eternally frustrated. Technology, for better or worse, has changed how we work. For better and worse, it's always changing. This means we're always having to adapt and learn. It can be frustrating. Here are some options to ease the pain.

eTech Fair November 7- 12 (Monday-Saturday)

The eTech Fair is an online conference by and for UAA faculty and staff. Get more information or sign up to host a session here. Sessions are still being finalized, but topics include Google Apps for Education, Online Course Facilitation, Accessibility, ePortfolios, Blackboard, and High Impact Practices. I will be facilitating a few sessions. This is an a la carte conference, just sign up for the sessions that interest you.

Gmail secrets revealed

Last newsletter I wrote about how to add a preview pane to Gmail. This week, I urge to you explore your Gmail settings. Click the gear in the upper right corner of the Gmail window and select Settings from the drop down list. Look at the general settings. Scroll down to add a signature file or a vacation notice. Customize the other options to match your preferences. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom when you're done.

Accessibility

We are required by Federal law to not discriminate against a student with a disability. This means if a student can't access the class materials due to her disability, an alternative must be provided.

There are several ways to accomplish this with videos. The first is closed captioning. If you use YouTube videos in your class, start by looking for videos that are already captioned. In your search list, look for the boxed cc in the video description.

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Flipped classroom strategies

To me, the flipped classroom idea is all about active learning in the classroom. Students do homework- reading, watching recorded lectures, etc. and come to class prepared to apply and extend that learning. The real challenge for most faculty is the design of the classroom learning activities. Faculty Focus published some ideas last month. I have also used a variant of the Final Word protocol. At UAA, some faculty have implemented Team Based Learning.

Warmly,

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 May 6, 2014

This is my last post until fall.  I hope you have a great summer, whatever it is you will be doing.

Here is my news for this week:

CampusPack transition to Blackboard blogs and wikis

We've had Campus Pack blogs and wikis as an add on to Blackboard since 2007. At the end of the Spring 2014 semester, UAA will be transitioning from CampusPack Blogs, Wikis and Journals to the native tools now available within Blackboard. The ability to create new CampusPack Blogs, Wikis, and Journals will be disabled soon. If you have used CampusPack tools, please copy your data to the Blackboard tools soon. Here are the details on the transition from CampusPack to Blackboard tools and how to export any Campus Pack blog, wiki or journa  you want to keep. There is no easy migration path from CampusPack to Blackboard. CampusPack has not been widely used and costs the university about $20,000/year.

Grades due

Grades must be posted in UAOnline by 11:59 pm on Wednesday May 7. See this page in the adjunct orientation site about grading and this FAQ from the registrar about entering grades into UAOnline. Talk to your department administrative person or to the Eagle River adjunct coordinator if you have any questions.

Do students like flipped lectures?

Robert Talbert continues his series on flipping his math classes. All of the posts have been excellent. I particularly like the clarity he brings to the learning objectives in this post - and that some of his objectives are not just about getting the right answer, but about the process to get to the answer. Read this post before you do my suggested reflection.

Reflect on the semester 

Before you file all your papers (virtual and real) and leave for the summer, take 15 to 30 minutes and reflect on what went well and what you would change next time you teach the course you just finished. If you read Professor Talboert's article, are there pieces that you want to incorporate into your course the next time you teach? One of the marvelous aspects of teaching is that we get to tweak and improve on what we did last time around. So, I encourage you, take a few notes now before you head out for the summer.

Internet Explorer

Last week there was a major security bug discovered in Internet Explorer.  It's been fixed - so like taking medicine, you have to do your Windows Updates to keep your computer healthy.  Please, please, take time to do this important update if you use IE.

CTC Ed Tech News March 18, 2014

I hope that you got what you needed out of spring break - whether it be resting, vacationing, spring cleaning, or catching up on work. Me, I worked a couple days, did home projects, and relaxed. I am ready for the rest of the semester! Here are my tidbits for this week:

Accessibility - creating PDF files. Two weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of creating accessible documents and resources for students who experience disabilities. It's important to give all our students the tools to succeed because of legal requirements. Additionally, providing accessible materials benefits all learners. One of the reasons to use Styles and other formatting techniques when creating Word files is that they create create a structure that is easy for a screen reader to navigate. The next step is to take the Word files and convert them to PDFs while maintaining the document structure. Here's a cheat sheet on creating accessible PDFs.

Flipping the Math Classroom. This is a great series of posts on flipping a calculus classroom by Robert Talbert, a mathematician and educator affiliated with the Mathematics Department at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. He is thinking deeply about the pedagogy and his learning outcomes. I find his work inspiring.

• The inverted calculus course and self-regulated learning 
• The inverted calculus course: Using Guided Practice to build self-regulation
• Creating learning objectives, flipped classroom style
• Getting student buy-in for the inverted calculus class
• Getting off on the right foot in an inverted calculus class

Logging in to Blackboard as a Student. You have a special account associated with your instructor login that allows you to log in as a student to your course. You can try out a quiz, see what is available to students, or see what the student grades view looks like. 

Hint: I usually log in to Blackboard with Firefox as an instructor and log in with Chrome as a student if I am testing something. If you are just using one browser, you will have to log out as an instructor and then log in as a student. You will know that you are logged in as a student if there is no control panel. 

If your student account does not exist, or is not in a given course, contact the Call Center for help.

Here is the login information:

username: your username followed by _student

password: your ID number followed by _student

     
For example:

djones_student

30123456_student