CTC Ed Tech News April 15, 2015

Dear Colleagues,

Well, we're approaching the end game. Less than two weeks until finals! I can feel the end of semester energy building.

Syllabus Thoughts

My thoughts about what a syllabus is and is not have evolved. Now, for me, it's not a document cast in stone, but a document that might change as the semester progresses. It's the plan for the course with the intended outcomes. Here are the guidelines on the syllabus in the Faculty Handbook:

A course syllabus will be given to each student at the first class meeting. The syllabus shall explain the teacher's expectations of students, the grading criteria that will be followed, the extent of the material to be covered, the class objectives and student learning outcomes, the attendance policy, and a bibliography. (Faculty Handbook, 2014, p. 12)

The three essential functions of a syllabus according to James M. Lang are to orient your students, make promises, and provide transparency. The "make promises" function surprised me – the syllabus shows your passion and knowledge of the material and what the course will mean for them. Lang explores his ideas based on informal data collected from student tutors.

The late New York Times journalist David Carr taught a journalism course at Boston University last fall. His online syllabus fulfills these functions  and is just beautiful.

Asynchronous Improvisation

This sweet little article tackles the inflexibility in what I have considered to be the one of the most inflexible of teaching formats, the asynchronous online course. The author suggests learning activities that encourage the students to take a more active role in discerning/deciding topics of discussion.

Procrastination – Just Don't Do It

Yes, I am a procrastinator. There are some days I have to set up systems to get work done, others where I can just dive in. This piece is a lovely reminder of this all-too-human foible and ways to confront it. 

A new productivity tool in my toolbox is Momentum. "Momentum is a personal dashboard designed to eliminate distraction and provide inspiration, focus, and productivity" (from their website). Momentum runs on Chrome; there is also an extension for Safari. 

CTC Ed Tech News March 31, 2014

Dear Colleagues,

It's the home stretch. Here are a few tidbits for you…

Videos Find Their Place In and Out of the Classroom

This article from The Chronicle of Higher Education summarizes a study on students' use of video for learning. My take aways: video is ubiquitous; keep 'em short (5- 20 minutes); and make sure the presenter is an engaging speaker.

Blogs vs. Journals

Another report on research, this time from Inside Higher Ed. In this study, blogs and journals are compared. Some key findings: fewer grammar errors in the blogs, possibly because classmates are reading; more personal risk taking in the private journals; and more willingness to take a stand in the blog.

My personal finding is that when using blogs or wikis to replace essays, I needed to be clearer about the standards of academic writing. In my small sample of 2 online classes in summer 2011, the students did not write very much or very well in the blog assignments. I needed to give them a better description of my expectations.

Blogs can be a great alternative to an essay homework assignment. A key advantage is that the students can view/comment on/learn from each other's writing. Writing for an audience that is broader than just the instructor can be a motivator for improving the quality of the writing.

An Open Letter to My Students

This beautiful letter explains a music professor's theory of teaching and learning to his students. I am particularly fond of this quote, though there are many memorable passages in the letter.

…I want you to learn how to learn. That means that at times you will be teaching yourself. This is an intentional choice. One of my chief goals is for you to take charge of your own education. Though I will help set a frame in which this will take place, many of you will feel uncomfortable, even overwhelmed, at this. That's normal. It's what independent learning feels like quite often. (Because it's what teaching feels like.) However, if at any time you feel lost, please talk to me. (Kris Shaffer, http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/journal/open-letter-students/)

From Academic Innovations

Serious Fun: An Educational Games Gathering

April 17, 2015 8am - 4 pm

The ConocoPhillips Integrated Science Building

Serious Fun brings together educators and students interested in using games and/or game elements for teaching and learning. Share ideas, discuss the latest issues and trends, and build networks to improve the use of games and gamification in education.

 

Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) Workshop

Monday, April 6, 2015 - Monday, April 20, 2015

2-week asynchronous online course

This online, asynchronous workshop is an introduction to the Quality Matters rubric and how its standards inform online course design. The time commitment to complete the workshop is 10-12 hours per week. Upon completion, participants earn the Applying the Quality Matters Rubric certificate. Registe

CTC Ed Tech News March 16, 2015

Dear Colleagues,

I hope that you got some rest and/or recreation on spring break. This little post from Barking Up the Wrong Tree suggests five daily rituals to make one happy. One of them is to take a recess. Breaks and vacations are a longer recess.

Active Learning

This article from The Journal highlights research on active learning and flipping the classroom. It's what students do in the classroom that matters, rather than whether the class was flipped or not. Students learn more when active learning techniques are employed whether or not the instructor "flips" the class.

The Center for Research on  Learning and Teaching at University of Michigan gives some ideas on how to implement active learning. Of course, Team-Based Learning is an example of active learning.

Quality Matters at UAA

I'm a fan of Quality Matters. It helps professors think about designing courses well. It also helps us be conscious of aligning our learning objectives, assessments, and learning activities. Though designed for distance courses, the Quality Matters principles and rubric can be applied to any course. The Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) Workshop introduces one to Quality Matters and its rubric. Here are two upcoming instances of the APPQMR workshop:

1-day intensive Friday March 20, 2015, 9am - 4:30pm at Rasmuson Hall, Rm 218

Become familiar with the QM rubric and how its standards inform online course design. Upon completion, earn the Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) certificate. Lunch Break 12:15 - 1:15pm - Bring Your Own Lunch. Register

2-week online course Monday, April 6, 2015 - Monday, April 20, 2015

A rigorous asynchronous workshop on the QM rubric and how its standards inform online course design. The time commitment to complete the workshop is 10-12 hours per week. Upon completion, earn the Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) certificate. Register

If you are interested in a summer session on Applying the Quality Matters Rubric, please let me know. Learn More About Quality Matters

Information Literacy

Digital Literacy is the focus for Academic Innovations and eLearning, with a workshop on March 27.

The library has put together  some resources on digital literacy.

Serious Fun: An Educational Games Gathering

April 17, 2015 on the main campus

Serious Fun brings together educators and students interested in using games and/or game elements for teaching and learning. Share ideas, discuss the latest issues and trends, and build networks to improve the use of games and gamification in education.

CTC Ed Tech News Feb. 23, 2015

Dear Colleagues,

It's always good to get a little inspiration and insight on our work. Good professional development does just that – and gives us a tool or an idea on how to improve our teaching. There are several professional development opportunities available:

High Impact Educational Practices

We have a special professional development opportunity on Tuesday, Feb. 24 from 8:30 am to 9:45 am with the Keynote Presentation by George Kuh on High Impact Educational Practices. You can attend at the main campus (register at CAFE). I plan to use the webstream link to watch. See the CAFE website for more details or to register. 

Applying the Quality Matters Rubric

Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) is a rigorous two-week asynchronous online course on the QM rubric and how its standards inform online course design. Participants will learn specific and measurable ways to improve their online courses. The time commitment to complete the workshop is 10-12 hours per week of the two-week course. I took this course last fall and highly recommend it to anyone who plans to teach online. (excerpted from email)

The next session is Wed, April 6th, 2015 - Wed, April 20th, 2015. Register here.

If you are interested in a summer session on Applying the Quality Matters Rubric, please let me know. 

VoiceThread webinars

VoiceThread is an interactive tool that has been added to our Blackboard shell. It's like an online PowerPoint in which participants can comment on each slide – and the comments can be text, audio, or video. It's pretty cool. You and your students can create and comment on Voicethreads.

I attended one intro session in January – it was well done. George Haines does a good job of making the workshop interactive. Here are the sessions:

Lesson Planning Series

The first two workshops focus on how VoiceThread can enhance your current classes. 

•       Teaching Languages - March 11th at 7:00pm ET

•       Flipping Your Class - March 18th at 7:00pm ET 

"Basics" Series

The second series is in four parts and will cover all the basics of how to use VoiceThread, from just getting started to working in secure Groups to integrating with your learning management system. The first session is open to all VoiceThreaders, and the rest will be for people who have a VoiceThread license. [UAA has a VoiceThread license.]

•       Session 1: Creating a Basic VoiceThread - March 25th at 7:00pm ET

•       Session 2: Using Groups and Secure Sharing - April 1st at 7:00pm ET

•       Session 3: Moderating, Re-ordering, and Copying - April 15th at 7:00pm ET

•       Session 4: VoiceThread and your LMS - April 22nd at 7:00pm ET

•       Session 4 (repeated): VoiceThread and your LMS - April 29th at 1:00pm ET

See a full description of each session at the registration link below.

Note: You will login to Blackboard to access Voicethread.

About the Workshops

These workshops are completely free. Each session is led by George Haines, an Instructional Designer and former educator. George will share his expertise to help you learn how to get the most from VoiceThread. Click here to register and join us for any and all of these sessions.  (excerpted from email)

So, go learn something new!

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 February 10, 2015

Hello everyone,

I know I sent out an email about this yesterday, and I'm excited about this collaboration with my colleage Katie Walker in the College of Education:

This Week – a Cool Workshop for You

Beyond the Bullet List with Collaborate – a session for CTC and COE co-facilitated by Katie Walker and Lee Henrikson. Learn first hand how you can create active and engaged learning in Collaborate. Wednesday, February 11, 4:30- 5:30 in Collaborate. 

Join Beyond the Bullet List, using the following link: 
https://classes.uaa.alaska.edu/webapps/bb-collaborate-bb_bb60/launchSession/guest?uid=4c9871f2-6890-43f9-befd-06da009700e0




If this is the first time that you have used Collaborate:

A. Get a headset with microphone (USB preferred) for you computer

1. Plug the headset in before starting
   

B. Download the Collaborate Launcher- Important!

1. At least 15 minutes before the session starts, go to https://www.uaa.alaska.edu/classes/news.cfm to download the Collaborate Launcher
2. Directions for installing the Launcher on Windows.
   1. You will install the launcher.
   2. The launcher is installed in Control Panel > Programs and Features
3. Directions for installing the Launcer on MacOS.
   1. You will unzip the launcher. 
   2. By default, it sits in your Downloads folder. If you prefer, move it to the Applications folder.
4. Now click on the link to join the session.

Lecture Capture Thoughts

I admit that I, too, am not a fan of lecture capture, for much the same reasons that Bex Ferriday writes about on her blog. I do like video for learning however – just small chunks; five minutes or so is good. However, an educator whose institution had a lecture capture solution told me that the students rarely watched the whole lecture. They would fast forward to parts they wanted to review and/or re-watch portions of the video. These days, models like Team-Based Learning appeal to me rather than straight lecture format classes.

What's a FIF?

It's the Faculty Information Form – for our IDEA Course evaluation system. The FIF for spring 2015 opens on February 10 and closes on May 6. I encourage you complete the form to make the results more useful to you. Here are directions on completing it.  I recommend that you ask some open-ended questions about your course to give you information on how selected parts of the course are working.

The survey is not given to classes with 10 or fewer students, unless you request it. See the Faculty Services IDEA site for more info on the survey. 

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 Jan. 26, 2015

Hello,

Hope you're staying warm… I don't remember weather this cold in the past year or so, but I am managing. 

Here are my offerings:

Cool Workshop for You

Beyond the Bullet List with Collaborate – a session for CTC and COE co-facilitated by Katie Walker and Lee Henrikson. Learn first hand how you can create active and engaged learning in Collaborate. Wednesday, February 11, 4:30- 5:30 in Collaborate. More details to come.

Improve your Online CoursesCourses

Quality Matters (QM) provides several ways for instructors to improve online and hybrid courses. . Learn more about QM on Feb. 4 at noon. Register for this one-hour Collaborate meeting. If you are interested in joining the session with me in my office, let me know. We can eat lunch and chat about QM. Learn more about UAA's QM initiative.

Connect with Others

Microsoft Lync is a collaboration tool available to all UAA faculty and staff. It can be used for IM, online meetings, and video chats. You can even host meetings with students and others not on Lync. For instance, CERC used Lync for online student advising.  One instructor uses Lync to connect military student on TDY to the class. I have connected my phone number to Lync so that I now receive all my work calls to my computer or the Lync app on my iPhone. Learn more about Lync.

Tests in Blackboard

Here are some suggested directions for students taking a test in Blackboard. In this example, the test is open book, open note.

1. Please use the Chrome web browser to take the test.  
2. Do not open any other windows or tabs in Chrome while you are taking the test.  
3. Do not use the back button for the browser.
4. Once in the test, do not leave that page.
5. I repeat, do not open any other windows or tabs in Chrome.
6. Your answers autosave by default. You don't need to save them. If they don't save, try to manually save your answers. If the answers still won't save, contact your instructor and the Call Center immediately.
7. Open Firefox if you need to use Internet resources, your notes, or items in Blackboard. Yes, it is acceptable to be logged into Blackboard from two different browsers.
8. Do not open the test in Firefox unless it locks up in Chrome. Please talk to your instructor before doing this.

Video Feedback

This article from Wired Campus describes using video to give feedback on student work rather than writing on papers.  If you want to experiment, Jing is a free online tool with a 5-minute limit. We have Screencast-o-Matic available at UAA as well.

CTC Ed Tech News

Hello all and Happy New Year!

I'm back with my fortnightly (I love that word!) emails. Here are my offerings for this week:

Writing learning objectives

The first part of any course design is to decide what you want the students to learn.  The Course Content Guide provides some guidance, and sometimes they are not enough. This great resource from University of Connecticut explains how to write clear, measurable learning objectives. 

Workshops from Academic Innovations

Spring Bootcamp  is on Jan 7–9, 2015. All sessions will happen.  If you don't register the day before, you can drop in to the classroom sessions.  If you have a last minute interest in a Collaborate session, email or call (907) 786-4496.  And go to the Blackboard login page to download the Collaborate Launcher. Topics include: Blackboard, Blackboard Collaborate, Presentation Techniques, Screencasting and Google Apps.

How to be efficient

Last fall, I discovered the blog Barking Up the Wrong Tree and find the advice and wisdom there to be invaluable. Here're some suggestions on how to be more efficient from that blog. There are some pretty common sense ideas.  The devil is in following through.

Blackboard course copy

You can copy materials from a Blackboard shell of a course you've taught before to the current course. Follow these directions to copy materials from a course from a prior semester to this one

If you want to learn more about Blackboard:

• Go to the Instructors Getting Started page
• Check out the Instructor Resources area in your new Blackboard shell.

Collaborate launcher

The Collaborate launcher has been updated.  The quickest way to get it is to click on the link on the Blackboard login page BEFORE you log in to Blackboard

1. Directions for installing the Launcher on Windows.
   1. You will install the launcher.
   2. The launcher is installed in Control Panel > Programs and Features
2. Directions for installing the Launcher on MacOS.
   1. You will unzip the launcher.
   2. By default, it sits in your Downloads folder. If you prefer, move it to the Applications folder.aaa

Warm Regards,

Lee

Lee Maria Henrikson

Instructional Designer

Community and Technical College

University of Alaska Anchorage

http://ak-lee.blogspot.com

907-786-4903