SHSU Online Faculty Development Opportunities – October 2016

We’ve got some frightfully good faculty development offerings for October 2016, so get in the spirit and sign up for one of our faculty development sessions!

New Boo! for October 2016

Does working with groups in Blackboard leave you spooked?  Are you unsure about how to use wicked wikis?  Do you wonder what the trick is to blogs and journals?  If so, then you are in for a treat!  SHSU Online is proud to offer a brand boo fully-online faculty certification course:  Building Online Communities (Starts 10/3).

Communication and collaboration are key facets to this online certification course. In this course, we will further explore some of the communication and collaboration tools Blackboard Learn has to offer. You will have ample opportunity to communicate, gain feedback and share ideas with your colleagues’ using of the tools. This online course covers:

• Online communities and the Instructor’s Role
• Best Practice and Learning Theory Around Discussion Questions
• The Use of Journals & Blogs
• The Use of Wikis
• Groups in Blackboard Courses
• Grading in the collaborative space

Successful completion of this course awards the Online Community Organizer certification. | Enroll Today |

Get Caught in a Web-inar

Don’t feel like walking across campus for a how-to session?  Are you worried you’ll lose a parking spot?  Worry no more, because in October, we are offering three faculty development sessions via a webinar:

• 10/4 – Blackboard Collaborate – The Ultra Experience (1pm)
• 10/19 – Feedback Strategies for your Online/Hybrid/Supplemental Course (1pm)
• 10/24 – Blackboard Learn Rubrics (12pm)

| Enroll Today |

More Spooktacular Faculty Development Offerings!

• 10/11 – Video/Audio/Screen Capture & Video Quizzes – Kaltura (MURFF 105 @ 1pm)
• 10/11 – Blackboard & More By Request (Woodlands Campus 210 @ 5pm)
• 10/14 – ProctorFree Online Proctoring of Blackboard Exams (MURFF 105 @ 1pm)
• 10/25 – Blackboard & More By Request (Woodlands Campus 210 @ 5pm)
• 10/26 – ProctorFree Online Proctoring of Blackboard Exams (MURFF 105 @ 1pm)

| Enroll Today |

‘Faculty Central’ Portal in Blackboard Provides Resources Where They are Needed

Did you know there is a one-stop shop for faculty when it comes to resources you need for Blackboard and SHSU Online?  The Faculty Central tab in Blackboard provides gateway access to several important resources for SHSU faculty who use Blackboard to teach online, hybrid or face-to-face courses.

The Faculty Central tab in Blackboard gives SHSU faculty convenient access to:

• Frequently used SHSU Online Forms
• SHSU Online Newsletter
• Faculty Development
• Online Certifications
• eLearning Blog
• Blackboard Guides
• Technical Support
• Contacting your Instructional Designer

Frequently Used SHSU Online Forms

From a Request to Offer a Course Online to the Technical Evaluation & Rubric, this section of the Faculty Central’s main page has the forms you need. There is also a section containing Correspondence forms for those SHSU faculty acting as graders.

SHSU Online Newsletter

Can’t find the e-mail we sent you from this or last month’s newsletter?  That’s okay! We provide a window into our newsletter via the SHSU Online Newsletter module located  on the Faculty Central main page.

The module contains links as well as a quick preview of what each article covers.

Faculty Development

The Faculty Development sub-tab in Faculty Central is a great way to see the kinds of technology how-to sessions and delivery methods that we offer SHSU faculty and staff.   It contains not only a link to our session sign-up page, but information on all the sessions that we offer, and how to sign up for a one-on-one appointment.

Online Certifications

Were you interested in finding out more about SHSU Online’s certification series. This Faculty Central sub-tab provides in-depth information on each of our 5 fully-online faculty development certification options.

Would you like to take your team, department, college through any of these?  We can set up a certification course specifically for you!

eLearning BLog

Clicking on this Faculty Central sub-tab opens up the SHSU Online Faculty Support blog.  This eLearning blog provides informative posts on:

• eLearning Best Practices
• Monthly Faculty Development Updates
• Blackboard News
• and more…

Technical Support

Connect with the SHSU Online Support Desk via phone, e-mail or chat by clicking this Faculty Central sub-tab. Remember if you have a technical question, need some assistance or just want to check-in, we are here to help at a time that fits your schedule.

Contact Us

Need to know who your instructional designer is?  Want to reach out to our faculty development team or the Blackboard administrator?  Select the Contact Us sub-tab on Faculty Central and you can get the extension or e-mail of the person you need.

Using Blackboard to Meet Attendance Initiative Needs

Unless you’ve been vacationing off-planet recently, you’ve probably heard of the university’s Attendance Initiative.  You have been presented with 2 options for reporting attendance.

1. Manually enter attendance results in Banner’s “Attendance Tracker” tool.
   -or-
2. Set up a an appropriate academic activity in Blackboard so that attendance attendance reports can be run automatically.

The 12th class day for the Fall 2016 semester is Friday, September 9th.  In order for a student’s attendance to “count” within Blackboard before then, the student will need to complete an appropriate academic activity in your Blackboard course.  *Examples of tools in Blackboard to use for this are:

• Blog Post
• Journal Entry
• Assignment
• Discussion
• Quiz/Exam

*Only these tool types will provide automated attendance data so that you do not have to manually report it using the Banner attendance tracker.

Each of these activities are great first week activities on their own in that they get your students engaged with the course from the start.  They are not a heavy lift for your students in terms of difficulty level, or for you in terms of grading.

Click the activity name to see  ideas for each of these tools that you can employ to fulfill the Attendance Initiative Requirements.

Questions to consider:

When should due dates for these activities occur?
We recommend that due dates be set for these activities on 9/7 and 9/8 in case of any delay in reporting.

Do I have to grade the assignment before the 12th class day?
No.  Only the student submission is required for attendance purposes.  You can grade these submissions whenever you want or set it up as a non-graded or completion/incomplete activity.

Is this just for faculty who teach online?
No.  Any faculty member teaching an online, hybrid, or face-to-face class can take advantage of the automated option by deploying one of the activities listed above.

Blog Post – Blackboard Blog Instructions

Have your students each post a blog entry on what they hope to get out of your class for the semester. You and their fellow students can comment on entries as needed/required.

Journal Entry – Blackboard Journal Instructions

Have students share an experience that led them to taking your class or deciding upon their major. You can decide to make the journal public to the class or just in between you and the student.

Assignment – Blackboard Assignment Instructions

Have students turn in a KWL assignment.  KWL – What do you know about the topic? What do you Want to Know? What have you learned?  This assignment is great as it helps you determine where you might want to spend some more time as you teach the subject and it lets the students come back at the end of the semester and update you on what they have learned.

Discussion – Blackboard Discussion Forum Instructions

Have each of your students submit a post to an “Introduce Yourself” discussion forum.  Ask them to share things like:  Major, Hometown, Hobbies, Why they are taking the class and even something fun (If you one super-power, what would it be?).  You can then encourage the students to reply to their colleagues to gain full credit for the assignment.

Quiz/Exam – Blackboard Quiz/Exam Instructions

A great way to start off the semester and ensure your students are familiar with what is expected of them is to have them take a syllabus quiz.  This low-stakes assessment is perfect for getting your students used to taking quizzes/exams in Blackboard and ensures that they actually read the syllabus!

 

SHSU Online Faculty Development Opportunities – September 2016

Welcome back Bearkat faculty!  The Fall 2016 semester is here and so are the SHSU Online faculty development opportunities!

1. Go fully online and earn your Teaching Online with Blackboard or Multimedia Master Certifications by enrolling in one of our two Blackboard certification options.
2. Enroll in our Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Webinar and learn how to use the Collaborate Ultra by participating in an online web meeting that uses the tool.
3. Attend one of the face-to-face how-to sessions here at the main campus or at our Woodlands location.
4. Sign up for one-on-one sessions.  These sessions can be 5 minutes to an hour and can take place in your office, ours, over the phone and online.  Use the same link to sign up for face-to-face or one-on-one sessions. Just select a topic or come up with one of your own and we’ll do it!

Visit the SHSU Online Faculty Development How-to Session page to sign up for the following courses:

Fully Online Sessions (see below for full session descriptions)

• Teaching Online With Blackboard [Cohort 9] – Enroll in each of the 4 courses separately.
  • 9/6/2016 – Blackboard Learn: Course Building
  • 9/20/2016 – Blackboard Learn: Communication
  • 10/04/2016 – Blackboard Learn: Assessment
  • 10/18/2016 – Teaching Online: Strategies for Success
• 9/12/2016 – Multimedia in Blackboard Courses [Self-Paced]
• 9/14/2016 – Blackboard Collaborate: The Ultra Experience – Webinar – 1pm

Main Campus Sessions (see below for full session descriptions)

• 9/16/2016 – ProctorFree Online Proctoring for Bb Exams & Quizzes – 1pm
• 9/19/2016 – Blackboard Learn: Using the Grade Center

Woodlands Campus Sessions (see below for full session descriptions)

• 9/13 – Blackboard & More – By Request 5pm TWC 209

Visit the SHSU Online Faculty Development How-to Session page to sign up

Development Session Descriptions

Multimedia in Blackboard Courses: This fully-online certification course provides the Blackboard instructor with the knowledge and skills in both the acquisition and implementation of multimedia for online/face-to-face and hybrid courses. Technologies and best practices are examined in the context of student engagement and success.

Participants can choose to complete all module activities for this course and receive a Multimedia Certification or just complete any of the modules that interests them, a la carte.

Teaching Online with Blackboard: A fully-online cohort based training option for faculty wishing to improve their online teaching skills. The certification consists of four courses aimed at preparing an instructor to master the online teaching environment through Blackboard. Courses included within this series comprise the following:

• Course Building: 2-week course that will equip online instructors with building and sharing content in their online courses.
• Communication: 2-week course that will cover tools of communication, as well as applicable communication strategies for online course management.
• Assessment: 2-week course that introduces participants to how to get started assessing their student’s learning in an online class.
• Teaching Online– Strategies for Success: 2-Week course that presents participants with the opportunity to explore best practices for creating engaging and effective online learning environments.

Blackboard Collaborate – The Ultra Experience: Synchronous collaboration in Blackboard just got a whole lot easier. Introducing Blackboard Collaborate – The Ultra Experience. In real-time, share audio, video, chat, files, whiteboard and software applications on your computer with your classmates and instructor.  No java plugin needed!  Collaborate Ultra runs inside your Internet browser! Session lasts approximately 60 minutes.

ProctorFree – Online Proctoring for Blackboard Exams: This one hour session covers how to use ProctorFree for your online exams & quizzes in Blackboard. ProctorFree is an on-demand, automated online proctoring service that deters cheating in an online testing environment. Using bio-metric and machine learning technologies, ProctorFree has eliminated the need for a human proctor during testing. This innovative technology creates a convenient testing option for distance education students and increases the credibility of online certificates and degrees for higher education institutions.

Blackboard Learn: Using the Grade Center: Participants will learn how to use the Blackboard Grade Center to record data, calculate grades, and monitor student progress. Manage students’ grades and create grade columns for any activities or requirements you wish to grade.

Blackboard & More – By Request: This one hour session is scheduled for SHSU Blackboard instructors who can’t quite make it to Huntsville. An SHSU Online Blackboard export will be at the Woodlands Campus to help answer questions, provide solutions, demonstrations and more around Blackboard and interfacing software applications.

SHSU Online Faculty Development Opportunities for August 2016

Here are the faculty development opportunities for August.

1. Go fully online and earn your Multimedia Master Certification by enrolling in our Multimedia in Blackboard Courses course.
2. Attend one of the face-to-face how-to sessions.
3. Sign up for one-on-one sessions.  These sessions can be 5 minutes to an hour and can take place in your office, ours, over the phone and online.  Use the same link to sign up for face-to-face or one-on-one sessions. Just select a topic or come up with one of your own and we’ll do it!

Visit the SHSU Online Faculty Development How-to Session page to sign up for the following courses:

Fully Online Sessions (see below for full session descriptions)

• Multimedia in Blackboard Courses [Self-Paced]

Main Campus Sessions (see below for full session descriptions)

• 8/17/2016 – Blackboard Learn: 1st Week Strategies 1pm
• 8/18/2016 – Blackboard Learn: 1st Week Strategies – 10am
• 08/22/2016 – ProctorFree – Online Proctoring for Blackboard Exams and Quizzes
• 08/23/2016 – Kaltura: Lecture & Screen Capture in Blackboard 10am

Visit the SHSU Online Faculty Development How-to Session page to sign up.

Development Session Descriptions

Multimedia in Blackboard Courses: This fully-online certification course provides the Blackboard instructor with the knowledge and skills in both the acquisition and implementation of multimedia for online/face-to-face and hybrid courses. Technologies and best practices are examined in the context of student engagement and success.

Participants can choose to complete all module activities for this course and receive a Multimedia Certification or just complete any of the modules that interests them, a la carte.

Blackboard Learn: 1st Week Strategies: Studies have shown that the first week of an online course is key for your students. The activities and interactions that take place in that first week can influence the rest of the semester. There are strategies that you can employ that ensure that the start of your course will promote a successful learning journey for you and your students. This one-hour session will outline activities, ideas and strategies you can use during the first week of your course.

ProctorFree – Online Proctoring for Blackboard Exams: This one hour session covers how to use ProctorFree for your online exams & quizzes in Blackboard. ProctorFree is an on-demand, automated online proctoring service that deters cheating in an online testing environment. Using bio-metric and machine learning technologies, ProctorFree has eliminated the need for a human proctor during testing. This innovative technology creates a convenient testing option for distance education students and increases the credibility of online certificates and degrees for higher education institutions.

Kaltura – Lecture Capture in Blackboard: Adding video to our Blackboard course just became easier!  This 60-90 minute session covers how to add video to your Blackboard course using the Kaltura Mashup tool.  Attendees will learn how to record and upload video from their webcam as well as capture what is on their own computer screen (PowerPoints etc.).

Visit the SHSU Online Faculty Development How-to Session page to sign up.

New Semester Checklist – Top 5

If you teach online at SHSU, then you are familiar with the effort, energy and involvement it takes to engage with your students in that environment.  If you’ve taught online for more than a few semesters, then you know that you do need to put some thought into your transition of teaching a class from semester to semester.  Thought goes into your course materials, learning objectives and how your class is setup in Blackboard.

Ask any online instructor, course builder or instructional designer and they can probably give you an extensive checklist of items to pay attention to before the semester starts.  This blog post however will cover only our take on the Top 5.

1. Copy/request copy of course.
   In anticipation of the new semester, make copies or request copies be made of the courses you are transitioning.  It is difficult to work on getting ready for a new semester if you do not have a place that you can do so without affecting your current students.
2. Check your syllabus.
   Go through your syllabus and check for things like:
   • Is the textbook correct?
   • Is your contact information current?
   • Do you have the same office hours?
   • Change any due dates and scheduled activities (course schedule).
   • Ensure learning objectives/activities match with their counterparts in the course (in case you’ve changed them).
3. Check Blackboard course content availability and due dates.
   Nothing can be more frustrating for students than to come to content in your course and find they don’t have access to or can’t see the item or activity that is supposed to be there.  Go through your due dates and availability dates to be sure that they line up with the current semester.  Blackboard provides the Date Management tool that does this all in one place.
4. Update your welcome message.
   Providing a contextually relevant and current welcome, video, audio and/or paragraph will not only go along way toward connecting you to your students, it will demonstrate that you are actively interested in your students.
5. Update course announcements.
   During the course of a regular semester, you will send out multiple updates or announcements to your students.  Be sure to remove irrelevant course announcements and update/reschedule announcements so that they reflect the correct date or time of year.

SHSU Online Faculty Development Opportunities for July 2016

July is here, and so is a helpful list of SHSU Online faculty development opportunities!

1. Go fully online and earn your Teaching Online with Blackboard or Multimedia Master Certifications by enrolling in one of our two online development options.
2. Attend one of the face-to-face how-to sessions.
3. Sign up for one-on-one sessions.  These sessions can be 5 minutes to an hour and can take place in your office, ours, over the phone and online.  Use the same link to sign up for face-to-face or one-on-one sessions. Just select a topic or come up with one of your own and we’ll do it!

Visit the SHSU Online Faculty Development How-to Session page to sign up for the following courses:

Fully Online Sessions (see below for full session descriptions)

• Multimedia in Blackboard Courses [Self-Paced]
• Teaching Online With Blackboard [Cohort 8] (Starts July 5th)

Main Campus Sessions (see below for full session descriptions)

• 7/7/2016 – Blackboard Collaborate – The Ultra Experience 1pm
• 7/20/2016 – ProctorFree Online Proctoring for Bb Exams & Quizzes – 1pm
• 7/25/2016 – Kaltura: Lecture & Screen Capture in Blackboard 1pm

Woodlands Campus Sessions (see below for full session descriptions)

• 7/19 – Blackboard & More – By Request 4pm TWC 209

Visit the SHSU Online Faculty Development How-to Session page to sign up

Development Session Descriptions

Multimedia in Blackboard Courses: This fully-online certification course provides the Blackboard instructor with the knowledge and skills in both the acquisition and implementation of multimedia for online/face-to-face and hybrid courses. Technologies and best practices are examined in the context of student engagement and success.

Participants can choose to complete all module activities for this course and receive a Multimedia Certification or just complete any of the modules that interests them, a la carte.

Teaching Online with Blackboard: A fully-online cohort based training option for faculty wishing to improve their online teaching skills. The certification consists of four courses aimed at preparing an instructor to master the online teaching environment through Blackboard. Courses included within this series comprise the following:

• Course Building: 2-week course that will equip online instructors with building and sharing content in their online courses.
• Communication: 2-week course that will cover tools of communication, as well as applicable communication strategies for online course management.
• Assessment: 2-week course that introduces participants to how to get started assessing their student’s learning in an online class.
• Teaching Online– Strategies for Success: 2-Week course that presents participants with the opportunity to explore best practices for creating engaging and effective online learning environments.

Blackboard Collaborate – The Ultra Experience: Synchronous collaboration in Blackboard just got a whole lot easier. Introducing Blackboard Collaborate – The Ultra Experience. In real-time, share audio, video, chat, files, whiteboard and software applications on your computer with your classmates and instructor.  No java plugin needed!  Collaborate Ultra runs inside your Internet browser! Session lasts approximately 60 minutes.

ProctorFree – Online Proctoring for Blackboard Exams: This one hour session covers how to use ProctorFree for your online exams & quizzes in Blackboard. ProctorFree is an on-demand, automated online proctoring service that deters cheating in an online testing environment. Using bio-metric and machine learning technologies, ProctorFree has eliminated the need for a human proctor during testing. This innovative technology creates a convenient testing option for distance education students and increases the credibility of online certificates and degrees for higher education institutions.

Kaltura – Lecture Capture in Blackboard: Adding video to our Blackboard course just became easier!  This 60-90 minute session covers how to add video to your Blackboard course using the Kaltura Mashup tool.  Attendees will learn how to record and upload video from their webcam as well as capture what is on their own computer screen (PowerPoints etc.).

Blackboard & More – By Request: This one hour session is scheduled for SHSU Blackboard instructors who can’t quite make it to Huntsville. An SHSU Online Blackboard export will be at the Woodlands Campus to help answer questions, provide solutions, demonstrations and more around Blackboard and interfacing software applications.