Friday, January 30, 2015

Upcoming Archive/Re​moval of ANGEL Course Sites

As outlined in the NSCC ANGEL Course Archive Policy, Academic Technology is in the process of archiving older ANGEL course sites and removing them from the ANGEL server. We wanted to provide faculty with advanced notice before any course sites are deleted from the ANGEL server. 
 
Below is an outline of the timeline for deleting courses from the ANGEL server as well as from the archive.
  • Course sites from Fall 2013 - Will be removed from the ANGEL server and placed in archive on February 1, 2015. Fall 2013 courses are scheduled to be permanently deleted from archive on June 1, 2018.
  • Course sites from Summer 2010 - Will be permanently deleted from the archive on February 1, 2015.
 
If you would like to retain these course sites for a longer period of time, you have the option of generating your own archive and there are several available options for storage, including:
  • Your P: Drive network folder (only accessible on campus)
  • Your Google Drive, accessible through the your  NSCC email account
  • A personal storage medium, i.e. USB drive, portable hard disk, computer, CD
  • External cloud storage solutions, available at little to no cost (such as Dropbox or SkyDrive)
 
Directions for generating your own course archive (content and student data) are available at: http://goo.gl/jpO5R. Staff members from Instructional Technology and Design will be available to assist you in archiving your ANGEL course sites. If you need assistance, please email the ANGEL Helpdesk at angel@northshore.edu.
 
If you have any questions about this, please do not hesitate to contact us at itd@northshore.edu.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (1/26/2015)

Welcome to iDevelop, a weekly eNewsletter providing faculty with information about professional development opportunities at NSCC. The intent of this eNewsletter is to spotlight the various professional development events for faculty in one convenient location as well as share best practices, resources and tips related to the teaching practice. iDevelop is being brought to you by Academic Technology and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. 

20 Minute Online Professional Development: What Kinds of Questions Encourage Student Interaction?
The Monday Morning Mentor series, professional development in twenty minute snippets, kicks off the spring semester this week with What Kinds of Questions Encourage Student Interaction?

The presentation is available Monday at 10:00am and is accessible through Sunday of that week. For information on accessing the presentation and supplemental materials, please view the email version of iDevelop or the Bulletin notice.

More information about this session (including description, topics, and learning goals) is available at http://www.magnapubs.com/online/mentor/What-Kinds-of-Questions-Encourage-Student-Interaction-13205-1.html. The spring schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2015/01/20-minute-mentor-online-faculty.html

Other Professional Development Opportunities
To stay current on professional development opportunities offered by Instructional Technology during the spring semester, be sure to:
  • Read the Learning, Education, Technology and Support (LETS) Blog at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/. ITD’s goal with this blog is to provide an informative and useful resource for faculty and staff by highlighting events, spotlighting projects, and presenting current information around instructional technology while also providing a growing pool of resources, recommendations, tools, and materials for teaching and learning purposes.
  • "Like" the North Shore Community College Academic Technology Page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/myNSCC.acadtech. On the Academic Technology Facebook page, AT provides information about upcoming professional development opportunities, links to interesting articles on integrating technology into the teaching and learning environment, and presents tips on using the various instructional technology resources.
Thank You!
The CTLA would like to acknowledge and thank the faculty members who contributed artifacts for NSCC's first time participating on the Massachusetts regional team as part of the AAC&U's multi-state assessment. As we noted in early fall, this assessment was a pilot to see if we could draw a meaningful sample of artifacts from all participating states. Thanks to the following folks, our work was a success!

THANK YOU to each and every one of you:
Patricia Adam, Bruce Ciaramella, Frank D'Agostino, Lance Eaton, Jennifer Harris, Billy Jackson, Joyce Jeong, Carlos Marin, Maureen Nardella, Mary Beth Nelson, Rachel Roesler, and Constantine Souris

Share your Teaching Strategies
How do you encourage student participation in your classes? What activities do you use in class to foster student to student interaction? Please send your teaching strategies to itd@northshore.edu and we will share them in the upcoming issues of iDevelop.
Resources
iDevelop is being brought to you by Academic Technology and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.  If you have any professional development events, best practices, resources or tips to share with other faculty, please send them our way.  Also, we would love your input on this eNewsletter.

Thank you,
Academic Technology and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

Monday, January 26, 2015

20 Minute Mentor - Online Faculty Professional Development - Spring Schedule

The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment and Academic Technology have partnered up again to bring faculty a professional development series from Magna Publications, called the 20 Minute Mentor. The goal of the 20 Minute Mentor series is to offer faculty practical professional development opportunities in twenty minute snippets that can be accessed from anywhere and at any time during the given week. Session topics cover the areas of student engagement, teaching and learning, teaching online, assessment and learning goals, and classroom management.

Information on how to access the 20 Minute Mentor sessions is available each week in the Bulletin and the iDevelop e-newsletter.

New video presentations (with supplementary materials) go live at 10:00am each Monday morning and are only accessible through Sunday.

The following sessions are on the schedule for spring 2015.
  • Jan. 26, 2015 What Kinds of Questions Encourage Student Interaction?
  • Feb. 2, 2015 How Should I Coach an Underperforming Colleague? 
  • Feb. 9, 2015 How Can I Minimize Cheating in the Classroom?
  • Feb. 16, 2015 How Do I Convert a F2F Course to a Hybrid Course?
  • Feb. 23, 2015 How Do I Use FLCs to Strengthen Institutional Assessment?
  • Mar. 2, 2015 How Do I Develop a High-Impact Capstone Course?
  • Mar. 9, 2015 How Can I Use Twitter to Improve Teaching and Learning?
  • Mar. 16, 2015 Are Group Exams a Viable Testing Option?
  • Mar. 23, 2015 I'­m Teaching Online Next Term. What Do I Have to Know?
  • Mar. 30, 2015 How Can I Help Students Develop Critical Thinking Skills?
  • Apr. 6, 2015 How Can I Use Student Feedback to Improve My Teaching?
  • Apr. 13, 2015 How Can I Incorporate a Group Poster Session into my Class?
  • Apr. 20, 2015 What Should I Do When a Student Challenges My Authority?
  • Apr. 27, 2015 How Can I Improve Lessons with a 4-step Plan?
  • May 4, 2015 What Works and What Doesn't When Teaching Large Classes?
  • May 11, 2015 How Can Google Docs Help Foster Productive Collaboration?
We would love to hear your feedback on the usefulness of these sessions. Please send your input to itd@northshore.edu.

Monday, January 12, 2015

ANGEL and Blackboard Learn – Spring 2015

Over summer 2014, Academic Technology (AT) and Information Systems (IS) kicked off the implementation of the latest version of Blackboard Learn and the migration away from ANGEL. The entire process will take approximately a year to complete and will occur in several phases.

For the spring 2015 semester, both ANGEL and Blackboard Learn will be used by faculty and students. During this transition phase, faculty and students may need to use two learning management systems.

Online and hybrid courses: All online and hybrid courses will be offered in Blackboard Learn for the spring 2015 semester. Faculty teaching an online or hybrid course in the spring have been working with ITD over the fall semester to prepare for this transition. Additional training and support was offered over the January break.

Face to face courses: Any faculty member teaching a face to face course that uses the learning management system as a supplement will still be using ANGEL for the spring 2015 semester. Please review the “Preparing your ANGEL Course for a New Semester” checklist if you need directions on getting your course site set up for a new semester.

The first time that all courses (online, hybrid, and face-to-face) will be delivered in Blackboard Learn is summer 2015. Training for faculty teaching during the summer will be offered throughout the spring 2015 semester.

ITD team members are willing to attend upcoming department or division meetings if faculty are interested in learning more about Blackboard Learn or have questions about the implementation. Please contact Andrea Milligan to make arrangements.

We will continue to update the campus community about the implementation through the Bulletin, email, Facebook, and our blog. More information about Blackboard Learn and the migration is available at ITD's Blackboard Learn Site.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at itd@northshore.edu if there are any questions or concerns about the Blackboard Learn implementation.