Monday Morning Mentor - Online Faculty Professional Development - Fall 2026 Schedule

 The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation (CTLI) offers faculty a professional development series from Magna Publications, called the Monday Morning 20-Minute Mentor. The goal of the Monday Morning 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 Monday Morning 20 Minute Mentor sessions is available each week in 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 fall 2026. For session descriptions, objectives, and mentor bios, click on the titles below. 

• Aug. 17, 2026 How Can I Use the First Day to Set the Tone for a Semester of Learning? 
• Aug. 24, 2026 How Can I Create an Engaging, Student-Focused Syllabus? 
• Aug. 31, 2026 From Boring to Broadcast-Ready: Using OBS to Create Online Class that Keep Students Coming Back 
• Sep. 7, 2026 AI Toolboxes for Educators: Work Smarter, Teach Better 
• Sep. 14, 2026 When and Why Do Students Engage with Course Readings? 
• Sep. 21, 2026 How Do I Create Questions that Stimulate Engaging Conversations in Online Discussion Boards? 
• Sep. 28, 2026 Mind-Body Practices to Help Faculty Manage Stress and Build Resilience 
• Oct. 5, 2026 How to Create an AI Tutor for Your Class 
• Oct. 12, 2026 What Are Practical Solutions for Managing My Online Teaching Workload? 
• Oct. 19, 2026 How Can I Structure Class Discussions to Maximize Student Engagement? 
• Oct. 26, 2026 How Can I Gauge Online Learning Through Engaging Activities and Assignments?
• Nov. 2, 2026 Teaching Time Management Through Peer Dialogue* 
• Nov. 9, 2026 Why Should Students Struggle in an Age of Easy Answers?* 
• Nov. 16, 2026 How Can I Write Better Exam Questions to Measure Student Performance and Learning? 
• Nov. 23, 2026 How Can I Ensure Academic Integrity in the Online Classroom? 
• Nov. 30, 2026 Make It Click: AI-Generated Explainers that Engage and Teach* 
  
  

Programs denoted with * are still in production and will be finalized shortly. 

We would love to hear your feedback on the usefulness of these sessions. Please send your input to ctli@northshore.edu. 

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (4/12/2021)

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 the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation (CTLI).  

  

  
20 Minute Online Professional Development
The Monday Morning Mentor series will be available over the spring semester to bring you professional development in twenty minute snippets. The topic for the week of April 12th is What Are 5 Easy-to-use Technologies That Have a Big Impact on Learning in the Online Classroom? 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 Bulletin or the email version of iDevelop.

More information about this session (including description, topics, and learning goals) is available at  https://www.magnapubs.com/product/program/5-easy-to-use-technologies-that-have-a-big-impact-on-learning-online.

The following easy-to-use, free technologies are discussed in this week’s Monday Morning Mentor session. If you are interested in exploring any of these more, please feel free to reach out to the CTLI at ctli@northshore.edu. We would be happy to help.

• EdPuzzle, https://edpuzzle.com/ (interactive video tool)
• Loom, https://www.loom.com/ (screen recording tool, could also use Screencast-o-matic)
• PearDeck, https://www.peardeck.com/ (interactive presentation tool)
• Hypothes.is, https://web.hypothes.is/ (social annotation tool, could also use Perusall or Google Drive)
• FlipGrid, https://info.flipgrid.com/ (video discussion tool)

The complete spring 2021 schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2020/12/20-minute-mentor-online-faculty.html. 

Looking for transcripts of past Monday Morning Mentor sessions? Please email ctli@northshore.edu with the session title and we can provide you with the transcript and supplementary materials. 

Other Professional Development Opportunities

• Salem State University Earth Day Events. The Salem State Earth Days Planning Committee has extended an invitation to the NSCC community to participate in their Earth Days events. Their theme this year is “There is No Planet B.” The schedule of free events and registration information is available on the Earth Days webpage at https://www.salemstate.edu/earthday. 
• 45th Forum on Tolerance. This spring, the Forum on Tolerance is focusing on "Black Lives Matter: the U.S. Journey towards Justice and Healing Part 2" and will take place in individual segments that will be broadcast over Zoom Monday, April 12th through Friday, April 16th. A schedule of events as well as the links to register for each segment is available at http://www.northshore.edu/tolerance/.
• Digital Teaching Symposium 2021. Blackboard is sponsoring this free virtual event focusing on best practices for what’s next in digital teaching on Friday, April 16, 2021. More information as well as the registration link is available at https://events.bizzabo.com/DTS2021/home.
• 2021 NSCC Visiting Writer Event. During Arts in April, visiting writer and North Shore alumnus John R. Nelson will present a slide show and read from his new collection of essays, Flight Calls: Exploring Massachusetts through Birds, described as "somewhere between a personal memoir, a true-life adventure, and a birder's personal journey." This event will take place on Zoom on Tuesday, April 20, 9:30-10:45 AM and Wednesday, April 21, 9:30-10:45 AM. More information as well as Zoom links are available at https://www.northshore.edu/arts-in-april/writing-events.html. A full schedule of Arts in April events is available at https://www.northshore.edu/arts-in-april/.
• 2021 Northeast OER Summit. Registration is now open for the 4th Annual Northeast OER Summit. The Summit is free and will take place Monday, May 24 – Wednesday, May 26, 2021 virtually through University of Massachusetts Amherst Conference Services. If you are interested in attending, you can register at https://umass.irisregistration.com/Site/OER.    
• Dis/Misinformation: Perspectives and Pedagogies for Educators in the Post-Truth Era. Harvard University's Global Studies Outreach Center is offering their 9th annual free summer educator workshop virtually over a two-week period: July 26 - August 6. Participants can join for all or some of the sessions offered over those two weeks. More information is available at https://globalstudiesoutreach.harvard.edu/. 

Upcoming Webinars of Interest

• K-12 and Community Colleges Collaborate on OER (CCCOER webinar) on Wednesday, April 14 at 3:00 PM EST. “Open Educational Resources (OER) can make education more equitable and inclusive at any level of education. Hear from a panel of K-12 and community college educators as they compare and contrast the benefits and challenges of transforming learning with open practices and open content that is adaptable by teachers and students.  The topic of why and how faculty can work together across school sectors to support students in their local community will be explored.” (webinar description) More information as well as the registration link is available at https://www.cccoer.org/webinar/k-12-and-community-colleges-collaborate-on-oer/. 

Interesting Articles and Resources

• Finding the Missing Piece: How to Help Your Students Who Are Struggling with Online Learning (Faculty Focus Live Podcast). "In this episode, we're here to find the missing piece that helps incentivize, helps empathize, and helps motivate students who may have gotten lost in the online journey.", https://www.facultyfocus.com/faculty-focus-live-podcast/ 
• 21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion, Part Three, https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-student-engagement/21-ways-to-structure-an-online-discussion-part-three/
• Setting the Tone in a Virtual Classroom: Using Padlet to Foster Conversations about Classroom Values, https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-student-engagement/setting-the-tone-in-a-virtual-classroom-using-padlet-to-foster-conversations-about-classroom-values/
• Improved Student Engagement in Higher Education’s Next Normal, https://er.educause.edu/articles/2021/3/improved-student-engagement-in-higher-educations-next-normal
• Techniques for Student Engagement, https://er.educause.edu/podcasts/educause-exchange/techniques-for-student-engagement
• Our OER Epiphany: Advocating for Open Educational Resources as Tools for Affordability and Equity, https://www.aacu.org/blog/our-oer-epiphany-advocating-open-educational-resources-tools-affordability-and-equity

Share Your Teaching Resources and Professional Development Opportunities

If you have any teaching resources that you would like to share with other NSCC faculty or know of any other professional development opportunities that NSCC faculty might be interested in, please feel free to send them to ctli@northshore.edu and we will share them in the upcoming issues of iDevelop.

We hope you have enjoyed this weekly eNewsletter and would love your input. Please let us know if you have any feedback on the format, content, and resources or if there is anything else you would like to see in the eNewsletter.

Thank you,
CTLI 

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (3/2/2020)

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 the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation (CTLI).
  

20 Minute Online Professional Development
The Monday Morning Mentor series will be available over the spring semester to bring you professional development in twenty minute snippets. The topic for the week of March 2nd is How Can Change Management Principles Help New Educational Programs Succeed? 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 Bulletin or the email version of iDevelop.

More information about this session (including description, topics, and learning goals) is available at https://www.magnapubs.com/online/mentor/how-can-change-management-principles-help-new-educational-programs-succeed-15252-1.html. The complete spring 2020 schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2019/12/20-minute-mentor-online-faculty.html.

Looking for transcripts of past Monday Morning Mentor sessions? Please email ctli@northshore.edu with the session title and we can provide you with the transcript and supplementary materials.  
  
Other Professional Development Opportunities - Happy Open Education Week!
All week, during Open Education Week, there will be a variety of webinars offered to learn more about open educational resources. A full calendar of events for Open Education Week is available at https://www.openeducationweek.org/. 

To celebrate Open Education Week, CCCOER will host three webinars. For more detailed descriptions and speaker information, please visit https://www.cccoer.org/webinar/march-2-6-open-education-week-2020-oeweek-webinars/. 

• Beginning to Open Up: Ideas for Colleges Early in their OER Journey on Tuesday, March 3rd at 3:00pm EST. "When starting out using OER at your college/institution, it can seem like everyone else is much further along with us OER, and there aren’t any resources for those just starting out. Join us to hear from a panel of educators from smaller colleges and colleges that are new to OER as they discuss how they got started, recent accomplishments, things they would do over, what they wish they knew when starting out, and future plans." Registration URL: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/vpUrd-uhrTkuO9xAMJbL6Qw4jSRjEHMXtA 
• Regional Leadership in Open Education (RLOE) on Wednesday, March 4th at 3:00pm EST. "Launched by CCCOER in fall 2019, the Regional Leadership for Open Education (RLOE) initiative was inspired by the need for leaders to work together and share solutions for issues impacting OER adoption at diverse, multi-institution systems. Many open education leaders face similar issues of advocacy and implementation beyond their home institution and wish for the opportunity to craft common solutions and eliminate duplication of efforts. Leaders from colleges, universities, library consortia, and government agencies were invited to participate in four workgroups to discuss and build solutions. Each workgroup has developed a focus project for pursuing in 2020 and will share early efforts and invite community feedback." Registration URL: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/uJMrf-GsqTwjBBnljuk_EBeSsikzoyVsHw  
• Students and OER Advocacy on Thursday, March 5th at 3:00pm EST. 
  "Open Education Resources (OER) remove cost barriers and provide a better learning experience for students who are unable to afford the required commercial textbooks. Student OER advocates directly understand these benefits and can effectively articulate them to their peers as well as to faculty, administrators, and policymakers. Come and meet two Student OER Advocates who have also lead the development of an OER Toolkit for students throughout California higher education systems to share guidelines and best practices for advocating for OER adoption on their own campuses. We’ll also hear from the Director of Affordable Textbooks at US Pirgs on concrete next steps for students to take action." Registration URL: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/v5EqdOGrrzMjlpApcZItOy2hW1CHHAL3ig

Also, the State University of New York (SUNY) will host and showcase several presentations from our SUNY campuses in celebration of Open Education Week, March 2-6, 2020. Presentations are focused around open pedagogy, open educational resources, open textbooks, and open access. Details can be found here: http://bit.ly/SUNYOEW2020.

      
Interesting Resources

• NSCC Open Educational Resources, https://library.northshore.edu/friendly.php?s=open 
• Smithsonian Releases 2.8 Million Images + Data into the Public Domain CC0, https://creativecommons.org/2020/02/27/smithsonian-releases-2-8-million-images-data-into-the-public-domain-using-cc0/
• OER at Scale: The Academic and Economic Outcomes of Achieving  the Dream’s OER Degree, https://www.achievingthedream.org/resource/17993/oer-at-scale-the-academic-and-economic-outcomes-of-achieving-the-dream-s-oer-degree-initiative

Share Your Teaching Resources and Professional Development OpportunitiesIf you have any teaching resources that you would like to share with other NSCC faculty or know of any other professional development opportunities that NSCC faculty might be interested in, please feel free to send them to ctli@northshore.edu and we will share them in the upcoming issues of iDevelop.

We hope you have enjoyed this weekly eNewsletter and would love your input. Please let us know if you have any feedback on the format, content, and resources or if there is anything else you would like to see in the eNewsletter.

Thank you,
CTLI

MA CC Go Open Grant Opportunity - Second Round of OER Proposals

A second round of the MA Go Open OER Grant Program has been announced. All NSCC part-time and full-time faculty are invited to apply for grants to support Open Educational Resources (OER) in their courses. Faculty who receive a grant in Round 2 will join their colleagues from across the state who have been awarded Round 1 grants to save Massachusetts Community College students close to $1 million in the next academic year.

[Public Domain image]

In Round 2, as in Round 1, proposal funds will range from $300 to $2,500 with options to adopt, adapt or build course “textbooks”.

Interested in Applying for a Grant?

Visit the MA CC Go Open Call for Proposals site for more details on applying for a grant - including levels of adoption, courses eligible for this funding, faculty planning worksheet and online application. The second round of applications are due December 10th. Note: While your course needs to be on the list to be eligible, it does not have to be listed at your particular college for you to apply with it.

This is an amazing opportunity to customize your course and make the materials your students NEED to be successful in your course available to them for free and we hope you will consider submitting an application.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please email Larry Davis at ldavis@northshore.edu or Andrea Milligan at amilliga@northshore.edu.

MA CC Go Open Grant Opportunity

This fall, North Shore Community College (NSCC) faculty will have the opportunity to apply for an Open Educational Resources (OER) grant sponsored by the Massachusetts Community Colleges Open Education Council. NSCC has been at the forefront of OER education, specifically through Academic Technology grants that have allowed faculty to develop courses with open content that have saved students over $60,000 in textbook costs. In addition, OER courses developed at NSCC have brought the best free content from the web directly into the classroom. This grant will make available more funding for courses in STEM programs and for prerequisite courses that support these programs.

More specific information regarding the grant and how to apply can be found in the links below.

[Public Domain image]

Have you heard about Open Educational Resources? 

• They are free, openly licensed teaching materials that can be used in lieu of your traditional college textbooks.
• They allow every student in your course access to all the course reading on the first day of your class.
• They allow you to customize your text based on your teaching style, the needs of your specific course, your course learning outcomes and more.
• They allow you to control when the material needs updating and what should be updated.
• Did you read the part where we said the materials are FREE for your students? 

Interested? Great- we have an exciting opportunity for you!

The newly formed Massachusetts Community Colleges Open Education Council, led by Northern Essex Community College (NECC) with membership from every MA community college, is seeking proposals to fund MA CC faculty work on OER projects. With proposal funds ranging from $300 - $2,500; options to adopt, adapt or build course “textbooks”; and support from the statewide council and local OER coordinator(s), this is an amazing opportunity to customize your course and make the materials your students NEED to be successful in your course available to them for free.

Not sure? Check out this video​ from NECC faculty on why they moved to OER for their course(s). In the last two academic years, these faculty and many others have participated in the Adopt Open project at NECC, which has resulted in a student savings of $450,000 in textbooks.

Visit the MA Community Colleges Statewide Initiative site to learn more about the Statewide CC OER Initiative. Then visit the MA CC Go Open Call for Proposals site for more details on applying for a grant - including levels of adoption, courses eligible for this funding, faculty planning worksheet, online application, and more. The first round of applications will be due October 1st. Note: While your course needs to be on the list to be eligible, it does not have to be listed at your particular college for you to apply with it.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please email Larry Davis at ldavis@northshore.edu or Andrea Milligan at amilliga@northshore.edu.

Professional Development Through MOOCs

So it's the start of another semester and many of us are neck-deep in syllabi, new students, and recovering from winter break.  But for those that might be looking for something to stimulate and get them thinking about their work as an educator, we've assembled this collection of MOOCs that are starting up in the next week or two for you to consider signing up.

There's a great variety of them out there that can help enhance your day to day work or the bigger projects and goals in your professional life.  These were selected largely for their relevance to higher education, but we encourage you to check out some of the different MOOCs that are out there and let us know what you find! 

Academic Integrity: Values, Skills, Action

• Starts February 1, 2016
• 4 Weeks
• 4 hours/week 
• https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/academic-integrity

American Education Reform: History, Policy, Practice

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 8 weeks of study
• 6-8 hours/week 
• https://www.coursera.org/course/edref

Bringing STEM to Light - Teaching about Light and Optics

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 5 Weeks
• 2 hours/week 
• https://www.canvas.net/browse/laserclassroom/courses/light-and-optics-1

Childhood in the Digital Age

• Starts February 1, 2016
• 4 Weeks
• 3 hours/week 
• https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/childhood-in-the-digital-age

Coaching Digital Learning - Cultivating a Culture of Change

• Starts February 15, 2016
• 6 Weeks
• 2-3 hours/week 
• https://place.fi.ncsu.edu/course/view.php?id=34

Disciplinary Literacy for Deeper Learning

• Starts February 1, 2016
• 6 Weeks
• 2-3 hours/week 
• https://place.fi.ncsu.edu/course/view.php?id=30

Foundations of Teaching for Learning 1: Introduction

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 4 weeks of study
• 3-4 hours/week 
• https://www.coursera.org/learn/teaching

Foundations of Teaching for Learning 2: Being a Teacher

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 6 weeks of study
• 3-4 hours/week
• https://www.coursera.org/learn/being-a-teacher

Foundations of Teaching for Learning 3: Learners and Learning

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 6 weeks of study
• 3-4 hours/week
• https://www.coursera.org/learn/teaching-learning

Foundations of Teaching for Learning 4: Curriculum

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 6 weeks of study
• 3-4 hours/week
• https://www.coursera.org/learn/teacher-curriculum

Foundations of Teaching for Learning 5: Planning for Teaching and Learning

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 6 weeks of study
• 4-6 hours/week
• https://www.coursera.org/learn/teaching-plan

Foundations of Teaching for Learning 6: Introduction to Student Assessment

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 6 weeks of study
• 4-6 hours/week
• https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-assessment

Foundations of Teaching for Learning 7: Being a Professional

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 6 weeks of study
• 4-6 hours/week
• https://www.coursera.org/learn/professional-teacher

Foundations of Teaching for Learning 8: Developing Relationships

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 6 weeks of study
• 4-6 hours/week
• https://www.coursera.org/learn/teacher-relationships

Learning through ePortfolios

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 8 weeks of study
• 16 hours total
• https://www.canvas.net/browse/empirestate/courses/learning-through-eportfolios

Professional Web Accessibility Auditing Made Easy

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 4 weeks of study
• 5-8 hours/week
• https://www.canvas.net/browse/ryersonu/courses/web-access-auditing

Storytelling for Change

• Starts January 26, 2016
• 6 Weeks
• 3-4 hours/week
• https://novoed.com/storytelling-change-2016-1

Teaching Adults: For new (and newish) Teachers

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 6 weeks of study
• 2-4 hours/week
• https://www.canvas.net/browse/rentontechnicalcollege/courses/teaching-adults

Teaching Literacy Through Film

• Starts January 25, 2016
• 4 weeks of study
• 3 hours/week
• https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teaching-literacy-through-film

Teaching Statistics Through Data Investigations

• Starts February 1, 2016
• 8 Weeks
• 3-4 hours/week
• https://place.fi.ncsu.edu/course/view.php?id=33

What MOOCs have you tried?  What has been your experience?

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (9/1/2014)

Welcome to the inaugural issue of 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.

20 Minute Online Professional Development: How Do I Address Teasing and Bullying Behavior in the Classroom? 

The Monday Morning Mentor series will be available over the fall semester to bring you professional development in twenty minute snippets.  The topic for the week of September 1st is How Do I Address Teasing and Bullying Behavior in the Classroom?

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, learning goals, and intended audience) is available at http://www.magnapubs.com/catalog/how-do-i-include-introverts-in-class-discussions/

The presentation is available Monday at 10:00am and is accessible through Sunday of that week.

Upcoming Instructional Technology Workshops 

This week, Instructional Technology and Design is offering several workshops on a variety of topics around integrating technology into the teaching and learning environment. Please reserve your slot at any of these sessions by emailing itd@northshore.edu.
 
New to ANGEL The New to ANGEL workshop is designed to familiarize faculty with ANGEL and introduce basic course building functionality. In this workshop, participants will learn to: navigate around the course site, add different types of content, organize content in folders, and enable the course for student access. While the college migrates to Blackboard, ANGEL will be available for faculty to use during the 2014-2015 academic year.

• Tuesday, September 2nd from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Lynn LW 305

Smart Classrooms Come and find out all of the little ins and outs of using a Smart Classroom here at North Shore Community College. We will also share with you best practices when using one of these rooms. You will have the opportunity to try out the technology for yourself.

• Tuesday, September 2nd from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Lynn LM 104 (Smart Cart)
• Tuesday, September 2nd from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Lynn LW 323
• Thursday, September 4th from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in Danvers HPSS 226

Share your Teaching Strategies

With classes starting this week, we wanted to invite you to share your teaching strategies with each other around getting students started in your courses successfully and building a course community.  What are some strategies that you employ to ensure that students start your course on the right track?  How do you use ice breakers to develop a course community so you and your students can get to know each other?

Send an email with your teaching strategies to itd@northshore.edu and we will share them in the next few issues of iDevelop.

Other Professional Development Opportunities 

Do you have an MTA card? If so, check out the free workshop events at the Museum of Fine Arts, designed to give you ideas for infusing new life into your curriculum. They're not just for K-12 teachers!  http://www.mfa.org/programs/school-programs/teacher-professional-development
 
Resources

• First Day of Class Activities that Create a Climate for Learning
  http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/first-day-of-class-activities-that-create-a-climate-for-learning/ 
• A Classroom Icebreaker with a Lesson that Lasts
  http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/a-classroom-icebreaker-with-a-lesson-that-lasts/
• Don’t Waste the First Day of Class
  http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/dont-waste-the-first-day-of-class/

iDevelop is 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

Snow Days Got You Down? Level Technology to Make Up Missed Classes

Have your courses been impacted by the snow days?  Looking for a way to continue student learning even when classes are cancelled due to weather?

North Shore Community College’s learning management system, ANGEL, is a great instructional technology tool that can aid you in maintaining the continuity of your course.  All courses automatically have an ANGEL shell that provides faculty with a “private classroom” area for you and your students.  In ANGEL, faculty can post announcements about the status of class with instructions on how to proceed through related learning activities; upload various types of content such as assignments, readings, lecture notes, or PowerPoint slides; link to related online resources such as YouTube videos or web sites; set up drop boxes where students can submit homework; and facilitate discussions for students to engage with the course e materials. 

To aid faculty in using ANGEL, Instructional Technology and Design is offering the following services and resources.

One-on-one Consultation and Training

Staff members from Instructional Technology and Design are available during the day and in the early evening to schedule one-on-one ANGEL consultations and trainings.  These can be done in person, over the phone or virtually.  Please email itd@northshore.edu if you would be interested in scheduling a session.

ANGEL Overview Sessions

Instructional Technology and Design will be offering several ANGEL Overview sessions in the evening on both the Danvers and Lynn campuses.  These sessions will demonstrate how to post an announcement, upload a document, create a discussion forum, and make the course site available to students.  The sessions will be offered:

• Monday, March 10th from 5:30pm-6:00pm in DB304
• Tuesday, March 11th from 5:30pm-6:00pm in DB304
• Wednesday, March 12th from 5:30pm-6:00pm in LW323
• Thursday, March 13th from 5:30pm-6:00pm in LW329

If you are interested in attending one of these sessions, please RSVP to itd@northshore.edu.

How-To Videos

Instructional Technology and Design has developed a resource guide that provides links to various how-to videos on using ANGEL.  These quick videos will walk you through the various components of ANGEL so you can learn them on wherever and whenever it is convenient for you. 

Access the videos here: http://goo.gl/MweuaQ

If you have any questions about using ANGEL, please do not hesitate to contact Instructional Technology and Design at itd@northshore.edu.

Instructional Technology: The Green Solution

An often unrealized potential of instructional technology is the ways it can benefit the environment and reduce waste.  Here are some of my favorite ways to reduce waste through technology.

Online Readings

By providing readings online and allowing students to bring digital devices to class to use when we are working on the class readings, means that students are less likely to print it out.  However, even if they do, I provide them with instructions on how to get the most out of printing by using double-sided and depending on their viewing preferences, possibly 2 pages per side of paper (therefore a 60-page document is reduced to 15 pieces of paper).  Particularly in courses that have massive (and often, overpriced) texts that have lots inside that may never be read, I like that I can provide just the necessities. And with a growing assortment of Open Textbooks that are online for free, it makes it even easier!

Online Assignments

I stopped taking paper assignments several years ago and it has been a great experience.  Not only do I save paper but I am more organized, save time, and provide much more potent feedback to students.  Most word processor programs have a "comment" feature now so that you can provide comments around a paper rather than writing directly on it.  Between the comment feature, the highlight feature, and a file with canned comments (e.g. "Avoid using 2nd person pronouns in formal essays.  Remember that if your argument relies upon directly addressing the reader, then it might not be as strong as it can be").  I can download the papers, grade them, and send them all back.  Students get their grades sooner and have all of their grades in ANGEL or in their email.   

Virtual Tours and Field-Trips

Organizing a class field-trip has a variety of challenges.  Besides cost, determining times, getting everyone together, etc, there's also the challenge of whether there is a local place to visit that merits uprooting everyone's schedule.  However, many places such as museums and galleries are offering virtual tours for participants.  A good example of this is the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History where you can tour the facilities.  Besides the cost, the environmental impact of visiting a museum that might be thousands of miles away is all but eliminated.   

Virtual Reality/Simulations/Games

In addition to virtual tours, you might also consider finding virtual reality environments (Second Life), simulations (such as ECG Simulator) or even video games (check out Serious Games for more information on these) as great learning experiences while also reducing the amount of waste, risks, and costs.  Additionally, with many of these types of environments you can either capture the experience or have each student have personalized experiences enhancing the learning for all involved. 

What are some of the ways you are leveraging technology to reduce you and your students environmental impact? 

Announcing Atomic Learning - Online Technology Training Tutorials

North Shore Community College is dedicated to ensuring that all learners have the 21st century technology skills needed for today's world.  That is why Instructional Technology and Design is pleased to announce Atomic Learning, a new online, on-demand training and professional development resource that will provide faculty, staff, and students 24/7 access to over 50,000 technology training tutorials. 

What is Atomic Learning?
Atomic Learning is an online technology and software tutorial service.  Through Atomic Learning, you can view short, easy-to-understand video tutorials to get just-in-time answers to your “how do I do that?” questions by clearly demonstrating how to accomplish specific tasks in over 200 software applications and technologies, such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suites, ANGEL, Google Apps, Windows and Apple operating systems, Web 2.0 tools and iDevices.  Or you can view a series of videos to learn an entire software application.  In addition to the technology training how-to tutorials, Atomic Learning also includes workshops on a variety of technology topics, such as avoiding plagiarism, computer literacy basics, using Microsoft Word to create MLA or APA citations, being an effective online student, Web 2.0, and effective presentation design. 

These online training tutorials are:

• Available on demand 24/7 on and off campus.
• Open to all NSCC students, faculty and staff.
• Answers to many of the common "how do I do that" technology questions.
• Expansive and includes many software programs and technologies such as Microsoft Office, Adobe, Windows and Apple operating systems, Web 2.0 tools, Google Apps, and iDevices.
• Easy to access by logging in with your Pipeline username and password.
• Easy to search using keywords, specific applications, versions, and/or platforms.
• Easy to share with direct links through email or in ANGEL to support necessary software or technical skills.
• Available on an iPad.

How do I access Atomic Learning?
Atomic Learning is available on and off campus and can be accessed through NSCC's portal, Pipeline, by clicking on the My Course tab – just look for the channel called Technology Training Tutorials - Learning Made Easy. Click on the Atomic Learning web site link and enter your Pipeline username and password.  Atomic Learning can also be accessed on an iPad.  Just download the app at the App Store. You will need to use your full NSCC email address as your username.

How do I log in?
From Pipeline (My Courses - Technology Training Tutorials), just log in with your Pipeline username and password.  If you are using the Atomic Learning iPad app, you will need to use your NSCC email address as your username.

How can it be used to support teaching and learning?
Atomic Learning can be used in a variety of ways to support the teaching and learning environment.  Here are just a few ideas.

• The how-to tutorials provide visual step-by-step directions on how to perform functions with a variety of software applications which can supplement and enhance the instruction of those software applications.
• The how-to tutorials can enable students to learn the necessary technology needed to be successful in their classes.
• The how-to tutorials can serve as a resource to support students in completing projects that utilize technology by providing directions and answering questions.
• The technology workshops can provide multimedia materials to aid faculty in infusing 21st century skills into the curriculum.

We are delighted to present this resource to the NSCC community and hope that you will take advantage of it with your students or for your own professional development!  If you have questions  about Atomic Learning or need assistance in using it, please contact us at itd@northshore.edu.

Have you viewed any of the tutorials or workshops in Atomic Learning?  Did you find them helpful?  How might you see these being used to support students?

Locating and Evaluating Open Educational Resources

This blog feature was originally featured in NSCC Technology Across the Curriculum's annual publication: Mousetales.

Many faculty are looking to open educational resources to provide students with engaging and interactive multimedia resources or offer students low-cost quality content and materials that are alternatives to high-cost textbooks.  Open educational resources are “teaching and learning materials that are available freely for anyone to use” (from the Learn about the Movement page on the OER Commons web site).  These resources can range from individual items such as syllabi, lectures, learning activities, videos, simulations, and lab exercises to complete courses or textbooks.  Even though there are a lot of benefits to using open educational resources, it is often challenging to locate relevant and appropriate quality materials due to the large amount of resources available on the web.  This post aims to provide faculty with some resources that will help them find and evaluate open educational resources. 

Directories or repositories of open educational resources are one of the best places to start when looking for these types of materials.  There are also specific repositories for subject specific open education resources as well as ones for open courses and open textbooks.   Here are a few to start with.

OER Commons
OER Commons is a collection of over 40,000 resources that can be browsed by subject area, grade level or material type.  An advance search is also available to limit a search by a variety of different criteria including subject area, material type, media type, accessibility, and conditions of use.  Many of the resources have been reviewed and rated using the Achieve OER Evaluation Rubric.  And each resource is clearly marked with the conditions of use.  

Connexions
Connexions is a project of Rice University and is “a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc.” (from the Connexions web site).  There are over 21,000 reusable modules that can be browsed by subject area or searched by keyword.  Materials found here have a Creative Commons open license that allows for free use.

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Teaching and Learning
MERLOT is a “free and open online community of resources designed primarily for faculty, staff and students of higher education from around the world to share their learning materials and pedagogy. MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, collection of peer reviewed higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services” (from the About Us page on the MERLOT web site).  There are currently over 40,000 learning materials that can be browsed or searched.  An advanced search is also available to limit a search by keyword, language, material type, audience, resources with peer reviews and comments, resources released under Creative Commons, are not copyrighted or have no cost associated with them.

Open educational resources can also be located through a variety of search engines such as Google.  For example, Google allows you to search for materials that have a Creative Commons license.  This short video demonstrates how easy it is to locate open educational resources that have a Creative Commons license.  Resources that can be freely used can also be found through the Creative Commons search.  This search allows you to easily locate images, music, videos, and other media that can be reused, remixed, and shared. 

The next challenge in using open educational resources is evaluating the resource to determine their usefulness and appropriateness.  The Evaluating OER Rubric is a helpful tool as it provides some basic questions to consider about an open educational resource.    

Here are a few more resources if you would like more information about open educational resources.

• Open Educational Resources Guide by George Fox University Library
• Locating, Creating, Licensing and Utilizing OERs (an open, self-paced online course by Open SUNY)
• About Creative Commons

If you want to learn more about open educational resources or would like some assistance in incorporating them into your classes, please feel free to contact the Instructional Technology and Design team at itd@northshore.edu.  We would be happy to help.

Are you already using open educational resources in your classes?  If so, how are you using them?  And what resources are you using? 

What concerns do you have over using open educational resources in your classes?

3 Steps to Video Excellence

Over the last few months I've been presenting in several classrooms where faculty were looking to introduce students to instructional technology of some sort, which usually fall into the category of digital or face-to-face presentations.  In preparing and developing for these classes, I let my mind wander a bit on how to do this in a way that balanced the students' need to understand the tools, exciting enough for them to want to use the tools, and manageable for them to actually integrate the tools.  Here is the triangulation that I developed that can be done with using nothing more than your computer (an maybe an external microphone if you don't have an internal one) and little knowledge of basic programs.  In total, this entails creating a presentation that can be engaging and easily moved into a video for later use.

This process requires 3 programs--all of which are web-based (and free).  The only obstacles are that two require registration (Google and Prezi--though if you have a North Shore Community College account that is your Google account and Prezi offers an Educational License that is free when you use your school email account) and the video can be no longer that 15 minutes.  But for videos that are going in an online environment (for either face to face or online teaching), this is good because it helps the instructor or student keep focus on what they need to communicate is a confined time.

Step 1:  Google Slides (Presentation Tool)

We're talking primarily about Google Slides here, but Powerpoint works just as well for this part.  Either way, you'll need to opt to select "Download as a Powerpoint" when you are done with the Google Presentation in order to integrate it into Prezi.   For a good primer on Google Slides, check out their help feature which has really good information.

In Google Slides, you can compose your  specific content and information.  This might include images, videos, and text.  You can think of them as your "scenes" and what you want to convey in each scene.  When completed with the content, this is also a good time to work through the presentation to get a sense of how long it will take you and the flow of it.   

Step 2:  Prezi  (Optional)
Once you have  content settled into scenes in Google Slides, you'll want to download it as a Powerpoint file (pptx).  (If you've been using Powerpoint; you are all set).  Then you'll want to go to Prezi.com and create an account.  Be sure to sign up for an educational license if you are a college student or instructor.   This will provided you with additional benefits.  Like Google, Prezi has great support and guidance for learning the tool and for something like this, you don't need to know much about Prezi beyond the basics.  

Once you have created an account, and started a new Prezi, you'll want to select the "Insert" menu and choose "Powerpoint."  You'll be given the option of how many of your slides you want to import as well as the design you want to use.  Those are aesthetic choices you will need to consider in terms of what the information is you are conveying and how it should look laid out on Prezi.  

When you have sequenced and aligned your scenes in a way that works for you, you'll want to run through the sequence from start to finish at full screen.  This will benefit you in two ways.  The first is that it will make sure everything runs smoothly.  It will also give you another opportunity to pace through it and see how it works in terms of time.  

It should be noted that this is an optional step and one that you might not be ready to tackle with your first video or two.  Prezi can be a little overwhelming if you haven't used it much or are still not comfortable with Web 2.0 tools.  However, if you're just importing your entire Powerpoint and not necessarily manipulating much of the content besides cleaning it up any glitches in the transfer, it can be easy to do in an hour or so (at least the first time).  I've added it as a step here because the moving and fading tool features allow for your Powerpoint to come alive a bit more than just a typical Powerpoint.   We'd also recommend you check out our previous post on Prezi to get a better sense if the tool if you haven't used it before.  

Step 3:  Screencast-o-matic 
 Once you have created an excellent Prezi, now you can get ready to make a video of it with the use of Screencast-O-Matic.   We're big fans here of Screencast-O-Matic as we've mentioned before. Screencast-O-matic is a free tool that only requires a brief and easy installation of a browser applet in order to run.  The program will record what's on your screen (screencast) and whatever sound you create (or you can keep it mute).  

At this point, you'll want to have a tab on your browser to open up the Screencast-O-Matic tool while also having a tab open on your browser with your Prezi that you want to record.  Set your Screencast-O-Matic to capture the full screen and then set your Prezi to full screen.  When you are ready, press the big red button on Screencast-O-Matic and begin recording.  

3 Notes about recording:

1. Don't expect to get it right the first time.  You'll probably need to restart at least once.
2. Don't aim for perfection.  Look for a conversational voice and don't worry about a few mistakes.  If you aim for perfection, you will lose your mind and lots of time trying to get it "just right."
3. Do your best to prepare a script that you work from.  This is useful not just for you to follow along but you can make the script available so that it meets accessibility requirements for your students. 

Storage
This is not so much a step but a consideration. Now that you've made a great video, the question is where to put it.  You can certainly store it in your ANGEL course.  However, I find it useful to upload it to my Google Drive and then embed it into an ANGEL page.  This allows me to also share the video out with other people and places as I see fit.  If comfortable, you can also put it on YouTube.  The one challenge if you are going to use YouTube is that you would need to create a separate account since your NSCC account can't be used for Youtube accounts. 

Here is an example of a video (also reiterating much of what's in this blog post). 

Have you tried any of these tools?  How do you like them?  What challenges have you run into?  Have you produced any interesting content that's available to see (share the link below!)?

More Infographics To Think About: Part 2

There are a lot of great infographics out there about technology and education, despite the concerns and issues that some have identified with education-based infographics.  Here are a few more to review and think about.

These two infographics look at the use of technology by college students.  The "2012 Students and Technology" infographic is based on an annual survey of undergraduate students by EDUCAUSE and presents information on student technology ownership and student uses of technology in their college experiences.

Click to see full graphic. Source: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERS1208/EIG1208.pdf

 The "Technology Use on College Campuses" infographic presents similar data on how students are using technology and what their technology preferences are.

Click to see full graphic. Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/infographics/Techonology+Divide.png

These two infographics provide information on ways faculty are using social  media in the classroom.  The "Teachers' Guide to Social Media" infographic presents ideas on how social media can be used in classes to "connect, notify, teach, and currate". 

Click to see full graphic. Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/infographics/Teacher-Guide-Social-Media-800.png

The "How Today's Higher Education Faculty Use Social Media" infographic presents the results of research by Pearson Learning Solutions and Babson Survey Research Group on the various personal, professional and teaching uses of social media by faculty.

Click to see full graphic.  Source: http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/assets/downloads/pdfs/pearson-social-media-infographic-2012.pdf

The "Blended Learning: A Disruptive Innovation" infographic examines what blended learning is.  Even though the focus is K-12, it does provide some good background information and a general overview on blended learning models.

Click to see full graphic.  Source: http://knewton.marketing.s3.amazonaws.com/images/infographics/blended-learning.jpg

The "Status of Online Education" infographic is based on survey data from the Babson Survey Research Group and presents data on online education as seen by chief academic officers at institutions across the country.

Click to see full graphic.  Source: http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/assets/downloads/reports/changing-course-survey.pdf

The "Flipped Classroom" infographic presents information on what the flipped classroom model is and how it is implemented.

Click to see full graphic.  Source: http://knewton.marketing.s3.amazonaws.com/images/infographics/flipped-classroom.jpg

The "State of Digital Education" infographic looks at the impact of the Internet on education.

Click to see full graphic.  Source: http://knewton.marketing.s3.amazonaws.com/images/infographics/state-of-digital-education.jpg

And the "Envisioning the Future of Education Technology" infographic examines a variety of emerging technologies and what their impact might be on education.

Click to see full graphic.  Source: http://edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/envisioning-the-future-of-education-technology_50291a3e6125d.png

These are all infographics on technology and education.  What infographics are you seeing relative to your disciplines?  Do you see a use for infographics in the classroom?  Has anyone considered infographics as an output for a student research project?