Blackboard Learn Implementation Update

Over the summer, 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.

During June and July, AT and IS worked on installing, setting up and customizing the Blackboard Learn environment; conducted internal training on Blackboard Learn to become familiar with the ins and outs of the system; tested and documented the course migration process; and prepared for the fall pilot of Blackboard Learn. In August, AT facilitated several professional development opportunities for faculty participating in the pilot to prepare them to teach with Blackboard Learn in September. This fall, 21 faculty are piloting Blackboard Learn in 29 course sections.

The next phase of the implementation will be to deliver all online and hybrid courses for the intersession and spring 2015 semesters in Blackboard Learn. Training for faculty and course migration is ongoing throughout the fall semester. Workshops and open labs will also be offered in January 2015. ANGEL will be operational during this time and all spring 2015 face-to-face courses will be delivered in ANGEL.  

For the summer 2015 semesters, all summer courses (online, hybrid, and face-to-face) will be delivered in Blackboard Learn. Training for faculty and course migration will occur during the spring 2015 semester. At this point, ANGEL will be taken offline and will not be used to deliver any courses.

For the fall 2015 semester, all fall courses (online, hybrid, and face-to-face) will be delivered in Blackboard Learn. Training for faculty and course migration will occur during the spring and summer semesters. ANGEL will be offline and will not be used to deliver any courses.

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

Please feel free to contact us at itd@northshore.edu with any questions or concerns about the Blackboard Learn implementation.

Fall 2014 Technology Across the Curriculum (TAC) Grant Applicatio​ns Due Tuesday, November 18th

Fall TAC grant application materials are now available and proposals are due by 11:59PM on Tuesday, November 18th.

There are two new integrating technology into the curriculum projects that we want to spotlight.

Open Educational Resources
NSCC faculty can apply for a TAC grant to help replace their textbook or course materials with Open Educational Resources. 

"Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning or research materials that are in the public domain or released with an intellectual property license that allows for free use, adaptation, and distribution."  (Source: UNESCO. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/)

Faculty will be paired with a Librarian and Instructional Designer to find materials and resources relevant to the course that the instructor can use to replace or reduce the overall cost of course materials for students. To learn more about Open Educational Resources and see some of the resources available (including textbooks, lesson plans, videos, and other relevant course content), check out the NSCC LibGuide at http://libguides.northshore.edu/open.

Redesigning an Online Course
NSCC faculty who have been teaching an online course for several years may want to redesign their online course to incorporate new pedagogies and instructional technologies, especially as our new LMS, Blackboard Learn, offers more robust possibilities than did ANGEL. This TAC project will allow faculty to self-assess the design of their online courses and make substantive changes. Faculty will have the opportunity to work with an Instructional Designer to revitalize their online courses with the infusion of new instructional technologies and best practices around teaching and learning online.

Please contact Andrea Milligan or Lance Eaton at itd@northshore.edu for further information or questions about these TAC options.

More information about TAC grants and the application process is available here.

Active Learning Classrooms

Active Learning Classrooms are teaching and learning spaces that allow faculty to move their course design beyond lecture.  Faculty are supported through the room design, flexible furniture, multiple writing surfaces, and interactive technologies.  In these rooms, students move from a static learning environments (rows of chairs) to a more dynamic one (group seating often utilizing chairs and tables on wheels).

Here at North Shore Community College, we have designed two spaces as Active Learning Classrooms.  LE 304 in Lynn and DB 101 in Danvers have portable chairs on wheels and white boards have been installed around the wall surfaces of the classrooms.  Faculty have begun to requests these spaces as they allow for students to work together more efficiently and effectively.  The teacher's role then becomes more of a guide to learning.

Some effective teaching models in these kinds of  classrooms include:

1.  Think--Pair--Share
This is a discussion strategy where the teacher gets the students thinking about a posed question.  The students then "pair up" to talk about their thoughts or answers to the question.  The teacher then calls on the pairs to share their thoughts with the rest of the class.

2.  Focused Listening
Here students recall what they know about a subject.  This can be done in pairs or groups  They list what they know on a sheet of paper.   The instructor roams the room requesting the lists to be read out loud by the pairs or groups.

3.  Brainstorming
This is similar to focused listening.  Here, though, students might stretch what they know by forming creative connections between previous knowledge and new possibilities.  In Brainstorming, there are no wrong answers.

4.  Note Check
With Note Check, students partner with someone.  They compare notes.  They notice each other's misconceptions or lack of clarity, and then assist in pointing that out and cleaning it up.

5.  The Two Minute Paper
Here the faculty member asks students to summarize the most important points in the day's lecture.  It helps students to put things in their own words.  It also helps students to identify their gaps in their understanding.

6.  The Final Question
At the end of class, the faculty member asks the students if they had one last question about the material, what would it be?  It encourages students to think deeply about material before leaving the room.

Resources:

• What is an Active Learning Classroom?
  http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/active/what/index.html
• Reactions of Teachings in an Active Learning Classroom
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szGCwwcDc-g
• Active learning strategies
  http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/powerpoint/learning/index.html

If you would like to know more about Active Learning Classrooms, please contact us at itd@northshore.edu.

Dave Houle
Coordinator, Instructional Technology
dhoule@northshore.edu

August and September Instructional Technology Workshops

In August and September, Instructional Technology and Design will be offering several workshops for faculty 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.
  

Video Anywhere

Video Anywhere is a tool in ANGEL (also in Blackboard) that allows faculty to easily record a video from a webcam and embed that video directly into any of the text box editors throughout ANGEL (for example, Announcements, Pages, Discussion Forums, Drop Boxes, etc.).

• Thursday, August 21st from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. in Danvers DB 202

Google Documents for Collaboration and Communication

Looking for a way to promote student collaboration on a project? Need a simple way for students to share documents or give presentations? Want to collect information from your students quickly? Then Google Documents is for you. This workshop will present the benefits of using NSCC’s Google Documents application in the classroom to easily create, edit, and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

• Thursday, August 21st from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Danvers DB 202

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.

• Thursday, August 21st from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Danvers DB 202
• Wednesday, August 27th from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in Danvers DB 202
• Tuesday, September 2nd from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Lynn LW 305

Blackboard Learn Sneak Peek

Over the 2014-2015 academic year, the college will be migrating to a new learning management system, Blackboard Learn. This session will provide participants with an opportunity to get a sneak peek at some of the features and functionality of Blackboard Learn as well as learn more about the implementation timeframe and the course migration process from ANGEL.

• Wednesday, August 27th from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Danvers DB202

Open Educational Resources

This session will provide an overview of what open educational resources are, how faculty can find and evaluate them, ideas for using them in classes, and their role in the community college to help make textbooks more affordable to students.

• Wednesday, August 27th from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Danvers DB 202

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.

• Friday, August 29th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in Danvers HPSS 226
• Tuesday, September 2nd from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Lynn LW 323
• Monday, September 8th from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in Danvers HPSS 226
• Friday, September 9th from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in Lynn LW 323

We hope to see you at the workshops!  If you are unable to attend or are interested in learning more about other instructional technologies, please email us at itd@northshore.edu. We are happy to schedule a one-on-one session.

NSCC's Next Learning Management System

In early May, NSCC concluded the search for a new LMS with the decision to award the bid to Blackboard, Inc. This decision was reached in agreement through the Distance Education Committee and the extended LMS Task Force, as well as input received from the vendor presentations, reactions to the sandbox environments, and comments from many of faculty and staff. 

The implementation of the latest version of Blackboard Learn and the migration away from ANGEL will begin during summer 2014.  The process will take approximately a year to complete and will occur in several phases.  The working timeline is as follows:

• Summer 2014 – System set up and customization.  Academic Technology and Information Systems training and system familiarization.  Course migration process tested.  Preparation for fall pilot.  ANGEL will be operational during this time and all summer 2014 courses will be delivered in ANGEL.  
• Fall 2014 – Pilot of courses in Blackboard Learn by 10-15 faculty.  Training and course migration will occur in August.  ANGEL will be operational during this time and all fall 2014 courses will be delivered in ANGEL. 
• Spring 2015 – All online and hybrid courses will be delivered in Blackboard Learn for the spring 2015 semester.  Training and course migration will occur during the fall semester.  More information will be sent out to faculty teaching online in late summer.  ANGEL will be operational during this time and all spring 2015 face-to-face courses will be delivered in ANGEL. 
• Summer 2015 – All summer courses will be delivered in Blackboard Learn for the summer 2015 semester.  Training and course migration will occur during the spring semester.  ANGEL will be taken offline during this time and will not be used to deliver any courses.
• Fall 2015 – All fall courses will be delivered in Blackboard Learn for the fall 2015 semester.  Training and course migration will occur during the spring and summer semesters.  ANGEL will be offline and will not be used to deliver any courses.

Many thanks to all who contributed to this decision and we look forward to working with everyone through the coming year.  We will continue to update the campus community about the implementation through the Bulletin, email, Facebook, and this blog.

Please feel free to contact us at itd@northshore.edu with any questions or concerns.

Upcoming ANGEL Archive

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 will also be deleting some old course sites from the archive.  We wanted to provide you with advanced notice before any course sites are deleted from the ANGEL server and also from the archive.  Below is an outline of the our timeline for deleting courses from the ANGEL server as well as from the archive.

• Course sites from Spring 2013 - Will be removed from the ANGEL server and placed in archive on June 1, 2014. Spring 2013 courses are scheduled to be permanently deleted from archive on October 1, 2017.
• Course sites from Fall 2009 - Will be permanently deleted from the archive on June 1, 2014.

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.

Academic Technology: Any (Virtual) Place, Any (Face) Time!

The Face of Academic Technology at North Shore Community College

  

The role of Academic Technology at North Shore Community College is to integrate current and emerging technologies into the teaching process, the learning environment, and the curriculum-at-large.  Academic Technology staff assist faculty in these endeavors to ensure a positive impact on student learning through multi-modal approaches and extended learning opportunities.

Academic Technology is comprised of two working teams: Instructional Technology and Design (ITD) and Instructional Media Services (IMS).  The combined capabilities of these two teams provide the following services to the college community:

• Classroom technology planning, design and support
• Management of online courses, distance learning and related resources
• Instructional design services for all forms of technology-enhanced learning
• Media production services, including digital media development and event support

If you are interested in exploring instructional technology or instructional media further or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at itd@northshore.edu or media@northshore.edu.  We are happy to help!

Innovations in Academic Technology at North Shore Community College

The Technology Across the Curriculum (TAC) newsletter, Mousetales, has been reinvented as the EdTech Edge and is now available on North Shore Community College’s public site at: http://www.northshore.edu/faculty_staff/resources/tac.html.

The TAC program at NSCC "promotes academic excellence by stimulating and nurturing innovative ideas by faculty and professional staff that employ technology in support of teaching and learning".  The TAC program supports creative uses of instructional technology inside and outside of the classroom as well as the development of new online and hybrid courses.

Check out this year's issue to learn more about the innovations of NSCC faculty, staff, and administration in the area academic technology.

The current issue of EdTech Edge includes:

• Comments from TAC faculty on their projects
• An article by Michael Badolato, Dean of Academic Technology, on the college's new active learning classroom prototypes
• An article by Lance Eaton, Coordinator of Instructional Design, Academic Technology,
  on the increasing use of open educational resources including open textbooks
• An article by Andrea Milligan, Director of Instructional Technology and Design, Academic
  Technology, on several new instructional technology resources and services
• A list of free, scholarly electronic databases and resources compiled by Andrea Milligan and Terri Whitney, Professor (Department of English) and Coordinator of Technology Across the Curriculum

The LMS Transition: Demos & Sandboxes

The college has recently begun a search for a new Learning Management System, with implementation scheduled to begin in summer 2014.  This process is moving forward with the selection of three vendors who have been scheduled for on-campus presentations in early March.  Each vendor will come to campus to make a presentation to the campus community about the features and functionalities of their product.  The vendor presentation will take place in Danvers and will be video-conferenced over to Lynn.  The schedule of presentations is:

• Canvas:  Monday, March 3rd from 2:30pm to 4:00pm in DS119 and LW325 
• Blackboard:  Wednesday, March 12th from 2:30pm to 4:00pm in DS119 and LW225
• Desire2Learn:  Thursday, March 13th from 2:30pm to 4:00pm in DS119 and LW325

We look forward to seeing you at these sessions so that you can provide us feedback on the products.  Even if you are not able to attend all three presentations, please attend the ones that you can to provide us input.

Each company's product will also be available for members of the college community to experience and evaluate after the presentations.  ITD will be hosting several opportunities in March and April for faculty and staff to stop in, test out the different systems, and provide us with feedback.  Access to the sandbox environment will also be available virtually and more information will be available soon.  Please save these dates:

• Wednesday, March 19th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB201 (during spring break)
• Thursday, March 20th from 9:00am-3:00pm in LW306 (during spring break)
• Wednesday, March 26th from 8:00am-9:30am in LW306
• Wednesday, March 26th from 4:00pm-6:00pm in LW306
• Thursday, March 27th from 8:00am-9:30am in LW303
• Thursday, March 27th from 2:00pm-5:00pm in LW305
• Wednesday, April 2nd from 8:00am-10:30am in DB201
• Wednesday, April 2nd from 2:00pm-6:00pm in DB201
• Thursday, April 3rd from 8:00am-10:30am in DB239 (Library Preview Area)
• Thursday, April 3rd from 2:00pm-6:00pm in DB201

In the meantime, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns at itd@northshore.edu.

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.

20 Minute Mentor - Online Faculty Professional Development

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.

New video presentations go live at 10:00am each Monday morning and are only accessible through Sunday. Presentation handouts and supplementary materials are always available.
The following sessions are on the schedule for spring 2014.  For session descriptions, objectives, and mentor bios, click on the titles below.

• January 27th - How Can I Create Meaningful Assignments for My Students?
• February 3rd - How Can Backward Design Make My Courses More Accessible?
• February 10th - How Can I Effectively Teach Unprepared Students?
• February 17th - How Should I Manage Conflict Within My Department?
• February 24th - How Can I Set Time Management Priorities in Online Teaching?
• March 3rd - How Can I Use Discussion to Facilitate Learning?
• March 10th - What Are the Three Worst Mistakes to Make in the Classroom?
• March 17th - How Can I Be an Effective Mentor?
• March 24th - How Can I Make the Activities in My Course More Inclusive?
• March 31st - How Do I Set Students Up for Success in Online Courses?
• April 7th - How Can I Make My Multiple Choice Tests More Effective?
• April 14th - How Can I Get Students to Take Responsibility for Their Own Learning?
• April 21st - How Can I Connect Students' Interests to Course Content?
• April 28th - How Do I Prepare a SoTL Article for Publication?
• May 5th - How Can I Use Technology to Create Custom Automated Feedback?
• May 12th - How Can Rubrics Make Grading Easier and Faster?

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

Launching of Phase 2 of the College Instructional Technology Study

As we mentioned in a previous post, we had a very successful first phase in our College Instructional Technology Study.  We are now in the process of Phase 2.  In the second phase of this study, Academic Technology (AT) will explore the various student support services at the college to share knowledge and resources about students’ learning and technology in order to better understand the benefits and challenges all involved parties encounter. North Shore Community College (NSCC) has a variety of tools and resources that are used in assuring student success in the classroom and in the college as a whole and beyond. It serves the best interests of everyone if each area of the college is better informed about the range of tools, resources and technology practices. Therefore, AT will plan to meet with the various student support services to share resources and tools around technologies that enhance student learning at the college.  

“Technologies that enhance student learning at the college” means any special computer programs, devices, online services/programs/web sites, or other technologies that are used to manage and facilitate communication, interaction, and learning within the teaching and learning environment at the college, but with particular attention to students’ learning experience. This could also be using what are considered common technological programs and tools (cellphones, cameras, Microsoft Word, Facebook, etc.) in new, unique, or unorthodox ways for learning.

Across departments, divisions, programs, and projects, NSCC makes use of a wide range of instructional technology in facilitating education, guidance, and communication. While some tools are well known, others are less-known but could have the potential of large scalable uses for the faculty and staff at the college. Hence, lack of knowing or having access to the range of instructional technological tools at NSCC means that AT provides less service and efficiency en masse than it might otherwise do.  

At its core, this study is a fact-finding mission to better understand what the instructional technology is that is being used, how it is being used, and how AT can further aid the use of this instructional technology for the betterment of all.   

For a more detailed explanation, please visit the public plan at this link.  We appreciate any feedback or thoughts you might have to offer us about the project.