iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (1/25/2021)

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 January 25th is How Can I Make My Video Lectures Effective and Engaging? 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/how-can-i-repurpose-my-content-into-videos-that-get-viewed-and-shared/. 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

• 2021 Teaching, Learning, and Student Development Conference. The 2021 Teaching, Learning, and Student Development Conference Committee invites proposals for virtual presentations for the 2021 TLSD Conference which will be hosted by Quinsigamond Community College on April 9, 2021. Tools for the New Normal: Innovations in Access, Equity, and Student Success is the theme of the 2021 event. All Massachusetts Community College faculty and staff are encouraged to share their knowledge and expertise in those areas. All workshops will be 30 minutes in length, followed by a Question-and-Answer period of 15 minutes. We celebrate the opportunity to encourage participants to readily adapt technology-based tools and innovative practices needed to ensure quality access, equity, and student success in the new normal. Please submit your proposal using the form at the following link: https://www.qcc.edu/TLSD-2021. The submission deadline is February 12th, 2021. Please direct any questions to the Quinsigamond Community College TLSD Planning Committee at (TLSDPlanningCommittee@qcc.mass.edu).

Interesting Resources

• 6 Tips for Creating Engaging Video Lectures That Students Will Actually Watch, https://teaching.temple.edu/edvice-exchange/2016/03/6-tips-creating-engaging-video-lectures-students-will-actually-watch 
• 5 Ways to Make Recorded Lectures More Engaging, https://tophat.com/blog/recorded-lectures/ 
• Twelve Online Educators Share Advice and Encouragement, https://www.aacu.org/blog/twelve-online-educators-share-advice-and-encouragement 
• Facilitating Effective Collaboration in Virtual Student Teams, https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-course-design-and-preparation/facilitating-effective-collaboration-in-virtual-student-teams/ 
• 5 Tips for Increasing Student Engagement Online, https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/5-tips-for-increasing-student-engagement-online/ 
• Student Engagement in the Online Classroom: Eight Quick Tips to Spark Students’ Learning, https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-student-engagement/student-engagement-in-the-online-classroom-eight-quick-tips-to-spark-students-learning/ 
• Universally Designing in Universal Chaos, https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-course-design-and-preparation/universally-designing-in-universal-chaos/ 

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 (9/30/2019)

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 topic for the week of September 30th is How Can I Use Microactivities to Engage Students and Improve Learning and Retention? 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-i-use-microactivities-to-engage-students-and-improve-15212-1.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

• Faculty Conversations: Small Teaching Online. This fall, the CTLI will host informal faculty conversations around making small changes in your teaching practice that can increase student engagement and learning. The second meeting will be Thursday, October 17th from 2:30pm to 3:30pm in the Danvers CTLI Conference Room, DB301. Check your email as additional information about the October session will be sent out this week. 
• QM Accessibility and Usability Resource Site. Quality Matters (QM) has recently opened up access to its Accessibility and Usability Resource Site (AURS) to the entire educational community. “AURS is the go-to — and FREE — resource for educators to get information on how to address key accessibility and usability concerns, including: Universal Design for Learning, Alternative Text, Video Captions and Audio Descriptions, Hyperlinks, Accessible MS Office products, Readability: Color Choice and Contrast, Readable PDFs, and Accessible Design in Learning Management Systems. This resource site was built by the QM community and provides helpful guidance to anyone interested in making online materials more accessible." If you do not already have a MyQM account, you can create one on the https://www.qmprogram.org/myqm/ login page. Once you have created your account and are in MyQM, you can go “Workshop - Register” in the side navigation and select "Register for Accessibility & Usability Resource Site”. More information is available at https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/resource-center/articles-resources/accessibility-resource-site.    

Resources

• Supporting Underprepared Students in the Online Classroom, https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/supporting-underprepared-students-online/
• Activities for Metacognition, https://resources.depaul.edu/teaching-commons/teaching-guides/learning-activities/Pages/activities-for-metacognition.aspx
• Promote Learning with Metacognitive Microactivities, https://www.mtholyoke.edu/stories/71267/promote-learning-metacognitive-microactivities 
     

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 (4/9/2018)

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 9th is How Do I Earn Swift Trust in My Online Classes? 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-i-earn-swift-trust-in-my-online-classes-14607-1.html. The complete spring schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2018/01/20-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

• Faculty Conversations. The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation (CTLI) is initiating a new professional development series called Faculty Conversations. The goal of Faculty Conversations is to create an opportunity for faculty to come together to discuss various teaching and learning topics as well as to share strategies, best practices, and resources. The topic for our inaugural Faculty Conversations will be best practices in online and hybrid teaching. The next session Thursday, April 12th from 2:30pm to 3:30pm in Lynn South, LS314 (CTLI Training Room). Whether you are new to teaching online or hybrid courses, have been teaching online or hybrid courses for many years, or are curious about teaching online or hybrid courses, please join us for the conversation.

Upcoming Webinars of Interest

• How ‘Open Educational Practices’ Support Student-Centered Course Design and Accessibility. The next CCCOER webinar is on Wednesday, April 11th at 2:00pm EST. Join the webinar to hear from two speakers on how the use of OEP, including OER adoption, can support accessibility of instructional materials and enable student-centered course design methodologies such as universal design for learning (UDL).
  For more details and registration information, visit CCCOER’s website at: https://www.cccoer.org/webinar/how-open-educational-practices-support-student-centered-course-design-and-accessibility/.
     

Resources

• Creating Trust in Online Education
  https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/creating-trust-in-online-education/  
    

Share Your Teaching Resources and Professional Development Opportunities
Please share your ideas, teaching strategies, and tips by emailing ctli@northshore.edu and we will share them in the next few issues of iDevelop. Also, please feel free to share any teaching resources or professional development opportunities that other NSCC faculty might be interested in.

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,
Center for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (9/25/2017)

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 fall semester to bring you professional development in twenty minute snippets. The topic for the week of September 25th is How Can I Implement UDL in the Next 20 Minutes? 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-i-implement-UDL-in-the-next-20-minutes-14196-1.html. The complete fall schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2017/09/20-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

• Meet a Muslim: This year, NSCC’s Office of Student Engagement will be offering four co-curricular programming events -- two this fall semester and two in the spring. The theme for this year is "Respect and Inclusion" (from the college’s Mission statement). The first one, Meet a Muslim, will take place on Wednesday, September 27th from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Danvers MS119. The event will also be shown on Facebook live on the NSCC Facebook page so that Lynn members can also participate. Faculty can bring their classes or encourage students to attend. Please email engagement@northshore.edu if you have questions or to let Dennis Hicks that you will be bringing a class. Attached to the iDevelop email is a document with Learning Outcomes that are designed as a resource for faculty who choose to connect their teaching with these co-curricular interfaith events. If you would like support regarding assessment strategies, please contact Cate Kaluzny. In addition to the attached bibliography (see iDevelop email), there is a Diversity Module available on Blackboard Learn that has a section on Islamophobia. If you are interested in accessing those videos, please contact Andrea Milligan and she will add you to the course.
   

Resources

• Universal Design for Learning Guidelines http://www.udlcenter.org/sites/udlcenter.org/files/updateguidelines2_0.pdf 
• How Universal Design for Learning can help the LMS reach every learner https://www.ecampusnews.com/ed-tech-leadership/udl-lms-reach-every-learner/ 
• Top 5 UDL Tips for Learning Environments http://castprofessionallearning.org/project/top-5-udl-tips-for-learning-environments/
• Top 10 UDL Tips for for Designing an Engaging  Learning Environment http://castprofessionallearning.org/project/top-10-udl-tips-for-engagement/
• Equal Access: Universal Design of Instruction - A Checklist for Inclusive Teaching http://www.washington.edu/doit/equal-access-universal-design-instruction
   

Share Teaching Resources or Professional Development OpportunitiesIf you have any teaching strategies or 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,
Center for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation

WORKSHOPS Are Coming!

Mark your calendars because the annual January Instructional Technology Workshops are quickly approaching!  Just prior to the start of the Spring Semester, Instructional Technology and Design will be sponsoring a series of workshops on a variety of topics around integrating technology into the teaching and learning environment. The workshops will take place Monday, January 13th through Thursday, January 16th in DB 202 (unless otherwise noted).

Updated workshop descriptions and the opportunity to RSVP can be found here.  Keep an eye out for more information in your NSCC Email. Here is the current schedule:  

Monday, January 13th
9:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.	Polling/Getting Feedback from Your Students, DB304
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.	Wow!  This App is the Best!, DB304
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.	New to ANGEL
Tuesday, January 14th
9:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.	New to ANGEL
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.	ANGEL Rubrics
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.	Getting More out of Students with ANGEL Agents
Wednesday, January 15th
9:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.	ANGEL Gradebook
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.	Virtual Classrooms - Adobe Connect
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.	Blogger: Google's Blogging Tool
Thursday, January 17th
9:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.	New to Smart Classrooms, DB304
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.	Creating Accessible Online Course Content, DB304
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.	Preparing Students for Technology and Learning Online, DB304

Online and Hybrid Course Accessibility Checklist

North Shore Community College is committed to providing equal access to all educational courses for all students.  To assist faculty in developing accessible online and hybrid courses, Instructional Technology and Design has developed a checklist that outlines things to think about when designing an online or hybrid course and in developing online content.  Our checklist is based on a great resource developed by Portland Community College (thank you so much for your permission to use).

Online and Hybrid Course Accessibility Checklist

Design

• Navigation is clear and consistent.
• Contrast between text and background colors is strong.
• Flashing content is limited and only used when necessary.
• Clearly identify the destination of a link so that users know where they will be taken if they click.
• Instructions, operation, or navigation do not depend on solely visual or solely auditory information.
• The page/site is navigable with just a keyboard (no mouse or touchpad necessary).

Documents and Multimedia

• Alternative text is provided for all images and graphics.
• Text transcripts are provided for all audio.
• Captions are provided for all video.
• In documents, use text formatting styles provided.
• Tables are kept small.  Large tables are broken into multiple smaller tables.
• All external content linked to from within the course should also be accessible.

Technology

• Technology utilized within or incorporated into the course should also be accessible.

Throughout the year, we hope to publish several additional blog posts to provide tips, best practices, and resources for faculty that will help them accomplish the various items in the checklist.

What strategies do you follow to ensure that your online and hybrid courses are accessible?  What challenges do you encountering in developing online content?  Do you have any helpful resources to share?