Wednesday, September 30, 2015

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (9/28/2015)

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

Sign that reads: "Got 20 Minutes? Then you have time to learn with the Monday Morning Mentor!"

20 Minute Online Professional Development: How Can I Use Technology to Improve Learning?

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 28th is How Can I Use Technology to Improve Learning? 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 http://www.magnapubs.com/online/mentor/how-can-i-use-technology-to-improve-learning-13419-1.html. The complete fall schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2015/08/20-minute-mentor-online-faculty.html.

Other Professional Development Opportunities
  • Who am I? Diversity Event. As part of the DiverCity Series, NSCC is hosting a panel discussion on Identity & Acculturation with guest speaker Aviva Chomsky. The event will take place on Tuesday, September 29th from 11:00am-1:00pm in the Lynn Gym and Thursday, October 1st from 11:00am-1:00pm in Danvers MS106B. 
  • Grading in Blackboard Learn Workshop. ITD will be holding a workshop for NSCC faculty on Tuesday, September 29th from 2:30pm to 4:00pm in Danvers, DB201, and in Lynn, LW305, on the options for grading in Blackboard Learn. To RSVP for this workshop, please visit this web site: https://goo.gl/J5ngLA.
Resources
Share your Teaching Strategies 

In what ways have you meaningfully integrated instructional technology into your courses? What instructional technology tools do you use most frequently? How have you used instructional technology to enhance the learning and expand the classroom? How do you use instructional technology to connect students with each other? Send an email with your teaching strategies, best practices, resources, and tips to itd@northshore.edu and we will share them in the next few issues of iDevelop.

If you are interested in discussing strategies and best practices around integrating technology into the teaching and learning environment, please contact ITD at itd@northshore.edu. We would be happy to brainstorm ideas.

We hope you enjoy 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,
Instructional Technology and Design and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (9/21/2015)

Welcome to iDevelop, a weekly eNewsletter providing faculty with information about professional development opportunities at NSCC. The intent of this eNewsletter is to spotlight the various professional development events for faculty in one convenient location as well as share best practices, resources and tips related to the teaching practice. iDevelop is being brought to you by Instructional Technology and Design (ITD) and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (CTLA).
  
Sign that reads: "Got 20 Minutes? Then you have time to learn with the Monday Morning Mentor!"

20 Minute Online Professional Development: What is the Best Way to Grade Participation?

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 21st is What is the Best Way to Grade Participation? The presentation is available Monday at 10:00am and is accessible through Sunday of that week. For information on accessing the presentation and supplemental materials, please view the email version of iDevelop.
More information about this session (including description, topics, and learning goals) is available at http://www.magnapubs.com/online/mentor/what-is-the-best-way-to-grade-participation-3198-1.html.
The complete fall schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2015/08/20-minute-mentor-online-faculty.html.

Other Professional Development Opportunities
  • Part Time Faculty Professional Development Program. All NSCC adjunct faculty are welcome to attend the first session of the Part Time Faculty Professional Development Program on Saturday, September 26th from 9:00am to 12:00pm in Danvers, MS106B. The topics are a general introduction to North Shore Community College as well as information on the many library resources available to faculty and students.
Resources
Share your Teaching Strategies

What does student participation look like in your class? How do you grade participation? Do students receive an overall participation grade at the end of the semester or do they receive individual grades for participation per class? Do you use a participation grading rubric? Send an email with your teaching strategies to itd@northshore.edu and we will share them in the next few issues of iDevelop.

We hope you enjoy 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,
Instructional Technology and Design  and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

Thursday, September 17, 2015

The Open Textbook Initiative at North Shore Community College


How We Got to Open Educational Resources (OER)

In fall 2013, a discussion about OER started during a meeting of the Educational Technology Innovation Group, a collection of faculty, staff and administration that meets once or twice a semester to discuss, support, problem-solve, and share some of the great things that our faculty are doing here at NSCC. From this initial discussion, Christine Goodchild (Coordinator of Public Services, NSCC Library), Andrea Milligan (Director of Instructional Technology and Design), Larry Davis (Department of History), and I began brainstorming what could be done to support the OER movement here at NSCC. After all, we were blown away by the staggering numbers we had seen surrounding the cost of textbooks for community college students ($120 per course on average; amounting to about $2,500 at the end of two years).

With the support of Karen Pangallo (Director, NSCC Library) and Michael Badolato (Dean, Academic and Faculty Support), our team explored how we could help faculty navigate OER content. Soon, Torrey Dukes (Reference Librarian, Lynn) and Dava Davanis (Coordinator Public Services, Lynn Library) joined us and we developed a LibGuide to OER. This resource continues to grow and morph, providing some great repositories of content that faculty can use for their courses in lieu of textbooks, assignments, video content, and other learning objects. 

While finishing up the first phase of the LibGuide, we heard about the Vision Project Innovation Grant call for proposals. We decided that, while the LibGuide is essential for helping faculty find OER materials, we needed to do something more palpable to help support faculty as they moved into incorporating OER. We submitted a proposal and eventually received a grant to help fund a Faculty Technology Summer Institute on OER. The Institute was a great success with some forty faculty and staff attending the Keynote Address by Nicole Allen from the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC). 

Thirty two faculty attended the rest of the Summer Institute and nine faculty applied for a mini-grant from our Innovation Grant to replace a textbook with open and affordable content for their courses.  This fall, we had an additional five faculty apply for Technology Across the Curriculum Grants to also adopt, adapt, or build content for their courses and save students significant costs.  One faculty member has already launched a course with OER materials, while many of our faculty are preparing to launch their first course this fall.

Collaborating with OER

In looking at the OER movement, we realized the best strategy to pursue would be an affordability strategy. This means that when we work with faculty, we do not solely focus on OER repositories to find content, but we also rely upon the great material from the various library subscriptions. We also consider if it is possible for the student purchase to be significantly reduced somehow by mixing OER content, library resources, and a significantly cheaper book purchase than previously considered (e.g. going from $150 to $15).  
 
A neon sign that says "open"
 
The collaborative process has been rewarding for faculty and staff.  Each faculty member has been paired with an instructional designer and a librarian. The three meet regularly to find, develop and implement content for the course in a variety of ways. Some faculty have been using the substantial resources provided by the library such as their article databases, Films-On-Demand, or their great collection of digital books in ebrary. Other faculty are delving head first into completely OER content and finding free textbooks or other instructional content that they can plug into their courses for each relevant topic covered in the course. And some faculty are creating open content and contributing to the further availability of open educational resources. 

Faculty are quite energized about using OER in their courses. They are finding that using OER can change how they approach their content and students’ learning.  Several have offered the following thoughts about their experience:

Irene Fernandez
“I’m excited that I can contribute to making knowledge accessible to students. They benefit from my OER project every semester.” 

Nathan Chio
“I'm very excited about implementing OER into my African American History course. With the wealth of historical documents pertaining to African American history freely available online and in the public domain, I believe that I'll not only be able to save my students a significant amount of money but also will actually be able to offer them a better, more intellectually enriching history course.”

Anne Sears
“Working with the OTI (Open Textbook Initiative) team this year helped me think through the issues, understand fair use rules and locate rich teaching materials. I’ve put together a set of foundation readings and videos and will be able to expand case study readings and videos each semester. My students will appreciate current examples connected to specific lesson plans available in Blackboard.”

Recent Developments
These are some other developments with the OER movement at NSCC in the last few months. 

In fall 2014, Michael Badolato and Karen Pangallo launched the OER Working Group as a means of sustaining the Open Educational Resources movement at North Shore Community College.  While the Open Textbook Initiative focuses on helping faculty locate, assess, and implement OER into their courses, the OER Working Group will work on larger institutional issues regarding OER such as working with the bookstore to find printing solutions and offering tablets or with the Registrar to get special designations for OER courses. 

Professor Larry Davis was granted a sabbatical so that he could focus on working on several OER projects (mentioned elsewhere in this publication). 

Irene Fernandez and I are working on her OER textbook that she made for her sabbatical project to turn it into a physical book that can be sold in the bookstore as an alternative for students who want a physical text. 

In the spring, our team served on a panel with UMASS Amherst and the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium at UMASS Boston’s OpenEd Forum, an all-day forum dedicated to exploring and supporting OER movements in New England. We had an opportunity to discuss some of the great OER projects and our excitement about implementing OER at North Shore Community College.

If you are interested in learning more about or pursuing OER materials for your courses, please do not hesitate to contact us at itd@northshore.edu or library@northshore.edu


This article was originally published in The EdTech Edge, the newsletter of the Technology Across the Curriculum Committee.  The full issue can be found here.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (9/14/2015)


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

Sign that reads: "Got 20 Minutes? Then you have time to learn with the Monday Morning Mentor!"


20 Minute Online Professional Development: How Can I Measure My Faculty Development Center’s Impact?

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 14th is How Can I Measure My Faculty Development Center’s Impact? The title suggest that this session is only relevant to Faculty Development Centers but it can have application to any center, program, department, etc. looking to do outcomes-based assessment instead of outputs-based assessment.

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

More information about this session (including description, topics, and learning goals) is available at http://www.magnapubs.com/online/mentor/how-can-i-measure-my-faculty-development-centers-impact-13211-1.html. The complete fall schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2015/08/20-minute-mentor-online-faculty.html.

Other Professional Development Opportunities
  • Smart Classroom Trainings. ITD will be offering a Smart Classroom training on Wednesday, September 16th from 7:30am to 8:30am in Lynn, LW329. To RSVP, please visit this web site: https://goo.gl/J5ngLA.
  • NSCC Library Overview. Please visit the CTLA on Thursday, September 17th for lunch and learning from 2:00pm to 3:30pm. Our featured guest will be Christine Goodchild from NSCC's Library, who will tell you of the many advantages that your library allies will bring to your lives as instructors and scholars!
We hope you enjoy 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,
ITD and CTLA

Monday, September 14, 2015

Blackboard and You!

Ok, we have had Blackboard Learn for a year and it is going strong. For the most part, I have heard faculty say that they like the new system. They feel it is fairly easy to use and it offers so much more than the ANGEL system did.

However, as we use this new learning management system (LMS), there are a few things we need to keep in mind. It is ALWAYS important to read any notices that are posted on the Blackboard Learn "My Home" page under My Announcements. We will use that venue for any new information regarding Blackboard Learn. 

One example of the importance of checking those notices on Blackboard Learn is the recent post about Windows 10. If you are using Windows 10, you should be aware that the new “Edge” browser that accompanies Windows 10 does not work well with Blackboard Learn.

Probably the most important thing to look for is any post that contains browser information.  A very helpful section within Blackboard Learn is the “Check Your Browser” section. It is important to make sure you are using a supported browser when accessing the Blackboard Learn environment. Browsers receive updates frequently to ensure that they are secure to use. Blackboard Learn, on the other hand, receives major updates officially only twice a year. The upgrades can affect how Blackboard Learn interacts with the browser; and that is why it is so important to be aware of your browser’s compatibility with Blackboard Learn.

If one browser’s update causes issues, try another. For example, if you use Internet Explorer, try using Mozilla Firefox as your browser. In fact, Mozilla Firefox is probably the best browser for stability.

You might want make sure your settings are marked to notify you when there is an update and if you want to update. It is also important that you occasionally clear your cache, delete your cookies and cleanse any temporary Internet files.

That’s all for now. Enjoy the Blackboard Learn system and let us know if you have any questions. Contact us at bbhelp@northshore.edu.  

Thursday, September 10, 2015

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (9/7/2015)

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

Sign that reads: "Got 20 Minutes? Then you have time to learn with the Monday Morning Mentor!"

20 Minute Online Professional Development: What Should I Do When a Student Cheats?
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 7th is What Should I Do When a Student Cheats?

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

More information about this session (including description, topics, and learning goals) is available at http://www.magnapubs.com/online/mentor/what-should-i-do-when-a-student-cheats-13264-1.html. The complete fall schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2015/08/20-minute-mentor-online-faculty.html.

Other Professional Development Opportunities
  • Smart Classroom Trainings. ITD will be offering Smart Classroom trainings on Thursday, September 10th from 5:00pm to 6:00pm in Lynn, LW329, and Monday, September 14th from 7:30am to 8:30am in Danvers, DH227. To RSVP, please visit this web site: https://goo.gl/J5ngLA.
To stay current on professional development opportunities offered by Instructional Technology over the academic year, be sure to:
  • Read the Learning, Education, Technology and Support (LETS) Blog at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/. ITD’s goal with this blog is to provide an informative and useful resource for faculty and staff by highlighting events, spotlighting projects, and presenting current information around instructional technology while also providing a growing pool of resources, recommendations, tools, and materials for teaching and learning purposes.
  • "Like" the North Shore Community College Academic Technology Page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/myNSCC.acadtech. On the Academic Technology Facebook page, AT provides information about upcoming professional development opportunities, links to interesting articles on integrating technology into the teaching and learning environment, and presents tips on using the various instructional technology resources.
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.

We hope you enjoy 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,
Instructional Technology and Design and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Preparing for Fall 2015 Courses in Blackboard Learn

Blackboard Learn is now available for all NSCC courses (face-to-face, hybrid, and online).

Accessing Blackboard Learn
Blackboard Learn can be accessed through Pipeline. Once faculty and students have logged into Pipeline, they will see a Blackboard icon at the top right of the screen. Click on that icon to access Blackboard Learn. If this is the first time in Blackboard Learn, a gray welcome screen will appear - just click on the Close link to be brought to the My Home tab.

On the My Home tab, there will be a My Courses module with links to all instructors' course sites from 2014-2015. If the course list is not group by term/semester, click on the gears icon (top right corner of the My Courses module) to access the settings for that module. Then check off Group by Term and click Submit to save.

Copying a Course
To copy a previous course site into a new one in Blackboard Learn:
  1. Go into the course site that has the content to copy. In the Control Panel, expand the Packages and Utilities section and click Course Copy.
  2. On the next screen, in the “Select Copy Type” section, make sure Copy Course Materials into Existing Course is selected in the drop down menu.
  3. Now, in the “Select Copy Options” section, next to the Destination Course ID field, click Browse. Then, find and select the Course ID for the new course (the one you want to put the content into). Click Submit.
  4. Select the Course Materials that you want to copy over to the new course. Usually, Select All is the best choice, although you might not want to copy announcements.
    1. If Select All is not used, make sure to include Grade Center Columns and Settings if Assignments and/or Tests are being copied.
    2. Also, under Discussion Board, select Include only the forums, with no starter posts if threads are not created by the instructor for students to respond to. If not, all student threads will copy over as anonymous and they will need to be deleted.
  5. In the “File Attachments” section, keep the default settings.
  6. In the “Enrollments” section, keep the Include Enrollments in the Copy box unchecked.
  7. Click Submit.
Please note: When a previous course site is copied over into a new course site, any new or changed content areas will be added to the bottom of the course menu.

Make Your Course Available
All Blackboard Learn course sites are unavailable to students by default. Here are the directions for making the course site available to your students. To open your course:
  1. Go into the course site.
  2. On the Control Panel, expand the "Customization" section and click Properties.
  3. On the next screen, in the "Set Availability" section, select Yes to make the course available.
  4. Click Submit.
Preparing a Blackboard Learn Course Site for a New Semester
If faculty have already been using Blackboard Learn for their courses, please check out this handy reference at http://goo.gl/pZbUZ8 to help prepare a  Blackboard Learn course site for a new semester.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Blackboard Learn Helpdesk at bbhelp@northshore.edu if there are any issues with Blackboard Learn.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (8/31/2015)

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

Sign that reads: "Got 20 Minutes? Then you have time to learn with the Monday Morning Mentor!"

20 Minute Online Professional Development: What If a Student Asks a Question I Can't Answer?

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 August 31st is What If a Student Asks a Question I Can't Answer? The presentation is available Monday at 10:00am and is accessible through Sunday of that week. For information on accessing the presentation and supplemental materials, please view the email version of iDevelop.

More information about this session (including description, topics, and learning goals) is available at http://www.magnapubs.com/online/mentor/what-if-a-student-asks-a-question-i-cant-answer-3129-1.html.

The complete fall schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2015/08/20-minute-mentor-online-faculty.html.

Other Professional Development Opportunities
  • Blackboard Learn Workshops. Blackboard Learn is now available for all faculty members teaching face-to-face, hybrid, or online courses. ITD will be offering an Introduction to Blackboard Learn workshop on Thursday, September 3rd from 4:00pm-5:30pm in Danvers DB202. To RSVP, please visit this web site: https://goo.gl/J5ngLA.
To stay current on professional development opportunities offered by Instructional Technology over the academic year, be sure to:
  • Read the Learning, Education, Technology and Support (LETS) Blog at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/. ITD’s goal with this blog is to provide an informative and useful resource for faculty and staff by highlighting events, spotlighting projects, and presenting current information around instructional technology while also providing a growing pool of resources, recommendations, tools, and materials for teaching and learning purposes.
  • "Like" the North Shore Community College Academic Technology Page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/myNSCC.acadtech. On the Academic Technology Facebook page, AT provides information about upcoming professional development opportunities, links to interesting articles on integrating technology into the teaching and learning environment, and presents tips on using the various instructional technology resources.
Share your Teaching Strategies

With classes starting next 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.

We hope you enjoy 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,
Instructional Technology and Design and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment