iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (2/15/2021)

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 February 15th is How Can I Maximize the First 10 Minutes of Remote Teaching To Spark Student Engagement? 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/maximize-the-first-10-minutes-remote-teaching-spark-student-engagement/. 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. 

Interesting Articles and Resources

• Facilitating Synchronous Conversations, https://ofe.ecu.edu/idea-sparks/home/synchronous-conversations/ 
• Online Community-building Activities, https://onehe.org/equity-unbound/ 
• How to Overcome Classroom Zoom Fatigue, https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/08/19/advice-how-make-zoom-classes-energizing-and-community-building-opinion 
• How to Make Your Virtual Discussions Engaging, Effective, and Equitable in Eight Steps, https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/how-to-make-your-virtual-discussions-engaging-effective-and-equitable-in-eight-steps/ 
• How Do You Make Zoom Breakout Rooms Less Boring?, https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-09-24-how-do-you-make-zoom-breakout-rooms-less-boring 
• A Reflection on the Sudden Transition: Ideas to Make Your Synchronous Online Classes More Fun, https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/ideas-to-make-your-synchronous-online-classes-more-fun/ 
• A Game a Day: Fun and Dynamic Synchronous Online Learning, https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/a-game-a-day-fun-and-dynamic-synchronous-online-learning/
• Leveraging Bloom’s Taxonomy to Elevate Discussion Boards in Online Courses, https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-student-engagement/leveraging-blooms-taxonomy-to-elevate-discussion-boards-in-online-courses/ 
• Designing for Accessibility, https://ukhomeoffice.github.io/accessibility-posters/posters/accessibility-posters.pdf
• Classroom resource: Three ways to teach the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol (shared during the Open Forum/Processing January 6, 2021 discussion), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/daily-videos/classroom-resource-insurrection-at-the-u-s-capitol/ 
• Responding to the Insurrection at the Us Capitol  (shared during the Open Forum/Processing January 6, 2021 discussion), https://www.facinghistory.org/educator-resources/current-events/responding-insurrection-us-capitol  

Update on Upcoming Maintenance for Blackboard Collaborate Ultra

Blackboard has moved the maintenance window for the Collaborate Ultra v21.02 update to Thursday, February 25. On Thursday, February 25th between from 2:00 AM EST to 6:00 AM EST, Collaborate Ultra users will experience intermittent availability.

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 (10/26/2020)

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 October 26th is How Do I Go Beyond the Basics of Universal Design for 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 https://www.magnapubs.com/product/program/how-do-i-go-beyond-the-basics-of-universal-design-for-learning/. The complete fall 2020 schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2020/09/20-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

• Ninth Annual Massachusetts Department of Higher Education Assessment Conference. The Conference will be held virtually on Friday, October 30th from 9:00am to 3:00pm. You can view the conference program and register for this free conference at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/9th-annual-amcoa-conference-registration-123746809037. The conference keynote speaker will be Dr. Natasha Jankowski, executive director of NILOA, who will give a talk entitled, “Equity & Assessment: Moving Towards Culturally Responsive Assessment.” Dr. Jankowski is one of the country’s leading voices on the topic of equity in assessment work. Session leaders from public and private institutions will share their knowledge and experience during eight 75-minute workshops. The conference’s morning session will focus on applying the equity agenda to assessment in practice, and the afternoon session will explore assessment tools & approaches. Of particular note for those interested in the topic of Transparency in Learning and Teaching, Dr. Mary-Ann Winkelmes will be leading one of the conference’s afternoon sessions.   

Upcoming Webinars of Interest

• Engaging College Students Using Active Learning Techniques [Magna Online Seminar] on Tuesday, October 27th at 2:00pm EST. “Educators everywhere are facing the challenge of teaching students who do not engage deeply at a cognitive level. Even more challenging is being able to get students to actively engage in online courses. In this free Magna Online Seminar, you will learn how to think differently about active learning and how to encourage students to engage in it. You will also learn about different challenges to active learning and about active learning techniques that help students overcome those challenges.” (description from event email) More information as well as registration link available at https://www.magnapubs.com/product/online-seminars/live/engaging-college-students-using-active-learning-techniques/        

Interesting Resources

• The UDL Guidelines, http://udlguidelines.cast.org/
• Equal Access: Universal Design of Instruction, https://www.washington.edu/accesscomputing/equal-access-universal-design-instruction
• UDL’s essential place in the post-pandemic learning environment, https://www.ecampusnews.com/2020/10/21/udls-essential-place-in-the-post-pandemic-learning-environment/
• Peralta Online Equity Rubric?, https://web.peralta.edu/de/equity-initiative/equity/
• Eleven Alternative Assessments for a Blended Synchronous Learning Environment, https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/blended-flipped-learning/eleven-alternative-assessments-for-a-blended-synchronous-learning-environment/

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 (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?