iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (8/22/2016)

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).
  

20 Minute Online Professional Development: How Can I Communicate to Engage Students and Encourage 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 August 22nd is How Can I Communicate to Engage Students and Encourage 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-communicate-to-engage-students-and-encourage-learning-13769-1.html. The complete fall schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2016/08/20-minute-mentor-online-faculty.html.
 
Other Professional Development Opportunities

• Blackboard Learn and Smart Classroom Workshops. ITD is offering a series of Blackboard Learn workshops this week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday as well as Smart Classroom workshops in September. To view the complete schedule of workshop sessions (with descriptions) and to RSVP, please visit this web site: http://goo.gl/forms/rvefjBn85rmw1vyn1.

To stay current on professional development opportunities offered by Instructional Technology and Design 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 Instructional Technology and Design Page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/myNSCC.acadtech. On the Instructional Technology and Design Facebook page, ITD 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.

Resources

• 10 Ways to Promote Student Engagement http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/10-ways-to-promote-student-engagement/ 
• Promoting Active Learning
  https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/resources/learning-resources/promoting-active-learning
• Engaging Students in Learning
  http://www.washington.edu/teaching/teaching-resources/engaging-students-in-learning/

Share your Teaching Strategies – We Want your Ideas
With classes starting next week, we wanted to invite you to share your teaching strategies with each other, especially new faculty who are preparing for their first classes here at NSCC. If you could provide any advice, tips, best practices, or teaching strategies to new faculty to help them get started in their classes successfully what would it be? What do you wish someone told you during those first classes? 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

August and September Blackboard Learn Open Labs

Instructional Technology and Design (ITD) will be holding Blackboard Learn Open Labs in August and September. Faculty are welcome to drop by the Open Labs if there are any questions or issues in setting up course sites for the fall semester. ITD team members will be available to assist on both the Danvers and Lynn campuses. 

Week of August 29th

• Monday, August 29th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB234 and LW307
• Tuesday, August 30th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB234 and LW307
• Wednesday, August 31st from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB234 and LW307

Week of September 5th

• Tuesday, September 6th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB234 and LW307
• Wednesday, September 7th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB234 and LW307
• Thursday, September 8th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB234 and LW307
• Friday, September 9th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB234 and LW307

Week of September 12th

• Monday, September 12th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB234 and LW307
• Tuesday, September 13th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB234 and LW307
• Wednesday, September 14th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB234 and LW307
• Thursday, September 15th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB234 and LW307

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

20 Minute Mentor - Online Faculty Professional Development - Fall 2016 Schedule

The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (CTLA) and Instructional Technology and Design (ITD) 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 and the iDevelop e-newsletter.

New video presentations (with supplementary materials) go live at 10:00am each Monday morning and are only accessible through Sunday. 

The following sessions are on the schedule for fall 2016. For session descriptions, objectives, and mentor bios, click on the titles below. 

• August 22nd - How Can I Communicate to Engage Students and Encourage Learning?
• August 29th - How Can I Develop Online Instructor Presence?
• September 5th - What is Essential in a Grading Policy?
• September 12th - How Can I Save Time and Money by Repurposing Online Content?
• September 19th - How Can I Avoid Communication “Misfires” with Students?
• September 26th - How Can I Encourage the Growth Mindset with Three Simple Tips?
• October 3rd - How Can I Design Critical Thinking into My Courses?
• October 10th - How Can I Use Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) Online?
• October 17th - How Can Course Design Help Prevent Online Cheating? 
• October 24th - How Can I Assess Critical Thinking with Objective Items?
• October 31st - Beyond the Discussion Board: How Can I Engage Online Students?
• November 7th - How Can I Make Online Group Projects More Effective?
• November 14th - What Ethical Issues Lurk in My Grading Policy?
• November 21st - What Activities and Assignments Promote Critical Thinking?
• November 28th - How Can I Design Academic Integrity into My Online Programs?
• December 5th - How Can I Use Peer Mentoring to Improve Online Teaching? 

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

Preparing for Fall 2016 Courses in Blackboard Learn

As you start to think about your fall courses, we wanted to share with you the following important information that will help you prepare your course site in Blackboard Learn.

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. 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
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.

August and September Blackboard Learn and Instructional Technology Workshops

In August and September, 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 as well as on using Blackboard Learn.

  

Workshops include:

• Teaching in Active Learning Classrooms
• Integrating Open Educational Resources
• Creating Accessible Course Materials
• Using Google Docs for Communication and Collaboration
• New to Smart Classrooms
• Introduction to Blackboard Learn
• Blackboard Learn Interaction Tool: Discussion Board
• Blackboard Learn Interaction Tools: Journals, Blogs, and Wikis
• Blackboard Learn: Assignments and Safe Assign
• Blackboard Learn: Tests and Surveys
• Blackboard Learn: Grade Center and Grading
• Blackboard Learn: Using Interactive Grading Rubrics
• Blackboard Learn: Portfolio
• Blackboard Learn: Managing Course Content with Content Collection
• Blackboard Learn: Mobile Apps and Mobile Course Design

To view the complete schedule of workshop sessions (with descriptions) and to RSVP, please visit this web site: http://goo.gl/forms/rvefjBn85rmw1vyn1. If interested in attending a workshop, please make sure to RSVP. A workshop will be cancelled if less than three people sign up for it.

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (5/16/2016)

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). 

 

20 Minute Online Professional Development
The Monday Morning Mentor series, professional development in twenty minute snippets, will resume in the fall semester. We hope you found the sessions informative.

  

Other Professional Development Opportunities

To stay current on professional development opportunities offered by Instructional Technology over the summer, 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 Instructional Technology and Design Page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/myNSCC.acadtech. On the Instructional Technology and Design Facebook page, ITD 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.

Interesting Summer Read
The latest issue of The Edge (the 25th edition of the Technology Across the Curriculum (TAC) Newsletter) is now available at: https://issuu.com/nscc/docs/theedgenewsletter25final. You can also find it as a link from the college's web site under Faculty and Staff > Professional Development > Technology Across the Curriculum and in Pipeline under My Northshore > Faculty Resources > Technology Across the Curriculum.

 

This will be the last issue of iDevelop for the spring semester. We will publish the first one of the fall semester on August 29, 2016. 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.

Have a great summer!

Thank you,

Instructional Technology and Design and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (5/9/2016)

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).
  

20 Minute Online Professional Development: How Can Students Use Self-Compassion to Reduce Test Anxiety?
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 May 9th is How Can Students Use Self-Compassion to Reduce Test Anxiety? 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-Students-Use-Self-Compassion-to-Reduce-Test-Anxiety-13601-1.html. The complete spring schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2015/12/20-minute-mentor-online-faculty.html.

Other Professional Development Opportunities

• RSVP for 6th Annual NSCC Faculty Technology Summer Institute. In June, Instructional Technology and Design, the Library, the CTLA, and the Educational Technology Innovation Group will be holding a two day Faculty Technology Summer Institute. The Summer Institute’s theme is "Flipping Blackboard" and the sessions for the two days will focus on faculty professional development around exploring the concept of flipped learning and how Blackboard Learn can support the flipped class. The Summer Institute will take place on Monday, June 13th and Tuesday, June 14th from 9:00am-3:30pm in Danvers. Space is limited to 30 faculty and is first come first served so please RSVP by Friday, May 20th using the link below. NSCC faculty who attend the Summer Institute will receive a small stipend. RSVP at http://goo.gl/forms/jA4AfhTGiQ.

2016 Issue of The Edge
The 2016 issue of The Edge (the 25th edition of the Technology Across the Curriculum (TAC) Newsletter) is now available at: https://issuu.com/nscc/docs/theedgenewsletter25final. You can also find it as a link from the college's web site under Faculty and Staff > Professional Development > Technology Across the Curriculum and in Pipeline under My Northshore > Faculty Resources > Technology Across the Curriculum.

Resources

• Three Activities to Help Students Reduce Their Test Anxiety
  http://blog.cengage.com/three-activities-to-help-students-reduce-their-test-anxiety/
• Managing Test Anxiety: Ideas for Students
  http://www.hagerstowncc.edu/sites/default/files/documents/11-test-anxiety-tips.pdf

Share your Teaching Strategies
Send an email with your teaching strategies, best practices, or resources to itd@northshore.edu and we will share them in the next few 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,
Instructional Technology and Design and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (5/2/2016)

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). 

20 Minute Online Professional Development: How Can I Transform My Tests into Learning Tools?
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 May 2nd is How Can I Transform My Tests into Learning Tools? 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-transform-my-tests-into-learning-tools-3137-1.html. The complete spring schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2015/12/20-minute-mentor-online-faculty.html.

Other Professional Development Opportunities

• Save the Date for 6th Annual NSCC Faculty Technology Summer Institute. In June, Instructional Technology and Design, the Library, and the Educational Technology Innovation Group will be holding a two day Faculty Technology Summer Institute that will focus on exploring flipped learning and how Blackboard Learn can support the flipped class ("Flipping Blackboard"). Based on feedback from interested faculty, the Faculty Technology Summer Institute will take place on Monday, June 13th and Tuesday, June 14th from 9:00am-3:30pm in Danvers. Please save the date. More details on the Faculty Technology Summer Institute with RSVP information will be available shortly.

2016 Issue of The Edge
The 2016 issue of The Edge (the 25th edition of the Technology Across the Curriculum (TAC) Newsletter) is now available at: https://issuu.com/nscc/docs/theedgenewsletter25final. You can also find it as a link from the college's web site under Faculty and Staff > Professional Development > Technology Across the Curriculum and in Pipeline under My Northshore > Faculty Resources > Technology Across the Curriculum.

Veterans & Community Job & Resource Fair
The Job Fair on Wednesday, May 4th will feature 60 employers from a variety of sectors. The fair, which will be held at NSCC’s Lynn Campus Gym will begin at 2:00-3:00 p.m. for veterans, and 3:00-5:00 p.m. for the general public. The fillable registration form will save time at the door. http://news.northshore.edu/blog/veterans-and-community-job-resource-fair-may-4/

Resources

• Using Online Formative Assessments for Improved Learning http://www.worcester.edu/Currents/Archives/Volume_3_Number_2/CURRENTSV3N2CheremP42.pdf
• Daydreaming or Deep in Thought? Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Participation
  http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/daydreaming-deep-thought-using-formative-assessment-evaluate-student-participation/

Share your Teaching Strategies
What types of formative assessment do you use in your classes? How do you use the information to improve your students’ learning experience? Send an email with your teaching strategies, best practices, or resources to itd@northshore.edu and we will share them in the next few 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,
Instructional Technology and Design and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (4/25/2016)

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). 

20 Minute Online Professional Development: Is Your Syllabus Sending the Wrong Message?
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 25th is Is Your Syllabus Sending the Wrong Message? 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/is-your-syllabus-sending-the-wrong-message-3197-1.html. The complete spring schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2015/12/20-minute-mentor-online-faculty.html.

2016 Issue of The Edge
The 2016 issue of The Edge (the 25th edition of the Technology Across the Curriculum (TAC) Newsletter) is now available at: https://issuu.com/nscc/docs/theedgenewsletter25final. You can also find it as a link from the college's web site under Faculty and Staff > Professional Development > Technology Across the Curriculum and in Pipeline under My Northshore > Faculty Resources > Technology Across the Curriculum.

In this issue, you will hear about the TAC projects of 29 faculty in their own words. Also in this issue, Andrea Milligan, Director of Instructional Technology and Design, and Lance Eaton, Coordinator of Instructional Design, have contributed two articles, one on the Teaching and Learning Online TAC training program for faculty developing online and hybrid courses, and another entitled “Blackboard Learn Tool Spotlight.” That article describes two features on Blackboard Learn that may be new to faculty: SafeAssign, a tool to help prevent plagiarism, and Rubrics, an assessment tool. Finally, in this issue Terri Whitney describes the upcoming installment of a NSCC Literary Websites computer kiosk at the Lynn Museum which will feature three literary websites developed at NSCC, two with TAC grants.

Resources

• What Does Your Syllabus Say About You and Your Course?
  http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/what-does-your-syllabus-say-about-you-and-your-course/ 
• Give Your Syllabus an Extreme Redesign for the New Year https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/give-your-syllabus-extreme-redesign-new-year 
• Writing Syllabi Worth Reading
  http://www.tonahangen.com/courses/syllabusdesign/

Share your Teaching Strategies
Send an email with your teaching strategies, best practices, or resources to itd@northshore.edu and we will share them in the next few 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,
Instructional Technology and Design and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

Spotlighting Innovations in Academic Technology at North Shore Community College

The latest edition of the Technology Across the Curriculum (TAC) newsletter, The Edge: Where Classrooms Meet Technology, 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 of academic technology.

The current issue of The Edge includes:

• Comments from 29 TAC faculty on their projects.
• An article by Andrea Milligan, Director of Instructional Technology and Design, and Lance Eaton, Coordinator of Instructional Design, on the Teaching and Learning Online TAC training program for faculty developing online and hybrid courses. 
• An article by Andrea Milligan, Director of Instructional Technology and Design, and Lance Eaton, Coordinator of Instructional Design, that describes two features on Blackboard Learn that may be new to faculty: SafeAssign, a tool to help prevent plagiarism, and Rubrics, an assessment tool.
• An article by Terri Whitney, English professor and TAC Coordinator, about the upcoming installment of a NSCC Literary Websites kiosk at the Lynn Museum which will feature three literary websites developed at NSCC, two with TAC grants.