Program for Online Teaching Newsletter #47
First Fridays: This Friday plus one more!
Laura Paciorek and Jo Moore, facilitators
Apr. 5 – 3:00 – 3:50 (1 hour) Making Your Mark – Personalizing Courses
OC4803a computer lab
Have you ever wondered how to make your courses reflect how you are as an instructor? Do you have questions about how you might be able to make some of your content in a place like a blog or website? Come and discuss these topics and/or your online teaching adventures with fellow faculty members. Individuals with no, little, some, and a lot of online teaching experience are all welcome. Each Program for Online Teaching (POT) First Friday will focus on what the group wants to discuss, however, prompts will also be provided to start the discussion. Questions are welcome, too! This workshop benefits faculty by giving them ideas that may improve instruction.
May 3 – 3:00 – 3:50 (1 hour) Wrap Up/Renewal
OC4803a computer lab
What are your plans for your future classes? What did you learn or what do you want to try next? Come and discuss these topics and/or your online teaching adventures with fellow faculty members. Individuals with no, little, some, and a lot of online teaching experience are all welcome. Each Program for Online Teaching (POT) First Friday will focus on what the group wants to discuss, however, prompts will also be provided to start the discussion. Questions are welcome, too! This workshop benefits faculty by giving them ideas that may improve instruction.
Sign up now at the flex website – limited to 20 participants!
Moodle 2 training
Two opportunities coming up for training in Moodle 2, which all Moodle users are being switched to for summer.
1. Now (started April 1): Here’s a 5-week $59 class offered in Moodle by Dr. Nellie Deutsch:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-UzW0IJj8U8KdeTuzU5iKvblmqNU0h1c5xyujAEXUkI/edit?usp=sharing
2. May 10: Jim Julius reports that Moodlerooms will offer training: a 90-minute online session on Moodle 2 free for MiraCostans. It will be on May 10, 1-2:30 pm. We’ll host people in the TIC or it can be accessed online. Details to come as the date gets closer.
3. July 8-August 2: @ONE Moodle 2 class (this fills fast -sign up now!) $65
Open course in Technology-Enhanced Learning
Beginning April 4, the Association for Learning Technology offers a free 11-week class in technology-enhanced learning for Higher Education.
Fall flex POT workshops
We are in the planning stages for offering a set of pedagogy workshops on Creativity in Online Teaching, including sessions on creativity when starting out, for presentation, for discussion and interactivity, and for student-led projects. Cost will be a mere $5/workshop or $15 for all sessions including lunch. More to come!
Great reading/viewing at the POT Cert Class
We are wrapping up the final weeks for this year’s POT Certificate Class. Participants are working on complex issues of theory and design. Come check it out at Pedagogy First!
Readings for online instructors
A selection of some current views:
- In February, a paper issued from Teachers College’s Community College Research Center found that males, black students and students with lower levels of academic preparation experienced “significantly stronger negative coefficients for online learning compared with their counterparts, in terms of both course persistence and course grade.” More here…
- Bob Barrett’s paper Creating Structure out of Chaos in a Virtual Learning Environment to Meet the Needs of Today’s Adult Learner (2013) examines student’s response to the new trend toward student-centered versus instructor-centered learning.
- A post from Miguel Guhlin on a new Google Group that discusses using Google as an LMS.
- Lisa blogs about the bill in the California Legislature to create a faculty-free New University of California using MOOCs, and why plutocracy loves the new online model.
A couple of cool tools
- Wallflux lets you get a feed from a Facebook group (like the one for a class) and embed it in a webpage or LMS.
- Wigflip makes bits of code for you to do things like add sticky notes and speech bubbles.
Happy online, hybrid, and technology-enhanced teaching,
Lisa