We are the Program for Online Teaching, a group of volunteer faculty helping other faculty teach better online.

Our focus is on pedagogy as the guiding force for using technologies for teaching.

Many of us are from MiraCosta College in Oceanside, California. MiraCostans may access the Teaching/Technology Innovations Center for technical help, resources, news and more.

The POT Network

  • POT Diigo group
    (see tutorial on how to save bookmarks)
  • POT Facebook group
  • POT Vimeo Channel (workshops)
  • POT YouTube Channel
  • Twittter (please use hashtag #potcomm)

POT Newsletter #45 (December 2012)


Program for Online Teaching Newsletter #45

December 2012

 


POT First Friday is this Friday at Oceanside

Laura Paciorek hosts our successful First Friday workshop series in OC4804 at 3 pm.

Come and discuss your online teaching adventures with fellow faculty members.  Individuals with no, little, some, and a lot of online teaching experience are all welcome.

December 7 – 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Renewal – What are your plans for your future classes?  What did you learn or what do you want to try next?

Sign up at the flex website.

Spring flex workshops: tentative schedule

Mark your calendars for POT’s planned spring flex workshops on Thursday, January 10:

11:15 Screencasting for Educators
1:00 Blackboard vs Moodle Smack Down
2:00 Top 10 Resources for Teaching Online
3:00 Open discussion on online teaching

Getting Ready for Moodle 2

If you’re still using Moodle 1.9 (I know I am!) it’s time to get ready for Moodle 2, available in spring for those who want to try it,  or coming this summer for everyone!

Moodle 2 is a somewhat different animal, particularly in its navigation.

Jim Julius is organizing two trainings with Moodlerooms, one for flex week and one later in Spring. You can attend on campus (room TBA) or online Tuesday, February 8 from 2:00-3:30 pm.

Online access info: Meeting ID: 996-529-438
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/join/996529438
Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) – a headset is recommended.  Or, call in using your telephone.
Dial +1 (619) 550-0002
Access Code: 996-529-438
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting

Also, @ONE is offering a short online class in Moodle 2 March 25-April 26  with Joan van Duzer, a true expert in Moodle and a long-time teacher with @ONE. Sign up soon – this one may fill:

Introduction to Teaching with Moodle 2
3/25/13 – 4/26/13

Getting that Flex Credit

With the increased need for flex hours, PDP has been inundated with requests for information from online instructors wanting to know how to get credit for online professional development activities.

The POT website promotes several ways to get flex credit, including @ONE workshops and other approved activities.

In addition, viewing and writing about recent POT videos and seminars, or participating in select units of the POT Certificate Class, can help earn flex credit – take a look at the Get Flex Credit! page at the POT website.

What’s up in the Certificate Class?

A year-long, flex-heavy opportunity is available starting in September at our Online Teaching Certificate Class.

Each year December sees our mid-year roundup, where participants post on their blogs about their first 12 weeks of class, reviewing what they achieved in the first semester. It’s a great time to take a look!

Tool of the Month

This month it’s actually two tools from Mozilla Webmaker:

Popcorn Maker lets you make a video out of maps, audio and other online content.

Thimble helps you create a web page from within your browser.

 

Happy online, hybrid, and technology-enhanced teaching,

Lisa

 

POT Workshop Fall 2012: HTML, Link and Embed

POT Workshop August 2012: HTML, Link and Embed from Program for Online Teaching on Vimeo.

14 August 2012. Lisa and Laura discuss the behind-the-scenes approach to creating links and embedded media. Program for Online Teaching CC licensed A-NC-SA 2012.

POT Newsletter #44 (October 2012)


Program for Online Teaching Newsletter #44

October 2012

 


POT First Friday is October 5 at Oceanside

Laura Paciorek hosts our successful First Friday workshop series in OC4804.

Come and discuss your online teaching adventures with fellow faculty members.  Individuals with no, little, some, and a lot of online teaching experience are all welcome.  Each 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!

October 5 – 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Time/energy management – How do you manage your time/energy as an instructor and how do you help your students manage their time/energy?

Future sessions:

November 2– 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Evaluation – How do you have students evaluate your classes and how do you evaluate your students’ work?

December 7 – 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Renewal – What are your plans for your future classes?  What did you learn or what do you want to try next?

Sign up at the flex website.

Join the Discussion at the POT Cert Class

Join us by commenting at the POT Certificate Class – participants’ posts are collected at our Pedagogy First! blog. Week 5 starts October 7.
Here’s what’s coming up:

Week 5: The Online Syllabus

We’ll be reading Chapter 5: Creating an Effective Online Syllabus in our textbook (Ko and Rossen’s Teaching Online, available in the library or in the PDP office) and discussing due dates, participation, task sequence, scheduling, and creating a syllabus. We’ll also teach about creating an interactive syllabus.

Week 6: Internet Skills and Tools

We’ll be taking a quick Internet Skills quiz and exploring  Dave Raggett’s Introduction to HTML, learning about RSS feeds and setting up a newsreader account. We’ll also teach how to embed a video in a WordPress.com blog.

Week 7: The Online Classroom

We’ll be reading Chapter 6: Building an Online Classroom, to p. 159, and discussing adapting favorite teaching strategies to the online environment, whether it’s best to work in units or weeks, how much of the course one should make visible in advance, and how to handle pacing and class size. We’ll also try Twitter and teaching about building community in online classes.

Week 8: Creating Community

We’ll finish up Chapter 6, focusing on setting up communications with and among students, using quizmakers and gradebooks, tracking students, and issues in creating an online student lounge. We will also discuss how best to handle synchronous sessions, and explore Voicethread. Suggesting readings will be included on imagining a post-LMS era of open learning.

You do not need to be registered in the course to participate – just read and comment to join the conversation!

At the POT website

Check the POT website for videos of our workshops on August 14. So far, Creating Meaningful Discussion in Blackboard and Screencasting with Screenr are available. More are being added weekly. We also have information, tutorials, a Cool Tools list, and much more to help online instructors.

Don’t forget that viewing and reflecting on POT videos can count for flex. See our Get flex credit! page for details.

Quickie $40 2-week Moodle class if you act fast!

Nellie Deutsch of Integrating Technology for LifeLong Learning is offering a course to the first 15 people to sign up. The first week you’ll experience being a student in Moodle. The second week you’ll have teacher rights.

Check it out at http://www.integrating-technology.org/course/view.php?id=421.

Tool of the Month

Lately there has been a lot of interest in “pinboards”, websites where people can share images from across the web or from their own work, and put them together on a single page with information and commenting. The big name right now in pinboards is Pinterest.

 

Happy online, hybrid and technology-enhanced teaching,

Lisa

Screencasting with Screencast-o-Matic

Presentation: Screencasting with Screenr from Program for Online Teaching on Vimeo.

14 August 2012. Jim and Robert demo how and why to use screencasting for classes. Program for Online Teaching CC licensed A-NC-SA 2012.

Creating Meaningful Discussion in Blackboard Forums

POT workshop Fall 2012: Getting Started with Online Discussion from Program for Online Teaching on Vimeo.