Learn How to Build An Exemplary Course

Want to learn how to build an exemplary course? Sign Up for the Blackboard Exemplary Course Cohort!

Learn how to provide theoretical concepts and practical tools to recognize, organize, and build online courses for both blended learners and online learners .

This cohort runs will run from: July 22, 2013  – August 12, 2013. Live Sessions: Held each Monday at 11.am EDT.

Click here to sign Up for the Exemplary Course Cohort today.

 

    

Why We Teach

Although it is not specifically related to online learning, I thought I would share this article written by Eric Hoover and Sara Lipka posted in today's Chronicle of Higher Education on one community college's commencement. The article relates the hundreds of stories [see the excerpt below] of struggle that had a happy ending for the graduates of that college. It is  also a story of why we teach in community colleges. See Each Called by Name for the full article.

"Tonight's graduates succeeded through hard work and will. Yet theirs is also the story of a supporting cast who pleaded with them to enroll, helped pay their tuition, gave them a place to stay, counseled them on marriage, asked them "No, how are you really doing?," joined their late-night study sessions, looked after their children, walked them to tutoring, helped them before class, found them scholarships, high-fived them when they passed tests, urged them to speak up, and wouldn't let them quit."

Blackboard Innovative Teaching Series (BITS): Accessibility Matters

Each week, the Blackboard Innovative Teaching Series (BITS) brings together educators to learn from each other and share best practices. Harnessing the largest e-learning platform community, BITS strives to help you in your online learning journey by bringing you together with experts. Upcoming topic: Accessibility Matters! Presented by Joanna Hunt and Beth Stinson, Blackboard on June 24th at 1pm EDT. Click on the link to register for this free workshop.

KCTCS Teaching & Learning with Technology Conference: August 2013

Join us in August as KCTCS hosts regional Teaching & Learning with Technology Mini-Conferences! The Conference will be held at 3 locations across the state to kick-off the Fall 2013 semester and will offer the same tracks and sessions to ensure consistent information is shared among all faculty and staff. Whether you teach online, on-campus, or a combination, you are sure to find sessions that will spark creative ideas for your courses. The 4 tracks are:

• Pedagogy - sessions on pedagogy include topics like Engaging Students, Learning Styles and modes of instruction
• Enhancing your Existing Course - sessions in this track include tools, technology and ideas to spice up your current course
• Assessments - these sessions will give you ideas and tools for improving course assessments and managing grading tools such as rubrics and online grade centers
• A la Carte - this track has a variety of topics to help you manage your courses, use engaging content and go further with web 2.0 and social tools

The event is free for all KCTCS faculty and staff, but you will need to get approval from your local college for travel reimbursement. Click the location to register:

Madisonville Community College – August 2: 10 am – 4:30 pm (Central)

Hazard Community & Technical College – August 8: 10 am – 4:30 pm (Eastern)

Bluegrass Community & Technical College – August 16: 10 am – 4:30 pm (Eastern)

Softchalk Webinar: Engaging Diverse Learning Styles with Web and Mobile Multimedia Tools

Free SoftChalk webinar on Wednesday, June 5th, 2 pm EDT. Click here to register. These webinars can be used for professional development at SKYCTC.

To accommodate diverse learning styles as well as access to mobile content it has become increasingly important to use multimedia and instructional tools that enhance lessons. The tools featured in this webinar will be either free or cheap resources that easily incorporate a variety of multimedia into your SoftChalk content. Many of the tools have both desktop and mobile based solutions that are great to utilize with online and in class engagement. Plus many of these tools are great for student created content as well.

In-Line Grading

In-Line Grading is a new Blackboard tool that will soon be available to KCTCS instructors. View the video below to see how this tool will improve your assignment grading experience. You will also find this web page helpful on Inline Grading for Assignments from Blackboard Help.

Eight Roles of an Effective Online Teacher

Faculty Focus published an interesting article by Bernard Bull, EdD, on the eight roles an instructor should adopt when switching from teaching in the face-to-face classroom to the online environment. For example, listed below is the description of the online instructor in the role of the 'Social Butterfly':
5. Social Butterfly — Without intentional efforts to build a positive social environment, online learning can feel lonely and impersonal. As a result, the online teacher must serve like a great party host, facilitating introductions, using discussion starters to facilitate conversations among students, and taking the time to get to know students and referencing that knowledge in interactions with them. 

Click here to read the full article.