Tools That College Students Wish Their Instructors Used More or Less

In a chart posted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, students surveyed indicated which technology and what collaborative tools they wished their instructors incorporated into their courses. for example, nearly three-quarters wished that their instructors would record lectures more often, so they could be watched later. See the full report.

Reminder: Make Your Course Available to Students

Your course will not show up to students if you have not made the course available. All our courses are web-enhanced, so all courses (full semester or 1^st bi-term) must be made available as of September 19, 2013.
To make your course available:

• Log in to Blackboard
• Log into your course (this applies to all SKYCTC courses)
• Control Panel
• Customization
• Properties
• Go to #3 Set Availability
• Make Course Available—click on Yes
• Submit

SKYCTC Blackboard Workshops in August

These training workshops supplement the learning units in the Faculty Training & Resource Center eCommunity and will be of interest to faculty new to Blackboard or have an interest in teaching an online course.

Pre-Registration is Required: Email Cindy Gaffney | cindy.gaffney@kctcs.edu | Subject Line: Enter Workshop Name | Date | Time

All workshops will be held  at the Main Campus, Building H, Room 111A

• Getting Started with Blackboard
• August 9: 9-Noon or August 12: 1-4 pm  (Register for one of these sessions.)
• SoftChalk: August 12: 9:30-11:30 am
• Creating Assignments**: August 13: 9 – 10 am
• Creating Exams**: August 13: 10:30-11:30 am                          
• Using Adaptive Release**: August 14: 12:30-1:30 pm            
• Adding Rubrics to Your Course**: August 14: 2-3 pm           

**Participants should be familiar with the Getting Started workshop concepts before attending this workshop. 

Blackboard Exemplary Course Award: How to Get Your Course Ready!

Listed below is information about an upcoming Blackboard webinar series that will prepare you to possibly submit your online course for consideration for the Blackboard Exemplary Course award.  This is a great professional development opportunity and I know many of you have terrific online courses that should be considered for this award.

Blackboard Exemplary Course Cohort: Register today!

Using the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program (ECP) Rubric as a guide, this cohort will provide both theoretical concepts and practical tools for instructors to recognize, organize, and build online courses for both blended learners and online learners. Over the course of four weeks, ECP Directors and 2013 Exemplary Course Winners will expand upon each element of the rubric. This program will be most beneficial to educators and designers who are new to online learning. Sign up!

• Summer 2013 Cohort Dates: July 22 - August 12
• Live Sessions: Held each Monday at 11am EDT
• Audience: Educators/Designers
• Registration Page: http://learn.blackboard.com/ecpcohort

Blackboard Unavailability: Summer Session

Reminder: KCTCS eLearning (Blackboard) will be unavailable Monday, July 29, at 12:01 AM EST through Thursday, August 1, at 8:00  AM EST for general maintenance and migration to Blackboard hosting.

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."