SUNY Learning Network
Faculty Development Workshop Descriptions
2012-2013
Overview of SLN workshops
SLN is committed to delivering workshops that help faculty develop and deliver high-quality
instruction in an online setting. Our workshops are characterized by equal emphasis on using the medium effectively (lms, online tools, emerging technologies) and teaching practice (direct instruction, instructional design). SLN offers professional development workshops and resources for all levels of teaching online: blended and fully online.
Introduction to Online Learning
This workshop will serve as a general orientation and introduction to online learning, for those with no experience. It will provide an overview of various models, examine basic design issues and provide a tour of the online learning environment. This workshop introduces the three core pedagogical
components essential for an effective teaching/learning environment: 1. Presentation: Develop and structure online course content.
2. Engagement/Interaction: Explore how students will interact with the course content, how they will interact with the instructor, and how they will interact with each other.
3. Assessment: Provide a reliable and valid measure of student achievement.
Presenting Online Content in your Course
This workshop will explore the value and application of content items fundamental to the development of an effective teaching/learning environment. This hands-on workshop will focus on how to create and organize various types of content for online students. We will begin the course development process by working with an SLN course template and adding content items such as folders, pages, links, files, assignments, and discussion forums.
Participants will upload/create a course syllabus, add various types of information, link to outside resources, embed content from Google, YouTube, and other 3rd party resources.
Integrating Online Interaction into Your Instruction
This hands-on workshop will train participants in the pedagogy and tools associated with student-student and student-student-professor interaction. Topics covered will include: role of discussion in online courses, private communication with students, small-group interaction, and general questioning techniques. The focus of this workshop is on engagement through interactivity:
Engagement with the professor engagement with other students engagement with the content
Each of these can be a significant factor in orchestrating an effective course. In this workshop we will consider the effective use of a variety of interactive strategies including discussion forums, rubrics, teams, journals, and Course Mail.
The Community of Inquiry framework is introduced and explained to faculty in this workshop.
Authentic Online Assessment
This hands-on workshop will address pedagogical issues of evaluation vs. assessment, how to assess the daily work, subjective vs. objective assessment, formative vs. summative evaluation, in online courses. Participants will also work directly with tools that support assessment. In this
workshop we addresses the need for authentic and reliable online evaluation and assessment strategies. Topics included in this workshop are:
1. Assess or Evaluate? 2. Written Assignments
3. Assessment Instruments: Exams / Surveys / Discussion Forums 4. Creating and using a test item pool
5. There are four kinds of assessments and they should all be used to encourage individual learning and to prove that learning has taken place.
Online Classroom Management
This workshop will focus on development of the skills necessary to manage a hybrid or fully-online course. Topics will include: attendance, gradebook, managing discussions, grading assignments, providing feedback. This workshop provides effective strategies and best practice tips for
managing the daily activities in an online course. Issues covered in this workshop include: Effective use of announcements
Roster management
Setting up the course gradebook
Grading discussions, exams, and written assignments Setting up and implementing teams
Using course mail efficiently Using ANGEL reports
Review and Revise Your Online Course
For faculty who have already developed and are delivering an online or blended course, this workshop will focus on reassessing learning strategies implemented, for development of course related best practices, in preparation for future offerings. All participants will benefit from the award winning SLN Teaching Presence survey, which will provide customized, private feedback to faculty about their own teaching techniques. Faculty discuss what is working well, and how to modify and improve what isn't working as well as hoped. In addition to considering suggestions for revision, participants will explore ideas for additional learning activities and strategies.
Open Educational Resources: Leveraging 3rd Party Content for Your
Online or Blended Course
As the quantity and quality of Internet resources grow, so do our instructional possibilities and choices. This workshop will focus on how to identify and implement rich content from various sources. Faculty will take away skills that will enable them to:
• Identify rich content for their disciplines;
• Curate their findings for themselves and their students; • Embed content into their courses;
• Implement their content with instructional design.
Applying the Quality Matters Rubric
This training will explore the SLN/Quality Matters Initiative and processes. This initiative aims to provide faculty with a mechanism for continuous improvement in instructional design. It will prepare you to be part of a program that can positively impact the design of your online courses. After
successfully completing this training, you will be eligible to move into the online Peer Reviewer Certification module offered through Quality Matters. In addition, you will gain ideas to improve your own courses using the SLN and QM tools.
Upon completion of this workshop, you will be able to:
Understand the Quality Matters (QM) process and underlying principles; Describe the eight standards of the QM Rubric;
Understand the peer review process, both formal (QM) and informal (SLN); Explain the QM scoring system;
Make decisions on whether or not a set of given scenarios meet the QM Rubric standards; Collaborate with peer faculty in evaluating course design elements in an online course; Pursue additional professional development opportunities through SLN and Quality Matters. Participants will receive a Quality Matters certificate of completion at the conclusion of this training.
Determining Best Practices in Blended Learning
We know that online instruction has had a positive effect on face-to-face classrooms, as our online teaching community of practice re-thinks content presentation, interaction and feedback. From SUNY Learning Network online faculty surveys, instructors consistently report that fully online teaching transforms their face-to-face teaching.* Web-enhanced (presenting content) and hybrid (replacing face-to-face seat time) teaching has now taken hold on our SUNY campuses. This workshop aims to bring faculty together to discuss best practices that have emerged from these experiences. We will present an overview of asynchronous teaching strategies that work, and then investigate with you the questions that arise when planning to incorporate these activities into face-to-face instruction:
Presentation – Effective online instructional practices
Measuring student-student interaction
Creating unlimited practice opportunities for learners Leveraging multimedia and online resources
Student-centered learning
Providing instant feedback to students Tracking student progress
Paperless writing submissions
Archived communication (public/private) Resources available for faculty
Group Discussion – Share what you know
How do we blend synchronous and asynchronous learning most effectively? What works? What doesn’t work?
How do students react to a blended classroom?
What resources are available for faculty who wish to blend?
What are the best questions to ask when considering this approach for a given course or discipline?
What are the most effective face-to-face strategies for students?
Teaching and Learning in the “Cloud”
students can reflect or make their thinking visible to you? How would you assess and give them feedback? Have you thought about podcasting or screencasting to provide engaging online student feedback? Could video enhance how you present your content? What would that look like? Have you ever wanted to open your course and invite the world in? Would you dare?
This workshop will answer these questions by showing you what it looks like to teach and learn in the "cloud." You will also consider criteria that you can use to evaluate technology for instructional
purposes, and review examples and resources you can use to help you incorporate learner-generated content, the social web, and web 2.0 technologies in your instruction to enhance interaction and engage your students. This session will ask you to step into the "cloud" with me to consider possibilities for your own instruction. I will show you my “cloud” and how I am exploring what it really means to be learner-centered. I will show you what happens when several web 2.0
technologies (twitter, voicethread, diigo, edublogs, jing, seesmic, youtube, podomatic, audacity) are stitched together into one fully online course. I will talk about how I did it and why, and what the students thought about it. And I will also invite you to explore selected tools for yourself, and to join my networks, so you can share what you know with me and others in the SLN/SUNY online teaching and learning community.
Using the Medium Effectively: Advanced Features in ANGEL
This workshop will focus on the new features available in ANGEL 7.4/8.0 that can enhance your content presentation, classroom management, and overall efficiency in using the medium effectively. Topics covered include:
Improving Your Efficiency in Content Delivery: Utilizing the LOR in 7.4/8.0 Assessing Student Work: The Rubric Creator
Tracking Student Outcomes: Using Standards and Objectives Additional Enhancements in ANGEL 7.4/8.0
Using Google Media Item Analysis
New resources for faculty in ANGEL 7.4/8.0: SLN/Evergreen
Using the Medium Effectively with Rubrics
The new assessment opportunities offered in the latest versions of ANGEL and Bb are compelling for all instructors. Come and learn how rubrics facilitate instruction, feedback, and the grading process in your course. In this workshop, we will explore how to:
Create an effective rubric for any learning activity;
Find, curate, and edit rubrics that have already been created;
Determine criteria and achievement levels that conform to specific assignments, target audiences, and course objectives;
Expedite the grading workflow while providing relevant, succinct feedback to students; Ensure objective grading.