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KSC Faculty at Institute on Global Learning This summer, a team of Keene State faculty members from all three academic schools will participate in "Shared Futures: General Education for a Global Century," an institute sponsored by the American Association of Colleges and Universities to help faculty integrate global perspectives across the curriculum. The institute will be held in Ellicott City, Md., from July 31 to August 5, and will draw faculty from 32 colleges and universities. During the fall 2011 semester, the core Keene State team will draw in faculty and staff from across campus to implement the goals and strategies developed at the institute. By building a network of educators dedicated to this integrative work, Shared Futures facilitates curricular change and faculty development on campuses nationwide. Through an online social network, the initiative hopes to create new connections between educators and new opportunities for partnership and learning. Keene State faculty members attending the institute include professors Charles Weed (political science), Margaret Henning (health sciences), Patricia Pedroza (women's and gender studies), and Rich Blatchly (chemistry). For more information, contact Prof. Weed at cweed@keene.edu or visit the Shared Futures page.

from news and events

There are several widely-accepted rubrics (Quality Matters, the ION one in Illinois, etc.), but in my opinion, they focus on course design, not on teaching the course. When I was at Black Hawk College, we created a Best Practices for Exemplary Online Teaching set of standards based on the Chickering and Gamson's "7 Principles of Good Practice for Undergraduate Education" meta-analysis. Individual best practices for online teaching were pulled from the literature and listed as possibilities under each of the 7 principles, and an 8th was added with some of the course design elements not already mentioned in the first 7. In other words, we created a local document that could assist faculty in doing self-assessment, peer evaluations of each other's courses, and potentially institutional review of online courses. However, our instrument was not used for institutional assessment because it was not approved as part of the faculty [union] contract. It is important for a document like this to be shared with the faculty ahead of time so that they know how their courses are going to be evaluated. I also think it is helpful to have several people evaluate various aspects of online courses, such as someone who is an expert in online education who can evaluate the learning experiences and course design elements of the course, someone from the faculty member's department who can evaluate the quality and accuracy of the course content, as well as the administrator whose job it is to evaluate teaching. If the institution uses a type of rubric or assessment document when evaluating face-to-face teaching, it needs to be vetted by online experts to determine if it emphasizes appropriate, comparable variables in the online environment. For example, if activities to promote student engagement is on that form...what does that look like online? Not all administrators or faculty who have not taught online would know what to look for as indicators of student engagement.

The Online Faculty Competency Certification program is intended for future and existing online teachers. The program is designed to help faculty members become proficient in the use of Blackboard and to become effective facilitators in the online environment.

The following are archived videos from the ELMS Pilot Evaluation Webinar Series. In those webinars, ELMS pilot faculty members talk about their experiences with each of the five ELMS pilot systems: Blackboard 9.1, Desire2Learn, Canvas, Moodle, and Sakai. The ELMS pilot evaluation faculty members give an overview of each system, highlight unique features, and talk about what works and what doesn't. Most of the webinars are available to watch either in Wimba Live Classroom or on YouTube. The following are archived videos from the ELMS Pilot Evaluation Webinar Series. In those webinars, ELMS pilot faculty members talk about their experiences with each of the five ELMS pilot systems: Blackboard 9.1, Desire2Learn, Canvas, Moodle, and Sakai. The ELMS pilot evaluation faculty members give an overview of each system, highlight unique features, and talk about what works and what doesn't. Most of the webinars are available to watch either in Wimba Live Classroom or on YouTube. Introduction

The instructional design staff supporting faculty developing online courses historically focused primarily on faculty receiving a course release for one semester for which their department was compensated under an award from the Provost's office. The goal was to complete development within this one semester. Unfortunately, that was a rare occurrence. As a result, many course development projects lingered, funds were encumbered, and online courses were taught without being completely developed and reviewed for quality assurance. In the Spring of 2013, the approach changed. we invited faculty receiving awards to join a community focusing on the practice of developing high-quality online courses. We adopted a cohort approach to project-based professional development in the form of an online course.

dScribe, short for "digital and distributed scribes," is a participatory and collaborative model for creating open content. It brings together enrolled students, staff, faculty, and self-motivated learners to work together toward the common goal of creating content that is openly licensed and available to people throughout the world. It was first developed by students and faculty at the University of Michigan to leverage the interest and talent of students in working with faculty and staff to transform educational material into open educational resources (OER). The dScribe model encourages students, faculty, staff, and other interested individuals such as alumni and community members to get involved in not only creating open content, but also generating awareness about the benefits of creating and sharing educational content with a global learning community.

"Faculty Competencies for Online Teaching Teaching in an online environment can be considerably different in nature from teaching face-to-face. The competencies listed on this site are intended to provide faculty and administrators with a better understanding of the instructional requirements of online teaching. Pedagogical Competencies Technical Competencies Administrative Competencies"

Online Venture Energizes Vulnerable College But some faculty at Southern N.H. fear for future of bricks-and-mortar campu

Book review I know that our faculty friends in the humanities have a lot of advice to offer for facilitating student writing, but often it doesn't seem to fit the context of quantitative work (or at least, the benefits are lost in the translation of the process). Enter Student Writing in the Quantitative Disciplines: A Guide for College Faculty by Patrick Bahls, 

Colleagues, Last semester 30 faculty and staff participated in a reading group focused on Clayton Christensen and Henry Eyring's "The Innovative University." The reading group came together face-to-face on a number of occasions and continued the rich discussion online. It was a great experience and a fascinating book. This semester the faculty and staff participating in the American Democracy Project recommended that we invite the campus community to come together to read "A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy's Future." The work was completed by the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, under the leadership of the American Association of Colleges and Universities. It's a brief volume, rich in examples, on how colleges and universities must reclaim responsibility for civic learning. "A Crucible Moment" is available in PDF here: http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/research/pubs/college-learning-democracys-future/crucible-moment.pdf The reading group will meet once in March and once in April, with opportunities for online discussion. More information will follow later in the month. In the meantime, if you're interested in joining us for this discussion, please email Kim Schmidl-Gagne (kgagne@keene.edu). If you would like to commit to the reading group, but would prefer to read in hard copy, Kim will also order a copy for you. I look forward to this discussion, and I hope you will consider joining us for our spring reading group. Mel

Participants will collaboratively build a set of shared online resources as they gain knowledge and skills to help faculty integrate technology. In each activity, groups will develop materials as Google Docs that will be immediately available to all. Participants don't need to be wizards but should be familiar with digital learning tools. Each participant must bring a laptop and should be able to create and edit Google Docs. The intended audience includes instructional technologists and technology integration specialists.

How to get faculty excited about professional development

"In Summer 2013, Hinds Community College (as well as the other 14 community colleges in Mississippi) will move to the Canvas platform by Instructure as the new learning management system for the college.  Blackboard will no longer be available after June 1, 2013 to students or faculty.  This website will serve as the communication tool regarding the migration to Canvas.  Please check back often for additional information regarding best practices, timeline for implementation, and training materials. PLEASE BOOKMARK THIS PAGE AND CHECK BACK OFTEN.  Frequent emails will also be sent out regarding updates. "

"True innovation in Higher Ed will emerge from faculty-driven, open-source projects, not start-up commercialisation"

Great online Canvas training for faculty

For faculty Breakdown of Google v Canvas

Following an evaluation process that encompassed almost two years, Michigan Tech selected the Canvas Learning Management System,from Instructure, Inc. It was the clear choice of faculty and student testers, and is very intuitive and easy to use.

A pilot of the Canvas Learning Platform involving Western faculty, students and support staff, provided  strong support for a recommendation that Western transition from Blackboard to Canvas. A summary of  the results of the pilot study as well as options and timelines for the transition are presented in this  report. ATUS will continue to evaluate transition options and present those recommendations by March  30, 2013

Simple design advice that would work for many faculty, and probably without AT help.