Participants can register for all Instructional Support workshops by clicking on the Instructional Support link on myNU and choosing enroll in this workshop. For questions or to register an alternate way, call Danyelle at Ext. 7357 or email dmoore@niagara.edu. All workshops are free of charge and open to all Niagara University faculty and staff.
This is a Blackboard training session specifically designed for new faculty members. Chet Barosky from IT will be available as a resource. This training will take place during part-time faculty orientation.
Facilitator: Jennifer Herman, Instructional Support
This demonstration of Niagara’s Classroom Response System (“clicker”) units will take place during part-time faculty orientation. Come experience the clickers from the student perspective, and learn how you can get training to learn how to use them in your own classes.
Facilitator: Danyelle Moore, Instructional Support
Five SMART Boards in one room allows this to be an interactive training. This session will allow you to become familiar with the SMART Notebook software buttons and use them to create a project during the session. We will be pulling information from the Internet, picture files and the SMART Notebook. You will annotate a PowerPoint presentation and save the notes that you make. Everyone is welcome no matter what your previous experience may be with SMART Boards. The best way to learn about the SMART Board is to use it!
Facilitator: Danyelle Moore, Instructional Support
Classroom Response Systems (clickers) are growing in popularity. Clickers can be powerful for formative assessment; they're also useful tools to facilitate controversial discussions in the classroom. Plus, students love them! Instructional Support has invested in a new, easier-to-use clicker system that can be integrated with PowerPoint. Come learn how to use the clickers, create your own sample presentation, and learn how to reserve the clickers for your classroom. This is a hands-on experience where you will be working with the program. Don’t miss the opportunity to bring clickers into your classroom.
Facilitator: Danyelle Moore, Instructional Support
Blackboard 101 workshops are designed for faculty who have little to no previous experience with Blackboard 9.1 Enterprise course management software. In this highly interactive workshop, participants will learn and practice the basic features of Blackboard 9.1 Enterprise. Before attending the event, please register your course with IT using the “Blackboard Online Course Form” on the left-hand column of your myNU homepage. This will enable you to set up your spring class during the workshop. Chet Barosky from IT will be available as a resource.
Facilitator: Jennifer Herman, Instructional Support
IT and Instructional Support have teamed up to bring this introductory training opportunity, which will provide instruction on how to use the basic technology in the classrooms on campus. Learn how to turn on and use the document camera, computer, and projector. Need to hook up your PC or Mac to the screen? We will show you how to do that and how to make sure you have sound. This session will inform you of simple troubleshooting techniques and how to contact the Help Desk for quick support.
Facilitator: Chet Barosky, Information Technology
Online education at Niagara University has grown organically—and dramatically—over the past few years. We’ll tell the story—with specific numbers—of how online education has grown at NU and how our experience compares to similar institutions and to higher education as a whole. We’ll also introduce Middle States’ “Hallmarks of Quality” for online instruction and discuss how these Hallmarks have spurred additional support for faculty and the creation of a quality review process for online course design. This new quality review process will be discussed and the evaluation rubric will be shared. Finally, Jennifer Herman will provide an overview of Niagara’s three-tiered approach to online faculty development and support, including the Blackboard resource site, individual course design and teaching consultations, and available workshops, including opportunities for training through the Sloan Consortium. This event is important for all faculty who currently teach or plan to teach online courses, any department chairs that offer online courses through their department, or anyone involved with hiring or supervising part-time faculty who teach online.
In conjunction with this year’s SLO assessment symposium, Tim Bothell, an assessment expert and consultant from Centerville, Utah, will be leading four workshops over two days for the benefit of our faculty.
Principles of Test Creation: Multiple Choice Test Items
This session reviews current research based principles for creating multiple-choice test items. Participants work on test items to determine if principles are violated and will write their own test items for a class they teach.
Assessing Higher-Order Thinking
This session will differentiate among test items that assess recall and test items that assess higher-order thinking. Participants will practice writing test items that can assess critical thinking for a class they teach.
Alignment of Objectives, Classroom Activities, and Assessment
This session will teach participants about the most common flaw found in assessing student learning. Participants will evaluate and judge “alignment” in a class they teach.
Using Rubrics and Portfolios
This session will review how to create rubrics and portfolios for assessing students’ performance in hands on experiences. Participants will evaluate the use of performance assessment for their classes.
The purpose of this symposium is to highlight and share best practices in student learning outcomes assessment from the previous academic year (2010-2011) at Niagara University. Four academic departments, co-curricular units, and/or General Education assessment initiatives in the core courses will be nominated by the Senate Outcomes Assessment Committee through a blind review and voting process. Nominees will be selected based on the alignment of their assessment to their department, college, and Niagara’s student learning outcomes, the appropriateness of the instrument selected, the quality of the data collected, the sustainability of the assessment, evidence of benchmarking and/or multiple year comparisons, and evidence that the data has been applied to improving curriculum, courses, and/or student learning. Four representatives, one from each of the nominated areas, will present an outline of their process and a summary of their findings, followed by a brief discussion and Q&A. Following the presentations, the Chair of the Outcomes Assessment Committee, in conjunction with Dr. Timothy Downs, will present the nominee with the most votes with the Student Learning Outcomes Assessment of the Year award. The event will be followed by a reception to celebrate this year’s winner.
This series of small group tutorials will introduce participants to research on quality online course design and will assist them in applying these principles to their own online courses. These tutorials, which are limited to three participants each, are discussion-based and involve sharing current course designs, analyzing them against Niagara’s online course design evaluation rubric, and identifying areas for further work based on the results. Participants are encouraged to share and learn from common experiences, and to continue mutual support throughout the semester. Specific recommendations for improvement will be discussed with the group. This group tutorial is highly recommended for any online instructors preparing to have their courses formally reviewed. Individual tutorials are also available upon request.
Do you have students in your online class that you wish you knew more about? Do you find it difficult to advise students about online classes? This is an opportunity for you to see Niagara University’s Online Student Orientation webpage and ask questions. We will explain how using this tool during advisement or at the beginning of your course can help the student and you make decisions about whether an online class is right for them. Everyone is welcome that is interested in online education at NU.
This three session series, brought to you by Instructional Support, is a great way to add to your toolbox of free tools from the internet to use with your students. Attend one or all three. Each session has a general topic that will allow you to actively explore tools to enhance your teaching as well as tools your students can use to complete assignments. All tools are FREE! Come explore web tools for teaching with us.
Come join your fellow online instructors for a good meal on us! This invitation-only event is open to all full and part-time Niagara University faculty who have taught a credit-bearing online course from summer 2011-spring 2012. A full buffet lunch in the Heritage Room will be provided. There is no formal program for this event: just an opportunity to discuss online education with your colleagues and enjoy a small token of our appreciation for your hard work.
SGID sessions are an approach to gathering student feedback for faculty who are interested in improving their teaching. This is a unique opportunity to connect with your students and potentially improve student evaluations. SGID is an especially helpful tool for pre-tenure faculty or for any faculty members who would like to improve their teaching. Information gathered through SGID is not shared with anyone except the faculty member and the process is entirely voluntary. Visits ideally take place around midterms. For more information about how SGID works, or to set up an appointment, please contact Instructional Support.
Instructional Support is proud to support the Researching and Publishing in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Faculty Learning Community for the 2011-2012 academic year. Ed Hutton of the College of Business Administration and Paul Vermette of the College of Education are the faculty facilitators. Members of this FLC will learn about SoTL research, including reading published examples from other NU faculty, learning about the research and publication process, and learning techniques to become more efficient and prolific scholars. During the academic year, with structured support from the FLC, participants will design and conduct classroom-based research. They will then work with their peers to write, edit, and submit a SoTL paper for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Members receive funding for support of their individual projects and acceptance into this close-knit, cross-disciplinary, supportive community.
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