OLC Ideate Labs for Online STEM: Innovating STEM Education 2020
With COVID pandemic, virtual labs are now a requirement rather than a "nice to have". There are many technologies and strategies that can complement and substitute for face-to-face STEM labs that are no longer viable due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To help higher education institutions and faculty successfully respond to this new requirement. MERLOT and OLC will be offering for FREE, a 3-day OLC Ideate Labs for Online STEM: Innovating STEM Education 2020 conference on August 19-21, 2020 on strategies for teaching STEM labs online with various technologies. This free virtual expo will showcase a wide range of virtual and distance labs designed to support online STEM education, offered by both commercial and open educational resource (OER) providers.
Based on higher than expected turnout for last week’s prototype of the Planning Instructional Technology for Online Teaching (PIVOT) Live webinars, DoIT is offering a monthly repeat of the five 60-minute webinars in five days approach on the following dates (up to 100 people can participate, but registration via myUMBC is required).
July 20 to 24 at 10 a.m. (canceled)
The PIVOT webinars will include the following topics:
Organizing & Designing an Online Course
Active Learning Strategies
Engaging Students & Building Online Community
Reconceptualizing Online Assessments
Supporting Students and Monitoring Progress
As a reminder, last week’s webinars on these topics were recorded and available on the original announcement and DoIT’s Academic Continuity site (a PIVOT site is also under development). The recordings will also be paired with key instructional technology FAQs to form the basis of PIVOT Solo, which is designed as a totally asynchronous, self-paced to enable a more deliberate approach to online teaching than was the case in Spring 2020.
Last week’s turnout for the first prototype of the PIVOT webinars included the following:
We had 1,030 registrations with 764 attendees for one or more sessions (72 people attended all 5 sessions and accounted for 360 attendees).
There were 263 unique participants during the week, 122 of whom are teaching this summer, which was our most pressing need.
To date, we've received 100 survey responses from the 263, and 77% rated the webinars as helpful, 8% not-helpful.
As discipline-specific or cohort-based plans develop within Colleges, DoIT will use the PIVOT webinars & PIVOT Solo “playlists” to support such groups, which will inform the synchronous and asynchronous approach of PIVOT + that was previously announced.
In addition to new monthly offerings of PIVOT during the summer, DoIT’s Instructional Technology team has also announced focused training in Blackboard Essentials, Collaborate, Panopto, and VoiceThread, which were popular topics throughout the week. To learn more, visit DoIT’s training site at doit.umbc.edu/training.
As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:
Academic Continuity | Keep On Teaching | Student Technology Resources
Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
Request a consult with instructional technology staff
Blackboard has announced a webinar series to help faculty transition to remote instruction. Click here to sign up for the options described below.
Who are these webinars for?
This webinar series is designed for Instructors who are just getting started with teaching using Blackboard Learn and Blackboard Collaborate, as well as those who have started to transition to deliver instruction remotely and are looking to make some improvements.
About the webinar series
Many of you had to quickly transition to remote teaching in response to growing concerns on the spread of the coronavirus. The journey to teaching remotely is a process, and we want to ensure you have the tools you need to be successful for both you and your students.
Whether you are brand new to teaching online or looking to make some improvements to what you have started, we designed a set of webinars from basic topics to advanced. We added more topics to help you as you prepare for your next semester.
Getting Started with Blackboard Learn Original Course Experience - Do I have Learn Original?
This webinar is designed to provide you easy step-by-step instructions on how to upload course content, create discussion boards for students to communicate, and provide an overview on the types of online assessments available in Blackboard Learn’s ORIGINAL course experience.
Getting Started with Blackboard Learn Ultra Course Experience - Do I have Learn Ultra?
This webinar is designed to provide you easy step-by-step instructions on how to upload course content, create discussion boards for students to communicate, and provide an overview on the types of online assessments available in Blackboard Learn’s ULTRA course experience.
Getting Started with Blackboard Collaborate
Moving from in-classroom instruction to the virtual classroom does not have to be difficult or stressful. Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is a web-based communication tool that allows you to continue to engage with your students in real time or even to record sessions for students to watch at a later time. In this 30-minute session, we will review the Collaborate interface and tools that support engaging teaching online.
Getting Started with Bb Annotate: Inline Assignment Grading in Blackboard Learn
Blackboard Learn’s inline assignment grading functionality, currently delivered through a technology called New Box View, will be replaced over the next few months with a new tool called Bb Annotate. Created in partnership with clients around the globe, Bb Annotate will offer a more robust feature set to provide customizable feedback to learners, including a sidebar summary view, freehand drawing tools, various color selections, and much more. Join this webinar to see a demonstration of the new tool and get your questions answered by Blackboard experts.
OFFICE HOURS: Ask the Experts About Blackboard Learn and Collaborate
Have a question on how to do something in Blackboard Learn or Blackboard Collaborate? Join this live Office Hours session where Blackboard experts will be on hand to answer questions, demonstrate workflows and provide guidance on teaching remotely.
Intermediate/Advanced Topics
Assessment & Assignments in Blackboard Learn (Original Course Experience)
This intermediate session will provide a deeper dive into setting up assessments, utilizing different types of assessments and creating gradable assignments within a Blackboard Learn Original experience course.
Guide to Building Mobile Content (Original & Ultra Course Experiences)
Many students prefer to consume course content on their mobile phone. This webinar is designed to provide you with basic fundamentals for preparing online course content for mobile delivery. Additionally, we will review Blackboard mobile apps and provide you with a helpful worksheet on mobile content development.
Improving Student Engagement (Original Course Experience)
In the new world of social distancing and limited interaction with others, instructors and students may be missing some accustomed modes of interpersonal communication in courses. Join a team of Blackboard experts who understand first-hand the demands of a fully online teaching environment—we are eager to help you discover how utilizing tools within Blackboard Learn can encourage meaningful engagement among students and between your students and you! Effectively use discussion boards, engage students with interactive lectures and quizzes and challenge them to collaborate together in teams and then present their work back to the larger class. Blackboard’s team of academic professionals have plenty of ideas to share with you and are eager to support you as you consider different ways to promote communication, get your students involved, and to keep them engaged in online classes.
Setting up the Gradebook (Original Course Experience)
As you prepare (or continue) to deliver instruction remotely this summer, empower yourself to do so with maximum efficiency by understanding Blackboard Learn’s powerful Grade Center. The Grade Center is more than just a location to record students' grades--it is an interactive tool that allows faculty to filter, sort, and access data , calculate grades, and monitor student progress. Join this session to learn the basics of efficiently managing your students’ work and grades.
Grading Workflows for Discussions, Assessment & Assignments (Original Course Experience)
Let’s face it – grading is possibly one of the least ‘fun’ parts of teaching. However, now that you’ve created assessments, assignments, and quizzes in Blackboard Learn, the grading process can be easier than ever. In Blackboard, instructors can provide feedback, post grades, and check the originality of student work with ease. Discover how much easier it can be to grade papers when you can annotate right within the online course. You can even provide audio feedback to the student, helping them understand areas of the paper that may need some attention. Want to set up a quiz to be automatically graded? You can do that too! Join us in this informative session on how to use Blackboard’s course tools to make your online teaching experience more efficient, more engaged and less time consuming!
Click here to register for any of the sessions.
Session Dates
Getting Started with Blackboard Learn Original Course Experience - Do I have Learn Original?
· Monday, May 4 | 9:00–9:30 am ET
· Monday, May 11 | 1:00–1:30 pm ET
Getting Started with Blackboard Learn Ultra Course Experience - Do I have Learn Ultra?
· Monday, May 4 | 10:00–10:30 am ET
· Monday, May 11 | 2:00–2:30 pm ET
Getting Started with Blackboard Collaborate
· Monday, May 4 | 11:00–11:30 am ET
· Monday, May 11 | 3:00–3:30 pm ET
Getting Started with Bb Annotate: Inline Assignment Grading in Blackboard Learn
· Tuesday, May 12 | 2:00–3:00 pm ET
· Wednesday, May 13 | 9:00-10:00 pm ET / Thursday, May 14 | 11:00 am–12:00 pm AEST
· Thursday, May 14 | 9:00–10:00 am ET
OFFICE HOURS: Ask the Experts about Blackboard Learn & Collaborate
· Thursday, May 14 | 11:00 am–12:00 pm ET
· Thursday, May 28 | 11:00 am–12:00 pm ET
Assessment & Assignments in Blackboard Learn (Original Course Experience)
· Tuesday, May 5 | 9:00–9:45 am ET
· Tuesday, May 19 | 2:00–2:45 pm ET
Guide to Building Mobile Content (Original & Ultra Course Experiences)
· Wednesday, May 6 | 9:00am - 9:45am ET
· Wednesday, May 20 | 2:00pm - 2:45pm ET
Improving Student Engagement (Original Course Experience)
· Friday, May 8 | 9:00am - 9:45am ET
· Thursday, May 21 | 3:00pm - 3:45pm ET
Setting up the Gradebook (Original Course Experience)
· Thursday, May 7 | 9:00am - 9:45am ET
· Thursday, May 21 | 2:00pm - 2:45pm ET
Grading Workflows for Discussions, Assessment & Assignments (Original Course Experience)
· Wednesday, May 13 | 9:00am - 9:45am ET
· Wednesday, May 27 | 2:00pm - 2:45pm ET
Click here to register for any of these sessions.
Looking for recordings?
Click here to watch past webinar sessions.
As UMBC prepares to offer all SU2020 courses in an online format, DoIT’s Instructional Technology team is pleased to introduce Planning Instructional Variety for Online Teaching (PIVOT), a new professional development program for instructors who wish to take a more deliberate and holistic approach to preparing their courses for remote, synchronous and asynchronous, online instruction. PIVOTconsists of five 60-minute webinars over five days with recorded replays available later that same day. Prototype versions of the live PIVOT webinars will occur daily from May 4 to 8 at noon (up to 225 people can participate, but registration via myUMBC is required).
PIVOT topics will focus on helping instructors achieve competency in areas related to pedagogy, course design and development as well as technical and administrative skills:
Engaging Students & Building Online Community (5/6) - view recorded session here
Reconceptualizing Online Assessments (5/7) - view the recorded session here
Supporting Students and Monitoring Progress (5/8) - view the recorded session here
The first phase of PIVOT is the live webinars open to all instructors, including graduate students, especially those teaching in the Summer [view proposed agenda]. Throughout the summer, PIVOT webinars will be available and part of college-based models with experienced online instructor colleagues who can help provide support or customize content, pending feedback on the early prototype of topics and formats.
In addition to the PIVOT live webinar series, two additional tracks to support faculty are currently under development: PIVOT+ will be a facilitated, cohort-based online workshop available to faculty who are preparing for FA2020 courses. PIVOT Solo will provide a self-directed experience using the PIVOT webinar recordings (available after the PIVOT protype week), complemented by DoIT’s Academic Continuity and the Faculty Development Center’s (FDC) Keep on Teaching sites, as well as select FAQs for a robust reference collection or “playlist.” Also, the FDC will provide multiple opportunities after PIVOT offerings for faculty to reflect and refine lessons gleaned from the initial training.
Inspired by nearly 90 faculty participating in the Alternate Delivery Program (ADP), which focuses on redesigning select courses for winter and summer delivery in online or hybrid format, PIVOT is grounded in the evidence-based principles for how people learn and shares many of the best practices of teaching in face-to-face classrooms, but leverages those principles and adapts the practices to the online environment. Like the ADP, PIVOT leverages the highly-regarded Quality Matters (QM) standards for effective online course design, and is ideal for participants who found themselves thrust into online teaching this Spring, but would like to be more proactive and intentional about their future online course design and instruction.
Beyond responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, PIVOT leverages the University’s prior investment in instructional technology and supports UMBC’s vision of “redefining excellence in higher education through an inclusive culture that connects innovative teaching and learning.”
For additional information, please contact the following:
Dr. Philip Rous, Provost rous@umbc.edu
Dr. Sarah Shin, Associate Provost shin@umbc.edu
Dr. John Fritz, Associate Vice President, Instructional Technology fritz@umbc.edu
Dr. Sherri Braxton, Senior Director of Instructional Technology sbraxton@umbc.edu
Dr. Mariann Hawken, eLearning Manager mariannhawken@umbc.edu
As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:
Academic Continuity | Keep On Teaching | Student Technology Resources
Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
https://fdc.umbc.edu/resources/keep-on-teaching/Following guidance from the University System of Maryland in the rapidly developing public health response to COVID-19, UMBC will transition to fully online instruction when classes resume after Spring Break. Per the announcement on March 10, we expect online instruction to continue for at least two weeks. As UMBC faculty shift to remote instruction using virtual tools, Blackboard has designed a series of free 30-minute webinars to help get started. Multiple dates & times are offered.
Teaching Remotely (Blackboard Learn Basics)
In response to growing concerns on the spread of the coronavirus, and institutions moving to fully online teaching, this webinar is designed to provide you easy step-by-step instructions on how to upload course content, create discussion boards for students to communicate, and provide an overview on the types of online assessments available in Blackboard Learn.
--> Register online with Blackboard
Getting Started with Teaching a Virtual Class
Moving from in-classroom instruction to the online classroom does not have to be difficult or stressful. Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is a communication tool that will allow you to continue to engage with your students in a synchronous manner, or record sessions for students to watch at a later time. In this 30-minute session, we will review the Collaborate interface and tools available to use while teaching online.
--> Register online with Blackboard
Guide to Building Mobile Content
In this urgent response to moving from in-person instruction to online instruction, instructors should prepare for students to access course information on the go. In this 30-minute session, we provide you with basic fundamentals for preparing online course content for mobile delivery. Additionally, we will review Blackboard mobile apps and provide you with a helpful worksheet on mobile content development.
As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following resources: