Dear Colleagues,

As we wrap up the spring semester and begin looking toward the summer and the July 1 “go live” date for Canvas, the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) and A-State Online (AOS) would like to announce our upcoming Canvas Summer Institute. The goal of the Institute is to provide flexible, hands-on instruction and support for creating new courses and updating courses that have been migrated from Blackboard to Canvas.

While all of the resources that were prepared and recorded during the spring semester will still be available for your viewing through Kaltura Canvas Training Resources, we will be featuring a detailed, hands-on, in-person workshop, with AOS and CETL trainers on hand to help you prepare your Canvas courses. The workshop will take place in the CETL and will be repeated throughout the summer on the following dates:

May 15-19*    

June 12-16

June 26-30

July 10-14

*Registration priority for the May workshop is given to those teaching full summer term classes using Canvas that start in June.

CETL and AOS trainers will provide information for each step in the process twice a day, and workshop participants may then stay in the CETL and work on their course shells, with hands-on assistance provided by the trainers.

The weekly schedule for the workshop will be:

In addition to the hands-on workshops, there will also be two new 90-minute Zoom workshops led by a representative from Canvas. The workshop Canvas for Different Delivery Modalities will be held on Tuesday, June 6, at 2:00 pm, and Grading & Feedback will be held on Wednesday, June 21, at 2:00 pm. For details about the content of workshops and to register and get the Zoom link, see the CETL Calendar.

Finally, faculty members may always schedule individual or group live Canvas help through the CETL or AOS. For additional help sessions, call the CETL at 870-972-2334 or email cetl@astate.edu, or call AOS at 870-680-8464 or email aos@astate.edu.

We hope that you will take advantage of these opportunities to gain comfort using Canvas and to get your upcoming Canvas courses ready. Everyone in the CETL and at AOS looks forward to seeing you this summer!

If you have technical questions or need more information on training, contact Chris Boothman, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Global Campus, at cboothman@AState.edu or (870) 680-4830. 

Ruth Owens, CETL Director

The full listing and descriptions of Canvas training activities for the month is now available. Throughout the coming weeks, we will offer workshops for faculty to learn more about specific features in Canvas. These trainings will be delivered both in-person and via Zoom, and recordings made available through Kaltura Canvas Training Resources for asynchronous viewing later. Opportunities will also be provided for drop-in sessions both in-person (in the CETL Master Classroom in Suite 301 of the library) and virtually via Zoom (led by A-State Online Faculty Support).

In addition to the scheduled in person sessions, A-State Online has also created an asynchronous training course that is now available for all faculty use. This course presents information on online learning best practices, how to use Canvas, and is a great way for faculty to learn basics about Canvas navigation and functionality. Please complete this short form to be added to the course: AState Faculty - Canvas Training.

If you have technical questions or need more information on training, Chris Boothman, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Global Campus, is your resource. We encourage you to contact him at cboothman@AState.edu or (870) 680-4830.

The full listing and descriptions of Canvas training activities for the month of March is now available. There will be a variety of in-person and Zoom workshops and help sessions. All group Foundations and Canvas-led sessions will be recorded and all recordings for Canvas training are available through Kaltura Canvas Training Resources for viewing at any time.

Update: The Recording of this session is now available in our Video Archive. 

We are delighted to announce a series of training opportunities that will be available starting Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, and will run through the remainder of the spring 2023 term.

We will be collaborating with the A-State Online Faculty Support office to offer both synchronous and asynchronous training workshops throughout this semester. We encourage you to review our Canvas training schedule for details of the events scheduled in February 2023. Information on this schedule can also be viewed on our online calendar.

Throughout the coming weeks, we will offer workshops for faculty to learn more about specific features in Canvas. These trainings will be delivered both in-person and via Zoom, and recordings made available through Kaltura Canvas Training Resources for asynchronous viewing later. Opportunities will be provided for drop-in sessions both in-person (in the CETL Master Classroom in Suite 301 of the library) and virtually via Zoom (led by A-State Online Faculty Support).

We are also excited to announce that we will have a series of sessions throughout the spring term led by Canvas trainers, with the first one scheduled for Feb. 6 at 2 p.m. CST via Zoom (Join via Zoom) on the topic of “Content Creation in Canvas.”

A-State Online has also created an asynchronous training course that is now available for all faculty use. This course presents information on online learning best practices, how to use Canvas, and is a great way for faculty to learn basics about Canvas navigation and functionality. Please complete this short form to be added to the course: AState Faculty - Canvas Training.

Our focus is to provide support to all faculty across campus and we will use feedback provided during the February workshops to determine the series of workshops in March and beyond. However, faculty that are unable to attend any of the scheduled training sessions will be given opportunities to attend alternative dates/times later in the spring term.

If you have technical questions or need more information on training, Chris Boothman, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Global Campus, is your resource. We encourage you to contact him at cboothman@AState.edu or (870) 680-4830.

As we celebrate the completion of a successful academic year, it's a great time to slow down and reflect on ways to enhance our teaching skills. The A-State Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) has prepared a program of summer sessions and workshops designed to address the needs that many have expressed throughout the year and on our recent faculty needs survey. 

During June, this year's Summer Institute for Faculty Development highlights the themes of teaching and technology, academic integrity, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and skills for preparing videos to include in courses. Particularly noteworthy is a virtual information session about the prestigious ACUE higher education teaching credential for faculty. In July, we will offer orientation sessions and open practice and use of our new lightboard and recording studio! This new addition to the CETL will make it easy for you to record a brief lecture or instructional video while writing on a board that students can see in your video. CETL staff will show you simple ways to upload your videos to your courses.

View the Summer Institute Program

Registration for all Summer Institute sessions and workshops is open now.  To register from the linked PDF above, download it to your computer and open it in Adobe Acrobat.  The embedded links may not work if you view it in a web browser.  You can also register directly from the CETL calendar. Space is limited in all but the few virtual sessions.

Best wishes for a relaxing and productive summer!

Supporting First-Year Students: A Virtual Discussion Series

Take a break from your “new normal” routine and join (via Zoom) colleagues from across campus as we discover and discuss ways to support first-year students and help them to develop the skills they need to be successful learners and global citizens. We will explore one key topic during each Zoom discussion, keeping our primary goal of supporting first-year students in mind. Anyone who teaches at A-State is welcome to join one, two, or all of the discussions. To increase interaction during discussions, participants are strongly encouraged to read or view free digital resources focusing on each topic prior to the discussion of that topic. Please see the list of topics and meeting dates below, and feel free to explore the resources at any time. The same ZOOM LINK will be used for all of the discussions. For additional information, please e-mail Ruth Owens (rsupko@astate.edu) or Kelli Listenbee (klee@astate.edu). The Faculty Center is collaborating with Learning Support Services and Undergraduate Studies to arrange for this discussion series.

See a fuller description of each topic and chosen resources HERE

Zoom link for sessions is HERE

Lumen Learning Webinars

Lumen’s affordable course materials are designed to strengthen learning using open educational resources (OER). Lumen provides high quality, interactive learning content, online homework, and personalized feedback to help students study and learn more effectively, with plenty of opportunities to engage in active learning. Here is Lumen's course catalog to search your course(s) and review material available. 

Please join us to learn more about the courseware offered for Waymaker and OHM. You can register for one of the webinars listed below: 

Waymaker (Business, Natural and Social Science, English, College Success, Computer Apps, Spanish, etc) 

• Waymaker Webinar 1 (Tuesday, Feb 9th at 11 am) 
• Waymaker Webinar 2 (Wednesday, Feb 17 at 9 am)
  
  

OHM (Math, Accounting, Chemistry) 

• OHM Webinar 1 (Friday, Feb 12 at 1 pm)
• OHM Webinar 2 (Monday, Feb 15th at 11 am) 

TopHat Webinars

Teaching with Data: Identifying Struggling Students & Maintaining Academic Integrity
Feb 10 @ 11AM Central / 12PM Eastern

Introductory Course Content and Authoring with Top Hat
Feb 18 @ 1PM Central/2PM Eastern

Keeping Students Engaged Offline
Feb 25 @ 3PM Central/4PM Eastern

What is TopHat?

Top Hat is an active learning platform making teaching fun and effective. With educators at over 750 institutions adopting Top Hat, the small changes have made a huge impact with students and educators in higher education.

WHAT ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES?

April Sheppard, Assistant Director of Public Services for the Dean B. Ellis Library, will provide information regarding open educational resources (OERs) and licensing. Using OER and free library resources is a great way to lower the cost of education for our students and to create innovative course materials that may be more engaging to students than traditional textbooks.

Introduction to OERs and Library Resources

• Join via Zoom on 02/16 @ 1 pm
• Join via Zoom on 02/23 @ 11 am
• Join via Zoom on 03/03 @ 1 pm

Strategies

  Strategies for web-assisted lesson-planning (PDF)

Summer Institute 2020 Reading Group

Browse these documents, arranged by category, such as "Asynchronous Learning," "Blended/Hybrid/Web-Assisted Teaching and Learning", "Mindfulness, Mental Health, and Self-Care" and many more.

  Teaching resources from the 2020 Summer Institute Reading Group (Dropbox)

Summer Institute: Using iPad to Create Digital Course Materials (videos)

  Using Garageband to Record Audio Podcasts

  Using iMovie to create digital course materials

  Using Keynote to create digital course materials

  Using Numbers to create digital course materials

  Using Pages to Create ePubs

LinkedIn Learning Software Training

These courses require a LinkedIn Learning account. If you do not have a LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) account, please contact Scott Wheat at swheat@astate.edu.

• Adobe Spark (Includes Spark Post, Spark Video, and Spark Page)
• Interactive PDFs and Forms with Adobe DC

VoiceThread Workshops (videos)

  VoiceThread 1 (July 6)

  VoiceThread 2 (July 7)

  VoiceThread 3 (July 8)