Sep 19

Let the Voting Begin!

(Voting closed 09/22/2014)

Voting is now open!

We thank those faculty who submitted a banner to the first FLC Faculty Challenge. We appreciate your enthusiasm and contributions!

Now it’s time for everyone to help us choose a winner by voting! Look over the banners below and cast 6 votes for your favorites. You can vote only 6 times and on 6 different banners.

Voting closes on Monday the 22nd at noon and we’ll announce the winner later that day.

Again, thank you everyone for your submissions and your votes. Be on the lookout for our next FLC Faculty Challenge “Sense of Presence.” We’ll post a teaser next week to get you thinking about your sense of presence in your online course before we open the next challenge up for submissions.

J202

introfisheries

HIM285

ED593

ENGL261

ED416

Biol240

Econ393

biol104

Biol103

BA493

art103

 

Sep 16

Tech Tuesday – Sept 16

ipadFLC_croppediPads can support your teaching, help lighten your load when you travel, help you take notes during conferences, provide a way to check mail, compile data, research your content area, and more.

Did you know Title III has iPads available to UAS Sitka faculty for check out?

If you would like to check one out, please email Mary Purvis for more details. You will need to submit a proposal for its use and a report about how you used the iPad in your teaching and Personal Learning Environment. Supplies are limited – first come, first serve!

To pique your interest in how helpful an iPad can be to your teaching, read this report, graciously shared by Gayle Hammons.

Image: ©iStockphoto.com/Sitade

Sep 15

Blackboard: Behind the Scenes

We’ve created a sample course for your students that contains tutorials and guidelines for using Blackboard. It covers topics such as turning in assignments, communication tools, announcements, quizzes and exams, gradebook features, Web Meeting/Collaborate, uploading video and images, and in general tips for success.

Watch the course introduction below. It has audio, so be sure that your headphones and/or your speakers are on.

 

We encourage you to share this course with your students. Students should follow these directions for access:

Sep 12

Fried Friday: Do your students feel like this?

Yesterday we posted an article that talked about a faculty’s responsibility to students. Does it include answering all questions? Does it require you to hand-feed your students? Today we want to add a little humor into your day with the following video clip: “What if your GPS acted like a typical user’s guide” which we think relates to the last post.

Tina, thanks for finding this clip. Not only is it funny, but it also is right on target with our challenge to provide information to students without overwhelming them and without doing the thinking for them. Well, watch the video, you’ll get the point!

GPS

And have a great weekend!

P.S. Don’t forget our banner challenge is still going on. It’s not too late to submit your entry. We’ll vote next week! Click the banner to view our current banner challenge entries. Thanks everyone for participating!

Banner Challenge 2014

Sep 11

Do you do clean windows too?

Mary shared an interesting article posted this week in the Faculty Focus Teaching Professor Blog titled  “She Didn’t TeClick link for articleach. We Had to Learn it Ourselves.” It poses some good questions surrounding just what is your job as a “good” teacher? Should you explain everything clearly to students? Should you underscore all of the important information and answer every question that your students ask? Where do you draw the line? No, really, where do YOU draw the line? We’d love to hear in our comments area, your thoughts on this.

I personally like the idea of letting students think for themselves. But, I feel that they should know what you are doing and understand why you are doing it, otherwise it can be very frustrating. Click on the Teaching Professor Blog icon for the full article and then post a comment to give us your thoughts.

Also– we’re still accepting submissions to the Banner Competition!! It’s fun. We have 5 submissions so far, so please, send us YOUR banner!! You can view the banners we’ve received to date by clicking on the banner image below. Don’t put it off– send me your banner!! ksbaldwin@alaska.edu  P.S. any non-UAS faculty reading the FLC– feel free to join our challenge!

Banner Challenge 2014

Sep 09

Tech Tuesday – Sept 9

bamboo tabletThis week’s Tech Tuesday post will feature the Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet. Do you need to write on your whiteboard in Collaborate? Tired of struggling to draw a circle or write a math equation with your mouse?Bamboo Splash is a small, easy to set up pen tablet for document mark up and taking handwritten notes. The tablet works well for both right- or left-handed users and is compatible with PCs and Macs. 

If you are interested in trying Bamboo Splash, stop by the IDC and Maureen can check one out for you! Quantities are limited so stop by soon!

 

Sep 08

UAS Course Banner Challenge!

We all know that first impressions are crucial. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Blink tells us that we all make “instantaneous impressions and conclusions” anytime we are confronted with a new situation. Your students are making just such an impression the minute they click into your course.

How do you greet them? Do you have a nice welcoming announcement? Have you set up your navigational sidebar to be clear and user friendly, removing any buttons that you aren’t using? Do you have a course banner to give your opening screen some eye appeal?

Banner Challenge 2014

 

We want to see your Course Banner. We want to celebrate the great welcome that you are giving your students the moment they enter your online course environment. Send a copy of your course banner to me (ksbaldwin@alaska.edu) within the next two weeks (deadline Friday, September 19) and I’ll post them.

There will be a winner and prizes! This is just the start of a new Faculty Learning Corner feature — Course Challenges. We hope you’ll share some of your creations with us and have some fun with this and other upcoming course challenges.

To assist you with this challenge here are some tutorials for you:

How to Create a Banner Using PPT

Upload your Banner to Blackboard

How to Colorize Your Navigational Buttons, Add a Banner to Your Bb Course

Image credit: iStockPhoto: jgroup 

Sep 02

Tech Tuesday – Sept 2

lenovo imageHere at the UAS Sitka Campus we like to stay on top of technology! To support our faculty, the Title III team strives to bring you the latest news and information on a variety of topics and tools. For our on campus UAS Sitka faculty and adjuncts we have a few technology tools available to check out for a limited time.

Today we will feature the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga. The ThinkPad Yoga is a convertible 2-In-1 PC with a Windows 8 operating system. The display rotates 360 and can be used in four modes: laptop, stand, tablet and tent.

Other appealing features are:

  • Ultraportable (so lightweight!)
  • Large storage
  • Durability
  • Long battery life
  • Multitouch display
  • Instant resume (wakes from sleep and hibernation quickly)
  • Robust hard-drive protection

If you* are interested in trying the ThinkPad for 30 days, stop by and see Maureen in the IDC. Although other items in the IDC are available for longer check out times, the Lenovo is available for you to sample to determine if it’s something you’d like to make as a personal purchase or suggest to your department.

You may also be interested in checking out a Window Surface RT or Chromebook. Unlike the ThinkPad, these devices do not run full version of many programs. Check with Maureen for availability.

(*On campus UAS Sitka faculty and adjuncts only.)

Aug 29

Sign Up for ED593 — Don’t Delay!

BrochureED593ED593: Designing and Teaching an Online Course begins September 15th so sign up now! This is your opportunity to learn more about the online environment from both the student and faculty perspective.

We encourage all faculty to sign up and take the course if you are thinking about offering an online course, considering redesigning your existing online course or just interested in learning more about the best practices for developing and delivering online courses.

Kathi and Mary would love you to join them this fall in ED593. For more information, click on the flyer information sheet.

Aug 28

Another Free Blackboard Webinar

What’s Coming to Blackboard: A Roadmap of the New UX for Learn & Collaborate

September 3, 2014
3:00 pm EST
Register

 

Join Stephanie Weeks, VP of User Experience for a roadmap demo of what’s coming for Blackboard Learn and Blackboard Collaborate. She’ll share some of the exciting and innovative design changes they have planned, like java-free Collaborate. You don’t want to miss this sneak peek into the next generation of Learn & Collaborate.

Java-free Collaborate has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? 

If you missed the last free Blackboard webinar, you can view the recording: Top Ten Things You Didn’t Know Were in Blackboard