Week's End Report - Oct. 2, 2015

Tip of the Week!

Are you scheduled to teach online next semester but are not currently certified to teach online? Contact us at laf-distance-ed@lists.ivytech.edu to sign up for the new IVYC110! This is a new course containing two parts, a self-paced training with four modules that you have four weeks to complete, and two instructor-led modules that you will complete over the course of two weeks. Following IVYC110 you will be able to participate in IVYC112, which allows you to teach online as a probationary instructor working with a mentor.

You must have completed BBRD291X/BBRD101 prior to beginning IVYC110, you must also be planning to teach online in the next semester. 

IVYC112 must be completed the semester following your completion of IVYC110 so if you are not planning to teach online you are advised to wait until you are planning to teach online before signing up for IVYC110. (Ex. If I take IVYC110 in the fall of 2015 and do not teach online in the spring of 2016, then my IVYC110 completion becomes null. If I am scheduled to teach online in the summer of 2016 I will need to repeat IVYC110 in the spring in order to be eligible.)

Professional Development

New professional development courses are now available in Blackboard. To access the professional development courses, click on the Courses tab and look for the Course Catalog module. Click on the Self-Paced online professional development courses link to access the list of available courses and enroll in the course(s) of your choice.

Open Educational Resources

A new development initiative is encouraging the exploration and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in new online course development statewide. There are many benefits to this option:

• Saves students an average of over $100 per course (vs. IncludED)
• OER courses don't require adoption across all sections when used in face-to-face courses (ex. if the instructor in section 30X want to adopt the statewide content for their face-to-face course, they don't require the agreement of the instructors in sections 31X, 32X, 33X, etc. Each face-to-face instructor can use the content they prefer)
• Promotes development of new OER

Talk to your curriculum committees about the benefits of OER!

Blackboard Updates

On December 23-24 Ivy Tech will be upgrading to Blackboard 9.1 Cumulative Update 3 for the October 2014 release.Click here to view update release notes on our website.

Old courses are archived and removed from Blackboard after two full academic years plus one semester (seven semesters total). After that time, in order to access a course a request must be put in through C4IT to have that archive retrieved and loaded into a new development shell.

A new online course template is being piloted with IVYT111. The current goal is to release the new template statewide beginning Summer 2016. If you mentor a regional online course we will work with you to adjust your course to the new standards. The changes are not significant, the majority of your current course layout will remain unchanged.