Tip of the Week!
We all know that communication and student engagement are key factors to student success in online courses. But what exactly does that mean? And how can we model our classrooms to facilitate good communication and a deeper connection with and among our students?
The IDC has developed a short, self-paced training course titled "Communication and Engagement in Online Education." This course addresses the following concepts:
- Why communication is important
- Overcoming barriers to communication
- Communication tools and methods
- Student engagement
To register for this training session, fill out the following form:
Communication and Engagement Registration Form
Please note that the registration process is manual. Filling out the form does not automatically enroll you in the course, enrollments will be manually created once per business day.
Blog Update
Due to Fall Break, there will be no blog post next week.
Tip of the Week!
Course loading information from the Center for Instructional Technology (C4IT) regarding Spring 2016 courses:
- Courses are run in Blackboard for spring Nov. 16th (any course present in Banner will be created in Blackboard)
- Faculty will gain access to these courses on Dec. 14th (the faculty must be loaded into Banner in order to have access)
- On Dec. 14th a global announcement will be posted in all courses regarding students gaining access 72 hours before classes start- faculty will not be able to delete this announcement but it will automatically disappear when courses become available to students
- Student enrollments will be loaded into courses on Dec. 14th, however the course will not become available to students until 72 hours prior to the course start date
- Starting on Dec. 23rd, Banner will sync with Blackboard twice per day
- From Dec. 23rd to the 26th Blackboard will be performing an upgrade and will be unavailable (please note the outage has been extended one day longer than was previously planned)
Scholarship Opportunity
WGU announced new scholarship opportunities for veterans and their spouses. Please share this information with your students!
Scholarship information is available here:
http://indiana.wgu.edu/tuition_financial_aid/scholarships/salute_to_veterans_overview
Systems Information
Ivy Advising experienced access issues and error messages on Tuesday, Nov. 10th.
Tip(s) of the Week!
The monthly Online Technology Coordinators meeting was held on Thursday, Nov. 5th on GoToMeeting. In attendance were 16 representatives from Regions 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, as well as multiple representatives from C4IT. The following items were discussed:
- The new IVYC110 has had poor persistence from the four self-paced modules at the beginning of the course to the two instructor-led modules that follow (only approximately half of the registrants are successful in completing the self-paced modules). The current plan is to begin having each of the regions facilitate the self-paced modules. This has the potential to allow for better communication between the faculty and instructors as well as opening up more sessions and allowing faculty the opportunity to participate in a more timely fashion. We will keep you posted as we learn more about the changes in how this course will be delivered.
- McGraw-Hill has announced that they will be removing approximately 1,900 titles from Books 24/7. The titles will remain available until Dec. 31st. If you are currently using a McGraw-Hill title from Books 24/7, speak with your librarian to find a suitable replacement title. Statewide online courses that use Books 24/7 will be updated prior to spring, you will not need to do anything with those courses.
- Blackboard maintenance will be taking place beginning on Weds. Dec. 23rd and ending the morning of Dec. 25th. During that time, Blackboard will be offline and unavailable.
- The Temporary Course Access module (also known as Program Chair Observer module) will no longer be removed at the end of each semester. Enrollments created by the module will be removed from courses at the end of each semester, but Program Chairs and Department Chairs will maintain their access to the module. If you find in the spring that you have lost your access, please contact us and we can request access be restored.
- We were very proud to see that Lafayette had the second highest participation in the state with Tutor.com! This tool is extremely popular with students, so please continue encouraging students to take advantage of this resource.
- Single textbook adoption for all online courses was discussed. This is scheduled to take place beginning in the fall of 2016. This means that all online courses across the state would be required to use the same textbook, including regional online courses. While C4IT does not have a plan in place to handle this change, please be aware and speak with your counterparts and curriculum committees about the need to share online course content. We have a list of the regional online courses currently being offered in Lafayette and Kokomo as well as information about the status of the course (what textbook is being used, is it QM compliant, etc.) so please let us know if you have any questions about what we currently have available.
Training Opportunities
Event: GoToMeeting 101: The Basics webinar
When: Thursday, November 12, 10 am (PST) / 1 pm (EST)
To register: Click here
Systems Notifications
On August 7th we announced a tool called DropThought. Last night, DropThought announced that they are going out of business. If you are using this tool in your course, here is an article from the Open Education Database website regarding some similar alternative tools that could be used in its place.
"Polling the Classroom: 4 Free Polling Tools to Keep Students Engaged"
Banner experienced issues throughout the day on Monday, November 2nd.
