Week's End Report - Sept. 30th

Tip of the Week!

The Instructional Design Center (IDC) is currently looking at regional online courses that are on the schedule for the Spring of 2017. Here is what that means for you:

If you're a faculty member, you don't need to do anything at this time.

If you're a program chair, take a look at the online courses you have scheduled for spring. If they're statewide courses you don't need to do anything additional. If you are offering online courses that are not statewide, check to make sure you have a development shell with current content that matches the textbook that you've adopted for the course. If you do not have a current development shell, please contact the IDC with information regarding the textbook that's been adopted and any other regions that are offering the same online course using the same textbook. We will then locate the content and make it available for your review.

Not sure whether your course is statewide? Click here to view the current list of all statewide online courses

If you are a dean, please encourage your program chairs to review their spring schedules and reach out to the IDC if content is needed.

What is the IDC doing? The IDC is reviewing the content in the current development shells to make sure that previously identified issues have been resolved so the course is ready to run in the spring. If we identify additional issues or issues that have not been resolved we will be reaching out to you shortly with the details. If you have changed to a new textbook please notify us as soon as possible so we can streamline our efforts.

Click here to view the Regional Online Course Process
 

Training Opportunities

VoiceThread Mobile
October 4 at 7:00pm ET - Register here
Online course design has changed a lot in the last 10 years. Over 80% of students now use smartphones and tablets for academic work. In this workshop, participants will learn how to design lessons with mobile learners in mind. We will explore the differences between VoiceThread’s mobile app and the traditional browser version, and participate in hands-on activities.

VoiceThread and Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
October 18 at 7:00pm ET - Register here
Participants will learn how VoiceThread can help educators provide multiple means of engagement, representation, action and expression for their courses. Participants will learn how to use VoiceThread’s multi-modal communication platform, closed captioning feature, and VoiceThread Universal to design accessible lessons.

VoiceThread and Common Core Lesson Design
October 25 at 7:00pm ET - Register here
Are you looking for innovative ways to create lessons aligned with Common Core standards? In this K-12 focused workshop, participants will discuss lesson design and learn to blend Common Core and VoiceThread in a variety of ways. We will show examples for ELA, History, Speaking and Listening, and Math standards.

VoiceThread Basics 1 - Upload, Comment, and Share
November 1 at 7:00pm ET - Register here
Participants will learn how to upload media, comment and annotate on that media, and share it with others. This will be a slow paced, step-by-step, hands-on workshop. It is open to both VoiceThread license holders and free members.
 

Systems Information

Peru campus experienced a network outage on Tues. Sept. 27th. The outage impacted all centrally hosted systems and internet access, including VOIP telephones.

Week's End Report - Sept. 23rd

Tip of the Week!

Beginning in the spring 2017, courses will become available in Blackboard 48 hours before the official course start date in Banner.

For example, if your course has a start date in Banner of Monday, January 9th, 2017, the course will become available in Blackboard during the morning of Saturday, January 7th. 

New Blackboard Tool:  Voice Threads
The college has recently added Voice Threads to Blackboard.  Below is a link from a recorded training session along with some tutorials and updates:

Here are additional training materials from VoiceThread:

Here is the recording from Wednesday’s Ivy Tech training session: https://voicethread.com/share/8217395/

Here is the link to our YouTube channel, where faculty can find tutorials and subscribe to get our latest updates:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXggZ2yUPudu9EKx5ZtrdAw

Here is our workshop page, with archived recordings on the right:

https://voicethread.com/workshops

 
Systems Information
Cengage had emergency maintenance on Sunday,  September 18th from 8pm - 8:50pm.  During this time Cengage was completely offline.  Please work with your students on turning in assignments if they experienced this outage.

All Banner modules and Direct Student Load Requests will be unavailable Sunday, September 25th from 11am - midnight.  

Week's End Report - Sept. 16th

Tip of the Week!

Ivy Tech Community College uses SafeAssign, a tool which allows instructors to check student work for plagiarism.

SafeAssign is currently an option that can be selected when setting up an assignment within Blackboard. If the SafeAssign option is checked, each submitted assignment is automatically checked against the SafeAssign Global Database as well as the internet and a report is created that shows potential areas of plagiarism.

Many faculty ask if there is a way to submit student work to SafeAssign without using the Assignment tool in Blackboard. The answer is yes! The video below demonstrates how a faculty member can directly submit student work to SafeAssign.

Systems Information

SafeAssign experienced a slight delay early in the week. Report processing could take up to a few hours to appear due to high volume usage. 

Cengage experienced an outage on Sunday, Sept. 11th and part of the day Monday, Sept. 12th. The system was up and running again between 4 and 4:30 pm on Monday, Sept. 12th. Please work with your students to make up any assignments that may have been missed due to this system outage.

Internet access from campus will be intermittently unavailable on Sunday, Sept. 18th from 5 am - 10 am.

Week's End Report - Sept. 9th

Tip of the Week

The Indiana Commission for Higher Education has a big goal for the state of Indiana: that by 2026, 60% of Hoosiers should have an education extending beyond high school.

Ivy Tech Community College has dedicated itself as an organization to recruiting and retaining students, and many faculty and researchers have posed the question, What ultimately determines whether a student is successful in college?

A lot of research has gone into this subject and in the article The X Factor in College Success, authors Bryan Goodwin and Heather Hein suggest three factors that can help predict student success:

• Can-do attitude- as the old saying goes "if you think you can, or if you think you can't, you're right"
• Self-discipline and study habits- studies show that students who apply themselves and practice good habits are more likely to have a higher GPA
• Active learning- students who take an active role in their education by attending and participating in class and developing a relationship with their faculty are more likely to be successful

What can we do as faculty to foster these qualities in our students? Stanford Teaching Commons shares a few ideas for promoting active learning, practices which can simultaneously encourage students to practice better study habits and foster a positive attitude towards their education.

• Use case-based problem solving and debate to encourage students to think creatively and independently
• Incorporate small-group discussion and peer instruction to help students collaborate and build self-esteem
• Allow students to guide classroom activities by brainstorming concept applications that are of particular interest to the class

If you're interested in reading more, information can be found in the following places:

Goodwin, B., & Hein, H. (2016, March). Research Says/ The X Factor in College Success. Educational Leadership, 77-78. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar16/vol73/num06/The-X-Factor-in-College-Success.aspx 

Indiana Commission of Higher Education. (2016). Reaching Higher, Delivering Value Full Report. Retrieved from http://www.in.gov/che/3142.htm

Stanford University. (n.d.). Promoting Active Learning. Retrieved from Stanford Teaching Commons: https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/resources/learning-resources/promoting-active-learning

Systems Information

After the Blackboard maintenance that took place on Sunday, Sept. 4th, the snapshot did not run properly. You may have students in your courses who were dropped for non-payment and not reinstated after having made payment arrangements. Likewise you may have dropped students for non-participation and they may not have been removed from your courses. Please work with those students who were unable to participate in your courses due to this system issue. 

Please note that this maintenance took place after the deadline for students to participate in order to not be dropped for non-participation so this did not effect participation status for the purposes of reporting NWs.

Career Fair in Lafayette

Ivy Tech's Office of Career Development and Olivet Nazarene University are co-sponsoring a career fair on Saturday, October 15th at the Courtyard Marriott in Lafayette from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm.  

For the first time the fair is open to the public as well as Ivy Tech students and alumni, and admission is free of charge.

If you know of any employers interested in participating, please contact Career Development at 765-269-5612. Please strongly encourage your students to attend! Even if a student is not nearing graduation, this career fair represents a great opportunity to speak with employers, network, and prepare for future job searches.

For more information about Career Development, visit ivytech.edu/career-development  

Professional Development Opportunity

"Find Your Purpose and Follow Your Passion" featuring Chelsey Roebuck, Executive Director, ELiTE Education.

Chelsey Roebuck will be speaking about the transforming power of communities in education. Learn more about learning communities and the impact not only of the instructors but also of the networks that support instructors and students.

Wednesday, September 21st at 6:00 pm MDT
Register online at: WGU.EDU/SAGETALKS

Week's End Report - Sept. 2nd

Tip of the Week!

The proctored testing process has changed! The proctoring form and process has been undergoing changes throughout the past year and a new update has been released based on feedback gathered from faculty and campus testing centers.

If you have already submitted a proctor form for the fall semester you do not need to resend.

The new form can be found in Blackboard in the Click for Help tab. The form displays in the Testing Services module inside the Faculty Help tab. You must be logged in to Blackboard in order to access this.

Tips for test proctoring:

• Proctor forms should never be sent to students
• Every time you need to fill out a proctor form, go to the Click for Help tab and download the current version (just like our course syllabi, changes are made frequently and we should never reuse an old one)
• Send the proctor form to the originating region for the course (for example: an instructor from Lafayette who is teaching ENGL111 out of Lafayette and ENGL112 out of Kokomo should send their ENGL111 proctor form to the Lafayette Assessment Center and their ENGL112 proctor form to the Kokomo Assessment Center)
• Refer to the how-to documents in the Click for Help tab for more information about filling out and submitting your proctor form

Systems Information

Blackboard will be down for maintenance on Sunday, Sept. 4th from 12:01 - 6:00 am. Blackboard will be unavailable during this maintenance window. Please notify your students that they will be unable to access their courses during this time and to plan accordingly.