Join the Online Instruction Forum
Have you ever...
- Had a question about online teaching and didn't know who to ask?
- Wanted to share an idea with other faculty members?
- Wanted to have conversation with fellow Harper faculty about teaching online?
- Been curious to learn more from each other?
We are excited to announce that the Academy has launched an Online Instruction Forum for Harper faculty.
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The Online Instruction Forum is part of Harper's Yammer communities. Yammer is a social platform within Office 365 that gives Harper staff and faculty a secure and convenient way to communicate and collaborate. The ability to communicate, collaborate, and share ideas is integral to the success of transitioning to online teaching. By building this community using Yammer, we can now work together, better than ever before.
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Summer Resources
(new!)
Three new resources are available to help you as you prepare your Summer 2020 courses:
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Online Instruction Support & Resources
The Academy is here to support all full-time and adjunct faculty who are making the transition to online instruction. Please review the resources below and let us know how we can continue to support you!
Summer 2020 Resources
Two new resources are available to help you as you prepare your Summer 2020 courses. The Summer Blackboard Course Template and Summer Syllabus Updates.
Learn more
.
Academy Virtual Office Hours
Join us during our virtual office hours to discuss and ask questions on thematic topics related to student success and the online learning environment. The first round of virtual office hours will provide a brief introduction to ensure online course accessibility.
Learn more
.
Transitioning to Fully Online Instruction Webinar Series Recordings
Essential Online Skills Recorded Sessions
Watch a recording of an
Essential Online Skills
session. The session focuses on essential Blackboard and Collaborate (live, virtual lecture) skills.
Resources for Faculty & Students
Support for Blackboard and Online Instruction
Please continue to submit all Blackboard and Online Instruction requests using the
Online Instruction Support
form, rather than via phone or email. An Academy team member will follow up with you within one business day.
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Our students are proud of their accomplishments, and we want to recognize their hard work, resiliency, and perseverance. Show your support by giving a shout out to our graduates - two different ways:
- Send a message to the entire class of 2020. Messages can be typed, photos, video/audio, or all of the above. Be creative!
- Post a message to a specific student. Search for a specific student and give them a personal shout-out.
The Library is updating our online reference services! Synchronous chat is still available 24/7, provided by Harper librarians during our regular hours and librarians at partner schools after hours, including during the summer session. We help students, faculty, and staff with questions big or small. We have switched to a new software, LibAnswers, to manage many of our reference services. Learn more using the link above.
Do you use maps in your curriculum? Does your teaching include location or solving spatial problems? Are you interested in adding to your active learning resources? If so, this free summer workshop on teaching with geospatial technologies will be of interest. This virtual workshop is sponsored by the National Geospatial Technology Center for Excellence (GeoTech Center), a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded organization that provides geospatial professional development opportunities and curriculum materials. Participants who complete the workshop will receive $700 from the GeoTech Center. All full-time and adjunct faculty may register for the workshop. View details using the link above.
The switch to remote work has gotten the attention of hackers who are trying to take advantage of the increase in online activity. Three Illinois community colleges have already been victims of hackers. To prevent that from happening at Harper, we are implementing enhanced authentication for some of our online systems called multi-factor authentication (MFA). Learn more using the link above.
Use the link above to view the recording of the April 24 Town Hall and the content that was shared, including the COVID-19 presentation by Dr. Tong Cheng, Biology. Remote work continues: We are NOT returning to campus on May 15. We will continue working from home until it is safe for us to return to campus. Read more in the
FAQs
regarding the college's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please check them regularly. If your question is not answered there, please
submit
it.
Library Instruction is available in online modalities, and you are encouraged to contact the Library to discuss options. Librarians have been sharing custom handouts, creating videos, helping locate alternative online course materials, and sharing general instructional resources on the
Remote Library Services
page. In addition, the Online Librarian program can pair your course with a librarian who will be available right in your Blackboard course for the entire term or a period of time. As you plan your summer courses, consider whether an online librarian would be useful. Visit the
Library Instruction
page for more details or send an email to
lrcrefdk@harpercollege.edu
.
Were you unable to attend the May 1 Employee Recognition and Service Awards? Watch the video and hear stories from Karega Cooper, Mitesh Shah, Jodie Olsen, and Mike Barzacchini.
Take a moment to view this
page
with information about student resources and support (services, programs, initiatives) and how students can obtain the help they need to succeed while learning at a distance. The page includes fact sheets of virtual services offered by Student Development, information about academic support (how to schedule appointments with academic advisors and the Academic Support Center), using library services, and more. Please share this important information with your students.
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Harper's Library Staff is Here to Help Improve Students' Information Literacy Skills
Submitted by Jennifer Lau-Bond, Library Services
Every year, Harper assesses one of the General Education Learning Outcomes, and this year that means assessing information literacy. Since information literacy is one of the Library's primary goals, we would like to share some ideas about what it means and how you might be able to better incorporate these skills into your courses.
Harper's Information Literacy General Education Outcome states students should be able to "Apply a variety of credible sources to support a given topic." This outcome sounds straightforward, but it may be helpful to examine it further to get a better sense for the complex set of skills involved when we talk about information literacy.
What does information literacy look like across the curriculum? How can the Library help?
Learn more
.
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Faculty Reflect on the Transition to Online Instruction
Faculty across campus have been engaging in professional development for distance learning. Many have shared their experiences adjusting to online teaching, their appreciation for opportunities to explore pedagogical and technological approaches to quality instruction in the virtual environment, and their hopes that eventually we will be back on campus and in labs and clinicals. Here are a few excerpts from their reflections.
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Teaching Online Successfully - Register Now
Register now for Teaching Online Successfully for summer! There are three course options to choose from based on your needs - whether you're developing an online or blended course for the first time (Create), teaching an online or blended course for the first time (Facilitate), or if you're looking for tools and techniques to enhance your online course to encourage student engagement (Enhance).
Teaching Online Successfully:
Create
Teaching Online Successfully: Facilitate
Teaching Online Successfully: Enhance
Each course is delivered in an online format, is 1 GEC, and there is no cost. Please review the syllabus and course expectations before registering.
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Grade Student Work with Bb Annotate
Blackboard will soon be replacing the Box View inline grading tool with a new tool called Bb Annotate. Bb Annotate offers a more robust feature set for instructors to provide customizable feedback to students when grading assignment submissions. Features include a sidebar summary view, freehand drawing tools, various color selections, and much more. Watch a video tour of the new tool and view FAQs using the link above.
Blackboard Webinar Training Series: Remote Instruction from Basics to Advanced
During the month of May, Blackboard is offering ongoing free webinars to help with the transition to remote teaching. This webinar series is designed for instructors who are just getting started with teaching using Blackboard Learn and Blackboard Collaborate, as well as those who have started to transition to deliver instruction remotely and are looking to make some improvements.
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Upcoming Programs & Workshops
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May 18, 5 p.m. - 6:15 p.m.
May 21, 5 p.m. - 6:15 p.m.
May 27, 5 p.m. - 6:15 p.m.
June 8 - June 21 (GECs: 1)
registration deadline: May 25
June 17 - June 19 (CEUs: 2)
application deadline: May 15
July 6 - July 19 (GECs: 1)
registration deadline: June 22
July 20 - August 2 (GECs: 1)
registration deadline: July 13
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Active and Engaging Learning Strategies Community of Practice
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What's Happening @ Harper?
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Academy for Teaching Excellence | 847.925.6174 | Building F, Room F317
Monday - Thursday, 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Friday, 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
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The mission of the Academy for Teaching Excellence is to create a vibrant teaching and learning culture for full-time and adjunct faculty that cultivates professional development in support of student success.
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Accessibility
: Individuals with disabilities who would like to request an accommodation or who have questions about physical access may contact the event host or Access and Disability Services at
ads@harpercollege.edu
, 847.925.6266, at least two weeks in advance of the event date.
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Harper College enriches its diverse communities by providing quality, affordable, and accessible education. Harper College, in collaboration with its partners, inspires the transformation of individual lives, the workforce, and society.
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