Utilizing the Blackboard Retention Center in Our Courses
As course facilitators it is imperative to ensure that students are successfully meeting the learning goals in our courses. Thankfully, Blackboard has made it easy to gather insight into our students’ performance via the Retention Center tool. The Retention Center can use default rules, or rules that we create according to the areas we prioritize the highest, to visually show us students’ engagement and participation.
Please feel free to reference this 5-minute video providing directions on how to set up and use the Retention Center today.
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Digital Teaching Symposium: November 10
Digital teaching today requires resilience, creativity, and the ability to keep helping your learners succeed no matter what. Join Blackboard/Anthology on November 10 for a full day of peer-led sessions on digital teaching strategies for the unique needs of 2022. View the agenda and register here for this free symposium that will further your familiarity and understanding of learning technologies.
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Spring Resources: Blackboard Course Template and More
Spring 2023 course shells will be available in Blackboard on November 11. The Academy team has developed some resources to help you as you prepare for the Spring 2023 semester, including a Blackboard Course Template.
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Register Now for Spring GECs
Register now for a Spring 2023 Graduate Equivalency Course (GEC). All Harper College faculty (full-time and adjunct) can register for GECs at no cost.
Learn more and register using the links above.
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Journey of the Smiling Friend
At this year's Adjunct Faculty Teaching & Learning Conference, we introduced to our colleagues the Smiling Friend: a small squishable figure with outstretched arms and the Academy logo. We challenged colleagues to take pictures of their Smiling Friend figure in various activities and locations, such as while teaching or traveling. View recent pictures of what some Smiling Friends have been up to. An adjunct colleague from Waubonsee Community College who attended the conference even shared this presentation!
Have a photo to share? Please send it to academy@harpercollege.edu.
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How can we improve outcomes in gateway courses?
This was one of the guiding questions of the Equity and Digital Learning Research-Practice Partnership (RPP), a nationwide initiative between five colleges and universities and the organizations Achieving the Dream, APLU, Digital Promise, and Every Learner Everywhere. The RPP began in Spring 2021 and primarily focused on changes in the 2021-22 academic year. Harper College was chosen as one of the institutional partners and focused on English 101 and 102 (Composition 1 and 2), Harper’s courses with the highest enrollments.
Through the RPP, Harper English faculty Andre Berchiolly, Simona Bonica, Ana Contreras, and Stephanie Whalen reflected on their courses to identify ways to improve class climate and improve success rates and share equitable teaching practices with others at Harper and other partner institutions.
This poster provides further details about the program and findings from the RPP. You can also check out the poster in the back hallway of the Academy (Building F, Room F317).
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Academy & Blackboard Support: How to Get Help
The Academy team is available on campus for drop-in support in Building F, Room F317, as well as available for remote support.
Not sure what to ask or where to start? We’re here for you! Just fill out the Academy Request Form, and an Academy team member will follow-up with you.
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Starting with all new Spring 2023 Blackboard courses, the “Student Support” menu item will be labeled as “Assist – Student Support” and will link to the Blackboard Assist page. The same resources are provided to students, but instead of having them go outside of Blackboard to the Student Support webpage, they will now stay inside of Blackboard and be directed to the Assist page. For a visual explanation of this update, please view this short video.
Harper will hold an employee Town Hall at 1 p.m. today, Wednesday, November 9, in the Wojcik Amphitheater, Building W. The format for the Town Hall will be largely Q&A. The event will also be streamed over Webex.
If you were unable to attend this year's Diversity Symposium or would like to revisit what was shared, recordings of Dr. David Shih's opening keynote address (Envisioning Justice in Higher Education Amid Systemic Racism) and Amanda Mesirow's closing keynote address (Breaking Ground: Building a New Foundation as an Anti-Racist Campus) are available on the Diversity Symposium webpage, along with highlights from other sessions.
The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is hosting two installments of the Against the Grain DEI training series in November. The sessions (which take place in the Cultural Center, Building D, Room D281) are designed to help Harper staff and faculty increase their understanding about various DEI topics including, but not limited to, unconscious bias, microaggressions, allyship and more. Registration for each event is required. Food is provided.
- Against the Grain: Unlearning Unconscious Bias (Beginner) - November 10 (registration closed)
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Against the Grain: Allies, Accomplices and Co-Conspirators (Intermediate) - November 22 (register here by November 11)
There are two sessions available for New Adjunct Faculty Orientation for spring - an on-campus session on January 9 and a virtual session on January 10. Learn more using the link above.
The Faculty Retreat will be held on Friday, April 14. Watch the Academy News for details and registration information. For now, please save the date on your calendar.
The Share-ousel is an opportunity for Communities of Practice to showcase their work for the year. Watch the Academy News for more details and information.
Use the links below to view important deadline and due dates from the Registrar's Office:
With the rise in requests from students to take their Honorlock-proctored exam somewhere on campus, the Testing Center is now equipped to handle those requests. Students need to schedule these exams in advance, which they can do online at this site by choosing “Honorlock Testing” or in their Student Portal under “Registration and Records”, in the “Testing Center” channel.
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Available Resources to Inform Antiracist Teaching and Learning
Shared by the Learning Assessment Committee
The compilation includes, “Becoming an Anti-Racist Educator” written by M. Gabriela Torres, Professor of Anthropology and Associate Provost for Academic Administration and Faculty Affairs, Wheaton College, Massachusetts. The antiracist pedagogy include practices that help us become anti-racist.
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Photos of faculty at Hullabaloo in September |
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A Quick Guide to Online Evaluation Practices
As we are closing in on the end of the term, and finals week is not too far away, this very quick write up may come in handy if you are contemplating offering alternative assessments to exams. Three education professionals from the Monterrey Institute of Technology offer some key, practical ideas.
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Upcoming Professional Development Credit Opportunities |
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On-demand (CEUs: 1.0)
On-demand (CEUs: 0.15)
January 23 - March 17 (GECs: 3) register by: January 9
January 30 - February 12 (GECs: 1) register by: January 16
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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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