On Tuesday, July 7th, the Learning Technology Center closes out the first set of workshops, on planning for flexibility, in the Summer Flexible Blended Faculty Development Workshop Series. The last topic in this first grouping of workshops focuses on small group activities that could be applicable in low enrollment physical classrooms and/or situations where students do group work online. The summary for the session is below:

This session discusses ways that you can make in-class and online student group work more organized and central to your course. Particular focus will be on devising meaningful collaborative group opportunities that take place face-to-face, online, and in mixed modality. Facilitators will overview different approaches to utilize, and manage, smaller groups of students (e.g., approx 5-10). Participants will work through current learning activities and assessments, and identify opportunities to incorporate small groups.

If you are interested in this topic, please register so that you can receive the Webex Meeting link for the session, and to receive access to the workshop series Canvas course site (if you have not previously registered for a session in this workshop series). You will need to login using your UWW credentials in order to register.

If you have any questions about this session, or the summer workshop series in general, please contact us at icit-techpilots@uww.edu.

The Learning Technology Center’s Summer Flexible Blended Faculty Development Workshop Series continues on Tuesday, June 30th with a session focused on technologies that can be used whether students attend a class session face-to-face or online. The summary for this session is below:

This session introduces small ways that you can start encouraging meaningful technology use in the physical or online classroom, using technology that students already have. We will discuss reasons that “technology bans” may be detrimental to student success, particularly during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, and talk about small ways to start leveraging student personal technology in the classroom. Facilitators will overview benefits in leveraging students’ personal technology in the classroom. Participants will explore different classroom technology uses, and identify one learning activity that could benefit from student personal technology use. Some of these technologies could allow students to participate in the face-to-face class remotely if they need that option for safety.

If you are interested in this topic, please register for this session so that you receive access to the synchronous session on Tuesday, as well as the asynchronous Canvas course for the workshop series. You will need to login with your UWW credentials to register.

If you have any questions about this session, or the Flexible Blended Faculty Development Workshop Series in general, please contact us at icit-techpilots@uww.edu.

The Learning Technology Center’s summer Flexible Blended Faculty Development Workshop Series begins this Wednesday (6/24/20), with an overview on blended design and scheduling. Below is the description for the session:

This session introduces ways to think about how you schedule your course activities for different options of mixing face-to-face and online delivery. We will discuss scheduling possibilities and scaffolding of activities and assignments in a way that allows you to incorporate benefits of blended teaching and learning. Facilitators will overview different approaches to creating online learning activities. Participants will work through current course schedules and activities to identify specific activities that could leverage online components. Options for giving students flexibility to choose online or face-to-face sessions will be explored.

If you are interested, please register for the session, so that you can receive the Webex Meeting link, and the link to enroll in the summer workshop series Canvas course. You will need to log in with your UWW credentials in order to register.

We hope that you will consider attending. If you have any questions about this workshop series, please contact icit-techpilots@uww.edu.

This summer the Learning Technology Center is hosting a Flexible Blended Faculty Development Workshop Series. Definitions of blended learning vary but generally represent a structure that mixes online components into face-to-face teaching and learning, without being fully online (EDUCAUSE, 2020). This series builds from the context of providing online and face-to-face options to students (rather than the more traditional replacing some face-to-face class sessions with online class sessions) and planning toward moving components online later in the fall, following Thanksgiving break.

The series is divided into three categories, Planning for Flexibility, Blending Face-to-Face and Online Assessment, and The Blended Class. These sessions do not focus on specific learning technologies (other Learning Technology Center workshops do) but instead focus on technology-mediated activity design and development to help you plan for the next academic year.

UW-Whitewater faculty and instructors, with Learning Technology Center staff will facilitate these sessions. This summer workshop series also has a connected LTC Summer Blended Faculty Development Series Canvas course, with a variety of resources, which you will receive access to after you register for a session.

Planning for Flexibility Sessions

The Planning for Flexibility sessions aim to assist instructors with thinking through how they might modify their fall 2020 courses in a way that incorporates blended learning principles.

Overview of Blended Design and Scheduling (Wednesday June 24th, 9:00 am)

Using Technology for Learning in the Physical and Online Classroom (Tuesday June 30th, 9:00 am)

Designing Student Small Group Activities (Tuesday July 7th, 9:00 am)

Blending Face-to-Face and Online Assessment Sessions

The Blending Face-to-Face and Online Assessment sessions seek to assist instructors with creating online activities applicable across course delivery formats. The selected topics reflect findings from the ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2019 (Gierdowski, 2019), where students rated assignments, exams/quizzes, and peer reviews as top online activities.

Assignment Options (Wednesday July 8th, 9:00 am)

Exams & Quizzes (Tuesday July 21st, 9:00 am)

Peer Review of Student Work (Friday July 24th, 9:00 am)

The Blended Class Sessions

The Blended Class sessions explore possible methods to transition face-to-face components that might be most challenging to you, and your students, in moving online. These topics arise from areas that students rated most highly for face-to-face delivery in the ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2019 (Gierdowski, 2019).

Options for Instructor Presentation of Content (Tuesday August 4th, 9:00 am)

Student Presentations (Wednesday August 5th, 9:00 am)

Student-Student Interaction (Friday, August 7th, 9:00 am)

References

EDUCAUSE (2020). Blended learning. https://library.educause.edu/topics/teaching-and-learning/blended-learning

Gierdowski, D. C. (2019, October). ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2019. Research report. Louisville, CO: ECAR. https://library.educause.edu/resources/2019/10/2019-study-of-undergraduate-students-and-information-technology

For more specific information on these sessions, please click on the sign up tool links above (you will need to login). For any additional questions, please contact icit-techpilots@uww.edu