Register for the Saturday LTC Instructional Development Event

Posted on November 30, 2017 by

The Learning Technology Center (LTC) is offering an all day Saturday event on December 9^th, focusing on instructional development! This event is a great opportunity for instructors who are not able to contact the LTC during our standard operating hours to receive D2L assistance.

Join us at the LTC office, in McGraw 120, as early as 8:00am for D2L one-on-one support that is focused on your specific D2L needs. We are also offering two sessions of D2L basics, which may include information such as how to set up LockDown Browser, upload test questions, transfer grades to WINS, and much more!

If you are not able to make it to campus, no problem! You can schedule a one-on-one WebEx meeting during the 1:1 appointment times listed below. To schedule a 1:1 appointment, contact the LTC after you register.

Please stop by to get your questions answered, stay until your problems are solved, and close out the semester successfully!

Saturday Event Schedule

*sessions subject to change based on instructor needs.

8:00 – 10:00am Staff available for 1:1 appointments with instructors

10:00 – Noon D2L basics help

1:00 – 2:00pm Staff available for 1:1 appointments with instructors

2:00 – 3:00pm D2L basics help

3:00 – 4:00pm Staff available for 1:1 appointments with instructors

For further questions about the Saturday LTC Instructional Development Event please contact the LTC at ltc@uww.edu. To sign up, go to https://my.uww.edu/signup/Registration/Details/15325 (and log in with your Net-ID and password). Registration closes on Wednesday, December 6th!

Ingeniux Training for All

Posted on November 21, 2017 by Elaina Barr

It’s that time of year again, to bring out decorations, winter coats, and dusting off “the good plates” for company to use. While your home maybe getting messy, don’t let your webpages get cluttered!

The web content management system (CMS) used at UW-Whitewater is Ingeniux. Is there something that you want displayed on the page for next semester? Do you have information that you would like published where everyone will see? Sign up for Ingeniux training in the Signup Tool and learn how to use Ingeniux to update and modify UWW departmental webpages.

In this training you will learn to demonstrate the difference between parent and child pages, how to upload documents, media and images; and locate and edit pages. You will also learn how to preview and publish your changes to the UW-Whitewater site.

Website management is available to departments, colleges, business units and centers. The web management service includes web strategy, design, development, content production, analytics and support.

Make sure to contact the Helpdesk at helpdesk@uww.edu if you need access to edit the site, additional information can be found here: Website Management

If you have any additional questions about Ingeniux Training contact training@uww.edu

LTC Institutes for Online/Blended Teaching

Posted on November 17, 2017 by Aaron Axelsen

The Learning Technology Center (LTC) hosts Winter and Summer Institutes for Online/Blended Teaching. These institutes serve as introductions to best practices in online and blended course design and facilitation. Though these institutes do address specific tools, inside and outside of the learning management system (LMS), the focus of the institute is on research and practices in online teaching and learning, rather than on learning to use specific tools. By completing the institute, instructors can receive a badge.

In the past, basic knowledge of using the tools in the LMS has been viewed as a prerequisite for enrolling in the institutes. Though this might change slightly during the transition to Canvas (Please see the Canvas Migration Portal here for more information on that transition: http://www.uww.edu/icit/ltc/canvas-portal), in general some previous knowledge and experience using online teaching tools, such as tools in a LMS, is viewed as necessary in order to successfully complete the institute.

Participation in these institutes is competitive, as more instructors typically apply than can be supported in a given offering. However, by offering the institute twice a year, the LTC tries to accommodate as many instructors teaching online and/or blended in this institute as possible.

If you are interested in applying for the institute, be on the lookout for calls for participants on this blog in the future. If you are in need of one-on-one help with your online or blended course to close out the current Fall 2017 semester, consider registering for the LTC’s Saturday Instructional Development Event in December.

Fall 2017 Student Engagement Series: Technologies and Techniques Workshop

Posted on October 26, 2017 by Aaron Axelsen

This Fall semester, the UW-Whitewater LEARN Center and the Learning Technology Center (LTC) have been co-sponsoring a series of workshops on student engagement.

The first in the series of workshops provided an overview of challenges and approaches to student engagement. The second in the series of workshops featured a faculty panel discussing different approaches to student engagement. The third, and final, session will provide information on a few different instructional technologies that can be used as a means to help facilitate student engagement. Participants in the third, and final, workshop will also have the opportunity to test out these tools/technologies.

The last session of the Fall 2017 student engagement workshops series is Monday, November 6th. The session runs from Noon to 1:30 pm, and begins in UC 259B. Lunch is provided.

Please sign-up for the final workshop before Monday, October 30th by visiting the UW-Whitewater Event Signup Tool (you will need log in with your Net-ID and password), and look for the LEARN Center section.

UW Office of Professional & Instructional Development – Spring 2018 Conference on Teaching & Learning

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Aaron Axelsen

The 2018 Spring Conference on Teaching & Learning presented by the UW System Office of Professional & Instructional Development (OPID) is taking place Thursday, April 12 and Friday, April 13, 2018 in the Memorial Union at UW-Madison.

The theme for the conference is The Joy of Teaching in an Age of Digital Learning. The keynote speaker for the conference will be Dr. Michael Wesch, Ph.D, who is a Cultural Anthropologist at Kansas State University, and a winner of the Carnegie Foundation’s U. S. Professor of the Year Award.

Faculty and instructional staff from all fields are welcome, and encouraged, to submit proposals for the conference. The deadline for submitting proposals is Monday, November 27, 2017. Those with accepted proposals will be informed by December 20, 2017. Proposals are submitted online at this website.

For more information, please visit the website for the 2018 OPID Spring Conference on Teaching & Learning.

Saturday LTC Instructional Development Event

Posted on October 22, 2017 by

Join us at the LTC office, in McGraw 120, as early as 8:00am for D2L one-on-one support that is focused on your specific D2L needs. We are also offering two sessions of D2L basics, which may include information such as how to lock a browser, upload test questions, upload grades to WINS, and much more!

Please stop by to get your questions answered, stay until your problems are solved, and close out the semester successfully!

Saturday Event Schedule

*sessions subject to change based on instructor needs.

8:00 – 10:00am Staff available for 1:1 appointments with instructors

10:00 – Noon D2L basics help

1:00 – 2:00pm Staff available for 1:1 appointments with instructors

2:00 – 3:00pm D2L basics help

3:00 – 4:00pm Staff available for 1:1 appointments with instructors

Programming and Partnership

Posted on October 16, 2017 by Aaron Axelsen

In my last blog post, I shared the LTC’s mission and promised that I would be back to share about some of the exciting projects that we have been working on. Well, here I am!

Often, our projects do not necessarily fit into one specific area. Today I want to talk to you about one project that I am incredibly proud of–how the LTC supports instructors through cutting edge programming via a partnership with the campus unit, LEARN.

Like all areas of ICIT, the LTC values strategic partnership with instructors, students, departments, colleges, campus units, and administration. We started collaborating with LEARN a year ago on a three-part workshop series offered each semester focused on instructor needs around teaching and learning.

For the past three semesters, we have partnered to offer this series on key focus areas (e.g., facilitating discussions, active learning, and student engagement) following a similar format that starts with the first session being a brief introduction, the second featuring instructors from each college talking about their experiences, and the third exploring how technology can be leveraged to assist in that area. This has been a wonderful collaboration and we look forward to it continuing!

This semester we used data from our annual instructor support survey to help drive decision-making around the topic where instructors identified student engagement to be a key pedagogical challenge for them. Andrew Cole, Learning Technology Specialist with the LTC, lead an interactive introduction to student engagement in “Student Engagement Challenges in the 21st Century Classroom” in September. We had so Chalkboard and cell phone many participants register that we had to change rooms! We still have plenty of room in our second session (Thursday, October 26 from 12-1:30pm) where instructors (Tammy French, College of Arts and Communications; Choton Basu, College of Business and Economics; Kelly Hatch, College of Education and Professional Studies; and Eric Loepp, College of Letters and Sciences) will discuss student engagement strategies that they are using in their own classes. We also still have plenty of room in our third session (Monday, November 6 from 12-1:30pm) where we will be exploring how learning technologies can assist with student engagement (teaser: you’ll even get to try some out and make a plan for how you might use it in your class!).

For more information and to sign-up, please (log in with your Net-ID and password and) visit the LEARN section: https://my.uww.edu/signup/

Call for Proposals: LTDC Virtual Showcase 2018

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Shane Degen

The UW System Learning Technology Development Council (LTDC) Virtual Showcase 2018 will be held April 3-4, 2018. Instructors and professional staff – please consider joining them by submitting a proposal to present or facilitate by November 30, 2017! Proposals may be submitted at the following website: Virtual Showcase 2018

This virtual conference offers an opportunity for sharing your successes and challenges in teaching with technology. This conference will provide you with the opportunity to virtually connect with other practitioners and requires neither travel expense nor a significant time commitment.

Presentations during concurrent sessions will be approximately 30 minutes in length with 15 min Q&A following. Proposals are sought in the following five general categories:

Digital Learning Environment
Teaching & Learning Best Practices
How-to & Resources
Student Engagement
Technology

We look forward to learning more about your teaching and learning experiences! If you have any questions contact the Learning Technology Center.

What Are the LTC’s Emerging Technology Exploration Projects?

Posted on October 6, 2017 by Aaron Axelsen

The UW-Whitewater LTC mission includes six elements. Our “emerging technology exploration projects” align with the WE INNOVATE element. You may have seen calls to apply for these projects in the past (such as the current call for Spring 2018) without understanding exactly what these projects are. This blog post will explain a bit more as to the general purpose of these projects.

Various outlets (such as the Horizon Report) report on trends in higher education each year. Often these trends reflect instructional approaches that utilize new technological innovations. LTC staff members monitor, and examine, these short-term and long-term trends, and evaluate related technologies for potential use at the UW-Whitewater campus.

If a new technology (or a new application of an existing technology) appears to have potential to successfully meet a need that the LTC has identified through communication with instructors, the LTC makes arrangements to conduct a limited exploration of the technology with a small group of instructors. A call for applications/participants is then sent out to instructors across various channels (such as this LTC blog) with the expectations and requirements to participate in the project. Participants are then chosen based on several factors, including scheduling and the constraints of the particular technology or tool (ex. projected student enrollments).

Typically, at least as part of an emerging technology exploration project focused on instructional technology, instructors and students in the course employing the technology are surveyed based on their experiences using the technology. The feedback provided by students and instructors is used to determine future LTC support of the technology.

If you have any questions regarding the LTC’s emerging technology exploration projects, please contact the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

Google Docs for Classroom Collaboration

Posted on September 29, 2017 by

All instructors and students at UW-Whitewater have access to Google Drive. The accessibility for everyone provides a great opportunity for instructors to facilitate an environment for students to work together.

For example, Google Docs is an easy way to have students collaborate with each other on group assignments. The instructor can create a Google Doc for each group. For each Google Doc, the instructor would then send out permissions to group members to make changes to the Google Doc. Google Docs allows all group members to make changes simultaneously, with similar functionality as Microsoft Word. One of the major challenges for students, when it comes to group assignments, is finding an opportunity for all individuals to meet. By providing a virtual environment, students can work together remotely when it is convenient for them, to encourage more equal opportunities for all group members to participate in the assignment. An instructor can also see when a Google Doc was last edited, and has the capability to remove permissions when the group assignment is due.

For further information on Google Docs or Google Drive, please contact the UW-W Learning Technology Center, or learn about training opportunities by clicking here.

LTC Instructional Resources

Tag Archives: For Instructors