Thursday, July 05, 2007

DoIT's July Events

Event 1: Hands-On Adobe PDF Accessibility Workshop (sponsored by the University of Illinois)

  • Date: July 9, 2007
  • Time: 10:00AM - 4:00PM
  • Location: Harper College, Room Y203k
  • Cost: free
  • Registration: contact the ADS office at 847.925.6266

This workshop will help instructors understand the accessibility features of Adobe PDF and Acrobat Reader. The workshop will be lead by Christopher Dobson of the Department of Instructional Technology, who will cover creating accessible documents from Microsoft Office, creating accessible PDF forms, and improving the accessibility of scanned and legacy PDF files. Participants will leave with the skills they need to integrate accessibility into the web publishing practices and instructional materials they use to teach people about PDF publishing. The workshop is a hands-on experience to help participants understand the details of accessible PDF authoring.


Event 2: Mixing It Up – The New Blended Canvas for Learning (sponsored by the Instructional Technology Council)

  • Date: July 10, 2007
  • Time: 1:00-2:00PM
  • Location: Your computer and telephone
  • Cost: $25.00
  • Registration: contact Sarah Stark, DoIT, at 847.925.6805 before the event for registration and support for event cost)

Join Erin Ebert as she describes how the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) launched a blended learning pilot program – three art courses that merged on-campus courses with successful e-Learning courses. The format combined a fully online course that students followed for content, project assignments and testing with once weekly in-class meetings. Class sessions focused on studio technique, critique sessions, and active topic discussion. Students reviewed course content and completed assignments and assessments on their own time. Erin will review the pilot’s implementation process, which involved researching hybrid/blended learning programs, training faculty to use a new approach, creating a special online student orientation, adapting the fully online courses to the blended format, meeting weekly with e-Learning services staff, providing continued instructional and technical support throughout the quarter, and implementing post-pilot evaluation and assessment from faculty and students.

Event 3: The Knowledge Building Paradigm - A Model of Learning for Net Generation Students (sponsored by Innovate: Journal of Online Education)

Join author Donald Philip as he discusses his research on how to create new knowledge and new understanding in a collaborative manner and through diverse media in the virtual classroom. Learn why Net Generation students expect interactive experiences and gain ideas on how you can prepare them to work in the distributed, virtual workplaces of the future. View his research paper in advance at http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=368 .

Event 4: Workload Management Techniques for Online Educators (sponsored by SLOAN-C)

  • Date: July 11 – July 20, 2007
  • Time: Virtual
  • Location: Your computer
  • Cost: $145.00 (contact Sarah Stark, DoIT , at 847.925.6805 before the event for a membership registration code to get this price)
  • Full time faculty: Consider applying for a Technology Grant to pay for the registration cost
  • Registration: http://www.sloan-c.org/workshop/workload_July07.asp

Instructors need to develop new time management skills when transitioning to online teaching. Online teaching can redefine faculty members’ teaching schedules. While the advantages for participating in online education include flexibility; the reality of the 24/7 classroom can prove daunting due to the investment in curriculum development and planning as well as the need to be responsive to student inquiries. This workshop offers strategies enabling online educators to manage time demands while teaching online courses. Topics include online course planning and prepation, best practices for presenting information in an online class, frequency of interaction with students and a “how to” guide for scheduling your online classroom.

Event 5: Complying with the TEACH Act and Copyright Issues in Distance Education (sponsored by the Instructional Technology Council)

  • Date: July 17, 2007
  • Time: 1:00-2:00PM
  • Location: Your computer and telephone
  • Cost: $25.00
  • Registration: contact Sarah Stark, DoIT, at 847.925.6805 before the event for registration and support for event cost)

What does the TEACH Act mean for distance educators? TEACH amended the U.S. Copyright Act to allow educators at accredited highed education or recognized K-12 institutions to transmit portions of legally acquired audiovisual works over distance learning networks, without having to first obtain permission from the work's copyright owner. Fritz Dolak from Ball State University will also review the list he created for the Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education Do's and Don'ts for transmitting copyrighted materials. Learn how to use the TEACH Act and the CONFU Multimedia Guidelines to legally use those portions of copyrighted works for you distance education classroom.

EVENT 6: Course Improvement Series Part 3 - Student Evaluation & Assessment (sponsored by the Illinois Online Network)

Part 3 of the Course Improvement series will be conducted using the new QOCI Rubric (http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/initiatives/qoci/rubric.asp) as a guide. Each month the focus will be on one of the Rubric's categories and those attending will participate in a discussion of how to improve online courses specifically to that category. This month, the focus is on student evaluation and assessment. It's recommended that you download the checklist version of the Rubric from the link above before attending the workshop. Join in an active discussion in course improvement specific to the areas of Activities and Opportunities, Organization and Management, and Group Work. Much of the discussion will be driven by the needs of the participants and examples will be given.

Event 7: Vlogging in Education: Introduction to Implementation (sponsored by the Instructional Technology Council)

  • Date: July 24, 2007
  • Time: 1:00-2:00PM
  • Location: Your computer and telephone
  • Cost: $25.00
  • Registration: contact Sarah Stark, DoIT, at 847.925.6805 before the event for registration and support for event cost)

The presenters will discuss the concepts and practice of blogging, vlogging, podcasting, and podcatchers, and their associated programs and equipment. Many higher education institutions are incorporating these technologies into their regular academic courses, often claiming they allow instructors another opportunity for unique collaboration efforts within their classroom. Is this just clever marketing, media hype, or is there a place for this relatively new technology within education? What do faculty and staff need to know about what it takes to capture, create, and implement blogging, vlogging, and podcasting within their classrooms? Is vodcasting simply posting video segments on Blackboard? Should you take the time to incorporate these technologies into your classroom?

posted by Sarah Stark @ 12:53 PM