March 29

Brightspace Minnesota Connection Conference (formerly known as D2L Ignite)

Friday, April 15, 2016
8am-4pm (Central Time)

Normandale Community College
9700 France Ave S
Bloomington, MN

Brightspace Minnesota Connection is your opportunity to connect with your peers and D2L staff, exchange product feedback, share effective practices, and network with other Brightspace users. Connection will showcase teaching and learning within Brightspace, and sessions will feature topics such as effective practices in instructional design, technology integration, and administrative management. This event is sponsored by D2L, along with Minnesota State Colleges and Universities and St. Catherine University.

Register for Brightspace MN Connection Conference
Registration Rate: $95 USD
Presenters Rate: $50 USD
Group* Discount Rate: $75
*For groups of 5 or more, use discount code: GROUP20

Special Guest Keynote
Kenneth Chapman is the Vice President of Market Strategy for Desire2Learn (D2L), creator of the Brightspace learning management system. He and his team work closely with information management system groups and EDUCAUSE to research grant opportunities and explore new learning innovations. In one such project, Mr. Chapman helped design a gaming and simulation builder that lets instructors easily create engaging learning activities using online course content. Mr. Chapman has held a number of roles within D2L since 2002, including head of Research and Development. Several D2L patents are attributed to him. He earned dual bachelor’s degrees from the University of Guelph: one in Mathematics and Statistics; the other in Computing with a marketing specialization.

March 29

March – May Instructional Technologies Special Interest Group Webinars (free!)

The Instructional Technologies and Learning Spaces Special Interest Group (SIG) is offering a number of free webinars in March, April and May.

March 30 from noon to 1pm:
Dynamic Discussion Artifacts: Moving Beyond Threaded Discussion in an Online Course.
Michael Manderfeld, Senior Instructional Designer at Minnesota State University Mankato.

April 6 from noon to 1pm:
Just in Time Teaching.
Wes Boberg, Earth Science Education at Ridgewater College.

April 13 from noon to 1pm:
Why do you need so much space to teach one class?
Hennepin Technical College.

May 4 from noon to 1pm:
Ten Steps Closer to an Accessible Course.
Catherine Artac, Instructional Designer, Minnesota State University Moorhead.

You can register for these free events here: http://mnquality.eventbrite.com

For more information: March-May SIG Webinars

March 29

MnSCU Captioning Symposium April 8th, 2016

A free captioning symposium “Closed Captioning Requirements for Institutions of Higher Education: It Takes a Village” will be offered on Friday, April 8th from 9:00 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.  Participants can attend either in person at Anoka-Ramsey Community College or remotely via webinar. Please see the attached document for more details and registration information.

Join many of your MnSCU colleagues for an exciting day that promises to be a significant first-attempted cross- institution, cross-role discussion on this important and complex topic related to captioning course videos.

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system has a current project underway to explore options used by MnSCU institutions for the provision of transcription and captioning services for teaching and instructional purposes. The ad hoc group working on this project, facilitated under the Academic and Student Affairs Technology Council, includes faculty, IT and design staff, disability services staff, and support staff from 17 MnSCU campuses.

One of the work group’s objectives was to make available a clear understanding about the statutes that guide captioning requirements to assist MnSCU institutions understand their obligations and responsibilities with regard to course-based captions. Several resources including MnSCU General Counsel, will be addressing this topic and available for questions.

Equally as important, you will hear from MnSCU and other higher education colleagues who are already making successful headway in captioning course videos. The theme for the day “It Takes a Village to Caption Videos” implies that effective campus collaboration and strategy is at the core of successful captioning practices. This day offers the opportunity for campuses to begin a dialogue with others throughout the state and share resources in a forum dedicated specifically to the topic of captioning.

Captioning Symposium Invitation