January 22

STAR Symposium a month away

STAR Symposium photo credit to: https://mnqm.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/logo2.pngWhile we are waiting for the full schedule, MOQI has announced their keynote speaker and several sessions.

Dr. L. Dee Fink will be the keynote speaker for the STAR Symposium. He will be joining us virtually to start the day with a keynote address. Dr. Fink currently works as a national and international consultant on college teaching and faculty development. In the past several years, he has been invited to 15 countries outside the United States to lead workshops or make presentations. He is well-known as the author of “Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses.”

In addition to the keynote, below is a list of some of the sessions and presenters on the agenda:
Community of Inquiry (Bethany Simunich, Kent State University)
Gamifying Your Online course using D2L Brightspace Tools (Carrie Miller & Jeff Henline, Minnesota State University, Mankato)
Video, The New Paper (Norb Thomes, Winona State University)
Creating a Learning Environment That Promotes Student Engagement in an Online Course (Stacey Rosenberg, Southern New Hampshire University)
D2L Brightspace Learning Object Repository (LOR): What is it and how can I use it? (Deb McManimon & J.C. Turner, Riverland Community College)
Using Web Conferencing Tools for more than Online Teaching  (Patrick Paulson, Winona State University)

A reminder – STAR Symposium will be held on February 19, virtually, from your home or office, you will be able to attend 25 or 50 minute sessions from 8:30 am to 4 pm. You can register here!

Category: Online Collaborative Learning, Online Teaching Pedagogy, Professional Development | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 20

SIG Learning Spaces and Instructional Technology Casual Conversations

SIG Learning Spaces and Instructional Technology Casual Conversations

Do all your best ideas always come when you are drinking coffee? Then come join MnSCU instructional designers and other professional development staff for Casual Conversations where we help you problem-solve through collaboration and creativity! 1st and 3rd Friday of every month @ 8am.

No preparation required! Just come and share your best ideas of what you are doing on your campus for your faculty and staff with good instructional design and technology practices.

Starting February 5th at 8am, the Learning Spaces and Instructional Technology SIG will host a new series of virtual meetings the first and third Friday of every month.  During the first meeting, they will discuss and select future meeting topics – they want your input! Join them Friday, February 5th at 8am in their Zoom Room:  MOQI Casual Conversation meetings

 

 

 

Category: Course Design, Online Teaching Pedagogy, Professional Development, Quality Matters | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 14

Library Widgets for D2L Brightspace

Instructors,

Our dear librarians have developed beautiful widgets that you can just add to your course page on D2L. It is very easy to find it: on the library homepage, under Find a Research Guide> By Subject/Topic choose Widgets for D2L Brightspace from the drop down list. You can see it on the screenshot below:

Library homepage Find a Research GuideThen, they give you a wide range of samples to choose from, depending on the course you teach. Further there are several documents that further explain how to add a widget you choose, and the embedded codes for specific widgets. The widgets give direct access to databases.

Library Widgets examplesYou can access the step by step description of how to add a widget to your D2L course here.

Big thanks to Cindy Gruwell and Melissa Prescott for developing this and making it available for our faculty and students.

Category: Course Design, D2L Tip of the Month, How Does It Work?, Online Teaching Pedagogy, Open Educational Resources, Quality Matters | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 4

How to Prepare D2L Brightspace Grade Book for Importing Grades into ISRS from eServices

How to Prepare D2L Brightspace Grade Book for Importing Grades into ISRS from eServices

As of July 23, 2015, faculty have the option of importing final grades from D2L Brightspace into ISRS via the eServices Grade and LDA Entry interface. 1st) Prepare the D2L gradebook settings to enable import to ISRS, and 2nd), use eServices Grade and LDA Entry to import final grades.

Please see this entry at the D2L Brightspace service desk page for full information: https://d2l.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1619/session/L3RpbWUvMTQ1MTk0MTkyMS9zaWQvQnZqOXhJRm0%3D

or:

http://bit.ly/1S0wvuB

Email d2l@stcloudstate.edu with questions!

Category: Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 4

Academic Technologies Team Workshops today

PatioLogoAs part of the January Faculty Workshop organized by CETL, our team will be presenting on several topics.

Today at 10 am we are presenting on  Using the D2L Discussion Board, in Centennial Hall 455 Lab.

This session is followed by another  D2L Discussion themed presentation, at 11:30 am in the same computer lab. However, this session will focus more on theory and strategies behind student engagement in both online and face-to-face classes.

Again, same space, at 3:30 pm, we will present on Importing Final Grades From D2L Brightspace Into ISRS. This very useful feature will be explained in detail, and you will have the opportunity to try it out, as long as you have your course requested and set up. Also, you can access the blog post on this topic here.

Finally, on Tuesday Come Learn About a New D2L Tool: LeaP, in the Alumni Room, Atwood Memorial Center. More on this in our next post.

Happy New Year and the start of the new semester!

Category: Online Teaching Pedagogy, Professional Development | LEAVE A COMMENT