February
4
MOQI and SIG Webinar Series Continue
Take a look at this announcement for the Spring semester presentations from the Special Interest Group.
You can click here to register for the webinars.
January
20
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
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:
Then, 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.
You 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.
December
10
Quality Matters Course Review Process FAQ
Minnesota has a statewide subscription to the internationally recognized quality assurance process Quality Matters. What is more, MOQI (Minnesota Online Quality Initiative) has put every effort to promote and help with this process throughout the MnSCU system.
This process is completely voluntary, yet we like to show how it can benefit both face-to-face and online classes. Even if you do not want your course reviewed, just getting familiar with the QM rubric or having an internal review could benefit you. In this video, you can hear the answers to most frequently asked questions about the course review process from a MSU Mankato faculty member.
More stories can be found on the MOQI webpage here.
December
9
MOQI Presents a Virtual Conference – STAR Symposium
Minnesota Online Quality Initiative (MOQI) will promote best teaching practices through an all day virtual conference open to all higher education faculty and staff. They are inviting faculty and staff to share their strategies in course design and delivery, student engagement, technology integration, their assessment practices. The MOQI organization focuses on promoting quality course design in all Minnesota post-secondary institutions.
Please consider their call for proposals for the symposium, where you can showcase your innovative, brightest pedagogical practices.
Hurry in because the proposals are accepted until December 22, 2015.
On February 19, 2016 from 8:30 am to 4 pm, join the virtual conference from your computer or a mobile device. There will be 25 or 50 minutes sessions.
The cost to attend all day sessions will be $50, or $25 if you are a presenter.
To learn more and register, click here.
November
23
MOQI Webinars for the end of the year
Image credit: minnesota.qualitymatters.org
Minnesota Online Quality Initiative continue with their series of webinars. The upcoming professional development series focus on Quality Matters standards, as well as the interventions for stereotype threats. You can register here for the final four webinars of this year.
Good news is that the group is almost done with their Spring schedule, so we are looking forward to learning more and bringing these to our St. Cloud State faculty.
A big thanks to the MOQI group for providing free, short, and relevant professional development sessions.
November
12
Quality Matters Webcasts from the 7th Annual Conference
Quality Matters followed up on the availability of some of the sessions for those who were not able to attend the conference in San Antonio. In the post three weeks ago I talked about the availability of materials and signing up for webcasts.
Now, you can find the recordings of those webcasts here.
Enjoy!
November
2
SCSU represented at the QM 7th Annual Conference
Roseann Wolak, a member of our Academic Technologies Team, is presenting today in San Antonio, TX on the implementation and transition from a face-to-face to fully online program in Nursing, at St. Cloud State University.
SCSU Online and our team has been helping the Nursing department on a weekly basis to introduce online courses that meet the quality standards set by the QM Rubric. Roseann is representing St. Cloud State University at a major conference, describing the steps and challenges of this transition. Her presentation “From the Ground Up: RN to BSN Completion” can be found here.
In last week’s post, I have announced that the presentation materials from the Quality Matters 7th Annual conference are available. Now, take a look at Roseann’s as she is presenting today.
We hope to help many more departments at our university with quality assurance and online courses/programs transitions.
October
26
Quality Matters 7th Annual Conference – presentation materials
The online education quality assurance organization Quality Matters is holding their 7th Annual Conference. In case people who are interested cannot make it to San Antonio on November 1 through 4, they presented several options. There are presentation materials available on the website and they offer a few free webcasts (follow the links for specific information).
Meanwhile, I will be preparing more posts on what Quality Matters offers to our institution, so that all faculty interested in Quality Matters can get quick facts on our blog.
September
24
Minnesota Online Quality Initiative Webinar series continue
Image credit: minnesota.qualitymatters.org
All MnSCU faculty and staff are welcome to register for different D2L Brightspace and SIG (Special Interest Group for Learning Spaces & Instructional Technology) webinars.
There are a few that repeat so you can choose a date that works better for you. With the final one in September: D2L Brightspace Advanced: Checklist Tool
to the final one in October: SIG Webinar: Time-Saving Tips for Stressed Out Instructors there is a gamut of helpful one-hour sessions for instructors and staff of our MnSCU institutions. We will keep you posted on more events sponsored by MOQI as well as add these webinars to our calendar!