Instructional Support Training Sessions Archive

Fall 2020 Preparation Guide

30 minutes

How are we going to manage this semester? Together. In this session, our team will discuss the resources available as well as some ideas for how to prepare your students and yourself for the multiple types of courses and technologies you will encounter this semester.

Elearning Quick Start Overview

30 minutes

Course Home importance.
Content: Module creation, one-click shopping to access content.
Communications: accessing class lists, emailing, and discussions.
Assessments: quiz locations/question bank, dropboxes and gradebook location. Viewing as a student and previewing content.

Creating and Installing Course Content

30 minutes

During this session, suggestions are provided on how to use built in accessibility features when creating content for Elearning using HTML, Word, PowerPoint and PDF files. Once the files are created, the options for loading content to Elearning are also discussed.

Configuring and Managing Gradebook

30 minutes

Creating the grading scheme, using the setup wizard, managing the gradebook and entering grades.

Creating Quizzes

30 minutes

In this session, you will learn how to create quizzes, tests and exams using the Elearning quiz tool. This will include question creation, use of the question library and the different settings the quiz tool has available.

Exam Integrity Tools

30 minutes

This session will focus on how and when to implement the Respondus Lockdown and Monitor functions within Elearning along with the technical implications and privacy concerns.

Library Resources in Elearning

45 minutes

Learn about the Library Resources module that will appear in Elearning starting this fall, featuring subject-specific resources for your course. This workshop will also highlight the benefits of adding a subject librarian to your course.

Web Conferencing Solutions at WMU

30 minutes

An overview of WMU's web conferencing applications for instruction. The session will focus on the pros and cons of each solution and tips for success.

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Webex Meetings - Overview

30 minutes

This wmich.webex.com overview will include learning how to open a meeting, use the desktop app, familiarize you with the basic icons in a meeting, chats (use options and saving), and managing participants.

Webex Meetings - Advanced

30 minutes

Learn about some advanced features in Webex, such as scheduling recurring meetings and break out rooms.

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Webex Meetings - Breakout Rooms

1 hour

The option for breakout rooms has just been released for Webex Meetings. We will be reviewing how to use the breakout rooms and going over some of the features.

Microsoft Teams - Overview

30 minutes

• Introduction to Teams, logging in, installing the program
• Chat, Teams, Activity
• Audio/video calls, screen sharing, remote control

Microsoft Teams - Classes and Breakouts

30 minutes

• Creating a Team (of class type) for a course and understanding the General Channel
• Adding students, TAs, etc.
• Creating Channels (private and open) for group breakouts
• Teams Meetings (initiating, changing channels, limitations, recording)
• Other Tools (whiteboard, taking attendance, scheduling)

Google Apps for Education - Google Meet

30 minutes

Overview of Google Meet - how to set up meetings and invite participants, and available in-call features.

Mediasite Fundamentals

30 minutes

Learn how to install, record, edit and upload using the Mediasite Desktop Recorder.

Best Practices for Creating Course Videos

30 minutes

A discussion of audio, video, graphics and teaching methods to fully utilize online media effectively.

Digital Content Accessibility

30 minutes

In this session you will be introduced to Ally, a new accessibility feature in Elearning. You will be provided an overview of Ally and its capabilities, the benefits to both faculty and students, as well as explore a few features and guides that can help to ensure that you are creating and publishing digitally accessible course content.

Facilitating Virtual Office Hours

30 minutes

Exploration and discussion of options for scheduling and facilitating virtual office hours. Methods discussed include Microsoft Bookings, Webex personal rooms, and Microsoft Teams, as well as phone-based instant messaging apps and other tools. Best practices, pros and cons will be examined.

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Authentic Assessment Methods

30 minutes

In this session, you will learn about basic principles of authentic assessments and how to get started designing them. We'll also briefly discuss what to look for when grading them and how to manage these types of assessments through Elearning.

Pedagogy of Assessment

30 minutes

In this session, we'll focus on the pedagogy or the why (and only briefly touch on the how) behind three elements of assessment: various reasons why we assess, summative vs. formative methods, and grading.

Course Presence and Discussions

30 minutes

In this session we will cover the three types of course presence, the basics and best practices of Discussions and the News tool in D2L, as well as the Badging and Intelligent Agents tools. Attendees will be added to a course shell to explore after the session at their request. This session, while applicable to all modalities, is more specific to tools within D2L and their use in an online, hybrid, or web-enhanced course.

Engagement, Interactivity, and Groups

30 minutes

Are you already familiar with the tools in D2L and want to know more about how to increase student engagement and interaction in your course? In this session we will discuss strategies and introduce a few third-party tools that you can use to facilitate active learning online, create interactive discussions and manage groups in small or large courses.

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Session Resources:

• National School Reform Protocols - 200+ protocols and activities to use in your classroom focused on specific desired outcome
• - Offers hundreds of options focused on all ages/levels of learner as well as specific types of engagement, individual and collaborative
• Ideas for Checking for Understanding (Formative Assessment) - Entrance, Exit, and mid-session checks; questions and strategies
• UMASS ED Students' Online Tools for Teaching & Learning - Collective ED Tech Resource shared at end of session
• WMU Elearning Student Help - You can add this link to your course so that you don't have to field tech questions as well as to give students direction for recording their own meetings.
• Scaffolding Reflection - A quick discussion with links to some how-to questions for guiding and scaffolding student reflection
• Project-Based Learning - The Buck Institute presents PBLWorks, which promotes a research-based model for "Gold Standard PBL". Information, examples, and materials to guide you.

Establishing an Elearning Component to an In-Person or Fully Synchronous Online Class

1 hour

Even if you are meeting with your students in-person or synchronously, you can still enhance your course delivery and help students feel part of a community by establishing a course presence in Elearning. An added benefit is that if you need to move to distance education on short notice, the transition will be much easier. Topics addressed include learning objectives, curriculum maps and module construction.

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Simulations and Mixed Reality

30 minutes

• Why use simulations and mixed reality?
• Examples of what is possible
• The process for creating simulations and mixed reality

Engaging Students in Multiple Delivery Formats

1 ½ hours

To help support instructors considering options for the spring and summer, as well some ongoing challenges with fall courses, WMUx is hosting two new upcoming virtual workshop sessions. The sessions will include an overview of existing delivery methods, suggestions and best practices for engaging students in asynchronous courses, and addressing challenges related to in-person classes affected by students experiencing isolation and quarantine.

Active Learning Strategies I: Microsoft Teams

1 ½ hours

90-minute Active Learning Strategies workshops are designed to support current faculty, part-time instructors, and graduate students with insights into how to engage students more effectively through active learning strategies in one of these University-supported platforms. The workshops will:

• Discuss/provide supplemental resources on learning objectives, “phases of learning,” and active learning strategies
• Consider questions of diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Offer both a host and end-user/student perspective on how Teams would support the application of some sample active learning strategies, notably including breakout sessions

Active Learning Strategies II: Webex Meetings

1 ½ hours

90-minute Active Learning Strategies workshops are designed to support current faculty, part-time instructors, and graduate students with insights into how to engage students more effectively through active learning strategies in one of these University-supported platforms. The workshops will:

• Discuss/provide supplemental resources on learning objectives, “phases of learning,” and active learning strategies
• Consider questions of diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Offer both a host and end-user/student perspective on how Teams would support the application of some sample active learning strategies, notably including breakout sessions

Anti-Racist Teaching Workshop

2 hours

This workshop will introduce participants to foundational elements around anti-racist teaching. Tips and additional resources will be shared. Dr. Staci Perryman-Clark will be the lead facilitator of this workshop.

Decolonizing Your Syllabus

2 hours

This workshop considers how concepts of colonialism as applied to westernized systems of education are often rooted in conscious and unconscious bias. In the pursuit of anti-racist teaching, this workshops offers the decolonized syllabus as an opportunity to confront racial biases in higher education.

Mental Health First Aid

6 hours

Mental Health First Aid for Higher Education is an internationally recognized training offered by Integrated Services of Kalamazoo. The training teaches participants how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders. This in-depth training includes a discussion of specific risk factors, skill building to provide initial support to someone who may be struggling or in a crisis, and practice applying the action plan in a number of scenarios.

Two hours of virtual, self-paced pre-work must be completed prior to the one-day Zoom training. Links will be sent upon registration. There will be a 30 minute break for lunch.

Event Poster

Western CARES: Helping Students in Distress

1 ½ hours

One in three Western Michigan University students have been diagnosed or treated by a professional for a mental health condition. Staff and faculty are on the front lines working with our students each day and are often the first to know when a student needs help. Western CARES: Helping Students in Distress will review common warning signs of distress, how to respond effectively to a student in distress, and to identify when and how to share resources to a student in need, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic and distance learning.

Instructor: Bre Traynor, Assistant Director of Mental Health Outreach

Elearning 101: Getting Started

2 hours

This workshop will take you through the basics of understanding the structure of Elearning's three silos (assessment, content, and assignments) and how to set-up and connect them for a smoother instructional and student user experience. The first hour will be dedicated to a structured demonstration, while the remaining time will be reserved for providing more pointed discussion and demos in response to participant questions regarding E-learning tool use.

Online Assessment: Gradebook and Rubrics

1 ½ hours

This workshop will address the challenges of designing rubrics as well as how to construct questions and set-up quizzes and exams on E-learing.

Elearning: Designing Productive Discussions

1 ½ hours

Through this workshop, you will gain a brief tutorial on how to set-up on discussion boards on Elearning before proceeding into a more in-depth presentation on and discussion of how to design, facilitate, and assess these discussions to ensure more productive student engagement.

Creating Engagement in Online and Hybrid Modalities

1 ½ hours

This workshop – in the interest of promoting pedagogy that fosters an engaged and supportive virtual classroom environment - will alternate between presentation of and brief discussion with participants on each of the following points: Using Polling and Microsoft Forms, Engaging the chat features, Assigning privileges/best practices in Webex, Effective lecturing and discussion approaches, and tracking class and user progress/attendance.

Videos and Virtual Instruction: Engagement and Accessibility

2 hours

Collaboration Session: Share Your Ideas on Moving Online Teaching Innovations into In-person or Hybrid Classes

1 ½ hours

Have an assignment or technique that really worked during remote learning? Share how to bring those effective solutions into other modes of teaching and hear others' ideas!

Teaching While White: Approaches to Equity

2 hours

Discover a framework to begin centering equity and inclusivity in your course (including thinking about content, policies, assignments, assessments, grading), obtain additional resources to support your journey, and ask specific questions regarding your goals and fears.