TOTAL Workshops - March Offering

We are planning to facilitate a pilot of another "Total" workshop during the month of March, beginning right after spring break week.  The "Using Best Practices in Online Teaching" workshop began a few weeks ago and will wrap up very soon.  Ashley Leslie has lead this workshop, and we hope to get a lot of feedback and suggestions from participants once it is completed. 

These workshops are for those instructors who already have experience with Blackboard, don't have time to take a full course, and are looking for a professional development opportunity that targets a specific area of interest. In  March, we will run the "Designing Meaningful Discussion Activities" online workshop for any SVCC instructors (adjunct or full-time). It will begin after spring break and will run for 3 weeks (March 11th - 31st).  If you would like to participate in this workshop, please complete the form linked below.  

We would appreciate your participation.  Thanks!

Workshop Sign-Up

TOTAL Online Workshops - February Workshop Offerings

Thanks to those of you who completed the survey concerning the online workshops.  I reviewed the results and the following two workshops were selected for the initial pilot.  You can click on either link below to read a description of each workshop including objectives.  With each online workshop, you will have required tasks to complete each week in Blackboard.  The participant(s) will receive a certificate from the VCCS upon successful completion of the workshop at the end of the session. 

Please click the links below to read the workshop descriptions, and the link to sign-up to participate can be found below as well. Remember that when you sign-up that you are making a commitment to participate in the online workshop each week and to complete the required tasks. 

These workshops are free and open to any full-time or adjunct instructor at SVCC, but there are some prerequisites to consider.

You should already have...

• Training or experience in the use of Blackboard instructor tools.
• Ability to use the Internet in an effective and efficient manner.
• Basic knowledge about the operation of a computer, file management, and software installation.

If you have any questions about these workshops, please contact me. 

Using Best Practices in Online Teaching - Description  (4-weeks)  February 4th - March 2nd

Designing Meaningful Discussion Activities - Description  (3-weeks)  February 4th - February 24th


Participant Workshop Sign-Up (You can sign up for either workshop or both...your preference.)

TOTAL Online Workshops - Interest Survey

Personnel from a few colleges within the Virginia Community College System have worked to develop a series of workshops on various topics pertinent to online learning. These workshops will be facilitated online through the Blackboard System, approximately 4-weeks long, and free to any VCCS employee (part-time and full-time). These workshops are for those instructors who already have experience with Blackboard, don't have time to take a full course, and are looking for a professional development opportunity that targets a specific area of interest. We will be piloting a few of these workshops this spring and would like to collect some information from you to help guide us in selecting the initial workshops for the pilot. Your participation in this survey would be greatly appreciated.  The survey consists of 5 items, so it should not take up too much or your time.  We will collect survey results over the course of the next week (until Friday, January 18th), so please do not delay in completing this. 

If you have any questions about this, feel free to contact me.  Thank you!

Survey

Blackboard Collaborate

The entire community college system now has access to a program called Blackboard Collaborate Web Conferencing tool. Through Collaborate, you can provide live online instruction, hold meetings, or provide one-on-one help. This is a similar product to the Adobe Connect program that we have been using for several years. We have been needing to either replace or update Adobe Connect, so this is a welcome addition.

Blackboard Collaborate is integrated into your course areas in Blackboard which should make it very easy for instructors to utilize this program with students. It can, however, be used independently from Blackboard. So, if you don't teach any courses, but would like to utilize this program to meet with colleagues on other campuses or if working with students that you can't meet with in person, using this is an option.

Here is a link to the Blackboard Collaborate website where there are some presentations on the web conferencing component. Blackboard Collaborate Website

We are hoping that there are a few of you who would like to be our early implementers with this product. We would like to begin with training a small group to begin using this program very soon. We can then get feedback from that group before offering training sessions open to everyone later this spring. If you are interested in being in our first group, please click on the link below to submit your name. Ashley is going to hold a training session for this group at the end of the month, so don't delay in submitting your name. We would both appreciate your participation.

Sign-Up

Upcoming Workshops

I am going to offer a couple of short 30 minute mini workshops that may help you get rolling with your spring courses.

In the first session, I will walk you through the process of exporting course content from a previous course area and importing content into a course area for the upcoming spring semester. This will probably not take thirty minutes, so there may be a little time at the end to just answer Blackboard questions.

I will then have a second mini (30 minute) workshop on using Google Calendar and linking to the calendar within Blackboard. Some of you may want to utilize this tool to create course calendars for your spring classes. Google calendar is also a great tool just to keep track of your personal schedule.

Please register if you plan to attend either workshop. Registration Form

Christanna Campus (Room C16)
1:30 - 2:00 November 17th: Exporting and Importing Course Content in Blackboard
Date and Time (Pending) Using Google Calendar

John H. Daniel Campus (Room 22)
2:30 - 3:00 November 18th: Exporting and Importing Course Content in Blackboard
3:00 - 3:30 November 18th: Using Google Calendar