Thursday, December 10, 2015

Call for Proposals Extended - USG Teaching and Learning Conference

CALL FOR PROPOSALS EXTENDED

USG TEACHING AND LEARNING CONFERENCE:
BEST PRACTICES FOR PROMOTING ENGAGED STUDENT LEARNING

April 13-14, 2016
UGA Hotel and Conference Center
Athens, GA

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION EXTENDED DEADLINE: JANUARY 11, 2016

You are invited to propose a presentation for the 2016 University System of Georgia Teaching and Learning Conference: Best Practices for Promoting Engaged Student Learning.

IMPORTANT DATES
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION EXTENDED DEADLINE: JANUARY 11, 2016
PROPOSAL ACCEPTANCE NOTIFICATION WILL BE SENT BY FEBRUARY 1, 2016

Conference Description
This conference is designed to bring educators and outstanding students together to connect in conversations about active learning and student engagement. The focus of this conference is Best Practices for Promoting Engaged Student Learning. Session topics will address a wide range of topics related to active and engaged learning and success. Areas of interest include but are not limited to:


·        Developing Students’ Critical Thinking Skills

·        Distance Learning/Blended Learning

·        Open Educational Resources

·        Collaborative Models

·        Connected & Mobile Learning

·        Complete College Georgia Efforts

Student Involvement
Faculty presenters are encouraged to propose a session with an outstanding student or team of students to give attendees a chance to hear from students themselves about how these efforts affect their learning experience.

Submit Your Proposal
To submit your proposal please visit the conference website at:

Conference Website
For further information visit the conference website at:

Contact:
Ginger Durham, EdD
Assistant Vice Chancellor
Board of Regents, University System of Georgia
Office of Academic Affairs
270 Washington Street, S.W.
Atlanta, GA 30334
(404) 962-3066*


Monday, December 7, 2015

MOOC: Humanizing Online Instruction in Canvas

TOEP has been given a shoutout in the HumanMOOC which began today! 

The MOOC itself is extremely well constructed. There is a lot of synergy with TOEP. The MOOC content is also very relevant to our work in QbD. A pre-course Hangout was provided yesterday by George Siemens, the father of connectivist learning theory and the cMOOC.

Humanizing Online Instruction: Building a Community of Inquiry is a 4-week Micro-MOOC made available on the Canvas Open Network. This course is designed to prepare online instructors who teach college and university courses to be able to increase instructor, social, and cognitive presence in their online courses. Each of the weekly modules contains annotated research related to the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, grounding the application-based activities in theory. Engagement in this networked community of practice is designed to stimulate the process of inquiry and collaboration among educators. Participants will explore emerging technologies and create digital assets that they can employ in their own instruction.
The course will include live sessions featuring George Siemens, Kate Bowles, Alec Couros, and many others. For more information about the course, visit humanmooc.com, and to sign up, visit canvas.net. Hope to see you there!

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Tools of Engagement Project (TOEP): Open Lab Lunch & Learn Session at the University at Buffalo

Date and time: Friday, Dec. 11, 2015 • 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: 212 Capen Hall (inside Silverman Library), North Campus

*Registration: http://www.buffalo.edu/ubcei/workshops/workshops-topic-nc.html

The SUNY Tools of Engagement Project (TOEP): On-demand Discovery Learning Professional Development is designed to encourage faculty, staff and Teaching Assistants to explore freely available online emerging technology tools for teaching and learning.
TOEP is not traditional professional development but instead provides online access to resources to explore at your own pace. Discovery exercises include tutorials and resources relating to the use of blogs, wikis, audio, video, collaborative spaces, social bookmarking and more.
The deadline to register is February 12, 2016. Incentive opportunities are available to those who complete TOEP by April 1, 2016. First place awards will be provided through a peer-review process for the most pedagogically intriguing uses of TOEP tools.
Although TOEP encourages learning at your own pace, open-lab sessions have been scheduled to provide opportunities for those who wish to schedule dedicated time to work on TOEP over the break. Come to this session to build your skills while being able to rely on guidance and support.
The open-lab sessions include:
  • a short overview about the project
  • guidance on how-to register for TOEP
  • plenty of time to work directly on TOEP discovery activities
If you've been procrastinating on joining the TOEP community, this is a great time to begin.
Come build your skills and learn how these online technology tools can be used for innovative and creative activities relating to teaching and research. If you can't attend one of the lab sessions, all the information you need to participate is available on the TOEP website.

Please register so we can plan accordingly. Pizza and refreshments will be provided to celebrate TOEP's accomplishment of being rolled out at 19 SUNY campuses and being implemented as a SUNY-wide initiative.

Learning objectives
  • Identify and evaluate a variety of online instructional technologies for the purposes of teaching and learning
  • Reflect on your learning and outline how online instructional technologies might impact your teaching effectiveness

* Faculty and staff from participating SUNY campuses are encouraged to join TOEP. Those who are not from a participating campus are welcome to take advantage of the TOEP website resources but are not able to join the community or earn professional development award incentives.See the TOEP FAQ for more info.