2016 Instructional Technology Mini-Conference

The 2016 Instructional Technology Mini-Conference will be held on Friday, July 29 here at Virginia Western. This is a no-cost, one-day conference and professional development opportunity open to all faculty and staff from Virginia Western Community College, New River Community College, and Central Virginia Community College.

Dr. Greg Sherman, Associate Professor, from Radford University will be our keynote speaker. His topic is Lessons from the Field: Strategies and Tools to Improve the Effectiveness of Technology-Supported Course Experience. For more information about Dr. Sherman: http://tinyurl.com/zs8v9u7

Time: Friday, July 29, 2016 from 8am to 4:15pm
Location: HP Multipurpose Room 208/210
Registration is now open at: http://tinyurl.com/zooz8rc
Session Descriptions and Presenter Bios: http://tinyurl.com/jndm35u
Conference Agenda:

Time	Topic and Location
8:00 – 9:00	Registration and Breakfast (Provided): HP208/210
9:00 – 9:10	Welcome Remarks – Dr. Elizabeth Wilmer, Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs, Virginia Western Community College
9:15 – 10:45	Lessons from the Field: Strategies and Tools to Improve the Effectiveness of Technology-Supported Course Experiences Keynote – Dr. Greg Sherman, Associate Professor, Radford University
	Concurrent Session One HP341	Concurrent Session Two HP208/210	Concurrent Session Three Business Science Building M302
11:00  – 12:00	Best Practices in Online/Blended Learning Kenyada McLeod, John Tyler Community College	What’s New in Blackboard Learn? Tammy Jolley, Blackboard	OER for Instructors: Sharing Your Work with the World Dale Dulaney, Virginia Western Community College
Noon  – 1:00	Lunch (Provided) – HP208/210 (Update on Teaching and Learning Resources)
1:00  – 2:15	Discover Collaborate Ultra: A Hands On Experience Tammy Jolley, Blackboard	Strategies for Preventing Online Cheating and Plagiarism Dr. David Halpin, Carilion Clinic/Jefferson College of Health Sciences	Integrating Panopto and Blackboard Timothy Hoffman, Rappahannock Community College
	Break
2:30  – 3:45	How to Make Your Life Easier: Blackboard Tricks and Tips Miriam Basinger, Blue Ridge Community College	Faculty Showcases: Online/Hybrid Instructional Strategies Jonathan Bayer, Virginia Western Community College; Peggy Dunn, New River Community College; Lana Velez, Central Virginia Community College	From Scratch or Adoption? Reflections on Different Ways of Constructing an OER Class Dr. Ivan Guajardo and Sandra Kelly, Virginia Western Community College
4:00  – 4:15	Closing Remarks and Door Prize– HP208/210

VWCC faculty who complete the full-day mini-conference will receive a certificate equivalent to the completion of two-weeks of TOTAL workshop credits. These credits will contribute to satisfying the “Professional Development Objectives for Faculty Teaching Hybrid and Online Courses” as outlined in the new Faculty Evaluation and Development Plan (see page 9). For faculty who anticipate teaching only on-campus courses, these credits will also be considered “appropriate training in teaching with technology” that will contribute to meeting the  professional development objectives in the teaching domain of the new Faculty Evaluation and Development Plan (see page 9).

This conference is co-sponsored by the VCCS Paul Lee Professional Development Mini-Grantand partners with Central Virginia Community College and New River Community College.

Removing Spring 2015 Course from Blackboard

All Spring 2015 (and prior) courses will be removed from the production Blackboard environment on May 6, 2016.

The criteria for removal at this stage is:
    Course ID ending in “SP15”
    Or created before January 1, 2015

Procedure:
- On April 19 or 20 - Title of courses is changed to include "Will delete May 6, 2016" and courses are made unavailable
- All courses are archived (this is an ongoing standard procedure)
- May 6, 2016 (and following) - all flagged courses will be removed from production

Courses that are “deleted” will no longer be accessible to the instructor for access in Blackboard. The current VCCS policy allows courses to be accessible to instructors in Blackboard for three previous semesters and then the courses can be restored only by a Blackboard administrator. This is done by instructor request. So if you should need course content from an earlier semester, it can be restored.

Online Academy Workshop: Community-Building, Engagement, and Meta-Cognitive Support Strategies in Online Learning Environments

VWCC Online Academy Cohort is hosting a workshop about “Community-Building, Engagement, and Meta-Cognitive Support Strategies in Online Learning Environments” on Monday, April 4, from 12 to 1 at HP208. If you are interested in attending the workshop, please register at: http://tinyurl.com/hotvbvu

Presentation Title: Community-Building, Engagement, and Meta-Cognitive Support Strategies in Online Learning Environments
Presenter: Dr. Greg Sherman from Radford University (https://www.radford.edu/content/cehd/home/teacher-ed/about/staff/greg-sherman.html)
Workshop Description: This workshop presents an overview of best practice strategies for online learning in the following areas and provides research results and specific examples of these strategies, designed to improve the overall effectiveness of online learning environments.

• Building community in online teaching and learning environments
• Defining strategies for cultivating communities of practice among adult learners
• Strategies for managing group interactions
• Scaffolding strategies for supporting the learning of metacognitive skills
• Strategies for promoting active processing conditions in synchronous and asynchronous environments

Online Academy Workshop: New Instructional Technologies for Online Learning

VWCC Online Academy Cohort is hosting a workshop about “New Instructional Technologies for Online Learning” on Monday, Feb. 29, from 12 to 1 at M306 (Business Science Building). If you are interested in attending the workshop, please register at: http://tinyurl.com/gqjfdj9

Time: Monday, Feb. 29 from Noon to 1pm
Location: M306 ( Business Science Building)
Presenter: Dr. Carrie Halpin
Session Description: Several new and upgraded instructional technologies have been provided at VWCC to support online teaching and learning. This workshop will focus on the demonstration and discussion about these new technologies:

• Grade Center Manager: Batch create and delete Grade Center columns
• Qwickly: Make courses available; send emails; post announcements; and post content to multiple courses AT ONCE.
• Blackboard Collaborate Ultra: This new version has many of the same features of the original Blackboard Collaborate application (an interactive Web conferencing tool specifically designed for online teaching and learning). Most important, the process of joining a Blackboard Collaborate Ultra session has been simplified - Ultra opens up right in your Web browser, so you don’t have to install Java or download any special software to join a session.
• Films On Demand: The leading source of high-quality videos and multimedia to support online teaching and learning.