Faculty Affairs

Academic Affairs Division

USG Faculty Development Monthly Series:
Academic Year 2014-2015

All Faculty Development Series sessions this year will be conducted online from 12 noon to 1:30PM Eastern via Blackboard Collaborate. Access the Meeting Rooms at The Digital Innovation Group @ Georgia College where first-time users can go to the Collaborate Support Desk where and view the "Getting Ready for an Event" information. You will need speakers (internal or plug-in), and a microphone (internal or plug-in) is strongly recommended, but not required.

Join the session by entering the meeting room Professional Development Center at The Digital Innovation Group @ Georgia College.

For more information contact Ginger Durham, Director of Faculty Development.

October 7, 2014

Understanding Your Veteran and Military Students

Presenter: David Snow, EdD, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia

Join Dr. David Snow, Director of Military Affairs at the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia for an overview of issues currently facing veterans and active military who wish to attend college, what faculty and administrators should know about these students, and current initiatives across the USG.

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October 21, 2014

Kissing Pricey Textbooks Goodbye: Teaching with Open Access

Presenter: Susan E. Hrach, PhD, Columbus State University

As textbook costs rise and free online materials proliferate, are we ready to cut ties with traditional sources of content? We’ll consider a new role for faculty as curators of content and what that means in theory and in practice. Presenter Susan Hrach will share a recent pilot experience with a literature course, including student responses to the textbook-free learning environment.

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October 22, 2014

ePortfolios for Learning, Assessment, and Career Development

Presenter: Dr. C. Edward Watson, University of Georgia

ePortfolios are web-based, interactive tools that are designed to help students create, organize, reflect upon, and share evidence of their educational accomplishments, both in courses and across co-curricular activities. ePortfolios are also used to assist programs and departments with self-studies, assessment activities, and accreditation challenges. This session will provide an overview of the current ePortfolio landscape by examining the key promises offered by such tools in teaching and learning, assessment, and professional development contexts. Significant time will be spent exploring the pedagogies that employ ePortfolio processes and technologies. Appraisals of existing technologies along with a consideration of current technological limitations will be discussed. The session will conclude with a brief summary of key findings from within ePortfolio scholarship and how that information should inform future ePortfolio practices.

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November 4, 2014

My Students Won’t Stop Behaving Badly, Now What?

Presenter: Kathleen S. Lowney, PhD, Valdosta State University

From texting to rude behavior to tantrums and even violence, faculty can encounter disruptive behavior by students in face-to-face, hybrid, and online environments. We’ll talk some about low level disruptions, techniques to resolve them, and then focus on how to de-escalate those which could spiral out of control.

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November 18, 2014

Success is in the Details: How Do I Get the Technology Solutions I Need For Work, School and Home?

Presenters: Doug Hyche, Jack Delinsky, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia

Technology touches all aspects of our life - work, school, and personal life. How do you get the technology solutions you need swiftly and at low cost? Join members from Software Resource & Services (SRS) and the Customer Relationship Management Team, divisions of the Board of Regents Information Technology Services office, to learn more about the technology solutions, resources, and additional opportunities you can leverage both inside and outside the classroom. This presentation will include a brief overview of SRS’s Institutional and Personal Stores where significantly discounted name brand software can be purchased for institutional and individual use. Additional resources, endeavors, and opportunities to participate will be discussed. You will walk away from this presentation knowing more about key University System resources that can help you move forward both personally and professionally.

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January 6, 2015

The Quality of Learning in MOOCs

Presenter - Thomas C. Reeves, PhD, The University of Georgia

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other forms of open education are viewed as positive disruptive innovations by some and as threats to traditional education by others. The discord over MOOCs is especially evident in the higher education sector. This presentation examines the evidence for and against MOOCs, especially with respect to the quality of the learning accomplished by participants. The presentation also describes inconsistencies in learning assessment in MOOCs, and suggests innovative assessment strategies based on authentic tasks. Finally, recommendations are made for advancing the efficacy and impact of MOOCs through educational design research.

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January 20, 2015

Complete College Georgia Initiatives, Part 1

The session will provide an update on three initiatives launched as a part of the University System of Georgia Complete College Georgia Incubator Grants. Topics included in the session are:

Chaudron Gille, University of North Georgia
Capturing Student Services Data to Improve Success & Completion

Kelly McCoy and Helen Tate, Georgia Southwestern State University
Project Storm Spotter: Developing a Data-Driven Response to Student Risk

Timothy Renick, Georgia State University
Integrating Financial Risk Factors into GPS Advising through Data-based Markers, Predictive Analytics and Student Counseling

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January 21, 2015

Infographics, Part 1

Presenter: Lisa Johnson

After participating in this workshop, you will be able to distinguish infographics from other graphic formats, recognize the characteristics of an effective infographic, recognize various strategies for using infographics in instructional designs, locate existing infographics for use in instructional designs, recall techniques for creating effective infographics, and plan use of familiar technologies to create infographics. [[Participants are encouraged to practice creating infographics after this workshop and to attend Part II of this workshop series to share their creations for evaluation by peers.]]

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January 27, 2015

LoudCloud: Equipping Faculty and Institutions for Competency-Based Education

Presenter: Rhonda Blackburn

Delivering and managing a successful competency-based education program requires rethinking several aspects of course design and student management. This session will highlight the key considerations required to build an engaging CBE program including direct assessment versus credit equivalency considerations; building a competency map and aligning course level competencies to occupational standards; authoring robust assessments to align to competencies; building different study plans; developing unique grading systems into the program; tracking and managing student outcomes against preset goals, and using data to improve curriculum. The session will include observations and learnings based on CBE deployments at community college, public, and for-profit institutions.

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January 28, 2015

Infographics, Part 2

Presenter: Lisa Johnson

After participating in this workshop, you will be able to recall techniques for creating effective infographics, use of familiar technologies to create infographics, evaluate infographics using a rubric, and plan for the use of infographics as part of effective instructional materials design for instruction and in the assessment of student learning. [[Participants are encouraged to attend Part I of this workshop series before participating in this Part II, or to have at least viewed the archive of the Part I session in preparation for Part II.]]

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February 17, 2015

Facing HOPE: A College and Community Collaboration to share stories of triumph over poverty

Presenter: Juliana Breithaupt

Join us as we share a collaborative service-learning project shared by Georgia Highlands College, Georgia Northwestern Technical College, and Berry College of Rome, GA.  As part of the National Facing Project, these three colleges joined forces to “give a voice to the voiceless” in their community while teaching students about strategic interviewing and writing processes.  Learn more about how your College can join this national project!

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February 24, 2015

Complete College Georgia Initiatives, Part 2

The session will provide an update on three initiatives launched as a part of the University System of Georgia Complete College Georgia Incubator Grants. Topics included in the session are:

David Pollock, Bainbridge State College
A Self-paced, Competency-Based Model for Learning

Sara Selby and Molly Smith
A Flippin’ Great Idea, Mac! Using iPads to Facilitate a Flipped Core Curriculum

C. Edward Watson, University of Georgia
Reducing Costs for Students through Open Education Resources

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March 10, 2015

Quality Matters in the USG

Presenters: Irene Kokkala, University of North Georgia and Raleigh Way, Georgia Southern University

Irene will provide an overview of the Quality Matters internal review process at the University of North Georgia. The presentation will focus on faculty involvement in the quality assurance of online instruction through the use of the Quality Matters rubric.

The Instructional Designer Association is a Special Interest Group of Quality Matters. Instrumental in the creation of the group, Raleigh Way will provide an overview of the mission and goals of a group that focuses on instructional design and instructional designers in higher education.

Postponed

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March 24, 2015

Presenting Learning to the Public: Using Word Press as Assessment Tool

Presenter: Ben Wright, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College

Students pour countless hours into coursework only to see the product of that labor result in a paper or exam which is either discarded or filed away in cabinet. This talk proposes that we consider ways to turn student learning into enduring monuments of achievement. Taking this approach can dissolve the boundaries of the classroom and enable students to make connections between their academic work an the wider world. Ben Wright has taught a series of courses that ask students to produce websites that archive and present student learning. Drawing on his experience as the editor of abolitionseminar.org, a NEH funded digital seminar for K-12 educators, Wright has worked with students in creating websites for a course on the rise and fall of Atlantic slavery, viewable at riseandfallofslavery.wordpress.com and the history of global apocalyptisicm, viewable at historyoftheend.wordpress.com. Hear more about his experiences and consider how you can integrate these models into your own classrooms.

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