Archived sessions of the Faculty Development Series are available for viewing on USG YouTube by selecting the session title.

Academic Year 2014-2015

Quality Matters

Thanks to an ALC subaward, faculty at Atlanta Metropolitan State College have engaged with Quality Matters and have revised their online courses based on the QM rubric. Our faculty panel will share specific ways in which Quality Matters workshops enable them to improve their online courses and also guide them in their efforts to create online courses specifically designed for adult learners. In addition, our new faculty orientation includes a face to face as well as online segment on Quality Matters to prepare new faculty for online instruction.

Understanding Your Veteran and Military Students

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.

Kissing Pricey Textbooks Goodbye: Teaching with Open Access Materials

Presenter: Dr. Susan E. Hrach

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.

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.

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

Presenter: Dr. Kathleen S. Lowney

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.

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.

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.

Complete College Georgia Initiatives, Part 1

Presenters: Chaudron Gille, Kelly McCoy, Helen Tate andTimothy Renick.

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

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.

Infographics, Part 2

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.

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.

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

Presenter: Ben Wright

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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