Faculty Affairs

Academic Affairs Division

USG Faculty Development Monthly Series:
Academic Year 2011-2012

General Information: Face-to-face sessions will be held in the Information Technology Services - ITS(formerly OIIT) offices in Athens, Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, and Georgia Southwestern College in Americus. Sessions will begin at 10:00 a.m. and conclude no later than 4:00 p.m. Directions to ITS-Athens can be found at http://www.usg.edu/oiit/directions.phtml. Hotel accommodations can be made at the Spring Hill Suites located next to ITS-Athens (see http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/ahnsh-springhill-suites-athens). Be sure to indicate you are a participant in a USG faculty development workshop when making a reservation. Directions to other two institutions can be found on their websites. Specific building and room information will be included with the agenda.

As of 8/15 2011 registration is only available for the first semester of the 2011-2012 academic year. Registration for Spring 2012 will be open later in Fall semester 2011.

Registration is free to USG faculty and staff with travel funding available for each participant. Once you register, if you are unable to attend please respond to the followup emails you will receive. We do have a waiting list for each workshop. For more information contact:

Online sessions will be conducted via Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Wimba) and registrants will be sent a link to the prior to the session date.


September 14, 2011

Distance Learning Leadership: Operations, Opposition and Opportunities

  • Presenters: Dr. Anthony Piña, Dean of Online Studies and Distinguished Lecturer of Graduate Studies at Sullivan University, Kentucky
  • Session: Online
  • Description: Dr. Anthony Piña will share a distance learning leader’s toolbox that includes research from the ivory tower, latest trends from the “cloud,” and strategies from the trenches to facilitate operations, minimize opposition and enhance opportunities for our distance learning programs.
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September 16, 2011

Improving Large Lecture Class Learning Outcomes and Adapting STEM Labs

  • Presenters: Stephen Rehberg, Georgia Tech and Peggy Brickman, University of Georgia
  • Trainers from the Community College Open Textbook Collaborative
  • Location: ITS - Athens
  • Session: Face-to-Face
  • Descriptions
    • Part 1 – As classes become larger and students become more diverse, many faculty are turning to the principles of “Universal Design” to reduce the barriers to learning that can easily be associated with higher education today. Find out how to:(1) give your students more options for acquiring information and knowledge;(2) provide multiple ways for your students to demonstrate what they know;(3) use multiple means of engagement to tap into learners’ interest, offer appropriate challenges, and increase motivation.
    • Part 2 – “STEM Labs” How can you adapt your labs to student’ needs while still maintaining the academic rigor that you and your departments require?
      In this SciTrainU workshop, we will explore how we can adjust pedagogy to improve student learning in the lab environment. We’ll consider various models of instructional design, including Universal Design for Learning, inquiry-based labs, and alternative assessments. We will help you to determine how best to accomplish your lab instructional goals.
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October 12, 2011

Intro to ePublishing - more than PDFs

  • Presenters: Frank Lowney, Georgia College
  • Session: Online
  • Description: ePublishing is a broad field, including eBooks used as textbooks, novels and more. Faculty can use rich media that provide many interactive features for things like lab manuals, department guides, supplemental materials and student authoring. And, it is all within your grasp using free and/or easy applications.
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October 14, 2011

Creative Technology Uses in Instruction

  • Presenters: Kevin Mobbs, College of Coastal Georgia and Frank Lowney, Georgia College
  • Location: ITS - Athens
  • Session: Face-to-Face
  • Description: Bring one of your powerpoint presentations and learn new and creative ways to redesign it. Also, have you ever considered capturing some content from your computer for video playback? Learn some techniques for doing so and strategies for use of such material.
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November 9, 2011

Academic Dishonesty

  • Presenters: Bill Hill, Kennesaw State University
  • Session: Online
  • Description: What are the popular cheating techniques? Is there a best way to handle cheating in the classroom? Is plagiarism cheating? Answers to these questions and others will be discussed.
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November 18, 2011

Designing Games for Instructional Purposes

  • Presenters: Jeff Chastine and Jon Preston
  • Location: Georgia Gwinnett College
  • Session: Face-to-Face
  • Description: Have you ever wondered how you could use gaming in instruction? Are there specific subject areas that work best for game development? How do you go about developing a game and can you test using games? Learn the answers to these questions and others you may have.
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December 7, 2011

Section 508 Compliance and Online Course Content (Online Session)

  • Presenters: Janet Sylvia, University of Georgia
  • Session: Online Session
  • Description: Section 508 requires that electronic and information technology be equally accessible to persons with and without disabilities. The Board of Regents of University System of Georgia has determined that institutions under the BOR fall within the scope of Section 508. In this seminar we will talk about how to design Section 508-compliant online courses including: course structure, color scheme, layout, navigation, hyperlinks, backgrounds, and images. We will also discuss strategies and resources for creating accessible course content: documents, audio-narrated presentations, and multimedia files (audio/video). This information applies whether you are placing course content on a website or within your online course. Closed captioning for this webinar made possible by the USG Office of Faculty Development
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January 20, 2012

Creating a Collaborative Learning Community

  • Presenters: Meredith Ginn & Shea Mize, Georgia Highlands College, Kim Huett and Jason Huett, University of West Georgia
  • Location: ITS - Athens
  • Session: Face-to-Face
  • Descriptions
    • Part 1 This workshop will explore techniques for setting up co-curricular learning communities, as presenters discuss their experiences linking the political science and communication courses. Lessons learned from implementing a pilot learning community will be reviewed as well as syllabi alignment, cross-over projects, and group assignments that strengthen the learning community experience. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate as “mock students” in several modeled activities and have the opportunity to complete brainstorming packets with colleagues on how learning communities might be implemented at their own institutions.
    • Part 2 Wikis promote collaborative knowledge building among groups of people. An introduction of wikis will be followed by specific examples of wikis that were or still are used to support teaching, learning, and/or administrative functions covering how wikis can be used as a highly functional knowledge management space. Participants will learn the basics of creating and editing a wiki hands-on foray into Wikispaces.

Register Online

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February 8, 2012

Mentoring Adjunct/Part Time faculty

  • Presenters: Amy Coleman, Georgia Perimeter College
  • Session: Online
  • Description: Learn techniques and methods for mentoring, training, encouraging, and retaining adjuncts in order to increase student satisfaction and retention.

Register Online

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February 17, 2012

Integrating teaching, service, and scholarship: Publishing what you do where it counts

  • Presenters: Linda Noble, USG Board of Regents and Iris, Saltiel Columbus State University
  • Location: ITS - Athens
  • Session: Face-to-Face
  • Descriptions: Too many faculty members think their responsibilities of teaching, research and service do not intertwine. But in this case, it’s OK to get out of your lane! . Research, teaching, and service can and should be integrally related, each informing the other. Research on teaching and assessment of student learning can be a part of your scholarship. Learning ways to use your teaching, student learning assessments, and service as components of scholarly work is important for faculty. In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn how to:
    • Turn your regular activities into publishable material
    • Select portions of teaching, service and scholarly work for publication
    • Build and organize a scholarly agenda.

Register Online

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March 14, 2012

Marketing Your Program through Social Media

  • Presenters: Melanie Clay, University of West Georgia
  • Session: Online
  • Description: Ever wondered how to use Facebook or Twitter to “get the word out” about your program? Better yet, how do I use these media effectively? This session has those answers.

Register Online

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March 30, 2012

Class from Hell

  • Presenters: Peter Lindsay, Georgia State University
  • Location: Georgia Southwestern State University
  • Session: Face-to-Face
  • Description: What do you do when, with 12 long weeks to go, you realize that you have the class from hell – one you dread walking into? What did you do? What made it the class from hell? Was it the disruptive student? Was it you? Learn some techniques to work with such classes.

Register Online

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April 11, 2012

What’s Online Will Hurt You

  • Presenters: Stan Gatewood, USG Board of Regents
  • Session: Online
  • Description: Are you worried about identity theft? Well that’s not the only thing on the internet to be worried about. Learn what other pitfalls are out there.

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April 20, 2012

Leading Undergraduate Research Programs

  • Presenters: Samuel Abegaz, Cindy Henning and Shamim Khan, Columbus State University, David Williams, University of Georgia
  • Location: ITS - Athens
  • Session: Face-to-Face
  • Description: Undergraduate research is thriving on many of our campuses. Hear first hand examples of what students are doing and how faculty are supporting them.

Register Online

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