The Teaching Hub

The Instructional Preparedness Edition 

This issue of the Teaching Hub is dedicated to preparing ourselves to deliver some of our teaching to students in an alternative format. The goal of this preparedness is to be ready to continue delivering our curriculum during a full or partial quarantine due to COVID-19’s impact on faculty, students, or others who are not able to attend classes the way originally planned. We will focus on Webex as a central tool that can fill many (but not all) of our needs, as we continue to do what we do in D2L. We have organized some opportunities for you and your students to get comfortable with Webex, should the need arise to use it.   

As we plan and prepare for instructional continuity, we are confident of one thing: we will see our faculty, students and staff shine as we work towards the end of the term. And we are not alone. There are many other institutions sharing their thoughts and plans, just like we are doing here. You’ll see a collection of these resources at the end of this post. But first, let’s turn to some advice from the Director of the Digital Pedagogy Lab, Sean Michael Morris, someone who has thought more than most about how to keep the human connection alive in teaching from a distance.  

“Online doesn’t mean you need to change how you teach. You are still just as human, and so are the students on the other side of your screen. Email, text messages, phone calls—these are all ways to sustain a human connection.”  

“Look for simple solutions. Don’t complicate distant learning suddenly with unnecessary tools or expectations. Use reliable, familiar tools, so that teaching can remain the core of your work.” 

This is great advice from Sean. As we mentioned above, we’d suggest that the most familiar and reliable tool that we all have to make much of this happen is Webex (and of course we continue doing what we already do in D2L and other tools). 

Webex is a space that you can use to meet with your students and deliver some instruction at the same time, in the same (digital) space. It can be recorded for those who can’t join at the time. It can create captioning and transcripts. And best of all you don’t have to have a camera on you at all! We can discuss all this (and any other tools you may need to use) to keep connected and sharing when we get together in Webex over the next few weeks (see the schedule next) 

Over the next few weeks, we’d like to offer an opportunity for you to get more familiar with these tools, and to make sure that you have what you need to succeed. We’re offering facilitated opportunities for you to learn about and practice with WebEx, Starting on Monday, March 16th at 10 a.m. See details here. If you need a webcam/mic, head down to your school office, The LDS hallway, or the IT Help Desk and grab one. And we’re always ready to chat with you in our own MS Team, the (Virtual) Teacher’s Lounge. Come on in, sit down and let’s chat. Here’s the invite link. 

We don’t want our students left to figure out their end of things on their own, either. To that end, we suggest that after you get comfortable in webex with us, schedule a time for your students to experience a WebEx room with you. The meeting need not have any curriculum attached, just a chance to make sure things work. This could be a nice test run to get everyone feeling ready to learn in a new setting. As another option, the library will offer a chance to experience a webex for students on Tuesday March 17th between 10 and 1 to let students know about the excellent remote help they have to offer. We will update this post with a link to that room as we can.

If you want to dig in further, we’ve collected some fantastic resources from around the globe by people who want to help ease the transition:  

• The entire thread from Sean Michael Morris that we referenced above 
• Rapid Response plan from Victoria Commonwealth University ALT LAB   
• An Emergency Guide (of sorts) to Getting This Week’s Class Online in About an Hour (or so) from Matt Crosslin 
• Webex support resources
• Brightspace (D2L) video tutorials for Faculty 
• The Online Learning Consortium’s “pop up webinar”, “Using Live, Online Sessions to Support Continuity of Instruction” 
• Martin Weller, of the Open University and author of “25 Years of Ed-Tech”, blog post The COVID-19 Online Pivot 
• Jim Luke – Learning in a Pandemic 
• This Twitter list of digital learning shepherds to look up to and follow their lead through this. 
• Teaching in the context of COVID-19 (shared collection of resources from other Higher Ed institutions) 

We can do this! Remember, this is just about preparedness. Reach out to the Learning Design and Support Team if you want to chat! Phone 705-749-5530, Ext 1216 and email ldsteam@flemingcollege.ca. And we strongly encourage you to join our MS Team, The Virtual Teacher’s Lounge as a place where all of us can discuss this stuff and support each other. 

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

Professional Learning Networks

The professional learning network (PLN) is the working professional’s version of crowd surfing at a Busta Rhymes concert in 1998. In other words, it’s pretty awesome. A healthy network of colleagues can lift you up and carry you through what you need to get through. Want to see how you can help develop your own network of colleagues that can help lift you up and carry you to new heights? Check out the Ontario Extend’s Collaborator module.

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

Techno Connections

Speaking of PLNs, you can use some technology to enhance and expand the reach of your network. For example, do you want to connect with your educator peers at Fleming? Use Microsoft Teams to chat with each other (specifically, this one: the Virtual Teacher’s Lounge). Or if you want to connect with people in your field of expertise, maybe there is a healthy group of your peers there on Twitter or LinkedIn. Wherever they are, get in there and muck it up with them!

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

PLNs are for Everyone

Usually in this section we suggest an event coming up to tell your students about. But in a stunning turn of events, we found out that communication works both ways so hey, maybe you could ask them something for us? We’d like to know what they use to stay connected with each other outside of class and build their own networks. Is it Discord? Slack? Something they haven’t told us about? What is it? Maybe that conversation will go something like this.

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

Let’s flip the script on this section, too. We normally want to tell you a bit about how the college works, but this week we want you to tell us something. What ways do you have to stay connected and build a professional learning network in your day-to-day job? You could let us know in the Teacher’s Lounge, by emailing us (hub@flemingcollege.ca), commenting below, or tweeting us (@FlemingLDS)

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

PLN Renewal Time

If you want to join 30+ of your peers in an opportunity to grow your PLN, the Ontario Extend professional learning opportunity is still collecting names. If you’re interested, join us in May/June as we explore empowering ourselves as teachers, collaborators, curators, experimenters, technologists and scholars. Check out the details and add your name to the form here. Everyone (full-time, part-time, no-time) is welcome to join us for as much of it as you want!

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

When in Doubt, Look to Bonni

Frost faculty member Erin McGauley has excellent taste in educators to look up to, as she recently shared a link to Bonni Stachowiak’s article about how to keep a good pace in your classes. Check out Bonni’s beloved podcast while you’re at her site!

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

Free Stuff

Where should you go when you need access to 3 million 2D and 3D images that you are absolutely allowed (and encouraged) to freely use? Why, the Smithsonian’s newly released Open Access page, of course! That’s the good stuff.

The Smithsonian's treasures belong to you. Now you can download, remix, reuse and share them with #SmithsonianOpenAccess, for free, for any purpose. Explore at https://t.co/35Wp7dOaNK. pic.twitter.com/njhaN9JCoS

— Smithsonian (@smithsonian) February 25, 2020

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

Library ILC Workshops

If you copy the following: https://mycampus.flemingcollege.ca/group/portal/information-literacy-certificate, and then paste that stuff into a place where your students will see it and maybe click it, you will set off a chain of events that could lead to a life of skillful database searching, presentation giving, source evaluating, plagiarism avoiding, and proper citing. And that’s the good life we’re all trying to live here.

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

Last week was PD week. This week is Give Us Feedback On The PD Week Week. Stay tuned to the daily Communications emails this week for an opportunity to let us know what you thought of the opportunities you attended. Maybe frame your feedback in a compliment sandwich if you want to take the gentle approach.

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

Open Education Week

This week is not just PD Week Feedback Week as mentioned above. More globally, it is known as Open Education Week. Check out all of the events here, and see if you can spot one that we are leading from right here at Fleming College!

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

PD Week

If you’re interested in a little bit of professional development in order to squeeze some more engagement out of your teaching & learning environments, the “Reconnect” Fleming Faculty & Staff PD Week (next week!) has some offerings for you! Check out things like The Contract Faculty Experience, UDL: Sharing Practices and more in the “Reconnect” PD Week Information page here. Scroll down a little to see links to the schedule, session details and registration.

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

PD Week

If you’re interested in a little bit of professional development on using technology to enable learning the “Reconnect” Fleming Faculty & Staff PD Week (next week!) has some offerings for you! Check out things like Ontario Extend, Using Intelligent Agents in D2L, Wikipedia Edit-a-thon and more in the “Reconnect” PD Week Information page here. Scroll down a little to see links to the schedule, session details and registration.

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

PD Week

Remind your students not to come here next week and then feast your eyes on the “Reconnect” PD Week Information page here for approximately one million different opportunities to develop your profession.

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

PD Week

If you’re interested in a little bit of professional development on how the college works the “Reconnect” Fleming Faculty & Staff PD Week (next week!) has some offerings for you! Check out things like the College Accommodations Committee Modules, Strategic Mandate Agreement 3 (it’s a trilogy!) and more in the “Reconnect” PD Week Information page here!

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

Hmmm. Can’t Think of Any PD …..

Oh yeah, PD WEEK! I think we mentioned it already. There is a half-fortnight of professional development opportunities in the works. There are so many Fleming folks prepping a lovely little session for you next week and they can’t wait to see you there. Here is “Reconnect” PD Week Information page here . You should go to all of them!

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

Extending an Invitation

Ontario Extend is a resource designed to help empower educators to create engaging technology-enabled learning experiences for their learners. This May and June, concurrent with Academic Renewal, we will facilitate a group of Fleming educators through the program. Participants will receive a digital badge for every module they complete, and the Empowered Educator micro-credential if all modules are completed. We are in the beginning stages of organizing and would just like to collect names of anyone interested in joining us for all or part of the experience. It will take approximately 3 hours/week from the beginning of May to mid-June. Pop your name in here if you are interested!

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

A Gateway to D2L

When new students and faculty join us in our lovely Fleming College community they may be asking themselves “What the heck is D2L?” Good question! We’ve tried to distill the answer to that question by including a simple “who, what, when, where, why, how” of D2L itself and a few of its most useful tools in the Fleming College TechBank. If you go to either the D2L for Students or D2L for Faculty categories, you’ll see that overview (which provides links to tutorials etc if needed). It’s not quite fully fleshed out yet, so we’d love to hear your feedback on how to make it better.

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

For Pete’s Sake

Tell your students they’re invited to Fleming Night at the @PetesOHLhockey on Feb. 13! Tickets are on sale now at the Sutherland and Frost campus stores for $10. If you’re unable to visit these campus stores, please contact studentexperience@flemingcollege.ca and they will help. Go Pete’s Go! Get more goals than that other team!

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

You Got a New Way To Walk

Have a listen to this while you ingest the following information: During the Fleming College Faculty & Staff PD Week (Feb 24-28), Monday to Thursday at noon you will get the chance(s) to join in on the Fleming Colleagues Walk & Roll meet-ups at Sutherland! It is a delightful experience. Head to the Transportation Lounge at noon to join!

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

Kawartha Teaching and Technology Conference

It’s close to home and only $50! You’re not going to get a much better chance to attend an educational technology conference this year than the Kawartha Teaching & Technology Conference! Held at Trent on Thursday, March 5th. Sessions, keynotes, workshops and panel discussions will be organized within three broad topic areas:

• Leveraging Technology for Inclusionary Practice
• On the Horizon – Emerging Tools & Strategies for Teaching and Learning
• Implications of Cybersecurity and Privacy on Teaching and Learning

Hope to see you there!

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

Going Organic

Once or twice in the history of the world, it may be possible that one or two course-based online discussions have been a tad robotic and boring. However, it turns out that having organic online discussions is possible! And guess what? It’s not a technological fix, it’s a human one. Check out this article to learn more.

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

Click That Subscribe Button

As suggested by Alana Callan in The (Virtual) Teacher’s Lounge, it is a great idea subscribe to BrightSpace Tutorials on YouTube, and to use those videos as your go-to resource for how to do D2L stuff. Also, join the Virtual Teacher’s Lounge (it’s a Microsoft Teams team) so you can get awesome tips and seek advice like this at its source! Maybe you’ll even see your tip reported here, to the masses!

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

Free Tech!

Fleming Student Administrative Council likes to let students know about things that students should know, and free technology is no exception. You can shoot this link to your students to let them know what’s available.

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

Your Change Makes Change

When eating baked goods can help the Fleming team get to the Enactus Regional pitch competition in Mississauga, everyone wins. Well, except for all the other teams that go to the competition. Bring some change in to the main foyer at Sutherland on February 6th from 11-2 for the Enactus Fundraiser – Bake Sale & Candy Grams (Yummy!).

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

A Taste of What’s to Come

From February 24th-28th (a.k.a. Reading Week), various dedicated professionals at Fleming College are offering up an assortment of professional development options for you throughout the entire week! Plans are still being finalized, but stay tuned for PD on things like the College Accommodation Committee Modules, Badging and Ontario Extend, Cisco/WebEx Collaboration Tools, Indigenous Perspectives Designation Policy and Procedure, Energizing your classroom, the Contract Faculty Experience, and much, much more!

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

Culturally Responsive Teaching

In reading this article it’s great to find out that by working toward providing learning experiences in a UDL-y way (Universal Design for Learning) it will also likely make you a more culturally responsive teacher. That’s like a Buy-One-Get-One Free deal!

Simply providing choice for students in terms of the input of information, or their own output, is a step toward a culturally responsive classroom, as is inherent in the guiding principles of UDL.

Gwen Bass, PhD, and Michael Lawrence-Riddell

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

The Tech Bank

It’s still a work in progress, but like the seemingly as-yet unfinished Death Star in Return of the Jedi, this thing is operational. The Fleming Digital Learning Technologies Inventory, aka the Tech Bank, is a space to get a quick and dirty run-down of which learning technologies are available to us (faculty and students), and to get a sense of how and why one might want to use it. Have a look at the Faculty category to see what’s there, and let us know what’s missing and/or how to make it as useful as possible!

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

Your Own Terms and Conditions

From 5-6 pm on January 28th in room 253A (at Frost Campus), there is a free workshop for students to help work toward living your life on your own terms:

The STOP PUSHING MY BUTTONS! Workshop will help participants move away from reaction, defensiveness and blame towards understanding the power behind thoughts and feelings. Learn how to identify and deactivate your buttons with strategic tools and techniques.

It may take more than one hour to achieve this, so we’re thinking there may be some post-workshop stuff to do. Students can register at Health Services Rm 254 (at Frost).

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

Policies & Procedures

In some instances, for some people, once in an occasional blue, waning moon, it can be a trifle dry to read up on policies and procedures. But some say they are an important part of running a tight ship, so we have a few here at Fleming. When you’re ready you can find them here. Let us know which is your favourite!

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

Virtual Lunch n’ Learns from Ed-Tech Ontario

The ETC is a committee of ed-tech enthusiasts from all of Ontario’s colleges. One of the things that they do is run a series of webinars throughout the semester. And the new calendar is out! First up, on February 5th is a webinar entitled Listen Up: Podcasts as the new “Textbook” hosted by Audrey Wubbenhorst of Humber College. See the whole list here. Sounds intriguing!

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Contrary to some beliefs, Wikipedia’s quite a reliable source of information (check out the myth busting section in this slide deck) and guess who can make it even better? This coming Open Education Week (March 2-6), think about joining us as we join a bunch of other colleges and unis in Ontario in a Wikepedia-Edit-a-thon. The overarching goal is to help reduce the gender gap on Wikipedia. It should be an engaging learning experience for all of us. Pop your name in here if you’re interested in learning more.

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

Tech Talk & Tacos Take Two

We will be hosting a lunch time virtual get-together every week: 12-1230 on Tuesdays in our WebEx Digital Meeting Room. This week, we will have a look at WebEx itself (so meta!). We can show everyone how it works, how we can use it, and how you might want to use it in your teaching or for your own learning. Email Terry for a calendar invite, if you’d like one.

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

Clubbin’

Students can get all their clubbing needs met on Tuesday, January 21st from 11-1 in the main foyer at Sutherland during Club Craze, hosted by the Student Administrative Council. And we don’t mean late-night-party clubbing; we mean student interest clubs! Clubs can be joined or new ones can be started! Maybe someone will start a Clubbin’ Club for late-night dancing enthusiasts.

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

There’s an App for… Us?

That’s right! There is a Fleming mobile app. It functions much like the myCampus portal, but instead of looking it up in a browser on your phone, you simply open the app! Saves you a few clicks! Find it on Google Play or on your iPhone.

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

Winter 2020 Professional Development Week

The Learning Design & Support and Employee Success and Organizational Development teams are partnering to bring you an exciting week of professional development during Winter Week 8. Please feed us your ideas for how best to do this by filling out this survey. In doing you will not be entered in a contest to win anything, but we will give a slight nod of appreciation when we pass you in the hallways.

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

Give it Five Minutes

In this article, James M. Lang offers up some advice for using the first 5 minutes of class to shift everyone’s attention from the latest hot goss to, you know, course stuff. Next week, we’ll try to find an article on what to do in the second five minutes of class!

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

Tech Talk & Tacos

Starting this week, and every week until we forget to keep doing it, we will be hosting a lunch time virtual get-together right dab in the middle of the week: 12-1 on Wednesdays in our Webex Digital Meeting Room. This week, we will have a look at Microsoft Teams, and specifically, the (newly renamed) Teacher’s Lounge Team that now has 40 members and growing! We can show everyone how it works, how we can use it, and how you might want to use it in your teaching. Contact Terry if you need any help getting set up.

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

There’s Help

Guess what? We have no idea most of the time what our students are going through in their day-to-day lives. But we do want them to succeed, so it behooves us to let them know what help is available to them. Here’s a key piece of that help: good2talk.ca “Good2Talk is a free, confidential helpline providing professional counselling and information and referrals for mental health, addictions, and well-being to post-secondary students in Ontario, 24/7/365.” Let your students know it’s there for them when they need it.

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

Free Stuff from IT!

Adobe Creative Cloud is full of powerful software for making cool stuff with your computer. And you can have it all for free at home, thanks to IT Services! Head to this page for directions on how to get it. Then it’s just a matter of figuring out how to use Photoshop and all that other cool stuff. Simple, right?

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

New Contract Faculty Experience

The new Contract Faculty Experience program includes four hours of online learning designed to support folks as they become familiar with their roles and responsibilities at Fleming College. Find it here: https://wpflemingcollege.com/cfex/. If you haven’t guessed by the name, the target audience for the experience is new contract faculty, but all are welcome to pop in for a refresher on a thing or two.