Don't Let Your Students Zoom Out

As we enter the second week of the eLearning Training Institute, I wanted to share a really good article about the limitations of Zoom meetings. As we navigate what our fully online courses will look like in the fall, it is important that we not lose sight of the need for active learning. Any "lecture" of 15-20 minutes needs to be followed by interaction but it also needs to be varied. Think about your participation in Zoom meetings. Do you find yourself losing interest or being distracted? Breana Bayraktar has some good suggestions here on how you can keep students engaged.

Civil Unrest is Part of America and Provides a Teachable Moment

Earning a college degree is about getting a job. But it is also so much more. A good educational experience inspires life-long learning. It can also impact the area because it creates an informed citizenry. Folks who can think critically begin to impact and shape the environment they choose to make their home. The civil unrest occurring now provides us with a great opportunity to connect the real world to the learning that is occurring in your classes this summer. Yesterday, I posted a tweet to the Center for Teaching and Learning Enhancement Twitter account with a link to an opinion piece on the Inside Higher Ed website. Colleen Flaherty included the following as a subtitle to her article Making Sense of the Senseless: Academics are called to help interpret and guide a national response to police violence and related civil unrest. It is a role that we have played for a long time but the current situation provides us with an opportunity to have uncomfortable conversations. Of course and learning experience should be related to what you are teaching but at times, when something horrific occurs, we are distracted and that includes our students. So begin by creating a safe environment in your classes. Since we are fully online, this means netiquette. Respect is important, so if you are holding a Zoom meeting or using the discussion board, make sure you set the ground rules and hold everyone to them. Using the article as a starting point and asking for reflection in light of your discipline would be appropriate. Here is a resource provided by colleagues at SUNY Empire State College that contains not only some good parameters but a number of videos you might want to use to help your students understand the history of social unrest in our country. As many of us can attest, we have been in this place before and we know that change can occur. What is more natural than a community college that helps to heal the community around it?

Maymester Bootcamp Proves Beneficial

For the first time in our brief history, BRCC is fully online for the summer 2020 semester. We recently had more than 50 faculty and staff complete the eLearning Program Training Institute led by Director of Innovative Learning Susan Nealy. Because of the shortened time frame available for the training, we redesigned it and called it the Maymester Bootcamp. Three weeks of intense work using a new curriculum heavily supported by the Learning Environment Modeling (LEM) approach to course design was certainly a challenge. LEM is a visual planning system that makes designing learning experiences like courses simple and effective. Bootcamp participants used the LEM material to create visual blueprints. The participants emerged from the Bootcamp with certification to teach in the online, hybrid, and hyflex modalities. In addition, we utilized a Community of Practice (CoP) team which is is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. The CoP that we utilized provided a network of support for the Bootcamp participants in a way that improved efficiency and allowed the team to learn new things in the process, which will help us going forward. The next Training Institute will occur from June 15-July 19 and will focus on preparing all the faculty who are slated to teach in the fall 2020 semester. If you are interested in participating, please contact Susan Nealy.