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This study presents important results from EDUCAUSE’s 2020 research on students’ experience with information technology, which included 16,162 undergraduate students from 71 US institutions.

The study includes key findings from our analysis of students’ responses, concrete next steps your institution can take in response to those findings, and opportunities for connecting with peers who are implementing innovative practices in the areas of student success, technology use and environmental preferences, data privacy, online harassment, and accessibility.

Access the report

Effective teaching is inclusive teaching.

When faculty work to implement evidence-based teaching practices, they are also working to create more inclusive online learning environments that promote equity.
 
Join us for a free, engaging virtual discussion about inclusive online teaching.

Examining and Mitigating Implicit Bias
Thursday, October 22, 4:00 p.m. ET

In this webinar, featured faculty will discuss processes for reflecting on our own implicit biases, as well as strategies for mitigating the impact of implicit bias in our teaching practice.

Featuring: Teresa A. Nance, PhD, Villanova University; Kevin Gannon, PhD, Grand View University; Marlo Goldstein Hode, PhD, University of Missouri-St. Louis; Darvelle Hutchins, California Polytechnic State University; Kevin Kelly, EdD, San Francisco State University

Details & Registration

Are you interested in learning more about open educational resources and how you might employ them in your courses? Here is your chance.

As an extension of GGC’s participation in Affordable Learning Georgia Textbook Transformation efforts, the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) will provide registration assistance to a limited number of faculty interested in attending the virtual Open Education Conference Nov. 9-13.

About

The Open Education Conference (#OpenEd20) is an annual program for sharing and learning about open educational resources, open pedagogy and open education initiatives. Designed through a collaborative process that leverages the passion and expertise of the community, #OpenEd20 aims to engage diverse perspectives, facilitate connections that drive effective practice, and inspire participants to strive for a future where education is accessible, affordable, equitable and inclusive for all. Most synchronous programming will take place between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Asynchronous content and recordings will be available.

Theme

“Reimagining Open Education” – The events of 2020 have underscored urgent challenges in education – both new and longstanding – from the rapid pivot online in response to a global pandemic, structural inequities including systemic racism, and barriers to the access and full participation in the exchange of knowledge.

This year’s conference seeks to inspire attendees to reimagine education as more open, equitable and inclusive – and to put those ideas into action. The theme also applies to the conference itself, which is being redesigned as a community-owned event.

Topics

• Open Education 101: The Basics and How to Get Started
• Applications of Open Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Creative, Innovative, and Effective Open Education Practices
• What Isn’t Working: Barriers, Challenges, and How to Overcome Them
• Strategies, Policies, and Best Practices for Sustainable Open Education Efforts
• Applications of Open Education in Social Justice, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism
• Exploring Intersections and Collaborations Across Borders and Contexts
• The Evolution and Study of Open Education as a Field

If you wish to attend, please email Cathy Hakes for registration assistance. Registration covers participation in the five-day, virtual conference, including plenary livestreams, synchronous and asynchronous sessions and networking opportunities. The deadline to reply for ORSP sponsorship is Friday, Oct. 16, and is space is limited.

Harnessing Emotion and Hope: Learning in Turbulent Times And Beyond

January 6 & 7, 2021 

Temple University’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT) invites proposals for the 19th Annual Faculty Conference on Teaching Excellence. This year’s conference will be a virtual event.

Our theme this year is Harnessing Emotion and Hope: Learning in Turbulent Times and Beyond. In March 2020, the academic world experienced upheaval as faculty suddenly faced the challenges and necessities of remote teaching, followed this summer and fall by the need to design and teach courses in online, hybrid and socially-distanced environments. At the same time, we witnessed (and sometimes joined) meaningful movements all around us against racism and injustice. It has been an incredibly stressful time for many, full of uncertainty, isolation and anxiety. But it has also been a time of creativity, thoughtfulness and innovation as faculty revamped activities, learned new technologies, and updated curricula to be more relevant, effective, and accessible for students. This process invited us all to think deeply about our students (and about ourselves) as whole beings, and to respond to student needs emerging from all the many factors that influence teaching and learning. Stories of learning, generative action, and hope – on the part of students but also on the part of faculty and administrators – grew up around us as we struggled our way through this year. 

It is important to continue reflecting on the work we do to improve learning – both during the relatively normal times prior to COVID-19 and during these most unusual of times – so we can carry these lived experiences and lessons learned into the future. How can we grapple with the emotional landscapes in our classrooms and harness the hope inherent in teaching to guide our students toward higher and better learning? How can we refocus our learning goals, rethink our teaching actions, improve assessment protocols, rebuild classroom community, and invite relevance into our courses in order to offer rich, transformational learning experiences to our students? How can we leverage technology to engage students in deep learning? How do social, political, and public health realities propel us to create more equitable and inclusive classrooms where all voices are heard and all students can succeed? 

We invite you to submit proposals to share your ideas, insights, research, and strategies so that we can all learn together, harness our collaborative efforts — in short, harness hope — and move them forward together to create a brighter educational landscape for all learners.

Please consider submitting a proposal for a breakout session, poster session, or lightning talk. All proposals will be blind-reviewed. Please note that presenters must register for the conference. 

Proposal submissions are due on October 23rd, 2020. 

Find out more and/or submit your proposal

There’s no argument that Covid-19 has upended higher education. As institutions progressed from emergency remote teaching in the spring to implementing blended, hyflex, fully online or some variation this fall, it is time to reflect and learn.

Attend this webinar to hear from campus leaders across the country who were on the front lines of supporting faculty and students through the emergency transition to online learning, and their strategies for improving student engagement and online course effectiveness this fall. They are all experienced distance learning professionals who will discuss the following topics:

• What worked and didn’t work well supporting faculty to shift online in the spring?
• How has their strategy for online courses, student engagement, and faculty training changed based on the pandemic experience?
• How has the role of video and its importance changed?
• What advice would they give other institutions about how to improve online courses and how to best train and support faculty?

There will be time for you to ask questions of our experts as well, so be sure to join us October 13 at 2pm ET.

Register for this webinar

You might be tempted to join the “arms race” in cheating-prevention tools, or to adopt punitive approaches such as proctored online exams and time limits for online tests. But the reality is, students will always find new and creative ways to get around your policing efforts. So what to do?

I’m not in favor of punitive approaches (though I recognize that proctored tests may be required in some STEM disciplines). Another school of thought is ungrading. Many passionate, committed, and caring educators advocate not grading student work and instead rely on self-assessments and peer assessments. While I respect their approach, I am not in that camp, either.

As a veteran online instructor writing this series on effective online teaching, I’ve found it’s nigh impossible to create a cheat-proof online test. Instead, I recommend something both simpler and more effective: Assume that every online quiz or test you give is open-book and open-note (or, for the tech-savvy, open-Chegg and open-Discord). Students tend to cheat when the stakes of a course are high and they feel pressured to do well — for example, when their grade is based solely on a midterm and a final exam. What follows are seven of my tried-and-true ways to both meaningfully assess student learning and foster academic integrity.

Continued on the Chronicle of Higher Education website.

Whereas institutions in the spring had little time to react to a sudden and unprecedented crisis, many institutions this fall are benefiting from more time, more support, and better preparation for online modes of course delivery and instruction.

As the COVID-19 pandemic upends higher education in 2020, institutions are relying on digital alternatives to missions, activities, and operations. Challenges abound. EDUCAUSE is helping institutional leaders, IT professionals, and other staff address their pressing challenges by sharing existing data and gathering new data from the higher education community. This report is based on an EDUCAUSE QuickPoll. QuickPolls enable us to rapidly gather, analyze, and share input from our community about specific emerging topics.

See the QuickPoll results here.

View all QuickPoll results here.

The Office of Faculty Development is pleased to announce the Fall Webinar Series. These webinars have been designed to help faculty teach and connect with their students in online and hybrid classes.

You will find descriptions and registration information at: https://www.usg.edu/facultydevelopment/centers/program_spotlight/fall_webinar_series 

Sessions will be recorded and archived at this same link.

Motivating Learners Virtually Mini Course: September 14 – 18

This brief (1 hour) course provides an introduction to  three key Learning Mindsets that are both meaningful (because they are linked to critical academic outcomes) and malleable (because they can be changed as students go through your course).

The mini course is open to all and will be delivered entirely online in the USGTrain D2L environment; it is self-paced and can be completed at any time between September 14th and 18th. The course is free, but registration is required. Your feedback will be used to improve the course for a broader audience.

Sign Me Up!