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The Office of the Provost cordially invites faculty to the Vice President and Academic and Student Affairs professional development workshop, “Using D2L Intelligent Agents to Automate Some Course Communication and Promote Student Engagement,” led by the Center for Teaching Excellence.

The workshop will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 16 from 2:00 – 3:15 p.m. Join the session using the link in this announcement.

Intelligent Agents in Brightspace can assist instructors and students by providing an automated email in the following situations:

• When a specific student activity occurs in a course.
• When such an activity does not occur in a course.
• When a student does or does not login to Brightspace.
• When a student does or does not enter a particular course in Brightspace.

An Intelligent Agent is a D2L tool that can perform a communications task on your behalf. By the end of this workshop, you will know how to create and use Intelligent Agents.

Deadline for submissions: March 7, 2021

The Teaching & Learning Day is an annual event that showcases the fresh thinking and innovative strategies of GGC faculty and staff related to enhancing teaching and learning. Our fourth annual Teaching & Learning Day will consist of a virtual poster session that provides a visual forum for individuals and groups to showcase innovative work related to teaching, learning, and technology, including but not limited to:

• course design (face to face and hybrid),
• assignment design,
• engaged pedagogies (including experiential learning),
• assessment strategies,
• research on teaching and learning
• efforts to enhance student success. 

The poster session at Teaching & Learning Day provides an opportunity to reach a broad audience and initiate conversations with colleagues sharing similar interests. We invite you to submit an application to present your work.

Please complete this application by Sunday, March 7, 2021. Questions may be directed to Roy Marquez (rmarquez1@ggc.edu).

For more information, please see the FAQ here: Teaching and Learning Day FAQ

This fall, the University System piloted a short course in D2L for faculty, Motivating Learners: Starting Strong, which focused on mindset supportive practices. The response to the course has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are pleased to be able to make the course available for a much larger audience in January.  The next session of this course will run from Monday, January 25th through February 13th.  

The course will be conducted through the USGTrain Brightspace platform. Registration for the course is available through the Complete College Georgia website. Participation is open to up to 200 faculty Systemwide.

About the Course
This mostly asynchronous pilot course reviews learning mindset supportive messaging, explores how to integrate Learning Mindset-supportive practices into instruction and provides an opportunity to explore ways to embed these concepts at the very start of the course with a concrete tool to use in classes in the future. Throughout, participants will reflect on their practice and have opportunities to share with their peers.

What else?
To assess the impact of the work on facutly and their students, we also ask that participating faculty:

• Complete a pre- and post-survey (~25 minutes) before beginning the short course and after completing the course  (we’ll email the link before the course).
• Administer a ~10-minute survey to your students at the beginning of the next semester you teach and again at the end of that semester (link will be provided).

The new Kaltura Academic Media & Pedagogy masterclass series focuses on helping higher education faculty and instructional designers better use video. This series will not only teach you tips and tricks for getting the most out of your Kaltura products, but will also provide some of the latest pedagogical theory on how to use video for more effective learning in your courses. Starting January 14, sessions will be held every second Thursday of the month. All Kaltura end users from higher education are welcome!  Register for as many sessions as you wish; each session is on a separate stand-alone topic: * Session 1: Using Kaltura Capture to Easily Create Engaging Classroom Videos * Session 2: Using Video in the Fully Online Environment for Improved Personalization and Student Engagement * Session 3: Creating Interactive Video Opportunities That Provide Active Learning * Session 4: Using Kaltura Analytics to Continuously Improve Student Engagement * Session 5: Kaltura Transcriptions and Captions: More Than Accessibility! * Session 6: Flipped and More: How to Get the most Student Engagement with Your Videos! Register here.

The CTE Winter Institute (January 06 – 07, 2021)

Do you want to keep your students motivated and engaged? Thinking about integrating self-care into your routine in a more purposeful way? Looking for a way to recharge and reinvigorate yourself? Reflecting about the past year and how to include more of your students’ perspectives and identities into the decisions made in the classroom?

Join the CTE for our Winter Institute as we reflect on engagement in the online arena, looking at ways to integrate self-care and well-being during difficult times and explore practices to make our classrooms spaces where diversity, equity and inclusion are valued and practiced.

The Institute will take place on January 7th, with several pre-institute sessions focused on student success scheduled on January 6th.

For more information and/or to register for the workshops, go to the CTE Winter Institute website

The GGC Teaching, Learning, and Research Symposium (January 13 – 14, 2021)

As we have worked in greater isolation, you have found ways to make connections; as we have discovered new challenges, you have invented new solutions; as we have re-examined our priorities and commitments, you have re-invested in education, in students, and in the mission of higher education. This symposium showcases the insights and innovations of that re-investment. Importantly, it also provides an opportunity to listen and to share. As we have found new ways to work collaboratively and safeguard health, one of the quieter losses has been casual and unplanned collaboration: incidental office suite conversations, discussions that spill from the classroom to the hallway, new ideas over a shared lunch table, the beginning of plan formed on a walk from one building to another. To combat this loss, we must be intentional about making time to learn from others, to hear what worked (and what didn’t). We need not know what we will learn; it is enough to know we are engaged in the same work of teaching, learning and research, and to know good ideas grow when we share and listen.

GGC’s Teaching, Learning, and Research Symposium has come together because of collaboration and shared values. The Business, Economic, and Applied Research Center (BEAR) in the School of Business; the Center for Teaching Excellence; the Office of the Provost are excited to welcome presentations from within GGC, the broader USG system, and beyond. Thank you for your commitment to teaching, to learning, and to research, and for your support of the mission and community of higher education.

Follow this link for more information and/or to access the workshops.

Wed, Nov 18th at 9:30 a.m. ET

Long gone are the days of one model fits all. With unique needs and behaviors, learning experiences should be designed with each learner in mind. This conversation will focus on innovative ways technology is being leveraged to deliver custom learning experiences and new methods for companies to offer continued learning and development for their workforces.

Registration

DISTANCE LEARNING ADMINISTRATION 2021
July 25-28, 2021
Jekyll Island Club Hotel
Jekyll Island Georgia

Proposals are due December 28, 2020

SCOPE: 
The Distance Learning Administration Conference focuses on the administration and management of distance learning. The conference specifically addresses the needs of those who plan, manage and support distance education activities. 

STRANDS: 
The Planning Committee of Distance Learning Administration 2021 invites proposals from the introductory through advanced level on all topics related to the management and administration of distance learning. 

Topic strands include: 

* Managing Growth in Distance Education 
* Training & Support for Distance Instructors 
* Support for Distance Students 
* Budget and Cost-Benefit of Distance Education 
* Marketing Distance Courses and Programs 
* Distance Learning Ethics and Copyright Issues 
* Organizational Issues in Distance Education 
* Quality Assurance and Evaluation 
* Striving for Excellence

HOW TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL: 
Proposals should include a 30 to 50 word description. 
Instructions for submitting proposals can be found at the conference website: 
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/dla/

PROCEEDINGS AND AWARDS: 
Accepted papers will be published in the printed conference proceedings. Proposal submission indicates your commitment to preparing written materials for the Proceedings and making your presentation (Paper Session) at the conference. Fishbowl Sessions (see website) do not require a written paper. All sessions will last 45 minutes each. All presented papers will be considered for Best Paper Awards. Award winning papers will be invited for publication in The Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration and will receive a trophy. 

CONFERENCE FEE:
The conference registration fee for all presenters and participants will be $350 . Registration includes printed proceedings, all sessions, refreshments, two dinners, and the closing luncheon. The conference hotel will be the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. Guest rooms will be discounted..  All conference sessions and activities will take place at this beautiful, historic hotel.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: 
See our conference website at: 
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/dla/

Or contact: 
Dr. Melanie Clay (melaniec@westga.edu), Conference Director 
Kendall G. Dickey (kdickey@westga.edu), Conference Manager
Austin Janowski (austinj@westga.edu), Events Manager 

Thursday, November 19^th, 2020 at 2:00 p.m.

This workshop will focus on identifying some of the challenges associated with teaching during the pandemic, particularly regarding student engagement and online learning. Through an interactive dialogue, the facilitator will foster an exchange of these challenges from the professor perspective. Challenges from the student perspective will be examined as well, particularly through a psychological lens. Ultimately, ways to optimize student motivation and engagement during the pandemic will be discussed.

Register on Eventbrite

Facilitator: Dr. Michelle M. Robbins, Associate Professor of Psychology

How has the pandemic affected graduation plans for students? Has online education impacted their ability to learn? Join us and hear from current college students as they share their insights into the challenges of post-secondary education during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what can be done to improve it. Their voices provide real-world insights into survey responses Strada Education Network has collected from more than 4,000 currently enrolled college students. The picture they paint is one of increased challenges and barriers to completion beyond academic concerns, as many question if their education will be worth the cost. But their insights also offer solutions as we emerge from an unusual semester. Join Paul Fain, news editor at Inside Higher Ed, and Dave Clayton, senior vice president of Strada Center for Education Consumer Insights, as they lead the panel discussion with current college students on Monday, November 16 at 2 p.m. ET. Register for Free

“Pandemic Pedagogies:” A video time capsule of educator experiences Submit Now!   The Innovation in Teaching Conference (ITC), hosted by the Mary Frances Early College of Education at the University of Georgia (MFECOE), promotes novel and emerging teaching practices among educators. This year, we deviated from our traditional conference format to host  “Pandemic Pedagogies,” a curated video collection for educational researchers and historians. We ask educators for their personal anecdotal stories describing their rapid, adaptive, and emotional responses, in and out of the classroom, to the COVID-19 global pandemic.  The first of these videos are now available to the public! Click here to take a look and check back as more are added each week. We want to thank everyone who submitted, or is currently preparing, their story. These works exemplify how adaptive, innovative, and passionate you all are. There’s still time to add your story to this video time capsule! If you were teaching during the pandemic, and would like to share your experience, Click here. Help us with our effort to grow this endeavor. Please share this opportunity with colleagues who have communicated their stories with you on how they responded to the pandemic and forged ahead. We are Smarter than Me.  Stay well and inspire others!

Please contact Kayla Flanagan with any questions.