WCU's Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence

December 2016

Happy End of the Semester!

We hope that as the semester comes to fruition, you've had an opportunity to make use of our services.  If you haven't, feel free to call us at 227-7196 or to check out our WCU website or Faculty Resources page.  Remember, the staff of the CFC is here to help you with all of your pedagogical and technological needs.  With the holiday season rapidly approaching, the CFC staff would like to wish you and yours the happiest of holidays! 

Martha Diede, PhD
Director, Coulter Faculty Commons

P.S.: Please excuse our mess - the CFC is currently preparing for some renovations and have temporarily relocated to HL156 and HL166.  If you get a chance, stop by and visit with us!

Important Information and Deadlines for Faculty:

REMINDER!  WCU's GoToMeeting license will expire December 16, 2016. We will be happy to help you transition to one of the WCU supported online collaboration tools, Skype for Business or Blackboard Collaborate.  To find out how to get started using these new tools or to check training opportunities,  click here.

NEW! Blackboard Collaborate Ultra
Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is a new online collaborative learning tool integrated into the WCU Blackboard environment. This will be the replacement for GoToMeeting which will be going away at the end of December. If you are interested in using Blackboard Collaborate Ultra in your courses this semester, please click here to complete the request form and a member of the LMS team will assist you with getting started.

REMINDER!  There will be a Blackboard Upgrade Outage - plan ahead! The Blackboard learning management system (LMS) will be unavailable from 5:00 p.m. on December 28, 2016 until 5:00 p.m. on December 29, 2016. While the upgrade is being completed, access to the LMS system or the courses stored in it will be unavailable. The LMS team will work to restore the system as quickly as possible so that faculty can continue to work on their courses for the Spring 2017 semester. If you have any questions, please contact the IT Help Desk at 828-227-7487 or ITHelp@wcu.edu.

Save the Date for CFC Events:

Spring 2017 New Faculty "Boost" (For faculty new in 2016 and 2017)
This orientation is geared to meeting new faculty's ongoing needs in addition to answering any mid-year questions and concerns.  You will be getting more information from the Provost's Office, but save the date and time  Wednesday, January 4, from 9 am to 2 pm.  Lunch will be included and the tentative location is HHS 204.  For more information, contact Lynley Hardie. 

Spring 2017 Launch
This past August we had several very successful days of mutual accountability, preparation, one-on-one support, and focus that helped faculty to launch their courses for the fall semester.  We will continue this tradition on Thursday, January 5, 2017, from 9 am to 3 pm.  To learn more or sign up for further updates, click here.

Summer Institute for Teaching and Learning 2017
Mark your calendar for the New and Improved Summer Institute for Teaching and Learning at WCU.  We are redesigning this seminar to give faculty more of what they want and need to be successful in the classroom.

Day One: May 16, 2017: Applying the Quality Matters Rubric to Your Online Course
Day Two and Three: May 17 & 18, 2017: Summer Institute Main Sessions

If you want to subscribe to updates or provide input for the content of SITL, click here.

Quality Matters Workshop as part of SITL 2017!  On May, 16, 2017, WCU will be hosting the Applying the Quality Matters Rubric workshop as a pre-SITL event. This is a day-long workshop where you will learn about some best practices of course design. 

Educational Technology

Welcome to the newest member of our team Michele Hawes.  Michele has been working with WCU on a part-time basis and has now agreed to take the position of Educational Technologist.  She brings to the Educational Technology team a huge set of helpful skills and a deep experience with online teaching and learning.

Educational Technology Innovation Highlight
Dr. Lily Balloffet, Assistant Professor of History

McKee 2nd Floor Student Exhibit

The Educational Technology Team recognizes that a number of our faculty are doing amazing things with technologies old and new.  We would like to highlight your work as a part of our ongoing efforts and to collaborate with you when helpful.

One example of our collaborative efforts is the exhibit above on the history of Latin America which combines centuries old technologies like the printing of words and images with modern technologies like 3D modeling and printing to depict ancient technologies like stone masonry and early settlement location and planning.

We are happy to celebrate with Dr. Balloffet and her Honors College contract students in this wonderful and accessible example of connecting technologies with pedagogy.

A special thanks to the 3DU Team in the Technology Commons for their help with this project.

Watch our publications for more details about this and other efforts in the near future and please stop by the second floor of McKee to experience the exhibit.

Also, feel free to talk with the Educational Technology Team, Jonathan Wade or Michele Hawes about ways that we can support faculty innovation with existing tools and resources.

Other Free Events and Resources:

Blackboard Online Help
As the Learning Management System utilized here at WCU, Blackboard enhances the quality of online and face-to-face instruction and is used to monitor, document, and manage online and classroom events and assignments.  The LMS Team at the CFC has put together a handy list of resources for Blackboard, tailored to meet the needs of the WCU Community.

Sample Syllabus and Related Resources
The Coulter Faculty Commons is happy to share a sample syllabus and schedules to assist faculty who are preparing their classes for the Spring 2017 semester.  The updated documents can be found under quick links on the CFC homepage.

Highlighted Learning Videos on WCU Panopto Features Page
We've customized the first entry landing page on the Panopto home page.  We'll be putting up-to-date focused videos in this space and changing them monthly, so make sure to take a look and to suggest more content.

Provost's List of Faculty Resources
There is a considerable amount of helpful information on this web page provided by the Office of the Provost. Information concerning faculty awards and recognition, support and development, to forums, gender equity, and policy and procedures is available on this site.

CFC Resources Online
The CFC works to keep our main web page updated.  We'd love to have you click in for a visit.  We also have a Faculty Resources blog where we post additional resources and announcements as we get them.

IT Live Training on Microsoft Products
Want some live instruction in Microsoft Office or Office365?  Beginning this semester, the Division of IT will be offering a brand new training service in the core applications of the Microsoft Office 2016 suite: Word, Excel, Outlook, and OneDrive.  This is your opportunity to Increase your efficiency and productivity and save time by learning many of the features and functionalities of Microsoft Office.

View This Week's Educational Technology Weekly
The CFC's Senior Educational Technologist, Jonathan Wade, curates a weekly newsletter highlighting the big stories in the media-sphere about Educational Technology.  Don't forget to subscribe if you want to get weekly updates.

Learn How Coding (Programming) Can Connect to Your Discipline
This week is Computer Science Education Week and Code.org  is ready to help anyone have a positive coding experience.  This year in addition to the staples like Angry Birds and Scratch programming, you can also learn to program using Star Wars Themes and Minecraft.

CFC Suggestion Box
We would greatly appreciate any feedback you could give us about how we can improve or add to our services.  We regularly monitor this suggestion box, located on our main web page, and try to respond to suggestions as quickly as possible. We thank you for taking the time to provide us with your constructive and formative feedback!