WCU's Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence

February 2017

Greetings from the CFC!

We are past the initial rush of the start of the new term and are ready to start focusing on what's next.  Whether you are ready to start thinking about a complete course overhaul for next semester, want to fine tune the courses you are teaching now, or or are considering more integration of technology into your pedagogical style, the Coulter Faculty Commons is ready to assist. Please don't hesitate to give us a call or drop by - we're here to help!

Martha Diede, PhD
Director, Coulter Faculty Commons

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

Upcoming Events:

Forsyth 313 BYOD Classroom Open House

Have you heard about the new Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) classroom in Forsyth 313?  Forsyth 313 is one of our first experimental, flexible, BYOD-enabled classrooms on campus.  This flexible classroom will allow you to design your classes so that you can effectively use traditional methods, engaged activities, and group work in a fully-supported, technology-rich environment.

We're having an Open House in Forsyth 313 on February 2, 2017, from 4-6pm.  We would love for you to drop by, have some snacks, check out this new state-of-the-art classroom, and give us your feedback.  Come and see for yourself how using innovative technology can enhance the classroom experience for both yourself and your students.  Remember, your opinion matters to us and can influence future BYOD classroom designs in the new STEM building and beyond. For more information, please contact the CFC at 227-7196.

WCU BYOD Flexible Classroom

CFC Ed Tech Team Looking for Collaborators with the BYOD Authoring Tool, NEARPOD

Do you want to engage your students more effectively? Are you interested in ways to assess student understanding in-class? Would you like to help to advise and explore different ways of remixing and authoring content in both live and student-paced contexts?

The CFC is looking for a few collaborators to join us in beta-testing Nearpod, the tool demonstrated below, and exploring other options related to authoring, assessment, presentation, and engagement.  

For more information click here or click the demo below.  Feel free to contact Jonathan Wade at 227-3309 or jdwade@wcu.edu for more information, too.

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 (This is a day-long workshop where you will learn about some best practices of course design.)
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.

Other Events:

Faculty Scholarship Celebration

Wednesday, February 15, 2017 from 4:30 to 6:00 pm in the Blue Ridge Conference Center!

The deadline for submission of materials is Thursday, January 12, 2017. We will be utilizing the Faculty Activity Database (FAD) to collate your scholarship materials so please insure that your FAD entries are up to date by 12 January. For staff members who do not have a FAD account or for others who cannot access the FAD, please utilize this link to submit the citation of your scholarly works. In addition, for creative works of art, marketing, posters, and other scholarship that may not be typically accessed through library databases, electronic archives, and inter-library loan, they may be dropped off at Hunter Library’s Circulation Desk.

Please contact Elizabeth Marcus at emarcus@email.wcu.edu or 227-3398 with any questions or concerns about your submission.

Research and Scholarship Celebration (RASC)

The Research and Scholarship Celebration (RASC) will be held March 29 & 30, 2017. Please join the Office of the Provost in celebrating undergraduate and graduate scholarship and creative activities at this annual celebration.  A keynote speaker and WCU faculty panel will headline the event just prior to the poster session at the Ramsey Center on Wednesday, March 29th. Please check here for updates and times. Registration information for the RASC Graduate Research Symposium can be found by clicking here.

Important Information for Faculty:

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Issues

Our experiences with Blackboard Collaborate during the month of January have not been as smooth as we would have liked. The problems were not limited to just WCU, but nationwide users of Collaborate were affected by disrupted service. The good news is that Blackboard is actively working to improve their Collaborate services. Blackboard Collaborate management have been open and honest about the problems this month, admitting their inability to provide Blackboard Collaborate users with a stable and reliable system during the month of January. Going forward, Blackboard is committed to improving this service and the CFC's LMS Team will continue to work with Blackboard to help them make this product the best it can be.

For more information about the issues with Blackboard Collaborate, please click here.  Additionally, to get Blackboard Collaborate training or help setting it up in your Blackboard course, please click here to complete the request form and a member of the LMS team will assist you with getting started.

More 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 Training Opportunities
The Division of  IT continues to provide training opportunities on Microsoft products for faculty and staff.

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.

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!