Faculty Development Opportunities for Web-Assisted Teaching

For the first time in the spring 2003 we offered a new series of pedagogical workshops. "Have you ever wrestled with ways to improve your courses so that students learned and retained more material?" asks Multimedia Specialist Sylvie Richards.

"Do you want to learn an easy technique to organize and present your material? Have you ever longed for a "pedagogical incubator" where you could learn successfully to incorporate new techniques to improve your teaching effectiveness? AIT is offering a new series of workshops on content mapping that will help you to achieve these and other key pedagogical objectives. You will be given free software (PC and MAC versions) to assist you in this process. This tool allows you to attach to your course sites materials that you have developed in various formats, including html. Since it contains a browser component, you can view any embedded links in your files."

The new workshops include these topics:

What is a Concept Map and How Do I Use One? This workshop will show you concrete examples of web-based concept maps and how to use a CM to design your online course. You will be given free software (PC and MAC versions) to assist you in this process.
Mapping Your Course Content. This workshop will show you how to align your course content to course objectives. You will also be able to realign content more easily to fit your desired outcomes. Your web-based map will then become an instructional tool for your students.
Mapping Assignments. This workshop will show you how to map assignments to objectives and syllabi. The map can then be used as a tool to illustrate to students how concepts tie to one another.
Project Management for Groups: Project Planning. Make your class group work more effective using some project management tools. Project forms to use with your students will be distributed.
Project Management for Groups: Project Accountability. Learn how to make each member of a group and each group accountable for project work. Manage interpersonal conflict that arises through interaction strategies. Sample time lines and forms will be distributed.
Project Management for Groups: Project Assessment. Learn best practices to assess group work and group interactions. Sample assessment forms will be distributed.

The sheer variety of workshops, combined with the weekly e-mail reminders about our offerings and the ability to register online from the AIT Web Site, paid off handsomely: Sylvie Richards' Blackboard workshops were well-attended. A sample of workshop topics includes:

An Introduction to Blackboard. For Faculty who are new Blackboard users.
Using Blackboard for eReserves. Learn how to use Bb for electronic reserves.
Features of Microsoft Word. Learn all you've wanted to know, and much more!
Microsoft Word and Blackboard. Learn how to enhance your Bb course site with Word.
Microsoft PowerPoint and Blackboard. Learn how to enhance your Bb course site with PowerPoint.
Macromedia Dreamweaver MX and the Interactive Syllabus. Learn how to use Dreamweaver to construct an IS.
Using the Gradebook in Blackboard. Learn how to use this tool to simplify your (academic) life.
Using Discussion Boards. Learn how to use this communication feature effectively.
Adobe Photoshop and Blackboard. Learn how to make a big impact with this image editing tool.
Archive and Recycle your Blackboard Course Site. Learn what to do when the semester ends.

"I conducted the inaugural three-week intensive Blackboard Summer Institute in June with the assistance of Nick Irons, Elina Yuffa, and Barbara Szlanic. The Institute drew faculty and staff participants from Brooklyn College, Pace University, Manhattanville College, Bronx Community College, and Borough of Manhattan Community College. Participants received training in the morning and worked on their course sites in the afternoon with staff assistance. This summer, I introduced two new concepts into our training: concept mapping for instructional design, and the accessibility suite for Dreamweaver MX to create section 508 compliant course sites. These concepts have remained staples of our workshop instruction." Sylvie Richards, Multimedia Specialist

In the summer 2002 Academic IT premiered its first Blackboard Institute. This highly successful endeavor was repeated during intersession 2003 and summer 2003. Multimedia specialist Dr. Sylvie Richards is the designer and lynchpin of the institutes, three weeks of intensive Blackboard instruction including technique, design, and pedagogy.

"Jim Cai, AIT's Web Design/Development Specialist, has a long list of faculty clients who attend his Web Design and Development Workshop Series conducted on Friday mornings. Most Faculty are loathe to visit the campus on Fridays since they are not teaching. However, Jim's workshops regularly attract an average of seven faculty at each session. Furthermore, it's rare for Jim to have a quiet moment in his office, as there is usually a steady stream of faculty, librarians, and college administrative staff." Nicholas Irons, Associate Director for Faculty Training and Development

This series, six two-hour workshops delivered by Web Developer Jim Cai, is the most advanced of the three, covering the creation of digital media with Mac OS and Windows XP. In small-group hands-on sessions, faculty learn how to create and manage Web sites using HTML, DHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and streaming media. A half dozen dedicated, stalwart faculty attended every one of these Friday training sessions: Jim has excellent skills and has developed quite a strong following.

We post the workshop schedules on both the AIT Web site and the calendar that appears on the College site. Unfortunately, faculty seldom check either site. The College has banned independent listserv announcements--the only listserv vehicle is Public Relations' weekly news stew, distributed on Tuesdays. The only event that has any chance of catching someone's attention is the one listed first, which is often along the lines of "give blood." Of course, most people's response is to hit the delete button with all due haste ... all other announcements sink back into the ether. And, the listserv is presented in the dullest of formats: no graphics are allowed.

It is ironic that, since we also send our weekly announcements to other campuses, faculty at almost any other CUNY school are more aware of our activities than our own faculty.

In the fall we plan to ask the TLTR to endorse the concept of a 2nd weekly bulletin, one that AIT and ITS would jointly manage–a sort of "Campus Technology Update." This bulletin would come out on a Friday, so that faculty will have it first thing Monday morning. It will also include graphics.

"As we had received anecdotal reports from some faculty and staff that the Faculty Lab in Roosevelt was "much too out-of-the-way," we adjusted our service model and visited more faculty in their own offices. We observed several benefits of delivering training and technical support in the faculty member's office. For one, faculty were more comfortable using their own computers, versus using a computer in the Faculty Lab which differed in any way from their own (monitor size, operating system, software version, plug-ins, etc.).

"Also, when assisting faculty in the Lab, staff also had to attend to the telephone, printers, and other faculty needing attention, at the expense of focusing on the instructional task at hand. Thus, an instructional task which could have taken fifteen minutes in the privacy of the faculty member's office was dragged out over a 45-minute period. It has become clear that the Faculty Lab's role has evolved, and will continue to do so, over time." Nicholas Irons, Associate Director for Faculty Training and Development

Workshops are an excellent marketing device for what later becomes one-to-one faculty development. The faculty member who attends a workshop is often interested in further training on the topic: he or she is encouraged to make a follow-up appointment with Jim Cai or Sylvie Richards, or perhaps with an individual who works in the Faculty Lab who specializes in a particular software package.

February 7, 2002: Copyright Within Distance Learning [teleconference]
February 8, 2002: Virtual Reference Services: What, Why, and How [teleconference]
April 24, 2002: Getting a Handle on Handhelds: Instructional and Library Applications for Higher Education [day-long seminar]
June 4-20, 2002: Blackboard Summer Institute [3-week institute]
December 11, 2002: Safeguarding Our Patron's Privacy: What Every Librarian [and IT Professional and Higher Education Administrator] Needs to Know about the USA PATRIOT Act and Related Anti-Terrorism Measures [teleconference]
January 7-23, 2003: Blackboard Winter Institute [3-week institute]
April 11, 2003: Building the 21st Century Library [day-long seminar]
June 3-19, 2003: Blackboard Summer Institute [3-week institute]