Faculty Development Opportunities for Web-Assisted Teaching


Without question, Brooklyn College has an array of faculty development opportunities that would be the envy of any institution of higher education. Academic IT staff were excited and delighted on January 8, 2002, to present a review of our programs, accomplishments, and future plans to President Kimmich, Provost Matthews, and Vice-Presidents Little and Scott. We emphasized our appreciation of their on-going support, and our thoughts about the way forward.

  • The AIT Faculty Workshop Series

    • http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ait/ftdl/workshops/index.htm
    "Over the years, we have learned that there is no silver bullet for faculty development. It is truly "different strokes for different folks." We continue to employ an ever-growing assortment of techniques. We do workshops, drop-in sessions, scheduled appointments, and small group training. However, the heart of the program remains the AIT topic-oriented workshop. This year, workshops were divided into Blackboard or general technology sessions. Starting in the fall 2001, we expanded these workshops to all CUNY faculty." Howard Spivak, Director for Library Systems & Academic IT
    In the fall semester 2001 we launched our most ambitious faculty workshop schedule to date. Many weeks we offered a workshop literally every day, Monday through Friday. The more popular sessions were repeated on days with alternating class patterns. All CUNY faculty (including adjuncts) were welcome to attend, under a new fall 2001 policy.

    Our workshops were publicized in Academic IT's fall and spring Faculty Bulletin, and on the AIT Web site. They were also listed in the College's "smart calendar" under a new topic, Faculty/Staff Workshops http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/smartcal/main.htm. However, one of the more effective public relations tools proved to be the weekly reminders prepared by Howard Spivak and sent out over announce-l.

    Workshops fell into three categories: Blackboard Workshops, Technology Workshops, and Web Design and Development Workshops. The last series, ten two-hour workshops delivered by Web Developer Jim Cai, was the most advanced of the three. In small group, hands-on sessions faculty learned 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 following.

    For the first time in the fall 2001,Sylvie Richards' Blackboard series offered faculty a tiered approach, with training sessions at four different levels:
    NOVICE: Training for faculty with no prior knowledge of Blackboard

    LEVEL 1: Integrating the Functionalities of Microsoft Office (PC and MAC versions) into Blackboard

    LEVEL 2: Teaching with Blackboard: Best Practices

    LEVEL 3: Preparing Multimedia for Integration within Blackboard
    This 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: we averaged eight attendees per workshop, a new record. Any college or university would be justifiably proud of a faculty workshop series as rich and varied as ours. A sample of workshop topics from the Fall 2001 semester includes:
    An Introduction to Blackboard: Discover the functionalities of Blackboard, the CUNY-wide e-learning platform used at Brooklyn College to deliver course materials online to students. At the end of the tutorial, a course site will be created for you so that you can begin to build in course elements through successive workshops in weeks to come.

    How to Search for, Capture, & Store Course Web Resources in Blackboard: You will learn about search engines and how best to use them to obtain desired information; how to collect Web-based materials and catalog them for future reference and use; how to use the ""External Links"" feature of Blackboard; and how to begin the process of creating an Interactive Syllabus.

    How to Create E-Reserves & Course Packs in Blackboard: You will learn how to use the Library''s online full-text subscription services to create course-specific online e-reserves that are stored in Blackboard; how to identify and use free online full-text sources; and how to use XanEdu (a free service to faculty) to build online course packs for students.

    Using Microsoft Word with Blackboard: Learn how to use Word to create simple .html documents with images and links that can be easily uploaded into Blackboard; how to use Word to retrieve and correct files from the "Digital Drop Box"; how to use Word to correct short answer/essay tests administered through Blackboard; how to use Word to capture screen shots and save these as .html files for use as course documents, as tutorials, or as attachments in the "Discussion Board" or in online quizzes or surveys.

    Using Excel with Blackboard: Learn how to create spreadsheets that can be integrated as documents within Blackboard; how to use Excel and the ""Grade Book"" function in Blackboard; how to export the Blackboard Grade Book as a comma-delineated file for use in your desktop Excel files.

    Using PowerPoint with Blackboard: Learn how to create PowerPoint presentations that can easily be uploaded into Blackboard, and the best ways to incorporate multimedia files into your presentations.

    Creating an Interactive Syllabus: The Multimedia Solution to Active Learning: This workshop will teach you the ins and outs of creating an Interactive Syllabus using Dreamweaver, moving your syllabus away from a digitized copy of your paper syllabus to a robust teaching and learning environment that can include images, audio files, video files, discipline-specific resources, and full online texts. This workshop builds upon the skills learned in How to Search for, Capture, and Store Course Web Resources in Blackboard.

    Creating Technology-Rich Assignments: Learn how to create lively assignments that make full use of the capabilities presented by new digital media and the functionalities of Blackboard. This workshop will provide you with specific examples and guidelines, including how to use the Calendar function in Blackboard to keep students on task.

    Creating Student Assessments in Blackboard: You will learn how to create online quizzes and assessments using Blackboard that allow you to attach image files, sound files, and movie files for greater interactivity. You will also learn about the grading features of Blackboard, and the instant feedback to students provided by the online Grade Book.

    The Discussion Board & the Virtual Classroom: Best Practices: This workshop explores the pedagogical uses of the Discussion Board (asynchronous) and Virtual Classroom (synchronous) functionalities in Blackboard. You will learn how to attach files (text, images, sound, video) to a message, and how to create interactive presentations in the Virtual Classroom.

    Groups: Solutions for Large Classes: This workshop focuses on practical solutions for large classes using the ""Groups"" function in Blackboard. You will learn how to engage students in collaborative projects online; how to monitor group-specific discussion boards; how to design, assign, and monitor group tasks; and how to use ""Pools"" for randomized assessments.

    Creating Learning Units: Learn how to create "Learning Units," a new feature in Blackboard 5.5. Learning Units enable the instructor to set a structured path for progressing through the content within a course. Students can now access content, including assessments, in a sequential order. The instructor may either allow students to access content nonlinearly within a Learning Unit or enforce a sequential path.

    Maximizing Photoshop for Blackboard: Among the topics covered will be ways to create copyright attributions and documentation for images; how to create Blackboard course banners; how to create Web galleries that can be linked through the Interactive Syllabus; and how to create images of charts, graphs, and music scores for incorporation into course documents, discussion boards, and quizzes.

    Flash 5 & Blackboard: You will learn how to use the new features of Flash 5, including the ""Generator"" that can create exercises and quizzes that can then be brought into Dreamweaver pages and uploaded into Blackboard.

    Streaming Audio & Blackboard: You will learn how to create and store streaming audio files that can be played in your course documents in Blackboard.
    Streaming Video & Blackboard: You will learn how to create and store streaming video files that can be played in your course documents in Blackboard.

    Authoring Programs & Blackboard: This workshop focuses on the creation of SMIL files generated by Macromedia Authorware and by Real SlideProducer. Knowledge of streaming audio and video techniques (gained in the workshop listed immediately above) is required.

    Streaming Media for the Web: Learn how to use RealNetworks' RealProducer to capture video and audio from VHS videocassette. Learn how to incorporate digitized video and audio with your Web pages.

    Scanning Text & Graphic Elements for the Web: Learn how to scan text and perform optical character recognition (OCR). Learn how to scan photographs and drawings.

    Adobe Photoshop for the Web: Learn how to edit graphic elements for your Web pages.

    Adobe Premiere for the Web: Learn how to capture and edit audio and video for use on the World Wide Web.

    Techniques for Optimizing Your Computer: Learn how to speed up your computer system safely and effectively. Learn how to identify and correct common system problems.

    General Technology Q&A: Windows or Macintosh or Linux? Windows XP or Windows 2000? Netscape or Explorer? ISDN or DSL? For this relaxed Q&A session, please bring all of those technology questions for which you thought you couldn't find an answer.
    In addition to the workshops that are part of our regular series, Sylvie Richards offered several specialized workshops focused on the needs and interests of individual academic departments, including ones for History, Economics, Music, the Library, and the School of Education faculties. Brooklyn is the only campus exploiting Blackboard's multimedia capabilities.

  • One-to-One Faculty Training

    • 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.

  • Ivy Without Walls

    • Thanks to WebCourse, the Virtual Core project, and the CUNY OnLine initiative, many faculty at Brooklyn College are teaching online: the College has a critical mass of technologically literate faculty. In the fall 2001, with funding from President Kimmich, Academic IT sponsored a seminar led by Professor John Blamire (Biology) designed to share what's been learned about effective Web-based teaching. Ivy Without Walls is unique in our stable of faculty development opportunities, in that it helps faculty learn to conceptualize, develop, and present a course that is taught entirely online-one that does not meet face to face in the physical classroom. It is open to faculty who already have solid technological skills: the focus of Ivy Without Walls is the pedagogies that successful virtual courses require and exemplify, not technical training.

  • Faculty Seminarss

    • Not all faculty development need be training: each year, the Library and Academic IT also offer a number of faculty seminars, lengthier and more presentation-oriented events that often last a half-day or more. Beyond the annual Blackboard fall reception and open house (discussed earlier in this document), WebCourse pedagogical presentations, and department-based workshops, in 2001-2002 we offered these seminars:
    March 27, 2001: "Know When to Hold 'Em, Know When to Fold 'Em: When to Jettison and When to Hold Onto Technologies" (Joan Frye Williams, California automation consultant, presenter) (A co-sponsorship between METRO, a large multi-type Library consortium on whose board Dr. Higginbotham serves, and Brooklyn College)

    March 28, 2001: "IT Survival Skills for Library Managers" (Joan Frye Williams, California automation consultant, presenter) (A co-sponsorship between METRO, a large multi-type Library consortium on whose board Dr. Higginbotham serves, and Brooklyn College)

    April 26, 2001: "Demystifying Copyright" (For more information, see "Library Week," below.)

    November 2, 2001: "E-Survivor: How to Outperform, Outpace, and Be Outstanding as an Online Instructor"

    November 7, 2001: "Electronic Full-Text Information" (Mariana Regalado, presenter; a co-sponsorship with the Center for Teaching)

    December 5, 2001: "E-Cheating: How to Avoid It and How to Stop it" (Mariana Regalado, presenter; a co-sponsorship with the Center for Teaching)

    February 7, 2002: "Copyright Within Distance Learning" teleconference (Sponsored by the Brooklyn College Library; broadcast by TV/Radio)
    http://ali.apple.com/events/serc2/

    February 8, 2002: "Virtual Reference Services: What, Why, and How" teleconference (Sponsored by the Brooklyn College Library and Metro; broadcast by ITS)
    http://www.metro.org/2002_spr/virtual_ref.html
  • WebCourse

    • "The WebCourse program has expanded considerably since its inception when it was established to encourage faculty to use the Web in their Core Studies courses. The most obvious change is the evolution of WebCore into WebCourse. Increasingly, faculty expressed interest in creating Web pages for both elective and introductory courses. In addition, professional staff were exploring ways to use the Web and also needed training and support to create and maintain Web sites.

    "Thus, WebCourse was opened to all faculty and staff who wanted to establish a Web presence for any course or any function connected with their teaching or administrative responsibilities, and to all professional staff who might use the Web in their work. Because WebCourse applicants run the gamut from novices to faculty who have already created extensive Web sites for their courses, only a varied program of courses could meet their needs.

    "The expanded course offerings also took into account two other facts: (1) no one program, such as Blackboard or Dreamweaver, fits every participant's needs or expresses every participant's individuality, and (2) as a site becomes more sophisticated, numerous programs may be used, such as Photoshop to retouch images, RealAudio to include sound files, RealVideo to import video clips, and Blackboard to create an entire course on the Web. Current WebCourse offerings include Frontage Express, JavaScript, PowerPoint, and introductory and advanced courses in HTML, Blackboard, Photoshop 5.5, Dreamweaver 2.0, Flash 4.0, and Real Director." Professor Lilia Melani (English), WebCourse Coordinator
    Because of the central importance of the Core Curriculum, many of our technology-and-teaching initiatives have originated there. Now in its seventh year, the WebCourse initiative provides weekly (increased from bi-weekly) training sessions for faculty interested in building course sites to support their teaching. As a direct result, there is now a solid base of technology-literate faculty at Brooklyn College. WebCourse is coordinated by faculty member Lilia Melani (English). In 2000/2001 WebCourse faculty included:

    NAME DEPARTMENT
    Muth, Theodore R.
    Biology
    Bryan, Dave
    Central Depository
    Huang, Shen
    Chemistry
    Waraporn, Narongrit
    Computer & Information Science
    Hennington, Martha
    Education
    McDonald, Jacqueline
    Education
    Winslow, Barbara
    Education
    Danto, Annette
    Film
    MacDonald, Rebecca
    Film
    Powell, Wayne
    Geology
    Levenson, David
    Geology
    Rocha, Guillermo
    Geology
    Tso, Tony
    ITS
    Cholbi, Michael
    Philosophy
    Michael, Fred
    Philosophy
    Ost, Emy
    Publications
    Ricasoli, John
    Publications
    Thomas, Mammen
    Publications
    Gurland, Gail
    Speech
    Bottino, Patti
    Speech
    Rogala, Miroslaw
    Television & Radio
    In 2001/2002 WebCourse faculty include:
    NAME DEPARTMENT
    Huang, Shen
    Chemistry
    Rudowski, Ira
    Computer & Information Science
    Radlow, Mona
    Continuing Education
    Fox, Marc
    Economics
    Uctum, Merih
    Economics
    Reyes, Luis O.
    Education
    Novemsky, Lisa
    Education
    Rosenfeld, Barbara
    Education
    Maloney, Wendy
    Educational Services
    Gamboa, Noel
    Facilities
    Massood, Paula
    Film
    Cherukupalli, Nehru
    Geology
    Velling, John A.
    Mathematics
    Mbom, Clement
    Modern Languages & Literatures
    Godenko, Lyudmila
    Physics
    Rubinstein, Adrienne
    Speech


    This year AIT has assumed responsibility for scheduling and delivering WebCourse workshops. AIT staff conduct the hands-on workshops, so that Professor Melani has more time to attend to the pedagogical issues of teaching and learning with technology. She is also preparing excellent documentation to support AIT's technological training.

  • Next Step: Pedagogical Workshops

    • Academic IT is constantly changing its workshop offerings: when attendance for any topic begins to wane, we assume the faculty has become saturated in that area and develop new programs. In the spring 2002 we will introduce a new workshop series offered by Multimedia Specialist Sylvie Richards in online pedagogies. Topics will include learning objects, concept mapping, large and small class solutions, and other topics. Since staffing resources are finite, this summer we plan to "can" some of our more popular offerings (often repeated several times each semester) on disc, freeing time for this new initiative.