The Office of Academic Innovation (OAI) aims to develop the talents of university faculty as leaders in teaching, scholarship, and service. We provide academic support services for faculty and led by faculty with coordination and oversight.
OAI would like to invite your faculty to join us for the Spring 2013 Center for Instructional Advancement and Technology (CIAT) professional development series. The series is designed to cover a range of topics from instructional practices to the use of instructional technologies. This semester series will cover subjects from Responding to Writing Effectively to Capturing Voice & Screens with Ease Using Screencast-O-Matic.
Spring Workshops from OAI’s Center for Instructional Advancement and Technology
To register for the workshops, please visit the OTS Training Web site.
To present a topic, to suggest a future speaker or with any questions, please contact La Tonya Dyer, Course Development Support Manager at CIAT.
Responding to Writing Effectively
Date & Time: Thursday, February 21, 2013, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
Location: Cook 404B
Presented by: Dr. Barbara J. Bass, Department of English
Do these scenarios sound familiar? After grading all weekend, you still have 10 more essays to go. After reading a student’s essay or research paper, you know what grade it deserves, but you wonder what to write so that your comments adequately reflect that grade. You’ve highlighted all of the errors on a student’s paper and have written a detailed summary of your thoughts at the end of the paper. Afterwards, you get the distinct feeling that you have spent more time writing your end remarks than the student had spent writing the essay.
At this workshop, we will discuss approaches to giving effective feedback, focusing on writing as a process, promoting students’ ownership of their work, and raising questions that will help students improve their own writing. Uncover strategies to save time and energy while still responding effectively to student work.
Copyright Basics in Education
Date & Time: Friday, March 8, 2013, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
Location: Cook 404B
Presented by: Rick Davis, Cook Library
Learn the basics of copyright and how it applies to the educational setting. Intended primarily for faculty and staff who facilitate educational activities on campus, but students who plan to enter the educational field may also benefit. Topics to be covered include the scope and purpose of copyright; the exclusive rights granted under the law; limitations on these rights, including fair use; best practices in fair use for educators; recent copyright litigation; requesting permission to use copyrighted works; and Towson University resources for copyright issues.
Flipped Classrooms
Date & Time: Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
Location: Cook 404B
Presented by: Sara Arnold-Garza and Kimberly Miller, Cook Library
Are you interested in exploring new ways of engaging students with course content? Have you heard buzz about the flipped classroom, and you’re wondering exactly what it is? Have you tried flipping your own classroom and wish to share experiences with other experimental educators? Join librarians Kimberly Miller and Sara Arnold-Garza for this workshop, which explores the teaching model where lecture content and homework activities are flipped, making practical use of modern technologies and efficient use of limited class time. Registrants will be provided with materials to review before the workshop, creating our very own flipped experience.
Capture Voice & Screens with Ease Using Screencast-O-Matic
Date & Time: Tuesday, April 9, 2013, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
Location: Cook 404B
Presented by: Audrey Cutler, CIAT
Are you looking for a tool you can use to create just-in-time instruction and demonstrations or to provide audio comments on papers or other assignments? If so, then join us for the Emerging Technologies – Capture Your Voice and Screen Action with Ease Using Screencast-O-Matic brown bag session.
Screencast-O-Matic is a free online screen recorder software that allows you to capture 15 minute recordings. With a few clicks you can capture, store and share whatever action is happening on your computer screen along with your voice narration. All that is required is a computer, internet access, microphone and speakers to record your presentations from any location. In this hands-on workshop we will use Screencast-O-Matic to create recordings with narration and screen captures.
Make Your Online Classes More Interactive: Lessons Learned from the Art History Classroom
Date & Time: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
Location: Cook 404B
Presented by: Dr. Emily Halligan, Department of Art + Design, Art History, Art Education
Online teaching format is a natural fit for art history classes. In the past, online art history course were informative but not interactive, with classes limited to online lectures and essay responses for the students to complete on their own. In this presentation a faculty member who regularly uses online teaching will address the different technology tools available to more fully engage students and enrich the online course. Though designed for online courses, faculty who teach hybrid (partly online) or face-to –face courses can benefit from these flexible tools.
Participants will get hands-on introductions to these interactive teaching methods: PowerPoint with audio/QuickTime movies for course lectures, screencast videos for tour of course site, explanation of key issues such as avoiding plagiarism, etc., VoiceThread for class discussions, Prezi for introducing assignments
Create High Impact Grading Guidelines to Improve Student Assignments and Maximize Your Time and Feedback
Date & Time: Friday, April 19, 2013, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
Location: Cook 404B
Presented by: Dr. Ronald S. Thomas, Department of Instructional Leadership and Professional Development
Frustrated when students miss the purpose of an assessment or write irrelevant and rambling responses to questions? Learn to create grading guidelines that are meaningful to you and your students with Instructional Leadership expert Dr. Ron Thomas. These assignment scoring tools help students to: easily identify assignment expectations, respond to all the components of assignments, improve their work using focused feedback, revise their work more effectively.
Using a variety of examples, Dr. Thomas will guide you through the process of breaking down assignments into parts. He will discuss his approach to assessment and his concept of encouraging students to “upgrade” their assignments.
Online Teaching: Gaining Student Interaction without the Physical Classroom
Date & Time: Thursday, May 2, 2013, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
Location: Cook 404B
Presented by: Michelle Chester, Department of English
In an online teaching environment, face-to-face interaction among students is nearly nil, which can sometimes hinder student and professor interaction. Many of those challenges can be met by utilizing some of the tools that Blackboard provides, such as the discussion board and the virtual classroom. The methods I have used are easy to implement and may lead to a fulfilling classroom experience for students, even without a physical classroom setting. This workshop will be useful for faculty new to Blackboard tools.
Blackboard 101 Plan It and Then Create It (Course design with Blackboard)
Date & Time: Wednesday, June 5, 2013, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
Location: Cook 404B
Presented by: La Tonya Dyer, CIAT
This workshop introduces techniques instructors can use to assist with the development of their courses (face-to-face, hybrid, or online) within the Blackboard environment. Within this hands-on session faculty will be introduced to basic course design techniques and Blackboard features. At the conclusion of the session participants will have tools and basic knowledge to assist with updating or beginning the development of their course for integration into Blackboard.
Note: This workshop is similar to the Blackboard Fundamentals technical training; however the focus is on effective planning and design for your Blackboard course.
During the session we will explore planning and designing courses, sharing multiple formats of content, creating course menus and folders, creating and managing assignments, managing the course using the control panel and communicating with students.
Sloan-C Online Workshops: Various Topics on Teaching with Technology and Teaching Online
Dates & Locations: Online – Throughout the Year
OAI sponsors Towson’s membership to Sloan-C. With this membership, a limited number of Towson faculty members can attend two or more of the workshops below for free. Normally, these workshops cost $350 – $500 each. All courses are offered in a fully online format and they require a time commitment over one week or a ½ day. For workshop descriptions, click here. To register for the Sloan-C online workshops, contact Audrey Cutler, CIAT, at 410-704-5082.
Cancellation Policy
CIAT workshops will be canceled if the university announces an emergency closing (with the exception of fully online workshops). All attempts will be made to reschedule workshops in a timely manner. For alerts, see the university’s emergency closing information page.
Sponsored by the Office of Academic Innovation.
