Volume 4, Issue 10--Published: Thursday, March 6th, 2025

The Center and You!

The Center  has a lot of exciting offerings in March to help you stay engaged, invigorated, and motivated. At the Center, we know that happy and supported teachers create happy and supported students. As always, please do not hesitate to contact us!
 

MATC Professional Learning Opportunities:

MATC offers a wide-range of professional development courses in a variety of delivery modes and durations as part of our efforts to design meaningful professional development that provides just-in-time training opportunities for you to explore what you need when you need it. All of our offerings are free to MATC faculty and eligible for FQAS hours, so that you can plan and develop your own professional development goals and outcomes.  

Using Blackboard AI Tool for Journals Workshop
Blackboard Ultra AI Design Assistant uses artificial intelligence to streamline the course building process, giving instructors a head start on creating engaging, effective courses. In this workshop you will learn how to use BB Ultra AI Design Assistant to generate journals. Informed by Bloom’s taxonomy instructors can choose the desired cognitive level for the task, as well as provide keywords and instructions to tie the suggestions to their course content and desired outcomes. You may attend in-person in M201 (CTE) or virtually. Either way, please register at the link below. Space is limited to 25 participants, so it is best to register ahead of time.
 
Friday, 3/7/25, 12am-1pm, Virtual or In-Person (M201, Downtown)

Foundational Yuja Workshop
Yuja is MATC's video creation and editing tool. In the Yuja workshop, participants will learn how to import, create, caption, and edit video content. They will apply what they learn by creating, captioning, and editing video during the workshop. This workshop is offered in M201 (Center for Teaching Excellence), and is limited to 12 participants. To attend this session, email John Futterer at futterja@matc.edu.

Monday, 3/10/25, 11am-12:30pm, In-Person Only (M201, Downtown)

Ally Workshop

Ally is a tool integrated with Blackboard Ultra that helps improve the accessibility of documents, images, text, and tables for students. In this session, you will learn how Ally benefits students, practice using Ally to address common file accessibility barriers, and explore Alternative File Download formats, such as speech-to-text MP3 audio, and text translation to over 71 languages. Register through the Zoom link provided. Use that same link to attend virtually, or you can attend in-person at the Milwaukee campus in M201 (CTE).

Tuesday, 3/11/25, 2pm-3:30pm, Virtual or In-Person (M201, Downtown)

Using Blackboard AI Tool-AI Conversations
 
Blackboard Ultra AI Design Assistant uses artificial intelligence to streamline the course building process, giving instructors a head start on creating engaging, effective courses. In this workshop you will learn how to use BB Ultra AI Design Assistant to generate assessment prompts for AI Conversations. Informed by Bloom’s taxonomy instructors can choose the desired cognitive level for the task, as well as provide keywords and instructions to tie the suggestions to their course content and desired outcomes.
 
Wednesday, 3/12/25, 12pm-1pm, Virtual or In-Person (M201, Downtown)

Using Blackboard AI Tool-Discussions

Blackboard Ultra AI Design Assistant uses artificial intelligence to streamline the course building process, giving instructors a head start on creating engaging, effective courses. In this workshop you will learn how to use BB Ultra AI Design Assistant to generate assessment prompts for Discussions. Informed by Bloom’s taxonomy instructors can choose the desired cognitive level for the task, as well as provide keywords and instructions to tie the suggestions to their course content and desired outcomes.

Monday, 3/17/25, 12pm-1pm, Virtual or In-Person (M201A-Downtown)

Teaching in the Online and Virtual Course Types Lunch & Learn
 
In this Lunch & Learn we'll examine teaching in the Online course modalities. We'll explore scheduling, attendance, 8 & 12 week lengths, contact hours, student engagement, and other topics as we collaboratively discuss teaching in this modality. Register through the Zoom link provided. Use that same link to attend virtually, or you can attend in-person at the Milwaukee campus in M201 (CTE).
 
Friday, 3/18/25, 12pm-1pm, Virtual or In-Person (M201A-Downtown)

Online Instructional Quality

If you’ve completed Introduction to Blackboard Ultra (ZERD-190) or are currently enrolled in it, we welcome you to join us in Online Instructional Quality (ZERD-219) in Spring 2025.

In this research-based 1-credit course developed by Online Learning's faculty liaison team, you will learn the 'why' and 'how' of delivering high-quality online instruction to excel in demonstrating 21st Century Classroom Level 2. 

Key topics include: Learning theory and cultural relevance, online course design and alignment strategies, fostering regular and substantive interaction, and effective strategies to motivate and engage students.

Online Instructional QualitySP2025-ZERD-219-201 (Virtual) - New Section!
Fridays March 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th
8 AM to 10 AM
 Prerequisite: Successful completion or current enrollment to Introduction to Blackboard Ultra (ZERD-190). Attendance: A minimum of 80% online synchronous session attendance is mandatory. Additional 2 hours weekly online outside of the live sessions will vary by skill level. Register through Self-Service and watch this video to ensure your registration is complete.

Collaboration Connection:

MATC Team Day is Wednesday, March 19

MATC Team Day is scheduled for March 19, as a full-day employee event dedicated to team building, strategic/departmental goals and planning, employee recognition, and continuous improvement. This collegewide initiative provides valuable opportunities for departmental collaboration and growth.

Explore Your Future Day is Thursday, March 20, 2025

Explore Your Future day will take place on Thursday, March 20, 2025, across all four MATC campuses. This event is part of MATC’s commitment to M³, supporting the Academic and Career Planning of MPS students. Out of 2,500 MPS 10th graders, approximately 1,500 students from 23 schools have registered to attend. Over 60 programs have signed up to offer hands-on activities and demonstrations to welcome our potential students on campus.

Friendly Reminders:

Progress Grades for 12 and 16 week sections are due  Thursday, March 6 at 5PM.

Textbook Adoption:

Faculty Textbook Adoptions for summer and fall courses are to be submitted starting Monday, March 3rd through Monday March 31st, 2025.  Adoptions must be completed for ALL courses including "No Text" sections. There is not an automatic roll-over of course materials.

 Online adoptions are made through signing in to the bookstore website. 

Keeping You Posted:

Our goal with Center Connections is to keep you informed, not only about Center’s work, but to help you navigate other college-wide initiatives that directly impact faculty.

Upcoming Lockdown Drills

Lockdown drills will be conducted at each campus March 10-13. Specific dates and times will not be announced in order to improve effectiveness as we practice for emergencies on campus. All students and employees are encouraged to review the Public Safety Workshops and Drills page to prepare for these unannounced drills.

Sum Total Reminder:

Sum Total compliance requirements as assigned by Human Resources for all faculty and non-faculty are due on March 31, 2025. Additional videos from the February Faculty Professional Development Day are due on March 21, 2025. You can log into SumTotal using your MATC email address and network password.

Closed Captioning Compliance-Update:

To ensure that our student facing videos in Blackboard are closed captioned, all videos need to meet Closed Captioning  compliance by March 20th, 2025.  Soon after the  3/20 deadline, the College will begin the Closed-Captioning audit process as part of our compliance validation.

If you still have not reviewed your videos and need to do so, here is a guide to help you with the process and an FAQ document.

Additional Professional Learning Opportunities:

 As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded into educational settings and practices, it offers both opportunities and challenges.
Your browser does not support the video tag. A MULTI-CITY EVENTFROM ANTHOLOGY We're sharing everything we've learned about ethical AI best practices to guide you in establishing effective policies at your own institution or organization.
In this webinar we take a deeper dive into best practices in fostering a sense of belonging and instructional transparency.

Inspiration, Research, and Best Practices

Part of The Center’s mission is to keep you informed about current best practices and pedagogical approaches. Each issue of Center Connections includes links that are meant to be engaging, thought-provoking, and applicable to various classroom environments. For information on MATC's free access to Magna Commons publications, please see The Center's website.   Enjoy the rabbit hole!

Join us as we explore practical tips and best practices tailored for instructors navigating today's dynamic communication landscape.
To boost classroom interaction and active participation, instructors can include proven strategies in their "teaching toolkit" to foster empathetic connections among their students.
In higher education, one of the greatest challenges is getting students not only engaged in learning but also excited about research.

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