Getting to Know the Center:
Our Work--The Center and You!
As the back and forth of the beginning of the semester is starting to settle down, now is a good time to take action on your Teaching Action Plan (TAP).
The purpose of Peer Coaching and the Teaching Action Plan is to provide guidance and direction for the professional development activities throughout your FQAS cycle. The TAP fosters a growth-mindset by allowing you to capture the full process of professional development from skills development and renewal to classroom application, so that you can obtain feedback and reflect on what worked well, what didn’t work, what no longer works, and what could work with some adjustments. In the TAP, you are asked to set professional development goals that apply to the classroom; however, the goals that you set may grow and adapt as you start to implement your newly-acquired professional development skill set into the classroom. The TAP process has an embedded flexibility to give you the professional respect you deserve in a quality review process that embraces all levels of self-reflection and feedback.
The TAP is a framework for the application of individualized professional development; it is designed to:
- Help you develop and organize your goals for fostering student success
- Identify and connect with a peer coach
- Apply your professional development FQAS into the classroom
- Chart your progress throughout the academic year
The TAP is a required component of the FQAS cycle. If you are Full-Time Post-Probationary faculty, you will complete one TAP each year. If you are a Part-Time Post-Probationary, Part-Time Probationary, or Full-Time Probationary faculty, you will complete one TAP each FQAS cycle.
If you need any help with the TAP, please do not hesitate to contact The Center–we love questions!MATC Professional Development 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 courses are free to MATC faculty and eligible for FQAS hours, so that you can plan and develop your own professional development goals and outcomes.
Faculty, Developers, Department Chairs, and Instructional Chairs involved in the COS development process are highly encouraged to attend this workshop within the next two months. Workshops have been scheduled during a wide variety of days and times each week, and faculty can attend virtually or in-person at the Milwaukee campus, to allow for faculty teaching schedules. Upon completion, the COS Reboot workshop qualifies for 2 FQAS hours in the Student Success/Teaching Excellence category.
HyFlex Workshop
Are you considering teaching in the HyFlex modality in the future? The next HyFlex Workshop is scheduled in two parts on October 11 (Part A) and October 18 (Part B); both 5pm-9pm. To learn more about the HyFlex Workshop, visit the Flexible Modality page on the CTE website. FQAS hours apply. To sign up (space is limited) or if you have any questions, please contact John Futterer.
Upcoming Yuja and SmarterProctoring Workshops
Yuja is MATC's video creation and editing tool. It allows users to create video within the software, or import videos. There's a quiz feature to embed questions within your videos. Best of all, it will auto-caption videos saving you time and effort. SmarterProctoring allows you to proctor online exams to reduce the likelihood students may look up answers on exams when taking them through Blackboard at home.
Collaboration Connection:
- Assessment (Career Essentials and HLC Criterion 4 feedback)
- COS SOP Process Review
- Program Viability/Sustainability Process
- Course Modality
- Professional Development FQAS Processes
- Professional Development: Faculty Evaluation and Accountability to Students,
- 21st Century Classroom
- Student-Centered Scheduling Process Review
- Stormer Connect integrated within Holistic Coordinated Care Network (HCCN).
New Technology in Classrooms
Over 400 webcams were installed in all classrooms over the summer where face-to-face classes are scheduled in the fall. This will allow almost any course to temporarily pivot to having some students attend class remotely. There have been some requests to the AV Support Team for a second monitor in classrooms with webcams because some instructors would like to teach in a HyFlex modality or Virtual F2F-Flexible modality. The college cannot support that request due to availability, but more importantly, the introduction of webcams is to support students who cannot attend due to COVID or some other reason in which you allow them to attend virtually, but of a temporary nature. Webcams have audio and other limitations that would not work very well when a course is taught in a flexible modality such as HyFlex.
Since we are currently scheduling for the Spring term, please contact the lead faculty in your department/pathway who schedules courses for the HyFlex and Virtual F2F-Flexible course modalities if you would like to teach in these modalities for the Spring term.
Additionally, The Center has several upcoming training opportunities for teaching in these modalities.The Modality Matrix also has a Flexible Modalities tab with more information. For additional information, contact MATC’s Instructional Designer, John Futterer.
Friendly Reminders:
On October 1, 2022, Blackboard Client Support will permanently delete semester course sections from past terms SU2019, FA2019, and SP2019. Course shells from these terms will not be available for faculty access in Blackboard after this date.
If you have not already done so as a part of the regular end of semester course process, download files from these semester shells for your records before 5:00 PM CST October 1st 2022! Contact onlinelearning@matc.edu if you have any questions about this process.
Keeping You Posted:
Long COVID
What we know today is that most people with COVID-19 can recover and return to their normal lives within a few days or weeks, however, some people experience long-term effects from the virus that are called post-COVID conditions or “long COVID.”Learn more about “Long COVID” from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. If faculty have questions, please contact Josie Veal.
To access these resources, log into MyMatc--> click on the EAB Navigate Resources listed under the Employee Quick Links. Once on the EAB Navigate Resource Page, scroll down to the section labeled FACULTY Specific Including Training Videos. The information provided on this page is updated as needed and provides videos and guidelines on how to use specific functions in EAB Navigate.
Additional Professional Development Opportunities:
OER 101: STUDENT SUCCESS WITH OPEN AND AFFORDABLE RESOURCES
CVTC’s OER 101 course is offering sessions in October and January. Please check this out and share this opportunity with those who you think may be interested. This opportunity is free and online (I believe asynchronous) and is available to anyone – participants do not need to be in the Health Sciences and they could come from WTCS or other institutions (K12, community based organizations, outside of WI, etc.) and various positions (instructors, librarians, instructional design, etc.). Since January 2020, over 250 participants have completed the course as OER Champions from 25 states, all 16 Wisconsin technical colleges, and a variety of disciplines.
Connecting the Dots: Mapping Assessment to Learning Outcomes
Wednesday, September 28, 2022 | noon- 1 p.m. This webinar focuses on assessments' role in measuring and tracking well-defined student learning outcomes to improve curriculum and instruction. We will review different types of assessments (e.g., direct, indirect, embedded, multiple choice, project-based, etc.) and how to choose the assessment type that best aligns with the desired levels of evaluation. The presentation will also cover measurement concepts (i.e., validity and reliability) and methodological considerations necessary to make valid inferences about students' learning outcomes.
Inspiration, Research, and Best Practices
Part of CTE’s mission is to keep you informed about current best practices and pedagogical approaches. Each issue of CTE 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 CTE's website. Enjoy the rabbit hole!
Despite their universal use in online teaching, online discussions often fall flat. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In this episode, we’ll discuss how multiple due dates for a discussion can foster thoughtful responses; we’ll talk about the importance of using Universal Design for Learning to guide your discussion; we’ll discuss the importance of putting yourself in the student perspective when writing your discussion prompts; and finally, we’ll go over techniques for fostering a community within your discussion board and class.
Looking for previous issues of Center Connections?
Milwaukee Area Technical College
The Center for Teaching Excellence
