Volume 3, Issue 9--Published: Friday, January 26th, 2024

Getting to Know the Center:

Welcome back awesome faculty! The Center shares your excitement about the potentiality and possibilities that come with the start of a new semester. We also know how much you have on your plate at this busy time of year, and we are here to help. The Center has friendly, supportive, and energetic faculty peer coaches who are available to work with you. Wherever you are in your start of the semester experience, The Center is here to help–whether that is trying a new innovation in the classroom or looking for immediate help in problem-solving an issue or ready to roll-up your sleeves to learn a new skill!

Our Work--The Center and You!

Beginning-of-the-Semester Student Engagement
Best Practices:
 
Some students may need a little extra support at the beginning of the semester. If a student hasn’t attended yet or hasn’t completed assignments, a best practice is to send a friendly check-in message. This email and texting template can be used to create a dialogue with  students that can foster their engagement in the course throughout the semester. 

Another option is to utilize EAB Navigate to send a referral  to help connect students with MATC resources that are designed to help students navigate the beginning of the semester. 

Student-Centered Syllabus Toolkit Update:
 
The Student-Centered Syllabus Toolkit now includes updates regarding Short-Term College Closures and Generative AI. The Student-Centered Syllabus Toolkit provides additional tools and ideas on language, images, and content for your syllabus, which we hope will provide inspiration and encourage innovation.

Want to make your Student Support Hours
feel less like Office Hours?
 
Did you know you can use Google Calendar to set up Appointment Slots so that your students can directly book a time with you during your Student Support Hours  or other times that you have available during the week?

If you haven’t used this function before, it is very similar to creating a meeting invitation in Google Calendar and takes only a couple of minutes. The Center has created a guide to help you navigate this; it contains everything from syllabus / announcement language to step-by-step instructions for directly embedding the Google Meet link.

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 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.  

Recording a Class Session Workshop
Friday, February 2nd, 10-11am
This workshop will demonstrate how to record your class session in Blackboard Collaborate, and then move the recording to Yuja (MATC’s video editing software). Yuja will auto-caption your video (captioning is required of any video), and allows you to simply create a link to place in Blackboard for students to view. The session will provide time for you to make a short recording to apply the steps of the process. You can attend virtually, or you can attend in-person at the Milwaukee campus in M201 (CTE).

Spring ZERD Classes are now available!

As part of our state's Faculty Quality Assurance System (FQAS) requirements, faculty are asked to focus on improving the success of their students through development of teaching excellence. MATC supports that work by offering free Professional Learning (ZERD) courses. Consider enrolling in an 8-week online (asynchronous) course by registering in Self-Service using these instructions.

Introduction to Blackboard Ultra

This introductory course introduces you to the Ultra Course base navigation, gradebook functions, and foundations of adding content, assessments, communications, and activities to a course. Faculty may enroll in Online Learning’s free professional development course ZERD-190 to learn how to use Blackboard Ultra tools for teaching and learning online.

Collaboration Connection:

Academic Integration Council (AIC) and You!
 
A big thank you to the 70+ volunteers who have raised their hands to be a part of AIC’s Inaugural Semester. Work team will be starting up in February; volunteers will receive an email notification of their work team assignments soon.  We are looking forward to  these collaborative work teams and the benefits this work will provide for our students–we are stronger together!
 
 

M3 Professional Development Day
 
On Friday, February 16th, the annual M3 Professional Development Day will be held in person on MATC Campuses from 8am to 11am.  A general session followed by break-out groups for the three primary subject areas of Math, Science, and English Language Art will occur. This day is an opportunity for the faculty from the three participating institutions of MPS, MATC, and UWM to get together, share best practices, and streamline curriculum, assessment, and instructional strategies.
 

Friendly Reminders:

AI in the Classroom Resources
The AI in Academics Taskforce team would like to share a site we created to host AI resources for faculty. Artificial Intelligence is all around us, affecting many aspects of our lives already.  As new AI tools are created and current AI tools are used to complete new tasks, it is important to understand how to effectively and safely utilize AI, in the classroom and in life. This site provides resources, research, and helpful information for faculty use of AI in the classroom. 

Getting To Know Student Data!

The Student Success Dashboards are now available in PowerBI, a premier data insights and visualization platform. This new platform makes the ability to access the Student Success Dashboards much, much easier than the previous Excel version! 


You now can readily access essential data like course enrollment and success, student persistence, retention, graduation, and transfer. The information can also be disaggregated in several categories. You can also find the dashboards and training video on MyMATC. The login to PowerBI dashboards is the same as your MATC login.

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.

Exciting news from the MATC OER team!
Instructors may still apply for either an OER (open education resources) adoption ($1,500) or creation ($3,000) grant: January 26 deadline. Fill out the Microsoft Word document available on the MATC OER funding opportunities page and email it to oer@matc.edu. This grant is available thanks to the $125,000 given to us by the Wisconsin Technical College System via a state grant to promote OER. Also, sign up for ZERD 209 before February 25 (deadline extended), learn about OER, and qualify for a $200 stipend.

Attendance Taking Reminder:

As you settle in and get your classes going, please remember the importance of entering attendance in Self-Service in a timely fashion for each of your classes.  It's very important that we be able to track attendance for our students as a way to help them succeed: We know that students are more likely to succeed if they're present.  Taking timely attendance is also important because it affects student financial aid and academic standing. For your convenience:

  • This link  contains instructions for entering attendance in Self-Service.
  • This link is a reference guide for attendance reminders and updates

If you have questions about this process, please reach out for assistance.

Additional Professional Development Opportunities:

Save the Date! 2024 Learning & Teaching Summer Summit 

Wednesday, June 12, 2024 

Hosted by Northcentral Technical College – Wausau (in-person and virtual options)

Please join us for this annual opportunity to learn from peers, collaborate with college partners across the state, share ideas, leverage promising practices, and celebrate innovation. The theme of this summit is Ensuring Learning for All. Goals for this summit will be to reconnect with colleagues, refresh our knowledge with innovative ideas for learning and teaching, and renew our passion for serving our colleges and students! We encourage sessions that embrace the theme of the summit and connect to the core FQAS focuses of Curriculum & Assessment, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Student Success, Teaching Methods, and Professional Excellence and HR/Credentialing. Registration will be available in March.  

The Faculty Quality Assurance System connects to many areas of the college, so the audience for this summit could include staff from: Human Resources, Learning Centers, Professional Development, Learning Managers, Deans and Associate Deans, Instructional Designers, Faculty Developers, Faculty Mentors and Coaches. The Request for Proposals (RFP) is now available.Please consider sharing your expertise and your experiences at this annual conference!

Contact Kristin Long and Mandy Johnson at fqas@wtcsystem.edu with questions. .

This session will provide an overview of issues that educators should keep in mind as they design climate change curriculum.
How can our math and science education courses repair a growing mistrust between science and society and facilitate a functional democracy?

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!

We're here to bring instructors and teachers inspiration, energy, and creative strategies that they can utilize in their everyday teaching.
Mental health concerns have emerged as a heightened concern, gaining recognition among faculty members and becoming an integral aspect of academic discussions. This shift in focus has been particularly notable in the wake of the ongoing pandemic, prompting educators to find ways to support student...
You must not neglect the urgency of determining how you will establish and maintain a learning environment that fosters students' sense of belonging and overall development.

created in Publicate