Volume 2, Issue 11--Published: Friday, February 24th, 2023

If you find yourself in full hibernation mode in the last weeks of February, no worries!  At the Center for Teaching Excellence, our intention is to support faculty as they create the classroom and learning environment that our students deserve. To do this, the Center aims to provide faculty the support they need when they need it by providing meaningful, relevant, and timely professional development opportunities of FQAS-eligible programming.  MATC’s commitment to quality professional development, offered at no cost to faculty, is a wonderful benefit, and at The Center, we hope that you will find something to pique your interest.

Quality Matters and 21st Century Classroom Level 3 and You!

Have you been thinking about signing up for Quality Matters (QM)? Now is the time because…drum roll please…it’s free for MATC faculty! QM can be quite expensive at $220 a class, so the Center is taking that barrier off of your plate and is supporting faculty who want to take the first of the two recommended Quality Matters courses Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR). We are doing so in partnership with the 21st Century Classroom LPIC Work Team, who is developing adjusted Level 3 criteria so that the successful completion of QM’s Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) and participation in a self-paced, QM-focused Faculty Learning Community with your colleagues will help you to earn the Level 3 badge.

More details on QM and the Level 3 badge will be coming soon, but faculty who are interested in taking the QM course for free can go QM and set up their account–when you do this, be sure to link yourself with MATC and then you can decide on a session for the APPQMR course that will work with your schedule.  After you do this, email The Center (at least 2 weeks in advance) to let us know which session you want to attend, and we will sign you up! The QM Course is eligible for FQAS hours.

Come and listen to faculty members Tom Vollman, Anna Varley, and Traci Clark as they give an overview of the Faculty Academy and how you could potentially use this model in your own department to form a community of support to innovatively address curricular, instructional, and assessment practices for current issues in your discipline related to cultural wealth and social justice, in alignment with MATC’s mission, vision, and strategic plan. 

Anna Varley and Traci Clark will also give elements from their presentation, “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Writing Instruction: Reclaiming Faculty Ownership of Professional Growth and Development to Foster a Sense of Student Belonging,” which was given at the International Society for the Advancement of Writing Research’s Writing Research Across Borders Conference that took place in Trondheim, Norway in February 2023. Come hear the exciting findings of their qualitative research study that addresses the application of DEIB Professional Development in the classroom and the sustaining and sustainable ecosystem of professional development model that created a community of support for faculty renewal, innovative instruction, timely and collegial feedback, curricular outcomes, assessment best practices, and student benefits and yields.

Join us (via Zoom)  on Friday, March 10th from noon-1pm!

FQAS--Have You Submitted Your Most Recent Hours?

If you have any questions about FQAS, please check out The Center’s new website, which has a section dedicated just to your successful navigation of FQAS.

If this is the last year of your FQAS cycle, then you have until June 30, 2023 to submit your hours. But why wait? The best practice is to submit your Professional Development activities as you complete them in Sum Total.  SumTotal will keep a “running total” of your hours for you, so you don’t have to worry about tracking down information, sometimes years later.  If you need to catch up on your submissions, please help The Center out and submit them as soon as you can.

We hope you see this as a win-win; faculty are able to easily input and keep track of their hours, and The Center has a manageable work flow from a more even distribution of submitted hours. The Center believes in providing faculty the flexibility and professional respect to take the courses you need, when you need them. Together, we are building a fair and transparent process that benefits all of us. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Congratulations faculty–once again you have shown how much you rock! In our first year of implementation of  the COS SOP, 99.2% of the 120+ faculty developers met the requirements of the updated SOP; when provided with a timeframe that matched the faculty contract and aligned supports, faculty and administration's partnership came through in a big way.

All faculty are instrumental in implementing the COS Best Practices  and supporting a culture of curriculum at MATC that encourages collaboration, robust curricular discussions, and a sustainable internal COS Review Process. Special thank you to the LPIC Spring 2022 and LPIC 2023 COS Process Work Teams whose work was instrumental in facilitating this. 

LPIC is also facilitating the creation of Academic Pathway Curriculum Facilitators to help us continue this important work–look for more information coming soon!

The Curriculum Department will also need the continued help of faculty developers to ensure that COS’s that are in WIP move all the way through to Pending Approval and finally Approval. Please continue your timely response to inquiries and emails–we’d like to get as many COS’s into Approval status prior to the HLC’s visit as possible. LPIC will also be continuing to advocate for process improvements, so that together we can create a sustainable curricular review. Your feedback is welcome! 

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.  

The Uncomfortable Conversation: Leading with an Equity Lens.

You are invited to join the DEI Committee to listen to this important presentation by Dr. Eric Conley titled "The Uncomfortable Conversation: Leading with an Equity Lens." This presentation examines some of the inequalities and exclusion policies in our healthcare systems and some policies/procedures and practices we can adopt to make healthcare more equitable, effective, and inclusive. Participants: MATC Leadership Council, Employee Affinity Group Co-Leads, MATC Employees & Students

Date: Wednesday, March 1st, 12:00 noon - 2:00 PM, In-person or remote.

In-person Location: MATC Downtown Campus, Room M605

Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Day of Engagement on March 10, 2023--Register Now!

Would you like to learn more about where MATC stands with HSI? Are you interested in contributing to this important initiative? Join us on March 10, 2023 from 8 am to 1 pm at the Milwaukee Downtown Campus. Guest speakers include Dr. Antonio Flores, President of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) and Dr. Margarita Melendez, U.S. Department of Education HSI Program Specialist. This professional development opportunity is free!  More details and registration information will be available soon. This event is eligible for FQAS hours.

Blackboard Ultra--Coming Soon to All Courses!

The NSCD videos are now available to be viewed as many times as you would like in a library topic in Sum Total; this houses all of the recent recordings from January and February related to Blackboard Ultra, so they are easier to locate. As you know, in Summer of  2023, the college will update all Blackboard sections to the ULTRA COURSE VIEW. All courses offered in Summer 2023 and in the future will be run as ULTRA COURSES, offering a streamlined user interface that provides a student-centered course experience with more efficient instructor workflows.

Attend the Online Learning Department's 1-hour workshops or register for the new training course ZERD-190 "Introduction to Blackboard Ultra" to learn about Ultra Course navigation, content design, communication tools, and the Gradebook. Support resources for faculty are available at the Blackboard Faculty Support Website for Ultra. See our Understanding the Changes Guide for an annotated example of the new course layout and tools. Faculty who will be teaching in Summer 2023 can get started with their transition to Ultra by reviewing the Ultra Migration Guide and contacting the Online Learning Department to request either Ultra Course Preview Mode in a past semester course or a Ultra Personal Master Shell. Ultra Course student support resources are now available at the Student Support Website; additional training for students will be provided through our Online Readiness Module and Student Blackboard Orientations starting in late April. 

Throughout February, guest speakers will deliver inspirational and informational topics, weekly black history facts will be shared, there will be movie viewings, and much more.

Recordings Available--Inclusive Teaching Webinar with MATC DEI Read Authors

The web recordings are now available for the recent presentation by Professors Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy, authors of Inclusive Teaching (a Fall 2022 MATC DEI Read), on  at 11am for “Inclusive Teaching: Empowering All Students to Thrive.” The most effective teachers do more than simply communicate facts and information. They create a sense of belonging for every student—and empower them to explore, make mistakes and thrive in their learning environment. In this interactive presentation, authors and award-winning educators Professors Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy will provide a framework for inclusive course design—one that can be readily implemented in any discipline or class size. You’ll also learn how structured active learning techniques foster equity and engagement. Plus, join the conversation as we crowdsource inclusive teaching approaches to improve learning for all!

The college has partnered with executive search firm, Academic Search, to assist in our national search for Executive Vice President, Student Success. The firm scheduled feedback sessions in order to obtain the relevant information needed to create the job candidate profile in preparation for critical and important recruitment. If you were unable to attend these sessions, you can still submit your feedback through the survey.

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.

MATC wants your suggestions for the next Commencement speaker! Check out the criteria for commencement speakers and make your suggestion.

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!

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Milwaukee Area Technical College
The Center for Teaching Excellence

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