Technology in Education: Notes from the Closet

Orienting students to online learning helps set the stage for success. By designing a "Start Here" or "Course Overview" module, your students see that you are invested in their learning. This 3-page document has ideas for items that can be included. https://bit.ly/OnlineOrientationIdeas

 In 2024, the Department of Justice updated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requiring all digital assets to be fully accessible to everyone. To help move closer to compliance, I created a document with common issues that impede accessibility. The accessibility cheat sheet is embedded below. It is available for use with attribution.

In my role as the Director of Distance Learning, I am responsible for helping faculty create effective learning experiences for students in hybrid and online courses. Even though my focus is on the adults, it is important for students to be oriented to online learning and determine if this modality is for them. With that in mind, I created a series of flyers to help our community college students determine if online or hybrid learning is right for them. Click on each image below to view the flyers in full size.

This winter I am working toward adding a new credential to my learning: Quality Matter's  Teaching Online Certificate . This well-established and highly respected organization has put together a series of workshops that focuses on best practices of online teaching. I have reflected on each workshop as I completed them as a way to model metacognition. This post is the final reflection, 8 of 8. I'm fortunate to be at an institution that encourages and values continuous learning. As someone who has taught graduate courses for well known universities for 15 years, I feel I have a solid grasp of online pedagogical practices. Still, part of staying relevant is continuing to grow yourself and reflect on your learning. Having recently completed the workshops, this blog contains my thoughts about the process and content overall. In no specific order, here are my takeaways and tips for anyone considering working toward this credential. Build in space between each workshop. Not knowing an...

This winter I am working toward adding a new credential to my learning: Quality Matter's  Teaching Online Certificate . This well-established and highly respected organization has put together a series of workshops that focuses on best practices of online teaching. I plan to reflect on each workshop as I complete them as a way to model metacognition. This post is 7 of 8. When I scheduled my QM workshops I chose to take the Gauging Your Technology Skills workshop last. I was confident in my technology skills and thought it might be easier to end on a lighter note. For me, this was a great choice. In this workshop we took some skills self-evaluations to understand where our weaknesses were. While there were no areas of 'weakness,' there are always areas that need additional attention. In my case, that area would be using the internal analytics and features of the Learning Management Systems I use in my work and graduate courses: D2L, Canvas, and Blackboard. While I know how t...

This winter I am working toward adding a new credential to my learning: Quality Matter's  Teaching Online Certificate . This well-established and highly respected organization has put together a series of workshops that focuses on best practices of online teaching. I plan to reflect on each workshop as I complete them as a way to model metacognition. This post is 6 of 8. In the Evaluating Your Institutional Policies workshop we had the opportunity to explore both public-facing and internal policies our institutions have in place. As someone new to Triton College, this was extremely helpful for me. Many of these policies don’t directly relate to my position as Director of Distance Learning so having a dedicated block of time to explore these will allow me to reflect on suggestions I’d like to make for our online learning programs. Having an opportunity to explore classroom behavior, academic integrity, learner privacy, copyright, and accessibility policies as well as others helped s...