Illinois Community Colleges Online (ILCCO) is sponsoring a free webinar for Illinois community college faculty and staff. “Humanizing the Online Environment: Increasing Instructor Presence and Enhancing Student Engagement” with Dr. Michelle Pacansky-Brock will be held Wednesday, Sept. 23, at noon. This is the rescheduled keynote from February’s ILCCO Growing Online Learning Conference.
Humanizing is a pedagogical approach that supports the non-cognitive components of learning and increases the success of more students in online courses. In this presentation, we will consider why supporting the non-cognitive dimensions of learning is so important for students from marginalized groups and look at examples of humanized online teaching strategies. You will see how we are inspiring — not requiring — faculty to humanize their online courses through faculty-centric professional development in California.
Welcome back for a new school year at LLCC. It’s definitely not a normal semester start for any of us, but I have every bit of confidence in your dedication to our students and your readiness for your online, remote and flex courses. I say this because we have been working closely with so many of you over the summer. But, before we get started with classes this semester, I have some information from the Academic Innovation and eLearning department that I would like to share with you.
Working Remotely:
The Academic Innovation & eLearning team will be working remotely this semester. While you won’t find us on campus, we will continue to be available to you for support with Blackboard and course development questions, as well as instructional technology, and instructional design needs. All AIeL team members will be available through email, Skype and MS Teams. You will also be able to reach us at our office phone numbers.
Hours of Operation:
AIeL department hours of operation are Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. We will have extended hours of 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the first two weeks of the semester Monday-Thursday, Aug. 24-27 and Aug. 31-Sept. 3. After Sept. 3, we will resume normal work hours of Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Professional Development Activities: We will continue to offer regularly scheduled workshops covering a wide range of topics. These workshops and webinars will be offered through Blackboard, Canvas, and/or Zoom. We will continue to provide innovative and informative professional development activities this semester, while allowing you to remain safe at home. The AIeL workshop schedule will be made available to you by Friday, Aug. 28.
Blackboard Support Center: I would like to remind you about the Blackboard Support Center. This is an on-demand training site for faculty and students with video tutorials for commonly used functions in Blackboard. There is a direct link to the Blackboard Support Center in each course in the course navigation menu. Or you can access the center directly at www.llcc.edu/bbsupport. You and your students are always welcome to contact our office for Blackboard support or questions, but the on-demand center is a great resource, especially when our office is closed.
Canvas: As Dr. Lindquist mentioned Friday morning, we will begin the process of transitioning from Blackboard to the Canvas learning management system over this academic year. We will be providing information on access to training in our Fall semester workshop schedule. We will also hold open forums questions and discussions about the move to Canvas. But rest assured, Blackboard will also be an LMS option through May of 2021.
Proctorio: Over the summer, we established an online test proctoring system, Proctorio. Information for faculty and students on the use of Proctorio can be found at www.llcc.edu/proctorio. We will have live webinars and online training for Proctorio included in our workshop
Part 2 of the New Online Faculty Program:
For individuals who participated in Part One of the New Online Faculty program during April and May, we will begin the final portion of that program on Sept. 8. We will contact those individuals directly next week.
One Final and Important Reminder: Once you are ready to have to have your students access your Blackboard course shell you will need to make it available. By default LLCC Blackboard course shells are set to unavailable. Visit the How do I make my Blackboard course available to my students page for video and written instructions on how to set your course as available.
Strategies for Online Learning Success This site has been developed to provide online, remote, and flex students with eLearning success tips. You are welcome to share this link with your students.
The AIeL team is ready and available to support you this semester, we may not be on campus but we’re only a phone call, email or Teams chat away.
LLCC has licensed Proctorio, a remote proctoring service, to support your online testing needs this academic year. Proctorio is a secure monitoring platform that integrates with Blackboard and Canvas and only works within the Chrome web browser.
Proctorio works within the learning management system to monitor online test takers for suspicious behavior. The system is available to support all Online, Remote and Flex classes as needed with no additional cost to students.
Faculty members are not required to use Proctorio to deliver online exams, but for those faculty members who would like to have online exams proctored, the system is now available within Blackboard and Canvas (for those faculty who are in the Canvas pilot program).
Proctorio also provides 24/7support to faculty and students from within the Proctorio system. This support is provided through live support chat or direct access to the Proctorio help and support center.
For specific information on Proctorio at LLCC please visit our LLCC Proctorio page.
LLCC Academic Innovation and eLearning will be hosting a live training session with Proctorio representatives prior to the start of the fall 2020 semester. The date and time for the next training session is this Wednesday:
Aug. 12 at 1 p.m.
If you are interested in attending either of these training sessions, please email dawn.townsend@llcc.edu and include which day you would like to attend. You will then be emailed a confirmation with the link to the Zoom meeting.
Dean Butzow, 2011 Pearson Master Teacher, has over 10 years of experience teaching online geography classes. Watch the video below and discover more reasons why LLCC continues to be a leader in online education!
LLCC was named a top school for online learning by the Guide to Online Schools in its “2020 Best Online Community College Rankings by State.”
Registration for fall classes is underway. More information on online courses is available at www.llcc.edu/online.
LLCC has reduced the online class fee by half for the fall 2020 semester.
“Cutting the online fee by 50% can save students hundreds of dollars in these uncertain financial times,” said Charlotte Warren, Ph.D., LLCC president. “As always, we will provide our students with a quality, affordable education this fall.”
Hundreds of additional online classes have been added to the fall schedule. Students taking online classes will pay LLCC’s low tuition and fees plus the half-price online fee of $19.87 per credit hour.
LLCC online classes allow students to access all course content from their homes with no set meeting times. LLCC has offered online classes for 23 years and was named a top online community college in Illinois by the 2020 Guide to Online Schools.
LLCC is also offering face-to-face, remote and flex classes this fall, which carry no online fees. Remote classes are delivered via Zoom or other technology and meet at set times. Flex classes are a combination of face-to-face, online and remote learning.
Accounts for students who have already paid the full online fee for fall will be readjusted. Current students can check their account information online via Logger Central. New students are invited to visit www.llcc.edu/getting-started to view enrollment steps. Financial aid is still available to those who qualify.
LLCC has licensed Proctorio, a remote proctoring service, to support your online testing needs this academic year. Proctorio is a secure monitoring platform that integrates with Blackboard and Canvas and only works within the Chrome web browser.
Proctorio works within the learning management system to monitor online test takers for suspicious behavior. The system is available to support all online, remote, and flex classes as needed with no additional cost to students.
Faculty members are not required to use Proctorio to deliver online exams, but for those faculty members who would like to have online exams proctored, the system is now available within Blackboard and Canvas (for those faculty who are in the Canvas pilot program).
Proctorio also provides 24/7 support to faculty and students from within the Proctorio system. This support is provided through live support chat or direct access to the Proctorio help and support center.
For specific information on Proctorio at LLCC please visit our LLCC Proctorio page.
AIeL will be hosting two live training sessions with Proctorio representatives prior to the start of the fall 2020 semester. The dates and times for these training sessions are:
Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at 3 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020 at 1 p.m.
If you are interested in attending either of these training sessions, please email dawn.townsend@llcc.edu and include which day you would like to attend. You will then be emailed a confirmation with the link to the Zoom meeting.
Dr. Carmen Allen, professor of computer science, shares three reasons to take online classes at LLCC, and Cheyenne Kesselring, recent LLCC grad, recommends, “If you’re thinking of taking online courses for college this coming semester, I 100% recommend looking no further than LLCC for your needs.”
LLCC is a leader in online education and was recently named a top school for online learning by the Guide to Online Schools in its “2020 Best Online Community College Rankings by State.”
Registration for fall classes is underway. More information on online courses is available at www.llcc.edu/online.
Several organizations have developed remote professional development opportunities this summer. Each of the online conferences and webinars listed below are offering free registration.
July 13 & 14: Hosted by Arizona State University, this virtual conference will provide a forum and support for all colleagues across higher education to help them design the most effective and engaging experiences for learners. Leading educators with extensive practical online and blended teaching and learning experience drawn from across global universities and colleges will gather to present immediately useful and evidence-backed practices on both subject-specific and general online teaching techniques. More than 70 sessions selected by group of nationally respected higher education experts will be presented at the conference.
July 21 & 22: Blackboard World will offer two days of live sessions on topics that are top of mind for fall, including new models of teaching and learning, accessibility and inclusivity, student engagement and the impact of COVID-19 on education.
July: If you are a new SoftChalk user, these live, one-hour online training webinars are just what you need to get started! The training typically includes a presentation and examples, as well as an opportunity for you to ask questions and receive assistance from the instructor.
Getting Started 1: An Overview of SoftChalk Cloud
Getting Started 2: An Overview of SoftChalk Create
ToolTips, Images and Hyperlinks
Navigation Features and Sidebars
Embedded Media
Quizzes and SoftChalk ScoreCenter
Interactive Presentation Learning Activities
Interactive Scoring Learning Activities
Using the SoftChalk Create ThemeBuilder
Using SoftChalk Create with your LMS
For information on access to SoftChalk, contact Barry Lamb, director, instructional technology services (barry.lamb@llcc.edu) or Gary Bach, instructional technology specialist (gary.bach@llcc.edu).
Welcome back for a new school year at LLCC. It’s definitely not a normal semester start for any of us, but I have every bit of confidence in your dedication to our students and your readiness for your online, remote and flex courses. I say this because we have been working closely with so many of you over the summer. But, before we get started with classes this semester, I have some information from the Academic Innovation and eLearning department that I would like to share with you.