Category Archives: Professional Development

02.02.21

Softchalk short courses in February

If you are interested in learning more about SoftChalk and how it can be used to enhance your courses, please see the additional short-course training opportunities, free for LLCC faculty, listed below. Each live, one-hour webinar highlights SoftChalk Cloud and Create tools and activities. Participants will also be given an opportunity to ask the instructor questions.

Upcoming short courses in February:

  • 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
  • Enhancing Text With SoftChalk Create
  • Quizzes and SoftChalk ScoreCenter
  • Interactive Presentation Learning Activities
  • Interactive Scoring Learning Activities
  • Using the SoftChalk Create Theme Builder

Visit the Short Courses webpage for details and to register.

02.02.21

Monday Morning Mentor program

Each week, Academic Innovation and eLearning will be sending out a link to a different Monday Morning Mentor program by MAGNA Publications. Each weekly topic will be presented by respected academic peers and will cover timely and relevant topics in only 20 minutes. Each video is brief enough to fit busy schedules, but long enough to deliver valuable, actionable content. Each weekly video and support materials will be available for a full week so you  may view at a time that is convenient for you.

This week’s topic: How Can You Help Online Students Be More Successful in Your Course?
https://www.magnapubs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-Spring-MMM-02-01.pdf
Presentation date: Feb. 1, 2021 and on-demand for one week
Link to the presentation: mondaymorningmentors.com

From this link, you can view the featured 20-Minute Mentor, as well as access the transcript, handouts and supplemental material. These materials will not be available to be viewed until Monday when the presentation becomes available.

NOTE: You will need to enter a password in order to view the program. See Monday’s email from Becky Parton for the password, or contact becky.parton@llcc.edu.

Access to the programs in the Monday Morning Mentor series is restricted to members of the subscribing institution. Any unauthorized use or access, including sharing access with faculty and staff not affiliated with the subscribing institution, is prohibited.

01.28.21

NISOD 2021 International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence

Internal Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence. NISOD. Virtual. April 28-30, 2021.LLCC Academic Services has purchased an institutional license for NISOD’s 2021 International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence to be held virtually April 28-30, 2021. The institutional registration allows all Lincoln Land Community College employees to register at no cost for this event.

Registering for the conference will allow you to engage in 70 live sessions, three general sessions, as well as a series of pre-recorded sessions and countless opportunities to connect with colleagues throughout the event. In addition, you will have access for 12 months to watch sessions you may have missed during the live event.

All you need to do to participate without cost is register here using your college email address.

If you have any questions, please contact becky.parton@llcc.edu.

01.27.21

Tech Tip: Create a new form in Office 365

Access the Forms application by opening your Outlook – Office 365 web account, click on the waffle icon (nine small boxes) in the upper left corner. Select Forms, or if you do not see the application, select All apps.

You can + New Quiz or select the drop-down arrow to add a New Form.

  • Click on the Untitled Form box and enter the Form name.
    • Enter a description of what the purpose of the form is and any special directions. The description will be visible to the end user when completing the Form.
  • Select Add Question, and choose the type of question you want to add.
    • Choice – Single or multiple answers
    • Select additional options for subtitles and/or math equation editor.
    • Text – Free form answer, select long answer if additional space may be needed to complete.
    • Rating – Select from numbers or stars and 1-10.
    • Date – Date selection.
    • Ranking – Automatic creation of question format with a subtitle, options and point scale.
    • Likert – Used to gauge attitudes and opinions.
    • File Upload – End user can upload a file within the quiz or survey to a folder in your OneDrive or SharePoint if a group site.
    • Net Promoter Score – How likely are you to recommend style 1-10.
    • Section – Create a sub-section with a name and description; then add questions.
  • Question Settings
    • Set a correct answer.
    • Provide feedback for choice selections via a message when option selected.
    • Questions can be set to required and/or multiple answers allowed.
    • Assign points to each question.
    • Questions can be moved up or down to change the order at any time.
  • Select the preview link in the menu bar at the top. This will allow you to switch between a computer or mobile device view.
  • From color is set to a default Office palate. This can be changed by applying a theme to the Form.
  • Share your Form via email or link on a posted webpage.

View a quick video on Creating a Form and other detailed topics pertaining to Forms at the Microsoft Office Trainer Center.

01.26.21

Monday Morning Mentor program

Each week, Academic Innovation and eLearning will be sending out a link to a different Monday Morning Mentor program by MAGNA Publications. Each weekly topic will be presented by respected academic peers and will cover timely and relevant topics in only 20 minutes. Each video is brief enough to fit busy schedules, but long enough to deliver valuable, actionable content. Each weekly video and support materials will be available for a full week so you  may view at a time that is convenient for you.

This week’s topic is: How Can I Make My Video Lectures Effective and Engaging?
Presentation date: Jan. 25, 2021 and on-demand for one week
Link to the presentation: mondaymorningmentors.com/category/traditional

From this link, you can view the featured 20-Minute Mentor, as well as access the transcript, handouts and supplemental material. These materials will not be available to be viewed until Monday when the presentation becomes available.

NOTE: You will need to enter a password in order to view the program. See Monday’s email from Becky Parton for the password, or contact becky.parton@llcc.edu.

Access to the programs in the Monday Morning Mentor series is restricted to members of the subscribing institution. Any unauthorized use or access, including sharing access with faculty and staff not affiliated with the subscribing institution, is prohibited.

01.25.21

ILCCO Growing Online Learning Conference Feb. 16-18

The Illinois Community Colleges Online (ILCCO) will be holding the Growing Online Learning Conference Feb. 16-18, 2021. Registration is now open.

The theme this year is “TLC: Teaching, Learning, and Caring.” The keynote presentation will be “COVID Fatigue: A Trauma-Sensitive Approach to Moving Forward” and will be conducted by wellness and student services staff from multiple community colleges. This is a free online conference for Illinois community colleges. However seats are limited, so register early.

01.22.21

Tech Tip: Office 365 Forms

Microsoft Forms is an application in Office 365. With Forms, you can create surveys, quizzes and polls from your individual Office 365 account or a group site that you are member of. Share your Form via email, or post an active Form submission link with sharing permissions set to allow responses from anyone or limit to only those with an active LLCC account. Shared Forms can be responded to using almost any web browser or mobile device.

You can view real-time results as a Form is submitted, use built-in analytics to evaluate the responses, and export the results to Excel for additional analysis and/or grading. Forms can be used with other Office 365 applications, such as Sway, OneNote (web version), Excel, PowerPoint and Teams.

01.19.21

Using Active Listening to Deepen Student Engagement in Live Remote Classes

Originally presented live on Dec. 10, 2020, the online seminar “Using Active Listening to Deepen Student Engagement in Live Remote Classes” is now available for on-demand viewing. You can access the presentation and supporting documents through the on-demand seminar link. To access the presentaiton, enter the following password: remote211

On-demand access to the seminar will be available for one year from the date of the live presentation.

Please contact becky.parton@llcc.edu with any questions.

01.15.21

Faculty Focus Live podcast

Faculty Focus publication has launched a new podcast today, Faculty Focus Live.

The 10-minute episodes will cover a variety of topics and creative strategies that you can use in your everyday instruction. Each podcast has been designed to “get your wheels turning before steeping into the classroom or ‘zooming’ onto the computer screen.”

The first episode, “Classroom Assessment Techniques: Does this Make Sense to Everyone?” posted yesterday. A new episode will be made available every other Thursday on the Faculty Focus Live page. You may also subscribe to this podcast, simply copy and paste the address below into the podcast app of your choice.

RSS Feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1552018.rss

01.13.21

Teams: What is the Shifts app?

Shifts is a scheduling management tool application within Microsoft Teams. A Team/Group site owner can use Shifts to create, update and manage your team’s schedules. It is available in all versions of Teams (desktop, Office 365 or mobile app).

With Shifts, management can add notes to share important news about a specific day or time, block out scheduled times for training, meetings for individuals or the group, etc. and add Open Shifts that anyone can request to work.

Team members can request time off, swap or offer shifts with other team members and/or sign up for offered shifts. Management will approve or deny any requests within Shifts and the Shifts calendar will automatically update accordingly.