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.

01.07.21

Tech Tip: Manage your LLCC voicemail with Teams

While some of us are working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, you may find that you need to update the voicemail greeting on your LLCC extension (not a department phone number with Response Group Configuration). While on campus, this is done so with the phone, but did you know that you can manage your voicemail greeting using Teams and a computer microphone or smart device?

Open the Teams app on your computer workstation, Teams within Office 365 or the Teams app on your smart device. Each will work the same and allow you to record a greeting and set voicemail parameters.

  • Select your picture or initials in the upper right corner.
  • Select Settings
    • Select Calls.
    • Call Answering Rules — Determine the action taken when a call is received on your extension.
    • Configure Voicemail — Record a greeting, set call answer rules, text-to-speech customized greeting option and actions to take with out of office greeting.

In addition to setting voicemail parameters, you can access your voicemail messages from within Teams.

  • Select the calls icon on the left.
  • Select Voicemail.

Remote Access Knowledge BaseFor additional information, see the document Manage Voicemail With Teams.pdf found on the Employee Portal > IT > Remote Access Knowledge Base.

12.11.20

Save the date for ILLCO Conference

Illinois Community College Online (ILCCO) will host its annual Growing Online Learning Conference on Feb. 16-18, 2021. The theme this year is “TLC: Teaching, Learning, and Caring.” Registration will open in January. This is a free online conference for Illinois community colleges.

Conference Details

Keynote

COVID Fatigue: A Trauma-Sensitive Approach to Moving Forward
Elgin Community College, Heartland Community College, McHenry County College, & Prairie State College
We have been living and working in unprecedented unique circumstances. As students enter our classrooms—in person or virtual—they are bringing with them the sustained trauma of a global pandemic. And guess what? So are we. We will discuss the effects of trauma on the brain and body, how those effects may manifest in ourselves and our students, and how we can help. This presentation will help us frame our own experiences, while we consider the ways we can support our students, our colleagues, and ourselves, as we move forward.

Conference Sessions

Feb. 16, 10 a.m.
COVID Fatigue: A Trauma-Sensitive Approach to Moving Forward
Elgin, Heartland, McHenry & Prairie State

Feb. 16, 2 p.m.
Designing for Kindness
Kona Jones
Richland Community College

Feb. 17, 10 a.m.
How to Encourage Student Interaction in Zoom Meetings
Susan Nugent
Lake Land College

Feb. 17, 2 p.m.
Active Learning through Service Projects in a Digital Learning Environment
Mary Carlson
College of DuPage

Feb. 18. 10 a.m.
Introduction to Universal Design for Learning – UDL
Sarah Goldammer, SIU Edwardsville
Aimee Julian, Illinois Center for Specialized Professional Support

Feb. 18, 2 p.m.
Authentic, Meaningful and Engaging Assessments
Anna Catterson
Heartland College

11.20.20

Reminder about mandatory training

In accordance with Board Policy 1.7 and recent amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act, all active employees, including adjunct instructors, student workers and other contractual and/or temporary employees, are required to complete sexual harassment prevention training on an annual basis. Training is administered online to provide a flexible format in which employees can complete the training and still accommodate their busy schedules. The course contains content that is certified to meet training requirements as required in the Illinois Human Rights Act. As such, all employees are required to complete this course even if you may have recently completed a similar training.

Because this is a mandatory training, we ask all supervisors to work with their staff, including student workers and other part-time, temporary or contractual employees, to find time within their work day, as appropriate and/or applicable, to complete the training. Please follow-up with your employees to ensure that they received the training link and have completed as required.

On Nov. 2, all active employees were sent an email to their LLCC email account, from the college’s training provider, SafeColleges, with a unique link to complete the course. You must have an active LLCC account to log in into SafeColleges. If you have not activated your LLCC account, please contact the helpdesk at 217-786-2555 or helpme@llcc.edu for assistance. Since it is an internet-based training, you can access the program 24 hours a day anywhere that you have internet access. It takes approximately 40 minutes to complete the course. Completion of the course must be done within 30 days of receipt of the training email.

If you have any questions, please contact nicole.ralph@llcc.edu.