Online Byte of the Week - Vol. 2 - Global Campus

Vol. 2, Issue 29, May 4, 2021

This week, I take my last BYTE as your ELCE Scholar. I write this final newsletter in disbelief for my incredibly rewarding two-year role has ended nearly as quickly as it began. Issue 29, our 76th since June 2019, is a walk down memory lane for me, a time for me to reflect and share with you what I have learned and accomplished along the way; although, much more work is to be done! This journey was only possible with the guidance and support of so many that I must thank.

First, I offer a very special thank you to Drs. Christi Edge and Liz Monske. They spent the summer of 2019 with me to onboard, share online teaching pedagogy, and norm the Global Campus online course design review process that they, along with the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Global Campus, constructed with both research and high impact teaching practices serving as the mortar.

Next, a round of applause with standing ovation for the Center for Teaching and Learning: Dean Leslie Warren, Matt Smock, Tom Gillespie, Stacey DeLoose, and Scott Smith and the Teaching and Learning Scholar, Lisa Flood. Our instructional design experts are an invaluable and indispensable resource to the faculty and university as a whole, an investment that yields significant professional development and online course quality dividends, not to mention that they host the best food fests on campus (just ask Scott about the hot dog roller and the Thanksgiving luncheon, Matt about Festivus and the feats of strength that I did not win, and Leslie about pie day, which, as I write this newsletter, is today). They immediately welcomed me as a member of their work team. We planned and presented at faculty workshops and the Upper Peninsula Teaching and Learning Conferences (UPTLC). We created an online course full of faculty teaching examples; Lisa was instrumental with this collaboration. Together, we served the faculty during one of the most challenging times in the history of academia, the pandemic, pivoting to online learning in the matter of only a few days’ time. From the Ally implementation to bi-weekly IDT and HLC accreditation meetings, Online Teaching Fellows, distance qualification courses, faculty and discipline consultations, I was honored to be a part of this outstanding professional group.

Mindy Nannestad is the north star of the Global Campus; her extensive planning, organizing, and analytical skills along with her attention to detail are out of this world. Thank you, Mindy, for everything.

Brad Hamel, Carley Harrington, and Dan Freeborn are the heart and soul of the Global Campus. They eat, breathe, and sleep online learning and access to education for all students by means of the internet. Rigorous learning can take place in an e-environment, synchronously or asynchronously, to meet the demands of those students who demand or prefer virtual programs. Brad, Carley, and Dan are, truly, the student (and faculty) accessibility champions of the university.

Steve VandenAvond is the true visionary for online learning at NMU. He leads the charge to provide educational access to the world. The funding from the distance education fee is reinvested into innovative online programs, not to replace those on the ground, as a means by which to expand our menu of course offerings and, perhaps, more importantly, provide educational access to those who otherwise would not be afforded with the opportunity to attend college.

To Joe Lubig, Adam Prus, Paul Mann, and the School of Education faculty (Derek Anderson, Christi Edge, Bethney Bergh, Abby Standerford, Mitch Klett, Judy Puncochar, Michelle Gill), thank you for piloting the next phase of the Global Campus online course design review process: a review of online courses using the Minimum Standards rubric.

Thank you to the guest contributors of the Online BYTE and to the faculty who offered suggestions via email and through conversations.

Most of all, to the Northern Michigan University faculty, I sincerely appreciate the complete honor and privilege to have learned from all of you over the last two years, having voraciously consumed your exceptional course syllabi, over 600 of them, and teaching best practices throughout my time with you. Thank you for your questions, feedback, patience, and recommendations throughout my time with you.

To the College of Business faculty, in particular, and Dean Carol Johnson, thank you for providing me with your support to perform this important work over the last two years.

I feel most accomplished for the faculty friends that I have made and the relationships I have forged. Knowing that my work has made an impact with respect to the quality of our online courses fills me with a great sense of pride. We received a clean bill of health from the Higher Learning Commission earlier this year, a direct outcome from the efforts of the faculty to demonstrate their online course design and delivery excellence, facilitated through the Global Campus online course design process. However, we must continue what we started and promised to our accreditors and ourselves and advance our online course design quality to the gold standard.

Along with the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council (TLAC), we developed an online course design and delivery peer observation process, (request one here), and created a glossary of pedagogic vocabulary, based on Quality Matters. As far as research is concerned, I attended one national and two regional conferences, presented at national and regional conferences and workshops for NMU faculty and administrators. Along with Steve, I co-created a structured process for online students to request a faculty evaluation of their prior learning for academic credit. I immersed myself in SoTL and produced peer-reviewed research. I authored one article and co-authored another in the pedagogic research space (shameless plug here).

Boyer-Davis, S. (2020). Technostress in higher education: A quantitative examination of the faculty perceived differences before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Business and Accounting, 13(1), 42-58.

Stark, G., Boyer-Davis, S., & Knott, M. (2020). Extra credit and perceived student academic stress. Journal of Business and Educational Leadership, 10(1), 88-108.

This year, I served as the keynote speaker of a national conference, presenting the 2020 paper above. I will be presenting on this topic at another national conference in June.

Boyer-Davis, S. (2021, March). Hidden symptoms of the COVID-19 virus: Technostress in higher education. American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences (ASBBS) National Conference, Virtual.

I have another co-authored SoTL article in review.

Berry, K., Boyer-Davis, S., Keiper, M., & Richey, J. (in review). The relationship between the ethical behavior of peers and grit: Evidence from university business classes. Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences.

Christi Edge, Liz Monske, Brad Hamel, Steve VandenAvond, Matt Smock, and I have been invited to submit a peer-reviewed journal article:

Edge, C., Monske, E., Boyer-Davis, S., Hamel, B., VandenAvond, S., & Smock, M. (unpublished, proposal accepted December 2020). Generating and enacting a rigorous multi-step vision for organizational change: A case study of implementing university standards for distance education. The American Journal of Distance Education.

Some of my peer-reviewed SoTL presentations (individual and co-collaborative) during the ELCE Scholar position include:

Stark, G., & Boyer-Davis, S. (2020, June). Teaching critical thinking. Paper presentation at the Management & Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS) National Conference, Fort Wayne, IN (virtual).

Knott M., Boyer-Davis, S., & Stark, G. (2020, June). The mental health crisis on college campuses: Classroom strategies to support student academic wellbeing. Paper presentation at the Management & Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS) National Conference, Fort Wayne, IN (virtual).

Stark, G., & Boyer-Davis, S. (2019, June). Thinking about critical thinking. Paper presentation at the Management & Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS) National Conference, Mahwah, NJ.

Boyer-Davis, S. (2019, May). Strategies to improve online administered student evaluation of teaching (SET) response rates. Paper presentation and demonstration at the Upper Peninsula Teaching and Learning Conference (UPTLC), Houghton, MI.

My summer work for the Global Campus will be spent wrapping up existing projects and onboarding the new member(s) of the team. Steve will be announcing who the new scholar (or scholars) will be; stay tuned!

I bid you all adieu, at least in this capacity.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar (2019-2021)

Vol. 2, Issue 28, April 16, 2021

This week, the BYTE invited Professors Jill Leonard and Taimur Cleary to share with our readership more about their interdisciplinary online course creation: Art Meets Science. Enjoy this special edition of the Online BYTE of the Week!

Art Meets Science: A Collaborative Online Course from Scratch
By Jill Leonard (Biology) and Taimur Cleary (Art & Design)

We are lucky enough to be offering a new asynchronous online course this summer that is the byproduct of a longer collaboration between the two of us and our departments. While we cannot yet report on how the course is being received by students, we were asked to talk about how we went about constructing our course since it is a somewhat unusual co-taught model. Welcome to INTT222 Art Meets Science!

The course itself is an outgrowth of a longer collaboration centered around The Great Lakes Cycle, a series of paintings done by artist Alexis Rockman. As we worked together on that project, we became increasingly engaged by the interaction and interplay between art and science… and so we eventually decided that we wanted to offer a course on this topic to NMU students. From its inception, the course was never going to be tightly tied to the Rockman paintings, but rather move into a broader world of interactions between art and science…and the value of integration between disciplines in general. It’s also important to remember that this content area is outside both of our usual areas of emphasis… and so we knew it would be a lot of work to pull everything together.

Our first step was to brainstorm how we wanted to handle this amorphous topic and make it accessible to students. On the one hand, that involved a traditional outlining of content to be covered, and importantly a division of labor between the two of us for who would have responsibility for the various pieces. It also meant thinking hard about who we wanted the audience to be and how we needed to offer the course (logistics!) It also meant ensuring that both our departments and our Dean were supportive of the project.

It soon became obvious that for us to offer this as a co-taught course, we would need to do it in the summer since our teaching loads for the regular semesters are packed already. We also knew that we would have access to a larger pool of students if we went online with it. But, at that time (pre-COVID) we were both very green on teaching online. So, we were privileged to be accepted into the Summer 2020 version of the Online Teaching Fellows I program. It provided the perfect vehicle for us since we could work on our new course at the same time that we were learning best practices in online teaching.

Because we were truly starting from scratch, rather than converting an existing course or transforming a course that was based on a text or existing curriculum, we had enormous latitude… but that was also very daunting! To deal with this, we went to the basics and started with our learning objectives (outcomes) that we wanted for the course and those would be drawn in from the General Education program, since we knew we wanted this course to be included in Gen Ed. We were able to directly model our major assignments on the outcomes needed for General Education (Integrated Thinking), with the goal of making assessment easy in the long run. In addition, because we were starting from scratch, we placed Quality Matters best practices such as student interaction devices, student-instructor interactions, accessibility, etc., right into the initial outline so that they would be included naturally and not forgotten or forced.

Between the broad outline of the content we wanted to explore and the outcomes and best practices we wanted to include, we fairly quickly had an outline for the course. We then considered more holistic elements that we felt important, like making sure the course was as visual as possible to draw in artistic elements and to emphasize both creativity and data-driven research and practices. We wanted these to be concepts that the students did not just read about, but also experienced as part of the course design.

Obviously, all this development prior to actually starting to make the course “real” was time-consuming, but it was also exciting and fun! Development of a course like this, while certainly work, should be rewarding for the instructors and remind us all why we joined academia. Having the time to do this was a luxury afforded by the Teaching Fellows program. Having a good partner to work on it with, however, was the most important piece of the puzzle. We know that co-teaching has not been common at NMU, but we want to encourage you to explore it as a possibility. Having a partner in crime makes the whole process more enjoyable!

Once we had our course structure in place, then it was a matter of seeking out and coming up with appropriate content. In some cases, there were materials available to us on the web, in other cases we made our own videos or other materials (we try to mix up content type to increase engagement). And of course, we had to make EduCat cooperate with us (with lots of help from the CTL!) as we constructed the assignments and other materials that the students would work through. Again, a lot of work, but so much more reasonable once we had a clear vision of what we needed to accomplish.

So, did it work? Well, we came up with something that looks good to us. This summer we will offer it for the first time. And as of this writing, there are 26 students willing to take the leap with us! We’ll get back to you with a report on if we were really successful once the students engage with it!

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Please keep those BYTE newsletter ideas coming! We welcome guest contributors. Please consider answering our call to showcase the outstanding ways that YOU are teaching in the online, hybrid, hyflex, or in-person learning environments.

Stay healthy and safe,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar
*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 27, April 5, 2021

This week, the BYTE is all business as Drs. Jes Thompson, Gary Stark, Jim Marquardson, Ahmed Elnoshokaty, Murong Miao, and Professor Jodi Hunter offer their learner-learner pedagogic pearls of wisdom.

MGT 344 Managerial Communications, Dr. Jes Thompson

Introductions via Padlet (ex: https://padlet.com/jessitho/rda3x2gfrl4soaw2), I embedded the padlet code into the EduCat page and students had a "25 word challenge: Introduce yourself with one photo and 25 words, or less." The padlet page was a dynamic shared document that fostered learner-learner interaction and engagement at the beginning of the course.

Weekly Discussion Groups - I assign students into 7-person groups for the semester, each week they take turns leading the discussion thread for an assigned prompt.

Because of the group size, students build a "micro-community." This is great in a larger online class. The students get to know their group really well and move past generic responses and surface-level conversation because they practice relationship-building and authenticity with a smaller group. 

Weekly Discussion Forums
Points Possible: 70 points; 10 points each
Due Date: Every Friday by 9 a.m.

Overview: Students will be part of one small discussion team (7 members) for the    entire semester. Each week I will give a prompt, case study, scenario or specific question to discuss using the class forum function. Each week one student will be designated the discussion “leader” and must create the first post by midnight on Tuesday. All students will earn five points for writing and sharing their initial, coherent and concise (100-150 words) post responding to the prompt, and five additional points for replying thoughtfully (about 50-100 words) to at least two peers’ posts during the week.

Rubric: Asynchronous discussion enhances learning as you share your ideas, perspectives, and experiences with the class. You develop and refine your thoughts through the writing process, plus broaden your classmates’ understanding of the course content. I will use the following rubric to assess the quality of your discussion contributions.

MGT 343 Human Resource Management, Dr. Gary Stark

I don't do anything particularly fancy.  My online classes have all been asynchronous (MGT 343 during the summer).  I post discussion questions using the "Forum" tool in Moodle.  Typically, we have fairly good discussion, but it takes some work getting them to respond to each other.  They'd often rather wait for me to weigh in.  I set each of those discussions so that every post is automatically emailed to the students.  That way they can keep tabs on discussion with almost no effort on their part.  Clearly, that can be overwhelming for them but I instruct them how to create folders and automatic sorting.  I don't directly require a certain number of responses per chapter or post.  Students are graded more on their overall contribution across the semester.  Please see the rubric I use, below. 

It's never as much discussion as I want, but it is summer (hard for students to be engaged when the weather is perfect) and the technology is quite simple and the discussions are easy to follow.

CIS 222 Quantitative Business Problem Solving, Dr. Jim Marquardson

I've found that simple forums are an effective way to have students engage with each other. I typically require students to post a response to a prompt and reply to one of their peers. The forum type I prefer is a "Q and A Forum" in which students cannot see any posts until they have responded to the question I posed. One downside is that students cannot see or respond to their peers' posts for up to an hour after they have submitted their own posts. This delay is unavoidable in Moodle--there is basically a job that runs periodically to determine if a student has made a post, yet, thereby unlocking the view of their peers' posts.

The Center for Teaching and Learning has recommended using multiple due dates for this type of forum. The student's post responding to the instructor's question could be due on a Wednesday, and the student's reply to a peer might be due on a Friday, for example. In my CIS 222 Quantitative Business Problem Solving class, I give students a semester case in which they have to use Excel spreadsheets to solve a business problem of their choosing. I've found that students struggle to think of ideas for their project, so I created a required forum post early in the semester that asks students to propose a topic for their business case and describe the features they will implement. To encourage learner-to-learner interaction, I require students to respond to a peer and suggest an additional spreadsheet feature that could be useful. The forum helps students commit to a project early on in the semester and they also get ideas for improving their project.

CIS 222 Quantitative Business Problem Solving, Dr. Ahmed Elnoshokaty

For my asynchronous classes, I did the following learning activities:

1. Like Jim, the Q and A forum following the same multiple-dates deadline setting which has been engaging students in the asynchronous class. 
2. I used for course project presentations and peer discussion Voicethread, I guess it added more peer interaction.
3. I added forums for assignments that are a little bit challenging, where I expect students to work together to muddle through. 

For, synchronous online classes, I did the following learning activities (I try to keep each learning activity no longer than 20 minutes and then switch to another and have the class more engaging to students)

1. Flipped classroom: listening to a podcast or read an applied research article before introducing some topics (gets students more motivated)
2. Zoom breakout rooms for in-class hands-on group assignments 
3. MCQ formative assessments through Kahoot! interactive quiz (I view results and address misconceptions directly after quiz) 

MKT 230 Introduction to Marketing, Dr. Murong Miao

Marketing Group Project Instructions

Project Overview

In the project, your group will play the role of a small business’s marketing team to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for the business. Your group will prepare a formal marketing plan as well as make two presentations of your ideas in the middle and at the end of the semester.

What You Need to Do

Your job in this project is to develop a complete marketing plan for your chosen business. First you need to collect information about the product/company and its consumers. This research will enable you to do a situational analysis of the company and to define your overall marketing objectives and strategies. Make sure you try to find out as much as you can about the company and its industry and thoroughly understand the company’s situation before you create your main marketing ideas.

Based on the information you collected, you should define the marketing objectives you want to achieve through your plan and quantify these objectives so that the effectiveness of the plan can be measured if it is carried out. When you design your objectives, keep in mind that marketing is an integral part of business decisions. So, your objectives should fit well into the company’s overall mission and business plan.

Next you need to identify the appropriate target market(s) for the business and design the marketing mix that will help you achieve your marketing objectives. This includes all four components of the marketing mix: product, price, promotion, and place/distribution. When defining target markets, please be as specific as possible in terms of the intended target markets’ demographics, socioeconomic status, psychographics, and other identifying characteristics. Be sure to justify why you think these target markets are appropriate. For the marketing mix components, please give as much detail about each component as possible.

For the final components of the marketing plan, you will identify the implementation and logistic details for your plan such as the necessary organization structure to support the marketing plan, and the implementation steps and timeline. In the end, you also need to decide how you will monitor the campaign’s performance, how you will evaluate the performance, and any alternative courses of action if your campaign does not work out as expected.

Group Project Grade

Your group’s final project grade will be affected by the quality of each section you submit during the semester.

Final Group Project: (1) Paper- 150 points & (2) Two Presentation- 100 points

Two Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Wait until almost the end of the semester to start the project. Some students tend to delay their group project until the last minute. This can usually have a very negative effect on the quality of the project. You should start the project as early as possible to make sure you don’t run into problems when you are almost running out of time. If you would like to start the project early and other group members are not cooperating, be persistent. Shall your persistent effort fail, you should notify the professor as soon as possible.
2. Divide and conquer without regard to what other group members are doing in other parts of the project. A good marketing plan should be one that is well-integrated. Many students approach group projects by dividing the work and then each one working on his or her own. While this approach is OK, students who are given a later part of the marketing plan should know what group members working on earlier parts are doing or have done. For example, the marketing mix strategies should reflect the chosen target audience and brand positioning in earlier sections of the plan. Students working on earlier parts of the marketing plan should start early on in the project and should actively pass on their information and analysis to other group members. A marketing plan consisting of fragmented, totally-unrelated sections (both in terms of content and writing/transition) will not receive good evaluation.

Presentation:

Power-points slides need to be submitted to EduCat Dropbox.

Each group will present its marketing plan both in the middle and at the end of the semester. The presentation will be 15~20 minutes long. It is each group’s responsibility to make sure all materials are presented within the given time frame. A common mistake that you should try to avoid is to spend too much time on describing the situation and not enough time on your actual “big idea”. Keep in mind that your presentation will be graded based on what the audience see and hear in the given timeframe, not on what you may have prepared on slides. Logistic-wise, the group can choose which members will do the presentation. The grade will be based on the clarity and organization of your presentation as well as the use of basic presentation skills, such as maintaining proper eye contact, not reading from prepared speech, etc.

Final Group Paper rubric:

The Marketing Plan Template

            At the end of the semester, your group will need to hand in a complete marketing plan. The plan should be on double-spaced, typed papers. It should follow an essay format with proper use of section headings. Oftentimes students ask whether their paper should be in essay format or bullet point format. The plan should be written in an essay format. Your report will be graded on its quality of information, its strategic relevance and practicality, its creativeness, and its clarity of organization and writing. The report should be no less than 15 pages. But it should follow the template below:

1. Title page: This should include the full title of your project, your names, the course number and name, your section time, the professor’s name, and the due date.
2. Executive summary: Write this section when you have completed your Marketing Plan but place it 1st in order (right after your title page). This one-page managerial summary should give a busy “executive” an idea of your plan without having to read your entire report. Be sure to include a brief description of your product benefits, target market, customer needs, value proposition, performance expectations, and the keys to success.
3. Company/Industry Analysis: An overview of the company, including its business, its history, etc., and the industry that it operates in. It should cover the following components:
   1. Company Mission
   2. Company’s Strategic Goals (financial and non-financial)
   3. Company’s Core Competency
   4. State of the Industry: what is the state of the industry today? How does the company fit into the industry?
4. Situational Analysis: This section presents an in-depth look at the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and as such should address relevant issues in the industry, the competition, its customers, the macro-environment and the company itself. You can distinguish strengths and weaknesses from opportunities and threats by asking this question.  “Would this issue still exist if the company did not exist? If the answer is yes, the issue is an opportunity or threat.” This section will include the following sub-components:
   1. Market Needs, Trends, and Growth
   2. Competitive Landscape: How competitive is the marketplace? Who are the key competitors? How are they different from your company?
   3. SWOT Analysis, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Identify at least three for each.
5. Marketing objectives: What would you like to achieve through your marketing plan?  These should be realistic and concrete objectives that can be measured against the actual performance were the plan to be carried out. There should be some quantified objectives.
6. Target market and positioning: Who are your target customers? Describe them as best as you can in terms of demographics like gender, age, life cycle, income, education, occupation, race/ethnicity; geographics; psychographics such as their interests and activities; behavioral such as overall loyalty to the brand, first time or regular customers, etc. What is the rationale behind why they are the optimal target market segment? How do you want to position your brand? What are your main points of difference?
7. Marketing Strategy:
   1. Product Strategy: describe your brand and product features and benefits (from the perspective of the target market); key factors that will determine your success with the product; and critical issues that will need to be addressed.
   2. Price Strategy: how will you set the price? Select price objective; determine demand and estimate costs; analyze a major competitor’s price; select a pricing method; finally select the final price.
   3. Place Strategy: Will you use push or pull strategy and why? Will you use retailers or wholesalers? Will you have a website? If so, will it be promotional or transactional?
   4. Promotion Strategy: establish promotion objectives, and choose a message and vehicles for communicating that message.
8. Evaluation and Control: If your plan are to be carried out, how will its success be evaluated?  What types of information will need to be collected in order to assess performance?  What adjustments do you need to make if the plan does not work out?
9. Appendices: Include any appendix you feel that may enhance or add interest to your marketing plan. This could include, for example, images of product packaging or sample marketing materials that you have designed.
    

MGT 121 Introduction to Business, Professor Jodi Hunter

Learning Activity: Shark Tank

Ready to be an entrepreneur? Your final project is to create a product or service and sell your idea to gain support from an investor (your professor), Shark Tank style!

Your company can offer a physical product or a service, but it should not just be a copy of something already offered … BE CREATIVE! Think outside of the box …

You will need to include the following in your project:

Part 1 (10 points): 1-2 page summary/outline about your company including:

1. the company’s name and objectives
2. the company’s mission
3. the company’s basic details (company location, senior management’s names

and roles, when founded, logo and slogan, etc.)

4. a brief description of the product or service
5. how you came up with the idea for your product/service
6. the top 3 problems your product/service are addressing

This component will be submitted at the end of Week Four, but will be graded as  part of the final grade. I will provide feedback on this component that will help guide you on the final presentation component.

Part 2 (45 points): A 10-slide presentation on your entire project. The outline you   should use is below. Your PowerPoint should be submitted with your video.

During your video, you will reference this slide show, so that the professor can follow along your PowerPoint while watching YOU on video present it. I will be watching these on two computer screens side by side, so you do not have to have the PowerPoint actually showing in your video, but you should be using it while you are making your video, as if you were doing this in person and the slide show was in the background for the viewer.

Part 3 (55 points): Video Presentation Requirements:

Your video must be UNDER 10 minutes, but at least 5 minutes. This essentially means you have to be concise and make sure that you are READY when you start. Videos over 10 minutes will automatically lose 20 points, no matter how great they are. Part of presentation is being concise and clear. You don’t need to share every single detail, focus on the most important items.

All students within their assigned teams must participate  in the video. Each student will be graded SEPARATELY on your participation in the video component.

This project is worth 110 points: 10 points for the paper, 45 points for quality of  your PowerPoint, and 55 points for your video presentation. Please refer to the  rubric for specific details as to how you will be graded.

PowerPoint Presentation Requirements:

Slide #1: Cover Slide (include your company name OR logo & your name)

 Slide #2: Company Name and Objectives (remember to use bullet notes)

Slide #3: Company Mission Statement (sentence(s) allowed for this slide)

Slide #4: Basic Details About Company (company location, senior management’s names and roles, when founded, logo and slogan, etc.)

Slide #5: The Marketing Mix: Product, Place, Price, Promotion (use bullet notes)

Slide #6: How You Came Up with the Idea for your product/service (use bullet notes)

Slide #7: Top 3 problems your product/service are addressing (use bullet notes)

Slide #8: A compelling message that states why your product/service is different than competitors (make sure you are specific – give details)

Slide #9: Conclusion Slide (quick overview of 4-5 main points of your project)

Slide #10: Complete the Sale with a powerful closing sales pitch that answers    “Why is this product worth buying/investing in?” (this will make or break the   Sharks investing in your project)

Remember to include pictures and other graphics, not just plain text on slides.

Grading Rubric for Shark Tank:

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Please keep those BYTE newsletter ideas coming!  We welcome guest contributors.  Please consider answering our call to showcase the outstanding ways that YOU are teaching in the online, hybrid, hyflex, or in-person learning environments. 

Stay healthy and safe,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).  The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor.  Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2).  For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 26, March 29, 2021

Through the remainder of March and early April, the BYTE will highlight our expert faculty and their innovative pedagogy to promote learner-learner interaction in asynchronous courses. Next week, our BYTE is all business as Drs. Jes Thompson, Jim Marquardson, Ahmed Elnoshokaty and Professor Jodi Hunter offer their learner-learner pedagogic pearls of wisdom. This week, we present our second guest contributor, Dr. Vince Jeevar, Assistant Professor in the Psychology department. A special thank you to Vince for sharing his teaching techniques related to video discussion forums with the BYTE readership. Vince, take it away…  

VIDEO DISCUSSION FORUMS

One of the biggest challenges I've found teaching online is bringing a sense of class connection, with both instructor to students, and student to student relationships having some challenges. One way I've found to help foster a connection is to include a video presentation component in classes, it helps for students and instructors to see each other as humans. In the online world, it's easy online to see people as wall of text, but when posting videos, it brings faces, or at the very least, voices (for those who are shy and choose to present using audio over a PowerPoint) into the classroom.

For each module, we'll have a video presentation where students will give feedback to each other. I set a minimum number of classmates (depending on the class size) to be responded to, and feedback needs to be at least 100 words. Having a word count means students can't get away with a 'nice presentation' comment and be done; they have to actually watch the videos and engage if they want to earn the grade.

When implementing this, through trial and error (mostly error), I discovered a best practice of allowing students to post their videos anywhere they like and posting just the link into an EduCat discussion forum in class. Most students choose to post on YouTube, but I do set up a WildCast Pod for each class as an option as well, and there are many other tools students could use. As long as the video is accessible, it doesn't matter where it's posted.

Of course, it's more work (for students and instructors) so there are some occasional grumbles, but I get far more students talking about how they appreciate the interaction and 'feel like they're in class' than those who grumble. If that changes at any point, I'll revisit my approach, but for now, videos seem to be a popular component. (Vince)

Please see below for web links for more information regarding video presentation software such as VoiceThread and Prezi and other multimedia tools such as Haiku Deck, FlipGrid, and Glogster (multimedia posters).

https://voicethread.com/

https://prezi.com/

https://www.haikudeck.com/

https://info.flipgrid.com/

http://edu.glogster.com/

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Please keep those BYTE newsletter ideas coming! We welcome guest contributors. Please consider answering our call to showcase the outstanding ways that YOU are teaching in the online, hybrid, hyflex, or in-person learning environments.

Stay healthy and safe,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar
*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 25, March 16, 2021

Through the remainder of March, the BYTE will highlight our expert faculty and their innovative pedagogy to promote learner-learner interaction in asynchronous courses. Our first contributor is Dr. Amy E. Barnsley, Associate Professor in the Mathematics and Computer Science department. A special thank you to Amy for sharing her teaching techniques related to group quizzes in departmental math courses with the BYTE readership.

Group Quizzes in Developmental Math Classes, Amy Barnsley

Group quizzes are 5% of the overall grade for my MA090 Beginning Algebra and MA100 Intermediate Algebra classes. There are 8 group quizzes. I drop the lowest quiz score. This helps alleviate some of the stress when a group fails to meet for one of the quizzes. 

In the introduction forum, students are asked to introduce themselves and are encouraged to exchange contact information.

Post a message or video about yourself. This is just a simple introduction which can include what your major is, what you hope to get out of college, some random fun fact about you, what you want to do when you grow up, or anything you want to share. Post a photo to practice uploading photos. You must also respond to at least one student. You will be required to do some group work in this class. You can have 2-3 people in a group, so now would be a good time to try to group up. Share contact information. You do not have to meet in person, but will have to work together on group quizzes. 

I then create a “Who is in your group?” Survey in EduCat. I take that information and create a Google doc that has the names and email addresses of persons in each group. I post the Google doc in the EduCat course, but students can only view it; they cannot edit the Google doc. If students report they do not have a group, I form the group for them. As students drop the class or become non-responsive, I rearrange the groups and update the Google doc. 

Group quizzes are worth 100 points. Half of the points are the math work, and half the points are given for answering the following questions:

I am pretty generous with the 50 group work points. I rarely give less than 50 if they made some attempt to meet. As I grade, I write down the names of the persons in the group members and I grade those one after another. I find that if they truly worked in a group, they tend to have the same errors. If someone has wildly different answers but said they worked in a group, I will leave a comment like this “Your answers do not match your group. Please leave enough time when you work with your group to really compare answers and work together to learn the material,” but I still give them 50 points. This is usually enough to prod them into genuinely working together the next time. 

Here are three samples of the answers to the group work questions: 

Sample 1: For group quiz 5 I worked with Axxx and Tyyy, we met for about 15 minutes while being on a FaceTime call. I explained question number 6 and 7 while getting help on question number 3. Having the group time really helped me understand what needs to be done within each step of the problems that are given.

Sample 2: My group is Jxxx and Myyy. We met on Thursday afternoon for about 20 minutes or so over FaceTime. We compared our answers and spent time discussing #3,4,6,7 I got help on #6 and explained #4. We collectively did the others together. 

Sample 3:
1. Txxx and Myyy
2. We did meet on Friday afternoon for 1 hour.
3. Snapchat
4. Mostly, we went over the problems with graphs especially the absolute value.
5. I got help on question 10 regarding simplifying
6. Everybody in the group contributed.

Here is a screenshot of what it looks like in EduCat:

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Please keep those BYTE newsletter ideas coming! We welcome guest contributors. Please consider answering our call to showcase the outstanding ways that YOU are teaching in the online, hybrid, hyflex, or in-person learning environments.

Stay healthy and safe,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 24, March 8, 2021

This week, let’s snack on Zoom, an application that has become incredibly important to teaching delivery in our pandemic environment and a way for us to stay connected with family, friends, and colleagues while physically distancing.  On a regular basis, Zoom provides updates to launch program enhancements and patch any issues.  To update Zoom (PC or Mac) to the newest version, open Zoom on your desktop.  Click on your initials or photo image at the top right side of your screen.  Please see “SB” below, for an example.  A dropdown menu will appear.  Then, select “Check for Updates” and run any that are offered.  For iOS or Android, the Zoom mobile app will provide a notification that an update is ready when available.     

Please see below for information regarding the most recent Zoom update.

Zoom Release March 2021

Zoom has a collection of backgrounds beyond those offered in the application.  To browse the library of virtual Zoom backgrounds, click the link below. 

Zoom Virtual Backgrounds

For other Zoom how-to’s, please see the Resources menu and choices including video tutorials, live training, webinars and events, Zoom blog, and FAQ.

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Please keep those BYTE newsletter ideas coming!  We welcome guest contributors.  Please consider answering our call to showcase the outstanding ways that YOU are teaching in the online, hybrid, hyflex, or in-person learning environments. 

Stay healthy and safe,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).  The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor.  Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2).  For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 23, February 26, 2021

This week, the BYTE is pleased to announce that NMU has graduated to the next phase of the online course design review process: Minimum Standards. Effective Winter 2021, the ELCE faculty scholar began reviewing online courses along with syllabus copies. Over the last two years, we have been evaluating course syllabus copies using Entry Level Standards. To prepare faculty for the next phase of the review process, the faculty review team concurrently provided teaching faculty with constructive syllabus feedback through the lens of Minimum Standards when reviewing syllabus copies at Entry Level Standards. In the first step, Minimum Standards feedback was limited in scope to the syllabus only and not the online courses themselves.

Minimum Standards, “Bronze” (Online Course Design)

Because the online course design review process is intended to be progressive, the review team will evaluate online course design quality at the current required Minimum Standards and provide feedback one step higher, Quality Standards. Online course shells, without students populated in them, will be evaluated.

Professional development workshops will be offered to review and present online course design best practices with respect to Minimum Standards (bronze) and Quality Standards (silver).

The rubric for the next phase of the review process, Quality Standards, is supplied below.

To obtain access to the resources on the Quality Matters (QM®) website, including the full rubric with annotations and examples for online course design, please click here:

Quality Standards, “Silver” (Online Course Design)

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Please keep those BYTE newsletter ideas coming! We welcome guest contributors. Please consider answering our call to showcase the outstanding ways that YOU are teaching in the online, hybrid, hyflex, or in-person learning environments.

Stay healthy and safe,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 22, February 19, 2021

This week, the BYTE is announcing the call for teaching conference grant proposals on behalf of the Teaching & Learning Advisory Council (TLAC).

All AAUP Teaching Faculty, 

The Teaching & Learning Advisory Council (TLAC) is pleased to issue this call for proposals for the TLAC conference grant program for Winter 2021 

This semester we are awarding up to five (5) grants between $500 and $1,000 each to assist faculty in participating in scholarship of teaching conferences.  Due to travel restrictions for the 2020-2021 academic year, this grant has been modified to allow professional development beyond conferences and workshops. See ideas for conference grant without travel. Also due to travel restrictions during the 2020-2021 academic year, this grant has been modified to allow up to $500 of an award to be used as a stipend to improve instructional practices related to conference participation.

The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2021.

Awarded funds may be allocated for conferences up to one year following the award date and back to the beginning of the semester in which the award was granted. In this case from January 2021 to May 2022.    

Amy Barnsley 

TLAC Chair

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Please keep those BYTE newsletter ideas coming!  We welcome guest contributors.  Please consider answering our call to showcase the outstanding ways that YOU are teaching in the online, hybrid, hyflex, or in-person learning environments. 

Stay healthy and safe,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).  The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor.  Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2).  For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 21, February 12, 2021

During my time as your ELCE Scholar, a number of faculty have asked me for clarification regarding the role and function of the Global Campus at our University.  Last week, I invited Brad Hamel, Director of Global Campus Operations, to contribute to our newsletter by answering this specific question.  A very special thank you to Brad for what you are about to read.

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This BYTE highlights the resources and efforts available to academic departments and distance education students in the Global Campus. Many of the services and resources available do overlap with other departments throughout NMU. It is important to note that we coordinate all efforts with the appropriate university department and tailor those services to the non-traditional and adult student market. The information highlighted below is just a flavor of what we do in the Global Campus, and we would be happy to talk to anyone about a partnership. We want to thank everyone who has made the distance student experience here at NMU a success. A particular thanks to Dr. Boyer-Davis and the past ELCE Scholars who have taken on a significant role in the Global Campus helping shape our future and making sure our educational product is rigorous and what has always been expected from NMU.

Market Analysis/Program Evaluation

As you plan either an entirely new academic program or consider expanding a current program to an online format, the Global Campus staff is able to help with a market analysis or program evaluation. The market analysis, powered by Gray Associates, looks at four factors: 1) student demand, 2) competitive intensity, 3) employment opportunities, and, 4) degree fit. These factors make up an overall score for any given program and are displayed in a color-coded scorecard for an easy to read report. In addition, the report and overall scores are generated for three markets, National, regional (360-mile radius from NMU), and regional (160-mile radius from NMU). Reports are based on the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) codes. However, not all program ideas fit neatly into this taxonomic scheme. There are ways the evaluation tool can compile multiple relevant CIP codes to help gauge program viability. Program directors and department heads are the experts for each discipline, and we will work with you to generate an appropriate report. The program evaluation is just one tool in program ideation and can help guide the decision-making process.

Budget Modeling

For new online Global Campus academic programs, we will work with program directors and department heads to set up a budget model that fits departmental needs. The Global Campus strives to follow the Responsibility Center Management (RCM) model of budgeting. In this budget modeling process, we will consider the market analysis to predict the most appropriate enrollment numbers and tuition revenue for your program. During this process, we will discuss the options for either a revenue-sharing plan and or the ability for a Global Campus sponsored faculty position. Program budget models are reviewed each semester with the program directors and department heads. At that time, we will look at individual program trends and discuss any adjustments needed by either the academic department or the Global Campus. Feel free to reach out at any time to talk about opportunities.

Program-Specific Marketing, Recruitment, and Enrollment

Academic programs offered through the Global Campus can benefit from program-specific marketing, recruitment, and enrollment efforts. The Global Campus's creative team works with the academic departments to develop an appropriate marketing and recruitment plan that fits the departments' needs. We have found that program level marketing has produced the best result for the Global Campus programs. Marketing and recruitment plans are targeted to specific audiences through paid digital media, organic social media, direct email, and direct physical mailings when appropriate. Potential students are individually communicated with at each step of the way in the recruitment funnel, keeping them engaged. One initiative we have found to be very beneficial is the pre-admission degree audit for transfer students. Potential Global Campus students are able to submit their unofficial transcripts through a web form for an unofficial evaluation. The audience we are targeting, adult and non-traditional students, appreciate the ability to estimate what is going to be required to complete their educational goals. We have seen an 70% enrollment rate of the students who submitted a request for an unofficial degree audit. Once a student is admitted, they are still engaged with a Global Campus staff member to complete everything required to get enrolled.

Advising and Student Support

Global Campus embraces the success team approach for distance education students. Once a student is admitted, they are assigned a Global Campus advisor and a faculty advisor from the student's major. The Global Campus advisor is there to help the student navigate the distance university experience. The university experience can be daunting for on-campus students to navigate, and that is amplified when the student cannot be here in Marquette to find the resources they need. The Global Campus applies a "Concierge" approach from the first time a student engages with us. This approach is mostly used by our current students who need to navigate the university from a distance. All the Global Campus staff participate in this function and try to handle most student needs with a personal touch. One opportunity for department heads and program directors is that we can help with course forecasting. Our staff can look at the degree audits for your particular major and help determine what courses are needed in the short or long term to make sure distance students can finish their program in a timely fashion. The Global Campus staff also reaches out to continuing students to encourage early registration and continues the outreach right up until the start of the next term.

Alumni Engagement

Now that the Global Campus has a number of graduates throughout the nation and world, we are working with the Alumni Department to make sure that our distance students are engaged with their alma mater. This engagement will undoubtedly help in future recruitment efforts and advance the university's overall mission and vision. The strategies for alumni engagement to students who may never have stepped foot on campus are different from those who had traditionally attended NMU and lived in the great Marquette area.

In closing, the above highlights are just a portion of what the outstanding Global Campus staff and partner university academic and service departments are doing to address distance education students' needs. None of this could be accomplished without the dedication and support across campus. Thank you.

Brad Hamel
Director of Global Campus Operations
bhamel@nmu.edu

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Please keep those BYTE newsletter ideas coming!  We welcome guest contributors.  Please consider answering our call to showcase the outstanding ways that YOU are teaching in the online, hybrid, hyflex, or in-person learning environments. 

Stay healthy and safe,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).  The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor.  Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2).  For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 20, January 29, 2021

Let’s keep with the tech teaching tools theme for this week’s BYTE newsletter.  A very special thank you to Dr. Wendy Farkas, Associate Professor of English, who wrote to me at the beginning of the semester to share with our readership the outstanding student engagement application that she has been using in her classes with great success, Nearpod: https://nearpod.com/

Nearpod, a cloud-based app free at the Silver level (pay options at the Gold and Platinum levels of use), can transform our virtual (and live) learning activities into a more interactive format.  With Nearpod, faculty can choose to either create new or upload any of their existing PowerPoints, Google slides, and videos (even from YouTube) and transform them into highly engaging learning activities.  Using Nearpod, we can add polling and assessments (formative or summative) directly to our PowerPoints and videos.  We can also quite seamlessly incorporate virtual reality, 3D images, gamified or open-ended quizzes, fill in the blanks, matching pairs, draw its, and polling into our new or existing documents.  With Nearpod, we can type, draw, or highlight on our slides.  We can also add assessment questions directly to videos.

Please see below for a YouTube video regarding Nearpod:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYVHSAqEeMM

Nearpod has three delivery modes: live teaching mode (live or remote), student-paced mode, and front of the class mode. 

Live teaching mode: faculty control the pace

Student-paced mode: students control the pace

Front of the class mode: can be used without student devices

Nearpod can be used with Windows or iOS, PC or Mac.  The application is mobile phone and tablet friendly (Android and Apple). 

A limited scope research study from Dakota State University identified that the use of Nearpod during live instruction reduced student distraction and improved overall course learning outcomes.  Please see the link below to read the study.

https://nearpod.com/independent-research-from-dakota-state-university-about-nearpod/

Please keep those BYTE newsletter ideas coming!  We want to showcase the outstanding ways that YOU are teaching in the online, hybrid, hyflex, or in-person learning environments.  We are all in this together, my faculty friends.  Let’s share with each other and learn from one another. 

Stay healthy and safe,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).  The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor.  Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2).  For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 19, January 22, 2021

Happy New Year, faculty, and welcome to the Winter 2021 term!

This JUST in and you heard it here first.  The CTL is experimenting with some exciting NEW presentation technology in Studio 102 that enables blending computer-projected content (diagrams, pictures, websites, PowerPoint, etc.) with video of an instructor making "virtual eye contact" with students.

This short video demonstrates some of what this makes possible. In brief clips, Amy Barnsley (Math) is using pictures and text in her PowerPoint introduction, Janel Labron (CLS) is displaying x-rays and ultrasounds and able to point out specific attributes, and Sebastien Inagaki (Chemistry) is using the touch screen on the connected computer to illustrate the different parts of a chemical equation.

The technology to make these videos is on loan from a vendor. Though the CTL hopes to be able to add something like this to Studio 102 permanently in the future, for now we have only a few weeks until the demo equipment goes back to the vendor.

If you are interested in making one of these next level videos, please contact Stacey DeLoose (sdeloose@nmu.edu). 

If you want to book time to make a "regular" lightboard video or other Studio 102 recording, visit the CTL Appointments page. 

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).  The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor.  Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2).  For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 18 & Teaching Tip #18 January 8, 2021

The Teaching BYTE: Introducing Ally!

The Teaching and Learning Scholar, Dr. Lisa Flood, and the Extended Learning and Community Engagement Scholar, Dr. Stacy Boyer-Davis, are collaborating this week to combine a Teaching Tip with an Online BYTE to introduce Ally. This new tool will be enabled in all EduCat courses during the winter 2021 semester to provide students with alternate formats for course materials. This Teaching BYTE will offer information related to using Ally in your courses. We hope that you will find this information useful as we launch this new software. We wish to extend a special thank-you to the faculty and students who piloted the program last semester and acknowledge the work of the Ally Adoption Team members:

• Matt Smock, Center for Teaching and Learning (Ally Adoption Coordinator)
• Harger Boal, Disability Services
• Tom Gillespie, Center for Teaching and Learning
• Stacy Boyer-Davis, College of Business / ELCE Scholar 
• Lisa Flood, School of Nursing / Teaching and Learning Scholar
• Linda Lawton, Department of Math and Computer Science
• Elizabeth Monske, Department of English
• Chris Lewis, Technical Support Services

Why does EduCat look different this semester? You may have noticed EduCat looks a little different when you log into your winter 2021 courses. Next to some course digital files is a new "A" icon. Clicking on the “A” icon will provide options for downloadable alternative format options created by Ally. Because courses have diverse students with unique learning needs and abilities who may be using a variety of devices, it's important for faculty to be able to provide content in numerous ways. Course content created with inclusion in mind cannot only benefit students with disclosed disabilities such as visual and hearing impairments or dyslexia, but can also improve the learning experience for all of your students. Keep in mind that you will also likely have students with undisclosed or undiagnosed disabilities who may also benefit from having alternate format choices. The increased amount of content being delivered online during the pandemic makes it more important than ever to ensure that students can experience content in ways that best meet their learning needs. 

What is Ally? Ally is a new EduCat tool that helps address accessibility and universal design by:

• Automatically providing students with alternative formats for common course content, including Word documents, PDFs, and PowerPoints.
• Giving faculty feedback, tools, and coaching for improving accessibility in their courses.

How can I orient my students to Ally?  Because Ally will be new to most students this semester, faculty should consider offering a short orientation. Faculty could add some syllabus language or simply explain Ally during their first class meeting or in an online orientation video. Faculty could also include similar information in a class email or EduCat announcement.

• Include a syllabus explanation: “Ally allows students to download alternative

formats of digital course files to engage in content that works better with different devices and study tools in order to meet individual learning needs/preferences. How do you prefer to engage with learning digital content? Do you read on your phone or tablet, use a screen reader, or listen to an audio version? Do you like to annotate and highlight your digital notes? You now have several options. Click the “A” icon next to your course files to access the alternative format options. Or do not click on the icon and use the format provided by your faculty.”

• Create an Ally folder in EduCat:  Faculty can use the two Ally documents below which describe the learning benefits and the alternative formats to orient students. Faculty could create an EduCat folder and simply add the following URL links. 
  • Four Learning Benefits of Alternative Formats-

• Download an Alternative Format: Find file formats that support your learning

What does Ally provide for me as the instructor? Ally automatically generates up to eight unique alternative formats of your course files and HTML content which are available for downloading. Ally also provides accessibility indicators (pictured below) next to your course files; these indicators are not visible to your students. To address an accessibility concern, select the indicator to view the percentage score, specific issues affecting the file, and instructions for improving the file’s accessibility. Ally will provide step-by-step directions for faculty to fix any of the identified issues. Addressing accessibility issues with your course content can improve the quality of the alternative formats provided for your students. For more instructor information, click on the two documents below.

Ally Basics for Instructors

Ally Resources and Support – Instructor package

What’s the best way to start fixing my content?  Ally provides a Course Accessibility Report located in the course dashboard. This report provides faculty with an overall accessibility score for all course files. The report also has three pathways faculty can use to address issues: 1) easiest ones to fix, 2) specific ones based on severity, and 3) individual files. The CTL is recommending that faculty start with the easiest ones to fix or tackle the ones that are the most severe in order to have the biggest impact on your overall course accessibility score. Some easy ways to improve accessibility include: using ≥ size 12 font, ensuring tables contain column headings and are only used for tabular data, describing all images, and refraining from using scanned PDFs (Ally Accessibility Checklist found in the Instructor Package).

How can I incorporate Ally into my course content? For some disciplines, faculty might consider ways to integrate Ally into their course content. For example, in disciplines that include teaching methodology (such as education and health sciences), faculty might want to include descriptions and rationale for alternate formats or create discussions related to accessibility issues. For disciplines that are preparing students to provide formal communication and/or to work with persons with disabilities (journalism, communication, marketing/management, and social work), students could be encouraged to create alternate format resources as part of a course assignment.

Additional Resources and Help

The ideas and resources listed above are intended to help you get ready for using Ally this semester. Faculty who have questions or would like assistance with Ally should contact the Center for Teaching and Learning at ctl@nmu.edu or 227-2483. If you would like assistance to design or deliver your course(s), please contact your CTL liaison, the Teaching and Learning Scholar, or the Extended Learning and Community Engagement Scholar. 

Upcoming CTL programs

Monday, January 11

• 1:00pm: Online Course Reserves with Leganto "Reading Lists"
• 3:00pm: Live Collaboration with Jamboard Virtual Whiteboard

Tuesday, January 12

• 12:00 noon: Lessons Learned from Teaching in the Modified On-Campus Classroom – a Panel Discussion

Wednesday, January 13

• 11:00am: Next Level Zooming for Interaction and Collaboration

Thursday, January 14

• 10:00am: Strategies for Building Online Exams Using the EduCat Quiz Tool
• 3:00pm: Administering Online Tests with Respondus Monitor

Friday, January 15

• 2:00pm: Holding Multimedia Discussions Using VoiceThread [Note: Includes new VT    assignment types]

Friday, February 5

• 1:00pm: Peer Observation Training

To review a program description and to register, check out the CTL’s educational calendar.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong, our faculty friends.

Best regards,

Lisa
TL Teaching- Learning Scholar

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).  The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor.  Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2).  For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Blackboard Ally. (n.d.). Blackboard Ally: Accessible content is better content. https://ally.ac/

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Vol. 2, Issue 17, November 16, 2020

This BYTE, the last for 2020, provides faculty resources to guide our transition from in-person courses to distance delivery through the remainder of the semester.

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) created the Basic Distance Delivery Toolkit, https://www.nmu.edu/ctl/emcoursekit, contains videos and supplementary information related to the following content areas:

Drill down within each link to discover additional resources.

Upcoming NMU Webinars

Working with the EduCat Gradebook

Tuesday, November 17 from 3 – 4:30 pm EST

Thursday, November 19 from 8 – 9:30 am EST

Description: The EduCat gradebook is a very flexible tool with a fair amount of complexity. In this session you will learn methods for setting up your gradebook to calculate final grades, as well as how to create grade categories and items, drop low scores, mark items as extra credit, set up letter grades, and export to a spreadsheet. Entering grades and feedback will also be demonstrated.

https://nmu.zoom.us/j/99920518480?pwd=b1FMR20xNDc2UGtST3hoNE5qZEx2Zz09

Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any support during our shift to distance delivery. 

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).  The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor.  Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2).  For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 16, November 6, 2020

2021-2023 ELCE Scholar

Extended Learning and Community Engagement
The Division of Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) is accepting applications from NMU faculty members to serve a two-year appointment as the ELCE Scholar with the goal of increasing faculty involvement in extended learning and supporting distance teaching excellence. Although it is similar, this is a separate appointment from the Teaching & Learning Scholar.

ELCE Scholar

Expectations:

The ELCE Scholar will work with the staff of the Division of Extended Learning and Community Engagement to design and implement systems that support student engagement and learning among distance education students. In addition, the ELCE Scholar will become familiar with the most recent changes, trends, and improvements in educating place-bound students, and sharing this information with the faculty at large.

The ELCE Scholar will also collaborate with the director and staff of the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) to provide leadership and services to support faculty with their online and other distance education teaching. The ELCE Scholar will develop and implement initiatives and resources consistent with the strategy of the ELCE division and the goals of the University, help maintain existing programs, disseminate information about distance teaching and learning-related resources on campus, and promote collaboration and partnerships among faculty interested in distance teaching excellence.

This half-time appointment (equivalent to 12 credits of reassigned time each academic year) will report to the Vice President for Extended Learning and Community Engagement and will work collaboratively with the Director of CTL. An additional stipend will be provided for work completed during the summer months. Travel funding in support of the work may also be available.

Qualifications and Experience Requirements:

This position requires an earned doctorate (ABD considered) or other appropriate terminal degree as determined by applicant’s home department. The applicant must have significant experience teaching online or in other distance formats (e.g., synchronous video).

The successful candidate will have an excellent record of distance education teaching and demonstrated ability to work collaboratively and communicate effectively. Faculty members who have completed at least one of NMU’s Online Teaching Fellow’s programs or its equivalent (e.g., Quality Matters training) are especially encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will also possess many of the following attributes: demonstrated scholarship in online/distance teaching and learning in higher education; commitment to evidence-based practice; experience in the use of technology to enhance distance learning in higher education; experience in course development and evaluation including outcomes assessment; an innovative spirit; and interest in exploring alternative teaching and learning formats, curricular structures, and pedagogy/andragogy.

Length of Appointment:

The ELCE Scholar will typically serve for a two-year term, beginning in May 2021 or earlier by agreement.

How to Apply:

Candidates must submit:

1. A cover letter describing their interest and qualifications for the position. (Limit 2 pages)
2. A statement proposing one or several initiatives related to distance teaching and learning that they might pursue through ELCE. This may be a new initiative or a proposed enhancement to an existing program. (Limit 2 pages)
3. A curriculum vitae.
4. A letter of support from the candidate’s department head that attests to their distance teaching ability and suitability for the position.

Interested faculty members should submit their applications electronically to the Division of Extended Learning and Community Engagement (mnannest@nmu.edu).

Timeline and Selection Committee:

The selection will be made as soon as possible, and the successful applicant will begin their duties in May 2021 or earlier by agreement. The selection will be made by the Vice President for Extended Learning and Community Engagement together with two members of the Extended Learning Advisory Work Group

Steven VandenAvond, Vice President for Extended Learning and Community Engagement (svanden@nmu.edu), can respond to questions about the position or the application process.

Sincerely, 

Steve VandenAvond

Vice President for Extended Learning and Community Engagement

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 15, October 30, 2020

With only a few weeks remaining of the semester, our ‘to do’ lists and those of our students are burgeoning. This week’s BYTE is an abridged investigation of student procrastination, the negative consequences of it, reasons why students may put off their work until the last minute, and suggestions to guide them to tackle their readings, studying, and assignments earlier rather than later.

Recurrent procrastination can result in academic underperformance, a reduction in self-confidence, and increased stress, anxiety, depression, and other health-related issues (Ackerman & Gross, 2016; Solomon & Rothblum, 1984). Accordingly, persistence and retention outcomes can be undermined. Over 75% of college students self-report to procrastinate (Steel, 2007; Tice & Baumeister, 1997). However, nearly all of these students aspire to produce on-time work.

Why Students Procrastinate

Below is a list of some of the reasons why students procrastinate.

• Distractions such as social media, friends, Netflix, extracurricular activities, sports, job, fill in the blank
• Underestimation of the time required to complete an assignment
• Underdeveloped study habits
• Confusion regarding the expectations of an assignment or how to even get started
• The perception that the learning activity is busy work and not important
• Emotional response to homework (perfectionism and pressure, stress, exhaustion, fear)

Turning Tomorrow into Today

To counteract academic procrastination habits and turn tomorrow into today:

• Encourage students to work ahead. Faculty suggestions can be highly influential.
• Segment an assignment; establish multiple milestones rather than one overarching due date.
• Clearly state in the syllabus how and when students can reach out with questions.
• Provide an exemplar project/assignment/paper so that students have a clear understanding of your expectations.
• Tie the learning activities to the learning objectives so that students know how and why they are important.
• Offer organizational tips such as the use of a planner and Google or EduCat calendar.
• Distribute a course schedule that identifies deliverables and due dates.
• Use clearly written grading rubrics for all learning activities.
• Send students friendly reminder emails using the EduCat Announcements feature.
• Keep EduCat tidy (Tidy Cat?) so that students can feel organized right from the start.

Please write to me at sboyerda@nmu.edu with additional ideas to help our students avoid unhealthy academic procrastination.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar
*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Ackerman, D. S., & Gross, B. L. (2016). My instructor made me do it: Task characteristics and procrastination. Journal of Marketing Education, 27(1), 5-13.

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Solomon, L. J., & Rothblum, E. D. (1984). Academic procrastination: Frequency and cognitive behavior correlates. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 35, 1167-1184.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychological Bulletin, 33, 65-94.

Tice, D. M., & Baumeister, R. F. (1997). Longitudinal study of procrastination, performance stress, and health. Psychological Science, 8, 454-458.

Vol. 2, Issue 14, October 23, 2020

Video conferencing applications, such as Zoom and Skype, have enabled faculty to continue our research, service, and in many cases, teaching responsibilities, online or otherwise, during the pandemic. Some of us are even using Zoom to stay in contact with family and friends because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. Yet, with more screen time and perhaps less physical exertion required by our work, how many of you feel more fatigued than ever? Of course, the stress of the pandemic, itself, may have something to do with this uncharacteristic exhaustion. Another elusive epidemic is concurrently infecting us along with the COVID-19 virus, a form of technological stress called “Zoom fatigue” (Miller, 2020). Zoom fatigue presents itself with symptoms of being tired, overly stressed, or feeling overwhelmed before, during, or after a videoconference meeting.

Causes of Zoom Fatigue

• The complexity of technology and the need for additional professional development to effectively use it
• Techno-glitches that arise with the use of technology
• Staying visually connected to a constantly moving screen and its participants, leading to eye strain and other conditions
• The need to have complete focus to read facial expressions and body language
• Having to concentrate on voices if attendees do not use their camera
• Trying to pay attention to a meeting while keeping family members or pets quiet or out of the camera’s view, a work-life invasion
• Having to be on top of your game throughout a meeting because you are visible to all attendees
• With the use of Zoom, more meetings can be conducted in a given workday as compared to the pre-COVID world since attendees can easily switch from one meeting to the next, which means that we may not leave our desks for extended periods of time.
• Our offices may not be ergonomic in their design.

How to Overcome Zoom Fatigue
Fosslien and Duffy (2020) provide several suggestions to overcome Zoom fatigue.

1. Close any other programs or tabs (like email) which are open to avoid trying to multitask while in a meeting. Multitasking can tap mental energy, decrease productivity, and increase stress.
2. Take mini breaks and rest your eyes. Look away from the screen for a few seconds or minimize the open windows.
3. Hide yourself from your own view on the screen as meeting participants tend to spend too much time watching themselves.
4. Encourage attendees to use a plain background to eliminate distractions from other people’s offices or rooms.
5. Try to incorporate a mix of meetings via conference call in lieu of another Zoom meeting.

Students and Zoom Fatigue
Students may also be subject to Zoom fatigue. With COVID-19 altering nearly every aspect of our lives, students may need as much support, if not more than faculty, to cope with virtual classroom stress. Mayo (2020) offers the following tips to assist students with Zoom fatigue:

• Provide a planned agenda for each class to help the students stay on track
• Use an image or slide to easily transition from one topic to the next
• Advise students to turn off other programs which may cause video to freeze, therefore leading to frustration and stress
• Students should be encouraged to read assignments and prepare any questions in advance of the Zoom meeting to ensure active participation
• Create activities such as group discussions so students are not merely listening to a lecture
• Encourage students to take notes or perform some other activity so they keep their minds engaged to promote learning new content and connecting it with other knowledge areas
• Give students quick stretch breaks allowing them to turn their cameras off for that short time and provide a specific amount of time for the break
• Discourage multitasking as this may cause stress from trying to focus on class and whatever else they are doing
• Stay focused on the students by turning off your camera’s self-view   

For questions regarding how to use the many features of Zoom and incorporate learning activities and/or assessments with this information and communication technologies (ICT) phenomenon, please PLEASE contact me at sboyerda@nmu.edu or reach out to the Center for Teaching and Learning, (906) 227-2483, ctl@nmu.edu. Many Zoom resources and how-to videos are available as part of the Modified On-Campus Teaching Toolkit.

https://www.nmu.edu/ctl/modified-campus-teaching-toolkit

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends. Let’s work together to minimize our Zoom fatigue and that of our students!

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar
*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Denworth, L. (2020). Why Zoom fatigue is real and what you can do about it. Psychology Today. Retrieved October 25, 2020 from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-waves/202007/why-zoom-fatigue-is-real-and-what-you-can-do-about-it

Fosslien, L. & Duffy, M. W. (2020). How to combat Zoom fatigue. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved October 25, 2020 from https://hbr.org/2020/04/how-to-combat-zoom-fatigue

Mayo, F. (2020). Help students combat Zoom fatigue. Mayo’s Clinic Center for the Advancement of Food Service Education. Retrieved October 25, 2020 from https://www.cafemeetingplace.com/mayo-s-clinics/item/2224-help-students-combat-zoom-fatigue

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 13, October 16, 2020

This week’s BYTE gives a shout out to the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council (TLAC), a major standing committee of the Academic Senate, and their excellent work to develop an online course design and delivery peer observation process for our faculty, now available!

The TLAC online course observation program was cultivated over the last three semesters by the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 committees, in tandem with the Teaching Scholar, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement Scholar, and an instructional design representative from the Center for Teaching and Learning. The TLAC online course observation process, consistent with the in-person course observation system already in place, provides faculty with formative feedback regarding their e-courses. The TLAC online course observation program was designed to align with the Global Campus online course design review process, Quality Matters, and best teaching practices. The TLAC observation process does not replace the Global Campus review and will keep in step with the scaffolding of the Global Campus review process as we continue to advance quality expectations over the next several years.

To request an online course observation by one of the TLAC committee members or its highly qualified peer observers, please click on the link below:

TLAC Observation Request Form

The Global Campus online course design review system continues its work. We are in the process of reviewing Fall 2020 syllabi copies now and providing summative (and formative) feedback. This Winter, we begin our work to advance quality standards and shift to reviewing archived online courses. We will advance to this important step by piloting several departments to start including SELPS, Clinical Lab Sciences, and Psychology.

For questions regarding how to request a TLAC peer observation or to clarify any of the steps or quality standards of the Global Campus Online Course Design Review process, PLEASE contact me at sboyerda@nmu.edu.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar
*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 12, October 9, 2020

This week’s BYTE is focused on writing measurable learning objectives, an integral part of high-quality course design.

What are Learning Objectives?
Learning objectives serve as the road map to the expected learning in a course. Faculty and students, alike, utilize this mapping system to chart the longitude and latitude of learning, so that students can ask “where am I?” and “where do I still have to go” in the learning process. Faculty, then, plot learning using these objectives as the guide by means of activities and then measure the distance remaining to learning with assessments. Once learning objectives are conceptualized, the critical work of writing of them begins. Planning learning before a course begins is the first step to writing learning objectives, which entails determining what students should know or be able to do at the conclusion of a course and each learning module (week, unit, etc.).

Writing Measurable Learning Objectives
These statements, penned in a concise manner, describe what learners should be able to comprehend or demonstrate at the end of the time period so as to exhibit competence or mastery of a given objective. Common miss-steps in writing learning objectives are usually found in the performance statement in measuring the learning outcome(s). Statement mistakes take the form of using incorrect verbs such as “appreciate”, “know”, “understand”, and “comprehend”. These verbs are not measurable. Careful consideration must be taken when selecting verbs to properly describe how students will display learning. Some replacement verbs are “describe” instead of “know”, “list” in place of “understand”, or “explain” rather than “appreciate.”

For example, objectives may state that students are to “describe” all the safety precautions necessary for battling COVID-19 in a hospital setting, “list” the ways in which hackers can penetrate a network security system, or “explain” how the criminal justice system helps to protect citizen’s rights. Learning objectives should be measurable and verbs such as “appreciate” do not have quantifiable outcomes. We, as faculty, cannot see or hear our students’ thoughts to ascertain if they really “know” or “appreciate.” One tool, which is an immensely helpful source to assist with choosing operational verbs, is Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956).

Available on the Global Campus website, Volume 1, Issue 18 of the BYTE (October 14, 2019) reviewed Bloom’s Taxonomy in detail: https://nmu.edu/online/online-byte-week

SAE International has provided a list of verbs for each level of the pyramid: https://www.sae.org/training/seminars/instructorzone/measurable_verbs_for_learning_objectives.pdf

Another scenario is the expectation of a nursing student to “know” how to respect a patient. “Knowing” how to respect a patient is not measurable. By converting this objective to “explain” why patients react positively to a nurse actively listening to their concerns, the outcome can, then, be properly measured and learning assessed. Students need to remember material to understand it. Then, by understanding the material, they can then apply (the measurable action) the knowledge, concept, etc.

Walker (2017) expands upon Bloom’s Taxonomy and offers four elements that should be considered when authoring learning objectives, which are:

1. Audience-Learner Focused Objectives: Learning objectives are stated clearly to allow learners to easily grasp their meaning.

2. Performance Statement (observable and meaningful behavior): This component must describe what the students will be able to do in order to prove they have met the intent of the objective.

3. Condition (how the performance is to be completed): Condition statements describe what conditions apply to the performance and include words such as “without”, “given”, and “with” (Walker, 2017). A condition statement in a written objective may be that nursing students must be able to calculate the correct dose of medication for a patient after completing a learning module. In order to satisfy the learning objective, students must perform the calculation using the “given” information, consisting of patient weight and age. Another example is that students will be able to create a financial statement with the “given” information (a trial balance), but “without” the use of notes and textbook.

4. Criteria (clarifying how well the students must perform the completed objective): How well can be measured by how long it takes the student(s) to perform the given learning objective, how quickly they can complete it, and/or how accurate the results of their learning performance is. For instance, a nursing student may be asked to measure the correct dose of medication for a patient and do so within one millimeter of accuracy.

For questions regarding how to write measurable learning objectives, one of the evaluative criteria of the Global Campus Online Course Design Review process, PLEASE contact me at sboyerda@nmu.edu.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. New York, NY: Longmans, Green.

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Walker, J. (2017). How to write effective learning objectives. Retrieved from https://www.skillbuilderlms.com/how-to-write-effective-learning-objectives/

Vol. 2, Issue 11, October 2, 2020

On behalf of the Global Campus, a very special thank you to all Northern Michigan University faculty who have taught, are teaching, or are considering teaching in the online learning space. Your dedication to high impact methods to online teaching and learning is sincerely appreciated. As a means of recognizing and celebrating the imaginative approaches, course design and delivery quality, learner satisfaction, and effective online learning outcomes in online learning, this week, the BYTE is seeking nominations for the annual Excellence in Online Teaching Award.

This award recognizes an outstanding individual who has creatively utilized appropriate Internet-based technologies to teach online and/or blended courses in higher education. The recipient must have designed and taught one or more online or blended courses with an imaginative approach, well-designed course materials and instructional strategies, and a demonstrated rapport with the course participants. The recipient must also document effectiveness in achieving desired learning outcomes in the online and/or blended course(s).

Please see the link below for more information including who can nominate or be nominated, the required award documentation, the deadline to nominate, and the selection committee. Recipients of the NMU Excellence in Online Teaching Award will receive a commemorative award and a check for $1,000.

https://nmu.edu/online/excellence-online-teaching-award

Next week, the BYTE will emphasize stress management for online students.

For questions regarding the Excellence in Online Teaching Award, the tech tips published in earlier issues, or to highlight the ingenious pedagogic methods employed this term or in others, PLEASE write to me so that I can share them in upcoming publications of the BYTE, sboyerda@nmu.edu.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 10 & Teaching Tip #14- Sept. 25, 2020

The Teaching BYTE: The Modified On-Campus Course

Since the pandemic will not be over soon and winter semester may look much like it does today, this is our teaching and learning reality.  How can faculty adapt their modified on-campus courses to better meet students’ needs? How can we help students to be successful in modified on-campus courses? The Teaching and Learning Scholar, Dr. Lisa Flood, and the Extended Learning and Community Engagement Scholar, Dr. Stacy Boyer Davis, are collaborating this week to combine a Teaching Tip with an Online BYTE to offer some suggestions to address these concerns. This Teaching BYTE offers the best practices for teaching modified on-campus (or off) courses due to the COVID-19 physical distancing precautions. The pedagogy we provide can be applied now to in-person, modified, or online classes and beyond our current health crisis. We hope that you will find some useful information in our collaborative effort.

As you are aware, due to social distancing requirements, many face-to-face (F2F) courses are not able to have all students meet physically during class periods. In these modified on-campus courses, faculty are using various delivery options, each with strengths and/or unique challenges.

Teaching Dual Audiences Simultaneously (In-Person and via Zoom)

Some faculty are using videoconferencing via Zoom to deliver synchronous content with their remote learners while other students attend in-person on their assigned class days.  Using this method, everyone attends the same class meeting day and time schedule. There is little difference in class preparation with this modified teaching approach as this model is similar to traditional pre-COVID courses. However, faculty are finding it challenging to simultaneously manage their classroom and remote students (Zoomers). Although the in-class students can hear remote students, the Zoomers cannot hear any F2F students’ questions, answers, or participate in their live discussions. In order to convey these in-classroom conversations, the faculty member needs to repeat or paraphrase what was said for the Zoomers. Faculty who use wall-mounted whiteboards or chalkboards are finding the laptop webcam limiting. Finally, it is a challenge to make connections between these two groups of students who may never meet physically.

Hybrid Course Delivery Using a Flipped Classroom Teaching Technique

Some faculty are using another course model called the flipped class. In this model, faculty record lectures or assign primary content (readings, videos, websites), to be completed outside of class before their required in-class attendance. During class, students are engaged in active learning activities such as case studies, problem solving, role playing, or other activities designed to apply the content in relevant ways. The instructor repeats the same in-class activities with students on their assigned class days. Strengths of this model include: 1) students can view/review the lecture as many times as needed, 2) precious in-class time is used to explain difficult concepts and complete application activities, and 3) faculty can focus solely on the F2F students and do not have to manage the remote students and related technology. However, the faculty need to spend additional time recording lectures, creating the out of class assignments, and designing in-class activities that might need to be revised because of physical distancing requirements. For example, students cannot work side by side in small groups, share physical manipulatives, or use wall-mounted white boards. If faculty are requiring pre-class quizzes or other assignments, the due dates may vary for different groups of students.

Hybrid Course Delivery Using a Modified Flipped Classroom Teaching Technique

The third popular delivery model is the partial flipped course. In this model, the faculty pre-record some lectures reserving class time for more critical concepts or difficult content. The same in-class lectures are delivered F2F but on separate days to each group of students while both groups watch or complete the same online assignments. Similar to the hybrid flipped model, the modified flipped model also requires additional faculty preparation time to record or create the online assignments and manage different due dates. 

Regardless of which deliver model or combination of models you are using, faculty are likely being challenged this semester. Because students may need to isolate and/or quarantine, faculty might elect to use Zoom for each in-class session. Faculty may also need to isolate or quarantine at any time, which further adds to the stress. Students are reporting being confused with the different course delivery methods and are finding it difficult to pay attention while on Zoom. They are also struggling to keep track of assignments and are stressed out in general due to the pandemic and national events.

Regarding specific teaching challenges, we have compiled a list below of suggestions and resources to assist faculty to address instruction in modified on-campus courses.

Modified On-Campus Teaching Toolkit

A smorgasbord of helpful resources and videos, A-Z, nuts to bolts, modified on-campus teaching including EduCat tools, creating and grading quizzes, VoiceThread, Respondus Monitor, using Zoom, etc. https://www.nmu.edu/ctl/modified-campus-teaching-toolkit

Managing F2F (classroom) and Remote (Zoom) Students

Provide a recorded overview of your course including a ‘guided tour’ of EduCat resources and assignments.  See examples of course overviews and best teaching practices in the Faculty EduCat Showcase. https://educat.nmu.edu/moodle2/course/view.php?id=11927.

You will need to enroll by entering the code: nmufaculty

Pre-Recording Lectures

CTL’s Resource Library: Camtasia, VoiceThread, and Wildcast Podcasting

https://www.nmu.edu/ctl/ctl-resource-library

Using Zoom

• FAQ’s: https://www.nmu.edu/audiovisual/faq
• Visit the CTL’s Resource Library: Open Zoom Video-conferencing tab which has many resources such as creating an account, setting up a Zoom meeting in EduCat, securing your meeting, recording a session, and managing class sessions
  https://www.nmu.edu/ctl/ctl-resource-library
• Identify a Remote Student Facilitator: Each class, ask a different student to serve as the Zoom moderator to confirm audio, report on document sharing, and monitor the chat questions.  In addition, encourage that student to remind you if you forget to ‘relay’ in-class discussion to the remote group.

Replacing Wall-Mounted Whiteboards and Blackboards

• Document Cameras: https://www.nmu.edu/classrooms/technology-guides
• White Boards in Zoom, Google Jam Board, EduCat Wiki pages. https://www.nmu.edu/ctl/sites/Drupalctl/files/UserFiles/Documentation/Instructional_Technology/NMU_EduCat/Wiki.pdf
• Studio 102: A lightboard is a glass board that is internally lit and recorded through which allows instructors to write or draw on it while making ‘eye contact’ with their audience.  Watch videos of faculty ‘teaching’ with the lightboard. https://www.nmu.edu/ctl/studio-102

Classroom Equipment Issues

In-room problems, call for AV assistance for real time help: (906) 227-2290.

Schedule 1:1 consultation in your classroom or with AV staff

https://www.nmu.edu/classrooms/request-equipment-and-assistance

Best Virtual Classroom Practices

https://www.nmu.edu/classrooms/sites/DrupalClassrooms/files/UserFiles/Files/PDF/virtclassroompractices.pdf

Connecting Classroom and Remote Students

• EduCat Discussion Forums: create a forum for Q & A before an exam or one to address key concepts covered in pre-class assignments (recorded lectures or readings).
• Zoom Polling: great for formative assessments and to gauge your group’s feelings especially about sensitive topics.
• Virtual Break-Out Rooms: Have F2F and remote groups join to work collaboratively.
• Individual Attention: Call on each student by name during synchronous sessions; don’t forget to include the Zoom group.
• Personal Feedback: consider providing students with audio and/or video comments to make a more personal connection (Glazier, 2020).

Interactive Learning Activities

• Think Break: ask students to reflect on a question and after a period of time, have them weigh in together via Zoom breakout rooms and then report to the class.
• Empty Outlines: if using a flipped classroom, supply students with an empty outline and ask them to fill it out after watching the assigned out of class video or completing readings.
• Tournament: divide the class into several groups and announce a competition for the most points earned on a practice test.  Points should carry from round to round over a given learning module.  Consider aligning in-person students with Zoom students to bring the class together.
• Brain Drain: divide students into groups of 5 or 6.  Provide a prompt to brainstorm.  Each person is to brainstorm at least one answer.  Have students rotate the brainstorm to another group.  This activity can be administered using Zoom breakout rooms and Google docs.
• TV Commercial: In groups, students create a minute long TV commercial for the subject currently under discussion and ask them to act it out in class.  Zoom, VoiceThread, Camtasia – all the tech tools can be used to accomplish this activity whether in-person, online, or hybrid.
• Press Conference: Enable students with the opportunity to role-play as the media to ask questions of the professor, expert on the topic. 

Additional Resources and Help

The ideas and tools listed above are intended to get you started on building and delivering a modified on-campus course, but this information is not comprehensive. If you would like assistance to help design or deliver your course this semester, please contact your CTL Liaison, the Teaching and Learning Scholar, or the Extended Learning and Community Engagement Scholar to discuss possibilities.   

Faculty who have questions about or would like assistance with the tools mentioned on this page should contact the Center for Teaching and Learning at ctl@nmu.edu or 227-2483.

For questions on any of these tech tips or to highlight the ingenious methods that you employed this semester for modified, hybrid, blended, flex, etc., PLEASE write to Stacy (sboyerda@nmu.edu) and Lisa (lflood@nmu.edu).  If something did NOT work and was a complete failure in the modified learning environment, please share! We can all benefit from discussing our successes and missteps. The next Online BYTE of the Week will showcase what has worked and what hasn’t in our modified teaching approach.  The next Teaching Tip will highlight strategies for helping students to succeed in your modified on-campus course. Your contributions are needed to write both upcoming newsletters. Thank-you!

Stay healthy, safe, and strong, faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

Lisa
CTL Teaching- Learning Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).  The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor.  Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2).  For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Crook, A. E., & Crook, T. W. (2020, August 26). 6 tips for teaching online and in person simultaneously. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/08/26/strategies-teaching-online-and-person-simultaneously-opinion

Glazier, R. A. (2020, July 6). A shift to online classes this fall could lead to a retention crisis. EdSurg. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-07-06-a-shift-to-online-classes-this-fall-could-lead-to-a-retention-crisis

Schwartz, S. (2020, August 5). How to make lessons cohesive when teaching both remote and in-person classes. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/08/06/how-to-make-lessons-cohesive-when-teaching.html

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

VanGundy, A. (2005). 101 activities for teaching creativity and problem solving. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Watkins, R. (2005). 75 e-learning activities: Making online learning interactive.  San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Vol. 2, Issue 9, September 11, 2020

Last week, the BYTE took a pause to honor and celebrate the historic sacrifice of American workers who struggled and suffered in intolerable conditions, toiling at least 12 hours per day for low pay without breaks, paid sick days, vacation days, or health care, before the formation and organization of labor unions. Through the bloody Haymarket Square affair and Pullman Strike demonstrations in 1886 and 1894, respectively, these industrial revolutionary heroes made possible the labor rights that we value and benefit from today. To the ongoing work of the labor unions on campus and off who continue this legacy, thank you for your endeavors.

Today marks the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Now known as Patriot Day, we remember the nearly 3,000 innocent victims of terrorism and commemorate their lives. We pay tribute to the bravery of first responders. To honor them, consider performing an act of kindness, philanthropy, or community service.

As fans of the BYTE club, (we should have t-shirts made), our readership recently wrapped up a four-part series on trauma-induced teaching strategies. During this month-long study, we embarked on the fall 2020 term, one of the most challenging but inspiring semesters of our professoriate careers. With the safety and security of our students and the entire academic community and society as a whole in mind, we completely transformed how we teach, where we teach, and even when we teach, no small feat to say the least. We should be extraordinarily proud of our continued accomplishments, faculty. Job well done.

While the faculty may already have a seating chart and attendance mechanism in place for contact tracing purposes this term, the BYTE offers a few tech apps to automate this process and provide some time saving techniques. These tools have in-person class implications yet they can be used with modification in online asynchronous or synchronous learning environments.

EduCat:

There are a couple of ways to take attendance in EduCat. The first is to add an ‘Attendance Activity.’ The steps are as follows:

1. Turn editing on.
2. Select ‘Add an activity or resource.’
3. Select ‘Attendance.’

As many attendance sessions as needed for the semester can be added to a given course. To set the attendance options, click on the Attendance activity and select “Add session” as seen below.

Faculty can opt for students to record their own attendance. This is a choice when adding a session.

The next step is to add attendance categories and grading options. Again, from the Attendance activity, select “Status set.” Attendance descriptions and even grading points can be added to the activity. Default settings are “present,” “late,” “excused,” and “absent.”

To take attendance using the Attendance feature of EduCat, click on the arrow button pointing to the right beneath the Actions menu, below. All students in the EduCat class will populate. Faculty can select from the menu whether each student was present, late, excused, or absent.

If students are permitted to self-report their attendance, another option is to use a QR code containing a URL that students can scan with a mobile device, which directs them to the attendance page to record their attendance. Please see below for instructions to set up a QR code.

Reports can be generated for each attendance session by selecting the attendance activity, clicking on the Export tab, changing the Export settings if needed along with the formatting options.

Faculty may opt out of the EduCat Attendance feature and instead use the system’s activity logs to identify when students have accessed the system to complete an activity, for example, as a mechanism to track attendance.

Be Seated:

A free app that lets faculty create a classroom roster with names, photos, and seating assignments. The app even enables randomly assigned seating. We can track attendance and more.

Smart Seat:
A $4.99 app purchase, seating charts can be created using a grid, attendance can be recorded and exported. Attendance records can also be exported to email.

All Here:
A $0.99 app purchase, similar to Smart Seat including memory games to help faculty remember their students during the first few weeks of classes.

Teacher Aide:

Designed by a teacher, this app is more than an attendance and seating chart solution. Faculty can utilize its gradebook feature and sync it with Google classrooms.

One-Tap:
An app used by organizations, universities, and sports teams including the Toronto Maple Leafs for event attendance. This app provides several options for attendance tracking including a check in web link for students to sign in using their mobile devices, a QR pass that can be distributed via text message and scanned by students, and other traditional attendance tracking methods.

Google Classrooms:

Faculty could utilize a Google doc for attendance purposes, or, if incorporating a Google classroom, set an attendance assignment poll question.

Zoom Poll or Attendance Report:

Consider creating a Zoom poll or download the Zoom attendance report for documentation purposes.

For questions on any of these tech tips or to highlight the ingenious methods that you employed this term for seating charts and attendance, PLEASE write to me so that I can share them in the next issue of the BYTE, sboyerda@nmu.edu.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 8, August 28, 2020

This week is our final BYTE of the 4-part series related to trauma informed teaching practices. Part 4 is a review of the literature and high impact methods to avoid second-hand trauma stress exposure when working with those who are trauma-affected, learners or otherwise.  The learning objectives for these professional development pieces include:

1. Volume 2, Issue 5: Define trauma, describe its pervasiveness, and explain the effects on learning and development.
2. Volume 2, Issue 6: Recognize signs of trauma in our students.
3. Volume 2, Issue 7: Apply teaching practices to work effectively with those experiencing trauma.
4. Volume 2, Issue 8: Develop competencies to avoid secondary traumatic stress when working with trauma-affected learners. 

A word of caution and a disclaimer that this newsletter will contain disturbing content and may be very difficult for some to read, prompting feelings of stress, anxiety, and re-traumatization. 

Methods to Avoid Secondary Traumatic Stress

The faculty at Northern Michigan University are some of the most dedicated and selfless educators in higher learning today.  Our faculty fully and completely commit to placing our students and teaching responsibilities first, well before our other professional and personal responsibilities.  As caring and compassionate faculty, engaging with our students is the norm.  Because we openly exhibit empathy and kindness, students will trust us for guidance in areas beyond academics.  Through these interactions, students may open up and reveal their traumas. 

Many of us have not received formal training to distinguish the signs of trauma or to know how our students’ pain and suffering may affect us.  Without the appropriate professional development to learn how to maintain emotional boundaries, we may find ourselves predisposed to secondary trauma stress (Devilly, Wright, & Varker, 2009; Rodenbush, 2015).  Secondary trauma stress is a work-related hazard in higher education.  Signals of secondary trauma stress, also known as vicarious trauma or compassion fatigue, include (Hensel, Ruiz, Finney, & Dewa, 2015):

• Anxiety
• Sleep problems
• Anger
• Irritation
• Moodiness
• Constant worry
• Loss of appetite
• Increased appetite
• Diminished feelings of satisfaction
• Feelings of hopelessness
• Suspicion and blaming others
• Thinking about trauma

Strategies to Moderate Secondary Trauma Stress

Faculty should know that vicarious trauma is not a personality flaw or weakness but a consequence of caring.  We must protect ourselves from assuming our students’ pain as our own so that we can continue to support our students.  Self-care activities are recommended to moderate secondary trauma stress including mindfulness activities, reflection, meditation, exercise, rest, journaling and a balanced diet (Lee, Gottfried, & Bride, 2017).  Other strategies to maintain a healthy emotional balance when working with traumatized students consist of making time for family, fun, or leisure pursuits and laughing (Shannon et al., 2014).  In addition, we should seek professional counseling if they feel they need to talk about their feelings or stress indicators are persistent or worsen.

Dr. Christy Hartline explains, “setting boundaries does not mean that we no longer care about what is going on, but rather, it is being respectful of our own needs in addition to the students' needs.”  She offers an Inside Higher Ed article that reinforces her professional advice.

https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2015/11/04/setting-boundaries-when-it-comes-students-emotional-disclosures-essay 

About NMU Counseling and Consultation Services
Northern Michigan University Counseling and Consultation Services is located upstairs in the C. B. Hedgcock Building in room 3405. They offer counseling and psychological services that facilitate students' personal development to participate more successfully in the NMU living and learning community.

Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the academic year. Summer hours are in accordance with University schedule. All currently enrolled students are eligible for free and confidential Counseling and Consultation Services. 

Due to COVID-19, all Counseling and Consultations Services will be provided through Telehealth. Please call (906) 227-2980 to schedule an appointment. 

Professional psychologists and counselors provide focused individual counseling, group counseling, and psycho-educational presentations. In addition, emotional crisis appointments are available daily for students who feel an urgent need for support.

The professional staff are objective, non-judgmental guides to assist students in overcoming both long-standing and immediate problems. They strive to help students develop new skills and perspectives to enrich their lives.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

DeVilly, G. J., Wright, R., & Varker, T. (2009). Vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress or simply burnout? Effect of trauma therapy on mental health professionals. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 43(4), 373-385.

Hensel, J. M., Ruiz, C., Finney, C., & Dewa, C. S. (2015). Meta-analysis of risk factors for secondary trauma stress in therapeutic work with trauma victims: Secondary traumatic stress risk factors. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 28(2), 83-91.

Lee, J. J., Gottfried, R., & Bride, B. E. (2017). Exposure to client trauma, secondary traumatic stress, and the health of clinical social workers: A mediation analysis. Client Social Work Journal, 46(3), 228-235.

Rodenbush, K. (2015). The effects of trauma on behavior in the classroom.  Journal of Traumatic Stress, 26(3), 299-309.

Shannon, P. J., Simmelink-McCleary, J., Im, H. Becher, E., & Crook-Lyon, R. E. (2014). Developing self-care practices in trauma treatment course. Journal of Social Work Education, 50(3), 440-453.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 7, August 21, 2020

This week, the BYTE resumes the four-part study related to trauma informed teaching practices. Part 3 offers the faculty trauma-informed teaching classroom strategies supported by the literature.

The learning objectives for these professional development pieces include:

1. Volume 2, Issue 5: Define trauma, describe its pervasiveness, and explain the effects on learning and development.

2. Volume 2, Issue 6: Recognize signs of trauma in our students.

3. Volume 2, Issue 7: Apply teaching practices to work effectively with those experiencing trauma.

4. Volume 2, Issue 8: Develop competencies to avoid secondary traumatic stress when working with trauma-affected learners.

A word of caution and a disclaimer as the next several weeks will contain disturbing content and may be very difficult for some to read, prompting feelings of stress, anxiety, and re-traumatization.

Trauma-Informed Teaching Practices

Disclaimers
The research conducted by Perkins and Graham-Bermann (2012) prompts faculty to consider that students carry their lived experiences with them into our classrooms including those that were or are traumatic. One approach to avoid triggering a traumatic response when subjecting students to sensitive content is to give advanced notice, as I did in the former paragraph. This simple statement, either verbal or written, is a thoughtful way that we can help our students to prepare themselves for upsetting subject matter.

Classroom Structure
Another consideration, not only for interactions with students subjected to trauma but a general instructional best practice, is to provide clear expectations, regular communication, consistency, and a well-designed class structure. Uncertainty can heighten emotional stressors, insecurity, and prompt re-traumatization. Trauma-informed faculty should also consider empowering their students with some form of agency, perhaps with the opportunity to choose between assessments or class participation methods, as is the foundation of universal design for learning concepts, the subject of a future BYTE (Tobin & Behling, 2018). Students who feel more in control of their learning environment are less likely to engage in undesirable behaviors (Carello & Butler, 2014).

Fostering a Positive and Interactive Learning Environment
Learner-learner and learner-instructor interaction opportunities in the classroom take on an entirely new meaning for the traumatized. These types of interfaces can foster relationships, create new outlets for support, and enable students with a safe space to practice social-emotional skills if they feel comfortable doing so. Trauma-aware faculty are caring, compassionate, and mindful; they create a positive learning environment, which sends the message that they are empathetic, helpful to their students, and will assure their well-being in the classroom (Schaefer & Nooner, 2017; Tough, 2016). This encouragement is critical to building trust with traumatized students. As we know from the last several issues of the BYTE, those who are exposed to a painful event take longer to trust others.

Emphasizing Resources
Consider a reference to Counseling Services in course syllabi and web links to resources in the online classroom (Smyth, Hockemeyer, Heron, Wonderlich, & Pennebaker, 2008). Perhaps, as part of the first day of activities, a syllabus quiz could include a few questions about Counseling Services or faculty could, as part of their introductory videos, record a segment related to them. Emphasize that counseling is available to all NMU students, including those who attend remotely.

About NMU Counseling and Consultation Services
Northern Michigan University Counseling and Consultation Services is located upstairs in the C. B. Hedgcock Building in room 3405. They offer counseling and psychological services that facilitate students' personal development to participate more successfully in the NMU living and learning community.

Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the academic year. Summer hours are in accordance with University schedule. All currently enrolled students are eligible for free and confidential Counseling and Consultation Services. 

Due to COVID-19, all Counseling and Consultations Services will be provided through Telehealth. Please call (906) 227-2980 to schedule an appointment. 

Professional psychologists and counselors provide focused individual counseling, group counseling, and psycho-educational presentations. In addition, emotional crisis appointments are available daily for students who feel an urgent need for support.

The professional staff are objective, non-judgmental guides to assist students in overcoming both long-standing and immediate problems. They strive to help students develop new skills and perspectives to enrich their lives.

Some of the common issues that students bring to counseling are depressed and anxious feelings, family difficulties, personal crises, coping with loss, and other impediments to personal and academic functioning. They also aid with self-esteem, self-acceptance, identity and sexuality difficulties, as well as healing from the effects of sexual assault/abuse, suicidal thoughts and other destabilizing experiences.

Staff provides consultation to a variety of NMU personnel and departments. They offer guidance to students, staff and faculty to recognize and cope with signs of distress in others.

Dial HELP crisis hotline is available 24/7 for free, confidential, non-judgmental crisis intervention and referral services:

CALL: (906) 482-4357

TEXT: (906) 356-3337

CHAT: dialhelp.org

All students, faculty, and staff have access to TAO (Therapy Assistance Online). It is another great self-help resource, “an engaging, interactive program to learn life skills and to help bounce back from disappointments or stumbling blocks in life.” TAO includes educational modules, assessments, practice tools and logs, and a mindfulness library.

Next week, we will finalize our trauma-informed teaching practices study with a piece that helps us as faculty to prevent our acquisition of secondary trauma stress when working with trauma-affected learners.

A very special thank you to Dr. Christine Hartline; her significant knowledge and expertise in this space has been utilized to guide this professional development series regarding trauma.

Faculty are encouraged to contribute to the ONLINE BYTE OF THE WEEK. Please email Stacy at sboyerda@nmu.edu with your ideas.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Carello, J., & Butler, J. D. (2014). Potentially perilous pedagogies: Teaching trauma is not the same as trauma-informed teaching. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 15(2), 153-168.

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Perkins, S., & Graham-Bermann, S. (2012). Violence exposure and the development of school-related functioning: Mental health, neurocognition, and learning. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17(1), 89-98.

Schaefer, L. M., & Nooner, K. B. (2017). Brain function associated with co-occurring trauma and depression symptoms in college students. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 26(2), 175-190.

Smyth, J. M., Hockemeyer, J. R., Heron, K. E., Wonderlich, S. A., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2008). Prevalence, type, disclosure, and severity of adverse life events in college students. Journal of American College Health, 57(1), 69-76.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Tobin, T. J., & Behling, K. T. (2018). Reach everyone, teach everyone: Universal design for learning in higher education. Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press.

Tough, P. (2016). Helping children succeed: What works and why. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Vol. 2, Issue 6, August 14, 2020

On Monday, August 17, 2020, the Fall 2020 semester begins. Our Wildcats will finally return to the classroom to continue their scholarly journeys, online and otherwise, after an unparalleled five-month in-person hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While energy and excitement on campus are high, feelings of nervousness, stress, and anxiety related to the health care crisis currently at hand understandably eclipse the enthusiasm for many of our students and faculty. This week, the BYTE continues the four part series related to trauma informed teaching practices. Part 2 provides insight into what some of the signs of trauma are and how our students exhibit them in the academic environment.

The learning objectives for these professional development pieces include:

1. Volume 2, Issue 5: Define trauma, describe its pervasiveness, and explain the effects on learning and development.
2. Volume 2, Issue 6: Recognize signs of trauma in our students.
3. Volume 2, Issue 7: Apply teaching practices to work effectively with those experiencing trauma.
4. Volume 2, Issue 8: Develop competencies to avoid secondary traumatic stress when working with trauma-affected learners.

A word of caution and a disclaimer as the next several weeks will contain disturbing content and may be very difficult for some to read, prompting feelings of stress, anxiety, and re-traumatization.

Signs of Trauma

Before we begin a review of the signs of trauma observed in the classroom, please know that the intention of this newsletter is not to suggest that faculty should diagnose their students or attempt to treat their symptoms. To the contrary, the research presented here should serve as a guide to enhance faculty awareness with respect to the warning signs of student trauma.

Students who have suffered a trauma are often distracted as they are physically and emotionally drained, consumed from the stress of it. Victims of trauma often find themselves habitually scrutinizing their environments for dangers in order to prevent additional occurrences. These students are in a persistent state of trepidation, which inhibits their ability to focus and tap into the magic of intellectual curiosity and exploration of higher learning (Bonanno, Pat-Horenczyk, & Noll, 2011). They tend to miss class, can be withdrawn, isolated, or angry, and display more anxiety about public speaking, assessments, and deadlines.

NMU Counseling Services offers several other signals of psychological distress including:

• Withdrawing from social interactions
• Increase in use of substances
• Increased tendency to get into arguments with others
• Indiscriminate sexual involvement with multiple partners
• Increase in other risk-taking behaviors
• Lethargic mood
• Falling GPA
• Any self-destructive behaviors
• Becoming very pessimistic or hopeless in topics of conversation
• Preoccupation with, or references to, death (suicide or homicide)
• Weight loss or gain or changes in sleep patterns (up all hours of the day or night, or excessive sleeping)
• Unusual or bizarre responses like talking off the subject or rambling

Campus Resources

What should we do if our students display any of these signs of trauma? Counseling Services suggests the following appropriate actions to take with distressed students:

• Check it out. Ask the student how they are: "I'm worried about you." "I'm wondering what's going on that might be upsetting you."
• Reinforce the person for confiding in you and maintain a nonjudgmental and accepting manner.
• Acknowledge and empathize with the student's pain, and give the student time to express themself.
• When the problem requires more than general support and encouragement, indicate in a gentle but direct manner that professional assistance is a positive step.
• Any type of message about suicide should be taken seriously. If you believe a student is in imminent danger of harming themself, immediately contact NMU Police Department at 911.
• If you are hearing statements or hints about suicide from a student, keep in mind that professionals assess suicide potential, in part, by asking if the person has a plan for suicide. They ask exactly how it will happen and when they intend to carry out the plan. They also ask if the person has ever attempted suicide in the past. The more specific and lethal the plan, the more recent a previous attempt, and the greater the ability to carry out the plan, the higher the risk for an actual suicide. Emergency services may be needed (NMU Police Department or 911).
• It is appropriate for any campus professional to ask these questions. Many students think about suicide as a way to resolve overwhelming problems. They may just need a chance to talk about the feelings, and some hope that the problems can be solved.

Remember, sometimes students choose not to get the help they need and subsequently do not follow through with getting services. This is a very difficult situation, but it does happen. Since students are adults, we cannot compel them to do things, even when it is glaringly apparent they need it.

Note: When referring students for counseling, if the student has ingested any dangerous substance, or if the student is impaired due to a substance, refer them to community hospital resources at (906) 228-9440 or NMU Police Department at (906) 227-2151. When an on-campus student seems to be at risk for self-destructive behavior patterns, you can also inform Housing and Residence Life so they can address the problem in the residence hall.

Talk with the student in private, if possible. Inform the student about the confidential, free counseling services. Have the phone number ready: (906) 227-2980.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, counseling and consultation services are provided through telehealth. This service is available to ALL currently enrolled NMU students, including Global Campus students.  

Possible statement: "It sounds as though you have been under stress, aren't doing very well, and need to talk with someone about this. I would suggest you set up an appointment at Counseling and Consultation Services. I could call and help you make arrangements right now. What do you think about that?"

Counseling and Consultation Services provides consultation for any staff member who needs assistance with:

• Assessing the seriousness of a situation
• Clarifying your own concerns and feelings about the situation
• Choosing an effective approach for interacting with the student
• Identifying the best way to facilitate the student's use of counseling services

Dial HELP crisis hotline is available 24/7 for free, confidential, non-judgmental crisis intervention and referral services:

CALL: (906) 482-4357

TEXT: (906) 356-3337

CHAT: dialhelp.org

All students, faculty, and staff have access to TAO (Therapy Assistance Online). It is another great self-help resource, “an engaging, interactive program to learn life skills and to help bounce back from disappointments or stumbling blocks in life.” TAO includes educational modules, assessments, practice tools and logs, and a mindfulness library.

Next week, we will apply teaching practices to work effectively with those experiencing trauma.

A very special thank you to Dr. Christine Hartline; her significant knowledge and expertise in this space has been utilized to guide this professional development series regarding trauma.

Faculty are encouraged to contribute to the ONLINE BYTE OF THE WEEK. Please email Stacy at sboyerda@nmu.edu with your ideas.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Bonanno, G. A., Pat-Horenczyk, R., & Noll, J. (2011). Coping flexibility and trauma: The perceived ability to cope with trauma (PACT) scale. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 3(2), 117-129.

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Hoch, A., Stewart, D., Webb, K., & Wyandt-Hiebert, M. A. (2015, May). Trauma-informed care on a college campus. Presentation at the annual meeting of the American College Health Association, Orlando, FL.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 5, August 7, 2020

Beginning this week and throughout the Fall 2020 term, the BYTE will be served sunny-side up each and every Friday.

As we brace ourselves for the return to campus and the unknown impact that the global pandemic may have upon our students, faculty, staff, and the wider community, we begin a four-part series related to trauma-informed teaching practices. The learning objectives for these professional development pieces include: 1) define trauma, describe its pervasiveness, and explain the effects on learning and development, 2) recognize signs of trauma in our students, 3) apply teaching practices to work effectively with those experiencing trauma, and 4) develop competencies to avoid secondary traumatic stress when working with trauma-affected learners. Therefore, a word of caution and a disclaimer as the next several weeks will contain disturbing content and may be very difficult for some to read, prompting feelings of stress, anxiety, and retraumatization.

A Definition of Trauma
Worldwide, the pandemic has yielded a significant amount of trauma, fear, distress, anxiety, and depression. Every aspect of work and life has changed. Nearly 5 million COVID-19 cases have been diagnosed in our country and approximately 160,000 lives have been lost. Extensive racial disparities have been exposed throughout the outbreak. Twice as many black Americans have died as compared to whites. In eight states, Hispanics and Latinos have confirmed cases four times greater than the population (Godoy & Wood, 2020). Many poor workers were not able to shelter at home and for those that did, millions are temporarily or permanently unemployed, causing housing and food insecurities and economic upheaval for small businesses (Zaki, 2020).

In the literature, trauma has been defined as an inability to cope with an overwhelming experience (Hoch, Stewart, Webb, & Wyandt-Hiebert, 2015). Some of these traumas are isolated while others could be ongoing. Trauma-inducing events include abuse, abandonment, violence, bullying, military combat, acts of terrorism, serious accidents, death or loss of a loved one, life-threatening illness, and health epidemics or pandemics.

Trauma in Society
By the time high school students attend college, 66-85% have been exposed to at least one trauma (Smyth, Hockemeyer, Heron, Wonderlich, & Pennebaker, 2008). Up to 50% of college students are exposed to trauma during their first year of college (Galatzer-Levy, Burton, & Bonnano, 2012). According to a 2013 study, 4 out of every 10 children in the United States experienced a physical assault within the last year with 1 out of every 10 suffering an injury from the assault (Finkelhor, Turner, Shattuck, & Hamby, 2013). In the United States, 26% of children have witnessed or endured a traumatic event by the age of 4 (National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention, 2012). According to Finkelhor et al. (2013), 2% of all children have experienced a sexual assault or abuse, with the rate increasing to nearly 11% for girls aged 14-17 years old.

The Consequences of Trauma on Learning
Trauma in childhood can adversely influence cognitive development. Those exposed to childhood trauma are more likely to have behavioral issues, be absent from class or work, and repeat grades (Shonk & Cicchetti, 2001). Moreover, students who have experienced trauma may acquire a distrust of adult authority figures, including teachers. These misgivings stem from feelings that adults in the past have neglected to keep them safe and shield them from the historic traumas they have experienced. These students may distinguish rules and consequences as punishments or mistreatments, increasing the potential for retraumatization (Streeck-Fischer & van der Kolk, 2000). Another point to make is that traumatized students may be more suspicious of others; they may not be able to cultivate relationships with others as easily as those who have not had these traumatic experiences (Margolin & Gordis, 2000).

Here are several additional statistics with respect to the effects of childhood trauma into adulthood (Davidson, 2019):

• 15x more likely to attempt suicide
• 2.5x more likely to smoke
• 4x more likely to become an alcoholic
• 3x more likely to be absent from work and have problems at the workplace
• 4x more likely to develop a sexually transmitted disease
• 2x more likely to have a serious financial problem

Next week, we will walk through how to recognize signs of trauma in our students or others, for that matter.

Faculty are encouraged to contribute to the ONLINE BYTE OF THE WEEK. Please email Stacy at sboyerda@nmu.edu with your ideas.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Finkelhor, D., Turner, H. A., Shatuck, A., & Hamby, S. L. (2013). Violence, crime, and abuse exposure in a national sample of children and youth: An update. JAMA Pediatrics, 167(7), 614-621.

Galatzer-Levy, I. R., Burton, C. L., & Bonanno, G. A. (2012). Coping flexibility, potentially traumatic life events, and resilience: A prospective study of college student adjustment. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 31(6), 542-567.

Godoy, M., & Wood, D. (2020). What do coronavirus racial disparities look like state by state? NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/30/865413079/what-do-coronavirus-racial-disparities-look-like-state-by-state

Hoch, A., Stewart, D., Webb, K., & Wyandt-Hiebert, M. A. (2015, May). Trauma-informed care on a college campus. Presentation at the annual meeting of the American College Health Association, Orlando, FL.

Margolin, G., & Gordis, E. B. (2000). The effects of family and community violence on children. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 445-479.

National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention (2012). Childhood trauma and its effect on healthy development. Retrieved from Education Development website http://www.promoteprevent.org/content/childhood-trauma-and-its-effect-healthy-development

Shonk, S. M., & Cicchetti, D. (2001). Maltreatment, competency deficits, and risk for academic and behavioral maladjustment. Developmental Psychology, 37(1), 3-17.

Smyth, J. M., Hockemeyer, J. R., Heron, K. E., Wonderlich, S. A., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2008). Prevalence, type, disclosure, and severity of adverse life events in college students. Journal of American College Healthy, 57(1), 69-76.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Streeck-Fischer, A., & van der Kolk, B. A. (2000). Down will come baby, cradle and all: Diagnostic and therapeutic implications of chronic trauma on child development. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 34(6), 903-918.

Vol. 2, Issue 4, July 27, 2020

This week, we conclude our HyFlex miniseries with a Black Rocks deep dive into teaching delivery in this multimodal learning environment. With a HyFlex course, faculty develop two versions of the same course, one online and the other in-person. The key is connecting them into a single course experience.

With course delivery, no matter what the modality, think the well-known and highly respected Chickering and Gamson (1987) seven principles for good teaching. These high impact practices promote effective teaching in any learning space.

Examples of these practices translated and applied to the online version of a HyFlex course offering include:

1. Encourage contact between students and faculty

• Responding to emails, questions, and discussions promptly, ideally within 24 hours or less
• Inclusion of multiple methods for students to interact with the instructor including the Remind101 app
• Virtual office hours using Zoom or some other technology
• Personalized welcome letters
• A VoiceThread faculty and student introduction forum
• Posting regular course announcements
• Periodic student check-ins with faculty
• Reaching out to students who are struggling
• Mentoring individual learners
• Participating in online discussion forums
• Providing substantive, personalized feedback
• Incorporating an instructor-facilitated Q&A forum into an online course
• Lectures recorded by the faculty

2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students

• Collective brainstorming on a problem or project using discussion forums, VoiceThread, or Google docs
• Building course community through learner introductions using VoiceThread or discussion forums, especially when faculty prompt students to respond to peer introductions, share their learning goals or other course-related experiences
• The joint construction of some learning artifact (assignment, case study, rubrics)
• The use of team-based learning (TBL) simulations, inquiries, or debates
• Faculty support of the development of collaborative learning skills
• The use of student-led small group discussion leaders who initiate discussion around an instructor-identified topic, and respond to peers, or offer resources to their group
• Designing discussions or other activities for meaningful, intentional learning in communities

3. Encourages active learning

• Learner responses (audio, video, text, text marking, drawing) to instructor lectures or learner-presentations in VoiceThread.
• Encouraging learners to inquire, share connections, and ask questions that are explored in small-groups or whole-class forums or VT discussions.
• Inviting students to share what they know, self-assess their background knowledge, and/or to set learning goals through activities like course entrance tickets, surveys, module feedback surveys, course exit-tickets
• Encouraging learners' self-assessment, reflection, and progress-monitoring
• Designing the course to include opportunities for learners to use/apply course concepts and/or skills to situations, to events or contexts outside of the course, or to their personal learning goals. 
• Providing choices for readings or for ways for students to demonstrate their understanding of course concepts. 
• Role playing, jigsaw discussions, experiential learning (site visits), brainstorming, games or simulations.

4. Gives prompt feedback

• Communicate a feedback policy in the course syllabus, including a summarized grading rubric and the timing in which students can expect to receive it. The sooner that feedback can be provided, the better for our students. Feedback identifies the gap between learning objectives (the plan) and learning outcomes (the results).
• Use detailed grading rubrics in the course to clearly define expectations.
• Align feedback with learning objectives. Students should know what they are expected to learn and why. The ‘why’ is nearly as important as the feedback, itself, because students are more motivated when they know that the assignments are not sheer busy work.
• Consider the use of tools like VoiceThread to provide audio and/or video feedback.
• Provide feedback that is specific, constructive, personalized, and actionable.
• Prioritize feedback to focus on areas that will have the greatest impact on learning.
• Connect feedback to lived experiences for deeper meaning.
• Remember, that feedback does not need to involve a letter grade.
• Incorporate activities that enable peer feedback such as critiques and discussion forums.

5. Emphasizes time on task

• Encourage students to create a personalized course schedule, based on their life and time commitments.
• Communicate in the syllabus and/or the course room how much time students should expect to devote to the class each week. The general rule of thumb for undergraduate courses delivered during a traditional academic term is that one credit hour equals 2-3 hours of studying outside of class. Therefore, a 4-credit hour course would require an investment of approximately 8-12 hours per week.
• Provide students with the length of time each learning activity should take to complete, on average. Establishing activity completion benchmarks may help students to avoid procrastination.
• Promote the use of a weekly checklist to stay organized.
• To help students stay on track, consider the use of the EduCat course calendar or a stand-alone course schedule document to outline when learning activities are due.
• Adopt the EduCat Activity Completion tool to enable students with the ability to mark a learning activity as completed and track their progress.

6. Communicates high expectations

• Clearly, encouragingly, and regularly communicate faculty expectations of students. Consider the use of announcements, discussion forums, VoiceThread recordings, or a learning activity to express them. Remember, classroom expectations should stretch well beyond grading.
• Foster an inclusive climate of high expectations and reinforce them throughout the course.
• Post expectations in the course syllabus and/or in an area of the course room devoted to expectations.
• Create a faculty expectations contract. Ask students to acknowledge their understanding of the requirements. A discussion forum or a quiz can be used to document student agreement of faculty expectations.
• Model the expectations that you expect from your students.
• Give all students realistic but supportive feedback. Learner-instructor and learner-learner interactions can provide opportunities to bridge the gap between performance and expectations or inspire students to advance beyond them.
• Provide student exemplars (with exemplar permission). Seeing an example of a job well done that exceeds expectations can raise the tide and lift all boats.
• Reward correct answers or redirect those that may be off base in a discussion forum with follow-up questions that extend knowledge, and expectations, even further.
• Avoid forecasting failure in the classroom. Instead, prepare students for a difficult exam or assignment and encourage their success.

7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning

• Offer information and learning content in more than one format. For example, instead of presenting information in a text-based format only, incorporate audio and video recording.
• Differentiate assessments and provide students with a choice to demonstrate their achievement of learning. For instance, students may choose between an exam, a presentation, and a group project to assess the same student learning objectives.
• Motivate students with engaging learning activities. Meaningful learner-learner and learner-instructor interactions promote engagement. Active learning involves engaging learners by “doing” something, such as discovering, processing, or applying concepts and information. Active learning entails guiding learners to increasing levels of responsibility for their own learning (QM 5.2). Activities for learner-instructor interaction might include an assignment or project submitted for instructor feedback; learner-instructor discussion in a synchronous session or an asynchronous discussion board exchange; or a frequently-asked-questions (FAQ) discussion forum moderated by the instructor. Activities for learner-learner interaction might include assigned collaborative activities such as group discussions; small group projects; group problem-solving assignments; or peer critiques.

Next week, the BYTE will begin an exploration of the pedagogic topic, trauma-informed teaching.

Faculty are encouraged to contribute to the ONLINE BYTE OF THE WEEK. Please email Stacy at sboyerda@nmu.edu with your ideas.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 3, July 20, 2020

The Global Campus online course design review process is in full swing for the Summer 2020 term. We have received a number of faculty questions to clarify the differences between being ‘distance qualified’ and the online course design review process. This week, the BYTE will walk through both initiatives.

The world continues to be profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and, as you are all intimately aware, institutions of higher learning are not immune. In March, our entire faculty had to pivot to distance learning to prevent the spread of the virus while maintaining rigor and advancing our dedication to academic excellence. We again approach a new academic year where classroom creativity and adjusting to new learning spaces, instructional formats, and pedagogy/andragogy will be essential.

Distance Qualification
As you know, there is a long-standing requirement that all instructors become Distance Qualified (4-week experience for those who have not taught online for NMU before and self-paced for those who taught online for NMU before the Distance Qualification requirements were implemented). This experience qualifies the instructors and provides them with basic training on how to use the learning management system (EduCat) and other technologies used in teaching online.

https://www.nmu.edu/ctl/teaching-online-nmu

The Global Campus Online Course Design Review
The Global Campus online course design review qualifies the course and, as such, focuses on online course design. This quality review process is required by the Higher Learning Commission, our accrediting body.  The Online Teaching Fellows program is an optional professional development program that involves two highly intensive learning experiences that prepare instructors in both use of technology and course design.

Because of the significant demand placed upon our faculty both during the winter and summer semesters and during the upcoming fall term, Academic Affairs has temporarily paused the Distance Qualification requirements. Faculty seeking a waiver should request one through their respective dean, department head, or department chair. However, the Global Campus online course design review process remains a requirement for every course taught online (asynchronous, coded with a 50-range) and directed studies taught online that are the equivalent of a face-to-face course.

We know that some courses were shifted online for the very first time without much notice or for the possibility for faculty to attend professional development sessions offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning and/or the Global Campus. While the Global Campus online course design review may seem summative at this point (to meet the expectations of the HLC), we are hoping to consider this more of a formative process of continuous improvement of online courses. The Global Campus Extended Learning and Community Engagement Scholar, Dr. Stacy Boyer-Davis, and the instructional design team at the Center for Teaching and Learning are poised and excited to guide and support the faculty with their efforts to learn more about online course design and delivery best practices and to understand, meet, and exceed the quality standards expected by the HLC.

Next week, we will examine HyFlex teaching delivery best practices, an extension of the content offered in the first two issues of Volume 2. Faculty are encouraged to contribute to the ONLINE BYTE OF THE WEEK. Please email Stacy at sboyerda@nmu.edu with your ideas.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar
*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 2, July 13, 2020

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a majority of institutions to shift to an entirely online mode of delivery, blended and HyFlex course offerings were growing in popularity in the higher education arena. Colleges and universities have adopted HyFlex courses to maximize the opportunity for students to participate and persist, to benefit student athletes and their competitive travel requirements, traditional and non-traditional students with jobs and other responsibilities or long commute times, or in semesters with inclement weather (perhaps any given fall AND winter at NMU). Now, these pedagogical methodologies of student choice are becoming the norm as the virus has forced us to apply creative thinking in how we manage physical distancing, student and faculty accommodations, in order to prevent the spread.

HyFlex Course Design Best Practices

How do we get started developing a HyFlex course, or even a hybrid course, for that matter? The answer resides in the Quality Matters (QM) online course design quality standards. First, we should begin with constructing the overall learning objectives of the course, what we expect our students to know and be able to do in order to exhibit an expected competency level. In completing this step, we can begin to map the structure of the rest of the course including instructional materials, learning activities, and assessments. No matter how we administer our courses (on the ground, online, hybrid, HyFlex, synchronous, asynchronous), learning objectives are key, the building blocks of effective course design.

Course learning objectives should be measurable. Measurable course learning objectives or competencies precisely and clearly describe what learners will learn and be able to do if they successfully complete the course. Course objectives or competencies describe desired learning mastery using terms that are specific and observable enough to be measured by the instructor. Examples of measurable learning outcomes or competencies use Bloom’s Taxonomy action verbs such as select, develop, articulate, explain, describe, apply, analyze, or create. Examples of learning outcomes or competencies that are not measurable include words or phrases including: understand, demonstrate, know, learn, be aware of, demonstrate an appreciation of, demonstrate knowledge of, and realize.

Once learning objectives are clearly identified for the course and each learning unit or module, the next step is to decide how learning can be effectively met in both the physical and virtual classrooms. Remember, with a HyFlex model, students choose their mode of participation as learning takes place simultaneously in both spaces. Faculty must ensure learning equivalency, meaning that students should study and experience comparable course content and resources, have similar access to the faculty, and satisfy course requirements in an analogous way regardless of how they attend. Students cannot be disadvantaged in the learning process resulting from the pathway to learning that they choose.

Students are never required to come to a physical class in a HyFlex model. They can opt to attend e-class 100% of the time. As a result, all assignments, assessments, and learning activities should be made available to students online. For face-to-face meetings, consider recording lectures or discussions and posting them online. Students who attend classes in the online environment can, then, watch the recordings at a later time. Furthermore, the recordings can be used by students who attended the in-person sections for studying purposes and to reinforce their understanding of the content.

Be sure to design course activities and assessments with accessibility in mind (images with alt text, videos with transcripts or captions, appropriate font color and size, etc.). Earlier issues of the BYTE explored accessibility. Consider using Respondus Monitor to proctor online exams to prevent opportunities for cheating; two Respondus Monitor professional development sessions will be held on Thursday, July 30 at 4 pm and Wednesday, August 5 at 3 pm, facilitated by Matt Smock and myself.

The online portion of the course should be just as interactive as the in-class counterpart. Design with engagement in mind. The Higher Learning Commission (HLC), the University’s accrediting body, does not permit correspondence courses. NMU is only approved for distance education courses in the online learning space. In order for a course to be distance education qualified, three types of interaction must be present: learner-learner, learner-instructor, and learner-content. Activities for learner-instructor interaction might include an assignment or project submitted for instructor feedback; learner-instructor discussion in a synchronous session or an asynchronous discussion board exchange; or a frequently-asked questions (FAQ) discussion forum moderated by the instructor. Learner-instructor interaction must be regular, substantive, and initiated by the instructor.  Activities for learner-learner interaction might include assigned collaborative activities such as group discussions; small-group projects; group problem-solving assignments; or peer critiques.

Next week, we will examine HyFlex teaching delivery best practices.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar
*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

Faculty are encouraged to contribute to the ONLINE BYTE OF THE WEEK. Please email Stacy at sboyerda@nmu.edu with your ideas.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf

Vol. 2, Issue 1, July 6, 2020

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a majority of institutions to shift to an entirely online mode of delivery, blended and HyFlex course offerings were growing in popularity in the higher education arena. Colleges and universities have adopted HyFlex courses to maximize the opportunity for students to participate and persist, to benefit student athletes and their competitive travel requirements, traditional and non-traditional students with jobs and other responsibilities or long commute times, or in semesters with inclement weather (perhaps any given fall AND winter at NMU). Now, these pedagogical methodologies of student choice are becoming the norm as the virus has forced us to apply creative thinking in how we manage physical distancing, student and faculty accommodations, in order to prevent the spread.

HyFlex Course Design

First, a “HyFlex” course is not the same as a hybrid (blended) course, our professional development miniseries focus during the month of June. HyFlex is a combination of the terms “hybrid” and “flexibility.” HyFlex combines the characteristics of a hybrid course (online and face-to-face components) with a flexible course structure to provide students with the option to modify their manner of attendance throughout a given course (Liu & Rodriguez, 2019).

In a HyFlex course, students can choose whether they attend classes online, face-to-face, or both. For example, students can opt to attend one week in person and another week online. With this flexible hybrid course design, faculty deliver content in both modes. A HyFlex is not a correspondence course, nor is it self-paced. However, course sessions can be synchronous or asynchronous.

A recent Inside HigherEd article emphasized the HyFlex model as a COVID-19 solution (Maloney & Kim, 2020). A link to it is below.

Inside HigherEd HyFlex Model Article

Next week, the BYTE delves into the scholarship of teaching and learning to propose HyFlex course design best practices.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong my faculty friends.

Best regards,

Stacy
Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar

*************************************************************************************************************

The Global Campus has adopted the Seven Principles to serve as the framework for online course delivery standards (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The Quality Matters (QM®) peer-reviewed quality assurance program has been adopted to evaluate course design rigor. Both methodologies align with and parallel the call for learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions to promote active learning engagement (QM 5.2). For HLC accreditation purposes, all online courses must include learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction (regular and substantive, initiated by the instructor) because correspondence courses are not permitted.

For more information on the Global Campus online course requirements or the SoTL related to them, and/or to curate a conversation about high impact teaching design and delivery practices in your online courses, please reach out to Stacy, the Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) Scholar via email onlreview@nmu.edu or telephone (906) 227-1805.

Faculty are encouraged to contribute to the ONLINE BYTE OF THE WEEK. Please email Stacy at sboyerda@nmu.edu with your ideas.

REFERENCES

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

Liu, C. A., & Rodriguez, R. C. (2019). Evaluation of the impact of the Hyflex learning model. International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 25(4), 393-411.

Maloney, E., & Kim, J. (2020). Fall scenario #13: A HyFlex model. Inside HigherEd. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/learning-innovation/fall-scenario-13-hyflex-model

Standards from the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrievedfromhttps://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf