Adjunct and Graduate Assistant Trainings for DE Courses

Topics:
· Developing good communication with your students and faculty
· Managing discussion boards
· Addressing concerns and questions of online students
· Essential Blackboard tools and why you should use them

Training Dates & Locations
The following trainings will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and lunch will be provided.

Houston Adjuncts, GAs & New Hires
August 23rd – RSVP deadline is August 11th
Location: Houston, IHSH 4310

Denton & Dallas Adjuncts, GAs & New Hires
August 23 - RSVP deadline is August 20
Location: TBD

More Information
These trainings are offered at no cost; however, we do ask that you register. Click here to go to the Online Registration Page. A day or two prior to the training, you will receive an email that will confirm your registration and give you the building and room number for your training.

Online Educator Symposium

TWU Fall 2008 Online Educator Symposium
August 21, 2008 – During Faculty Development Week!
9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Register for the 2008 Online Educator Symposium

Here are some of the presentations you can look forward to:

· Welcome and General Session: Planning and Designing for Online Learning

· Breakout Sessions:

• Online: The Journey from Resistance (kicking and screaming) to Surrender (experimenting, learning and liking it)
• Self-Actualization and E-learning: Addressing the Perceived Needs of Faculty Who Teach Online
• Technologies: Enhancing the Value Proposition in Distance Education
• Using Blackboard as a Departmental Tool for Administrators and Faculty
• Systems Thinking as a Model for Educating Students to Benefit from Distance Education Methodology: Are students prepared to learn on-line?
• Strategies for Using Blogs and Wikis in an Online Course
• Persistent Linking from Library Databases
• Distance Education Fees for Administrators
• Quality Matters™ at TWU
  

· Closing Session: TWU Focus on Plagiarism Panel

Don’t miss out! Register today!

Active Learning and Sharing of Educational Resources

Recently I ran across this Native American proverb: "Tell me and I'll forget, show me and I may not remember, involve me, and I'll understand." This quote is a great demonstration of how the concept of active learning has been with us for many, many years. Definitions of what active learning is are somewhat loose, but they basically involve the idea of students "doing" something that will help them to reinforce their learning. The Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology at Illinois State has a wonderful web page with ideas for incorporating active learning into your course: Active Learning While these activities are all geared for the f2f environment, I was surprised at how many of them could be easily adapted for the online environment as well.

Where I ran across the proverb was at WikiEducator: WikiEducator Main Page. I'm currently participating in a workshop about creating open educational resources. These can be learning modules, tutorials, quizzes and other learning tools, any kind of resource that can be used to promote learning. There is a wonderful quote by George Bernard Shaw on their OER page: "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." WikiEducator is working to provide educational resources to those who need them, no matter where they are or how much money they have. The goal is to make a place where knowledge is available for everyone to share and participate in together. If you are interested in seeing what they are doing, or maybe sharing some of your own resources, I encourage you to check their site out.