Live to the Desktop Series

Surviving the Stampede: Managing Large DE Sections
Date: Friday, September 10
Time: 10 am
Location: Live to the Desktop
Register Now!
As section sizes increase, planning alternative management strategies will save you time and energy. This session will focus on techniques, including communication, feedback, and Blackboard tools that can streamline the management of large groups of students.

Three or More is Company: Creating and Managing Learning Communities with Group Work
Date: Thursday, October 21
Time: 11 am
Location: Live to the Desktop
Register Now!
This session will present a number of approaches for designing and developing effective group project ideas in DE courses. The session will cover use of the Groups area in Blackboard and provide a number of handouts that can be used with groups. Group work is also one way to manage workload in a DE course. It helps reduce the number of submitted assignments while requiring students to take greater responsibility for social learning.

Posting War: Building and Managing Meaningful Online Discussion Boards
Date: Wednesday, November 10
Time: 1 pm
Location: Live to the Desktop
Register Now!
The asynchronous Discussion Board drives interaction in many DE courses. It is an important tool but it can overwhelm you and students very quickly. This session will feature several planned strategies to develop meaningful Discussion Board activities and manage the Discussion Board area while maintaining acceptable levels of instructor presence.

Online Student Orientation

The link to the New Online Student Orientation has changed. Please send your new distance learners to the Getting Started Guide, available at http://www.twu.edu/de/getting-started-guide.asp. The New Online Student Orientation no longer exists, and the link to it is apparently still floating around. So, if you linked to this old resource in your online courses, please change the link to the Getting Started Guide.

Thank you, and please contact the Office of Lifelong Learning at 940.898.3409 if you have any questions.

2010 Online Educator Symposium

A Showcase of Excellence, Innovation & Success!

Thursday, August 26, 2010
TWU Denton Campus
8:30 a.m. – Noon
Cost: FREE!
Register Now!

This year's OES will start with a presentation about the Hybrid Course Program. That will be followed by a poster presentation session showcasing new and innovative teaching techniques and student services that are currently offered to our distance learners.

Value to You

• Learn more about teaching online & distance education initiatives at TWU
• Network and reconnect with colleagues
• Engage in professional development

Register Today! The registration deadline is Monday, August 23. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Lynda Murphy at lmurphy@twu.edu or 940.898.3405.

Texas Blackboard Users Group - Call for Proposals

The T-BUG Conference Committee welcomes your proposals for the
2010 Annual Conference in Abilene.

The annual T-BUG conference is a great opportunity for Blackboard users to discover, discuss, learn, and share best practices in using the Blackboard, CE and Vista, and Angel learning management systems.

This year’s conference will be held October 21-23, 2010 in Abilene at Hardin-Simmons University. In Abilene,the frontier spirit is alive and well and just like this frontier town, our conference theme - "Blazin' New Trails on the Blackboard Frontier” - encourages attendees to explore and push the frontier of online learning and its technologies.

October 21 - Pre-Conference Workshops and Vendor Reception
October 22-23 - Conference

We encourage you to “blaze some trails” of your own by participating in the conference as a pre-conference or break-out session presenter! We are especially happy to invite Angel users to participate.

Pre-conference sessions will be 3 hours long - either in the morning or the afternoon. We encourage hands-on sessions.
Break-out sessions will be 50 minutes long, which includes time for questions and answers. Presentations should be designed to encourage audience interaction. Breakout sessions are organized along these tracks:

• Teaching and Learning
• Support & Program Administration
• Professional Development
• System Administration
• Pre K-12

Please submit proposals here. The deadline for proposal submission is August 15, 2010.

The program committee will review proposals and notify you of your proposal’s status by August 30, 2010. Please note that all presenters must register for the conference. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide discounts - hey, our $250 registration is one of the best deals around!

If you have questions, please contact Christine Salmon, Program Committee Chair at
christine.salmon@utdallas.edu. We look forward to hearing from you!

Christine Salmon,
T-BUG Program Committee Chair
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