Tag: Center for Instructional Technology and Training

Fostering Inclusive Communities for Learning

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Fostering Inclusive Communities for Learning is the third workshop in the Teaching for Inclusivity and Accessibility series. This workshop focuses on helping instructors strategize ways to build an online environment where all students feel safe, respected, and comfortable enough to collaborate and learn.

This workshop is asynchronous workshop and is held over a six-week period. Instructors enrolled in the workshop can expect a total time commitment of eight to 10 hours from Oct. 24 through Dec. 10. At the completion of this workshop, participants will have developed tools for effectively communicating with students, for facilitating positive interactions in their online courses, and gained additional tips for in-person class meetings. This workshop counts toward the Center for Teaching Excellence’s Passport to Great Teaching program.

Explore UFIT’s Teaching for Inclusivity and Accessibility workshop overview page to learn more and to register.

Workshops to Enhance Online Learning

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The Best Practices for Teaching Online certificate provides instructional faculty with the opportunity to explore pedagogically sound course design principles that promote student success in the online learning environment. This series addresses the needs of diverse learners through student-centered activities, while also focusing on key issues such as accessibility, usability, and engagement. Each course also counts towards the Passport to Great Teaching program with the Center for Teaching Excellence.

Engaging Online Learners: August 29 – September 11
Participants will experience the online learning environment from the student perspective, while working through activities that demonstrate mastery of designing for student success, aligning student learning objectives, and creating engaging and accessible presentations. Register for the next offering of Engaging Online Learners.

Creating Student-Centered Assignments: September 12 – September 25
Participants explore ways to develop varied student-centered content while establishing a collaborative learning environment through the use of active learning and feedback.
Register for the next offering of Creating Student-Centered Assignments.

Accessible Online Environments: September 26 – October 9
Participants learn to address the different types of accessibility needs and implement improvements for making an online course more accessible.
Register for the next offering of Accessible Online Environments.

Instructors with questions about this certificate program are welcome to contact UFIT’s Center for Instructional Technology and Teaching Assistant Director Rodney Gammons.

Full Service Video Production For UF

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UFIT Video Productions offers in-studio and location production services for faculty and staff.  The production studio facility, located on the second floor of the Hub, features a variety of video recording tools to enhance your academic and outreach videos, and a team with multimedia expertise to assist you. Whether you need to record lectures for a course or create a department video for recruiting faculty or students, consider UFIT your one-stop shop for all things digital and video production!

Faculty and staff can request full-service studio production services or utilize the On-Demand Studio to self-record. UFIT can also film anywhere on campus to make your welcome video, alumni spotlight, interview feature, and department tour videos really stand out. A recent addition to our services is 360 video capabilities. Some examples of recent work are available on the Video Production Sizzle page.

Please submit the CITT’s https://citt.ufl.edu/request-assistance/ form to get started with a video project.  On behalf of UFIT, we look forward to working with you!

Training on iClicker Cloud Offered

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An iClicker Cloud training representative will be on-site to train UF’s novice and experienced users on this platform. Two training dates (three overall options) and modalities are available:

Friday, July 22: 9:00-10:30 a.m.
(via Zoom)
Wednesday, August 17: 9:00-10:30 a.m. (Face-to-face in CSE E507)
Wednesday, August 17: 12:00-1:30 p.m. (Face-to-face in CSE E507)

To register for any of the three trainings, navigate to the myTraining link. There will also be presenter-led open office hours on Wednesday, August 17, from 10:30-12:00 p.m. in CSE E507.

iClicker Cloud is a mobile-optimized engagement platform that facilitates student and instructor collaboration. The University of Florida has an institutional site license covering all costs. iClicker Cloud includes both synchronous and asynchronous options like polling, quizzing, and assignments, and integrates with Canvas. Whether you are planning to use iClicker for the first time or if you just need a refresher, this training will get you ready for the new school year. There will be time for questions in each iClicker Cloud training.

Instructors with questions about this training or other academic technology trainings available are welcome to contact the UFIT training team.

Course Accessibility Consultations Available

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Instructors interested in improving their Canvas course’s accessibility score can request one-on-one consultations to learn how. UFIT’s Center for Instructional Technology and Training (CITT) recently launched a new service to assist instructors remediate course files to make them more accessible.

Remediating course content provides access to students with disabilities while enhancing the usability of course materials for all learners. During the consultation,  instructional support assistants will explain how to use the Ally tool in Canvas. They will also provide an overview of accessibility concerns within the course, evaluate what content to remediate, and work with instructional faculty to improve the overall course accessibility score. During the consultation, the instructional support assistant will model remediation techniques for content in Canvas, including Word or Google docs, PowerPoint presentations, Google Slides, spreadsheets, videos, and PDFs.

Commit to creating classroom content for all students. UFIT has additional training and resources to help instructors build and update courses with accessibility needs in mind.  Submit an Accessibility Consultation request to get started. A member of the CITT staff will follow up with you to schedule a consultation.

 

Course Development Assistance for Fall 2022

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Faculty who would like to work with a UFIT instructional designer to develop or revise a course for Fall 2022–the time is now! UFIT’s Center for Instructional Technology & Training (CITT) can help enhance your traditional, flipped, hybrid, online course, or flipped advising site.

Some instructional faculty would like the expertise of an instructional designer but cannot commit to a full course development. Not a problem! UFIT can create a custom development plan for just the items you have time to focus on. Whether you have two weeks or a few months, CITT staff will assist you with developing assessments, course content, or accessibility review. Visit the instructional design page to view all services available. Interested in developing videos for your online or in-person course? UFIT can create welcome videos, course intro videos, and film facets of your course, like a lab experiment. Several examples of in-studio and location shoots are featured on https://citt.ufl.edu/about/academic-media-productions/.

Expertise is available to support your teaching and learning, regardless of your course development needs. Instructors interested in working with the CITT staff may complete the Request Assistance webpage, and a staff member will contact you.

Seeking Instructors for My Learning Analytics Pilot

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UFIT is seeking instructors to join the My Learning Analytics (MyLA) pilot study in the spring semester. MyLA empowers students to improve their academic outcomes by providing data visualizations for their customized goals and progress monitoring; and to view their activities relative to their peers. Online courses will provide the most data but any course using Files, Assignments/Quizzes, and Grades will generate actionable data for the students.

If you choose to participate, it just takes a few clicks to enable MyLA in your spring course shell and notify your students. Data collection will include student surveys and instructor focus groups and/or interviews, as well as system logs data. Your participation in this activity is completely voluntary. We believe there are no risks to you for participating in this study. There is also no direct compensation to instructors who elect to participate. If you have questions about your rights, contact the UF IRB office, PO Box 100173, Gainesville, FL 32611, and reference #202102061.

Please contact Dr. Heather Maness (htdaniel@ufl.edu) in UFIT’s Center for Instructional Technology and Training with any questions you may have about the spring 2022 pilot, your participation rights, or to participate.

Prioritizing Usability in Teaching

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UFIT’s Teaching TechXploration is back for its third year. This year’s event features presentations and hands-on workshops to help instructors find technology solutions to teaching challenges. In support of
Word Usability Day on November 11, the theme is usability and accessibility for all students.

Wednesday, November 10, 2021
2:00 ꟷ 5:00 p.m.
Virtual Event via Microsoft Teams
Registration Link

All instructors, TAs, graduate assistants, and instructional designers are invited to attend. After registering, participants will be added to the event’s Teams page where they can select which presentations or workshops to attend. Topics include designing usable Canvas courses, navigating classroom equipment with confidence, setting up learning analytics, improving student engagement with classroom response systems, and creating interactive course videos. Anyone with questions about TechXploration is welcome to contact UFIT Associate Director Ryan Yang.

Support for HyFlex Teaching

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HyFlex teaching classrooms are now ready for use. To assist teaching faculty transition to the enhanced classroom technologies, UFIT has multiple online and in-person options available the week prior to the start of the Spring 2021 term.

Short video trainings:
1. What Do Students and Faculty See in a HyFlex Classroom?
2. Teaching with PowerPoint in a UF HyFlex Classroom
3. How to Use a HyFlex Document Camera
4. Using the Annotation Monitor in a UF HyFlex Classroom

Hands-on practice options:
Instructors can also get comfortable with the new technologies during the week of January 4-10 in Turlington Hall L007, L011, 1101, 2305, or 2306. The rooms will be open from 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and staffed with teaching with technology experts. No reservation required!

Talk 1-on-1 with an expert:
Instructors can also drop in and ask questions of instructional technology experts from January 4-10 in Turlington Hall L005 and 2319. These rooms will be staffed from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. and 1:30-4:30 p.m.

More help is available on https://elearning.ufl.edu/keep-teaching/preparing-for-spring/.