Professional Development Opportunities with ATUS

April 4, 2018

ATUS' Teaching, Learning and Technology area will be offering the following free learning opportunities for faculty and staff as well as students who teach. If you would like any of these added to your calendar use the 'add to Outlook' links to add items to your calendar.

Spring 2018 Professional Development

The CIIA continues this spring with MONDAY MORNING MENTOR (click "Join this Course" for offerings). Join us for the video, coffee/tea & discussion. Each Monday (see below), a new online teaching strategy video is made available and accessible for 7 days. Even if you cannot join us, you can watch the videos on your own.

  • 4/9: How Do I Earn Swift Trust in my Online Classes?
  • 4/16: How Do Mini-lectures Improve Student Engagement?
  • 4/23: How Can I Move my Teaching Forward at Midcareer?
  • 4/30: How Can I Attract and Retain Adjunct Online Faculty?
  • 5/7: How Can I Write Better Letters of Recommendation?
  • 5/14: Copyright Crash Course: How Can I Stay on the Right Side of the Law?

Co-sponsored by the Center for Instructional Innovation and Extended Education.

Week 2

EMPOWERING TECH: Writers Unblock with Markdown Text

Wed., Apr. 11, 3:30-4:30, Haggard Hall 154 (Faculty Drop-in Center) [WWU users: Add to Outlook]

Markdown is an easy way to write text that is uniquely suited to sharing your writing through a variety of web and social media driven platforms. Because Markdown is simply text, the resulting files are small, portable, cross-platform and able to be edited using any number of free and open source text editors. Join Kevin Dixey for this session, part of the “EMPOWERING TECH” series, where you will learn about ideas and tools to better organize for positive change..

Week 3

WEBINAR: Collaborative Learning Approaches that Support Neurodiverse Students

Thu. Apr. 19, 10-11, Haggard Hall 154 (Faculty Drop-in Center) [WWU users: Add to Outlook]

What strategies can you leverage to establish a classroom environment where ALL students feel comfortable contributing to collaborative learning activities? Join us as we tune in to watch this webinar, led by​ Flower Darby, senior instructional designer and faculty at Northern Arizona University, for strategies to increase effectiveness of group activities and decrease the headaches and problems experienced when you’re not able to adequately anticipate and plan for students’ mental, emotional, and social challenges. After the live event, WWU will have access to this recording and supplemental materials for one year.

Week 4

LEARNING TECH GROUP: Accessibility Tips & Tricks in Canvas

Fri., Apr. 27, 10-10:50, Haggard Hall 154 (Faculty Drop-in Center) [WWU users: Add to Outlook]

Join ATUS Instructional Technologist Chris Powell in exploring the tools and features in Canvas that assist with making courses accessible. You will learn about the Canvas Accessibility Checker, alt-text, color contrast ratios, PDFs, captioning, and how to make a course mobile friendly. This is part of our Teaching, Learning, & Technology office's on-going support for faculty to create accessible content for students. 

Week 5

PRESENTATION: Tools & Strategies for Engaging Online Interactions

Mon. Apr. 30, 12-12:50, Haggard Hall 154 (Faculty Drop-in Center) [WWU users: Add to Outlook]

Perhaps you were already motivated to explore methods for increasing faculty and student  interaction in online courses? If not, the newly enforced Department of Education requirements that online courses involve “regular and substantive interaction” might move you to action! Justina Brown and Andi Zamora of the ATUS Center for Instructional Innovation will share several ideas, tools, and strategies to create engaging discussions and activities to inspire and set your mind at ease—whether for web-enhanced, blended, or online courses.

Week 6

LEARNING TECH GROUP: The New Face of Lecture Capture

Wed. May 9, 3-3:50, Haggard Hall 154 (Faculty Drop-in Center) [WWU users: Add to Outlook]

Take a few minutes with Kevin Dixey to look at a new option for lecture capture here at Western. Screencast-O-Matic is a lightweight yet full-featured lecture capture and editing tool that can help you open up the possibilities for a wide variety of your screen-casting and classroom video needs. With its simple and intuitive user interface and easy of exporting your finished videos to YouTube, Vimeo, or Google Drive, Screencast-O-Matic might just become one of your favorite tools!

Week 7

EMPOWERING TECH: Protecting Yourself in the Social Media Jungle

Tues., May 15, 10-10:50, Haggard Hall 154 (Faculty Drop-in Center) [WWU users: Add to Outlook]

Tools like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram offer us powerful ways to stay in contact with people and communicate ideas. Unfortunately, they can also leave us vulnerable to breeches of data if we are not careful. Join us for some straight forward and simple strategies to get the most out of our social media while keeping our data and identity safe. Join Kevin Dixey for this session, part of the “EMPOWERING TECH” series, where you will learn about ideas and tools to better organize for positive change.

Week 10

LEARNING EVENT: Innovative Teaching Showcase

First week in June!

Members of the Western community are invited to learn about this year’s Showcase via interactive displays, videos, and conversation, and to honor this year’s featured instructors. The Learning Event celebrates the completion of this year’s “Engaging Social Justice”-themed web issue, to be published in June by the Center for Instructional Innovation. The new issue will be available via the Innovative Teaching Showcase site.

NOTE: The "Add to Outlook" links above link to an "ics" file. These Calendar files are data files that contain details of events including the date, time and location. Depending on your set up, you may find the file prompts you to save the event into Outlook (or Google Calendar), or you may need to save the file and select import from the file menu in your calendar. These optional links are available on this page for your convenience.

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Remember to utilize the Faculty Drop-in Center (HH 154) dedicated support space for instructional technologies and design, small group trainings, or individualized instruction on technologies provided by Western, including Canvas, Relay 5 (lecture-capture software), web-conferencing options, and response systems. Faculty may use the space by:

  • Using Drop-in Hours: Mondays 3-4:30 and Thursdays 10-11:30
  • Making Appointments: TLT.FDIC@wwu.edu
  • Taking Chances: Just stop by!