September 2016  Faculty News & Training





TEDxUNT: (re)imagining
 
TEDxUNT: (re)imagining is an independently-organized TED event bringing together the University of North Texas and the Denton community for an exciting evening of ideas worth spreading.  The theme of (re)imagining will be explored by dynamic live speakers and official TED videos curated by a campus collaborative of faculty, staff, and students.  

The event is being hosted at the University of North Texas Union the evening of Monday, September 12th, 2016.  Attendees should check-in to Union Room 394 to have their tickets scanned.  Doors open at 5:15 p.m. with food service available for attendees until 6:15 p.m.  The formal program will begin at 6:30 p.m. and conclude at 9 p.m.  It is recommended that attendees who plan to join us for dinner arrive at the Union no later than 6:00 p.m. to ensure ample time to eat and find a seat for the program.

Ticket prices are $20 for UNT students and $30 for UNT faculty, staff, and the general public.  Dinner is included in the ticket price.

To purchase tickets please visit the  UNT Union Tickets  site.
CLEAR NEWS & INITIATIVES
Salute to Faculty Teaching Excellence
Kick-off breakfast event

Date:   Monday, September 19, 2016
Time:   7:45am - 9:30am
Place:  Gateway Ballroom 
Register at: http://clear.unt.edu/2016SFEW    
 
How do college instructors learn to teach effectively? Many entered the classroom with trepidation and minimal formal preparation.  The journey may have started on uncertain footing and without a clear path.  Along the way, there were obstacles and shorts, people who helped and hindered, uphill climbs and high points.  Each journey is a tale of lessons learned from success and failures.  At this year's Salute to Faculty Teaching Excellence, we'll hear short stories from a dozen or more UNT faculty sharing their best or worst moment in teaching and what they learned from it. 
UNTeCampus.com is now online.UNT.edu!

Online.UNT.edu is our new website promoting UNT's Online Degree and Certificate programs.  Lead forms and detailed information about each program are provided.  This site replaces UNTeCampus.com which was more course focused.

CLEAR will no longer be requesting online instructors to list information about their sections within the Course  Information Database (CID).  Instead, the online.UNT.edu site will link to the Registrar's Schedule of Classes for the most up-to-date information regarding online sections.
UPCOMING TRAINING
REEF Polling Training
September 14, 2016 
 
Are you ready to engage with REEF Polling from i<Clicker? 

We are pleased to announce that UNT has purchased a site license to 
REEF Polling from  i<Clicker as a replacement for TurningPoint clickers.  As a mobile engagement platform,  REEF enables faculty to increase class participation and gather instant feedback by sending polling questions to students' devices.
   
With REEF Polling, instructors can present with anything, utilize a floating toolbar, view a participant list, and send images and polling questions to student devices. Students respond to questions with any device, receive correct and incorrect answers, and can review session history as a study guide outside of class.

Next week we will be holding a training session:

Wednesday, September 14th
9:30am  Introduction
11:00am  Training
Capacity:  16 seats per session

Blackboard
Blackboard Learn Bootcamp (3 hrs)
September 14, 2016
1pm-4pm (Chilton 245)

Register Here: https://unt.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_es5y4a1ZlDwVkkl

The Blackboard Learn Bootcamp is a workshop introducing instructors to the tools commonly used in the learning management system. This hands-on workshop is targeted for instructors/teaching assistants new to Blackboard Learn and/or those interested in learning more about using the Blackboard Learn tools. Topics to be covered are: communications, assessments, assignments, grade center and the course menu. 3/hrs.
Blackboard
Webinar Session
Retention Techniques and Tools (1 hr)
September 21, 2016
12pm-1pm (ONLINE)


Register Here: https://attendee.gototraining.com/r/240373409225430529

 
Retention is a hot topic in education right now! This webinar will introduce you to tools in Blackboard that will assist you in identifying, monitoring, and connecting with students who may be struggling. Additionally, we will discuss helpful techniques for implementing retention strategies in your course.
Blackboard
Studymate (1 hr)
September 29, 2016
10am-11am (Chilton 245)

Register Here: https://unt.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_es5y4a1ZlDwVkkl

StudyMate Class and StudyMate Author allows faculty or students to create self-assessment, quizzes, study materials or group projects. The materials can be embedded directly into Blackboard or accessed online. Come learn in a hands-on environment to see how Studymate can help your students learn.
star wars coffee
Blackboard Open Labs
Friday Afternoon   1:00pm - 4:00pm  (Every Friday)
Chilton 112K (UNT - Denton Campus / Faculty)

No Registration Required!  Feel free to come by our open labs every Friday from 1pm-4pm to receive some one-on-one Blackboard assistance from our instructional support team.

For faculty or teaching assistants who are new to Blackboard Learn, we recommend scheduling an appointment with an instructional consultant (  http://clear.unt.edu/consulting).

Check out our self-help guides and tips on the Blackboard Faculty Support Site or view our training sessions on the CLEAR calendar.
Outcomes and Assessment Workshops
2016-2017
 
CLEAR offers 50 minute workshops presented by Dr. Ron Carriveau that provide what is needed to develop measurable student learning outcomes and outcome-based assessments. The small group workshops are designed to generate discussion. Participants are invited to ask questions and make comments at any time during the presentation. The expected outcome is that participants will obtain outcome and assessment knowledge, tools, and strategies, to help them maximize, analyze, validate, and report student learning.
 
 
Workshop Location:  PEB 205A Conference Room
 
Workshop Time:  12:05pm - 12:55pm.
It is okay to bring your lunch to the workshop. 
Seating is limited.
To register: send requested workshop #, date and time to
 
Dr. Carriveau has extensive experience in outcomes and assessment as a consultant, test publisher, state department director of assessment, corporate test development manager, public school teacher and administrator, and university associate professor. He has consulted nationally and internationally and presented at national and international conferences. He is co-author of Next Generation Course Redesign (2010, Peter Lang), and author of Connecting The Dots: Developing Student Learning Outcomes and Outcome Based Assessments (Second Edition, 2016, Stylus  Publications) which is the primary source for the workshop content. 
 
Workshops offered in September 2016 have the meeting dates listed in green.

Workshop #1   
Outcome attainment measures versus grades.  Grades are typically the coin of the realm when it comes to student, course, program, and institution evaluation and reporting. This session shows how to calculate outcome attainment measures and provides research based evidence regarding the significant difference when grades that include points for non-outcome related measures are compared with grades awarded that are based directly on outcome attainment measures.  
 
Workshop #2   Wednesday, Sept 14th and Thursday, Sept 15th
Developing meaningful and measurable learning outcome statements. 
All teacher know, to varying degrees, what outcomes they want their students to achieve.  This session shows how to utilize a three-level SLO model to clearly articulate expected outcomes and provides guidelines for writing measurable SLOs, demonstrates the importance of verbs, reviews higher level thinking SLOs, and provides question templates for writing outcomes and test items.
 
Workshop #3   Wednesday, Sept 21st and Thursday, Sept 22nd
Constructing high-quality selected response test items.
If you can't measure student attainment of outcomes, then you can't fix what isn't working or determine what is working. This session focuses on writing outcome based multiple-choice test items as one source to determine student attainment of the outcomes and includes: guidelines for writing the item stem and the item options (answer choices), research that supports three options only, how to develop a test-item bank, and how to conduct item validation.
 
Workshop #4   Wednesday, Sept 28th and Thursday, Sept 29th
Constructing high-quality constructed response test items and scoring rubrics.
Constructed response test items with rubric scoring is used to measure how well students meet performance outcomes. Constructed response includes producing a written response, giving a performance, or creating a product. This session focuses on guidelines for writing different types of constructed response test items with an emphasis on extended written responses and includes: types of scoring rubrics (holistic and analytic), developing analytic rubric proficiency descriptors, and setting rubric scoring scales and cut points.    

Workshop #5 
Developing assessment plans and curriculum guides
It is always good to have a plan for what outcomes you intend to assess. This session covers the development of an outcome-item reference map, an overall assessment plan, test blueprints, and an outcome based curriculum guide, all of which are helpful for a successful outcomes-based model in which expected outcomes, test items, and instruction
are fully aligned.
 
Workshop #6 
Measuring critical thinking skills. 
Critical thinking skills are needed for problem solving. This session provides the rationale, advantages, and limitations of  measuring critical thinking skills with multiple-choice items, provides examples of higher-order-thinking item sets and scenarios for measuring critical thinking, and examines the LEAP Critical Thinking Value Rubric required for core courses.
 
Workshop #7 
Measuring attainment of outcomes for specific instructional activities
In addition to evaluating students and courses, outcome attainment can also be used to evaluate specific instructional and learning strategies and activities in order to make evidence-based instructional and course design decisions. This session shows how this process is easily done when outcome statements are aligned with the instructional activities.
 
Workshop #8 
Reporting outcome attainment at the course, program, and institutional levels.
This session shows how to use measures of student attainment from various selected- response and constructed-response assessment sources to report outcome attainment gains or losses in terms of a set criterion (goal), which includes averaging and weighting the attainment source values and then linking course level attainment measures to program and institutional levels.
 
Workshop #9
Using item statistics to validate selected response test items.  
Items need to be validated to ensure that they are making a valid contribution to what a test is measuring and are providing useful information for making evaluation decisions. Poorly functioning items need to be fixed or deleted and replaced. This session expands on the item statistics presented in Workshop #5 and shows how item statistics can be obtained from programs like Blackboard.
 
Workshop #10
Using assessment as an instruction strategy and for motivation purposes
Formative assessment has been shown to be one of the best strategies to ensure that students do well on summative assessments. This session clarifies the concepts of formative assessment, summative assessment, and competency and shows how assessment can be used for a prior learning measure, a strategy for introduction of new content, motivation based on success, and individualized instruction.
Self-Paced and Facilitated Online  Opportunities

Teaching Resources for Engaged Educators
The Teaching Resources for Engaged Educators (TREE) initiative leverages online training modules focused on 11 important teaching proficiencies and is available to anyone with teaching responsibilities at UNT. See the list of proficiencies below:

* Academic Integrity
* Assessment
* Classroom Teaching
* Course Design
* Engaged Learning
* Experiential Learning
* Learner-Centered Teaching
* Online Course Design
* Online Teaching
* Student Learning
* Teaching with Technology

There is no charge to participants. Instructors at UNT will have a self-enrollment link on the "My Institutions" tab in Blackboard. If you do not see a TREE self-enrollment link on Blackboard and wish to enroll, please contact tree@unt.edu.

For more information, please refer to the CLEAR website:  http: clear.unt.edu/tree.
Faculty/Staff Group Subscriptions offered by CLEAR
Teaching Professor
FREE ACCESS
The Teaching Professor &
Online Classroom

CLEAR provides Free Access (through a group subscription) to Magna Commons, 20 Minute Mentor Commons, Distance Education Report, Online Classroom,Online Classroom and The Teaching Professor.  These electronic newsletters provide the information faculty, deans, chairs, and other academic decision-makers use for effective leadership within their colleges or departments as they fulfill their institution's mission of teaching and scholarship. 
  
To subscribe, go to www.magnapubs.com/group to view our active subscription.  There is no need to create an account or log in when accessing the subscription on campus.   If you wish to access these publications from off campus or if you would like to receive an email message each time a new issue is posted, you will need to register and enter a campus voucher code and pin number. Please email   Amber Bryant
FREE ACCESS
Online Learning Consortium

CLEAR provides Free Access (through a group subscription) to Online Learning Consortium (formerly Sloan-C) http://onlinelearningconsortium.org.  

 

The University of North Texas is a member of the Online Learning Consortium.  As a member, you will receive OLC's workshop, conference and publications discounts, research, and interaction with other members.  To receive account set-up and login instructions, please contact  Amber Bryant at Amber.Bryant@unt.edu.

 

Membership includes workshop membership pricing.  Visit http://onlinelearningconsortium.org/learn/workshops/ for the list of 2015 workshops. Additional workshops are added throughout the year, so please make sure to check the schedule often. The member price for a workshop is $169. Non-member pricing is $269. If you and your faculty have set up your accounts or affiliated your existing accounts properly, you will automatically see the member price.

 

 OLC Membership Resources include:

  • Webinars
  • Conference Discounts  
  • Publications Discounts  
  • Website Resources 
  • Monthly Newsletter
CLEAR FACULTY HELPDESK
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Support line: (940) 369-7394
Support Email:  clearhelp@unt.edu
Blackboard Faculty Helpdesk Support
Hours for Fall 2016


Monday - Thursday:  8:00am - 9:00pm 
Friday:  8:00am - 5:00pm 
Saturday:  11:00am - 3:00pm 
Sunday:  Closed