Stay Informed!
We promote upcoming professional development opportunities in this newsletter, on the portal, and on our Faculty Center Facebook Group. The Facebook Group allows you to receive reminders of upcoming events that you are interested in participating in, enjoy photos from various events, and interact with your colleagues.
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FREE Canvas Conference! InstructureCon 2021 Online
Thursday, October 7th
Registration is now OPEN for InstructureCon2021 Online. This free virtual conference is open to all Canvas users.
Event Runs 12:00PM-5:00pm EST
- Keynote Speakers
- 50+ Breakout Sessions
- Roundtable Discussions
Register now at:
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Effective Teaching Strategies for Working with College Students Diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder
Tuesday, October 26th, 2-3pm |Presented by Karen Kaplinski
This is a repeat of a summer in-service session and a great opportunity to participate if you missed the session before!
This session will discuss the learning challenges and strengths of students diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Effective teaching strategies will be explored with an emphasis on capitalizing on a student’s strengths while addressing possible learning and behavioral issues.
Sign up:
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Coming soon! Trevor Project CARE Training
Date: TBD
Trevor’s CARE Training is an interactive workshop that expertly and empathetically explores suicidality and mental health challenges among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. CARE is an acronym for “Connect, Accept, Respond, Empower”, or the steps we’ve identified as the best way to respond to someone in need of support. This training identifies risk reduction methods, crisis de-escalation and communication tactics, and common stressors that may contribute to a heightened risk for suicide and poor mental health.
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Faculty Learning Communities
Facilitators: Kate D’Auria and Kelly Sell
Our fall FLC on Building Connections and Engagement has 16 participants from almost every department! We are exploring the four principles in the new book Relationship Rich Education by Felton and Lambert. Built around the premise that relationships are the foundation of the undergraduate experience, these authors reviewed the research and then visited many colleges. In their interviews of many stakeholders, including students, they tried to find out how we can be more intentional and systematic in building relationships to support student success.
Please consider the four principles the book explores and take a look at these great online resources.
From chapter one, the four principles:
- Every student must experience genuine welcome and deep care. All students need to understand that they are valued as people. This is a prerequisite to believing that they belong on campus, which is essential for persistence and academic success.
- Every student must be inspired to learn. Students too often approach their education as a series of transactions, hurdles to be cleared, and grades to be negotiated. Relationships help transform learning and motivation. All faculty members have opportunities to show genuine interest in students, share their passion for and expertise in their disciplines, and spark students to learn. Staff and peers are also crucial in creating communities that inspire learning in and out of the classroom.
- Every student must develop a web of significant relationships. Many students may need to be coached and encouraged to take the initiative to build relationships with faculty, staff, and peers, whom they might initially view as intimidating or unapproachable. Institutional structures, like formal advising and mentoring programs, if done well, can serve as catalysts by helping students build strong foundations for growing networks of educational relationships, but individual actors also are essential to help students feel they belong and can succeed.
- Every student must explore questions of meaning and purpose. College is a time for asking big questions about the world and about yourself. This is best done in conversation with mentors, teachers, peers, and others with life experience to share–people who care enough to take the time to listen generously and to encourage critical reflection. These questions provide the foundation for more practical explorations about majors, careers, and employment. Without meaningful questions and relationships at the heart of the college experience, students are likely to drift aimlessly.
Felten, P., & Lambert, L. M. (2020). Relationship-rich education: How human connections drive success in college. Johns Hopkins University Press.
CEL facilitates multi-institutional research on engaged learning topics. Participants from institutions around the world collaborate over three years, producing scholarship that shapes research and practice globally.
What single factor makes for an excellent undergraduate education? As it turns out, it’s pretty simple: human relationships. Decades of research demonstrate the transformative potential and the lasting legacies of a relationship-rich college experience.
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Middle States Minute
In the next few months, we have a few re-affirmation of accreditation milestones! First, an updated version of the self-study draft will be available in early September. Next, employees and students provide feedback on the draft and learn more about upcoming events. At the end of October, our peer evaluation team chair will visit with college representatives to discuss preparations for the peer evaluation team visit occurring around March 2022.
Key take-aways:
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Instructional Tech Tuesday for October |
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Create Collaborative Conversations Asynchronously with VoiceThread
Synchronous and Asynchronous Engaging Lectures with Nearpod
In a one-on-one remote session, learn how to use Nearpod to gather real-time insights into student understanding through interactive lessons, interactive videos, gamification, and activities. More information at: https://bucks.libguides.com/nearpod. Please contact jacqueline.burger@bucks.edu to schedule a one-on-one.
VidGrid for Recording, Uploading and Creating Engaging Multimedia
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FaST LANE
FaST LANE – Zooming Online Now!
Support from Bucks Online, Instructional Designers, Accessibility Advocate, Instructional Technology. Click on the appropriate tabs.
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Accessibility News
Key Factors for Creating Accessible Documents
The University of Arizona IT Accessibility Team: Dawn Hunziker, Barbie Lopez, and Angeline Carbajal
Do you often find that you don’t know where to start in creating accessible documents? Below are design elements to use when you are writing accessible emails, documents, and slide presentations. As a bonus, many of these items match guidelines for accessibility!
1. Color
You want to carefully consider your color choices.
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Good color contrast makes it easier for everybody to read.
- Consider: It is common to see shades of gray used for both background and writing, often making it difficult to read because there isn’t enough contrast.
- Do not to use color alone to convey meaning.
- Think about: Would your information still make sense if you took away any colors used?
2. Alternate text
3. Headings
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Headings provide structure to your content that allows screen readers to navigate.
- Consider: The ease of accessing content in an outline format that is sequenced accurately.
- Headings are typically created via the text “styles” or “format” options in menus/toolbars.
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Consider: When used appropriately, headings create bookmarks in your document for easy navigation.
4. Hyperlinks
- Hyperlinks should be descriptive such that screen reader users know what information will be accessed when visiting the link.
- Think about: If you take away language around the hyperlinks, would a user know where the link goes and what information they will find?
- Avoid the “click here” or other generic text such as “read more,” “learn more,” etc.
5. Lists
More resources
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WAC--Writing Across the College
"Soon to come: electronic version of the Writing-Intensive/Writing-Enhanced Proposal Presentation and Feedback survey. Please watch MyBucks for details."
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Wordsmiths Fall 2021
Friday, October 22, 7:30pm
Tyler 142 and on Zoom
John Gallaher and Tyler Kline
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Stitch-in via Zoom
Wednesdays, noon-1pm
Join us for our usual Stitch-in. We are using Zoom to meet. Bring your project to your computer and take your mind to a different place. The Zoom link will be posted in the announcements on MyBucks.
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Need Help? Visit the Help Desk and Services Center LibGuide
Check out this link to locate useful information including contact information, hours, and tutorials for the technology used at Bucks.
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Feedback and Ideas? Contact Us!
If you have an idea for a topic you'd like to present, or one that you would like to see presented by someone else, contact any of us!
We promote upcoming professional development opportunities in this newsletter, on the portal, and on our Faculty Center Facebook Group.
The Facebook Group allows you to receive reminders of upcoming events that you are interested in participating in, enjoy photos from various events, and interact with your colleagues.
We hope you’ll join our Facebook Group- Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning
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CONTACT US
Linda McCann
Faculty Development Coordinator
Karl Carter
Director, Personal and Professional Development
Kate D'Auria
Associate Professor, Education
Faculty Learning Communities
Samantha Gross
Associate Dean, Academic Initiatives
Jacqueline Burger
Learning Technologies Liaison
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