“Teaching is more than imparting knowledge, it is inspiring change." - William Arthur Ward

Jiang Li

Professor, Graduate Coordinator

Computer Science & Information Technology

College of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

The Distance Education Team would like to recognize Dr. Jiang Li for his dedication to increasing the quality of his online and hybrid classes at APSU by observing the general standards of the Quality Matters rubric.

Since Dr. Li joined the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology in 2003, he has published over 30 refereed articles in international journals and conference proceedings and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Image, Graphics, and Signal Processing (IJIGSP ). Dr. Li has received the coveted Quality Matters seal for two of his online/hybrid courses and has served on five external Quality Matters review teams since completing the Peer Review Course (PRC) in 2017. Dr. Li is also a two-time participant in the Course Review Process sponsored by the Department of Distance Education.

A word from our spotlight:

"I have had great experience working with the staff in Distance Education in the past two years. They have helped me tremendously in reviewing two online courses developed for our Master of Science (M.S.) and Professional Science Masters (P.S.M.) programs. Student evaluations have shown that these Quality Matters certified courses are better organized, easier to navigate, and the activities are well designed to help them achieve the learning objectives." - Jiang Li, Ph.D.



Do you know a faculty member who has taken strides to improve their online courses? Nominate them for our next Faculty Spotlight!

Anna Carrie Flynt

Senior Instructional Designer

Department of Distance Education

The Department of Distance Education would like to welcome our newest team member, Dr. Anna Carrie Flynt! Dr. Flynt comes to APSU after nine years teaching K-12 English as a Second Language as well as seven years of teaching online undergraduate and graduate courses for Louisiana State University at Shreveport.

Dr. Flynt lived in Clarksville, TN during her middle and high school years and even took English classes at APSU her senior year of high school. She earned her Bachelor’s in English at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and her Master’s in teaching from the University of Memphis in 2011. Once she began teaching adjunct graduate classes online, she knew her future was in higher education, and she earned her Educational Doctorate in Instructional Design and Technology in May 2018 from the University of Memphis. Dr. Flynt is passionate about teaching and learning and aims to assist both faculty and students with their instructional design needs here at APSU.

A word from Dr. Flynt:

"With my background as an educator, I feel a renewed sense of purpose in my role as an instructional designer. I am looking forward to collaborating with faculty and staff to make APSU courses engaging and rigorous for all students." - Dr. Anna Carrie Flynt

D2L has streamlined the quiz question creation interface for instructors. Instructors can opt out of the new quiz question creation interface until December 21, 2018. Be advised that APSU does not have the ability to change or alter this date in any way. Please click here for a handout which illustrates the changes. The handout details a multiple-choice question but other question types work similarly.

Please contact the Distance Education Support Desk at (931) 221-6625 or [email protected] with any questions.

Lynda.com is transitioning to LinkedIn Learning. Same content, different branding, more engagement and opportunities! Learn about the changes before it happens! Get IN the know ahead of time.

Have you created a Lynda.com account yet? Lynda.com is an on-demand learning solution designed to help you gain new skills based on your goals, interests, and experience. All faculty and staff can find information and access the website using their universal campus username and password. For more info and details visit our website.

November’s Top 3 Lynda Videos:

Are you IN the know? This course provides Lynda.com users with a brief introduction to LinkedIn Learning, highlighting the benefits of the new platform and walking you through the steps of completing the upgrade.

How to Use LinkedIn Learning LinkedIn learning bridges the gap between career and skills. Learn online at your own page, with LinkedIn’s library of 5000+ creative, business, and technology courses on hundreds of subjects.

  

Learning LinkedIn Tap into an expansive network of professionals, companies, and groups in your industry. Discover how to make the most of your LinkedIn account.  

All undergraduates can use some academic assistance while they are preparing for finals. APSU offers free online tutoring for students through a partnership between the Academic Support Center and Distance Education. Students are using the service and reporting positive experiences, see survey data below.

Online tutoring supports 194 APSU undergraduate courses representing 811 sections this fall alone. You may be teaching one of these sections and faculty encouragement is essential to student adoption. Please encourage your students to use the online tutoring service now and as we approach finals. 

Ways to do this include:

To further support our students, we recently launched a new feature where Spanish speaking students can receive tutoring in Spanish (limited times and subjects).

Please visit the website for more information about online tutoring including the complete list of APSU supported courses and the subjects and times available in Spanish.

On November 7, 2018, Distance Education hosted author Dr. Robin Smith as part of the Educational Intelligence Lecture series. Attendees learned about creating meaningful online course content from a renowned leader in the field of instructional design. If you missed it, you can follow this link to watch the presentation (password is: smith). Dr. Smith authored, "Conquering the Content: A Blueprint for Online Course Design and Development" and signed 5 books which were given away to lecture attendees.

Congratulations to the winners of Dr. Smith's book!

In June of 2019, APSU will be required to report the number of out-of-state learning placements that students completed during 2018 to NC-SARA. Out-of-state learning placements will include required activities for degree or licensure such as clinical rotations, student teaching, and internships. To facilitate the data collection process for the new 2019 NC-SARA Out-of-State Learning Placements Report , Distance Education partnered with Decision Support and Institutional Research to develop an NC-SARA Learning Placements Assessment. The new placements assessment was deployed for testing on November 9, 2018. Distance Education will report information about the new NC-SARA Out-of-State Learning Placements Assessment as it becomes available.

The voluntary 2018 NC-SARA Out-of-State Learning Placements Report is now available.

Note: APSU did not participate in the voluntary 2018 NC-SARA Out-of-State Learning Placements Rep ort. Only 16% of NC-SARA member institutions participated in the voluntary 2018 NC-SARA Out of State Learning Placements Assessment report while 84% of NC-SARA member institutions opted out of the report.

DEPARTMENT WIDE TRAINING

As a reminder, Distance Education now offers department-wide training sessions! We can come to you, or you can come to us. We offer training in many different subjects including accessible syllabus, D2L, course design, and more. Request a department-wide training by emailing [email protected] .