In preparation for the August upgrade to D2L’s new Daylight user interface, Distance Education curated a Lynda “D2L Daylight Instructor Training” playlist.

We also held a giveaway of three professional development travel stipends valued at $2,500 for full-time or adjunct faculty.

Congratulations to the third and final winner: Dr. Erik Haroldson from the Department of Geosciences!

The giveaway is over, but you can still benefit from watching the Lynda playlist! To access the Lynda playlist, visit this link and log in to Lynda with your regular APSU login credentials.

At the start of the Fall 2018 semester Distance Education provided 13 group trainings for new faculty and students. Training topics included: Overview of DE services, Instructional Technology, Accessible Syllabus, Quality Matters, Tips for Student Engagement and Success, and Measurable Course Objectives. Distance Education had 126 faculty and 89 students participate in training.

Cyber Security Awareness Month

October 23, 2018

Time: 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM

Location: Morgan University Center Ballroom

Speakers: Stephanie Taylor, Director of IT Security & Dr. Joseph Elarde, Associate Professor for Computer Science and Information Technology, Austin Peay State University.

Don’t Let Cyber Security Frighten You ! – Practical tools and techniques to keep you safe from cyber threats.

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NSCAM) and our event is open to the APSU community.  Using Halloween as a backdrop, Ms. Taylor and Dr. Elarde will present practical tools and techniques in a fun and interactive environment to give you simple but effective ways to stay safe in a dangerous cyber world. It’s easy to be frightened and not know what to do when you are bombarded with the news of yet more sophisticated cyber threats and attacks every day.  Protecting your personal data from malicious use is more important than ever. NCSAM stated, “The Internet is a shared resource, and securing it is our shared responsibility.” This means it takes all of us working together to keep the Internet safe and to thwart the “bad guys” from stealing valuable personal information.  So bring your lunch if you’d like, and prepare to have fun while learning how to stay safe online. Refreshments will be served!  

National Distance Learning Week

November 7, 2018

Speaker: Dr. Robin Smith

Time: 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM

Location: MUC, Ballroom C

Dr. Robin M. Smith, holds a PhD in Systematic Entomology from Texas A&M University. Additionally, Dr. Smith authored, "Conquering the Content: A Blueprint for Online Course Design and Development," a book that provides instructors of online and hybrid courses with a highly-practical blueprint for course development and content presentation. Dr. Smith believes the principles of systematics and taxonomy apply equally well to insects and course content. Dr. Smith served as the Coordinator of eLearning at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and later, at UA Little Rock as Director of Accelerated and Online Learning. Her knowledge of instructional design, adult learning, faculty development, and efficiency of processes has benefited numerous groups with whom she has served as a consultant. Introducing change and helping people navigate those changes has been an ongoing theme in her career. Currently she is a Research Health Scientist and Writing Coach at the Center for Mental Healthcare & Outcomes Research (CeMHOR), Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System. She also works at UAMS in a research study testing the effectiveness of progressive resistance exercise following hip and knee replacement surgery.

Educational Technology Awareness

February 20, 2018

Speaker: Audrey Watters

Time: 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM

Location: MUC, Ballroom C

Audrey is a writer and independent scholar who focuses on education technology – its politics and its pedagogical implications. She has written for The Baffler, The Atlantic, Inside Higher Ed, and elsewhere across the Web, but she is best known for her work on her own website, Hack Education. Audrey has given keynotes and presentations on education technology around the world and is the author of several books, including The Monsters of Education Technology series. She is currently at work on her next book, Teaching Machines, which will be published by MIT Press. Audrey was a recipient of the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship at Columbia University for the 2017–2018 academic year.

Applying the QM Rubric (APPQMR) completions over the summer (May – August): Robert Baron, Susan Cockrell, Doris Davenport, Crystal Faulkner, Kim French, Amy Hamlin, Christopher Konkobo, Pamela Magrans, Amor Moran, Tim Oneal, Amy Ritchart, Michelle Robertson, and Tasha Ruffin.

Peer Reviewer Course completions over the summer (May – August): Pamela Magrans, Tim Oneal, Loretia Duncan, Elizabeth Rankin, and Bing Xiao.

If you are interested in enrolling in the Quality Matters professional development or learning about our course review process, please e-mail [email protected] and check out the DE Course Review website for more information.

Students are back on campus, classes are ramping up, and the Distance Education staff is fielding lots of questions from faculty on how to create an ADA compliant syllabus for. Here are FOUR easy steps to ensure course syllabus documents are accessible for all your learners.

Step One: Use Headings

Use “heading” styles found on the home ribbon in Microsoft Word. Heading styles allow learners using assistive technology to easily navigate digital documents. To learn more review Using Headers .

Step Two: Add Alternative Text 

Assign alternative text descriptions to images, tables, and graphs so learners using screen readers don’t lose out on critical course information. To learn more review Adding Alternative Text .

Step Three: Use Descriptive Hyperlinks

Create meaningful and clear hyperlinks that describe the destination of the link. To learn more review Accessible & Meaningful Links .

Step Four: Use Accessible Fonts and Colors

Use sans serif fonts at least 14 point in size. Sans-Serif fonts such as Arial, Calibri, or Verdana don’t use “tic” marks at the end of letters or characters. When using magnification software to zoom digital text, serif font “tic” marks can appear blurry making text hard to read. To learn more review Accessible Fonts and Colors .

Submit course combine requests by Wednesday, October 17, 2018.  Please refrain from placing content in courses prior to a course combine. All data will be lost once courses are combined in D2L.

If you have any questions, please contact the Distance Education Support Desk at (931) 221-6625 or [email protected] . 

Beginning in Fall 2018, APSU began proving online tutoring. Approximately, 145 students have participated in online tutoring sessions, averaging 31 minutes in length. The top 3 online tutoring subjects for APSU students are statistics, calculus, and computer science programming. Learn more about using Tutor.com in your courses including leveraging student data by viewing the Tutor.com online faculty resources.

This fall, APSU welcomed Mary Catherine Denmark as the new Academic Recovery Coordinator. Mary Catherine and Distance Education would like to remind online faculty to participate in the academic alert process. Academic alert is a web-based early warning process that allows instructors to notify students when they have concerns about their performance. When alerted, students are contacted by the Academic Recovery Team who will encourage them to use resources to improve their grades. Academic alert can make a big difference in the academic progress of your students by getting them the assistance they need to be successful in their classes and at APSU.

The academic alert process is very easy and available through AP OneStop. Follow these step-by-step directions for assistance. 

For questions or more information, please contact Mary Catherine Denmark at 931-221-6555 or [email protected]. 

Upcoming Webcast

Save the Date: October 2, 2018

Time: 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Central Time)

The Forgotten Students - Understanding the Student Completion Crisis in Higher Ed and Emerging Solutions

Each year, over a million students drop out of college or university—some 31 million Americans in the last two decades. In fact, only 48.3% of first-time, full-time students at public universities graduate within six years, prompting academic leaders, like Arizona State University President Michael Crow, to dub this a “completion crisis.” These drop-outs and stop-outs are “The Forgotten Students.”

In this “Forgotten Student” webcast, we will discuss:

Register today for the WCET Webcast

Have you created a Lynda.com account yet? The Department of Distance Education, along with the Offices of Information Technology and Human Resources have worked hard to bring Lynda.com to APSU. 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 http://www.apsu.edu/lynda/index.php .

September’s Top 3 Lynda Videos :

Teaching with Lynda.com: Learn how to use Lynda.com in your teaching or training program.

Learning with Lynda.com: Explore the tools and features of Lynda.com so you can better achieve your learning goals.

Learning LinkedIn: Discover how to make the most of your LinkedIn account to expand your network and contribute to thought leadership. 

In collaboration with the Office of Information technology, the Service Request Catalog is now live. This catalog provides the campus community with a list of services that the Distance Education Support Desk can assist them with. Faculty, staff, and students are now able to submit their own request for service using the following directions.

By using the Service Request Catalog, users may easily track and monitor their service request.

Distance Education implemented a survey tool within our support desk ticketing system (TeamDynamix). Within 24 hours of Distance Education resolving your technical service request you will be sent a short survey. Although it is not required we would greatly appreciate any feedback we can get. It is a quick and easy seven question survey. We appreciate your participation and to helping our department improve our support services. Thank you!

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] .