Michigan Blackboard Users Connect to Share Best Practices

The miBUG (Michigan Blackboard Users Group) Spring Conference was held at the VisTaTech Center on the campus of Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan on Friday, March 24, 2017. More than 100 educators from 20+ institutions across Michigan and Canada attended this event to collaborate and share best practices in leveraging Blackboard in teaching and learning.

GVSU eLearning staff Justin Melick, Vince St. Germain, Sherry Barricklow and Eric Kunnen attended this year and picked up great ideas and networking with institutions around the state.

GVSU eLearning Team (Pictured Left to Right) Justin Melick, Vince St. Germain, Sherry Barricklow, and Eric Kunnen

Several of the highlights from this event included:

• Blackboard Learn, Collaborate, Mobile Product Roadmaps
  • New Features Coming: OneDrive (DropBox already available) Integration, Bb Instructor App, Attendance Management, New Video Everywhere Solution, and more!
• New Blackboard Ally Product Announcement
  • Providing institutional dashboards, on demand tips for faculty on accessibile documents, and realtime conversion of uploaded files into accessiable formats.
• Creating Course Videos – Wayne State University
• Tackling an Unruly Grade Center – Schoolcraft College
• Fostering Creating Critical Thinkers in Online Discussion Boards – Madonna University
• Collaborate Ultra: Features and Tips you can Use Now – Blackboard
• Getting to Know the Bb Peer Assessment Tool – Wayne State University
• Blackboard Testing and Development in a Multi-Tier Environment – Center Michigan University
• and more!

 

16th Annual Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium Highlights Universal Design and Faculty Innovation

The 16th Annual Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium, held on March 22, highlighted Universal Design for Learning and a wealth of innovation happening across the campus in an out of the classroom.

With more than 30 topics to choose from, including breakout sessions in the morning by Techsmith and Blackboard, this event was a wealth of information and ideas for teaching with technology.

If you missed this event, don’t miss out on the highlights!

1. Check out the symposium presenters page for more information about the presentations that were offered. Thank you to our faculty, staff, and students for presenting at this premiere event!
2. View the Pew Teaching with Technology Award highlight video celebrating the accomplishments of Erica Hamilton and Sister Lucia Treanor. Congratulations to our award winning faculty!
   
3. Watch the keynote video on the topic of Universal Design for Learning (access video on campus or through VPN) by Dr. Thomas Tobin.

The Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium was sponsored by eLearning and Emerging Technologies, Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center, and Disability Support Resources.  Support for refreshments was provided by Blackboard Inc.

Thank you to all of our presenters and attendees for an outstanding event!

See you next year in Allendale for more innovation at GVSU!

Come, Learn, and Be Inspired at the 16th Annual Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium

Come, Learn, and be Inspired!

View a special video welcome from Dr. Thomas Tobin highlighting his keynote address entitled: “Universal Design for Learning: Way Beyond Disabilities”.

WHAT

16th Annual Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium

WHEN

Wednesday, March 22, 2017
10:00am to 4:00pm
(Join us for the entire day, or stop by anytime!)
Robert C. Pew Campus: Loosemore Auditorium

AGENDA

• 10am – 12pm Breakout Sessions
  Blackboard Product Roadmap (Joel Allison, Blackboard Inc.)
  The All New Camtasia (Matt Dennis, Calvin Boekhove, TechSmith)
  Sessions by: Rachel Anderson, Michael Ricco, Julia VanderMolen, Susan Strouse, Maureen Wolverton, and Andrew Topper
• 1pm – 2pm Award Presentation and Keynote
  Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center “Teaching with Technology Award” Presentations
  Dr. Thomas Tobin Keynote: “Universal Design for Learning: Way Beyond Disabilities”
• 2pm – 4pm Faculty ePoster Sessions
  More than 30 topics to choose from by GVSU faculty, staff, and students! View all presenters and poster topics on the symposium website.

The Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium is sponsored by eLearning and Emerging Technologies, Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center, and Disability Support Resources.

The symposium provides a unique campus wide opportunity for faculty to learn and share how technology enhances teaching and learning and supports student success.

Don’t miss this once-a-year event! See you at the Symposium!

This event is FREE and open to all faculty and staff.
Raffle prizes and refreshments will be provided.

Visit the TLT Symposium Website

Article in Rapid Growth features eLearning Team and Showcase

Rapid Growth has a series running on the topic of technology and education. In an article written on March 16, 2017, author Matthew Russell highlights a variety of innovative ideas and happenings from around West Michigan.

The article entitled “From virtual reality to online libraries, how technology is revolutionizing education in GR” highlights the work of the eLearning and Emerging Technologies team as well as the Atomic Object Technology Showcase.

Explorative spaces installed at Grand Valley State University will help older students test and build the devices that tomorrow’s learning environments may rely on.

Atomic Object Technology Showcase – An immersive and engaging space for faculty and students to interact, discover, learn, and share how technology can transform teaching and learning.

“We have a lot of different drop-in space for students and faculty to experiment and play around with technology, to imagine what it would look like if we used these in teaching, and how it would make us more effective. The ultimate purpose is to solve instructional problems to meet students needs so that they’re successful.“

Read the Full Article on Rapid Growth Media

Engage with Fellow Faculty at the 2017 miBUG Conference!

Register TODAY for the 2017 miBUG Conference! 

The Michigan Blackboard Users Group conference will be held at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan on Friday, March 24, 2017.

Registration is FREE and includes breakfast and lunch.

Mark Burris, Blackboard Customer Service Advocate will be presenting a Blackboard Roadmap session in the morning, and your peers will be presenting during the concurrent sessions. Don’t miss it!

 As this is a users conference, please take a moment to submit a presentation proposal to share how you are leveraging Blackboard in teaching and learning!

Visit www.mibug.org/events for more details.

GVSU participates in Michigan #GoOpen Initiative

On Wednesday, January 11, Matt Ruen from University Libraries and Eric Kunnen from eLearning attended a Michigan #GoOpen Initiative Community Meeting in Lansing at the Department of Education.

In short, the Michigan #GoOpen initiative is about collaborating P-20 to provide equitable access to high-quality open educational resources to transform learning.  The community meeting provided an opportunity for K12, HigherEd institutions, and the Department of Education to begin discussing how the state can align resources to advance open education resources (OER).

Throughout the day, a variety of national and state initiatives were highlighted such as the National Education Technology Plan which includes elements of OER in a goal to provide opportunity for all students to be successful through effective use of technology.

The National Education Technology Plan provides a vision of transformational learning experiences powered by technology that can shrink long-standing equity and accessibility gaps.

The US Department of Education’s established a #GoOpen campaign to create an organized movement around OER and their definition is:

#GoOpen campaign encourages states, school districts and educators to use openly licensed educational materials to transform teaching and learning.

Regarding the national #GoOpen campaign, there are 4 Michigan school districts that are part of the USA Department of Education Office of Educational Technology’s #GoOpen Launch program:

• Dryden Community Schools, MI
• Marlette Community Schools, MI
• Marysville Public Schools, MI
• Mona Shores Public Schools, MI
• Wayland Union Schools, MI

These school districts, along with the state’s Top 10 in 10 vision for “putting Michigan on the map as a premier education state”, has brought together the Michigan Department of Education, Library of Michigan, Open Michigan (U of M), GVSU, Lansing Community College, Michigan Colleges Online, and many other K-12 educational organizations in the establishment of a state organized #GoOpen Initiative.

The State of Michigan’s #GoOpen definition is:

#GoOpen Michigan is a community where educators and learners can access freely licensed, high-quality digital resources to enable equitable transformative learning experiences [for P-20].

Stay tuned for more news about this initiative and you can learn more about using #OER and the services/support/resources available to faculty through the GVSU open education resources initiative web site.

Winter Seminars from eLearning

The eLearning team is here to support faculty pursuing innovation in teaching and learning!

We have a variety of sessions designed to help you best leverage technology in your teaching. View our Winter 2017 Workshops brochure for a complete list of sessions.

Here are just a few of the topics covered in the Winter semester seminars:

• Blackboard Essentials, Grade Center, Assessments, SafeAssign, and Collaborate Ultra
• Foundations of Online/Hybrid Course Development
• Introduction to Camtasia 9
• Engaging Learning through Online Discussion
• How to Edit and Manipulate Digital Images
• and more!

Can’t make it to a seminar? No problem! Please feel free to reach out to the eLearning team for help or assistance in best leveraging technology in teaching.

Here is to a wonderful start of the Winter semester!