USM OnTrack: New Quality Matters January Workshops Added!

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 17:20:12 -0500
online-learning, professional-development, qm, quality-matters, usm

USM OnTrack has added additional Quality Matters workshops in high-demand topics for the January 2021!

Quality Matters January 2021 Workshops

Registration Now Open!

Registration is now open for our January Quality Matters workshop series. These dedicated workshops are being offered at no cost to all USM faculty through USM OnTrack. Please note workshops have a maximum registration of 30 people, so please encourage your colleagues to register early.

2-Step Instructions for Self-Registering for USM OnTrack QM Workshops

Step 1. Go to https://www.qmprogram.org/myqm/ and sign in if you have a QM account or click "No, I am new here" to create an account.

Step 2. Once signed in, click here https://www.usmd.edu/cai/register-qm-workshops for a listing of USM OnTrack QM Workshops and to register (using the corresponding link on the right side of the table).

Date | Time | Title | Description

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

9:00-11:00 a.m.

Introductions and Overviews: Helping Learners Get Started

This workshop explores methods you can use to ensure your learners get off on the right foot. Participants will learn why it is important to provide clear instructions for learners on how to get started in the course, how to navigate the site, the purpose of the course, posting a self-introduction, and having learners introduce themselves. The participants will create a mock-up of a “Getting Started” page and a “Self-Introduction” during the workshop.

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

1:00-3:00 p.m.

Active Learning Strategies

This workshop explores learning preferences, active learning, and strategies to promote active learning in online or blended courses. Participants will determine their own learning reference, discuss active learning, discuss types of interaction and determine how to select active learning activities that align with their course-level/module-level objectives. Participants will complete an Alignment Check worksheet using their own objectives to incorporate active learning.

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

9:00-11:00 a.m.

Developing Activities to Engage Your Learners

In this workshop, participants discuss ways to engage learners through activities that vest them in their learning. Group activities that align with the course objectives and require active learner involvement will be discussed. Participants will explore how to align learning activities with learning objectives, discuss challenges and opportunities around active group projects, identify methods of designing group work that engage learners, and problem solve different methods and examples for creating engaging online group activities.

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

1:00-3:00 p.m.

Setting Expectations and Learner Support: Helping Learners be Successful

This workshop addresses the importance of providing learners with online interaction guidelines, required policies explaining learner and instructor expectations, technology requirements and technical skills they will need, and how to locate and access Learner Support Services. Participants will create the following four statements during the workshop, “Netiquette Guidelines for Discussion Activities,” an “Attendance Policy,” a statement for “Technology Requirements and Skills,” and a statement about one of these Services (Technical, Accessibility, Student, or Academic Support).

Thursday, January 7, 2021

9:00-11:00 a.m.

Rethinking Content for Online Classroom

This workshop will present considerations and strategies for online course content, including reconceptualizing traditional lectures, attending to content strategy, aligning content to learning objectives, and elevating teaching presence. Participants will leave with concrete, actionable takeaways for creating online instructional material, locating Open Educational Resources (OER), and ensuring that materials are aligned with assessments.

Thursday, January 7, 2021

1:00-3:00 p.m.

Communicating New Policies for Online Courses

This workshop explores classroom and institution policies you can include right away to ensure your learners are successful and stay on the right track. You will create a netiquette policy and an attendance policy and locate the privacy policy for a tool you’re currently using in your online or blended course.

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

9:00-11:00 a.m.

Creating Accessible Word Docs

This workshop prepares participants to create accessible documents using Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word is one of the most widely used word processing applications. Instructors use Microsoft Word to share documents with their learners but may not be aware of the accessibility issues learners with disabilities may be confronted with. Learn how to use the accessibility features in Word to quickly create documents that will be usable for the majority of your students.

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

1:00-3:00 p.m.

Creating Accessible PDF Documents and Forms

This workshop prepares participants to create accessible PDF documents and forms. Portable Document Format (PDF) is an open standard for electronic document exchange. Learners can view PDFs on any platform including mobile. PDFs look just like the original document and retain the source file information but are only as accessible as the original file.

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

9:00-11:00 a.m.

Ensuring Accessible Multimedia

This workshop explains how to use YouTube videos, animations, and audio as engaging instructional materials that are accessible. These tools should be beneficial to all your students. But are they? Students who are deaf or ESL can miss audio content that is not presented in alternative form. Blind students will miss visual content that is not presented in an alternative form.

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

1:00-3:00 p.m.

Captioning Videos

This workshop explores how to use YouTube and Amara to add closed captioning quickly and easily to videos. Closed captioning your videos will not only benefit learners with disabilities but can improve learning for learners with a range of other needs or strengths. During the workshop, you'll add closed captions to a video you are currently using or want to include in your course. Participants need a YouTube account prior to the workshop and need to have a video uploaded to their account to close caption. For Amara, participants need to have an account created and the URL of a video they want to close caption for a course they are teaching.

Thursday, January 14, 2021

9:00-11:00 a.m.

Providing Accessible Web Content

This workshop will help you develop accessible web content for your blended or online course. Learn the importance and methods for providing accessible content for all your learners. During this session you will learn the basics of HTML, creating good alt-tags or captions for images, graphs, and tables, and alternative methods for developing content that relies on color for communicating.

Thursday, January 14, 2021

1:00-3:00 p.m.

Communicating New Policies for Online Courses

This workshop explores classroom and institution policies you can include right away to ensure your learners are successful and stay on the right track. You will create a netiquette policy and an attendance policy and locate the privacy policy for a tool you’re currently using in your online or blended course.

There is no cost for any USM faculty or staff member to attend these workshops, but each workshop does have a 30-person limit, so please sign up as soon as possible!

QM Coordinator information:

Dr. Sherri Braxton - University of Maryland-Baltimore County

sbraxton@umbc.edu