Office of Digital Education
Giving Effective Feedback
Feedback is an essential part of a student's development and is often one of the most time consuming things that an instructor can do...but did you know that not all feedback is effective? This research-based workshop will help you learn to leverage your time, various instructional tools, and resources. By the end, you'll be able to give feedback that is meaningful, efficient and helps the student work towards meeting set goals on their own.
More on Giving Effective FeedbackCreating and Using Rubrics
Rubrics are an extremely powerful and effective teaching tool that help save time when you grade and give students clear criteria that they can use to self-evaluate. In this class we will learn about the three most common types of rubrics that are used for grading, including a type of rubric called a single-point rubric that can be used to grade work where the parameters for success are not clearly defined and change from student to student. In addition to this, we'll workshop a new rubric or a rubric that you are already using, learn how to use it for student self-reflection and benchmarking, and learn how to use the rubric tool by putting it up on blackboard.
More on Creating and Using RubricsFlipping the classroom
The flipped classroom, at its core, is an instructional model where students gain their first exposure to learning prior to class and focus on the processing and higher level thinking in class where they can be guided by the instructor. This workshop will help you learn the mechanics of flipping and work with you to strategize to present materials before class in ways that make sense and ensure that your students will do the work and come to class prepared.
More on Flipping the classroomFrom syllabus to Grade Center
Blackboard's Grade Center is a powerful, easy-to-use tool that can help you track student performance in any course. In this class we'll start with a syllabus and build out a full Grade Center from there. We'll talk about some schemes for using Blackboard to track face-to-face activities like participation and attendance. We'll look at different ways to manage categories that have lots of columns, and we'll discuss how the Grade Center can be set up to help you easily identify and contact students who are underperforming. Bring your own syllabus questions and so we can figure out solutions together!
More on From syllabus to Grade CenterClass and room management
Every instructor and meeting facilitator has had a session where the room just got away. Before you knew it, you were out of time and you hadn’t even covered what was most important! Maybe participants didn’t listen or disregarded the instructions, the conversation collapsed or someone dominated the group discussion or no one wanted to speak at all. Fortunately, there are tried-and-true ways to handle all of these situations. This workshop teaches eight specific room management strategies to faculty and administrators to strengthen their facilitation skills. Whether you are managing a large lecture hall of students, a table of faculty working to come to consensus over an issue, or a small group of students you will find something that will make facilitating meetings and classes easier.
More on Class and room managementKeeping up with what they know: integrating formative assessment in the classroom
Incorporating formative assessments into your teaching not only informs your instruction but it can improve student engagement and encourage critical reflection. This workshop will teach you assessment strategies that you can use right away in your classes and also help you coach your students to use the formative data to their advantage as well.
More on Keeping up with what they know: integrating formative assessment in the classroomStepping Up Your Lecture Game
The current story around lecturing is that it is bad and boring, ineffective, and should be avoided at all costs. But the truth of the matter is, sometimes a lecture is the best way to communicate a concept or process. The question then becomes: how can we make our lectures more effective? In this session we will look at some strategies and techniques that you can use to make your lectures more engaging and memorable, whether you're lecturing online or in the classroom.
More on Stepping Up Your Lecture Game
Roundtable Discussion
Our Faculty Round Table is a time for you to sit and chat with other faculty and the Instructional Design Studio. Come have a cup of coffee and ask questions, get answers, and share your experience. Each session will have a topic selected based current trends and concerns in higher education.
More on Roundtable DiscussionAR / VR in the Classroom
Augmented reality and virtual reality has taken off in the higher education classroom. Over the last five years, use of VR has increased 85% in educational settings. There are some great case studies and examples of best practices emerging from instructors all over the world. This workshop walks you through several exampls of how innovative instructors have used this in their own classrooms and shows you how to incorporate this into your own classroom in simple, easy-to-access ways.
More on AR / VR in the ClassroomOrganizing Your Course Materials in Blackboard
Have you ever wondered how to best layout and structure a module or unit in Blackboard? This 50-minute hands on workshop will teach you how to create content, embed videos, use selective release, and organize your units in a way that is supported by Adult Learning Theory.
More on Organizing Your Course Materials in BlackboardService Learning in the Classroom
University of Detroit Mercy, a Catholic university in the Mercy and Jesuit traditions, believes that compassion starts the engine of learning and engagement. In this session, led by Fr. Tim Hipskind, Director of Service Learning at Detroit Mercy's Institute for Service and Leadership, you'll learn what Service Learning means at Detroit Mercy, how you can incorporate it into your courses, and how the Institute for Leadership and Service can provide support.
More on Service Learning in the ClassroomApplying Ignatian Pedagogy
Based in St. Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Exercises, Ignatian pedagogy is a student-centered approach to teaching and learning that incorporates five key elements: context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation. In this session you'll learn what these terms mean in the context of Ignatian pedagogy, and how you can incorporate them to your course design.
More on Applying Ignatian PedagogyTeaching Basics
This workshop is designed to get new and early career faculty up to speed for the new year! You’ll learn basic classroom management techniques and essential start-of-the-year survival skills. IDS will cover basic room management techniques like proximity and leveled questioning along with other tips and tricks to help create a classroom culture of learning and engagement. Experienced faculty are also welcome at this workshop if they would like to attend.
More on Teaching BasicsOnline Instruction: Pedagogy and Practice
This seven-week hybrid class will give you the opportunity to hone your online instruction strategies. This class takes a deeper dive into the mechanics behind planning an engaging, interactive, and student centered online class. We’ll cover topics like active learning, formative and summative assessments, and instructor presence. We’ll spend the in-person sessions mapping our courses and sharing ideas with each other.
The course is designed for instructors of all skill levels, from the new instructor to someone who has been teaching for a while and wants an infusion of new ideas and streamlined strategies. Even if you are not teaching fully online course, you are welcome to enroll. Many of the instructors in the previous cohort were surprised by how much information from the course worked in their face-to-face classes, too.
More on Online Instruction: Pedagogy and PracticeUnderstanding how Students Use Textbooks: Lessons from the Research
One of the most common issues facing faculty at the university level is that students never seem to read their textbooks. As a result, fully utilizing the textbook in a course is a challenge. One landmark study on textbook use found that high school and university students struggle to use the assigned texts as a learning tool but community college students perform noticeably better. This workshop will explain why that is, outline how students use textbooks, and provide you with strategies to encourage and teach students to use their books more effectively in your courses.
More on Understanding how Students Use Textbooks: Lessons from the ResearchCoaching your Students to Give Quality Peer Feedback
Peer review can feel challenging to implement but when it’s facilitated well students are able to engage with each other and the material at a high level. This workshop will show you how to incorporate peer review into any course, design the review process so it’s effective for your population of students, and coach your students as they work through the peer review process.
More on Coaching your Students to Give Quality Peer FeedbackIntroduction to Blackboard Portfolios
If you're using or considering using a portfolio for your course or program, Blackboard's Portfolio tool may be right for you. In this session, we go through how build and share a multi-page, multi-part Portfolio in Blackboard. Once we've got a handle on the basics, we'll talk about when a Blackboard Portfolio would be useful and how best to implement it.
More on Introduction to Blackboard PortfoliosActive Learning for your Online and Offline Classes
Are you wondering how to incorporate active learning into your class but struggle to come up with activities to incorporate into your sessions? Come join us for an hour of brainstorming and gameplay. We'll start out with a brief chat about the importance of active learning and then move on to a card game where we turn your learning objectives into class activities.
More on Active Learning for your Online and Offline ClassesInclusive Design: Creating Accessible Course Content
This 50-minute workshop covers both accessible course design and delivery. During the worship, we will learn how to design and incorporate accessible course content right from the start using principals of Universal Design for Instruction (UDI). We will cover creating accessible documents using common software, media selection, and curriculum and content design. Each participant will leave with strategies to make their class more accessible to all learners.
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:
- Discern what materials might create accessibility challenges
- Create content using common software that is accessible
- Structure an online course in a way that is accessible to students
- Implement multi-modal learning strategies
Cheating Prevention: SafeAssign, Lockdown, & More
Whether you're giving a paper test or collecting assignments online, there are measures you can put into place to discourage students from cheating. In this workshop, we'll discuss some of the most common ways students try to cheat and how to prevent it. Examples include randomizing questions in an online quiz so each student gets a different version, using Lockdown Browser to make it harder for students to screen share or copy questions, and scanning written work for plagiarized text using SafeAssign. More on Cheating Prevention: SafeAssign, Lockdown, & MorePedagogy in Practice: Teaching Online and Face-to-Face
Engagement: 4 weeks (12-16 hours total), 3 synchronous sessions
NOTE: This course is designed to accompany faculty course development. Estimated course development time for a 3 credit course is 135 hours for an instructor-led course; 180 hours for an online course with interactive learning; and 450 hours for an online course with advanced interaction. This course will focus on the following aspects of teaching pedagogy:
- Design a course rooted in Ignatian and Mercy pedagogical principles, building an experience grounded in self-reflection and care for the whole person.
- Plan and teach online courses that take into consideration the needs of a diverse student population to ensure everyone has a high quality, learning-outcomes based experience.
- Plan and teach in a flexible hybrid (HyFlex) environment where any number of learners may be engaging in online or face-to-face instruction.
- Write measurable instructional objectives that take learning goals and knowledge into consideration.
- Understand the importance of reflection in the learning cycle.
- Design instructor presence and individual care into a HyFlex course.
- Incorporate lecture best practices or find alternatives to lectures.
- Incorporate student reflection into courses.
- Write discussion board prompts that engage students in higher-level thinking.
- Facilitate group work in an online and HyFlex environment.
- Create formative/summative assessments that align with instructional objectives and generate usable feedback.
- Incorporate purposeful, meaningful activities into a course outline.
Online Accessibility: Creating Inclusive Course Content
In this 50-minute workshop, we will cover practical ways to create content that can be accessed by all students. We will cover creating and uploading accessible documents, adding captions to our online lectures, and practical tips for using Blackboard in a way that opens doors for all learners. Each participant will leave with strategies to make their class more accessible to all learners.
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:
- Discern what materials might create accessibility challenges
- Create content using common software that is accessible
- Structure an online course in a way that is accessible to students
- Implement multi-modal learning strategies