Fall 2015 Instructional Training Schedule

• The Online Teacher Training Course is required of all online and hybrid course instructors.
• This course is designed to help those who are preparing to teach an online course for the first time at Ventura College or who want to be certified to teach online courses at Ventura College in the near future.
• This course introduces you to implementing online teaching strategies, using best teaching practices for online education, and our online course management system: Desire To Learn.  The course is four weeks in length, and it can be completed remotely from a location your choice.
• You will need to allow about five hours a week to stay on task and you can move ahead in the course at your own pace.
• The last Fall Training Session was in October and had sessions online and in person. The Spring Schedule will be announced by January 10th 2016.
• Please contact Matthew Moore and/or Sharon Oxford for further information.
• Instructors completing the course will see the recognition of completion next to their name on the online schedule.

Instructional Technology Trainings @ Ventura College:  Fall 2015

Location: Offered in LRC Studio (LRC 136) with live sessions via CCC Confer Online Web Conferencing for remote attendees.  Sessions will be recorded.

Session Length: One Hour

Training Topics and Descriptions

D2L Gradebook – Wed Sept 23^rd @ 3:30 pm:  As an instructor, you can determine how to set up your grade book to best reflect your approach to evaluation, including the grading system and grade scheme that is most appropriate for your course. You can select how grades display to students, how they update in the grade book, and how you want to deal with ungraded items.  Let’s investigate the details of the gradebook tool in D2L.

D2L Discussions – Friday Sept 25^th @ 10:00 am: Use the discussions tool in your course to encourage users to share thoughts on course material with their peers. You can set up forums and topics for users to ask questions, discuss course content and assignments, and work together in assigned groups and sections. Learn from other great discussions that your colleagues have created.

D2L Design Time – Friday Sept 25^th @ 11:00 am:  During this hour the LRC Studio will be open for general questions about Desire to Learn.  Bring your laptop, questions, and materials, and let’s work on your course shells and learn from each other.

D2L Quizzes – Tuesday Sept 29^th @ 3:30 pm: The Quizzes tool enables you to create and manage points-measured assessments. As part of your quantifiable assessment procedures, you can use quizzes to help evaluate users' learning progress and learning outcomes. Create and manage quiz questions from the Question Library or the Quizzes tool, and organize quizzes into categories to make it easier to find assessments with similar or related content. You can also randomize questions, questions answers, and the question pool to create unique tests per student.

Lecture Capture – Friday October 9^th @ 10:00 am: Let’s investigate the resources that you have available to you to capture well designed lessons on difficult content.  You can try our interactive lecture capture board, an iPad, bring your own laptop, download free software, and podcast to help your students learn difficult material.

D2L Design Time – Friday October 9^th @ 11:00 am:  During this hour the LRC Studio will be open for general questions about Desire to Learn.  Bring your laptop, questions, and materials, and let’s work on your course shells and learn from each other.

iPads in the Classroom – Wednesday 14^th@ 3:30 pm:  Have you ever wanted to use iPads in the classroom but need help designing and implementing a lesson?  Visit us in the LRC Studio to see what we can offer you in terms of direction, guidance, research, classroom space, and student worker support.

Online Web Conferencing Tools –Friday Oct 16^th @ 10:00 am: Whether you teach online, a hybrid class, or a web enhanced class, there are times when a web conference could come in handy.  Office hours, meeting time, and review sessions are all popular uses of web conferencing tools.  Did you know how many free ones are available to you?  Come explore CCC Confer, Google Hangouts, Zoom, Skype, and many more.

D2L Design Time – Friday October 16^th @ 11:00 am: During this hour the LRC Studio will be open for general questions about Desire to Learn.  Bring your laptop, questions, and materials, and let’s work on your course shells and learn from each other.

Effective and Regular Contact – Building an Online Community – Tuesday October 27^th @ 3:30 pm:  An accreditation standard for distance education roughly states that courses offered as distance education must include regular effective contact between instructor and students, through group or individual meetings, orientation and review sessions, supplemental seminar or study sessions, field trips, library workshops, telephone contact, correspondence, voice mail, email, or other activities.  Let’s brainstorm how you can meet those goals with the tools and resources at your disposal.

D2L Web Enhancing your on Campus Course – Friday October 30^th @ 10:00 am:  Desire to Learn, our course management system, is set up to have various levels of access depending upon your usage.  If you currently have a lite shell and you would like to collect assignments via a drop box, add quizzes for students to take anywhere anytime, or want to create discussion boards to capture your students wonderful work,  visit us in the LRC Training Studio to discuss your options to use more advanced features in Desire to Learn.

D2L Design Time – Friday October 30^th @ 11:00 am: During this hour the LRC Studio will be open for general questions about Desire to Learn.  Bring your laptop, questions, and materials, and let’s work on your course shells and learn from each other.

ADA Compliance – Wednesday Nov 4^th @ 3:30 pm:  Among the various pieces of legislation that speak to the need for an accessible information environment, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 is the most relevant for colleges and universities.  Let’s examine some of the tools and the resources that are available to you to meet the needs of your students in an online, hybrid, and/or web enhanced class.

D2L Tools and Widgets – Friday Nov 6^th @ 10:00 am:  If you currently have a web enhanced, hybrid, or online course, you have a full shell that incorporates widgets or the windows inside the browser.  These widgets can be tailored, customized, and arranged in various ways.  You can also turn on and off certain tools that you use frequently or never.  Let’s examine how you can design the look and feel of your course so that it is tailored for you unique class.

D2L Design Time – Friday Nov 6^th @ 11:00 am: During this hour the LRC Studio will be open for general questions about Desire to Learn.  Bring your laptop, questions, and materials, and let’s work on your course shells and learn from each other.