Academic Innovation Blog

Enroll a trusted faculty to your course shell

In this difficult transition, support from your fellow faculty is critical. Did you know this support can extend into your course shell? This access can help them see what obstacles you may be facing and further enable them to assist you. Of course, when you have received the help you need you can unenroll them.

Check out the following video on how to enroll and unenroll a trusted faculty member into your Falcon Online course shell from the Classlist:

Reach out to an eMentor faculty member

Another source of faculty support are the eMentors in each academic department. A number of these faculty also serve as a Peer Reviewer for fully online courses and work very closely with the Division of Online Studies. Please consider reaching out to one of these fantastic faculty for questions you may have about transitioning your curriculum online.

We are here to support you

As always, consider subscribing to this blog to stay up-to-date with any news, tips & tricks, and more from the Division of Online Studies and the Faculty Innovation Center (FIC). Feel free to book an appointment with one of us or reach out by email at fic@daytonastate.edu or phone at 386-506-3485.

Jasmine Checchi
Instructional Designer, Division of Online Studies
jasmine.checchi@daytonastate.edu | 386-506-4278
Online Studies | Faculty Innovation Center (FIC)

Adding your voice to a PowerPoint presentation can be an effective tool when transitioning to online learning. It provides context for your material and personalizes your students' online experience by being able to hear their instructor's voice.

This video explains how to add voice overs to your existing PowerPoints, save them in video format, and add them to your course content in Falcon Online. (Note: if you are prompted to sign in to view this video, use your DSC email and password using the Sign In link).

To check out more resources about creating video and uploading it to video platforms like Stream or YouTube, check out the Let's Keep Teaching InfoGuide video page. Also, email or call (386) 506-4240 Instructional Resources for more media assistance.

Krissy Leonard
Senior Professor
School of Student Life Skills
Daytona State College
krissy.leonard@daytonastate.edu | 386-506-3018 

The Division of Online Studies values the health and safety of both our staff and faculty. With COVID-19 continuing to spread, we have made the decision to close the physical location of the FIC starting Wednesday, March 25th. Cheryl, Aaron, Jasmine, Kris and I will be running the FIC remotely and will provide every opportunity for you to receive the excellent service you have come to expect from us. A few of us have already been working remotely and have been able to assist faculty just as easily as if you were in our office.

Skype for Business will be an important and useful tool, as it will allow us face-to-face contact and enable screen-sharing capabilities. Please visit the Let's Keep Teaching InfoGuide Skype page for more directions on how to download this program. In the video below, Jasmine has created this visual guide to installation.

You can still reach us at (386) 506-3485, so give us a call, email, Skype...and stay safe! 

Pam Ortiz
Administrative Specialist, Division of Online Studies
pamela.ortiz@daytonastate.edu
386-506-3638
http://www.daytonastate.edu/onlinestudies/

Greetings everyone at DSC! My name is Kris, and I am the new Instructional Designer here at the college! I’m here to help professors build out their online courses and assist students with the transition to taking online courses for the first time. By Daytona State College deciding to put a huge emphasis on online classes, we are ahead of the curve in the state of Florida for building excellent online programs.

I have previously worked in higher education in a technology-based position at a different institution. I am excited to be back in the field of higher education and look forward to serving our professors, students, and community in and around DSC.

Thanks to those members of DSC I have already had the pleasure of meeting! This college truly has the most kind and generous employees in the world. I couldn’t ask for a better place to be employed. Be sure to stay updated with the Faculty Innovation Center and all the new tools and presentations that will help make your teaching experience even better. I look forward to working with you in the future!

Kris Browne
Instructional Designer 1, Division of Online Studies
Kristian_browne@daytonastate.edu
386-506-4277
http://www.daytonastate.edu/onlinestudies/

Easing your transition to online teaching during these unprecedented times is paramount for us. It is important we empower you to be able to teach your students effectively in the online environment. To accomplish this, we will be conducting additional evening sessions of our Falcon Online Q&A webinar. We understand that daytime hours may be a hindrance for some, and we would like to give all faculty equal opportunity to benefit from this helpful learning opportunity.

Times for all sessions are as follows:

• Monday: 7-8pm (Aaron Sunday)
• Tuesday: 7-8pm (Krissy Leonard, School of Student Life Skills)
• Wednesday: 7-8pm (Jasmine)
• Thursday: 7-8pm (Cheryl Kohen)
• Sunday: 7-8pm (Cheryl)

Please visit out Let's Keep Teaching InfoGuide to register for these sessions and for more resources on transitioning your classes to an online environment.

Pam Ortiz
Administrative Specialist, Division of Online Studies
pamela.ortiz@daytonastate.edu
386-506-3638
http://www.daytonastate.edu/onlinestudies/

I know this is a crazy time, so I'm hoping these tips will be helpful. This is mostly for full time faculty, but adjunct faculty may find it useful, too.

1. Spectrum is offering free broadband and WiFi to students who do not already have it. 
2. You can change your outgoing office voicemail message from home.
   • Call your phone number and wait for the voicemail to start.
   • Press *
   • When asked to enter your ID, do not enter your employee ID like you would if you were in your office. The ID they want is simply your 4-digit extension.
   • Enter your normal PIN that you use to check VM.
   • Follow the options to change and activate your alternate greeting.
3. Publishers are being extremely helpful and generous right now by offering free access to their online tools. I know McGraw-Hill and Pearson are giving free access to Connect and Mastering/MyLab, but I haven't looked into other publishers.
   • Using one of these online platforms is probably the quickest, easiest way to transition your F2F class online. There are test banks you can use to generate online quizzes and tests, complete electronic textbooks, and assignments that encourage (force) students to engage with the material.
   • If you use a McGraw-Hill textbook (or want to), look for an email from Jeanette Thomas from McGraw-Hill with the subject "F2F Classes Canceled?"
   • If you use a Pearson textbook (or want to), look for an email from Megan Cowart called "Pearson Update: Mastering & MyLab Access."
4. You can also use Falcon Online to create and offer tests to your students, but you will have to enter the questions manually. I have never been able to get the question importer to work, but maybe you can!
   • It's best NOT to use the "New Quiz" button. Enter your questions into the Question Library instead. 
5. Take a minute to create a HELP forum and topic in the discussions area of Falcon Online. Subscribe to the topic and update your notifications so you know when someone posts there for help. I prefer instant notifications in the Falcon Online toolbar so the notification doesn't get buried in my email. Students who aren't familiar with online learning may have a lot of questions. In my help forum, I encourage students to answer and help each other. This will decrease the number of panicked emails clogging your inbox. 
6. Communicate as much as you can with your students. I don't know about you, but my plans going forward are a little fuzzy. You don't have to tell them that, but you should tell them about the methods/assignments/discussions/etc. that you have decided on as soon as you can.
7. This ties into #6, but you don't have to have everything ready for the rest of the semester by Sunday night. You just need to stay one step ahead of them. I know we all want to have everything ready, especially with the fear that we will get sick, but don't stress yourself out with unreasonable expectations.
8. Reach out for help from me, other eMentors, other faculty who have experience teaching online, and the Faculty Innovation Center. Click through the Let's Keep Teaching InfoGuide for more tutorials and resources.

Dr. Diana Tata
Associate Professor
School of Biological and Physical Sciences
Daytona State College
diana.tata@daytonastate.edu | 386-506-3984 

The Division of Online Studies and Department of Instructional Resources wants our faculty to know that we are doing everything in our power to ease this transition to online instruction. We understand this process may be causing anxiety for those instructors less familiar with the online modality, but we are here to provide as much information and answer as many questions you need to ask in order to feel comfortable with this unfamiliar situation.

Please start by visiting our new Let's Keep Teaching InfoGuide. Here, you will find links to schedule an appointment with an instructional designer, register for upcoming workshops, or contact an eMentor.

We're here to support during this transition and beyond.

Pam Ortiz
Administrative Specialist, Division of Online Studies
pamela.ortiz@daytonastate.edu
386-506-3638
http://www.daytonastate.edu/onlinestudies/

As the College continues to monitor the spread of COVID-19, the Division of Online Studies and Instructional Resources Department has compiled a list of helpful links, resources, and reminders to share as we all prepare for a range of possible scenarios. First, as always, please know that the Faculty Innovation Center is a resource to you. Until further notice, we will remain open 8am - 5pm, Monday - Friday. Also, continue to look for resources about distance learning best practices, tools, resources, and updates from the Online Studies site.

If you need help getting reacclimated to the functionality of Falcon Online course shells, click around the Falcon Online InfoGuide. This is a helpful tool for you as faculty, but also to share with your students who might have only taken face-to-face classes and need some assistance using the virtual classroom space. As you look at your Falcon Online shell, remember that all default homepages have an instructor profile widget. If you haven't yet, please look at our updating your instructor profile widget blog post, by Bill Harrison, which walks you through using this widget.

Online synchronous meeting tools are another great way to engage with students virtually if you need them. The conducting virtual office hours blog post, written by Dr. Theresa Moore, with documentation created by Aaron Sunday, walks through several online tools you can use to conduct virtual meetings with our learners. Additionally, check out Aaron's blog about communication tools in Falcon Online if you want more examples of online engagement through Falcon Online.

For a (somewhat) quick catch up with Online Studies and Instructional Resources, watch (49.28 min) our Spring 2020 welcome back meeting. Also, reach out to the eMentor in your department, or eMentor you know. They are a wonderful group of peer faculty who have extensive experience in the digital environment. Lastly, please look for updates from the Division of Online Studies and Instructional Resources. We will continue to communicate as effectively as we can, so you can communicate as effectively as you can with your learners. 

Cheryl Kohen
Director, Division of Online Studies
cheryl.kohen@daytonastate.edu
386-506-3405
http://www.daytonastate.edu/onlinestudies/