Welcome to D2LJump into the new world of Desire-2Learn this semester!

Our Talented New FacultyThe New Faculty Orientation was a huge success

How to Write a Good AssignmentDr. Cara Minardi shares tips on cre-ating effective written assignments

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Promoting a Creative Learning Environment

Campus Tech NewsNew FacultyOrientationGautam Saha reflects on the success of our Fall into TechnologyFair and shares some tips

TechnologyMust Have

AppsDr. Daniel Haynes explorers

mobile learning

Focus Feature

Dr. Cara MinardiHow to effectively write assignments for your class

The D2L ClassroomThe LMS DeskDavid Robinson discuss our Fall transition to Desire2Learn

From the DirectorNew Direction

in th CTEDr. Lydia Soleil is the new Director of

the Center for Teaching Excellence

PedagogyThe StudioClassroom

Tips and ideas for creating astudio styled classroom

Teacher’s edge

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CONTACT INFORMATION

Dr. Lydia SoleilDirector

lsoleil@ggc.edu678-407-5113

David RobinsonLMS Administratordrobinso@ggc.edu

678-407-5111

Gautam SahaInstructional Designer

gsaha@ggc.edu678-407-5561

Dr. Daniel HaynesEducational Training Coordinator

dhaynes1@ggc.edu678-407-5560

CENTER for TEACHING EXCELLENCE

How Can We (or You) Help ImproveTeaching and Learning at GGC?

We invite you to send us ideas for work-shops or programs you might be inter-ested in doing or having us organize. We are also willing to work with individual schools to help develop discipline-based programs. Contact Dr. Lydia Soleil to discuss any ideas: lsoleil@ggc.edu.

From the DirectorDr. Lydia Soleil joins the Grizzly family as Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence.

Fall 2012

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Campus Tech NewsReflections on our Fall into Technology Fair and tips for this Fall semester.

The LMS DeskDesire2Learn is now an integral part of delivering 21st century education at GGC.

TechnologyNew must have apps for your active and engageed classroom.

PedagogyIdeas for the Studio Teaching method

RED BORDERS

16Focus FeatureDr. Cara Minardi shares her best practices for writing effective assignments.

Welcome Back!It is the start of a new semester with new opportunities for student success

August 16, 2012 marked a new milestone in GGC history as we welcomed our new students through the March through the Arch ceremony. With 9500 students and counting, GGC is feeling the full weight of our principle of scalability. Dr. Kaufman reminded us all of our mission at his beginning of this semester’s Presidential Address. We are here, he said, “to touch the lives of each and every student regardless of our size.”

At the CTE, we want to help facilitate faculty in creating an engaging learn-ing environment that focuses on student success and touching the lives of every student. Many of you may know the technological and pedagogical tools that the CTE offers, but if you do not, please come by our offices on the second floor of the Library. We have a faculty instructional design lab, called the FIDL for short, where you can play and work with our specialists to create an engaging classroom. Also, please visit our website (cte.ggc.edu) for more tools and resources, as well as a registration page for our numer-ous faculty development workshops.

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Fall 2012

New Direction From the Director

From the DirectorDr. Lydia Soleil joins the GGC family as our new Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence. Mission

The mission of the CTE is to provide programming that

promotes the design and implementation of creative

learning environments. It supports the implementa-

tion of effective instruc-tional practices, facilitates

an environment of instruc-tional experimentation, and enhances the skills needed

to engage students in the learning process. The CTE will provide a community

forum for the exchange of ideas and innovative

instructional practices that lead to high levels of stu-

dent learning.

Dr. Lydia SoleilDirectorCenter for Teaching Excellence

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Center for Teaching ExcellenceLibrary, 2135

http://cte.ggc.educente@ggc.edu

6CTE New Direction

The Teacher’s Edge • Issue 21

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The CTE is housed in the GGC Library, a state of the art academic resource center and meeting space

We are located in second floor of the modern and beautiful LEEDS certified Library building. Our facilties boast a large conference room and an instructional technology lab outfitted with:

PC and Macintosh computers with Camtasia Studio, Adobe Suite, Imovie, Snagit, Respondus, SmartIntegrated multimedia projection systemDocument camera

Faculty Instructional Design LabFIDLCOURSE AT Y O U RF I N E T U N E

THE

7The D2L Connection THE LMS DESK

Fall 2012

A powerful new gradebook allows you to do a weighted schema without doing the math

easily embed many Web 2.0 materials right into your course content

Keep attendance in the register and let students see a real tracking of their showing up to class

Create custom homepage widgets to stay in control of how your course looks and feels.

Welcome to Desire2LearnDesire2Learn is now an integral part of delivering 21st century education at GGC.

ggc.desire2learn.com

David Robinson is GGC’s Learning Management Systems Administrator,

responsible for the day-to-day management of the

College’s Bb Vista (WebCT) environments. He works

with University System of Georgia and Blackboard

staff, and with GGC faculty and staff in all things deal-

ing with GGC LMS use. He has administered and

taught with Blackboard and WebCT since 1996. Prior to

moving into Educational Technology as a career,

David taught English as a Second Language (ESL) in

Georgia, in Egypt and in Palau.

David Robinson LMS Administrator

Center for Teaching ExcellenceLibrary, 2135

http://cte.ggc.educente@ggc.edu

8 The D2L ConnectionCTE

The Teacher’s Edge • Issue 21

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Got Grades?GGC has successfully completed our LMS transition from Blackboard Vista to Desire2Learn. Though any change in software brings a learning curve and a few surprises, overall the transition was smooth and Faculty response has been positive.

The D2L Grades tool is a big hit. Faculty are catching on to the idea that it is more efficient to post grades in D2L than to bother with another grade book — even Excel. Instructors love the fact that if they set up their grade-book to reflect the grade categories and weights stated in their syllabus, then D2L will do the math for them. If your D2L grade book is up to date, it will give students a realistic look at their current standing in your class. By clicking into the Grades tool students can see where they are — a realistic current average -- and how much is still required of them.

The “down-side” of this is that you won’t get to answer as many emails from students about their grades. I know you’ll miss that, but you’ll just have to find other things to do with your time. It really is more efficient, and something that saves time AND helps students scores high in my book.

If you haven’t done so already, come by the CTE for a Gradebook training ses-sion. If you give us an hour, we’ll give you a gradebook that works.

Min ulla feum in henim iureetue tat, ver aute vercil iril cons.www.bestindesigntemplates.com

During the Product Spotlight event at FUSION 2012, Desire2Learn’s ninth annual users’ conference, attendees got a sneak peek at some of the ex-citing new products and feature en-hancements that are on our horizon. These new advancements will help to further transform the teaching and learning experience as Desire-

2Learn remains focused on breaking down barriers, obsessing over the instructor and learner experience, and extending the open platform. Visit the website for video presenta-tions of exciting new features : www.desire2learn.com.

Desire2Learn Fusion 2012

9Fall into Technology CAMPUS TECH NEWS

Fall 2012

Blended Learning Technology: Improving Education for over 1 million students

GAUTAM SAHA spent much of his career consult-ing on technology integration with Fortune 100 companies like Unisys and Bank of America, and with federal agencies, like the Federal Reserve Bank. He then taught high school chemistry for six years, where he realized the need and potential for effec-tive instructional development to enhance teaching and learning. At Georgia Gwinnett College, his role as an Instructional Designer is focused on develop-ing best practices, instructional modules, training, professional development and consulting. Some of his interests include learning management systems, opensource applications, blended learning, interac-tive whiteboards and student response systems.

Gautam Saha, Eds.Instructional Design Specialist

Windows exam creation tool designed to be compatible with Blackboard, Ecollege and WebCT.

Please check out the faculty toolkit on our website (cte.ggc.edu) to see all of the tools available for faculty at GGC. You can click

on each tool in the visual toolkit to see what they do.

The CTE would like to thank all of the faculty who at-tended our sessions that were a part of the “Fall into Technology” event. The CTE staff enjoyed working with all of you.

As you come to the end of your second week of the semester, the CTE would like to provide you with some helpful tips and recommendations:

• Please activate your Desire to Learn (D2L) course(s) if you have not done so already. • Make sure your grade book is configured correctly in D2L• Visit the CTE site http://cte.ggc.edu for D2L resources, faculty toolkit, FAQs, SOTL resources, upcoming events and more.• Consider using Respondus to import test banks for your texbooks into your D2L courses.• Consider using Turnitin’s Grademark feature to digitally comment and review student submitted papers.• Consider using Ech0360 Lecture Capture tool to enhance student learning• Consider becoming a paperless classroom as much as possible by using the various features of D2L and other tools in your faculty toolkit (link).

The CTE is open from 7:30 AM until 7 PM on Mon-days-Thursdays and from 7:30 until 5PM on Fridays. Please stop by anytime or make an appointment. We look forward to working with you.

Fall into Technology Fair and Tips for Fall

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The Teacher’s Edge • Issue 21

The 21st Century Studio ClassroomStudio based learning does not just take place in an art school. Collaborative project-based learning combined with Just-in-Time teaching enhances the metacognative outcomes of students in all disciplines.

11The Studio Classroom PEDAGOGY

Fall 2012

Over the past couple of decades, the studio styled class-room has emerged as a popular form

of teaching methodology. While this methodology can take many forms, the main emphasis of the studio classroom is on active learning. The goal of active learning in the studio classroom format is to get students to create their own knowledge, which enhances control and ownership of knowledge instead of mere memorization.

An adult can learn anything if they first learn how to learn. Thus, the studio classroom enhances the student’s meta-cognitive skills, which turns the student into a lifelong learner and not just a master of specialized content.

In the studio classroom, students take the lead in the learning process, while instructors act as creative guides. Lectures can certainly be used, but the instructor is no longer the focus of class time, as in traditional class formats. Instead, instructors generally offer short lectures in reaction to the questions or needs of the student. The Just-in-Time teaching methodology of asking short questions or designing comprehension activities to the course material be-fore class adds to the studio format by utilizing lectures for specific responses to gaps in the student’s development of knowledge. With studio teaching, the focus is on the development of the student as a scholar more than the surmounting of content for an objective

“An adult can learn anything if they first learn how to learn.”

exam. This is why portfolios are often used in studio teaching. The student can create a tangible record of their knowl-edge, which can then be used for a job interview later!

Without the one-size fits all approach of the strictly lecture-based classroom, the studio classroom can allow flexibility in the mastering of content. Each individual student is not tied to objective exam benchmarks set for the whole class. If a student needs more time on a particu-lar subject or topic, then they can do so without worrying that they will fall behind the rest of the class. The student can truly master material on his or her own learning schedule. How would this methodology work within Georgia Gwinnett College?

One of the great features of GGC is the small classroom size, which provides ample opportunities for the instructor to interact more effective with individ-ual students. Some of the two to three hundred student classrooms at larger research universities could not offer such individualized attention from a fac-ulty member. With smaller class sizes, GGC already has the ability to facilitate a studio classroom.

As “the campus of tomorrow,” GGC is fortunate to have numerous technologi-cal resources available to faculty. We have lecture captures, SMART Podiums, and a new LMS Desire2Learn that can embed numerous 3rd party Web 2.0 content. However, these tools are only tools and are not replacements for good

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The Teacher’s Edge • Issue 21

instruction. The campus of tomorrow needs excel-lent teachers utilizing cutting edge technology to bring about the kind of change that is needed in higher education. It is not enough to just use more technology. Twenty-first century instruction must also actively draw the students into the learn-ing process. At GGC we must use our plenitude of technological tools with engaging and active teach-ing methodologies.

One technological tool for the studio class-room that I would like to highlight is the Sharp touch panel. These new giant touch panels allow faculty to interact with content in their classes

like never before. In a math course, the instruc-tor can annotate on top of the lecture slides and save the annotations to email to the class. Faculty can navigate maps and art museums with your fin-

gers. They can even watch and practice dissecting a cadaver on an eighty-inch screen!

In order for the Sharp panels to be effective in a studio classroom, the

interaction with content cannot remain at the front of the class between the panel and the instruc-tor. Bring the students up to the panel and have them do activities with it. Students could give the class a tour of a city on Bing maps or discuss a piece of artwork in the Louvre with classmates. The Sharp panels offer a studio resource for both the humanities and the sciences.

What are some activi-ties that can transform a classroom into a studio classroom? First and foremost, any activity that connects a learning objec-tive with a student in a hands-on manner will be a studio activity. Here are

Studio teaching is moving from the arts and design fields into the hard sciences and technological fields

a couple of active learning ideas to get the studio ball rolling:

Group activities and projects are great for moving in a studio direc-tion. Create puzzles and problems relating to the content that the group has to brainstorm or think through in a critical way. Encourage peer teaching and coopera-tive learning, which will prepare students for doing group projects in the real world. If pos-sible, use a computer lab room on some class days to allow students to create an interac-tive presentation. In my World Religions course, I have students create a documentary video on a major religion and then make a full website to go with the video project. The students then have a tangible product as a result of their hard col-laborative work. The key

for faculty is good design in both projects and the parameters to complete assignments.

Plan semester projects and activities in ways where knowledge from one project connects with the next one. Building knowledge clusters is a great way for students to truly understand the material and retain in-formation about it. Point out a central theme or idea common to several learning blocks that the students have to trace out and create a presen-tation.

Playing games always builds rapid discovery of knowledge and facts that can be utilized for solving problems.

Have role-playing activities, where a student takes on the role of a person or thing (e.g.,

an ecological system) affected by an issue. The activity could be repeated so that the student/s could determine the differences between the first and second rounds. In science or math based courses, an instructor could use collections of data to make the student think through both the problem and the answer to it.

Hold a gallery walk in your class with stations posing questions to the student or group. At the end of the gallery walk, the student or group can do an oral report of what they discovered in the activity. They could also use the new Sharp panels to present an interactive report.

Case based investi-gation could be used in conjunction with any of the other previously mentioned activities.

In case based inquiry, the student works in a group to come up with a persuasive response to a stated problem. A de-bate could even be held between the two groups. These types of activities strongly encourage criti-cal thinking and commu-nication skills.

All of the above ideas can be integrated into a GGC classroom. Faculty do not have to just use studio teaching. A mix of traditional lecture and studio activities could also create an effective learning environment. As the “campus of tomor-row,” GGC is already rethinking higher educa-tion through the use of cutting edge technology, but it is also important to consider the nature of education itself. The studio classroom is an innovative approach to rethinking the traditional classroom.

Dr. Daniel Haynes is the Educational Training Coordinator for the Center for Teaching Excellence at GGC. He earned his PhD in Religion from the University of Nottingham in the UK in 2011, and he has taught Humani-ties and Study Skills courses at the university level for many years, both online and in the classroom. He has a strong background in Information Systems and Web Design. His re-

search interests include pedagog-ical practices in online learning and effective use to better con-nect with the digital generation of students.

“Do not confine your children

to your own learning, for they

were born in another time.”

--Chinese Proverb

Dr. Daniel HaynesEducational Training Coordinator

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Apps for the Mobile Classroom

StudyBlue (free) integrates the best of many worlds together in one power app. Students can push class notes, textbook content, and Evernote items onto flashcards. The flashcards can then be shared on face-book.

iStudiez Pro ($0.99) is an all-in-one academic app that in-tegrates the student’s calen-dar, assignments, prioritizing, grades, GPA, and much more. The app can sync between mobile and desktop clients.

iProscrastinate ($0.99) helps students break down large tasks and assignments into easily manageable elements. Group projects can also be shared among multiple users.

Evernote (free) is still the king of the castle for taking notes or clipping whole web pages and syncing them between devices.

Pages ($9.99) is more expensive than many mobile office suites, but the functions of the Apple word processor are superior. The only catch is that exporting documents is a pain. Add a bluetooth keyboard, though, and you will not need a laptop for class.

iBooks (free) is the best book-shelf app for your textbooks in iTunes U, PDF’s of articles, or just your pleasure read-ing list. Students should also install the Kindle and Nook apps to get the greatest title options.

Get the most out of your tablet and smart phone

Student Faculty

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Fall 2012

TECHNOLOGYMust Have Apps

The Teacher’s Edge • Issue 21

Outliner ($4.99) is a help-ful tool to organize your thoughts, tasks, and projects. There are todo lists for specif-ic days or mappings for large scale projects. Plus, you can sync with dropbox.

Eclicker ($9.99) is a personal response system that will add fun interactivity to your classroom. Teachers can present opinion polls, quiz games, and more using this app. Students can participate in activities using their smartphone or laptop.

Mathematical Formula ($0.99) is a handy tool for teaching math and science. Instructors have a huge formula library for quick reference in the classroom.

Dropbox (free) is the best file syncing platform be-tween mobile and desktop clients. Many other apps can tie into a dropbox account, such as Quickoffice Pro or Goodreader. Dropbox is free, and instructors can get up to 18Gb of free storage by invit-ing students to join!

Goodreader ($4.99) is a fantastic PDF and docu-ment reader that offers extras, such as annotation and syncing between Dropbox or other webdav clients. Keep on top of academic research on the go with Goodreader.

Mendeley (free) is a mobile research client that syncs with the desktop application. Faculty can drag and drop articles from the web into their Mendeley database, import from Bibtex, Refworks and Zotero, or create their own entry. Article PDF’s can be synced with an entry and annotated using Goodreader.

Student Faculty

Assignment Grader (free) is a mobile client for Desire2Learn that allows you to grade student submissions on the iPad. The mobile view of D2L works well on the iPad already, but now you can download and grade submissions on the go.

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The Teacher’s Edge • Issue 21

Guidelines for Writing Good Assignmentsby Dr. Cara Minardi (School of Liberal Arts)

Many of us work hard to write good assignments only to realize, often when we are grading, that something in our assignment was unclear to students. While we may not be able to be clear enough for all of our students all the time, well-written assignments can help students perform bet-ter and make grading student work more pleasurable (or at least less frustrating!) for professors. No matter the dis-cipline or specific assignment, good assignments should be clear, and succinct. Length can often be a marker of clarity—assignments should be about a page long or 500 words. In order to make an assignment clear, we should connect the assignment to course learn-ing outcomes. Another ele-ment to include is the reason students are doing the work so they have a clear sense of their purpose. We should also

include detail about who the audience is, a short descrip-tion of the assignment, and an explanation of constraints (limits including page length and time) to the work we expect students to produce. Lastly, we should include details of the specific citation style we expect students to use and the rubric we will use to grade their work.

Before we start writing an assignment, we need to ask what we want from students. If we are not clear about what we want, students will rarely meet our expectations. We should ask ourselves whether the assignment is written ap-propriately for the level of the course and student ability. The tone should be warm and in-viting and instructions should be concise. If an assignment sheet is more than a page long, it may be an indication

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17Guideliness for Writing Good Assignments FOCUS FEATURE

Fall 2012

“The pen is the tongue of the mind.” --Miguel de Cervantes

“Before we start writing an assignment, we need to ask what we want from students. If we are not clear about what we want, stu-dents will rarely meet our expectations.“

that instructions are not clear and that the assignment needs revision. Of course, it t is always a good idea to have someone read our assignments in order to catch any errors or con-fusing directions. We should generally include the following elements in an assignment sheet:

Learning outcomes that explicitly make connections between the as-signment, what students have learned, and what they should be able to dem-onstrate in their work. For example, one outcome for students in English 1101 is that they should be able to incorporate direct quotes, summaries, and paraphrases correctly to support their essays. Include these course out-comes on assignment sheets.

The purpose of an assignment tells students what they are supposed to do, and as such, should be expressed as a verb (i.e. explain, describe, argue, respond, summarize, analyze etc.). The purpose of the assignment should fit the format. For example, if students are supposed to synthesize several sources in a research paper, call it a research paper.

Also explain who the audience is so students will know how formally to present their work. Is the assign-ment meant to be read by a profes-sor or by peers? Where will the piece be read? Is the piece meant to be published on a website or will it be a traditional paper-copy (or drop box submission)? Including a line or

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Effective writing can be one of the biggest obstacles to a college education.

two about audience will help students determine what they can assume readers will or will not know, and will help them shape the content, style, and diction of the assignment they pro-duce.

Students also find it helpful to see a de-scription of the assignment. I often summarize what we have done up to the assignment to remind and focus their atten-tion. It can be helpful to include some ques-tions students might use to frame their

thinking. These ques-tions will function as research questions that can guide thinking; questions often give

students a place to start. When providing choices for students, it is best to offer no more than two

or three to avoid overwhelm-ing students. In the description area, we should also list any constraints. For example, are there constraints in sources (which sources or the number of sources students may use), in page length, or other aspects of student work?

Include the requirements of the citation style students should use. Students may not know that citation styles differ or that they change, and may use incorrect or older versions than we might like. Listing the elements of a citation style can avoid confusion and frustration for students and professors alike.

Checksheets from Writing Across the Curriculum: http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop10e.cfm

How to Write a Good Assignment Brief: http://www.wlv.ac.uk/Default.aspx?page=29901 Designing Effective Assignments by Hildy Miller: http://writing.umn.edu/tww/assign-ments/designing.html MIT’s Writing and Humanistic Studies: http://writing.mit.edu/wcc/resources/teachers/createwritingassignments Designing Writing Assignments that Promote Thinking by William Pierce: http://aca-demic.pg.cc.md.us/~wpeirce/MCCCTR/design.html

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Internationalization of the Curriculum

FOCUS FEATUREGuideliness for Writing Good Assignments

Fall 2012

Minardi earned her Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition from Georgia State Univer-sity in 2011. Her pedagogy is critical and liberatory following the work of Mike Rose and bell hooks, and Susan Jarratt, among others. She hopes to inspire students to take ownership of their learning through the use of personal reflection and in col-laboration with others for the enrichment of themslves and the communities to which they belong.

Interested in the history of rhetoric, women’s studies and feminist theory, her scholarly work is concerned with the pedagogical and rhetorical activities of ancient women. Her feminist historiogra-phy of Hypatia of Alexandria (350-415) re-veals that women taught and engaged in rhetorical activities in a variety of contexts in the ancient Mediterranean beginning as early as 6 BCE.

There are 37 study rooms that can be used for group and project work. The Library and Learn-ing Center houses the Academic Enhancement Center, Quiet Reading Room, Heritage Lecture Room and the Center for Teaching Excellence. Additionally, Jazzman’s Cafe is located on the main floor and serves light refreshments.

Recently awarded the gold-level certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leader-ship in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, the Library promotes the whole-building approach to sustainability by recogniz-ing performance in six key areas of human and environmental health. GGC’s Library is the first academic library in Georgia to achieve LEED Gold certification.

Dr. Cara MinardiAsst. Prof. of English

SpotlightThe GGC Library“We don’t believe in preserving the status quo. So we don’t.”

The 90,000 square-foot Library has a capacity for 300,000 volumes.

To be as transparent as possible, we should also include a rubric that details what we expect and how student work will be graded. The rubric should be orga-nized so that the most important element will appear first. For ex-ample, if students are writing papers we might list thesis, support, orga-nization, mechanics, and citation style, in that or-der to reflect what we value. We should grade assignments the way we promise we will in our rubrics. Lastly, make sure to provide a writ-ten assignment sheet to handout in class and up-load it to Desire2Learn so students may access it in the event they lose their paper copy. A well-written assign-ment models good writing. Assignments can maximize student learn-ing when students are

encouraged to address their own interests, and when students are offered the option to do so, it is less likely that they will plagiarize an assignment. Student work that follows an as-signment and interacts thoughtfully and ethical-ly with material makes student learning more fun and makes grad-ing less of a frustrating chore for professors.For additional infor-mation and helpful resources (including checklists for writing good assignments) see the websites on page 18 at the bottom.