Upcoming Learning Technologies + Environments Trainings (+ Recordings)

Register for Trainings Below

Register in advance for these trainings After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the session. 

Nexus Trainings + Learning Technology Support

ITS LTE staff continually offers one-on-one Nexus  + Learning Technology consultations:  Sign up with a member of our Learning Technologies  team (i.e., Ginny Solomon, Kesheng Yu, Kevin Barhydt)  at a time convenient with your schedule. 

General Electronic Classroom Training (in person): 

Sign up with a member of our Learning Environments team (i.e., Sonia Sandoval, Mike Ullrich) at a time convenient with your schedule. 

Zoom: Integration with Nexus & Ensemble workflow

• Description: Join us to learn about using the Zoom tool in Nexus and using the Ensemble Video workflow tool to send your Zoom recordings automatically to Nexus. We’ll talk about using polls in Zoom, how to do some basic editing in Ensemble, and different ways to store your videos like Google Drive vs. Ensemble.
• When: 12/03/2020 2:00-3:00 pm EST
• Led by: Ginny Solomon, Manager of Learning Technology and Environments Support
• Register in advance:  https://union.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUkdeirrzspGtf-uUgKtoa6qBf8OFHSzosW After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Getting Started with Gradescope: Delivering Assessments Remotely with Gradescope

• Description: Join us for the online workshop and learn how instructors use Gradescope. The workshop will offer guidance on how to deliver assessments remotely and outline various assessment options to meet your immediate needs, including:
  • Fully online assignments, no paper required
  • Existing paper-based assignments
  • Combining online and paper-based approaches
  • The workshop will also cover the grading and rubric-building workflow on Gradescope and walk attendees through both the instructor and student interface for creating and submitting assignments and viewing feedback. You will learn how to:
    • Use ‘assignment analytics’ to gain insight into student learning
    • Create better rubrics to increase student learning
    • Write each comment only once - apply previously used comments with a click
    • Make rubric changes as you grade - changes apply to previously graded work to maintain consistency
    • Grade your existing exams and homework on Gradescope
• When:
  • 12/04/2020 12:00-1:00 pm EST
  • 01/07/2021 12:00-1:00 pm EST
• Led by: Gradescope
• Register in advance:  http://info.gradescope.com/union-workshop. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
  **Recording of the session will be shared with all registrants, so please feel free to register even if you can't make it to the live session.

Upgrading Your Assessment Strategies

• Description: Tired of the papers and/or exams you use to assess students? This is a good year to experiment with new ideas as there is nothing “traditional” about how we are doing education right now. In this workshop, you’ll learn about different assessment strategies you might try. Think of this workshop as a salad bar—there are many options, but you don’t have to use all of them.
• When: 12/07/2020 12:00-1:00 pm EST
• Led by: Stacie Cassat Green, Instructional Design Consultant for Union College
• Register in advance:  https://union.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrc-uvqjsoHtQgjRFw27d1fv9aVocIHLeK After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Using Blackboard Ally to Support Inclusive Learning and Diversity

• Description: This fall, Union College introduced Blackboard Ally as a framework to support and enhance the student digital learning experience, and as a tool to support inclusive learning benchmarks. (https://union.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/1831/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=114607) .This hands-on workshop will help faculty develop a consistent approach to creating and reviewing course content accessibility. We will use the Ally feedback to think about small changes you can make to your content. You will leave the workshop with both a plan for developing and maintaining inclusive course content, and a strategy to support you on issues you may not have time to address on your own.
  Inclusive learning begins by raising awareness of the barriers that prevent students from equitable, inclusive learning experiences. By including Blackboard Ally as part of the Union College initiative for inclusive learning, this workshop will communicate the purpose and expectations about how to utilize Blackboard Ally.
• When: 12/07/2020 1:00-2:00 pm EST
• Led by: Kevin Barhydt, Senior Inclusive and Learning Technology Analyst
• Register in advance: https://union.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUlfuutqDojGtYiPdf7kWF4eQV9ROHII4W_ After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Getting Started with Gradescope

• Description: Gradescope is a web-based platform that will save you time managing and grading paper-based assignments (i.e., worksheets, quizzes/exams, and papers). Students can upload handwritten assignments ("scanned" with cell phone camera) or submit pdfs. Grade with a rubric that can be created/changed as you work through submissions. Starting winter term, faculty at Union College can start using Gradescope. In this session, Professor Kristina Striegnitz will give an overview of how she uses Gradescope for assessments in her classes. Denise Snyder, Director of Learning Technologies and Environments will walk faculty through the basics of how to get started.
• Led by: Kristina Strignitz, Professor of Computer Science, & Denise Snyder, Director of Learning Technologies and Environments
• When: 12/08/2020 12:00-1:00 pm EST
• Register in advance: https://union.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0of-irqTojG9OSMm-zk6buIeAFFNQWiE0H  After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Digital White Boarding with iPads (hybrid or remote)

• Description: Learn how to draw, write, and show real-time examples as you teach using an iPad. We will go over live digital whiteboard options using iPad apps: Notes, Google Jamboard, Vibe, Explain Everything, and Reflector. The iPad Course Reserve Loaner program will also be discussed. This session will be led by Sonia Sandoval, Learning Environments Services Specialist & Denise Snyder, Director of Learning Technologies and Environments.
• When: 12/09/2020 12:00-1:00 pm EST
• Led by: Denise Snyder, Director of Learning Technologies and Environments + Sonia Sandoval, Learning Environments Services Specialist
• Register in advance: https://union.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcvfu6qrD4qH90mo3YDTLZmdmHoUdeF40Nj After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Getting Started with Sway

• Description: Sway is an online platform for quick, beautiful, and engaging content displays. Sway formats content intelligently so the user can focus on creating the content, rather than organizing it. It allows users to quickly create an image journal, a short essay enhanced with images, YouTube videos, hyperlinks, or a brief research report.
• When: 12/09/2020 2:00-3:00 pm EST
• Led by: Kesheng Yu, Senior Learning Technology Consultant
• Register in advance: https://union.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJItduuqpj8pHdYlcRX4ReuV6shood23BdlD After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Silver Linings: Stories of Innovation at Union College

• Description: People who study creative thinking have identified that constraints actually promote creative thinking. The dark cloud of the pandemic has certainly presented us with some big constraints about how we teach and students learn this year, forcing us to adapt and innovate. Join this web event to gain inspiration from your colleagues as they share the “silver linings” they have found in their teaching because of the pandemic.
• When: 12/10/2020 12:00-1:00 pm EST
• Led by: Stacie Cassat Green, Instructional Design Consultant for Union College + Panel of FDI "Incubator" Alumni:
  • Holli Frey, Joy Wang, Doug Klein: How team teaching, alumni speakers, group work, and Perusall worked in their Climate Change Minerva course 
    Andy Morris:
  • Nicole Theodosiou:
  • Anouk Verheyden-Gillikin: How group work helps connect students
  • Shawn Wehe: Mock exams in fluid dynamics
• Register in advance: https://union.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwvcOqvpzMvHdbbM9LqywHng9MYHGOKiY40 After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Conducting Remote Exams in a Pandemic: Tips for Faculty

• Description: Challenges of teaching during a pandemic are many, and one particular hurdle is conducting remote exams. Issues such as multiple time zones, technical glitches, academic integrity, and grading will be addressed in this workshop. We recommend replacing high stakes exams with several smaller tests or alternate assessments such as reports, posters, presentations, or papers. However, in some cases, the only practical option is an exam. This hands-on workshop will provide some ideas for implementing tests in an online environment, as well as utilizing the "Safe Exam Browser (SEB)", that allows teachers to restrict student access to external websites or other applications while they are taking an assessment online.
• When: 12/10/2020 1:00-2:00 pm EST
• Led by: Kevin Barhydt, Senior Inclusive and Learning Technology Analyst
• Register in advance: https://union.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYkce-orzgsGdD0GhZRqkrqixIwtwfD4nV4  After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Rebooting student motivation in a pandemic

• Description: Motivation drives engagement and engagement drives learning. When student engagement seems low, it is time to look at motivation. What motivates them to take your course(s) and how can you use that to drive successful learning? In this workshop, we’ll discuss motivation and engagement, including some practical ideas for how to “reboot” student motivation when the mid-term slump happens.
• When: 12/14/2020 12:00-1:00 pm EST
• Led by: Stacie Cassat Green, Instructional Design Consultant for Union College
• Register in advance: https://union.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0pce6qpjwiHNw5zXj_XTtt7D9Msl-MufZO After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Watch Previous Trainings (Recorded)

Using Scavenger Hunt Games to Improve Engagement

Many of us are having a harder time keeping students engaged this year. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to use Goosechase, a free scavenger hunt app, to add the “gaming” elements of missions, points, and competition to add some fun ways to interact with your course. By the end of the workshop, you’ll know how to set up a game (it is very easy!) and have several ideas for how you might use the app in your course. This session was led by Stacie Cassat Green, Instructional Design Consultant for Union College.
Watch recorded session

Teaching with Zoom

Learn how to hold classes remotely in real-time using Zoom. Zoom is a web-based video conferencing application available to all Union College faculty, staff and students. With Zoom you can connect and collaborate online with anyone, anytime, anywhere. This training discussed how to integrate Zoom into your Nexus course website, and quick tips for organizing Nexus in a thoughtful way for remote learning. This session was led by Stacie Cassat Green, Instructional Design Consultant for Union College, and Denise Snyder, Director of Learning Technologies + Environments,

Watch recorded session

Creating Instructional Videos When You are NOT a Video Producer

Thanks to the pandemic, many faculty find themselves wanting to create short lecture videos for their courses that look good and engage students. In this workshop, Stacie Cassat Green demonstrated how to use a tool called Intercut that uses your phone and computer to create videos that automatically cut between you and your slides. The resulting video looks more professional, less DIY AND it does all of the post-production work that you might have wanted to do in iMovie if you had months of time to do this. You’ll also learn the basics of how to make PowerPoint work as a teleprompter and set up your office to make your videos.

Watch recorded session

Zoom Pro: Whiteboard, screen sharing, and screen capture

Are you ready to move past the simple features of Zoom? Learn how to draw, write, and show real-time examples as you teach. We will go over live whiteboarding, as well as screen capture basics, so you can have your course content ready before you start your meeting. We will discuss Zoom, Explain Everything, and Ensemble Anthem. This session was led by Sonia Sandoval, Learning Environments Services Specialist.

Watch recorded session

Learning Technologies + Environments (LTE) Virtual Open "Office Hour"

LTE staff discuss answers to common questions around electronic classrooms, supported learning technologies like Nexus, webinars/Zoom, Apporto (virtual lab) and more.

Watch Recorded Session (23 min)

Trainings Conducted by Zoom

WHEN REGISTERING, MAKE SURE YOU CHANGE FROM THE PACIFIC TIME ZONE TO EASTERN TIME ZONE

Getting Started with Zoom Meetings: Register

AUDIENCE: BEGINNER-Ready to start using Zoom, but need some help? Drop-in for our daily (Mon-Fri) quick starts! A Zoom expert will take you through a 45-minute high-level tour of Zoom and cover the basics to get you up and running. It’s as simple as logging in, scheduling a meeting, and finding the controls. Start Zooming today! Stick around to get all your burning questions answered through live Q&A!

Zoom Meetings: Register

AUDIENCE: INTERMEDIATE- Gain the skills you need to be an amazing Zoom host. This 60-minute user onboarding session with live Q&A will review features applicable to Zoom Meetings and using the Zoom Client software. We will discuss scheduling and hosting your events with an emphasis on best practices. This session is public and open to all Zoom users. Attendees will be muted and able to submit questions via text.

Zoom Meetings for Education (Faculty and Students): Register

AUDIENCE: ALL- In this session you will learn:

1. How to download the Zoom applications and join a Zoom meeting;
2. How to schedule a meeting and send out invitations;
3. In-meeting controls and differentiation tools (including the waiting room, share screen, breakout rooms).

Time will be allocated at the end of the session for live Q&A.