April 2016  Faculty News & Training
CLEAR Website                                 CLEAR Training Calendar
Instructional Consulting                 Teaching w/Technology
Schedule Videoconference            Faculty Blackboard Support
Self-Registration for Training        Group Online Subscription 

Outcomes and Assessment Workshops
May 2016 
Location:  PEB 205A Conference Room 
Time:  12:05pm - 12:55pm
It is okay to bring your lunch to the workshop.   
Each workshop is limited to 10 participants.
To register: send requested workshop #, date and time to
 
Workshop topics and times are posted below in the Training Section and can be located on the CLEAR website at clear.unt.edu.
 
Ron Carriveau 
Dr. Ron Carriveau 
CLEAR's Outcomes, Assessment, and Measurement Specialist 

Connecting The Dots: Developing Student Learning Outcomes and Outcomes-Based Assessment 

CLEAR offers 50 minute workshops presented by Dr. Ron Carriveau that provide what is needed to develop measurable student learning outcomes and outcome-based assessments.  The workshops are designed to generate discussion, and participants are invited to ask questions and make comments at any time during the presentation.  The expected outcome is that participants will obtain outcome and assessment knowledge, tools, and strategies, to help them maximize, analyze, validate, and report student learning.

Dr. Carriveau has extensive experience in outcomes and assessment as a consultant, test publisher, state department director of assessment, corporate test development manager, public school teacher and administrator, and university associate professor.  He has consulted nationally and internationally and has presented at national and international conferences.  He is a co-author of Next Generation Course Redesign (2010, Peter Lang), and is the author of Connecting The Dots: Developing Student Learning Outcomes and Outcome Based Assessments (2010, Fancy Fox Publications).  The second edition of Connecting The Dots will be released in October 2016 by Stylus Publications. He wrote the chapter on assessment in The Online University: Building Viable Learning Experiences for Higher Education (2013, Ed. R Kessner, Common Ground Publications).
 
The primary source for the following workshop content is
Connecting The Dots: Developing Student Learning Outcomes and Outcome Based Assessments (2010, 2016, R. Carriveau).     Connecting The Dots Flyer 
CLEAR NEWS & INITIATIVES
Congratulations to Dr. Nancy Stockdale
Winner of the President's  Council Teaching Award!
 
Encouraging and promoting teaching excellence is one of CLEAR's main initiatives.  With great excitement, we wish to congratulate Dr. Nancy Stockdale - recent recipient of the 2016 President's Council Teaching Award.  Dr. Nancy Stockdale was a key presenter for CLEAR's first TREE talks and has participated in the CLEAR program  Transformative Instruction Initiative (TII).  Nancy, you inspire us all to greater heights!
http://clear.unt.edu/cdi
CLEAR Course Design Institute (CDI) 
Request for Applications

The UNT Center for Learning Enhancement, Assessment, and Redesign (CLEAR) invites applications for the CLEAR Course Design Institute 2016.  Grants from $1000-1500 are available for accepted applicants who are seeking to design or redesign any UNT course that is currently part of the curriculum or a new course that will be taught beginning in the 2016-2017 academic year.

Application Here!

 

What is CLEAR CDI?

The CLEAR Course Design Institute (CDI) is a course design institute for anyone at UNT with an instructional role (full-time faculty, adjuncts, graduate students with teaching responsibilities, etc.) that is designed to: 
  • Provide UNT educators with the time and support, both financial and pedagogical, to design or redesign UNT courses that promote student learning and retention. 
  • Support UNT educators in the design or redesign of UNT courses according to the NextGen model, an outcomes-based model of course design. 
  • Facilitate a UNT educator community of practice that promotes the use of innovative pedagogical strategies at the university.
To participate in CDI, applicants must select a specific course to design or redesign. The course must be a part of the current curriculum or a new course that will be taught beginning in the 2016-2017 academic year. By participating in this CDI, participants will: 
  • Assess the selected course for significant factors that affect course design. 
  • Prepare goals and learning outcomes according to  a three-level outcomes-based model for the selected course. 
  • Design assessments for the selected course that align with learning outcomes. 
  • Develop engaged learning strategies for the selected course that align with outcomes and assessments.
Financial support for CLEAR CDI 2016 participants will be provided in the form of grants, ranging from $1,000 to $1,500. Reception of grant monies is contingent upon the accepted applicant's completion of required work and assignments and will be paid in two installments. See the next section for more about these requirements.

Apply Now

The deadline for application is May 1, 2016, 11:59pm. Applicants may be contacted with follow up questions. Notifications of acceptance status will occur by May 6, 2016. Applications can be found by clicking here.
If you have any questions about this application form or other questions about the CLEAR Course Design Institute, please contact the CDI Program Manager, Jenna Ledford at jenna.ledford@unt.edu  or at 940.369.7243.

Important Dates

  • May 1, 2016: Last Day to Apply 
  • May 6, 2016: Applicants will be notified of their acceptance status. 
  • June 6-July 29, 2016: CLEAR CDI will be conducted across these 8 weeks, 85% online and 15% face-to-face
Outstanding Online Course Awards 2016
 
Every year, CLEAR (Center for Learning Enhancement, Assessment, and Redesign) awards UNT faculty for designing/teaching outstanding online courses.  We are once again extending the opportunity to acknowledge exceptional online pedagogy.  If you, or a faculty member you know designed or taught an online course in 2015 that you think is worthy of consideration for this award, please fill out the attached nomination packet and send it back to CLEAR by June 10th, 2016.  Nominations should be sent via email to  samuel.gist@unt.edu.
 
Designers/Teachers whose courses are deemed "Outstanding" or "Exemplary" will be notified at the end of June.  Award presentations will take place during the "Salute to Faculty Excellence Reception Dinner," this October.
 
In addition to the nomination packet included in this email, you'll find CLEAR's Course Approval Rubric. Instructional consultants at CLEAR will use this rubric to evaluate course nominations.  If you're unsure about what constitutes a quality online course, feel free to reference the rubric as a guide for making your decision.
Awards will include:
 
  • $1500 and a trophy given to the recipient who will also be identified as the winner of the "Outstanding" Online Teacher & Course Award at UNT eCampus.com (changing to online.UNT.edu).
  • $1000 and a trophy given to one or two others selected from the nominee pool for "Exemplary" Course Designer or "Exemplary" Course Instructor. 
  • All winners will be recognized on a perpetual award plaque displayed in the Center for Learning Enhancement, Assessment, and Redesign.
 
We want to thank all of our online faculty who strive to make learning at UNT an exceptional experience.  We look forward to receiving your nominations soon!
 
For information, please contact: 
 
Sam Gist
Instructional Consultant
940.369.7829
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Dr. Ron Carriveau's Many Projects
 
Dr Ron Carriveau and his research assistant, Adam Blake, presented a research study titled Outcome Attainment Measures versus Grades:  a Validity Issue at the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) conference in Savannah, Georgia on March 30th.   
 
Dr. Carriveau's second edition of his book, Connecting the Dots: Developing Student Learning Outcomes and Outcome Based Assessments, is being published by Stylus Publications and is in production.  Release date anticipated to be October 2016.
UPCOMING TRAINING
Outcomes and Assessment Workshops
Instructor:  Dr. Ron Carriveau

May 2016 
Location:  PEB 205A Conference Room 
Time:         12:05pm - 12:55pm
  
It is okay to bring your lunch to the workshop.   
Each workshop is limited to 10 participants.

To register: send requested workshop #, date and time to  Ronald.Carriveau@unt.edu  

Workshop #1:
May 4 (Wed.); May 5 (Thur.); May 23 (Mon.) 
Outcome attainment measures versus grades. Grades are typically the coin of the realm when it comes to student, course, program, and institution evaluation and reporting. This session shows how to calculate outcome attainment measures and provides research based evidence regarding the significant difference when grades that include points for non-outcome related measures are compared with grades awarded that are based directly on outcome attainment measures. (R.S. Carriveau & A.J. Blake, 2016)
 
Workshop #2:
May 9 (Mon.); May 10 (Tues.); May 24 (Tues.)  
Developing meaningful and measurable learning outcome statements.
All teacher know, to varying degrees, what outcomes they want their students to achieve. This session shows how to utilize a three-level SLO model to clearly articulate expected outcomes and provides guidelines for writing measurable SLOs, demonstrates the importance of verbs, reviews higher level thinking SLOs, and provides question templates for writing outcomes and test items.
 
Workshop #3:
May 18 (Wed.); May 19 (Thur.); May 25 (Wed.)  
Constructing high-quality selected response test items.
If you can't measure student attainment of outcomes, then you can't fix what isn't working or determine what is working. This session focuses on writing outcome based multiple-choice test items as one source to determine student attainment of the outcomes and includes: guidelines for writing the item stem and the item options (answer choices), research that supports three options only, how to develop a test-item bank, and how to conduct item validation.
Blackboard Learn icon
Blackboard Grade Center (1.5 hrs) - 2:30pm - 4:00pm, April 27, 2016 (Chilton 245)

Register Here: https://unt.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_es5y4a1ZlDwVkkl

The key functions of the Grade Center will be covered in the class. By the end of the session, instructors should be able to:

1. Record grade data.
2. Calculate the Totals and Weighted Totals column.
3. Monitor student progress.
4. Organize the Grade Center.
star wars coffee
Blackboard Open Labs of Spring 2016
Friday Afternoon   1:00pm - 4:00pm  (Every Friday)
Chilton 112K (UNT - Denton Campus / Faculty)

No Registration Required!  Feel free to come by our open labs every Friday from 1pm-4pm to receive some one-on-one Blackboard assistance from our instructional support team.

For faculty or teaching assistants who are new to Blackboard Learn, we recommend scheduling an appointment with an instructional consultant ( http://clear.unt.edu/consulting).

Check out our self-help guides and tips on the Blackboard Faculty Support Site or view our training sessions on the CLEAR calendar.
Self-Paced and Facilitated Online

Teaching Resources for Engaged Educators
The Teaching Resources for Engaged Educators (TREE) initiative leverages online training modules focused on 11 important teaching proficiencies and is available to anyone with teaching responsibilities at UNT. See the list of proficiencies below:

* Academic Integrity
* Assessment
* Classroom Teaching
* Course Design
* Engaged Learning
* Experiential Learning
* Learner-Centered Teaching
* Online Course Design
* Online Teaching
* Student Learning
* Teaching with Technology

There is no charge to participants. Instructors at UNT will have a self-enrollment link on the "My Institutions" tab in Blackboard. If you do not see a TREE self-enrollment link on Blackboard and wish to enroll, please contact tree@unt.edu.

For more information, please refer to the CLEAR website:  http: clear.unt.edu/tree.
Faculty/Staff Group Subscriptions offered by CLEAR
FREE ACCESS
20 Minute Mentor Commons has provided a listing of programs with links and descriptions:

Here are some programs which might prove interesting and helpful from 20 Minute Mentor Commons (you may view information on all 4 programs below under "4 Programs to Promote April 2016").

See their complete catalog/programs:

   
*NEW*
Certificates of Completion are now available with all programs in 20-Minute Mentor Commons. Users can print them for verification of watching a program.
 
Please email  Amber Bryant
to obtain the campus voucher code and pin number if using an off campus machine.     
Teaching Professor
FREE ACCESS
The Teaching Professor &
Online Classroom

CLEAR provides Free Access (through a group subscription) to Magna Commons, 20 Minute Mentor Commons, Distance Education Report, Online Classroom,Online Classroom and The Teaching Professor.  These electronic newsletters provide the information faculty, deans, chairs, and other academic decision-makers use for effective leadership within their colleges or departments as they fulfill their institution's mission of teaching and scholarship. 
  
To subscribe, go to www.magnapubs.com/group to view our active subscription.  There is no need to create an account or log in when accessing the subscription on campus.  If you wish to access these publications from off campus or if you would like to receive an email message each time a new issue is posted, you will need to register and enter a campus voucher code and pin number. Please email  Amber Bryant
FREE ACCESS
Online Learning Consortium

CLEAR provides Free Access (through a group subscription) to Online Learning Consortium (formerly Sloan-C) http://onlinelearningconsortium.org.  

 

The University of North Texas is a member of the Online Learning Consortium.  As a member, you will receive OLC's workshop, conference and publications discounts, research, and interaction with other members.  To receive account set-up and login instructions, please contact  Amber Bryant at Amber.Bryant@unt.edu.

 

Membership includes workshop membership pricing.  Visit http://onlinelearningconsortium.org/learn/workshops/ for the list of 2015 workshops. Additional workshops are added throughout the year, so please make sure to check the schedule often. The member price for a workshop is $169. Non-member pricing is $269. If you and your faculty have set up your accounts or affiliated your existing accounts properly, you will automatically see the member price.

 

 OLC Membership Resources include:

  • Webinars
  • Conference Discounts  
  • Publications Discounts  
  • Website Resources 
  • Monthly Newsletter
CLEAR FACULTY HELPDESK
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Support line: (940) 369-7394
Support Email:  clearhelp@unt.edu
Blackboard Faculty Helpdesk Support Hours for Spring 2016

Monday - Thursday  8:00am - 9:00pm 
Friday - 8:00am - 5:00pm
Saturday - 11:00am - 3:00pm
Closed Sunday 
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