This summer the Northern Illinois University’s Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center is offering 7 online workshops. These one hour, fully online sessions are now open to the public. We’d like to invite our colleagues in higher education to join our workshops and expand our conversations around these topics. There is no charge for participating in these workshops, but you will need to register.
Summer Workshops – May through August
Advanced Registration is required for all workshops. Click on the workshop title to register, then if you are not affiliated with NIU, click the Non-NIU Registration button.
Quality Online Course Series: Getting Students Started
May 19, 2017
12-1 pm CST
Getting Started . . . at Last? Now that you have designed a high quality online course based on the other standards, you are ready to introduce it to your students. Set the right tone and support student success by helping them get started with a welcome, a course tour, or a navigation guide. In this workshop you will explore best practices for introducing your course structure to your students and building community.
Quality Online Teaching Series: Best Practices for Delivering an Online Course
May 24, 2017
12-1 pm CST
Teaching an online course is not so different from teaching a face-to-face course. You still need to communicate with your students, grade student work, and support their learning. There are some differences, though, and research has shown that following some best practices can increase student success. In this online workshop, find out how to best support your students in the online environment. In this online workshop, you will discover practical strategies you can implement in your own online courses.
Creating Authentic Experiences for Your Online Course
June 14, 2017
12-1 pm CST
When designing an online course, remember everything doesn’t have to happen online or in isolation of the world around us. You can create authentic experiences for your online students, such as field experiences, real-world activities, and genuine, skill building tasks. In this online workshop we will explore ways to craft authentic experiences and assessments for our online students. Plus, we will look at how these experiences align with your course learning objectives.
**NEW** Enhancing Your Online Course with Images and Icons
July 13, 2017
12-1 pm CST
Sometimes a picture says a thousand words. You can enhance your course by adding images, icons, and other media into the online learning environment. Although images are plentiful online you still must consider the copyright of items you choose, even for educational purposes. In this workshop you will learn about helpful repositories that are free for you to use and how to find, evaluate, and incorporate visuals into your online course.
Free Software Tools for the Classroom
July 18, 2017
12-1 pm CST
Many of the software tools that are the most useful in the classroom are unfortunately also some of the most expensive software tools. Often, budgets require that software is limited to a few users or a few locations, which prevents faculty and instructors from utilizing the technology with their students. It even prevents students from learning from these valuable tools. Don’t let licensing fees hold you back! There are free versions of many of the expensive software tools, if you know where to look. This online session will introduce free versions of some of the most common software programs and share ideas for using them in the classroom.
Developing a Course Syllabus
July 26, 2017
12-1 pm CST
The course syllabus is an essential component of your course and should be thorough, precise, and clear. Since the syllabus is often one of the first means of communication between you and your students, it should set the tone for the entire semester. The ultimate goal of a well-designed syllabus, therefore, is to inform students about what is expected of them throughout the semester by outlining content, policies, and due dates. In essence, the syllabus acts as a road map to help students navigate the course. In this workshop, we will discuss key elements of a course syllabus, possibilities for design layout, and provide a checklist to help you create a well-organized and complete course syllabus.
Ensuring Quality in Your Online Course
August 29, 2017
12-1 pm CST
How do you know if your online course is good? More importantly, how do you make it better? In this workshop, you will learn about why quality is important and how to create more student-centered online courses by using the Quality Matters rubric (a nationally-recognized benchmark for online course design based on research-supported best practices). After the workshop, you will be prepared to develop or improve an online course that is designed to promote student learning.