Inspire. Innovate. Impact.
Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning (CTTL)
Newsletter Vol. 4, Spring 2021
Get Ready for FALL 2021...Pandemic, Part III
The Spring 2021 semester...and we're still in a pandemic. But, the tides are turning and vaccinations are here and the reopening of our campuses and mask-less days are ahead! We've developed a playlist of tunes to continue moving forward with being the best at what's next... #January2022. We're going to try everything to keep positive vibrations because somewhere over the rainbow, it's going to be a lovely day. So remain confident and keep high hopes as you strive to be simply the best. Enjoy!
A Manifesto for the future
The pandemic has made urgently clear that the inequities of race, gender, class, ability, and sexuality that are baked into our experience of post-secondary education cannot be allowed to continue. And yet many additional violences have been done to our students over the last year, most notably through the rise — and normalization — of surveillance capitalist solutions in education. Leaning heavily on ethic of care thinking and a desire to find hope in this very dark time, this talk invites all participants to come and think together, plan a resistance, and ultimately imagine a better future for all of us. - Dr. Brenna Clarke Gray, Thompson Rivers University, keynote address at Cascadia Open Education Summit on 27. April. 2021 (CC BY-SA). (Video link, 57 min, 51 sec). Full Conference video recordings links.
In this issue
Equity & Access
The this section features resources needed to support equitable learning for our students.
Equity Scholars - Faculty Mentoring in Action
We had a successful first year launch of the Equity Scholars program. Five Coaches embarked on training for Coaching with Equity through the National Equity Project along with support and guidance from Drs. Bianca Rowden-Quince and Nicole Porter. Coaches worked with partners on various areas ranging from activities/assignments which value student’s culture, race, ethnicity, gender to critically reflecting on their own practices as educators. The peer to peer approach has allowed the development of relationships based on trust, challenging assumptions and assisting with creating spaces to encourage a deeper level of understanding. We want to thank the Coaches and Partners in the first year and hope to receive funds to continue the Equity Scholars program in the Fall of 2021. Thank you to our Coaches: Ruben Para, Kim Saccio-Kent, Pia Walawalkar, Kate Brown, Teresa Cunniff and Miranda Wang and Partners: Maryam Khan, Rachael Cunningham, Emilie Hein, Kristina Brower, Joy Kim and Eileen David. We are awaiting funding through the President’s Innovation Funds to be released early Fall. Our hope is to continue and enroll additional Coaches/Partners to Equity Scholars.
“When we create beloved community, environments that are anti-racist and inclusive, it need not matter whether those spaces are diverse. What matters is that should difference enter the world of beloved community it can find a place of welcome, a place to belong.” ---Bell Hooks (2009)
SMCCCD Antiracism Council
The goal of the San Mateo County Community College District’s Anti-racism Council is to radically reimagine how we commit to anti-racism and how we can transform the educational experiences for all students, especially hyper-marginalized students. We are leaders in antiracist work by ensuring our culture and education are critical, anti-racist, and justice-centered.
Our group of colleagues across the campuses presented on April 2021 Flex Day. Please revisit the video if you missed the session. There will be work which may begin this summer and upcoming fall under the following focus areas: Curriculum and Instruction; Policy and Procedure; and Equal Employment Opportunity.
each of the focus areas are
Please look out for more information about not only the efforts being done but also ways you can contribute to the work as a whole.
Getting started with OER and ZTC Resources
Summer Self-Paced OER Basics Course – with office hours
Ready to get started with open educational resources but want to learn a little more about this gigantic pool of available course material resources? ASCCC-OERI is hosting a self-paced OER Basics Canvas course that will have a facilitator during the month of June! Join this course to discover the world of open educational resources at your finger-tips. OER Basics serves as an introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER) providing faculty with new options for selecting textbooks and other resources so they can make the best decisions for their students. Badge upon completion. This course is free and open to everyone. Join the ASCCC OERI – OER Basics Course
Summer OER PD Opportunities
OEN Summer Summit, June 14-18 (Registration is free and closes 6/7/21.)
The Summit is an online opportunity to connect with the open education community, showcase open education efforts, share expertise, and explore challenges in a supportive, collaborative environment. The main event is free of charge and open to everyone.
2021 Cal OER Conference, August 4 - 6. (Registration is free but space is limited. Online registration will close on 7/21/21.)
Cal OER will focus on OER efforts and impact, broadly defined, across the state of California and especially across the state’s three public higher education systems, the California Community Colleges, California State University, and University of California. This event is free and open to everyone.
More Summer Self-Paced Learning – With Office Hours
Join the ASCCC OERI – Accessibility Basics Course As faculty members increasingly interact with students in a digital environment, it is important not to create accessibility barriers for students. Although many classes and OER projects will require more extensive training, the goal of this course is to ensure that faculty understand the basics of accessibility and how to create accessible online content, regardless of the platform you are working in.
Discipline-focused pre-recorded 2020-2021 OER webinars available to watch on-demand: ASCCC OERI Discipline-focused webinars
Professional Development Opportunities for Equity
NCORE - June 7-11th
NCORE is the premier national resource for higher education institutions, providing an annual diverse and inclusive forum that attracts participants from more than 1,000 educational institutions and organizations. NCORE 2021 will be presented in a virtual format with dynamic programming tailored by presenters to be informative and interactive. Register for NCORE
Equity & Culturally Responsive Online Teaching
This course facilitated by @One will guide you through a critical journey of becoming an equity-minded educator with the goal of cultivating inclusive experiences that empower all students to achieve their full intellectual capacity.
Register for ECROT Course
Excellence in Teaching
I Survived My First Year - Tales From Teaching in a Pandemic
Dr. Susanne Schubert spent her first full-time year at Skyline College teaching Chemistry remotely in the middle of a pandemic. Hear about her journey of surviving and thriving while finding ways to adapt and support students.
Congratulations to this year's Winners for the Meyer Teaching Excellence Award
This year, the Academic Senate had the pleasure of awarding four outstanding faculty for the Meyer Teaching Excellence Award. The Meyer Excellence in Teaching Award is an monetary award established by SMT faculty member, Professor Phil Meyer, to be given at the end of the academic year to a colleague who has been a full-time Skyline College faculty member for no more than five academic years. This award seeks to honor and celebrate excellence in the classroom—the primary criterion for this award. Please join us in congratulating our colleagues: Soledad McCarthy, Dr. Nicole Porter, Kenyatta Weathersby, and Dr. Rika Yonemura-Fabian for exemplifying excellence in teaching.
New Faculty Academy - A new class moves on to Year Two
Join the CTTL in congratulating our newest group of full-time faculty as they move forward into their second year at Skyline College. New Faculty Academy, fondly known as NFA, is a year-long academy that supports connection, community, and professional development for newly hired full-time faculty at Skyline College. The following group of new(ish) full-time faculty spent the last year together in NFA building community, honing their teaching craft, and learning about ways to engage in our Skyline College Community.
Andrea Fuentes, Instructional Designer
Felicia Alvarez Mazzi, ESOL
Shaun Perisho, Psychology
Beatriz Qura Del Rio, Respiratory Care
Susanne Schubert, Chemistry
Christina Shih, Psychology
Kolo Wamba, Physics
Christopher Watters, Women’s Basketball
NFA wrapped up last week with thoughtful and creative presentations from our faculty colleagues centered around reflections, learnings, and new strategies gleaned from their time in NFA. Presentation featured, creative pedagogy, qualitative data collection, and some newfound rap skills :). We look forward to seeing how our newest NFA class will engage and share their gifts with the Skyline Community at large.
Preparing for Excellence in Teaching
Spring Forward - Be the Best at What's Next
Are you ready to take your Canvas courses to the next level?
Here are ten easy tips from CTTL to spruce up your summer and fall courses. There are ideas from asking your students to creating authentic assessments to using engaging multimedia. CTTL instructional designers are standing by to assist: book a consult with Bianca Rowden-Quince or Andrea Fuentes.
Faculty Innovation
Article 13 - Innovation Funding Opportunities Available
Are you looking for ways to fund a budding idea or innovation project?
Article 13 long-term project funds are here for you. Have an innovation project that you’d like to try out? The San Mateo County Community College District provides a fund equal to 1% of expenditures for regular faculty salaries to provide faculty professional development opportunities. Long-term projects involve full or partial reassignment time for activities such as retraining, advanced study, and research. Long-term projects can span from as short as 3-weeks to a full semester in length. Due dates for submitting applications for long-term projects are due on October 15,2021 for projects that begin in Spring 2022. Check out the funding opportunities for short-term, long-term, and sabbatical professional learning opportunities. For questions about the funding and application process, contact Rob Williams at williamsrob@smccd.edu , Professional Development Committee Chair.
Active Learning
Active learning is anything where students are doing something--- not just listening or reading. Active learning involves discovering, processing, applying knowledge, skills, concepts, and ways of thinking. Active learning strategies can close achievement gaps, improve student engagement, and reach all learners. Active learning stands in contrast to “traditional” modes of instruction in which students are passive recipients of knowledge from an expert.
According to Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience, people generally remember 90% of what they do versus 10% of what they read. There is some conflicting research about the actual numbers, but the concept holds that practicing, demonstrating, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating are more effective ways for learners to gain and apply skills and knowledge.
Examples of active learning include:
Debate or Socratic Circle
Gallery walk
Think-pair-share
Role Playing
Scavenger Hunt
Simulations
Exit tickets
Reflective journals
Find more active learning strategies in the CTTL Faculty Repository or have fun with our searchable database (also linked inside the repository).
Active Learning - Success Story
Rachel Cunningham - The Selfie Field Trip
“My goal (is) to get them out into the real world looking at examples of how geography is a part of their everyday lives, in ways they possibly hadn’t thought of before.” Students post a selfie picture of their individual field trip, following a discussion prompt. The students engage with a topic in a real world setting and share their experiences.
In her Resiliency against Colonialism/Imperialism selfie field trip, students take a selfie or find an image related to the lasting impacts of colonialism, like language and religion. They must consider how imperialism is enacted today, like with foreign aid or contract farming. They could find statues, museums, and murals that tell different parts of the colonial/imperial story. Many of the monuments that tell the story of the oppressors are being removed - what kinds of art and celebrations can we put in their place, to tell the stories of the people who fought against colonialism? How are the food, religions, languages, clothing, and culture of these people still being used today?
Online Learning
Preview of QOTL 2!
Congratulations! Over 95% of Skyline College faculty have finished the Quality Online Teaching and Learning (QOTL) training, but the ED-Venture continues in LEVEL TWO: QOTL 2! SMCCCD’s Distance Education Advisory Committee (DEAC) and the District Academic Senate (DAS)-Taskforce on Teaching & Learning recommends keeping current with training relevant to online teaching every three (3) years (either from the district or an equivalent). QOTL 2 is an opportunity to move forward with this recommendation. This summer, Allison Hughes from Cañada College and Dr. Bianca Rowden-Quince and Andrea Fuentes from Skyline College will facilitate the pilot the QOTL Level 2 training.
QOTL 2 is an advanced online teaching training that builds off of QOTL 1 and goes beyond the content in that course. The goal is to invite participants to look at one of their existing courses and re-imagine any components that participants feel could be improved upon and/or enhanced. This training is designed to fit each of the participants individual needs by utilizing a Choose Your Own Adventure format. The course begins with a Module 0 that everyone completes, followed by the three modules chosen by the individual participant, and concludes with a final activity. To make up your own QOTL 2 Adventure, participants will choose one module within each category to work through based on their interests and areas for development.
The Categories for the QOTL 2 training are as follows: Category A - Course Structure & Navigation (Ed-venture options are: Content Delivery, Course Facilitation, and Visual Interest. Category B - Interaction & Communication (Ed-venture options are: Student Interaction, Instructor Interaction, and Honoring Student Voice). Category C - Assessment (Ed-venture options are: Authentic Assessment, Active Learning, and Grading & Feedback). The faculty for the pilot have already been contacted, but if you have any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to reach out to your campus facilitator(s): Skyline: Andrea Fuentes & Bianca Rowden-Quince.
CVC-OEI...SPLASH!
Skyline College is officially part of the California Virtual Campus – Online Education Initiative (CVC-OEI) Consortium! The CVC-OEI is a collaborative effort among California Community Colleges (CCCs) to ensure that significantly more students are able to complete their educational goals by increasing both access to and success in high-quality online courses. Skyline College’s entrance into the CVC-OEI Consortium, allows approved courses from Skyline College to be offered in the statewide course exchange. The Exchange is an innovative tool that allows students currently enrolled in a California Community College to instantly enroll in online courses offered at eligible colleges without filling out a separate application. This directly links to our mission at Skyline College to empower and transform a global community of learners.
Skyline College has been preparing for this amazing opportunity since 2016 and we are more than ready! We have implemented the Quality Online Teaching and Learning training and other Professional Development on Flex days. Lastly we have amazing Skyline College faculty who have completed their Peer Online Course Reviewer (POCR) certification with CVC-OEI consortium. The CTTL extends a warm thank you to Skyline's POCR Team: Kristina Brower, Michelle Clark, Christopher Collins, Barbara Corzonkoff, Lorraine DeMello, Andrea Fuentes, Melissa Irish, Nancy Kaplan Biegel, Soledad McCarthy, Cindy Moss, Nicole Porter, Jesse Raskins, Nancy Reidy, Bianca Rowden-Quince, and Kim Saccio-Kent.
Online Teaching Peer Mentoring - Supporting colleagues through being the best at what’s next!
Before we say goodbye to an unforgettable school year, the CTTL Distance Education Team would like to thank our core group of Online Teaching Peer Mentors (OTPM) who’ve been providing one-on-one dedicated support to their faculty colleagues. Through patience, perseverance and sheer heart, our OTPM group supported forty (40) mentoring relationships this past year. When asked to share their stories about their peer mentoring experience, here’s what was shared:
“Fostering opportunities for peer learning and building trusting relationships among colleagues was a bright spot of the experience.”
“I learned that being a mentor does not make you an expert on Canvas but will be humbled by how much you will learn along the way.”
“Collaboration, camaraderie & connections - I feel that I helped my mentees in thinking about their classes differently. They helped me think about my classes differently. We both learned more about our departments and that makes us all better faculty.”
“Excellent experience - I got to explore my own skills and areas of growth in online teaching while sharing some of what I've learned with colleagues from outside my usual circle of collaborators.”
“Great opportunity to develop relationships outside of my division.”
We extend a warm thank you to our Online Teaching Peer Mentors: Yancy Aquino, Kristina Brower, Tammy Calderon, Annie Corbett Emilie Hein, Jessica Hurless, Melissa, Irish, Nancy Kaplan-Biegel, Soledad McCarthy, Jennifer Merrill, Cindy Moss, Jesse Raskin, Kim Saccio-Kent, Sam Sanchez, Cassidy Ryan White and Tina Watts.
If you are interested in becoming a Peer Mentor or joining the Peer Online Course Review Team, please contact Christopher Collins or Bianca Rowden-Quince.
Professional Development Opportunities for Online Learning
The CTTL encourages faculty to explore the professional development opportunities with @ONE--the Online Network of Educators-- a collaborative, system-wide network of California Community College faculty. Consider attending this year's Online Teaching Conference - June 21-23rd, virtual event!
Suggested Summer Reading List
The summer is a great time for catching up with your bookworm vibes. Whether you’re relaxing on a beautiful beach, traveling in a hazmat suit, or taking some self time at a coffee shop the CTTL team would like to share some book recommendations.
Braiding Sweetgrass, All the Light We Cannot See, Washington Black, The Only Good Indians, and Fight the Tower.