Our 21-22 cohort of New Faculty Academy (NFA) completed their hard work to engage and transform the lives of our students while learning their opportunities for impact in their full-time roles. NFA is a year-long professional development program for our new faculty to engage in work rooted in equity, develop culturally relevant pedagogies and practices.

Highlights from this year include:

• • developing an equity-minded syllabus,

  • building connections and partnerships/collaborations,

  • understanding the tenure process,

  • exploring faculty innovation

  • get acquainted with faculty service

  • creating a welcoming environment to foster student engagement during class and office visits.

Our NFA cohort also focused on active learning in the classroom, universal design for learning, and educational technology. CTTL would like to congratulate the NFA cohort on their professional growth and commitment to Skyline College. Three cheers for:

• HerGrace Beltran (BUS)

• Christopher Collins (DE Coord,)

• Rachel Cunningham (GEOG)

• Lyndsey Hemstreet (COSM)

• Sima Karve (BIOL)

• Kathy Zarur (ART HIST)

Guess what's new! Skyline College has HyFlex classrooms with some new bells and whistles. What's HyFlex? Hybrid Flexible, or HyFlex is an instructional approach that gives students the option of attending in-person or online. In today's climate, institutions must prioritize flexible, accessible learning constructs to retain student enrollment and HyFlex may be a way to do that. With HyFlex in the experimental pilot stages, we thought it might be good to check-in with faculty who are teaching in this modality to hear about the successes and opportunities of teaching in a multimodal class.

For the past academic year, Dr. Jude Navari, Music Faculty in the Social Science and Creative Arts Division has navigated the terrain of HyFlex and has graciously shared benefits and challenges. According to Jude, the three benefits of the HyFlex classroom include the student centeredness of the modality, the possibility to provide unique individualized instruction, and increased enrollment. The HyFlex modality really puts the student in the center of instruction. Jude said, " In my experience, one of the problems with asynchronous online instruction is that many of our most marginalized students have difficulty navigating the asynchronous online environment... my students from these groups benefited from the synchronous instruction whether in-person or online." Jude noticed that his HyFlex classes had better participation due to the ability to engage in more active learning and sharing individual assignments in groups.

Some challenges with HyFlex that Jude encountered were technology, content reduction, course preparation and grading. The daily setup of the classroom technology in addition to supporting students with their technology questions was a time-consuming aspect of the HyFlex modality. Additionally, Jude noticed that "it was difficult to cover as much content in the HyFlex version as I did in the regular in-person classes due to expanded preparation in multiple formats." Jude also noticed that "preparing multiple levels of materials and assessing work in multiple formats" also prolonged the amount of time and tripled his workload.

Jude’s experience with HyFlex demonstrates a mixed bag when it comes to teaching and learning. The benefits seem to be centered around the student experience and at Skyline College that is key to our mission and values. The drawback of HyFlex is the concern of faculty workload and potential instructor burnout with multimodal format. Time will tell if HyFlex is the answer for education at the community college level, or perhaps just a fleeting flashing fad.

Are you ready to enhance your online teaching and learning? It is evident that online learning will be an integral part of higher education for the foreseeable future. Planning, preparing, and polishing your teaching in the online modality is key to maximize student success as we continue to educate a global community of learners. SMCCD’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). The Quality Online Teaching and Learning 2 (QOTL 2) is an opportunity to move forward with this recommendation.

QOTL 2 is an advanced online teaching training that builds on QOTL 1 and goes beyond the content in that course. The goal is to invite you to look at one of your existing courses and re-imagine any components that you feel could be improved upon and/or enhanced. This training is designed to fit each of your 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 (Category A, B, C) where you choose your professional learning journey. Category A focuses on Course Structure & Navigation, with choices of content delivery, course facilitation, and visual interest. Category B explores Interaction and Communication, with choices of student interaction, instructor interaction, and honoring student voice. Category C dives into the wonderful world of Assessment, with choices of authentic assessment, active learning, and grading and feedback. The culmination of the QOTL 2 training is a final activity where you display the artifacts you created throughout the course and how you plan to utilize them in your future online and hybrid classes.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to reach out to the CTTL at skylinecttl@smccd.edu

Sign up for Fall 2022 | Course begins Monday 9/26- Sunday,11/7/22