Inspire. Innovate. Impact.
Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning (CTTL)
Newsletter Vol. 7, Fall 2022
Renew, refresh, reflect...
Opening Message...
Congratulations folks, we survived another year and are closing the doors on the Fall 2022 semester. Let’s face it, these are challenging times that require a lot of courage, compassion, and calmness in the face of declining student enrollment and uncertainty about the future of higher education. In the midst of these challenges, we have opportunities to support and uplift each other with our words and actions. On behalf of the CTTL, we want to encourage our Skyline Community to take time and space to renew yourself, refresh your minds, and reflect on the joyous possibilities of transformative teaching and learning in this edition of our newsletter. PEACE to you and yours!
Don't forget to follow the CTTL this Summer on Twitter. Follow us at: @CTTL_Skyline
In this issue
Gratitude & Kudos
The this section features special messages and announcements on behalf of the CTTL.
Farewell to Nina Floro, CTTL founder, legend, and beloved colleague
Professional Development (PD) at Skyline College is an integral part of our campus culture. The PD experience we enjoy today would not be possible without the guidance, leadership, and love of all things teaching & learning of our beloved colleague, Nina Floro. Nina was Skyline College’s longest serving PD Coordinator and her vision and advocacy helped launch what’s now known as the Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning (CTTL). Events like the Adjunct Symposium, New Faculty Academy and the Adjunct Community of Practice are a few of the numerous accomplishments of Nina’s tenure and commitment to fostering robust professional development offerings & community for faculty. Nina, as you prepare to retire and start your next chapter, the CTTL would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your dedication, leadership, inspiration, and advocacy for professional development at Skyline. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors and are grateful to you for all that you’ve shared with us.
Equity & Access
The this section features resources needed to support equitable learning for our students.
Unpacking Free College, ZTC, and what it means for Skyline students
SMCCCD Free College has come to fruition with the passage of SB 893. This bill permits for some expenses for eligible students to be paid by District funds. For Spring 2023, students who reside in San Mateo County will have their enrollment fees waived for the upcoming semester.
Students NOT eligible for Free College funding support include: students who reside outside of San Mateo County, international students, and out-of-state students. Current guidelines are in place for the Spring 2023 semester only. Additionally, depending on documented financial need, students who are San Mateo County residents may/may not also be exempted for paying the student body fee, student representation fee, student union fee, inclusive access fee(s), and materials fees associated with the course.
SMCCCD Free College is separate and distinct from Skyline's Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) efforts. Notably, Skyline College courses are developed independently of Free College by dedicated and intentional faculty who choose high quality course materials available to students at no out-of-pocket cost. Materials may include Open Educational Resources (OER) and Skyline Library electronic resources such as eBooks, journal articles, and streaming media. These materials are available immediately to students, and long after the semester ends. Another significant difference is that Skyline ZTC courses are available and open to ALL Skyline students regardless of program, cohort, enrollment status, or county, state, & country of residence.
This Fall, Skyline offered students 356 ZTC class sections for which course materials are $0, and 87 lower-cost (LTC) class sections for which material costs are ≤$40. Combined, Fall ZTC & LTC classes resulted in an estimated savings of $851,448 – money that stays in students’ pockets and can be used for food, rent, and other necessities!
If you are interested in learning more about the scope of SMCCCD's Free College, Dr. Aaron McVean & colleagues will facilitate a Flex Day workshop on this topic on Thursday, January 12, 2023.
Skyline College's ZTC Team will be facilitating several Spring 2023 activities developed around identifying and developing ZTC degree/certificate pathways to completion, supported by the CCCCO. If you would like to learn more, please fill out this short ZTC Pathways Interest Survey (3-5 min) or reach out to Ame Maloney at maloneya@smccd.edu.
Get re-Acquainted with the Peralta Online Equity rubric
The Peralta Equity Rubric is a course (re)design evaluation tool to help teachers make online course experiences more equitable for all students. The rubric’s criteria include: addressing students’ access to technology and different types of support (both academic and non-academic); increasing the visibility of the instructor’s commitment to inclusion; addressing common forms of bias (e.g., image and representation bias, interaction bias); helping students make connections (e.g., between course topics and their lives; with the other students); and following universal design for learning principles. Skyline College Online instructors use the Peralta Online Equity Rubric to support equity in online courses. Want to learn more about the rubric and how to use it to support online courses? Dr. Chris Collins & Dr. Bianca Rowden-Quince will be faciltiating a Flex Session on Friday, January 13th @11:00am about best practicing for incorporating the rubric into your online course design.
Peralta-Online-Equity-Rubric-3.0-Oct-2020.pdfProfessional Development Opportunities for Equity
Learning Equity and Growth Series 2023 Speakers Biographies.pdfLearning Equity & Growth Series
The Learning Equity and Growth Series will be launching in Spring 2023. Skyline College's Learning, Equity and Growth Series (LEGS), formerly known as Equity Training Series, is an intentional sequence of experiences designed to increase awareness of the various intersections of equity. LEGS will provide attendees with additional access points to understand how equity gaps are not only created, but systematically embedded and supported within the many institutions, systems, infrastructures, and practices of our society. Please see below for application information:
Application Information
Access the LEGS Application Form.
The due date for applications is Wednesday, January 11, 2023.
The schedule of speakers and topics can be accessed at the Learning Equity & Growth Website.
For additional information, please reach out to Joshua Lindo.
Anyone and everyone is encourage to participate (including ETS alumni) and hope to see you there!
Excellence in Teaching
Welcome our New Faculty Academy Fall 2022 cohort
Join us in welcoming our 2022-2023 cohort of New Faculty Academy (NFA). uur new faculty cohort has been hard at work during their first semester as full-time faculty at Skyline College to engage and connect with students while learning their new full-time faculty roles. The CTTL would like to congratulate the NFA cohort for their professional growth and engagement during their first semester. Three cheers for:
Rocio Aguilar Pedroza (COUN), Rod Daus Magbual (ETHN)
Alexandra Kaplan (COUN), Ariel Katz (COMP), Adriana Johnston (COUN)
Robert Lopez (SURG), Gina Ciardella Palmer (COUN), Arnetta Villela-Smith (ETHN)
Tatiana Martinez (EDAC), Michael Song (BIOL), Tony Viertel (ACTG)
Strategies for Implementing RSI
in Online Classrooms
in Online Classrooms
Regular and substantive interaction (RSI) formally called regular and effective contact are more than a Title V federal and state requirement. RSI is also a hallmark of effective teaching. Decades of research have established that teacher-student interactions are an essential component of learning. Below are practical ways to ensure RSI is happening in your online course.
Language Arts Division Strategies for RSI
There is often an assumption that because a classroom meets in-person on campus, there is regular and substantive interaction. This is not necessarily true, a face-to-face class can lack interaction and engagement. In an amazing brainstorming session at the Language Arts Division Meeting, the faculty created a list of in-person on campus strategies for ensuring that face-to-face classes have regular and substantive interaction throughout the semester.
Professional development opportunites for excellence in teaching
January Flex Days
coming soon!
coming soon!
Mark your calendars for the January 2023 Flex Days! Professional Development programming will take place over two days, January 12th & January 13th. Thursday, January 12th will feature district-wide sessions for all SMCCD employees starting with an opening session about SB893. Friday, January 13th will offer both multi-modal and zoom sessions specific to Skyline College. Join us in person for breakfast lunch and community! We look forward to connecting with you in January and learning together.
Details and registration are available at: https://skylinecollege.edu/flexday/
Faculty Innovation
MATH Department Wraparound Tutoring
Skyline College has some real innovators in the Math Department. David Hasson and Rick Hough are working on an alternative system of instruction materials as the math requirements have changed due to legislation. They envision wrap-around tutoring with faculty collaborating across course sections, and just-in-time support for students needing it. They are using Google Suite templates for students to create their own custom textbooks using Khan Academy and Desmos. We look forward to seeing more as they develop the wrap around tutoring.
Online Learning
HyFlex Instructor Interview with Tammy Calderon
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, Tammy Calderon, Cosmetology Faculty in the Business, Education, and Professional Programs has navigated the terrain of HyFlex and has graciously shared benefits and challenges. According to Tammy, the benefits of the HyFlex classroom are savings for gas, car maintenance, and mental health. Also students have the power of choice with the modality of instruction by choosing between online or in-person. Tammy said, “This helps students who have busy schedules with work and school” navigate their lives and better support their families. Additionally, Tammy noticed that her multimodal class allowed students to go at their own pace, ease some of the anxiety, stress, and tension while providing more time for reflection and processing ideas.
Some challenges with HyFlex that Tammy encountered were real-time feedback and exchange of thoughts and ideas and instructor inaccessibility or lack of response to student emails with students teaching themselves. In regards to E-Books, Tammy noticed that “E-books aren't the same as having a textbook that you can use to write in and refer to relevant material.” This ultimately created stressors for the student experience. 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 with students perhaps getting lost in the shuffle. Time will tell if HyFlex is the answer for education at the community college level, or perhaps just a fleeting flashing fad.
Faculty Showcase - Highlights from the Fall 2022 QOTL-Level 2 journey
Teresa Campbell
Reflections from participation in QOTL 2 from
Teresa Campbell who teaches ECE.
Rachel Cunningham
Reflections from participation in QOTL 2 from
Rachel Cunningham who teaches GEOG.
QOTL 2, new cohorts for Spring 2023
Are you ready to enhance your online teaching and learning?
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 choosing your professional learning journey across three categories; Course Structure & Navigation, Interaction and Communication, an Assessment. 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.
Spring Cohort A: Course begins Monday 2/13- Sunday, 3/24/23
Spring Cohort B: Course begins Monday 4/3- Sunday, 5/14/23
For registration details, please feel free to reach out to the Chris Collins, Distance Education Coordinator.
Professional Development Opportunities for Online Learning
Professional learning opportunities exist beyond the borders of Skyline College. The CTTL has compiled a list of amazing opportunities you can use as a way to travel away for your professional development.
Professional Learning Opportunities @ONE
@ONE--the Online Network of Educators-- is a collaborative, system-wide network of California Community College faculty that provides training and professional development to support the effective use of digital tools and platforms. This month, I’d like to encourage you to check out the Fostering Human Connection Webinars where you will discover powerful yet practical ways to engage students with authenticity and humanity. You will find these webinars and more at the following link: Fostering Human Connection.
Online Teaching Conference
The Online Teaching Conference is a place where educators can network, develop innovative teaching strategies, and improve online instruction and engagement. Make plans to attend the Online Teaching Conference on June 22-23, in Long Beach, California! Registration is available at 2023 Online Teaching Conference Registration. If you are interested in presenting at the conference, submit a proposal by midnight on January 31, 2023. Information about the proposal criteria is available at the OTC Call for Proposals.
Suggested Winter Reading List
Winter is here and is a great time to curl up with a new book. Whether you’re relaxing by a fire, on your couch, or in your favorite reading spot, the CTTL team is excited to share some Winter reading recommendations!
Lighter
Through the Fog, Towards Inclusive Anti-Racist Teaching
The New College Classroom
Good Reads Book Review
What Inclusive Instructors Do
Good Reads Book Review
Professional Development continues to grow...
Welcome John Ulloa, New PD/Flex Coordinator
Please join us in welcoming John Ulloa to the CTTL as PD/Flex Coordinator for the remainder of the 2022-2023 academic year! John is a longtime faculty member in the History Department (tenured in 2014), where he has participated in considerable committee and service roles, most notably as the chair of the Curriculum Committee and the longtime Honors Transfer Coordinator (ushering in the Honors is for Everyone initiative). John is in the second year of the EdD Program in Educational Leadership at SFSU, and holds a MA in Cultural Anthropology from SFSU. We look forward to working with and learning alongside our newest team member!