Virtual UnConference
May 2020
(Un)Conference Online for Virtual Inspiration and Direction (COVID): Charging Forward (and Recharging?)
What happens if a group of witty people, all of whom are passionate about university biology education, get together for a few days in a lovely natural setting with no predetermined agenda? One of oCUBE's current objectives is to arrange UnConferences to explore topics we are most interested in at any given time. This year oCUBE held the 11th annual (Un)Conference (and first virtual UnConference) virtually due to COVID travel and gathering restrictions. The (Un)Conference is designed to support a community of practice among people dedicated to an exceptionally satisfying experience of undergraduate biology education. Faculty, staff, graduate students, and administrators interested in biology education are all welcome.
Our virtual UnConference took place on May 20-21st with the virtual version of the Tuesday evening Potluck Snackdown on Tuesday, May 19th. We reframed our conference theme of Charging Forward to reflect this year's pitches to a new theme: (Un)Conference Online for Virtual Inspiration and Direction (COVID): Charging Forward (and Recharging?). Our program along with scribe notes links for each session are included below.
Program
We had some exciting news for our virtual UnConference! Karen Costa, the author of "99 Tips for Creating Simple Sustainable Educational Videos" joined us for a special one hour virtual interactive BIG. Karen Costa has been teaching and learning in higher education since 2002. She is the author of 99 Tips for Creating Simple and Sustainable Videos: A Guide for Online Teachers and Flipped Classes (Stylus, 2020)*. In addition to her work as an adjunct faculty teaching college success strategies to new, online students, Karen is a faculty development facilitator at Faculty Guild and the Online Learning Consortium. Connect with Karen on Twitter @KarenRayCosta or via her website at http://www.karencostawriter.com
If you are interested in Karen's book on educational videos, here are some options on how you can get it directly from the publisher (Stylus Pub, the first chapter is available for free), as a Kindle version from Amazon, or as a Kobo version.
* FYI - A quick note about Karen Costa’s book that if you purchase the e-book, you may be only able to read in the Adobe Digital Edition (ADE) app. If you also want to be able to read the book on a tablet, you will need another app. If you purchase through Kobo, you can use the free Kobo app to read the book on tablet, phone, etc.
Collaboration space beyond our virtual UnConference time:
- Online course development google sheet
- Online lab development google sheet
Thank you for joining us virtually this year!