CTL November Newsletter

CTL Committees for 2009-2010 The Center for Teaching and Learning commit-tees have been meeting and planning routinely throughout the fall semester. Responsibilities for each committee have been expanded to include all areas of CTL including Professional and Orga-nizational Development, Technology Training, eLearning and Career Clusters Development. A number of events and trainings have already been conducted with many more being planned.

Thanks to all of the dedicated members for their contributions, interest and support. Please feel free to contact representatives with ideas and top-ics for events, activities and/or training. Officers and representatives are as follows:

CTL Faculty Development Committee Academic Membership (voting members) Monique Dupuis (chair), Kay Taylor (vice

chair), Mark Hutson (recorder), Duane Lintner, Michelle Orcutt,

Genie Burkhalter, Kelly Jones, Pam George, Bruce Mose-ley, Ed Nolte, Phyllis Pastwa, Jana Comerford, Sally Evans,

Mike Bellah,

Amarillo College l CTL l http://www.actx.edu/ctl/ 1

CTL November 2009 CTL Newsletter

• Academic Support Membership (non-voting members) Lana Jackson, Kaki Hoover, Lou Ann Seabourn, Patsy Lemaster, H.Q. Wrampelmeier

CTL Classified Development Committee • Classified Membership (voting members)

Gala Carpenter (chair), Joni Stone (vice chair), Sherri Nunn (recorder), Jeanetta Smiley, Vicki Swiedom, Natalie Brown, Melanie Gray, Debra Russell, Tammy Esparza, Joy Brenneman, Brandy Hayes, David White, Karen Schmidt, Paul Crawford

• Classified Support Membership (non-voting members) Patsy Lemaster, H.Q. Wrampelmeier

CTL Administrators Development Committee • Administrators Membership (voting mem-

bers) Heather Atchley (chair), Bob Austin (vice chair), Beverly Vinson (recorder), Danielle Arias, Kim Crowley, Sondra Beighle, Shawn Fouts, Rita Wilson, Daniel Esquivel, Delton Moore, David Ziegler, Kara Larkan-Skinner, Jason Norman, Linda Hendrick

• Administrators Support Membership (non-voting members) Patsy Lemaster, H.Q. Wrampelmeier

At a Glanceu CTL Committees 1

u CTL Committees Applications for Summer 2010

2

u Fall 2009 Interns – Kay Taylor and Pam George

2

u Introducing the Newest Member of CTL – Heather Voran

3

u NISOD Excellence Awards 4

u CTL Opens New Lab for AC Employees

4

u Record of Staff Development 5

POD 6

eLearning 11

Career Clusters 12

Technology Training 14

The Center for Teaching and Learning

Amarillo College

Contact: Patsy Lemaster, H.Q. Wrampelmeier

http://www.actx.edu/ctl/

mailto:pclemaster%40actx.edu?subject=

mailto:hqwrampelmeier%40actx.edu?subject=



Faculty applicants must have at least two semes-ters of experience using a learning management system; course development software skills/expe-rience; excellent interpersonal, communication, and customer service skills; critical thinking skills, troubleshooting and problem resolution skills; be a team player; have strong professional eth-ics and organizational skills; be dependable and have respect for confidential situations/matters; and have a favorable rapport with CTL leadership/staff and other AC faculty/staff. Faculty must have Department and Division Chairs approval and be willing/able to accept the internship assignment as a three-hour overload for the semester identified (96 clock hours will be required for all internships).

Fall 2009 Interns – Kay Taylor and Pam George We would like to thank Kay Taylor and Pam George for serving as the Fall 2009 CTL Faculty Interns. They have both done an outstanding job for us!

Kay Taylor is an Instructor and Director of the East Campus Access Learning Center. As the Fall 2009 intern, Kay has coordinated with Dr. Michael Bellah and featured presenters to develop online resources for New Faculty Academy 2009-2010. Kay has dedicated a tremendous amount of time to development of this resource that will be used


Amarillo College

CTL Faculty Internship Applications for Summer 2010 Thanks to the Faculty Internship Committee for their work in developing the guidelines and pro-cedures for identifying CTL Faculty Internships. Committee representatives were as follows: Larry Adams, Carol Buse, Nichol Dolby, Monique Dupuis, Jill Gibson, Judy Isbell, Lana Jackson, Verena John-son, Jan Martin, and Ed Nolte.

Faculty internships are opportunities for AC faculty to assist other faculty peers using AC Online and/or other technologies being supported by the CTL. Faculty Interns coordinate activities and projects with CTL staff while supporting peers and learning new interactive and instructional strategies.

The guidelines and application were distributed to faculty during the fall semester to identify interns for Spring 2010. No applications were submitted before the November 2 deadline. As a result, CTL will be Faculty are encouraged to review the guide-lines and application and submit for a Summer 2010 internship. Applications for faculty intern-ships for Summer 2010 are due by Friday, February 26. Final selections will be announced by Friday, March 26.

Kay’s Comments About Working as a CTL Intern: Developing the online component of New Faculty Academy has been and continues to be a very rewarding learning experience. Having an online component of New Faculty Academy allows new faculty the opportunity to experience AC Online from the student perspective. The online component will create a library of resources for the new faculty and showcase some of resources CTL offers to assist in future course design. New faculty are being introduced to an array of tools from both Angel and SoftChalk. Get-ting to know the new faculty of AC is also something I have enjoyed. Opportunities to work and to get better acquainted with the members of the AC family routinely lead to greater connections as well as fun and laugh-ter. Working with CTL staff also contributes to the pleasure of my job at AC. Amarillo College is very fortunate to have the qualified staff of CTL to assist us in all they do. The knowledge and quality of professionalism this division brings to Amarillo College is a well kept secret which many do not know exists. The faculty and staff of AC are very fortunate to have their expertise.

l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l


Contact: Patsy Lemaster, H.Q. Wrampelmeier, Kay Taylor


http://www.actx.edu/elearning/files/filecabinet/folder7/Faculty_Internship_Application___Summer_2010_Interns.pdf

http://www.actx.edu/elearning/files/filecabinet/folder7/Faculty_Internship_Application___Summer_2010_Interns.pdf

mailto:pclemaster%40actx.edu?subject=


mailto:ketaylor%40actx.edu?subject=

Foodfor

Thought



to continue her role as the Spring 2010 intern since no applications were received from other faculty. We, in CTL, are deeply grateful and excited about spending another semester with Pam. Thanks, Pam, for sharing your expertise with other faculty and your positive perspective and skills with CTL!

Introducing the Newest Member of CTL – Heath-er VoranCTL welcomed our newest member in the depart-ment of eLearning, Heather Voran, Faculty Instructional Designer/Technology Specialist at the beginning of the academic year. Heather comes to Amarillo College from Region 16 Educa-tion Service Center where she was an Instructional Technology Specialist providing training and sup-port to teachers, administrators and ESC consul-tants throughout the state. She has a Master of Education degree in Instructional Technology from West Texas A&M University and is also the Area 16 Director of the Texas Computer Education Associa-tion currently serving on the TCEA Board of Direc-tors. Heather has been developing training and teaching throughout the fall semester.


Amarillo College

Pam’s Comments About Working as a CTL Intern: Working in eLearning as a CTL intern has been a great learning experi-ence for me. I have truly enjoyed learning more about online instruction and about tech-nology, in general. I must say I have learned a great deal from the staff of eLearning. I have found that I love helping design courses almost as much as I love teaching. The thing I enjoyed the very most was the interaction with faculty, both part and full time, from all areas and campuses of Amarillo College as well as dual credit instructors. There are many faculty I might never have gotten to know otherwise. It was a pleasure to get to work with them to create the best online classes we can for our students.



as a model for the future. Kay will continue the NFA project during Spring 2010 since the Acad-emy is now conducted for a full academic year. In addition, she will be working with Lou Ann Sea-bourn and featured presenters for the Spring 2010 Adjunct Faculty Certification to create comparable online content for that program. Thanks, Kay, for your talent, expertise, and willingness to these projects!

Pam George is Assistant Profes-sor and Program Coordinator for Nutrition. As a Fall 2009 intern, Pam has worked closely with the staff in eLearning throughout the semester. She has played

an instrumental role in designing and presenting training for AC Online, facilitating open labs, meet-ing and working with course design for faculty at

West Campus, and dual credit training. Pam has

also been a tremen-dous resource repre-

senting and working with faculty as they

are migrated from the MyAC LMS features to AC Online. Pam has graciously agreed

Contact: Pam George, Heather Voran


mailto:pdgeorge%40actx.edu?subject=

mailto:hlvoran%40actx.edu?subject=



of-the-art presentation podium with document camera, projector, and sound system is available for training. The lab has twelve computers loaded with Adobe eLearning Suite software which includes Captivate, Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, Presenter, Soundbooth and more. In addition, eLearning has acquired new audio/vid-eo equipment including, Canon HD video camera, 3 Flip HD video cameras, portable lighting systems, wireless microphones, and video editing software for use by instructors. The CTL Lab is available to all employees during routine working hours weekly. Extended hours are also being offered to faculty for assistance with online course development/training, Monday through Thursday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Training classes and special events are routinely scheduled. To avoid conflicts, please contact H.Q. Wrampel-meier, if you would like to visit or use the lab.


Amarillo College

Check out the New CTL Lab



NISOD Excellence AwardsAmarillo College employees recently were given the opportunity to nominate any administrator, classified staff, or faculty member for 2010 NISOD Excellence Awards. Criteria for nominations spe-cifically identified individuals who have developed a service, activity or program that has positively impacted a broad spectrum of AC students and their educational efforts. A Selection Committee was identified by the President’s Cabinet, Adminis-trators Association, Vice President’s Council, Faculty Supervisors Council, Faculty Senate and Classified Employees Council as follows: Ellen Green, Kara Larkan-Skinner, Alex Maples, Robert Boyd, Valerie Hansen, Jennifer Bartlett, Jerry Moore, Dee Partin, and Charlotte Goebel. Award recipients will be an-nounced by Monday, November 23, 2009.

CTL Opens New Lab for AC EmployeesWith funding and support from the Technology Replacement Task Force (TRTF), IT Division, Title V, Perkins and institutional departmental fund-ing, CTL has created an instructional lab with 15 computers (12 desktops and 3 laptops), software, and multimedia equipment. The lab has been designed an classroom, instructional center for em-ployees to use to learn the latest software. A state-

IT staff in the new CTL lab during a recent Colleague training class. The lab is locat-ed in the eLearning offices, Lynn Library, Room 309

Trainer Charles Hendrick and Lab Instructor Priscilla Hunt in the new CTL lab




For documentation and entry, the Record of Staff Development must be completed and signed by the employee participating in external activities/training, submitted to their supervisor for approval and signature, then forwarded to Janice Newburg in the Center for Teaching and Learning. Training information will be added to the employee’s indi-vidual professional development transcript by CTL.

Such documentation is used frequently to iden-tify external participation in activities and train-ings and have assisted with selections for awards, honors and recognition. The documentation also allows employees to build comprehensive, elec-tronic records/documentation for evaluation and promotion purposes.


Amarillo College



A special thanks to the following for their con-tributions: Lee M. Colaw, TRTF, Joy Brenneman, Danita McAnally, David Ziegler, Jeff Gibson, TIC and all the workers at Physical Plant. Without your help, this would not have been possible!

Record of Staff Development CTL is pleased to announce the reinstatement of procedures for tracking external activities/train-ing (workshops, seminars, special projects, etc.) for individual AC employees.

The form for submitting such activities, the Record of Staff Development, is located at http://www.actx.

edu/pod/files/filecabinet/folder2/Record_of_POD.pdf or under staff/forms/Center for Teaching and Learn-ing-Record of Staff Development on the AC web.

This form is to be completed and submitted for ac-tivities/trainings that are not already being tracked by the college through other routine procedures. Note: If sign-ins, registrations, advancement forms are required for an activity/training, systematic procedures already exist and employees do not have to submit the Record of Staff Development. Develop-ment.

What is the true origin of the term hot dog?From The Straight Dope website:“[Barry] Popik established that the term“hot dog” was current at Yale in the fall of1894, when “dog wagons” sold hot dogs atthe dorms, the name a sarcastic commenton the provenance of the meat.” Yum!

Digging Deeper


http://www.actx.edu/pod/files/filecabinet/folder2/Record_of_POD.pdf

http://www.actx.edu/pod/files/filecabinet/folder2/Record_of_POD.pdf

ACTS 2010The Directors for the Amarillo College Teaching Seminar (ACTS) 2010 have been selected. Directors will include the following: Kay Taylor, Director; Pam George and Tony Thomas, Co-Directors-elect; and Claudie Biggers, Past Director. Invitations will be extended to faculty-at-large during January 2010. The retreat will, once again, be conducted May 19-22 at Fort Marcy Compound in Santa Fe, NM. Watch for additional information as distributed.


Fall 2009 Opening Activities AC employees were greeted on the first day of Fall 2009 with special events/activities. As recom-mended by the First-Year Experience Committee, Dr. Christy Price presented generational/motiva-tional workshops for faculty and staff to provide greater understanding as to WHY the STUDENTS do not necessarily think that we are GROOVY.

Employees were also treated to a lunch cookout hosted by Underwood Law Firm. A special “thank you” to H.Q. Wrampelmeier, CTL Project Specialist, for organizing and coordinating events for the day.

Another special “thank you” goes to the attor-neys from Underwood who cooked burgers and hot dogs for AC employees. Underwood attorneys included the following: Chris Wrampelmeier, Slater Elza, Matt Sherwood, Kelln Zimmer, Alicia Carrin-Moore, Fred Stormer, and Bob Sanders. Great Job, H.Q & Underwood Law Firm! Thanks! (We hope to see you all again next year!)


POD

Lunch, networking, sharing ideas for future professional development and fun were on the agenda at “All About Administrators,” hosted by the Admin-istrators Development Committee and the Center for Teaching and Learning. The event conducted on Friday, October 31 was attended by 37, AC administra-tors. Donations were collected for the Administrators Christmas Project and the Spring Student Project. Both of these projects directly benefit AC students.

AC Administrators, plan to join the group for the Spring 2010 event!


CTL The Center for Teaching and Learning

Amarillo College

November 2009 CTL Newsletter

ALL ABOUT ADMINISTRATORS

Friday, Feb. 26, 2010

11:30 am – 1:30 pm

Amarillo Museum of Art

Contact: H.Q. Wrampelmeier



employees. Participation is highly encouraged as is fun and camaraderie with coworkers! Sally Evans, M.Ed., Career Services Advising & Counseling is the coordinator of Me, Inc. Adjunct Faculty SoiréeLou Ann Seabourn, Associate Dean of Instruction, welcomed over 100 adjunct faculty to this annual event on August 20. The events began with dinner, included informative presentations and conclud-ed with division/department meetings. Emergency Manager, Rusty Cornelius presented emergency preparedness procedures and dis-cussed training being planned for AC faculty and staff.

Participants were guided thorough applications for parking permits by Sergeant Steve Chance, Ama-rillo College Police.

Texas Community College Teachers Association (TCCTA) information was presented by David Her-nandez, Business Division Chair and TCCTA Mem-bership Chair.


Me, Inc. is Back! Amarillo College Psychology Professor, Dr. Alan Kee, presented; “ Rational Effectiveness Training for the Workplace - How Rational Emotive Behavioral Training can Enhance Your Effectiveness” for the Fall session of Me, Inc.

Employees were introduced to procedures for Rational Effectiveness Training and ways in which the workplace environment can be enhanced by developing its use.

Essential workplace skills, such as conflict manage-ment, time management and creative decision making, were discussed and used and used as examples of strategies that are often blocked by self-defeating practices.

Rational Effectiveness Training can often help con-trol dysfunctional emotions thus reducing stress and freeing more productive energy.Me, Inc., is a lunch and learn sponsored gathering with the purpose of encouraging the development of interpersonal skills for the workplace. Session formats feature a lecture and small group conver-sations focused on strategies for enhancing work-place skills and knowledge of Amarillo College


POD

Enrollment Management was the focus of the first “How We Do What We Do” lun-cheon/workshop on Wednesday, October 21.

The featured topic; “Enrollment Processes for Undocumented Students”, was pre-sented by Bob Austin, Dean of Enrollment Management, Dale Longbine, Director of Customer Services, and Kay Mooney, Director of Financial Aid.

Participants learned about AC’s admis-sions and financial aid processes, tuition classification, and how each area works with undocumented students wishing to enroll at AC.

Watch for similar sessions as they are an-nounced for Spring 2010!

How We Do What We Do Enrollment Management



Amarillo College



Truck Driving Seminar at East CampusA customized in-service training for Transportation Technologies will be conducted on Wednesday, December 16.

Participants will learn about pre-trip inspections, school bus procedures, gear management, parallel parking, and an overview of folk lift classes.

New Faculty Academy2009-2010 New Faculty Academy participants are:

Dolores Arambula, ESL-Hereford Campus

Michael Barnett, Biology

Ronald Bennett, Mathematics

Robert Gustin, Manufacturing Technology-East Campus

Stephanie Jung, Visual Arts

Trace Megenbier, Instrument & Control

Technology-East Campus

Bruce Moseley, Paralegal Studies

Rebecca Vincent, Associate Degree Nursing

Heather Voran, eLearning

Rekha Yesudas, Biology

Dr. Mike Bellah, is the director for 2009-2010 NFA . He is supported by Kay Taylor who is developing online resources and content.


Center for Teaching and Learning training oppor-tunities and workshops for course development of AC Online classes were presented by Brian Nixon, eLearning Director and Heather Voran, Faculty Instructional Designer/Technology Specialist.

Southwest Seminar for Great TeachingDon Abel, Assistant Professor, Radio/TV-Speech and Tony Thomas, Associate Professor, Computer Assisted Drafting/Design were selected by a Fac-ulty Development (FDC) sub-committee to attend the annual seminar that was held in Taos, NM, October 22-24. Mary Clare Munger, Department Chair/Assistant Professor-Education/Child Care was selected as an alternate.

Don and Tony give an overview of the seminar at the November meeting of FDC.

Of his experience, Don said, “ I met young teachers and ancient ones. All had something to contribute. I realized there is so much more to be learned and many other teaching methods to try.”Tony shared ideas for maintaining students’ atten-tion, using technology effectively in the classroom and discussions over concerns about students texting in class he had learned at the seminar.


POD

Amarillo College Dual Credit instructors/facilitators were provided training on AC Online (ANGEL) as part of migration activi-ties to move online dual credit courses from WebCT to AC Online.

Three one-day workshops were conducted during July. Instructor Pam George, CTL Intern and Assistant Professor, trained 45 dual credit facilitators the Panhandle area.

Participants gave the training positive reviews stating how much they valued the opportunity. In addition they stated that it made them feel appreciated and sup-ported by AC. Thanks Pam for a great job!!

CEU credit and certificates of completion were given to those trained.

AC Online Training for Dual Credit Instructors



Amarillo College



AC CARES - Customer Service WorkshopA two-hour, intensive workshop on Customer Service was presented to AC front-lines staffers on Thursday, November 12.

Business skills trainer, Whitney Kelly, facilitated this workshop entitled:

“AC CARES” Connected with each customerAttentive to individual customers-Responsible to helpEnthusiasticSolution oriented.

Through a combination of lecture, discussion and activities, participants learned and practiced ways to improve customer service.

Watch for the date: This workshop will be repeated in the Moore County Campus on Thursday, December 3.


Classified Development Committee Holiday Celebration PlannedCDC members are hard at work planning an infor-mative, networking and fun event for all Amarillo College classified employees to be hosted on Fri-day, December 11 on the second floor of the CUB, WSC

SUPERVISORS, PLEASE ENCOURAGE ALL CLASSIFIED TO ATTEND!!

POD


Amarillo College


Contact: H.Q. Wrampelmeier




POD


Amarillo College


Training ScheduleFor a complete list of course descriptions for all classes and training sessions being offered by CTL go to the “Schedule-at-a-Glance” site at: http://www.actx.edu/pod

Date Course Time Location

Tuesday, December 1 Online Course Design 101 1:00 - 3:00 pm Wash. St.CampusCTL Lab, Library, Room 309

Wednesday, December 2 Online Course Design 101 9:00 - 11:00 am Wash. St.CampusCTL Lab, Library, Room 309

Friday, December 4 SoftChalk: Introduction 1:00 - 3:00 pm Wash. St.CampusCTL Lab, Library, Room 309

Friday, December 4 SoftChalk: Activities 3:00-5:00 PM Wash. St.CampusCTL Lab, Library, Room 309

Monday, December 7 SoftChalk: Quiz Poppers 1:00-3:00 PM Wash. St.CampusCTL Lab, Library, Room 309

Monday, December 7 SoftChalk: Advanced 3:00-5:00 PM Wash. St.CampusCTL Lab, Library, Room 309

Please register by visiting: http://www.actx.edu/ctlregistration

Once you are logged in, you will be at the “Register for Center for Teaching & Learning Classes” page. Click “SUBMIT” at the bottom of the page to go to the next screen. The next screen will list all classes being offered. Choose as many as you would like to register for by clicking the “Select” button on the left of the Course Name & Title, then just click submit and you are registered!


http://www.actx.edu/pod

http://www.actx.edu/ctlregistration

CTL/eLearning Expands Training Due to an increased demand, CTL has expanded its training and support schedule. During the fall semester classes in SoftChalk , Captivate, and Op-timizing Files for the Web, Engaging Students, and Angel Gradebook were offered. In addition, many classes were held for groups and individuals needing help migrating courses from MyAc to AC Online (Angel).

As part of an ongoing expan-sion of services, eLearning is now offering training and instructional design support on the West campus. This se-mester labs were schedules on Monday afternoon and Thursday afternoon in room 104A. Special thanks for Judy Massie for allowing us to use her facility. Please check with eLearning for the spring semester hours. In the future our hope is to expand services to East campus as well as Moore County.


eLearningBig Things to Come

Anyone having to deal with the old Real video server and the hassle of delivering video content online will be pleased to hear that AC has pur-

chased Adobe’s Interactive Media Server. The server will allow instruc-tors to store, convert, and deliver video for use in class and online.

Some of the features of the new server include: optimized stream delivery , easier implementation and faster server and more secure delivery. The powerful server has

true streaming capabilities and can detect any changes in the viewer’s bandwidth and smoothly switch between streams during playback. This new software should significantly upgrade our video capabilities. Look for announcements in early spring.




Amarillo College


CTL’s Mr. Reliable, Buster Bonjour fixes another problem

Contact: Brian Nixon, Brenda Davidson, Heather Voran


mailto:bhbonjour%40actx.edu?subject=

mailto:bjnixon%40actx.edu?subject=

mailto:bjdavidson%40actx.edu?subject=


As members of a global economy defined by ever-present technological advances, tomorrow’s graduates must be prepared to be flexible, life-long learners who can seamlessly transition between career and professional opportunities. To that end, mastery of occupational core knowledge and skills will pro-vide the foundation for each graduate to build a successful, lifetime career path defined by anticipated change and op-portunity.

Career Clusters, as recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, organize careers and professions into cohesive groups of occupations that share commonalities of purpose, knowledge and skills. Application of the Career Clusters concept in education allows institutions to be more responsive to the ever-changing needs of the work place while assisting students in master-ing foundational knowledge and skills which will ensure their future success. In addition, the struc-ture of Career Clusters, complete with multiple, identified entry and exit points, provides each student with a better connection and understand-ing of a future filled with possibilities.

For faculty and staff, the most alarming aspect of Career Clusters implementation involves curricular evaluation and potential change.

Implementation of Career Clusters requires that we assess curricular content of all programs of study in order to: 1) identify overlaps and gaps in the existing curricula as related to man-datory, industry-recognized knowl-edge and skill attainment; and 2) clearly articulate a core curriculum of knowledge and skills for each cluster which provides enrolled

students a foundational base of knowledge upon which to build a career/profession.

Initial implementation of the Career Cluster con-cept has been two-fold. Instructional administra-tors and academic division chairs have provided the frontline of support as we have studied certifi-cate and degree programs across the college to assign each program to a Career Cluster which is reflective of curricular content, potential job op-portunities, and transferability to an upper-level postsecondary institution. A master list of Cluster

Career Clusters

For a view of what is happening on the national level, “Thriving in Challenging Times,” a CORD publication, recognizes 17 local and two state-wide career pathways programs, selected from across the U.S., which demonstrate successful partnerships between secondary, postsecond-ary and industry professionals.

Thriving in Challenging Times




Amarillo College


It’s all about the curricula…

curriculum…students

Contact: Lana Jackson


http://www.cord.org/thriving-in-challenging-times/

mailto:lcjackson%40actx.edu?subject=


Assignments by Degrees/Certificates as listed in the AC Online Catalog is now available from the Center for Teaching and Learning.

In coordination, 26 AC faculty and staff, selected from seven of the 12 clusters represented at AC, are leading the way in the curricular development of Career Clusters. These individuals dedicated a day of training to learn to use the Worldwide Instruc-tional Design Systems (WIDS), a database which

allows faculty to engage in program design, curricular assessment, and, eventually,

outcomes assessment activities at the program and course levels.

The lead team for WIDS imple-mentation is currently focused on

mastering WIDS by engaging in

program design within their cluster assignments. Core curricula for the Information Technology and Manufacturing clusters, which are in their third year of development, will be finalized in February/March. All other WIDS team members will serve as trainers beginning in March, engaging more faculty across disciplines in program development and curricular assessment using the database.

Meeting the needs of students by engaging in the assessment and development of programs of study, with input from educators and industry professionals, is central to the success of Career Clusters development. By engaging in WIDS analy-sis and conversations with secondary and industry professionals, we have begun the process of identi-fying real opportunities for our students.

Career Clusters


Amarillo College



14

Technology Training with Charles Hendrick The Technology Support Services Department has been busy this semester creating new classes to help faculty with some of the changing software needs on the horizon. Since the MyAC LMS fea-tures for “Faculty Workstation” will no longer be supported or available after the fall semester, the two training classes in that program have been migrated to AC Online (ANGEL), AC’s official LMS system. In September, a class called “Gradebooks in ANGEL” was created, and several sessions were offered in October. The second class, “Setting up your class in ANGEL” has been created, but not offered yet. These classes are specifically designed to address learning for individuals who have never used AC Online (ANGEL).

SoftChalk, a software package that faculty can use to create lesson content for ANGEL, has been evaluated by several employees, and seven differ-ent classes have been created for that program. Faculty can create content in Microsoft Word, copy it into a new SoftChalk lesson, and then add graphics, hyperlinks, and different media items such as sound files, movie clips, or links to YouTube

videos. However, many faculty members have stated that one of their favorite parts of SoftChalk has been the gradable quiz questions and puzzles. The grades students earn on the lessons can be funneled directly into an ANGEL gradebook as-signment. One instructor stated that he had many PowerPoint presentations that he currently uses in class. It is an easy process of bringing the presen-tations into a “Photo Album” in SoftChalk. Howev-er, to keep the slide transitions and custom anima-tion, a program such as Captivate would have to be used to capture the presentation as a movie clip which can easily be added to a lesson.

We are currently working on the spring semester schedule of classes. For January and February, we will be focusing on the “Gradebooks in ANGEL” and “Setting up your Class in ANGEL” trainings. SoftCh-alk classes will be offered later in the spring as well as all of the standard classes in Word, Excel, Pow-erPoint, Colleague Intro, and Outlook. We will also be working to upgrade our Office classes to the new Office 2010 version as soon as it announced and released by Microsoft and made available to Amarillo College.

Amarillo College l CTL l http://www.actx.edu/ctl/

Technology Training

Embed a PowerPoint Directly in AngelDo you wish you could show your PowerPoint slide show directly in Angel without forcing students to download the PowerPoint player. Check out this easy method.

http://pharmacy.unc.edu/about-us/documents-and-policies/web-site-users-guide/embedding-a-powerpoint-slideshow



Technology McNuggets


Amarillo College


Contact: Charles Hendrick





mailto:ckhendrick%40actx.edu?subject=

CTL November Newsletter

Documents

Transcript of CTL November Newsletter