Helping students learn educational technology
Learning technology is a life skill similar to critical thinking, and students come to courses with varying degrees of experience tackling this challenge. At this workshop, we propose several strategies to help you help your students in successfully learning and using the tech tools that they need in your course. Professors need not be tech support for students, but they can facilitate the learning process through curating and creating materials, modeling the use of the tool, and scaffolding the process.

Workshop slides

Tools & scaffolds for student presentations
What tools can students use to create online presentations? How do I help them form groups and avoid submitting last-minute work? How should I collect student work and share it with their classmates for peer feedback? If you are grappling with any of these questions, this workshop is for you. Join us to learn how Hunter colleagues have scaffolded student group work and presentations, and what tools they have chosen to use.

Workshop slides
Managing Group Work and Presentations Online

Beyond online: Flexible by design
Looking beyond the pandemic and emergency remote teaching, professors might consider designing courses that can be easily changed from in-person to synchronous or asynchronous online sessions. In this workshop, we will explore ideas and strategies to design or redesign courses with flexibility, accessibility, and equity in mind. We will discuss ways in which professors can maximize flexibility in the design choices they make in course technology, engagement methods, format of materials, and assessment techniques.

Resources

Building blocks of hybrid & online courses: Asynchronous online modules
A learning module is a collection of subject-related teaching materials that is carefully sequenced and chunked. Learning modules are the building blocks of hybrid and online courses, and usually contain one week’s worth of work for students to complete. At this workshop, we will discuss how to create learning modules, and review examples of modules created by Hunter professors.

Sample online modules

Activities for asynchronous sessions
Are you looking for assignment ideas for your asynchronous online sessions that go beyond reading and writing? Let’s explore creative activities using Blackboard blogs, journals, and other Hunter tools such VoiceThread, Hypothesis, and Padlet. We will discuss which tools connect to the Blackboard Grade Center for speedier grading and which are more suited for peer sharing.

VoiceThread resources
Hypothesis resources
Padlet resources

Tips & tools for recording mini-lectures
You are ready to record mini-lectures for your course, but are unsure about what tools to use and how to look good and sound clear. Join us for a session on best practices for professors creating videos in their own space and using their own equipment. We will consider several tools in terms of the kind of mini-lectures you are creating, the editing capabilities you need, and what is available at Hunter. We will also review ways to capture good visual and sound quality, so that your videos can be repurposed and reused.

Recording Tips

What do you do with black boxes on Zoom? Strategies for engaging students in synchronous online classes
How do you know if students are engaged in your synchronous online class if they don’t have their cameras and microphones turned on? Join us for a workshop where we will engage in ten activities where audio and video are optional but participation is highly recommended. Using tools you may already know—Zoom, Google, and Padlet, experience how answering polls, annotating images, discussing in breakout rooms, and working on shared online spaces can engage online participants without using microphones and cameras.

Recipes to add joy to hybrid & online courses
What do flashcards, playlists, and hidden messages have in common? They can all be strategies to motivate students, keep them on track, build community, and have fun doing classwork. Let’s cook up some ideas to incorporate whimsy, surprise, competition, and teamwork into your courses!

Workshop slides
Resources

Organizing your Blackboard course site for clarity and consistency
What kind of course navigation works best for online courses? Where do you put course materials and assignments for clear and easy access? Join us for a review of Hunter’s online course template and learn ways to organize course content and place course tools. You will learn about course links, tool links, embedding videos, and orientation modules. Come see Blackboard with fresh eyes!

Preparing students for success: The orientation module
An “orientation module,” informative materials paired with interactive activities, can set students up for success in a course where the mode of instruction might be unfamiliar. In this workshop, we will discuss what to include in an orientation module, and what tools can be used to create one. We will also share strategies professors can use to welcome students to a course, navigate the course site, learn tech tools, and build community.

Padlet for resource collection & interactive activities 
What can Padlet NOT do? It is a versatile tool for collaborating and posting notes that include text, images, links, and videos. At Hunter, Padlet is widely used for ice-breaker activities, for sharing resources, and for collecting student work. In this workshop, we will review samples of successful and innovative activities designed by Hunter professors, and discuss appropriate formats and settings for different kinds of assignments.

Resources

Zoom tools to interact with students
The Zoom conferencing tool has a variety of functions that allow instructors to interact with students with or without microphones or cameras. Workshop participants will take part in interactive activities using chat, reactions, whiteboard annotations, polls, and breakout rooms. They will also learn some best practices for preparing students to participate in online meetings.

Workshop slides
Resources