Category: Online Learning

  • “Postcards” from Camp

    “Postcards” from Camp

    We want to highlight all of the great work you have been doing this semester. In the spirit of Camp Design Online we are inviting you to share your “Postcards from Camp.” These can be anything from a short blog post (think 5-7 minute read) to a “postcard” length (approximately 2 tweets or the length of a New York Times tiny love story). The posts will be featured on the Digital Learning blog, but we encourage you to share them on your own websites as well! 

    Potential prompts:

    • Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give yourself at the start of the semester?
    • How are you using your synchronous time to engage with students?
    • What makes you excited about online teaching and learning?
    • What frustrates you about online teaching and learning?
    • Share a favorite story or moment with students.

    Feel free to include media as well!


    If you are interested, please reach out to Jordan Noyes with any questions or “postcards.”

  • Keeping Hope Alive in Online Learning

    Students and faculty have completed the first three weeks of the semester at Muhlenberg. Most teaching and learning is happening online, with a smaller number of courses for first year students being taught on campus or in a blended environment that integrates in-person and online learning activities. We dedicated the summer to helping faculty prepare for this semester, offering 14 sessions of our faculty development course Camp Design Online. Throughout the summer, we were awed by the generosity staff and faculty poured into this effort, as well as an outstanding and dedicated group of student Digital Learning Assistants who ensured that student perspectives were present and shaping conversations around online course design and instruction.

    This is one of several upcoming posts featuring the variety of practices animating and humanizing online courses at Muhlenberg. A good place to begin for those interested in understanding more about teaching and learning online is this video interview with Flower Darby, a leader in online learning and author of the text Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science to Online Classes.

    The video is also available here: 

    https://video.muhlenberg.edu/media/Looking+at+Online+Learning+with+Fresh+Eyes_+A+Conversation+with+Flower+Darby+%28New%29/1_jaoqkcx3 

    Read more by Flower Darby in her column in the Chronicle of Higher Education:  https://www.chronicle.com/author/flower-darby 

  • Digital Learning Updates and Opportunities

    We’re sharing this brief update about some of the exciting things we’re collaborating on this semester.

    Faculty Online Learning Cohort 2018 Begins!

    The Digital Learning Team is gearing up to begin working with a new group of faculty for our fourth annual Spring faculty development program for online learning.  Throughout the spring semester, the following faculty are developing online and blended courses, primarily in the humanities and arts:

    • Sharon Albert — Islamic Traditions
    • Greta Brubaker — Introduction to Digital Photography
    • Kelly Cannon — Copyright
    • Amy Corbin —  Melodrama
    • Roberta Meek — Music and the Civil Rights Movement
    • Mark Stein — Frontiers in History

    Tim Clarke (Instructional Technologist) is leading the Spring program, with Bill Feeney (Lecturer) and Jenna Azar (Instructional Designer).  Also supporting the work is a group of Faculty Digital Fellows with past experience teaching online including Keri Colabroy, Susan Kahlenberg, Lanethea Mathews-Schultz, and Danielle Sanchez.  We look forward to building on our strong foundation in online pedagogies for liberal arts learning and cultivating Muhlenberg’s intentional approach to human-centered, interactive, and experiential online learning.

    Muhlenberg Faculty Develop Hybrid Course Initiatives with Teagle Foundation Grant

    In 2015 Lafayette College, working in collaboration with LVAIC, was awarded a three-year grant from the Teagle Foundation. The primary goal of the grant was to build a network “of ‘Digital Faculty Fellows’ who will mentor each other and generate interest among colleagues to pursue hybrid course development opportunities that enrich the academic experience, while sharing costs and using classroom and laboratory facilities more efficiently.”   Over the course of the grant, there where 12 collaboration projects completed, consisting of 42 faculty members total from all six LVAIC institutions. Muhlenberg faculty from chemistry, education, and media and communication participated in collaborations funded through the Teagle grant and include:

    • Marsha Barr
    • Keri Colabroy
    • Kate Ranieri
    • Sally Richwine
    • Kim Rohrbach
    • John Sullivan
    • Lora Taub-Pervizpour
    • Sheri Young

      To celebrate the conclusion of the grant, and to share the amazing work that was done by each group, we would like to invite you all to attend the final Teagle Sharing Symposium on March 22nd at Moravian College from 4-6:30pm. Light refreshments will be provided. Please register for the symposium by March 15th here: https://www.lvaic.org/event/lvaic-teagle-sharing-symposium/   One of the highlights of the initiative was opportunity to collaborate both within and across institutions and a recent report on lessons learned features faculty voices on the value of collaboration.  Read the full report on lessons learned from the project here: http://www.sr.ithaka.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SR-Report_Teagle_Faculty_Collaboration_Technology_Liberal_Arts_01292018.pdf

    Center for Ethics and Digital Learning Team Up to Host Talk on Digital Redlining

    On March 1, Muhlenberg welcomes Chris Gilliard, professor of English at Macomb Community College, for a presentation titled “Against Complicity: Surveillance, Education and Digital Redlining.”  Chris will speakon issues of privacy, digital redlining, and the re-inventions of discriminatory practices through data mining and algorithmic decision-making, especially as these topics apply to college students. The talk is in Miller Forum at 7 p.m. and open to the public.  This talk is co-sponsored by the media & communication department.

    Bryn Mawr Blended Learning Conference Call for Proposals

    Faculty, staff, and students engaged in blended learning (broadly defined to encompass any mix of face-to-face and online teaching and learning activity) may be interested in submitting proposals to share their work at the seventh annual Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference at Bryn Mawr.  The conference is May 23 – Thursday, May 24, 2018 at Bryn Mawr College.  Please see the full call for proposals here: http://blendedlearning.blogs.brynmawr.edu/blended-learning-conference/ .

  • Summer 2017 Online & Blended Courses

    Summer Session One

    May 24-July 6

    COM 322-81 Writing for the Media
    S. Vigneri

    PSC 223-81  Political Organization & Democratic Voice
    L. Mathews-Schultz

    PSY 101-81  Introductory Psychology
    E. Bagley

    REL 117-01  Animals & the Sacred (blended)
    W. Gruen

    SOC 101-01  Introduction to Sociology
    V. Lucabeche

    Summer Session Two

    JULY 10-August 17

    BIO 101-82  Concepts: Human Biology, Science & Society
    M. Dowd

    CHM 113-82  Kitchen Chemistry
    K. Colabroy

    COM 212-82  New Information Technologies
    L. Taub-Pervizpour

    ENG 255-02 Literature & Film (blended)
    C. French

    HST 235-82  American Civil War & Reconstruction
    W. Feeney

    Ten Week Session

    JUNE 5-August 10

    PHYS 111-80 Intro to Astronomy
    J. Parker

    For More Information

    Please see the Muhlenberg College Wescoe School of Continuing Education programs and course offerings page here: http://muhlenberg.edu/main/wescoe/programcourseofferings/summer.html.

  • Collaborating at a Distance with Zoom

    Collaborating at a Distance with Zoom

    There are many possibilities for integrating real-time (synchronous) online communication and collaboration in teaching and learning.  For traditional, blended, or online courses, opportunities to virtually connect with students, with faculty or other professionals in other locations expand teaching and learning beyond our campus boundaries,  IT/DL has made it easier to do this with a new web and video conferencing tool called Zoom.  This TechTuesday session introduces faculty and staff to Zoom, via Zoom.  If being physically present on campus at 8:30 a.m. for TechTuesday has made it difficult for you to attend these early morning sessions, this week we’re using Zoom to introduce you to this tool while hoping also to widen access to and participation in Tech Tuesday sessions.  (You’ll have to access your own coffee, however).

    Some of the ways you might use Zoom to support interactive and student-centered learning, or to communicate with students beyond face to face opportunities, include:

    • Guest speakers–enliven a class by bringing in faculty, students, and experts from around the world
    • Holding class when weather prohibits coming to campus or while you are traveling (with the option to record the class for students who couldn’t attend or for later reference)
    • Group activities around a shared problem, question, or text
    • Virtual collaboration space for students working on group projects
    • Student-led class discussions, review sessions, etc.
    • Conferences with students to discuss their work
    • Virtual office hours to widen availability and participation

    To join this Tech Tuesday session via Zoom, you need a smartphone or a computer. Although a webcam and microphone are required to join in on the discussion, if you don’t have these tools you can still view and listen. Here’s the link to join the session, which you can access beginning at 8:15:  Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: [link removed] Participation is limited to 50.

    A few suggestions to help ensure a successful experience:

    • If you are joining by video, check your background and be aware of what’s visible behind you.  Move distracting visual elements (piles of laundry, leaping cats, etc.)
    • Join the session prior to the meeting start time, as early as 8:15, to allow time to verify audio and set up
    • Headsets are recommended, especially if you are joining only by audio without video
    • If you are joining by video, reduce distracting glare and uneven lighting in your environment, by closing window shades.  A well-lit room is important, but the combination of outside light and indoor fluorescent light can disrupt the camera and image quality.
    • Use the features in Zoom to interact with the session presenters if you have questions or comments.

    *Featured image “buttercup,” by Paul Harris, on flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/givemeajobsoicanmovetocanada/, CC BY-SA 2.0.