May 2022
Dear CUNY SPS Faculty,
The Spring semester is winding down and the summer is almost upon us!
In this edition of our OFDIT newsletter, we share a short recap of this year’s Faculty Development Day and give a big thank you to all our presenters and session chairs. We also announce the migration of Ensemble to Panopto, and invite you to learn about upcoming faculty development opportunities at SPS and CUNY: a free webinar from ICAI on group collaboration online, SPS’s own Adult Learners, Andragogy, and Active Learning workshop, and the CUNY Mindset June mini-course. In addition, we highlight the benefits of becoming an Online Learning Consortium member.
At the end of our newsletter, you will find a short grading tip for the end of the semester as well as information about our Faculty Support Drop-In Hour.
Faculty Development Day Resources
Thank you again to all those who presented and participated in this year’s Faculty Development Day. The theme was Inclusive Teaching: Reaching All Students. Faculty members presented on various topics including engaging students using renewable assignments, how to use Ensemble to create video lessons, techniques when using voice and video threads, integrating self-evaluation style assignments within course design, and empowering students through language choice.
If you missed a presentation or want to catch up with colleagues’ contributions, please visit the Faculty Development Day webpage for recordings. Also, check out the padlet site where participants provided their ideas and insights on Inclusive Teaching.
Once again, thank you to all who attended and a special thanks to our presenters and session chairs!
Ensemble Video Migrating to Panopto
Our video hosting service, Ensemble Video, has been acquired by Panopto and SPS will be managing the transition over the summer. All current content, including all video, playlists, and quizzes, will be seamlessly migrated to the new service. There will be no impact on videos currently published in courses or elsewhere. Moving forward, we will refer to Panopto rather than Ensemble as the service that hosts our video content, and we will be able to take advantage of the wider range of features offered by Panopto. More details and training opportunities will be announced soon!
Free Webinar: The Changing Nature of Group Collaboration in the Online Environment (May 27th, 2022)
Sign up for the free ICAI webinar that will take place May 27th, 2022 from 12pm to 1pm: The Changing Nature of Group Collaboration in the Online Environment. The webinar will cover the nature of group work in online courses and engage participants with a discussion on creating and managing expectations throughout a group project.
Adult Learners, Andragogy, and Active Learning Workshop
OFDIT invites CUNY SPS faculty to participate in the Adult Learners, Andragogy, and Active Learning asynchronous workshop.
As an institution that primarily serves adult learners, we recognize they have unique strengths and needs that require additional support and approaches to teaching. Learn the theories, strategies, and activities that will enable you to better meet the needs of your students. When student learning needs are met, they are both successful and satisfied with their learning experience. Use this training to help improve your own teaching. If you are an instructor, a trainer, or if you are a leader who works with adult learners, this workshop is for you.
This asynchronous workshop is open now to all CUNY SPS faculty/staff. A limited amount of grant money is available for compensation to eligible adjunct faculty starting now until June 13, 2022.
For details please see: Adult Learners, Andragogy, and Active Learning Workshop
Intro to Learning Mindsets Mini Course
In June 2022, CUNY Central OAA’s Innovative Pedagogy Team will offer an Intro to Learning Mindsets course designed by the University of Virginia’s Motivate Lab. For more information about the CUNY Mindset Mini-Course, check out the flyer: Motivating Learning Mini-Course Flyer.
If you are interested in participating in the CUNY Mindset Mini-Course, please register here by Monday, May 23rd, 2022.
Online Learning Consortium Membership
The Online Learning Consortium is the leading professional organization for online educators. CUNY SPS is an institutional member of the OLC, so faculty can benefit from a number of high-quality resources and workshops. Member benefits include:
- Free webinars
- Member pricing on workshops ($100 savings)
- Discounted pricing ($300 – $500 savings) on all OLC Certificate Programs, including Online Teaching and Advanced Online Teaching
- 20% discount on all OLC publications
- Discounted member pricing on OLC conferences
To create a free OLC account affiliated with CUNY SPS,
- Go to the Online Learning Consortium homepage and Log In
- Click on “Create an Account”
- Enter your email address — please use your work address so that your account will connect to your organization and its membership
- Complete the profile form
- Set your password – you may be asked to reset your password
- Select your account to update your profile.
- Once logged in, the system will now recognize you as a member and you can use your OLC Institutional member benefits.
For more information, please visit the OLC Member Resources Page.
Grading Tip: Setting Letter Grade as Secondary View
Instructors who use Weighted Total or a Total column with 100 points can choose to display the CUNY SPS Undergrad or Grad Letter Grade as the Secondary View. This does not appear to students, but it is visible to instructors so that they can type this letter grade into their CUNYfirst course roster.
Please follow the below steps to ensure your Secondary View displays the appropriate Letter Grade:
1. Go to your course’s Full Grade Center
2. Click to edit your Total or Weighted Total column, whichever is used to calculate final grades.
3. For Secondary Display, select either SPS Undergrad or SPS Grad Letter grade.
4. Click Submit.
Faculty Support Drop-In Hour
Need live faculty support? Stop by during our Faculty Support Drop-In Hour every Tuesday 3-4pm to speak to an OFDIT team member who can help.
You can access the drop-in hour session via the Zoom link.
As always, OFDIT is here to help with any questions you may have. We are available for one-on-one support and would be happy to schedule a Zoom call to discuss any questions you may have. You can contact us at facultysupport@sps.cuny.edu.
As this is our last edition before the end of the Spring semester, we would like to wish you a wonderful and restful summer!
All the best,
Your OFDIT Team
