{"id":2855,"date":"2021-06-04T09:54:49","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T14:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spsfaculty.commons.gc.cuny.edu\/?p=2855"},"modified":"2026-03-03T16:20:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T16:20:52","slug":"ofdit-newsletter-april-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/2021\/06\/04\/ofdit-newsletter-april-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"OFDIT Newsletter April 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>The below newsletter was originally sent out in April 2021 and was not posted to the blog at that time.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/OFDIT-newsletter-banner-1.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2856 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/OFDIT-newsletter-banner-1.jpg?resize=674%2C99&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"April 2021 newsletter banner\" width=\"674\" height=\"99\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/OFDIT-newsletter-banner-1.jpg?resize=300%2C44&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/OFDIT-newsletter-banner-1.jpg?w=694&amp;ssl=1 694w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 674px) 100vw, 674px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center\">April 2021<\/h1>\n<div>Dear CUNY SPS Faculty,<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Spring is here and so is our annual\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/spsfaculty.commons.gc.cuny.edu\/faculty-development-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Faculty Development Day<\/a>&#8211; please join us this Thursday and Friday, April 22-23!<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In this month\u2019s newsletter, we announce the program and registration information for\u00a0Faculty Development Day 2021: Looking Back, Moving Forward. We also reveal the new look of our Faculty Community Site, and highlight a unique idea involving Ensemble shared by Curtis Izen. Lastly, we invite you to join our Grade Center training sessions taking place at the end of May.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Faculty Development Day 2021: Looking Back, Moving Forward (Thursday, April 22 and Friday, April 23)<\/h2>\n<div>The theme of Faculty Development Day this year is synthesis and renewal&#8211;moving out of crisis and into a renewed commitment to our students, our research and writing, and our school\u2019s mission.\u00a0On Thursday, April 22nd, SPS faculty will share &#8211; a teaching practice, technology tip, scholarly accomplishment, or other positive experience from the past unprecedented year. On Friday, April 23rd, speakers from Kean University and BMCC will present about the world of gamification and how elements of play can be incorporated into online classrooms. Both sessions will be hands-on and lots of fun!<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In addition to the live sessions, and after such an extraordinary year, we invite you to share your experiences and reflections on a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/padlet.com\/facultysupport\/527wnln2ujzpnx0q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vision Board in Padlet<\/a>. Please post thoughts, images, or links that reflect some of your experiences from the last year, and\/or what you are looking forward to in the year ahead. To add a new post, click the + button in the lower right, or simply double-click the screen. Feel free to post more than once, and to interact with your colleagues. We are looking forward to creating a collective vision for 2021-2022 with you!<\/div>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><strong>Faculty Development Day Program:<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><em><strong>Thursday, April 22, 2021, 2pm-5pm<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Decolonizing Curriculum through Empathy and Representation,\u00a0Niberca Polo<\/li>\n<li>Inclusion of LGBTQ+ Health Disparities Across Courseworks at CUNY SPS,\u00a0Jan Oosting Kaminsky<\/li>\n<li>Ensemble Video: A novel way for faculty and students to use multimedia content within their course,\u00a0Curtis Izen<\/li>\n<li>Giving Video Feedback on Blackboard,\u00a0Sarah Ruth Jacobs<\/li>\n<li>Using Active Learning Techniques with Adult Learners in Online Courses,\u00a0Vicki Caruana<\/li>\n<li>Inheritance Problems: Considerations when Adopting a Course,\u00a0Dino Sossi<\/li>\n<li>Reimagining \u2018data-driven\u2019 through professional development: Unlocking social learning in online environments,\u00a0Bradley Gardner<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><em><strong>Friday, April 23, 2021, 12pm-3pm<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>How to Create an Academic Escape Room,\u00a0Vanessa Leonardo, Kean University<\/li>\n<li>What\u2019s Your Game Plan? Designing for a Creative Classroom,\u00a0Joe Bisz, Borough of Manhattan Community College<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>All in the SPS community are welcome! Please view\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/spsfaculty.commons.gc.cuny.edu\/faculty-development-day\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">program details and registration info here.<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Disability Awareness Month<\/h2>\n<p>As many of you may know, April is Disability Awareness Month. In order to honor Disability Culture, the Office of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, in partnership across CUNY campuses, has organized many free virtual events for CUNY faculty and staff. For the full list of events, please visit the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cuny.edu\/current-students\/student-affairs\/events\/#1615678217020-8bd5383e-5dd8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CUNY Disability Awareness Month Events<\/a> page.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Our Faculty Community Site&#8217;s New Look<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/SPS-faculty-community-site-1.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2858\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/SPS-faculty-community-site-1.jpg?resize=674%2C98&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"SPS faculty community site (1)\" width=\"674\" height=\"98\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/SPS-faculty-community-site-1.jpg?resize=300%2C44&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/SPS-faculty-community-site-1.jpg?w=693&amp;ssl=1 693w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 674px) 100vw, 674px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/spsfaculty.commons.gc.cuny.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SPS Faculty Community Site<\/a>\u00a0has a fresh new look!\u00a0Leveraging the power of CUNY&#8217;s Academic Commons, the Community Site has a long history serving as a resource for CUNY SPS faculty.\u00a0You can still find information relating to upcoming\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/spsfaculty.commons.gc.cuny.edu\/faculty-training\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">training and workshops<\/a>, resources for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/spsfaculty.commons.gc.cuny.edu\/accessibility\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL)<\/a>, as well as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/spsfaculty.commons.gc.cuny.edu\/quick-guides\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">quick guides and tutorials<\/a>. But we&#8217;ve integrated some new features.\u00a0There is a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/spsfaculty.commons.gc.cuny.edu\/calendar\/ofdit-calendar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">public calendar<\/a>\u00a0with a connection to our live training registrations, we&#8217;ve revamped the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/spsfaculty.commons.gc.cuny.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">home page<\/a>\u00a0to include a grid of the most helpful resources and updated content throughout the site.\u00a0OFDIT has further plans to update and revise the Site, so please check back regularly.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div>\n<h2>Faculty Corner<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-2347\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/03\/Faculty-corner-1.jpg?resize=140%2C176&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Faculty corner image\" width=\"140\" height=\"176\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><strong>Using Ensemble for Course Videos<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Curtis Izen, who teaches BUS 325: Principles of Management Information Systems, shares this tip for organizing videos within his online course using the Ensemble Video Platform. He writes: \u201cIn each of my weekly BlackBoard folders, I include multimedia to provide my students multiple means of engagement. Screencasts that I create or YouTube videos are inside the folder that accompanies that week\u2019s topic. I enrolled in a workshop hosted by Matthew Lewis, Instructional Design and Multimedia Manager, on Ensemble; in essence, an \u201ceducational YouTube for SPS.\u201d Rather than putting the media in different locations within BlackBoard, I can now host them in Ensemble. Not only does this create a \u201cone-stop-shop\u201d for all media, but I can arrange them by playlist, sort them, perform trim and cut, give in-video quizzes, have ads removed and, upon request, have 3PlayMedia provide professional closed captions. Students can now find any of the entire course videos in one location (including a search feature) rather than sort through weekly folders trying to locate them. As an instructor, this allows me the flexibility to update video content seamlessly from one location. Students can access my video library from my BlackBoard menu and via a Course Link in each folder, providing them direct access.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Screenshot of the course video gallery in Ensemble in Prof. Izen\u2019s Spring 2021 Principles of Management Information Systems course.<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/Ensemble-course-videos.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2859 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/Ensemble-course-videos.jpg?resize=529%2C233&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Ensemble course videos\" width=\"529\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/Ensemble-course-videos.jpg?resize=300%2C132&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/Ensemble-course-videos.jpg?w=699&amp;ssl=1 699w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div>Please note that Curtis Izen and OFDIT&#8217;s Matt Lewis will be presenting about this faculty tip during Faculty Development Day.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>If you have a useful or interesting pedagogical tip (in 200 words or less!) that has worked well in your online classes, we would love to hear from you! Please use our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSe6CicEnQXtoqh6C98aTSVyq7qvlizNCQiDI5p_TkU7uvC2AA\/viewform\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Faculty Corner Submission Form<\/a>\u00a0to submit your pitch.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h2>Spring 2021 Trainings<\/h2>\n<div><strong>Grade Center in Blackboard: Beyond the Basics<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>We will cover how to manage your Grade Center including helpful tools such as color coding, the column organization view, and Smart Views. We will also cover useful tips and tricks which can increase the efficiency and ease of use of your Grade Center.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Monday, May 17th\u00a010:00-11:00am (<a href=\"https:\/\/us02web.zoom.us\/meeting\/register\/tZAqc-GsrzouE92_TO6btBwE52-OnXSp843z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Registration Link<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Wednesday, May 26th 4:00-5:00pm (<a href=\"https:\/\/us02web.zoom.us\/meeting\/register\/tZEqfuuqrD8oGtf-unOmHkm5J9Ppi5OZegdr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Registration Link<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<div>As always, OFDIT is here to help with any questions you may have.\u00a0We 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\u00a0facultysupport@sps.cuny.edu.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>All the best,<\/div>\n<div>Your OFDIT Team<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The below newsletter was originally sent out in April 2021 and was not posted to the blog at that time. &nbsp; April 2021 Dear CUNY SPS Faculty, Spring is here and so is our annual\u00a0Faculty Development Day&#8211; please join us this Thursday and Friday, April 22-23! In this month\u2019s newsletter, we announce the program and &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7712,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2855\/revisions\/7712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}