Explorers - Multimodal Learning Community serves faculty who have less extensive or no experience with online teaching, but are interested in investigating different types of online courses (fully online, hybrid, web-facilitated), viewing models of such courses, and learning about enterprise instructional technologies provided by the university (such as Canvas, Collaborate, Respondus, Turnitin, Panopto).

Below is a list of past meeting topics. Click on a topic to view the recording:

• 2018-2019
• 2017-2018
• 2016-2017
• 2015-2016
• 2014-2015
• 2013-2014
• 2012-2013
• 2011-2012
• 2010-2011

2018-2019

November 2, 2018: Top Hat and Open Education Textbooks
Bruce Palmquist (Physics) introduced our new Top Hat open education textbook platform and marketplace, where instructors can create or customize open education content for their courses that is free or low cost to students, and he demonstrated how to import OpenStax textbooks, edit content, add interactive questions, and create assignments connected to Top Hat content. 
October 12, 2018: Student Engagement in Online Classes
Jackie Krause, Laura Portolese, and Julie Bonner (ITAM) presented their research into student engagement, specifically how textbook adoption and discussion questions can improve engagement in online courses, with discussion of their results and recommendations for futher research.

2017-2018

May 18, 2018: Ed Tech Showcase
Chad Schone (Multimodal Education Center) presented an Ed Tech showcase of innovative and emerging technologies available to faculty and students: OneNote for real-time collaboration and dissemination of course materials; eBeam portable interactive smart screen system; Virtual Reality educational experiences; and 360° video recording.
(This session was not recorded.)
May 4, 2018: Streaming Media Evaluation
Geri Hopkins (Library/MML) and Chris Schedler (MML) shared results from the recent survey of faculty satisfaction with CWU’s media management system, Brooks Library’s streaming media services, and investigation into a new media management platform.
February 9, 2018: Open Education Resources
Maura Valentino (Library) and Geri Hopkins (Library/MML) introduced the many open education resources that are free for students to use in classes as an alternative to costly textbooks and available for every student to access from day one.
January 19, 2018: Using Twitter to Connect with Students
Jackie Krause and Julie Bonner (ITAM) discussed how using an SMS Twitter feed impacted student satisfaction and engagement in their online courses, demonstrating the tools they used to communicate with students and the types of information they Tweeted
November 17, 2017: Top Hat Student Engagement App
Representatives from Top Hat demonstrated their student engagement app for smartphones and mobile devices. Instructors can use Top Hat to automate attendance, polling, quizzing, and grading, and keep students engaged in the classroom.
October 16, 2017: MediaAMP Tool in Canvas
Representatives from MediaAMP demonstrated the upgraded MediaAMP tool in Canvas, which allows faculty to share media collections, playlists, and instructor-created media with their classes, with the option to insert threaded comments for discussion.
October 13, 2017: Strengths and Challenges of Online Teaching
Jan Byers-Kirsch (Curriculum, Supervision, and Educational Leadership) presented factors contributing to strengths in online learning and teaching, as well as the weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities from empirical research and instructor and student perspectives.
 

2016-2017

May 12, 2017: Facilitating Online Group Work
Bruce Palmquist (Physics) and Chris Schedler (English) provided an overview of some new tools and approaches to facilitating online and multimedia group work, using Microsoft OneNote Class Notebook and Collaborate Ultra web-conferencing.
April 28, 2017: Panopto New Quiz & Caption Features
Lori Braunstein (ITAM) and Chad Schone (Multimodal Learning) introduced two new features of Panopto lecture capture: in-video quizzing and auto-captioning. Students can take quizzes in the interactive video player, and instructors can display captions during playback.
February 10, 2017: Multimedia in Online Communication
Jackie Krause and Julie Bonner (ITAM) presented research on the use of multimedia for communication between instructor and students in online courses and offered suggestions for encouraging more active and engaged communication.
January 20, 2017: Ultra Web-Conferencing
Joy Bensiger (Multimodal Learning) compared the new Ultra web-conferencing tool with current web-conferencing tools available in Canvas to host virtual class meetings, online office hours, real-time student presentations, and outside experts for classes. (No recording available for this session.)
November 4, 2016: Accessibility and Assistive Technologies
Wendy Holden, Director of Disability Services, discussed accessibility and demonstrated assistive technologies used to facilitate full participation, universal access, and reasonable accommodation to meet the unique needs of each person with a disability at CWU.
October 21, 2016: Open Education Textbooks
Three Physics professors talked about how they use OpenStax textbooks and shared some of the advantages and disadvantages of OpenStax compared to traditionally marketed textbooks. OpenStax offers free, peer-reviewed textbooks in many high enrollment courses in math, science, social science, and humanities.

2015-2016

May 20, 2016: Digital Storytelling
Chad Schone (Multimodal Education Center Director) presented on Digital Storytelling, which combines multiple media formats to create impactful learning experiences that engage both the mind and emotions of the learner, offering examples of digital storytelling in education and practical implementation strategies. (PowerPoint)
May 6, 2016: ScholarWorks
Sean Lind (Scholarly Communications Librarian) introduced ScholarWorks, the institutional repository administered by Brooks Library, and discussed open access publishing, copyright, author rights, and how students, faculty and community can benefit from institutional repositories.
February 19, 2016: Canvas Commons
Geri Hopkins (Instructional Design Librarian) and Chad Schone (Multimodal Education Center Director) introduced Creative Commons licensing and the new Canvas Commons, which allows CWU faculty to share and repurpose instructional content in Canvas.
January 29, 2016: 1st Time Teaching Online
Griff Tester (Sociology) discussed his experiences teaching online for the first time, including how he engaged students using Canvas tools, external resources, and social media to develop an interactive online course.
November 13, 2015: Open Educational Resources
Christie Fierro (Tacoma Community College) introduced Open Education Resources (OER), teaching and learning materials that can be openly used and reused at no cost or substantially lower cost than traditional textbooks.
October 9, 2015: Social Presence in Online Classes
Laura Portolese Dias (ITAM) presented eight cues (humor, emotions, self-disclosure, support or agreement for an idea, addressing people by name, greetings, complimenting another's idea, and illusions of a physical presence) that can be used to create social presence in online classes.

2014-2015

May 22, 2015: Best Practices for Video Production
Chad Schone (Multimodal Education Center) offered best practices for creating compelling instructional videos for courses, including both technical and presentation tips.
April 24, 2015: Qualtrics Online Surveys in the Classroom
Todd Weber (Management) demonstrated how he uses Qualtrics online surveys for engaging students in face-to-face, online, distance education, and hybrid courses.
February 13, 2015: Knowledge Transfer in Online Discussions
Jackie Krause (ITAM) presented a research study and proposed techniques for developing discussion prompts that promote knowledge transfer in online discussions.
January 30, 2015: Searching and Using Digital Library Resources
Michele Reilly and Elizabeth Brown (Library) provided tips and tricks for searching with the new library OneSearch tool and using digital library resources in multimodal courses.
November 21, 2014: Student Acceptance of Canvas
Laura Portolese Dias (ITAM) presented a study of student acceptance of Canvas, using acceptance factors (including perceived usefulness and ease of use) and demographic factors (age, race, gender, and education level).
October 10, 2014: Using Respondus to Proctor Online Exams
A demonstration of how to use Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor to address issues of academic integrity during online exams. (This session was not recorded.)

2013-2014

May 16, 2014: Online Course Development Best Practices
Joe Johnson (English, Faculty Fellow in Multimodal Learning) presented 10 best practices in online course development and provided a longer handout report (PDF).
April 25, 2014: Reducing Online Teaching Workload
Mike Lane (Multimodal Learning) presented strategies for reducing faculty workload in online courses, focused on authoring, teaching, course revision, and institutional support.
March 7, 2014: Fair Use and TEACH Act (Note: recording ends abruptly in middle of presentations. View her PDF slides for additional tips and resources.)
Geri Hopkins (Instructional Design Librarian) presented on Fair Use of classroom materials online and the TEACH Act, which aims to balance copyright use for both owners and users.

February 7, 2014: Group Collaboration Using Google Docs
Bruce Palmquist (Physics) demonstrated his use of Google Docs, Google Forms, and simulations to facilitate group work, collaboration, and peer evaluation in his online Astronomy course.
November 15, 2013: Effective and Engaging Online Discussions.
Chris Schedler (English, Director of Multimodal Learning) and Joe Johnson (English, Faculty Fellow) provided practical tips for making online discussions more effective and engaging.
October 4, 2013: Canvas Evaluation
Chris Schedler (English, Director of Multimodal Learning) provided an evaluation of our Canvas learning management system pilot, including results from the faculty and student satisfaction surveys.

2012-2013

May 10, 2013: Using Wikis for Student Research
Stefanie Wickstrom (Political Science) demonstrated her use of student-constructed wikis to present research findings in upper-division major courses.
April 12, 2013: Faculty Perspectives on Canvas Pilot
Faculty from multiple departments shared their experiences piloting the new Canvas learning management system, differences with Blackboard, and new features in Canvas.
February 22, 2013: Enhancing Student Feedback and Evaluation
Joe Johnson (English) demonstrated his use of screencasting, track changes, and rubrics to enhance student feedback and evaluation.
February 1, 2013: New Blackboard Tools
Delayna Breckon (Multimodal Learning) introduced new Blackboard tools for course organization and communication: Calendar and Instant Messenger.
November 16, 2012: Using Social Media for Teaching
Bruce Palmquist (Physics and Science Education) demonstrated his use of Twitter for student reflection on assigned readings.
October 19, 2012: Waypoint Assessments
Bret Smith (Music and Assessment Coordinator) introduced Waypoint Assessments for creating interactive rubrics linked to learning outcomes, with digital markup tools, and comment libraries.

2011-2012

May 25, 2012: Connectivity as Collaboration
Provost Marilyn Levine shared her vision of "Connectivity as Collaboration" through new learning technologies.
April 6, 2012: Learning Modules
Cheri Johnson (Sociology) compared the use of Learning Modules vs. Content Folders in Blackboard to organize an online course.
February 17, 2012: Jing Audio Feedback
Lori Braunstein (ITAM) and Fen Wang (ITAM) presented on the use of Jing screencast software to provide audio feedback on student work in order to improve assessment in online courses.
January 20, 2012: Academic Dishonesty in Online Courses
Presentersdiscussed how to address academic dishonesty in online courses through online testing options, LockDown Browser, plagiarism-detection tools and tutorials, and writing draft/revision process.
November 18, 2011: Was Elluminate Now Collaborate
Delayna Breckon presented on the use of Collaborate for real-time web meetings, synchronous online classes, virtual office hours, collaborative team projects, and presentations by students and outside experts.
October 14, 2011: Blackboard 9.1 New Features
Faculty who developed pilot courses in the new system showed how Blackboard 9.1 offers new tools for organization, interaction, and integration of media into your courses.

2010-2011

May 13, 2011: Team-Building in Online Courses
Faculty viewed a webinar from the Blackboard Innovative Teaching Series on  online team-building and group work and then discussed strategies for implementing collaborative work in online courses.
April 22, 2011: Discussion Board Part II
Cheri Johnson (Sociology) presented on practical applications for effectively using the online Discussion Board. You may also wish to view her discussion board guidelines and rubrics.
February 25, 2011: Online Assessment
Naomi Jeffrey Peterson (Educational Foundations and Curriculum) presented on classroom-level online assessment, including strategies and best practices, assessment literacy, and online assessment..
January 21, 2011: Discussion Board Part I
Cheri Johnson (Sociology) presented a case for using the Discussion Board to engage learners in online courses through public and anonymous forums. You may also wish to view her Training Notes as a supplement to her presentation.
November 19, 2010: Online Course Types and Models
Jane Chinn presented an overview of the different types of online courses (fully online, hybrid, web-facilitated) and Chris Schedler (English) presented one model of a fully online course.