Faculty Resources
Classroom Guidance: COVID Cases
If you experience any Blackboard issues, please visit the IT Status Update site for information that will assist you.
Online and Distance Format
This resource page provides you with general tips, tools, and common practices to instruct students virtually. We have also produced an in depth Distance Instruction and Assessment Plan. This document will help ensure all aspects of instruction, assessment, and student communication are addressed in your online course. Self-guided tutorials are provided for each area of this document.
Support Contacts
Issue |
Contact |
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Pedagogical support and content related questions |
Dr. Lynn Knight |
Lynn.Knight@csupueblo.edu |
Dr. Jonathan Rees |
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Educational technology and remote instruction training |
Mr. Adam Pocius |
|
Ms. Denise Henry |
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IT technical support |
Help Desk (IT tickets) |
|
Mr. John Brownlee |
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Ms. Patricia Garcia |
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Graduate studies |
Ms. Sheila Young |
Sheila.Young@csupueblo.edu |
Research compliance, proposal development and submission as well as reporting to funding agencies |
Dr. John Williamson |
|
Ms. Nicole Quartiero |
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Curriculum and academic programs |
Dr. Helen Caprioglio |
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Library access and Open Education Resources (OER) |
Dean Rhonda Gonzales |
|
Dr. Jonathan Poritz |
Get Training
Face-to-face (f2f) training opportunities are available from Instructional Technology staff as well as a Self-Paced Blackboard course for those who would rather work on their own. Instructional Technology can offer one-on-one support for 30 minute and 60 minutes sessions. If you are interested in meeting select the option on the form.
Issue Support
If you are experiencing any issues such as access troubles, or malfunctioning CSU-Pueblo equipment, please fill out a Help Desk ticket and it will be distributed to the appropriate IT resource. Once a ticket has been input you will be assigned a ticket number for reference and can communicate with IT by responding to the messages that come into your inbox.
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Teaching Online
The prospect of abruptly changing your teaching modality can be disorienting or seem extremely difficult. While it does take work, patience, and discipline to leverage an array of technology tools, it can be empowering when it begins to pay off.
Online courses are typically built prior to the start of semester and undergo weeks of review, quality assurance, and accessibility reviews. These are important standards that support student success, but transitioning from face-to-face (f2f) to remote instruction quickly will require specific tactics and strategies to pull it off.
We want faculty and students to have specific tools that will support learning outcomes. Be prepared for change strategy when things do not work, focus on communication with students, and be open to new ways of delivering your instruction.
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Learning Platform and Classroom Management
Blackboard is the Learning Management System (LMS) that allows faculty and students to communicate asynchronously. The system supports instructor engagement with students, student engagement with each other, and digital access to content, assignments, and assessments. We have an entire collection of Blackboard videos online, but here are a few best practices that will ease the transition to teaching and learning online:
- Course Announcements - A digital pin board to post basic messages and insights about happenings in the course. Examples include - When you post an assignment, when you want to remind the course of a due date, or you have a quick insight to pass along
- Organize your content so finding course materials is easy for students.
- Use assignments and quizzes to assess student understanding.
- Communicate with students via emails and announcements.
- Create opportunities for students to engage with each other asynchronously through online discussion.
- Grade assignments virtually and provide instant feedback and grades in the Grade Center
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Course Content and Materials
When developing a course there are various multimedia files (text, video, and audio) that can be aggregated and delivered to students through the LMS. While many instructors have these files on their there computer there are best practices to ensure the content is manageable by faculty and accessible to students. It's also important to note that some of these files will need intermediary processing to reduce file size OR to be loaded in a third party site and linked too.
- Slide decks are presentations created in a variety of applications to help convey the concepts of a topic.
- Videos can be produced on campus with special tools, uploaded to YouTube, and linked in your course to provide a virtual lecture.
- Audio files can be recorded for a podcast style presentation
- Graphic files can be obtained from around the web and integrated in the resources you offer your class.
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Tools, Engagement, and Communication
The LMS offers out-of-the box tools like blogs, journals, and discussion boards to help quickly create areas for students to engage with you and peers. These tools can be useful for building communication and collaboration opportunities. You are not limited to only tools embedded within the LMS and rather encouraged to branch out and integrate additional tools in your course. Support for these tool types can fall on the vendor or the instructor, but Instructional Technology is available to help provide more context and help with bringing them to life by linking them to your course.
- Zoom Video Conferencing (Free or Licensed) is a platform used for synchronous virtual classrooms and individual meetings.
- With a Google Account comes an extremely helpful cloud based tool suite that offers simultaneous document editing, easy form creation, slide decks, and a lot more.
- NearPod is an interactive presentation software that allow student to engage with the presentation in real-time.
- Pixlr X is a simple web based graphics editing program that allows you to size images appropriately for the web and presentations
- Screencast-o-matic offers a free tier of screen capture technology that allows you to record the actions you are taking on your computer while being able to narrate.