Faculty professional development opportunity

Faculty, are you interested in a professional development opportunity? Below are several self-paced options offered via the Online Learning Consortium.

Giving Effective Feedback (Self-Paced): According to research, feedback on learning is a key factor for improving learning outcomes and student satisfaction. While giving effective feedback can help drive your students towards success in your course and help them to better understand the material, it can also take a lot of time. In this workshop, you will identify different feedback strategies along with effective methods for efficiently providing feedback to your students. Many of the practices explored in this workshop can also help increase student engagement and improve faculty satisfaction and workload management.

ADA & Web Accessibility (Self-Paced): Improving access to online education means, among other things, ensuring that your online course materials, teaching and learning activities, and assessments are accessible for all learners. This workshop will help you better understand the legal framework for accessibility in online education and how learners with disabilities participate in online classes. You will also explore the practical application of procedures that instructional designers, instructors, developers, and administrators follow when they create ADA compliant online courses.  

Strategies for Increasing Interaction& Engagement (Self-Paced): Student engagement can be one of the most influential factors for student persistence and success, especially in the online learning environment. In this workshop, you will learn about the barriers to engagement and how you can best address these challenges to lead to greater student involvement and engagement. You will delve into various theories and practices that foster student engagement, including interactive discussion techniques and collaborative group involvement. You will also explore popular Web 2.0 tools for increasing student-instructor, student-student, and student-content interactions.

Strategies for Designing & Facilitating Online Discussions (Self-Paced): Well-designed online discussions address a number of research-based strategies critical to effective online learning and improved learning outcomes. Through online discussions, student-student and student-content interactions increase, and both faculty and students collaborate in the learning process as they explore unique perspectives. This workshop delves into strategies for engaging learners in meaningful discussion through setting expectations, designing good questions, and effective facilitation techniques. You will also explore various discussion tools that can be employed to foster learner engagement and improve learning outcomes. Throughout the workshop, you will contribute to an action plan for creating engaging and effective online discussions in your courses.

Before you select an option, please know that:

  • Registration is limited and we ask that you email us — onlinelearning@mnstate.edu — to get registered.
  • The Office of Online Learning will pay for your registration fee for the professional development opportunity, although funds are limited.
  • Faculty are only able to register for one professional development opportunity at a time.
  • Once the session is complete, the faculty member must email verification of successful completion of the professional development opportunity to onlinelearning@mnstate.edu (e.g. certificate, badge, etc.).

If you are interested in professional development, but would like something other than those listed above, please reach out to onlinelearning@mnstate.edu to explore additional opportunities.