Thursday, October 15, 2020

submitted by maherk@augsburg.edu

As we approach mid-semester, remember that in order for course totals to calculate correctly, it is very important to enter 0’s for work students have not completed. Moodle only aggregates “non-empty” grades. This means a blank in the gradebook will be ignored in the calculations–giving students an overly optimistic sense of their total. See the link below for instructions on how to quickly enter 0’s for graded items. If you would like help with your Moodle gradebook, the E-Learning team is ready to assist you. Please contact your LFC or Bonnie Tensen for help with this.

Adding Zeros in Gradebook

submitted by maherk@augsburg.edu

The E-Learning team is hosting a Google Drive Basic and Advanced Workshop to help you understand and adapt to this new modality and find ways to incorporate it into your pedagogy! The Basic Workshop will be held on the 27th of October from 3 pm – 4 pm, and the Advanced Workshop will be held on the 4th of November from 3 pm – 4 pm.

Basic Workshop: Tuesday, October 27, 3 pm – 4 pm

Advanced Workshop: Wednesday, November 4, 3 pm – 4 pm

Google Drive Workshop Zoom Information (can only be viewed with an Augsburg email address)

submitted by mayper@augsburg.edu

The Education Department (Dr. Audrey Lensmire) and the Information Technology Department (Scott Krajewski) are the recipients of two new grants from the State of Minnesota which total $250,000. The Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) grant awards will address equity in education and technology and remote learning needs among students of color, Indigenous students, and those who are disabled or low-income.

Lensmire’s GEER grant will provide direct aid to teacher candidates who have a need to defray unexpected costs posed by the pandemic during their student teaching semester and coursework. Krajewski’s GEER grant will ensure that students receive the hardware and software required for meeting course learning objectives, and will provide captioning on instructional video recordings in order to make them more accessible.

The grant awards will result in students and faculty being able to weather changes to their plans for learning and teaching a bit more smoothly. We owe thanks to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education for administering the competitive selection process this summer. We also wish to thank Dr. Lauren Causey for her skillful guidance in creating two high quality GEER proposals.

The GEER grant program is a redistribution of federal CARES Act funds.

Grants and Sponsored Programs

submitted by maherk@augsburg.edu

At the Monday, October 12 meeting, the Academic Affairs Committee approved three proposals. ACC 495 made changes to its description and prereqs, as well as a change in grading to pass/no pass. BIO 420 was approved for asynchronous online delivery. HPE 324/334 went from 2 to 4 credits.

Jenny Hanson was also present at the meeting to give an update on TEL (a subcommittee of AAC). She discussed Moodle reports for department chairs, as well as work on a survey for students.

AAC information is available at https://inside.augsburg.edu/facultysenate/aac/. Committee approvals are tracked in the spreadsheet linked below (this is also posted on the AAC page).

AAC Tracking (can only be viewed with an Augsburg email address)

submitted by maherk@augsburg.edu

This year, EDTalks will be pre-recorded and have a community “premiere” on Zoom hosted by CTL at 3:10pm on days when there is a faculty meeting. These premieres will end no later than 3:30pm to allow plenty of time to log into the Faculty Zoom meeting early. After the premier, the recording will be posted on the CTL website, along with any resources (if applicable).

Wellness, Balance and Boundaries in Higher Education
Join Lyz Wendland, Assistant Professor of Art & Design as she discusses wellness, balance and boundaries inside and outside of the classroom, sharing activities practiced in her teaching.

Premieres at 3:10 pm on Wednesday, October 21.
(The recording will be available on the CTL page the following day.)

EDTalks Zoom Information (can only be viewed with an Augsburg email address)

submitted by maherk@augsburg.edu

Take time to chat with colleagues about your week… what’s working and what’s not working… or just connect.

Fridays | “Fellowship Fridays” | 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm, ZOOM

CTL is joining Bridget Robinson-Riegler, Psychology Professor and member of Faculty Senate, to bring you Fellowship Fridays support sessions. All faculty members and teaching staff are invited to gather and share their experiences with teaching, learning, and advising in this strange new world. – we’ll trade ideas, advice, highs, lows, successes, and failures – or maybe we’ll just plain old vent. Most importantly, we will attempt to inoculate ourselves against one of the more insidious side effects of this pandemic – isolation. So grab a cup of coffee or tea, or pour a glass of wine, and Zoom in to support your fellow instructors and work through this challenging time together.

Fellowship Fridays ZOOM Information (This doc is only accessible with an Augsburg email address.)