Can you believe it’s week 6 already?! That’s plenty of time to be settling in to the semester, and also plenty of time to start being overwhelmed with grading as we move into reviewing the first major assignments of the semester. This week is FACULTY SUPPORT WEEK at Digital Dialogues, and we want to share some ways you can get the support you need!
Faculty Support Week
This week is all about YOU! We know you are working hard to manage new teaching styles, master Zoom, and perfect your Canvas teaching. You are connecting with students, responding to emails, and providing quality feedback for student work. You are holding onto our students at a time when things are hard, and we appreciate you!
This week, we want to make sure you have the resources you need to be able to connect with us.
Some of these are ongoing opportunities:
- This is a great time in the semester to drop in and visit Becky during drop in hours on Tuesday 4-5, Thursday 1-2, and Friday 9-10. Just drop in to her Zoom room to connect and ask any question, big or small. These sessions are first-come, first-served, so plan ahead, and feel free to make an appointment if these times don’t work for you. Email for the Zoom link!
- We have a weekly lunch-time session with different department experts presenting informally on online teaching topics on Wednesdays from 12-1. There are some great topics coming up in the next few weeks! Feel free to sign up for as many as you’d like this semester. Our next three topics are:
- September 23rd: Equity in Online Learning- Pronouns and Student Identity in Online Spaces: World Bisexuality Day. Presented by Dr. K Scherrer
- September 30th: Providing & Receiving Feedback in Online Learning – Mid-semester evaluations! Presented by Dr. Becky Cottrell
- October 7th: Making and editing fun and creative videos in iMovie- Presented by Dr. Amanda Marsh Baranski
- Check out our Social Work Online Education website– there are a lot of great resources about tech tools, Canvas, and teaching online, as well as a variety of blog posts, all designed and curated just for our department.
Some of these are amazing new opportunities!
- Did you know that you can request a Course Accessibility Check-up with Gabe and Zack, our amazing Instructional Accessibility Specialists? Just sign up here, and they can make sure your course and course materials are accessible for students now that we are all online. They can send you a report to help you improve ahead of next semester.
- During our Online 101 trainings at the beginning of the semester, we had a request for a midterm meet-up to share trials and triumphs of teaching online this term. Please join us for an informal conversation about teaching online: what is working for you? What do you need some help with? What do you love (or hate!) about teaching with Canvas? We want to create a space for new and experienced teachers alike to share ideas and talk about how the semester is going. We’ll plan on meeting for about an hour depending on interest. October 1st at 2 pm and 6 pm. Sign up here, and we’ll email you a Zoom link when we get closer.
- Digital Dialogues Giveaway! Please enter your name and email address here, and you could win some department swag! Please enter by midnight on Monday, September 28th, as we’ll be doing the drawing on the 29th! Thanks to Caitlin for offering this fun support for our faculty!
No matter how your semester is going, we want you to know that we are here for you! Becky and Ann can provide online and instructional support, your lead faculty can help with specific questions related to your course, and our awesome SW leadership team is there to support you as well! We appreciate all that you are doing, and hope you are enjoying working with your students and your courses this semester!