City Tech - NYC College of Technology, CUNY

Category: OpenLab

Communication Design Theory OER

The City Tech Library supports faculty to replace textbooks with no-cost open/alternative course materials through a faculty development program called the Open Educational Resources (OER) Fellowship.

I participated in the OER Fellowship in Spring 2019 and developed a Communication Design Theory OER for use by faculty teaching Communication Design Theory COMD 3504.

Communication Design Theory OER image
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/groups/communication-design-theory-oer/

Navigating the Sea of Instructional Technology

By visulogik

On behalf of the OpenLab I will be attending City College’s CUNY-wide participatory forum, presented by The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, for those involved with training, implementing and planning instructional technology.

Via a series of discussions, problem-solving group work, breakout sessions and presentations, participants will engage in open dialogue with their colleagues. More here: (PDF)

Teaching Portfolios on the OpenLab

Credit: Mark Crossfield

During the winter break I worked with Julia Jordan and Paul King to improve the Teaching Portfolio section of the template I had previously created for faculty Portfolios on the OpenLab.

The goal of the Teaching Portfolio section of the template is to simplify the creation process for new faculty and those who are looking to translate their paper teaching portfolios into a digital format. It will also be the first time City Tech has recommended that its faculty use a web-based teaching portfolio for promotion/tenure– a logical and long awaited step for a College of Technology.

The Big Test

discussiontest

OpenLab Discussion Forum

Today I gave the OpenLab discussion feature a run for its money. I held my ADV1100 class online on the OpenLab using the discussion form for one of the critiques of the second class project: Aural Topographies (Pattern Mashups)

The students did an excellent job given the challenging discussion interface (we’re working on that) and time delay.

I’m really impressed with this group of foundation students.

I will let them weigh in on the experience, but my observations are:

  1. Normally less vocal students jumped in and expressed their ideas
  2. Students were more expressive, supportive.
  3. I sensed a camaraderie not felt in in-person crits.
  4. Viewing and discussing work required students to clearly explain the specific image or part of image they were speaking of in writing- a challenge for some.
  5. With 25 students, the posts came in fast and furious –  the limitations of the forum made it a bit hard to keep up.

 

 

Starting… now

The fall semester begins as I wrap up summer work on the OpenLab.

I just created templates for OpenLab‘s new faculty Teaching Portfolios and student ePortfolios, which some may notice mimic the sections and pages found here on my teaching site.

I added a blog to each portfolio template, so in the interest of walking the walk I’ve added one here as well.

Here starts a new record of teaching and learning observations.

The muddy path.

 

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