Salisbury University | Instructional Design & Delivery Newsletter | July 6, 2023

Instructional Designer Liaison Changes

With the the retirement of the amazing Safaa Said, ID&D has modified our Instructional Designer liaisons to academic units. A liaison is an Instructional Designer designated as the formal contact person in support of pedagogical consulting, instructional technology, and quality course design and development. A complete list of Instructional Designer liaisons is available online. Academic units that have been reassigned to a new Instructional Designer are listed below:

MyClasses Authentication Change on Monday, July 17 

Aligning with the IT updates for login and authentication across campus, on Monday, July 17, MyClasses authentication will change to a new login screen. Users will be asked to enter their entire email address (e.g. scgull@salisbury.edu) instead of just their username. 

Note from IT: With this change, you may receive “extra” DUO push notifications or you may need to re-authenticate anywhere you are logged into MyClasses. If extra DUO push prompts occur, IT asks that you restart your computer and log back in to ensure your account and connection are working correctly. Additionally, devices like phones, tablets or other items where you are using a Canvas app may need to be re-connected and re-authorized with a new DUO authentication.

If you are still having issues after a restart/re-authorization of DUO to connect your device, please contact the IT Help Desk at 410-677-5454 and they will be happy to assist you.

Change in Student Response System Support Level for PointSolutions

ID&D is transitioning support for student response systems from a single university primary supported platform to a supplemental support for third-party tools. PointSolutions, previously known as TurningPoint, has been our primary student response system since 2012. However, the utilization of this system has drastically reduced to only a few sections consistently using the system each year.

Instead, we have seen more faculty explore and utilize various student response systems based on the goals of the learning process for their courses. Please see ID&D's Student Response System Comparison Chart in the ID&D Knowledgebase (SU login required).

How does this change affect faculty using PointSolutions?

Nothing changes for you to design and develop your polling sessions. You can continue to use PointSolutions by obtaining the software from the Software Center and by using it in your classrooms. ID&D has collaborated with IT to ensure that this software remains part of the configuration for classroom computers.

What does change is that students will purchase their subscription licenses directly from the "Clicker Registration" link within your MyClasses course. The SU Bookstore will no longer sell clickers or PointSolutions subscriptions. Please reach out to your ID&D liaison for student instructions on how to create their polling account and obtain a subscription.

Questions regarding this change can be directed to ID&D Manager Melissa Thomas.

Quality Matters Higher Education 7th Edition Rubric

In SU's 2015 Middle States Self-Study, we committed to:

"One of the goals as the University increases its distance education offerings is to ensure that all courses are reviewed using the Quality Matters rubric. Quality Matters (QM) is a nationally recognized peer review process that is designed to foster faculty-centered continuous improvement of online education."

On July 5, the 7th edition of the Higher Education QM Rubric was released. Key changes to this rubric include:

• Considerations for remote (synchronous) sessions added to annotations.
• A focus on inclusion and belonging was integrated throughout the rubric.
• Increase of Specific Review Standards from 42 to 44; with 22 Essential Standards.

Faculty and staff who have completed the Applying the QM Rubric (APPQMR) workshop are eligible to take the FREE self-paced Rubric Update session between now and January 5, 2024. Staying up to date with the APPQMR training ensures eligibility for SU to conduct various levels of QM course reviews.

Please see your Instructional Designer liaison regarding questions about the new 7th edition rubric.

Save the Date – Faculty Development Day

Faculty Development Day is scheduled for Wednesday, August 23, 8:30 a.m.-noon. The focus for this year's event is Establishing a Community of Belonging.

Encouraging a sense of belonging is one of the best high-impact practices to foster student success. Based on College Student Development Theories, four strategies – building community, connecting with students, reflection and smiling – can create a sense of comfort, calm and belonging in your classroom and can lead to every student feeling they are a valued member of your class.

Related article:

Kirby, L. A. J.,  & Thomas, C. L. (2022). High-impact teaching practices foster a greater sense of belonging in the college classroom. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 46(3), 368-381. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2021.1950659.

Generative AI in Education Online Conference 

The recent release and rapid diffusion of ChatGPT have thrust into the world’s attention the role and impact of generative AI in education. This one-day online conference brings together leading scholars and practitioners to share and discuss perspectives on generative AI in education and educational research.

The conference features research talks by invited speakers and pedagogical lightning talks​ submitted by educators throughout the world. 

Thursday, July 13, 2023 • 9 a.m.-3 p.m. ( PST)

This conference is sponsored by the University of California, Irvine and the Spencer Foundation.

SU is an Equal Opportunity/AA/Title IX university and provides reasonable accommodation given sufficient notice to the University office or staff sponsoring the event or program. For more information regarding SU's policies and procedures, please visit www.salisbury.edu/equity.