Salisbury University |  Instructional Design & Delivery Newsletter | September 19, 2023

Maryland OER Summit: Call for Proposals

The 2023 Maryland Open Source Textbook (MOST) Summit: Cultivating Agency Through Open Education Resources is  hosted by Salisbury University on Friday, December 1, 2023. At the core of the conference theme is the question: What happens when students and their collaborators – peers, faculty, community members, librarians and more – drive knowledge creation?

This event is co-organized by Salisbury University and the MOST initiative. SU is a 2022 recipient of a MOST institutional grant focused on building institutional capacity around open pedagogy, and their work will be featured at the convening. 

A call for proposals that contribute to this conversation and showcase innovative approaches to open educational practices that empower learners to be active creators of knowledge and contributors to a more inclusive and equitable world is open. Deadline to submit is Friday, October 6, 2023.

Please save the date and visit the event website for registration and more information.

Open Pedagogy Article

Instructional Design and Delivery is developing a comprehensive Teaching and Pedagogy resource site that you can access from the main ID&D website or through our partnership with the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence (CAFE).

These articles focus on pedagogical approaches to incorporate new and varied tools of the teaching trade to engage your students in more lively and include topics such as Assessing Learning, Course Development, Active Learning, As You're Teaching Strategies, Current Trends, and Using Technology for Instruction.

In this newsletter, we highlight the importance of inclusive pedagogy! Inclusive pedagogy supports inclusion by providing an inviting environment to all students, allowing them to feel that their experiences, abilities and forms of meaning making are important to the classroom community. Inclusive pedagogy moves beyond voicing a belief of inclusivity to fostering a true environment of belonging. Belonging is the feeling of being part of something where you matter to others, which is fostered through inclusion, but that relies on intentional acts of providing student voice and honoring the student as a whole. When students feel that they matter, their engagement and motivation to succeed and contribute as a positive member of the community increases, increasing a multicultural, multifaceted community of shared learning experiences. In short, inclusion and belonging benefit everyone.

Read the inclusive pedagogy article for more information about strategies for implementing inclusive pedagogy and challenges mitigate when applying inclusive pedagogical practices!

Faculty Resource: National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) 

Salisbury University has institutional membership to the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) network that helps faculty achieve extraordinary writing and research productivity while maintaining a full and healthy life off campus. The NCFDD also has a Toolkit for teaching that includes strategies for teaching efficiently and effectively, preparing for controversial conversations, finding joy as an academic, and an informative dialogue about "Managing Stress in Stressful Times."

 All faculty have access NCFDD resources – so how do you participate? Review the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) page on the Center for Advancement of Faculty Excellence (CAFE) website for more information on how to participate in workshops and webinars, and how to engage with other NCFDD resources!

14-Day Writing Challenge Program

The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) offers a variety of resources to help academics (of all stages) better align their professional and personal goals. Because SU is a NCFDD Institutional Member, these resources are free to use!

One of the most popular programs is the 14-day writing challenge, which uses best practices to help you create a consistent writing practice. The next opportunity to participate is October 9-22. During this time, you are asked to commit to writing every day for at least 30 minutes. You log on to the NCFDD’s online community, start the timer, complete your writing, post your progress and encourage others in your assigned writing group. Past participants credit this program and the accountability of the writing groups with helping them to establish better writing habits or to refresh stagnant ones.

Registration closes Tuesday, October 3.

Video Tip:  MyClasses Gradebook  

As you have been grading this semester, you may have noticed changes to the MyClasses Gradebook. A redesign of the filters functionality has added new filter options, but has also led to the restructuring of where you find other gradebook viewing features such as changing the order of assignments, turning on and off the notes column, viewing or hiding unpublished items, and setting your missing and late status indicator colors. These features can now be found in the Settings menu of the gradebook under the View Options tab.

Watch the MyClasses Gradebook video tip above for an overview of the gradebook, including:

• how to navigate the different gradebook views, including gradebook history (00:38),
• how to export/import the gradebook (02:14),
• how to use gradebook settings (02:35), such as applying missing or late policies, applying a grading policy across the entire gradebook, adding a grade override column, determining view options for assignment order, enabling the Notes column, and identifying status indicators for the gradebook (e.g. Late or Missing assignments),
• how to apply filters (06:59), such as by sections, modules, or assignment start and end dates,
• how to access and use the student grade details tray (08:21), and
• what options are available in the kabob menu for each assignment in the gradebook (08:52), including posting grades as points or percentages, setting a default grade, or messaging students in bulk about missing or late assignments or to consult about a low score.