Past Faculty Development Teaching Series

Faculty Development Refreshers - Getting Us Ready for Spring 2020

Dear Faculty:

Congrats on completing this fall semester!  I know you are ready for the winter break.  As you are preparing for the Spring 2021 semester, Faculty Commons has compiled a listing of past faculty development workshops that might help you.  These workshops include 12 Ways in 12 Days, WE Ready Program, and sessions on technology in the classroom, student engagement, and classroom communication.  If you have free time during your break, you may want to look at these past archived videos for helpful information and new ideas.  Below is the drop-down menu for these past faculty development workshops.

Faculty Commons wishes you all a safe, healthy, and blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Past Faculty Development Workshops

Quick Tips to Take Online Teaching from Ordinary to Extraordinary

In collaboration with Online@JSU, the Turner Faculty Commons is pleased to announce our new 12 Ways in 12 Days Micro Workshop Series: Quick, effective, and proven practices for designing and delivering exemplary online classes. Each interactive, 30-minute session in this series is delivered live through Microsoft Teams by a wide range of JSU’s most experienced and talented online faculty and focuses on timely tips and best practices in effective, high-quality online teaching and learning. Whether you want to learn something new, help your colleagues prepare their online courses, or do a bit of both, we hope that you will join us for a daily dose of fast, fun, and engaging ideas for making your summer online classes the best that they can be.

Day 1              

Online Teaching for Beginners (no, really.)                                   April, 27, 2020                             

Andrea Porter & Mica Mecham

Join Andrea and Mica for cocktails as they recreate Andrea's logging in to Canvas for the very first time just last week, seeing her summer course shell, and calling Mica for help. Learn some preliminary steps for getting started, or just hang out with other faculty who will be teaching this summer, too!

View the video archive of Andrea Porter & Mica Mecham's session

Day 2

Syllabi that Make Sense and Look Pretty                                       April 28, 2020.

Staci Stone & Rodney Bailey

"What an Exciting Syllabus". . . said no student ever. But the syllabus is your chance for a first impression, especially for an online course. This session will help you design a syllabus that includes required, vital information--in ways that students can understand. We'll also show you how to make your syllabus look beautiful in Canvas! 

View the video archive of Staci Stone & Rodney Bailey's session

Day 3

Oh, Hey There! Come on In!                                                          April 29, 2020                                             

Mary Springer & Ahmad Alhammouri

We have some great ideas for getting your students ready for online instruction before the class even begins so that on the first day of class, they will know their way around the course and be ready to learn!

View the video archive of Mary Springer & Ahmad Alhammouri's session

Day 4

Tests? We Don’t Need No Tests!                                                   April 30, 2020                                 

Kelly Paynter & Serena Gramling

Rather than simply relying on multi-guess assessments that students can easily find the answers via Google anyway, what are alternatives for assignments that measure proficiency and learning? We have some good ideas!

Day 5

Dumping Content: Do We Need ALL of That?                               May 1, 2020                

Amy Simon                    

It’s so tempting to put all publisher content into our shells, but how much is too much? And if content from a publisher is used, what is the correct way to do this? We have some ideas!

View the video archive of Amy Simon's session

Day 6

I Totally Agree, Karen.                                                                  May 4, 2020     

Tanya Sasser & Erin Rider

How can we promote authentic communication and collaboration from students without getting the rote discussion board responses? We will discuss how to create a learning community and measure class participation.

View the video archive of Tanya Sasser & Erin Rider's session

Day 7

Hey, Can We Talk?                                                                          May 5, 2020                                                                  

Christy Burns & Sarah Donley

We’ll talk about how we communicate with our students and how we give them clear expectations of when this will happen. We discuss different mediums we use and what is most effective for us, especially regarding our availability around due dates.

View the video archive of Christy Burns & Sarah Donley's session

Day 8

Congratulations, Your Grade is an E!                                              May 6, 2020                               

Jenna Ridlin & Kimberly Westbrooks

We will discuss understandable ways for determining grades from assignments, explaining this, and organizing the grade book in a way that makes sense to students.

View the video archive of Jenna Ridlin & Kimberly Westbrooks' session 

Day 9

You Better Clean Up That Room!                                                     May 7, 2020                                 

David Thornton & Teresa Gardner

Considering what should be seen by students and what should not. Should all content be available at once? How to "clean up" shells to make them clear and simple for students to access and find materials. 

View the video archive of David Thornton & Teresa Gardner's session 

Day 10

You Talking about a 1980’s Rubric Cube?                                       May 8, 2020                     

Dana Ingalsbe & Cassie Chandler

What exactly is a rubric, anyway? How the heck do I make them? Why do I need them? And would a student ever look at it anyway? We’ll give you our opinion on how rubrics work for us and hope you’ll share your experiences, too!

View the video archive of Dana Ingalsbe & Cassie Chandler's session 

Day 11

Why We Gotta Do This?                                                                  May 11, 2020                                              

Allen Gilbert & Brianna Turgeon

Come have a beer or a coffee with us while we discuss creating assignments that include a purposeful title, clear directions, an explanation of the purpose, an understandable point value, and what particular assignments are designed to teach students. It sounds boring, but we will make it fun. Promise.

View the video archive of Allen Gilbert & Brianna Turgeon's session 

Day 12

What the Whaaaa?                                                                          May 12, 2020                                   

Wendy Stephens & Julie Nix 

How to make sure your course content is available and accessible to all of your students. We’ll discuss easy ways we caption videos, how to provide a transcript of videos across several platforms, why this is important, as well as how to consider and plan for a myriad of unique challenges to our students this summer.

View the video archive of Wendy Stephens & Julie Nix's session

WE Prepare!

Faculty Commons is helping faculty prepare web enhancement (WE) courses for the upcoming Fall 2020 semester by implementing a new program modeled after the tracks used in the past. The program includes virtual training sessions and a check of course materials prior to the semester.  Faculty who participate fully in the program—minimum of four sessions and “passing” a checklist for every Fall course—will receive a small stipend.

For participants of this program, a WE course means having available in Canvas prior to the semester at least the course syllabus, at least one assignment, and the gradebook. Assistance with Canvas will be provided by three Mentor Leaders and six WE mentors (two from each school), with faculty development sessions beginning July 28, 2020. All full-time and adjunct faculty members who complete a minimum of four sessions and have courses “WE Ready” will be eligible to earn a $200.00 stipend. Sessions will include the following topics:

Tier 1

  • July 28 10:00-12:00 - Basics of Getting Started with a Web-Enhanced Course and Canvas Basics

                    Video Archive of Basics of Getting Started with a Web-Enhanced Course and Canvas Basics

  • July 30 10:00-12:00 - Creating Assignments, Using Rubrics, and Importing Coursepacks

                    Video Archive of Creating Assignments, Using Rubrics, and Importing Coursepacks

  • July 31 10:00-12:00 - Gradebook in Canvas 

                    Video Archive of Gradebook in Canvas

  • August 3 10:00-12:00 - Basics of Getting Started with a Web-Enhanced Course and Canvas Basics

                    Video Archive of Basics of Getting Started with a Web-Enhanced Course and Canvas Basics

  • August 5 10:00-12:00 - Creating Assignments, Using Rubrics, and Importing Coursepacks

                    Video Archive of Creating Assignments, Using Rubrics, and Importing Coursepacks

  • August 6 10:00-12:00 - Gradebook in Canvas 

                    Video Archive of Gradebook in Canvas

Tier 2

  • July 28 2:00-4:00 - Creating Quizzes in Canvas and TurnItIn software 

                   Video Archive of Creating Quizzes in Canvas and TurnItIn software

  • July 30 2:00-4:00 - Video Conferencing Tools Pt.1

                   Video Archive of Video Conferencing Tools Pt.1

  • August 3 2:00-4:00 - Video Conferencing Tools Pt.2: External Apps

                   Video Archive of Video Conferencing Tools Pt.2: External Apps

  • August 5 2:00-4:00 - Modules, Course Copy, Organization, Aesthetics, Canvas Clean up and Class last minute prep

                    Video Archive of Modules, Course Copy, Organization, Aesthetics, Canvas Clean up and Class last minute prep

  • August 6 2:00-4:00 - Creating Quizzes in Canvas and TurnItIn software

                    Video Archive of Creating Quizzes in Canvas and TurnItIn software

  • August 7 10:00-12:00 - Video Conferencing Tools Pt.1 

                    Video Archive of Video Conferencing Tools Pt.1

  • August 7 2:00-4:00 - Video Conferencing Tools Pt.2: External Apps

                    Video Archive of Video Conferencing Tools Pt.2: External Apps

  • August 10 10:00-12:00 - Modules, Course Copy, Organization, Aesthetics, Canvas Clean up and Class last minute prep 

                    Video Archive of Modules, Course Copy, Organization, Aesthetics, Canvas Clean up and Class last minute prep

Participants will be asked to pre-register for TEAMS virtual meetings, and all participants will be asked to conduct some preliminary work in order to be able to develop content during the sessions. For example, participants in the first session will be asked to have a syllabus ready prior to participating in the session, which focuses on loading that syllabus to Canvas.

In order to be eligible to earn the stipend, faculty must do the following:

  • Complete Tier 1 and/or show evidence of a syllabus, assignment, and active gradebook in at least one Fall 2020 course before advancing to Tier 2
  • For those beginning with Tier 1, participate in all Tier 1 sessions and at least one Tier 2 session; others will participate in at least two Tier 2 training sessions
  • Participate in a Teams meeting with school WEM to provide evidence of WE criteria for all courses being taught in the fall, to include criteria from University, School, and Departmental WE checklist by August 13.


  • Andrew Higgins presented a session on “Staying Engaged in the Classroom Using Microsoft Teams” – October 21, 2020

                 View video archive of Andrew Higgins' session

  • Mica Mecham presented a session on “Doggy Paddling in the Deep End:  Staying Afloat in 2020” – September 20, 2020

                  View video archive of Mica Mecham's session 

  • Mary Springer presented a session on "Blueprint to Shell:  Online Course Development for Beginners - November 20, 2019

                View video archive of Mary Springer's session

  • Dr. Ahmad Alhammouri presented a session on "Shifting the Center of the Classroom:  Successes and Pitfalls - September 17, 2019

                 View video archive of Ahmad Alhammouri's session

  • Rodney Bailey presented a session on “Relational Teaching Tools for the Tech Savvy Teacher – February 4, 2019

                  View video archive of Rodney Bailey's session

  • Kelly Paynter presented a session on “Building Relationships in the Online Environment” – March 19, 2019

                  View video archive of Kelly Paynter's session

  • Dr. Taleah Collum presented a session on “Student Engagement in a Virtual Classroom” – October 14, 2020

                   View video archive of Taleah Collum's session

  • Dr. Lance Ingwersen presented a session on “Connecting Meaningfully with Students…and Enjoying It:  Lessons and Strategies from an Evolving Practice – February 19, 2020

                   View video archive of Lance Ingwersen's session

  • Cassie Chandler presented a session on “Interactive Learning Strategies” – January 30, 2020

                   View video archive of Cassie Chandler's session

  • Jennifer Acker presented a session on "The Golden Hour" - September 26, 2019

                    View video archive of Jennifer Acker's session

  • Sean Creech presented a session on "From 2020 to Beyond: A Fresh Look at the Use of Technology and Student Feedback in Relational Teaching" - September 12, 2019

                   View video archive of Sean Creech's session

  • Dr. Teresa Gardner presented a session on “Connecting with Students Online” – April 3, 2019

                    View video archive of Teresa Gardner's session  

  • Kim Westbrooks presented a session on “Purpose-Filled Faculty/Student Interactions

                   View video archive of Kim Westbrook's session

There are other great faculty development workshops that have been presented through Faculty Commons.  Some of the video sessions can be found on the Houston Cole's Library Digital Commons page located at:  https://digitalcommons.jsu.edu/fc_lectures/.