Games Based Learning MOOC

Games Based Learning MOOC begins soon.
We have a little less than 2 weeks before we start up the Games MOOC! http://gamesmooc.shivtr.com/
And yes, we are very excited.

Please join us and invite your colleagues! The Games MOOC Spring 2013 signup is now open! http://bit.ly/gamesmooc
The third iteration of the Games MOOC begins on March 18 and runs until April 22, 2013.
The theme is “Build the Game“ using Apps, AR and ARGs. The focus will be creating a game or gaming project for your course. 
The Games MOOC is an online six week professional development course that has optional livestreaming sessions that are also recorded and uploaded to YouTube.

The weekly topics will look something like this. (Adjustments are possible)

Week 1                 Intro to the Course and Topics
Week 2                 Apps and Mobile Possibilities
Week 3                 Augmented Reality and Interactive Fiction (sounds fun - right?)
Week 4                 Mysteries, Puzzles and Scavenger Hunts
Week 5                 Narrative and Storyboarding
Week 6                 Creating the Clues & Playing the Game

If you want any additional information or have any questions, please call me at 303-404-5470 or email kae.novak@frontrange.edu

As always – Lurkers Welcome!

Thank you,

Kae Novak
Online Learning
Front Range Community College

P.S.

As a bit of a warm-up, we'll doing a games based learning tweetchat  this Wed at 7 pm MT
on VEJ - The Virtual Education Journal that just came out!
The hashtag for the Games MOOC is #gamemooc

If you’re new to tweetchat just go here for more info on how tweet along with us. http://gamesmooc.shivtr.com/pages/tweetchat

If you haven't taken a look at this issue of VEJ -please do! It’s Game On! - Where you get your information about games based learning and virtual worlds? What is needed? How should we be getting it out? And of course discussion of any of the articles.
Games MOOCers and the Games MOOC were well represented in this issue. 
VEJ Game On Issue! http://issuu.com/edovation/docs/vej_2013reduced_for_issue/1

July 2012 Professional Development Opportunities

Greetings!

There are several professional development opportunities for coming up this month that are still available for registration.

Workshops

Title: Managing Discussions
When: July 16th - July 30th 2012
Where: Online in Desire2Learn
Focus: The discussions component of your online course is your virtual classroom. In this two-week online workshop, explore different ways to organize discussions, make discussions more engaging, to maximize your own participation in discussions as well as that of your students, evaluate discussions, explore QA expectations, and more.
Registration close date: July 6th, 2012

Title: D2L Essentials (intended for pre-hire CCCOnline instructors)
When: July 23rd - August 6th, 2012
Where: Online in Desire2Learn
Focus: This is a two-week fully online workshop designed to introduce instructors to the Desire to Learn (D2L) course system. Its primary goal is to prepare instructors to teach with D2L at a basic level during their first term. Activities are completed in a practice course.
Registration close date:July 13th, 2012

Tite: Getting Started (intended for pre-hire CCCOnline instructors)
When: July 30th - August 6th, 2012
Where: Online in Desire2Learn
Focus: This is a one-week online orientation course for new Instructors. Getting Started introduces instructors to the culture of CCCOnline, support resources and support processes for teaching with CCCOnline.
Registration close date: July 20th, 2012

Webinars

Title:  Fair Use/Copyright Basics for Online Education
When: July 20th, 2012 from 1:00pm - 2:00pm MST
Where: Online in WebEx
Focus: Recently there’s been concern surrounding the use of Pinterest and copyright violation. You’ve also probably run into questions when you’ve wanted to include an image, article or some other materials in your course. Come to learn about the updated Association of Research Libraries Fair Use policies and other helpful resources that will help you navigate the very rocky world of copyright in online education.


 To register for any of these opportunities, please visit https://at.ccconline.org/training/login.php and log in with your S# and related portal password.

As always, please feel free to contact training@ccconline.org with comments and questions.

Sean Renner
Training and Professional Development Coordinator

Hello,

If you are interested in the upcoming COLTT Conference, please see the message below.  The message also contains info on how to register for the conference, as will as how to request a conference scholarship.

Best,
Terry

SUBJECT: Dr. Kirsten Sanford Named as the 2012 COLTT Conference Keynote Presenter; Register or Request a Scholarship Now!

The 15th Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference (COLTT) is

proud to welcome renowned science journalist Dr. Kirsten Sanford of the "Dr. Kiki's Science Hour" podcast as the conference's 2012 keynote speaker. Dr. Sanford recently participated in the Conference on World Affairs as a panelist

for a variety of topics, including the session "Technology: Hurting or Helping." Her work helps us understand how our brains are constantly developing and adapting to the technology that we create. To learn more about Dr. Sanford, please visit her website at http://www.kirstensanford.com/.

COLTT 2012 is shaping up to be another great opportunity for faculty and graduate students to network and to gain access to new ideas and technologies that can be incorporated into classroom and online teaching. Attendees will find sessions on gamifying the classroom, info graphics, flipped classrooms,

learning analytics, and Google apps, among other topics. The conference will be held in the Wolf Law Building on the University of Colorado Boulder campus, Wednesday, August 1st,

and Thursday, August 2nd, 2012.

To register and pay directly for COLTT use the registration page:

https://www.cusys.edu/coltt/2012/registration.html. 

To Request a Scholarship please follow these directions:

There are a few remaining scholarship slots for Colorado Community College System faculty, instructors, and staff. Please directly email jill.lester@colorado.edu to get approval to register your request online, or to be placed on the waitlist. COLTT has asked that you please use this process rather than requesting online at this time. Thank you.

COLTT is sponsored by the Colorado Community College System through CCCOnline, along with a number of other institutional and exhibitor sponsors. Questions about COLTT 2012 may

be directed to Jill Lester, Conference Coordinator, coltt@cu.edu. We look forward to seeing

you in August!

Jill C. Lester

COLTT Conference Coordinator

303-492-8426

jill.lester@colorado.edu

www.cusys.edu/coltt

Congratulations to Linda Hamons!

We have good news to share about one of our instructors!  Linda Hamons, CIS/CNG instructor, was accepted for this summer’s IT internship program with CU-Boulder.  Please see a description of the internship program below.  Congratulations to Linda!

Community College HPC Internship

About the internship program

Our program is a 9-week summer research internship for community college faculty and instructors teaching in a computing field. Participants will spend nine weeks working with a research mentor on a project that will be reflected in a future community college courses. The stipend for the internship is $9000. Participants work full-time on a group or independent research project, and participate in workshops focused on computational research. The program is a collaboration between Research Computing, the Departments of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and two organizations committed to increasing the diversity of information technology and computer science education and work, the National Center for Women & IT (NCWIT) and the Colorado Coalition for Gender & IT (CCGIT). Both NCWIT and CCGIT make extensive use of tested practices to recruit and retain women and underrepresented minorities at all points of the pathways that lead into pathways from K-12 settings, to technical jobs, to advanced computing professions. Over the past several years, CCGIT has established itself as an expert in non-traditional pathways into IT, focusing on partnerships with community colleges, workforce development centers, and the military.

COLTT Conference Scholarships

Hello everyone,

CCCOnline will be able to scholarship some CCCS staff and faculty for COLTT this year; please see the announcement below.  I hope some of you can attend.

Thanks!

Terry

_________________________________________________

CCCS

Subject: Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference (COLTT):

Call for Proposals, Registration, and Scholarships

The 15th Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference (COLTT) needs your expertise and enthusiasm for this year’s conference, to be held on the University of Colorado Boulder campus, Wednesday, August 1^st and Thursday, August 2^nd, 2012. We are looking for dynamic sessions that explore innovative and effective uses of technologies in teaching and learning settings. We encourage you to explore the full Call for Proposals at: http://coltt2012.pbworks.com/.The submission deadline is April 28^th.

Registration is now open. To register or request a scholarship please review our COLTT 2012 website and links at: https://www.cusys.edu/coltt/2012/registration.html .

CCCOnline has received funding to once again offer scholarship funds to qualified applicants for COLTT registrations. The funds are limited, and will be allocated on a first-come first-serve basis, with a waitlist as necessary.

This 15^th COLTT conference will be an amazing opportunity to network with faculty and gain access to new ideas and technologies to incorporate into your classroom. We hope you’ll join us for what will surely be a vibrant and inspiring event!

Questions about COLTT 2012 can be directed to Deborah Keyek-Franssen, Conference Director, deblkf@colorado.edu or Jill Lester, Conference Coordinator, coltt@cu.edu .

Terry Reeves

Dean of Academic Instruction, CCCOnline

9026 E. Severn Place; Denver, CO 80230

P 720-858-2215; F 303-365-8822; E terry.reeves@cccs.edu

VWBPE Conference

Hello everyone,

I wanted to bring your attention to the Virtual World Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) Conference.  It is a free conference running from March 15-17, 2012.  Chris Luchs, Associate Dean of CTE at CCCOnline, is one of the conference organizers.  Below is a information regarding the conference from Chris.  I hope some of you are able to take advantage of this conference -- it sounds like it will be full of great information!

Terry 

Info from Chris:

On March 1st, CCCS released the Request for Proposals (RFP) for $10,000 to $100,000 grant applications for game based and immersive learning projects. This is part of President McCallin's proposed $3 million grant program for incorporating games based learning into our classroom and online instruction that she announced at the 2011 2:2 conference.

For instructors not familiar with virtual worlds, games, simulations, and alternative reality, there is a free online conference running from March 15 - 17, 2012. This conference is the Virtual World Best Practices in Education (http://www.vwbpe.org) and last year almost 2,500 educators logged in from around the world to attend this conference. VWBPE takes place in a virtual world called Second Life (http://secondlife.com/). However, you do not have to explore this event unprepared. 

On March 8, 2012, we will be holding two informational sessions to provide an overview and an orientation for those interested in attending the conference. The two sessions are:

Conference Overview on Elluminate  March 8th from 1 – 2 pm MST and 

Orientation to Second Life March 8th from 2 – 3:30 pm MST.

The Conference Overview session will go over where the conference will be held. We will also identify the games and virtual worlds presentations for attendees. This will give you an inside track to efficiently and effectively utilize your time while at the conference.  This session will be delivered via Blackboard Collaborate at https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.6DF43B6EDFA48BA68570CC4BF2C858

You can also attend this at Westminster Campus of Front Range Community College in room C1158 just next to Faculty Resources.

This Orientation to Second Life (March 8th from 2 – 3:30 pm MST) session will take place in the Second Life virtual environment. During this session, we will assist attendees in navigating the virtual environment and mastering skills such as moving, sitting, virtual conference etiquette, and other essential skills necessary for those new to virtual worlds.  For this session, attendees will need to go to http://secondlife.com/ and create an avatar. You will also need to download the Second Life software onto your computer. Please go to http://secondlife.com/support/system-requirements/ to see if your computer meets the minimum requirements.  

You can also attend this at Westminster Campus of Front Range Community College in room C1158 just next to Faculty Resources.

For this session, please RSVP to Christopher.luchs@cccs.edu and include your avatar name if you already have one :D

Chris Luchs

Associate Dean, Career & Technical Education

CCCOnline

Gearing Up!

Please do not reply to this message. If you have questions or comments, please email me directly at donna.welschmeyer@cccs.edu. Thanks!

Fall Session I is very quickly approaching, and I know everyone is busy wrapping up summer tasks and trying to get ready for the August 30 start date. Here are just a few notes of interest and reminders for you.

Email

We continue to work on getting CCCS email access straightened out for everyone. This process has been complicated by a variety of factors that are, unfortunately, out of our control, so we appreciate your continued patience as we work out the kinks! 

TurnItIn

As you may remember from Karen's August 4 post, there is now a plagiarism checking tool available in the course dropbox. Liz Dzabic will host a webinar on this tool in September. We did discover yesterday that if TurnItIn is enabled in a course, duplication of that course somehow turns the tool off, so you will need to enable it again in the duped course. The folks at TurnItIn are working to fix this bug.

Course Verification and Ready

Please remember to verify course content of duped courses within 72 hours of duping and to note them as "ready" when you have completed the course readiness checklist items. We will do a thorough check of courses during the course readiness checks that begin on Thursday, and will notify program chairs of any items that need attention.

Authentication Assignment

Remember to set up a graded, content-based assignment (not a syllabus quiz or similar assignment) that is due prior to census date (the last day to drop).

Bloggers

Many thanks to our summer Faculty Voices bloggers. If you haven't check out those blogs lately, please do! I thoroughly enjoyed reading them, and I think you'll find some great information there.

Portal 

While the portal has had a few growing pains in the last few days due to heavy use at the compuses, I'm still very excited about it! I really like having that one location for all my links and logins, though I still occasionally forget to to there to get everywhere else.

Training and Professional Development

Remember that you need at least one professional development activity before the end of the calendar year, so be thinking about upcoming activities, including tomorrow's webinar on "Second Language Writers" and the upcoming fall faculty conference.

Thanks to you all for a successful summer term, and here's to an exciting fall term!

Donna