Want Professional Development On-Demand?

HCC has Go2Knowledge! Go2Knowledge is an on-demand professional development system that offers over 75 webinars. Certificates are issued upon the completion of each webinar.

Training topics include:

• At-Risk Populations
• Campus Safety
• Organizational Development
• Student Success
• Teaching & Learning
• Technology

Visit the MyHCC Assistance Center (in Blackboard) for login instructions. Don't have access to the MyHCC Assistance Center? Register on the CITT Website.

Professional Development On-Demand?

HCC now has Go2Knowledge! Go2Knowledge is an on-demand professional development system that offers over 75 webinars. Certificates are issued upon the completion of each webinar.

Training topics include:

• At-Risk Populations
• Campus Safety
• Organizational Development
• Student Success
• Teaching & Learning
• Technology

There is also an area of Open Educational Resources. These are links to educational materials that are routinely used by educators worldwide.

Contact CITT for access instructions.

Blackboard Service Pack 8 Upgrade

During the 2012 Winter Break MyHCC/Blackboard will be upgraded to Service Pack 8 (SP8). At first glance, MyHCC/Blackboard will look very different from what you are currently seeing. The interface has been redesigned to make navigation more clear and easier to use. The location of all of Blackboard’s tools and menus, however, are exactly where they are now.

For an overview of the new features in Service Pack 8, check out this video

For print tutorials on the changes coming with Service Pack 8, click through the resources on this page.

Finally, CITT is hosting live previews of Blackboard's Service Pack 8 upgrade on all campuses. These previews will be held Friday, November 30th and Friday, December 7th. Service Pack 8's new features and mechanics will be highlighted. To join us for a session, please register

MyHCC Resources Added to MyHCC Dashboard

If you logged into MyHCC today, you may have noticed a new module on your MyHCC dashboard. This module, titled MyHCC Tutorials, provides MyHCC "how-to" instructions and videos.

Remember, you can also always access these MyHCC resources, plus many more, from the CITT website:
CITT home > Tutorials and Trainings > MyHCC

Introducing CITT Interact

CITT Interact is a brand new message board tool was developed to give HCC faculty an opportunity to share ideas. HCC faculty can post messages after logging in, using their HCC NetID. There are 6 forums in which to browse information.

Forums Include:

• Announcements
• Assessment
• Miscellaneous
• MyHCC
• Teaching and Learning Strategies
• Technology

Click here to access CITT Interact!

Introducing the Adjunct Faculty Online Orientation

Transitioning to the role of an adjunct faculty member is exciting. However, it also presents its own set of challenges. To help ease your transition, CITT has developed an Adjunct Faculty Online Orientation.

The Adjunct Faculty Online Orientation covers the following topics:

• Transitioning into Teaching at HCC
• HCC Syllabus Resources
• Engaging Your Students
• Student Evaluation and Grading Policy
• Starting and concluding a course
• HCC Faculty Resources

The Adjunct Faculty Online Orientation can be accessed here: http://citt.hccfl.edu/lectora/afoom/index.html

Tutorial: How to Hide the Previous Semester's Courses in Blackboard

Want to hide courses that are no longer active/available?

Then, follow these quick and painless steps: http://citt.hccfl.edu/files/bb_hidecourse.pdf.

Hiding the course does not compromise the course's content. You can re-show courses at any time.

Helpful Blackboard Tips

Don’t forget that by the first day of class, all courses need to be made available to students. Access the Course Availability tutorial at http://citt.hccfl.edu/files/bb_availability.pdf

Test Students do not copy over to your new course sections. To add a test student to each of your courses, access http://citt.hccfl.edu/files/Bb_TestStudent.pdf

Are you making the transition from Campus Cruiser to Blackboard? These can help!

• PDF: http://citt.hccfl.edu/tutorials/CC_Bb.pdf
• Recorded Webinar: http://hillsborough.adobeconnect.com/p39pwkzpych/

Constructing Better Multiple Choice and Essay Tests

Finals are just around the corner, which means it's the time of the semester to start constructing the final exam! Tired of using the same questions semester after semester? Want to create a new exam? Unsure of where to start? Or, do you want to review your current exam's questions?

Why not check out CITT's latest tutorial: Constructing Better Multiple Choice and Essay Tests.

Created in conjunction with Dr. Rick Hansen (Brandon Campus), this self-paced tutorial guides the user through creating multiple choice and essay questions, and also provides an overview on testing issues.

So, need a few tips on brushing up those distractors? How about tips on objectives that are well suited to essay questions? This tutorial will explain it all!

Webcast: Using Wikis in the Classroom

Interested in Using Wikis in Your Course? Not sure how to implement them? Want to learn how your HCC colleagues are using them?

Watch this webcast to see how Steve Holub and Stephanie O'Bryon are successfully using wikis in their Mass Communications and Nursing courses.

In the comments section below, feel free to share ideas on how you would incorporate a wiki into your course.

What's New in Blackboard

Curious about what's new in Blackboard? Check out these videos:

• Customizing the Navigation Panel (2:17 min)
• Interactive Tools (2:22 min)
• Adding and Submitting Assignments (2:30 min)

CITT Instructional Design Services

CITT offers instructional design services to all HCC faculty. Please review our Instructional Design Services Timeline for more information.

• Timeline for Hybrid or Online courses
• Timeline for Face-to-Face courses

New CITT Tutorial: Adding and Assigning Grades in HawkNet

• Not sure whether to give a student an "F" or an "FX"?
• Know when to assign a student a "WN"?
• Have questions about adding and assigning grades in HawkNet?

For the answer to these questions + many more, check out CITT's new tutorial Adding and Assigning Grades.

Learn More About Blackboard Training

Want to learn more about the Blackboard training courses? View this brief video for an overview.

Other features of Blackboard training include the following:

• All training courses include tips, strategies, and best practices for facilitating successful distance learning courses
• Beginning Fall 2011, all courses, on ground and online, will receive a Blackboard course shell
• beginning Spring 2012, Blackboard will replace Campus Cruiser for web enhanced and hybrid course delivery

Blackboard Learn 9.1 is Here!

HCC’s new learning management system, Blackboard Learn 9.1, deploys College-wide in August, 2011.

CITT Faculty Professional Development and the Blackboard Implementation Training Committee are pleased to announce comprehensive training to prepare faculty to facilitate all levels of distance learning course offerings including including web-enhanced, hybrid, and fully online courses. Training courses include:

• Tier 1 Training: For all faculty who teach using the Blackboard LMS; designed for those who teach pre-designed web-enhanced, hybrid, or online courses (20 hrs)*
• Tier 2 Training: For all faculty who design and develop web-enhanced, hybrid, and online courses (20 hrs)* Upon completion of Tier 2 training, a Blackboard course shell will be made available to begin developing your Fall 2011 courses.
• Tier 3 Training: Optional training of advanced Blackboard functions and multimedia (available Fall, 2011)

*A pilot test of the training revealed that actual time for course completion is 12 – 15 hrs. Training completers receive 20 hours of professional development per course.

Don't Delay - Register Today
Training begins March 1st. To register here for Blackboard training.

**If you are teaching web-enhanced, hybrid, or online courses this Fall, please register for training right away. If you are not using the LMS until Spring, 2012, please do not register until May.

21st Century Classroom Tutorials

Teaching in a 21st Century Classroom this semester? Do you have questions, or are you confused about how to operate the equipment?

Check out the Tutorials page of the CITT website for a host of 21st Century Classroom Tutorials.

Available Tutorials:

• 21st Century Classroom Equipment
• 21st Century Classroom Help Guide
• Control Panel Video
• Document Camera Video
• Workshop Manual

Happy New Year, from CITT

Wishing everyone a productive and successful spring semester.

Remember to use the resources on the CITT website. Here, you can find a plethora of useful information such as tutorials, tech-tips, ideas on best practices, and news about the Blackboard implementation, among other things.

Also, don't forget to become a follower of this blog!

Happy 2011!

Place the CITT Blog Feed on Your Homepage!

The CITT blog can now be added to your personalized Google, netvibes, newsgator and Yahoo page, or Atom account. Click the Feed button (top of the right hand column) and select the site to which you would like to add the feed. Follow the instructions on the page that pops up to finish setting up the feed.

Faculty Interest Groups (FIGS) are Now Forming!

Faculty Interest Groups (FIGS) at Hillsborough Community College are groups of faculty that have a mutual interest in a specific aspect of teaching and learning. These groups have an anticipated goal to foster teaching and to develop pedagogical advances in the teaching field. FIGS offer opportunity to all faculty members - adjuncts, non-tenured, and tenured that have common interests in a specific subject.

Members of FIGS have the opportunity to gather and share best practices, do research about their subject, support each other in the application of their methodology, and provide peer evaluation of their relevance with student learning.

Visit the FIGS Website for information on creating and/or participating in a FIG.

Are you currently involved in a FIG or have an idea for a FIG? Comment on this post to share!

STEMtech Participants Announced

CITT Faculty Professional Development is sponsoring three faculty teaching in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) disciplines to attend the League for Innovation in the Community College STEMtech conference in Orlando from October 31-November 3.

Congratulations to the 3 STEMtech participants:

• Debarati Ghosh (Brandon)
• Jessica Olney (Ybor)
• Carlos Ortiz (SouthShore)

Read more...