Speed23-Building a Community of Practice around Online Teaching
Building a Community of Practice around Online Teaching
Angelika Stout, Liz Wessling, & Patti Meglich
Author
06/11/2021
Added
3
Plays
Description
This session will address the benefits of building a Community of Practice around online teaching while also providing attendees with a template and plan for creating such a group as a key takeaway. The UNO CBA Online Teachers Community of Practice formed pre-Covid as a community of online teachers in UNO’s College of Business Administration who wanted to connect with others also teaching online. As part of this presentation, we will share the makeup of our group, the benefits to having such a group, and how attendees can start a similar initiative within their college. Our group consists of 9 full-time faculty members with a diverse blend of disciplinary areas, tenure-track and nontenure-track status, teachers of graduate and undergraduate levels, and various experience levels teaching in online modalities. Beginning in spring 2020, this group has met monthly to discuss best practices, share experiences, hear from campus experts, and support one another. This Community of Practice was uniquely positioned to serve as a source of support to participating members during the transition to 100% remote operations, while also supporting the transition at the college level through creation, curation, and presentation of resources, tips, and best practices for new online teachers.
Searchable Transcript
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- [00:00:05.170]Good afternoon and welcome
- [00:00:07.130]to Building a Community of Practice around Online Teaching.
- [00:00:11.210]You can go and show the next slide, Angelika.
- [00:00:15.290]My name is Liz Wessling,
- [00:00:16.890]and I'll be presenting with Ms. Angelika Stout
- [00:00:19.360]and Dr. Patti Meglich.
- [00:00:20.800]If you guys wanted to say hello
- [00:00:22.000]I don't know if they can see you can speak.
- [00:00:27.264]Hello
- [00:00:28.330]And so I will start and then we'll pass it off to Patti
- [00:00:30.960]and then Angelika to finish this out.
- [00:00:33.570]So we're gonna start with the definition
- [00:00:35.900]and you're going to do next slide, thanks.
- [00:00:37.960]We're gonna start with the definition and composition
- [00:00:40.450]of our CBA Online Teachers Community of Practice.
- [00:00:43.990]Then we're gonna highlight the benefits
- [00:00:45.310]of being a member of this community
- [00:00:47.260]and finish with how to start a similar group.
- [00:00:50.300]We will have, as mentioned by Todd,
- [00:00:52.340]we'll have some time at the end to answer any questions
- [00:00:54.840]that you put in the chat.
- [00:00:55.830]So thank you for that.
- [00:00:57.530]First, let's go ahead and start with our definition
- [00:01:00.350]of what is a Community of Practice.
- [00:01:02.890]UNO defines the Community of Practice
- [00:01:04.670]as cohorts of faculty members from multiple disciplines
- [00:01:08.710]who investigate teaching innovations, actively research,
- [00:01:11.890]share feedback, assess student learning
- [00:01:14.370]and grading techniques and exploring new models of practice.
- [00:01:18.480]UNO also has some requirements
- [00:01:20.310]for their Communities of Practice,
- [00:01:22.250]such as there needs to be a minimum of three members.
- [00:01:25.360]We need to complete an application and submit that
- [00:01:27.780]to our center for faculty excellence by a specific date.
- [00:01:31.570]We need to meet at least five times
- [00:01:33.540]during the academic school year.
- [00:01:35.480]And if members want to be eligible for up to a $100 stipend,
- [00:01:40.780]they need to document one or more
- [00:01:43.040]what they call measurable outcomes.
- [00:01:44.880]And they give us a list of what those might be.
- [00:01:46.900]For example, we could give presentations at conferences,
- [00:01:51.260]we could publish research or submit something
- [00:01:53.910]that's being submitted for publication.
- [00:01:56.210]We could show evidence of application
- [00:01:58.450]of our teaching techniques,
- [00:01:59.760]or evidence of incorporation of knowledge in the classroom.
- [00:02:02.610]So, there's a little list that they provide
- [00:02:04.770]to give us some guidance
- [00:02:07.660]on what they would like to see documentation of
- [00:02:09.760]if we want that stipend.
- [00:02:11.240]And they give us a date
- [00:02:12.300]by which they would like to see that done.
- [00:02:14.850]Our group in particular,
- [00:02:17.380]we kind of grew out of a conversation
- [00:02:21.370]between two colleagues
- [00:02:22.640]that were planning to teach online courses.
- [00:02:25.050]They wanted to be able to help each other
- [00:02:26.790]with their online delivery.
- [00:02:28.680]And I actually thought other faculty teaching online courses
- [00:02:31.910]might like to join in the discussion.
- [00:02:33.910]And so creating a Community of Practice
- [00:02:35.970]for CBA online teachers was a perfect avenue
- [00:02:38.880]for organizing this cohort of faculty members.
- [00:02:42.360]And we began pre-COVID, in spring of 2020,
- [00:02:46.560]with primary goals to learn how to just improve
- [00:02:49.270]our individual teaching in our online setting
- [00:02:52.140]and to establish those connections
- [00:02:53.920]and foster community with other online teachers.
- [00:02:56.860]And really where those goals came from
- [00:02:58.510]was just a simple survey that was put out to the people
- [00:03:02.170]who had joined in or said they were interested
- [00:03:04.360]in joining our group and just ask straight up,
- [00:03:06.760]what is your primary goal
- [00:03:08.110]of joining this Community of Practice?
- [00:03:10.380]And these were our two most popular responses.
- [00:03:13.420]So they became our focus of why we were meeting.
- [00:03:17.990]Next slide, please.
- [00:03:21.450]Anybody in CBA that was going to be teaching online courses
- [00:03:24.730]was welcome to join our Community of Practice.
- [00:03:27.310]And we did end up with quite a diverse group.
- [00:03:30.120]We had multiple departments represented.
- [00:03:32.300]We had a mix of tenure and non-tenure track faculty.
- [00:03:35.790]Our group has both graduate and undergraduate faculty
- [00:03:38.810]with the full spectrum of experiences
- [00:03:40.940]in teaching online courses.
- [00:03:42.810]We also had people who were well-versed
- [00:03:45.820]in teaching qualitative courses
- [00:03:47.830]and those that had heavy quantitative courses as well.
- [00:03:51.780]We had a diverse group of ages, ethnicity and gender.
- [00:03:56.930]In the end we had nine full-time faculty members
- [00:03:59.640]that have been very active and engaged
- [00:04:02.100]in our monthly meetings.
- [00:04:03.620]Our meetings were scheduled for one hour via Zoom,
- [00:04:06.980]but it was not uncommon
- [00:04:08.680]for our meetings to go well beyond an hour
- [00:04:10.770]as there seemed to be numerous things
- [00:04:12.203]that we wanted to share and learn from each other
- [00:04:14.510]and from our guest speakers.
- [00:04:15.920]And we always felt a little bad when we had to say,
- [00:04:18.397]"Oh, I've got something else that's coming up,
- [00:04:20.090]I have to leave."
- [00:04:20.923]But we always recorded them.
- [00:04:22.670]And Angelika did a nice job of getting the minutes together
- [00:04:26.660]for us so we could see those highlights
- [00:04:28.400]but we could always go back and watch that recording
- [00:04:31.260]if we wanted to catch up on conversations
- [00:04:33.630]that we really wished we could have stuck around for.
- [00:04:36.750]Scheduling our time to meet was done using Doodle poll.
- [00:04:41.150]And it was a great way for us to figure out
- [00:04:43.230]when can we meet during the semester
- [00:04:44.780]since we were from different departments.
- [00:04:46.450]And we usually didn't interact except in our group here.
- [00:04:49.750]So, one semester we met at the same time each month,
- [00:04:53.630]another semester because people's schedules changed,
- [00:04:56.890]we alternated between meeting in the morning
- [00:04:59.170]versus meeting in the afternoon,
- [00:05:01.050]the idea of being to hit as many people's schedules
- [00:05:05.240]during that open time that they had as possible.
- [00:05:07.720]And because those meetings were recorded,
- [00:05:09.730]if you couldn't make a particular meeting,
- [00:05:11.530]it wasn't a problem.
- [00:05:12.500]You could always catch up on whatever we were talking about
- [00:05:15.400]that particular meeting.
- [00:05:17.330]During the meeting itself, as a group,
- [00:05:19.770]we decided what we wanted our time to be about.
- [00:05:22.900]And it changed over this semester
- [00:05:24.790]as our needs changed and evolved
- [00:05:26.920]and different things landed in our labs
- [00:05:29.530]that we needed to deal with.
- [00:05:30.960]So in the beginning,
- [00:05:31.793]we were just trying to learn best practices.
- [00:05:33.680]So there was a book titled, "Teaching Online,
- [00:05:36.670]A Practical Guide," by Susan Ko and Steve Rossen,
- [00:05:41.110]that our digital learning team at UNO had recommended.
- [00:05:45.670]And at some point we decided, we were thinking maybe
- [00:05:49.120]of doing some like a book talk about that.
- [00:05:52.800]Then once we dug into it a little bit and people shared
- [00:05:55.470]some of their favorite pieces of it we decided it was best,
- [00:05:58.580]as just a personal tool to have, as we wanted to use it.
- [00:06:02.560]We would share our Canvas courses with each other's.
- [00:06:05.760]We'd do screen sharing.
- [00:06:07.360]And so one of the things we did
- [00:06:08.850]was to let everybody see their Canvas course,
- [00:06:11.480]highlighting any organizational tools
- [00:06:13.670]that they were using and any features
- [00:06:15.660]they thought the group might be interested in learning.
- [00:06:18.620]And then, probably around February or March of 2020
- [00:06:22.910]is when we were transitioning into 100% remote learning.
- [00:06:26.560]And so we became at that point, at college level resource
- [00:06:29.570]helping anyone transition to online instruction.
- [00:06:32.640]We created and shared with our colleagues, some short videos
- [00:06:36.390]but instead of making them tutorials,
- [00:06:38.090]we tried to make it a,
- [00:06:39.530]Oops, I did this and it was a complete disaster.
- [00:06:41.810]So try to avoid doing that
- [00:06:43.460]instead this worked out even better.
- [00:06:45.210]And I wish I would've known that first.
- [00:06:47.460]We thought that might help them since there was high stress.
- [00:06:50.500]I think over switching to online
- [00:06:53.190]when that wasn't their original intent
- [00:06:54.920]when they started in the spring.
- [00:06:56.610]We also put together a best practices document
- [00:06:59.170]that they could have highlighting, I think, again,
- [00:07:02.750]we separated out qualitative
- [00:07:04.300]and quantitative best practices there.
- [00:07:06.700]We also invited guest speakers to join us
- [00:07:10.520]to just again, help us become better online teachers.
- [00:07:14.470]And we would get to pepper them with questions
- [00:07:17.180]and ask them all kinds of things
- [00:07:18.730]that in the moment we wished that we knew how to do
- [00:07:21.357]and we were always left amazed at, "Wow, that was so cool.
- [00:07:24.590]I'm so glad I learned that."
- [00:07:26.792]And it was nice because at the end of the meetings,
- [00:07:29.760]we could do a round robin
- [00:07:31.540]where we would let each other ask questions.
- [00:07:33.610]And if the expert was still there,
- [00:07:35.400]they could answer the question.
- [00:07:36.560]And if it was just our group, we would share screens
- [00:07:39.280]and anybody in the group could offer advice
- [00:07:42.760]or solutions to help us out.
- [00:07:45.050]And so at this time, I'd like to hand the presentation off
- [00:07:49.390]to Patti and she is going to speak with you
- [00:07:51.260]about benefits of joining a Community of Practice.
- [00:07:54.500]Patti.
- [00:07:55.770]Thanks, Liz and thanks all of you for joining us.
- [00:08:00.020]Liz got a few of these things covered
- [00:08:01.830]so I can skip through a little of this for you.
- [00:08:05.010]But in terms of some of the things
- [00:08:06.773]that we found were really beneficial to all of us
- [00:08:10.130]was that ability to share ideas.
- [00:08:12.610]We had a wide range of people who were really experienced
- [00:08:15.570]and others who had just stepped a toe in Canvas.
- [00:08:18.390]And so we could come in and again do a show
- [00:08:21.510]and tell of our courses.
- [00:08:23.760]And if you had ideas, you said,
- [00:08:27.047]"Oh, I just found this great new tool or technique."
- [00:08:29.630]People were more than willing to share.
- [00:08:32.440]When we talk about the experts, Liz alluded to this
- [00:08:35.290]and Angelika did a great job
- [00:08:37.500]of really planning out our monthly meetings
- [00:08:40.220]and brought to us experts that could help
- [00:08:43.290]not only with online teaching,
- [00:08:45.670]but also just more pedagogical ways
- [00:08:48.710]to help with student success.
- [00:08:50.670]So for example, some of the presentations that we had
- [00:08:54.180]were from our business library
- [00:08:56.070]and we talked about research resources
- [00:08:58.430]for students, for faculty.
- [00:09:00.530]We had someone who talked about open educational resources.
- [00:09:04.770]So we would understand the world of sort of free resources
- [00:09:08.100]that could be used.
- [00:09:09.730]The instructional design team at UNO is fabulous
- [00:09:13.100]and they came and shared with us some different ways
- [00:09:16.310]to use Zoom
- [00:09:18.330]new things that were coming into Canvas
- [00:09:20.230]that kinda got us excited.
- [00:09:22.680]We talked about humanizing learning.
- [00:09:24.840]So one of the presentations was on that.
- [00:09:27.420]And then we had a presentation,
- [00:09:29.060]really talking about how to engage learners
- [00:09:31.957]and also then how to ensure students' success
- [00:09:35.560]or facilitate that based on psychological success
- [00:09:41.010]for students and how to help them kind of overcome
- [00:09:44.010]some of the issues they might've had
- [00:09:45.870]being kind of thrown into remote learning as well.
- [00:09:50.030]The whole idea of community building
- [00:09:51.610]as I thought about this, it really occurred to me
- [00:09:54.110]that most of the interactions we have across disciplines
- [00:09:58.420]in the college and across colleges,
- [00:10:00.950]tends to be these task focused councils
- [00:10:03.850]or committees that are work groups.
- [00:10:05.890]What was really so wonderful about this group
- [00:10:09.210]is we were all volunteers.
- [00:10:12.010]We were kindred spirits.
- [00:10:13.520]We all came together because we had a personal interest
- [00:10:17.400]in improving our delivery of online courses
- [00:10:21.080]and doing a better job here.
- [00:10:23.080]So we were there more out of a passion
- [00:10:26.330]to improve our teaching.
- [00:10:27.840]And our group really stuck together pretty cohesively
- [00:10:31.150]through an entire academic year.
- [00:10:33.260]I think Liz just said there were nine people.
- [00:10:35.290]I thought usually eight to 10 people came to the meetings.
- [00:10:38.430]So that really helped us also
- [00:10:40.340]to have a more intimate discussion with the experts.
- [00:10:43.410]You weren't sharing them at a webinar.
- [00:10:45.050]You could ask more direct questions in a fairly small group.
- [00:10:49.390]So I think that was really sort of a cool thing
- [00:10:51.880]that happened is we built that community out of people
- [00:10:54.810]that just had this real shared interest.
- [00:10:57.020]And we weren't kind of being forced into it
- [00:10:59.360]as a task or a work thing.
- [00:11:00.850]It was all for our own and our students benefits.
- [00:11:04.380]Helping and leading others as Liz mentioned,
- [00:11:06.850]we did put together resources, made ourselves available
- [00:11:10.370]when people had to quickly pivot over to remote learning
- [00:11:14.500]when the pandemic hit and people that weren't familiar,
- [00:11:17.820]we said, "Hey, we've been doing this a while
- [00:11:20.600]for better or worse.
- [00:11:21.760]We're just extra resources."
- [00:11:23.520]Because again, our instructional design team
- [00:11:26.490]those folks were pretty busy.
- [00:11:27.760]So we did assist and help our other folks.
- [00:11:30.390]We did brown bag presentations on various things
- [00:11:34.900]to help our colleagues out.
- [00:11:37.570]Group problem solving,
- [00:11:38.580]if you didn't know how to do something,
- [00:11:40.680]you stumbled on some function in Canvas
- [00:11:43.800]or some other technology.
- [00:11:45.700]You really, you could come to the group and before and after
- [00:11:48.510]maybe the formal presentation of our meetings,
- [00:11:51.390]you could ask, "Has anybody else had this?"
- [00:11:53.770]And we might sort of mutually problem solve, "Wait a minute,
- [00:11:56.510]I tried this little trick and maybe that will work
- [00:11:59.880]or I'm struggling with the same thing."
- [00:12:02.100]Which sometimes then led us to inviting specific speakers.
- [00:12:06.580]Research collaboration, we had a thought,
- [00:12:09.040]we really never got there,
- [00:12:10.810]but certainly a group like this could be used
- [00:12:14.300]to undergo some sort of research from a pedagogical
- [00:12:18.530]or even if you connected on academic and scholarly research.
- [00:12:22.470]If you can go to the next slide, you can see some quotes
- [00:12:25.410]about what did people say was a real takeaway.
- [00:12:29.570]And I think one of the great testaments
- [00:12:31.840]to the success of our group
- [00:12:33.050]is that 100% of them wanna come back next year.
- [00:12:36.230]So I think that, that says a lot for the value
- [00:12:39.210]that people are perceived to have gotten out of this.
- [00:12:42.100]With that I'll hand it over to Angelika.
- [00:12:51.380]Thank you, Patti.
- [00:12:52.590]So now that Patti talked to you about the benefits
- [00:12:55.130]of belonging to a group, maybe you're thinking
- [00:12:57.580]you know what?
- [00:12:58.510]This seems pretty cool.
- [00:12:59.890]How can I take on the sexual work
- [00:13:01.960]and start a group like this in my own college?
- [00:13:04.980]And I'm going to share with you some steps for doing that.
- [00:13:09.830]So what you're looking at on this slide
- [00:13:11.510]is a quick checklist I made for you for later reference.
- [00:13:15.320]And that link is in the chat if you want to view it.
- [00:13:18.820]And it's also at the end of this slideshow
- [00:13:20.740]on our sources and resources slide.
- [00:13:23.160]But I'm gonna talk through each of these steps
- [00:13:24.820]in just a little bit of detail.
- [00:13:26.140]So you get an idea for a process that you can put in place
- [00:13:29.830]to start a group like this in your unit.
- [00:13:32.580]The first step for us was really identifying online leaders.
- [00:13:36.420]And there really wasn't a shortcut for this.
- [00:13:39.230]There was not any kind of master list
- [00:13:41.130]of who teaches online and the college of business at UNO.
- [00:13:45.320]And as Liz talked about,
- [00:13:46.800]this group started out of a conversation
- [00:13:48.790]between me and another colleague who was teaching online.
- [00:13:52.120]And basically I said,
- [00:13:53.677]"Do you know anybody else who's doing this?
- [00:13:55.620]Or like who are our colleagues who are in the same boat?"
- [00:13:59.490]And through word of mouth, we collected a list
- [00:14:02.660]of about 15 folks and I emailed those people.
- [00:14:06.000]And from that list, we condensed it down
- [00:14:07.920]to a group of about nine people
- [00:14:09.890]who were committed to meeting on a regular basis
- [00:14:13.450]to talk about online learning.
- [00:14:15.410]And so, I say specifically there identify online leaders
- [00:14:20.500]because we've all been online teachers
- [00:14:23.140]at this point due to COVID.
- [00:14:25.330]And this group I think works best
- [00:14:27.620]with folks who are enthusiastic and passionate
- [00:14:30.490]about online learning and who want to do it well.
- [00:14:32.910]So that's why I use the word leaders there.
- [00:14:35.755]By step two, once you have that kind of cohort together,
- [00:14:38.940]it's really important to figure out
- [00:14:41.370]how you're going to define roles within your group.
- [00:14:44.050]So voting on a facilitator or organizer,
- [00:14:46.230]having somebody in place who is willing to herd the cats,
- [00:14:50.400]who will send out Outlook invites and Zoom links
- [00:14:54.290]and do the foot work of inviting speakers to your group
- [00:14:58.790]and things like that.
- [00:14:59.623]And that doesn't all have to be one person.
- [00:15:01.640]Those can be shared responsibilities,
- [00:15:03.230]but it's important to have a discussion
- [00:15:04.780]about how those things will be handled
- [00:15:07.070]so they're not dropped.
- [00:15:09.910]Step three was to survey the group
- [00:15:12.517]and to find out really we all came
- [00:15:15.430]just under the general topic of online learning
- [00:15:17.990]and how do we do it better.
- [00:15:19.520]But within that, we realized quickly,
- [00:15:21.710]there were a lot of competing ideas
- [00:15:23.300]about different directions the group could go.
- [00:15:25.810]And so we did a survey to kind of hone in
- [00:15:28.180]on what were our two primary goals.
- [00:15:30.720]And those were the goals that Liz shared with you
- [00:15:32.300]at the beginning to improve our own online learning
- [00:15:35.220]and to establish some connections with colleagues
- [00:15:38.190]who were also doing online learning.
- [00:15:40.240]And those groups really served as a good anchor for us
- [00:15:43.040]so that when those competing ideas
- [00:15:44.700]about the direction of the group did come up,
- [00:15:47.740]we were able to point back to that survey
- [00:15:49.970]and to have that anchor us and be secure in our mission.
- [00:15:54.850]And then step four was once we had that shared vision,
- [00:15:58.510]trying to determine a framework
- [00:16:00.950]that would help us achieve that.
- [00:16:02.650]So, deciding how many meetings,
- [00:16:05.020]we decided on one monthly meeting
- [00:16:07.600]during the academic year per month.
- [00:16:09.680]And that left us with eight meetings, which was three more
- [00:16:12.950]than the necessary five for a Community of Practice.
- [00:16:16.180]So that way folks had to miss one or two,
- [00:16:18.600]they could still get to the minimum five.
- [00:16:21.730]We also used to Zoom as Liz mentioned and Patti mentioned
- [00:16:24.750]so that we could record sessions and folks could catch up
- [00:16:27.180]when they had to be absent.
- [00:16:28.930]And the screen-share feature of Zoom
- [00:16:31.100]actually was really important,
- [00:16:32.980]I think in our group operating efficiently
- [00:16:36.250]because a lot of that group problem solving
- [00:16:38.160]that Patti talked about,
- [00:16:39.630]happened when we were able to share screens
- [00:16:41.810]and look into each other's Canvas courses in that way.
- [00:16:45.060]So just figuring out like what tools you will need,
- [00:16:47.554]how frequently you will meet using a tool like Doodle
- [00:16:52.120]to determine what folks' best availability will be
- [00:16:56.020]and making sure the meetings aren't going to be scheduled
- [00:16:58.900]at the same time every single month
- [00:17:00.820]unless that works for everybody involved.
- [00:17:04.420]Once you have a kind of framework in place,
- [00:17:07.010]step five I think is really deciding
- [00:17:09.250]what's driving your content in the group.
- [00:17:12.700]So one direction you could take
- [00:17:14.380]is making it literature based.
- [00:17:16.760]Maybe you wanna have your group
- [00:17:18.630]discuss particular literature.
- [00:17:20.050]And if that's, so I would recommend
- [00:17:22.210]partnering with the library liaison.
- [00:17:25.340]A library partner who could probably put you in touch
- [00:17:28.320]with some really great resources for that.
- [00:17:31.800]But you might go the other route
- [00:17:33.580]which is what our group did and invite speakers
- [00:17:36.550]from outside the group to come have a conversation.
- [00:17:39.760]And conversation is in quotes there
- [00:17:41.560]because I didn't invite anybody to present to our group.
- [00:17:46.290]I felt that inviting them for a conversation
- [00:17:48.410]left it more informal.
- [00:17:50.890]People felt comfortable asking questions
- [00:17:52.990]and it, I think, made the speakers more willing to engage
- [00:17:56.660]with our group rather than feeling
- [00:17:58.100]like they had to prepare this presentation
- [00:18:00.040]to come talk with us.
- [00:18:02.490]And so it was very casual and every session was informative
- [00:18:06.610]in that way.
- [00:18:07.730]But deciding what drives your content is an important step.
- [00:18:10.900]And step six kind of happens throughout the year.
- [00:18:13.470]But you wanna be thinking
- [00:18:14.840]about those organizational requirements that Liz mentioned
- [00:18:17.480]at the beginning.
- [00:18:18.960]So whatever your system or university uses
- [00:18:21.890]in terms of deeming this an official Community of Practice,
- [00:18:25.520]there are probably some requirements attached to that.
- [00:18:28.120]And you wanna think about how your outputs
- [00:18:30.760]that you're generating will allow you
- [00:18:33.410]to meet those requirements.
- [00:18:34.670]And so for us, we had a number of pedagogical presentations,
- [00:18:38.810]we did the video tutorials, we had best practices
- [00:18:42.850]that we shared with other colleagues.
- [00:18:45.140]Individually we were able to implement new technologies
- [00:18:47.890]and tools into our classes,
- [00:18:49.270]and we noticed higher student engagement.
- [00:18:52.820]So those were all good things to keep track of
- [00:18:56.980]so that the end of the year reporting
- [00:18:59.270]was able to be composed more easily.
- [00:19:03.040]And then finally, step seven, is the post-year survey.
- [00:19:05.780]That post-year survey was really very helpful
- [00:19:08.630]in determining if the goals for this year were met
- [00:19:12.140]and also determining if folks wanted to be interested
- [00:19:16.300]or engaged in this next year.
- [00:19:17.830]So I had an email list ready to go,
- [00:19:20.090]and it'll be easy to contact folks next year.
- [00:19:23.150]And then also, it helps identify goals
- [00:19:25.730]for next year already.
- [00:19:26.660]So getting some pre-planning done.
- [00:19:28.400]So those were the seven steps that I identified
- [00:19:30.340]as being really critical to the process of building a group
- [00:19:32.740]like this successfully.
- [00:19:34.970]So with that, you've heard about what our group was,
- [00:19:38.310]what a Community of Practice is,
- [00:19:41.120]what the benefits of belonging to a group would be
- [00:19:44.080]and how to go about building it.
- [00:19:45.700]So we welcome your questions.
- [00:19:46.960]Thank you so much for spending your time with us.
- [00:19:49.900]You can drop them in the chat or unmute yourself.
- [00:19:52.160]We have time.
- [00:19:54.450]Hey Angelika, they've asked for a link back over.
- [00:19:57.400]And if you could just repost the link
- [00:19:59.880]to what you did earlier in the chat.
- [00:20:02.970]Thanks.
- [00:20:05.880]Yes, I will do that.
- [00:20:19.309]And let me know if those links don't work.
- [00:20:22.410]I Have to say that I'm an IT staff person
- [00:20:24.900]and I'm not an educator,
- [00:20:25.920]but I would have loved to have been a part of your group.
- [00:20:28.830]It sounds like you really had things together
- [00:20:30.550]and you talked a lot about a lot of great things.
- [00:20:33.640]So, does this apply to other spaces do you think
- [00:20:37.240]in the sense of maybe not just about online education,
- [00:20:40.410]but maybe teamwork or figuring out priorities
- [00:20:44.440]or something like that?
- [00:20:46.560]Yeah, I've been a part
- [00:20:47.680]of several communities of practices in the past
- [00:20:51.630]on different topics.
- [00:20:52.690]I remember one was on mindfulness,
- [00:20:54.270]that was really great, that lasted a year.
- [00:20:56.880]And so I think the checklist that we provided
- [00:20:59.140]can be adapted to any type of Community of Practice
- [00:21:02.380]around any topic.
- [00:21:05.060]It's just, this one was focused on online learning.
- [00:21:10.770]I've also been a part of a Community of Practice
- [00:21:13.060]for a pre-tenure faculty,
- [00:21:17.550]even if you're on a tenure track or not,
- [00:21:19.340]it was a great way to, 'cause they would bring in people
- [00:21:22.910]that come in and talk to us about the university as a whole
- [00:21:25.060]and how things function.
- [00:21:26.250]So it kind of gave you-
- [00:21:28.200]It was a great learning tool for me
- [00:21:29.780]to get to know the university
- [00:21:31.010]and how the different parts work together.
- [00:21:32.760]So this is definitely adaptable to any needs
- [00:21:37.240]that might be out there.
- [00:21:40.210]And, you know Todd, one of the other places
- [00:21:41.820]that I've seen them used
- [00:21:43.340]is when you have a lot of instructors teaching,
- [00:21:46.250]maybe a core class and you want consistency
- [00:21:49.730]within that course that this would be a mechanism for people
- [00:21:54.330]to either bring resources forward or share different things
- [00:21:59.560]that they're struggling with
- [00:22:00.420]in terms of how they're going to deliver that course
- [00:22:03.030]that needs to be very similar
- [00:22:04.450]across conceivably dozens of sections
- [00:22:07.310]when you've got those big mega courses.
- [00:22:09.060]So, certainly another way, from a teaching side,
- [00:22:12.630]you could use it.
- [00:22:16.100]Great, thanks and I wanted to call out Tammy Owens.
- [00:22:18.630]She said, thanks for the library shout out.
- [00:22:20.740]We'd all love to work with folks who are developing CoPs.
- [00:22:24.250]So thanks for that comment Tammy.
- [00:22:28.720]When surveying your faculty booklet,
- [00:22:31.720]some of the questions you asked.
- [00:22:36.990]So I asked them,
- [00:22:39.127]"How often would you like to meet?
- [00:22:41.460]What's your primary goal?"
- [00:22:43.160]And I listed several goals that I had brainstormed
- [00:22:47.300]and then I left an open field
- [00:22:48.880]in case they wanted to contribute something
- [00:22:51.000]that wasn't there.
- [00:22:53.100]How would you like to spend group meeting time together?
- [00:22:55.950]I think was one of the goals I asked.
- [00:22:57.860]So it was really just to try to get a pulse
- [00:22:59.640]on what did folks want out of the group
- [00:23:03.310]rather than just assuming they wanted what I wanted
- [00:23:06.500]when I came up with the idea.
- [00:23:08.460]Thanks for that question, Ashley.
- [00:23:13.170]And I guess importantly, none of us were vetted
- [00:23:17.260]to get into the group.
- [00:23:18.600]You didn't have to pass the test on,
- [00:23:20.527]"Yes, I know how to use Canvas or to do anything."
- [00:23:23.360]It was really an expressed desire
- [00:23:25.820]to learn and become better online
- [00:23:28.970]deliverers and engagers with material.
- [00:23:32.320]So it wasn't as though you had to come in
- [00:23:36.900]and claim expertise of some kind.
- [00:23:39.130]So you could have been quite a neophyte
- [00:23:41.780]in terms of how these things worked
- [00:23:43.690]or really somebody quite experienced.
- [00:23:45.580]And we had, I think every across the spectrum.
- [00:23:52.360]What were some of the responses
- [00:23:54.320]to the a hundred dollars stipend.
- [00:23:56.430]You know a hundred dollars, people scoff at that
- [00:23:59.960]or would they really take it seriously?
- [00:24:03.110]I think folks feel differently about it.
- [00:24:05.610]It's professional development money at UNO,
- [00:24:08.640]which some folks used to buy books for their office
- [00:24:14.500]or different professional memberships.
- [00:24:17.000]And for some people it's an incentive
- [00:24:18.500]and for other folks it's not.
- [00:24:20.980]If you belong to more than one Community of Practice,
- [00:24:24.370]you only get $100 one time.
- [00:24:26.390]So, if you wanna participate
- [00:24:28.580]in more than one Community of Practice,
- [00:24:30.970]you're really just doing it out of genuine interest
- [00:24:33.600]and passion for the topic
- [00:24:34.880]and wanting to connect with other colleagues.
- [00:24:38.840]Personally, I would say knowing our group of nine faculty
- [00:24:41.420]I think the driving incentive
- [00:24:43.790]really was just connecting with other people
- [00:24:46.220]and having the community and a place to go to ask questions.
- [00:24:50.508]I would bet that there were not any folks in our group
- [00:24:55.070]that were super motivated by that $100.
- [00:25:00.000]Yeah, and in fact, the requirements
- [00:25:03.060]that they list for documenting that academic
- [00:25:05.910]or to get the $100, it just will naturally happen.
- [00:25:11.590]In a group like this we all implemented things
- [00:25:14.370]that we learned directly into our courses.
- [00:25:16.970]So it was easy to satisfy those requirements
- [00:25:20.530]because our purpose for setting up this group
- [00:25:22.920]was to improve our teaching and to create that community
- [00:25:26.790]with each other, to help us do that.
- [00:25:28.340]So, it's easier to do it than maybe what people think.
- [00:25:32.710]So if they're worried about that.
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