Volume 2, Issue 7 | ELITE Digest | April 2023
Discover what’s in store for you this month in the Office of E-Learning, Innovation, and Teaching Excellence (ELITE) Digest. Numerous exciting opportunities are available to you as a member of the MC community, including the annual Love of Teaching Conference and the Universal Design Center Summit, where you can reflect, connect, and grow with your peers.
In addition to the exciting events happening this month, we have also added many new opportunities to our Professional Development offering. These sessions include topics such as using ChatGPT to enhance student learning, innovative strategies for online teaching, and creating accessible digital content. These opportunities allow faculty to stay up-to-date on the latest teaching technologies and techniques.
Looking ahead, mark your calendars for the May Closing Week Professional Development event, scheduled for 10 am – 2 pm on Monday, May 15, 2023. This event will be an excellent opportunity to unite as a community, explore new ideas, share best practices, and connect with colleagues. Watch for more information about the event in the coming weeks, and register in advance to secure your spot. Don’t miss this chance to enhance your professional development and connect with your peers.
Ready to win a new T-shirt for Spring? Compete in our monthly H5P challenge! To enter, all you must do is:
1. complete this month’s ELITE Interactive Game (see below); and
2. send us a copy of your answers by 5 pm on Friday, April 7, 2023.
Winners will be randomly selected and contacted via email on April 11, 2023. For an extra chance to win, “like” the April ELITE Digest post on the Montgomery Employees Facebook page by 5 pm on April 7, 2023.
Thank you for taking a moment to read this month’s Digest. The ELITE team team looks forward to serving your professional development needs.
If you have any questions or feedback about our latest edition of the ELITE Digest, please let us know or contact us through the various ASK ELITE channels.
Love of Teaching Half-Day Conference: Empowering All Learners: Building Inclusive Learning Environments
Educational research shows that creating inclusive and equitable learning environments promotes learning for all students, especially for those from backgrounds historically underrepresented in higher education. Contextual cues, social interactions, and learning activities all help determine whether students feel welcome and feel like they belong in both face-to-face and online learning environments. This has a direct effect on important learning processes such as knowledge retention, persistence, and motivation. The CARE framework identifies five areas key to designing inclusive and equitable learning environments: community, agency, representation, equal access, and pedagogies of care. This talk with review the research foundations of CARE as well as explore ways to implement the framework in face-to-face, hybrid, and online learning environments. The conference will be held virtually on Saturday, April 29, 2023, 9:30 AM-12:30 PM.
Learn more
Inclusion by Design Summit
This Spring, MC’s Universal Design Center (UDC) is thrilled to host its inaugural Inclusion by Design Summit. This half-day virtual conference on May 5, 2023, will offer multiple workshops, speed sessions, and a virtual Happy Hour!
Learn more
Spring Professional Week
Spring Professional Week offers faculty and staff a variety of professional development opportunities provided by the College and ELITE and a chance to celebrate our graduates.
Professional Week begins on Monday, May 15, 2023, and kicks off with a day of ELITE professional development opportunities. All ELITE-sponsored events are scheduled on Monday, May 15, and held via Zoom.
A list of ELITE’s professional development day can be found here.
Open Education Week
In celebration of Open Education Week in early March, activities were held on each campus and virtually. Students participated in conversations on the impact of open educational resources and Z-courses. They particularly shared what they would do with the money if they did not have to spend it on textbooks. Responses included paying bills, registering for additional courses, and buying food and a car. There were also virtual workshops and information sessions held daily for faculty and staff. Nearly 100 participants attended these sessions on relevant topics, such as open pedagogy, Creative Commons, and H5P.
Montgomery College has saved students more than $11 million in textbook cost savings since Spring 2017. In Spring 2023, there are approximately 600 sections of Z-courses and over 10,300 student enrollments.
National Poetry Month
In celebration of National Poetry Month, this issue of Multicultural Moments will highlight poetic styles from around the world, including rhymes, free verse, and spoken word traditions.
Learn More about Multicultural Moment.
Teaching and Learning with Poetry for National Poetry Month
Tip 1: Poetry to Teach Content
Use poetry to introduce vocabulary in an engaging way. Have students talk about what the terms mean based on the context in which they are used in the poem. If you’re feeling creative, try writing an original poem using the target vocabulary.
Learn More about Teaching Tip of the Month.
Microsoft Office 365: Productivity, Communication, and Collaboration
Microsoft Office 365 is a cloud-based subscription service Montgomery College provides to all students, faculty, and staff. It provides users with productivity applications to do their work from anywhere and using any computing device without downloading software.
Learn More about Teaching Tips with Technology.
Building our Mental and Physical Resilience
As we speed into spring, it is important to remind ourselves that to be at our best at work, home, and with those we cherish, we must invest time into ourselves and make commitments to purposely manage our mental and physical health.
Learn More about @ Work Tip of the Month.
MC Forward
Dr. Michael Mills hosts a weekly podcast that focuses on Montgomery College individuals who are leading from where they are.
HRSTM
Governance Council Elections
Governance Council Elections Continue Through April 7. Nominations for the governance councils have been finalized. The MC Governance Elections are open through Friday, April 7, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. Please take a few moments to access your ballot and cast your vote to select who will represent you in governance next year.
If you have questions, please contact the College Council or visit the Governance website. Your vote is your voice, and it’s essential to ensure that your voice is heard.
OEI
The Journey Towards Becoming an Anti-Racist Institution
This is our required college-wide Antiracism training that will launch itself during the 2022-23 academic year. This training promotes social justice, radical inclusion, and racial equity within the College and the broader community and continues the Board focus on the journey to being an antiracist institution.
Register for The Journey Towards Becoming an Anti-Racist Institution workshops
ELITE H5P Activity
Think you know all the buildings at Montgomery College? Look at the images in the slideshow below and fill in the blanks based on the image. You can copy and paste one of the possible answers from the list into the blank space.