Faculty Development –August is so busy! There is something for everyone whether your are new faculty, seasoned faculty, or associate faculty. Don’t miss out on these great opportunities to sharpen your skills.

August 14—New Faculty “What’s What?” Symposium. This is the first of eight sessions.

August 14—Academic Planning Coach Training will be held in CHEC 107 at 1 p.m. This training is for the current Faculty Coach program in conjunction with the QEP.

August 17—CPC Dual Credit Orientation at 3-4:30 just prior to the Associate Faculty Meeting.

August 18—PRC Dual Credit Orientation is planned at 3-4:30 just prior to the Associate Faculty Meeting.

August 18—Study Grant Presentations will be held at SCC from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

August 19—SCC Dual Credit Orientation is planned at 3-4:30 just prior to the Associate Faculty Meeting.

August 19—eCollin Learning Center holds its Faculty eLearning Day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Check the eLearning Center’s website for more information.

August 20—Service Learning Faculty Camp at the Richardson Women’s Center from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, contact CSCE.

August 21—The Fall 2015 Faculty Development Conference at PRC features Dr. Julie Schell. Please bring your smart phones and tablets so you can participate in this interactive workshop. For more information on

Dr. Schell, visit her website at www.julieschell.com. The afternoon sessions will feature a SOBI Workshop, a Financial Seminar on social security and ORP/TRS, information on online tutoring, coaching strategies for faculty, and information on Phi Theta Kappa’s College Project. The morning workshop begins at 9 a.m. Come early to enjoy a little comradery, pastries and coffee!

August 24—Classes begin!

In addition, STARLINK and NISOD have August webinars planned. Information for both organizations is located on the bottom right of this page. And don’t forget about Lynda.com. They also have webinars on a variety of topics, whether you want to learn more about your computer or about classroom techniques.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) held their Board of Trustees meeting on June 11, 2015. At that meeting, the SACSCOC Board of Trustees re-affirmed accreditation for Collin College. The college’s next decennial reaffirmation will take place in 2025.

In their July 1st notification letter, the SACSCOC Board of Trustees requested a monitoring report, due April 1, 2016, for Principles of Accreditation CS 3.3.2 Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) on Recommendations 2 and 3. The letter indicated that the QEP’s goal and assessment plan are clear and the sub-goals align with the desired outcomes. However, they recommend that the college specify year-to-year target benchmarks. The second recommenda-tion to be addressed by the monitoring report relates to the reduction in the Advisor/Student ratio.

While we still have work to do for our QEP, the report from SACSCOC was excellent. The QEP is a significant undertaking, but with the support of the Collin College community we can make a significant difference for our students.

NTCCC-Fall Leadership Convocation

September 18, 2015 Grayson College

ntccc.unt.edu

TCCIL October 7-9, 2015

Austin, TX tccil.weebly.com

NTCCC-10th Annual Outcomes &

Assessment Conference October 16, 2015

SCC ntccc.unt.edu

West Texas Assessment Conf.

October 21, 2015 San Angelo, TX

depts.ttu.edu/opa/wtac/

Professional Development Opportunities

August “Internationalization”

Leadership and Success Series “Minecraft & Project

Based Learning”

September “Technology in the Classroom

and Online”

Leadership and Success Series “An Overview of

Learning Methodologies”

starlinktraining.org Use your Collin College email to set

up your individual login

Updates from THECB, DOE, . . .

Volume IV, Issue I August 2015 Look for Teaching & Learning on CougarWeb!

8/13/15 @ 1:00 p.m. “Using Google Web Apps to Im-

prove Student Engagement”

9/17/15 @ 1:00 p.m. “Meeting Faculty Needs

Through a Curriculum for Active Learning Series”

nisod.org

User Name: collin.edu Password: nisod2016

8/20/15 Service Learning Faculty Camp, Richardson Women’s Club, 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.

9/8/15 LEAD Train the Trainer, SCC Conf. Center, 4-6 p.m.

9/8/15 Community Partner Fair, PRC Cougar Den, 10 a.m.- 1 p.m.

9/9/15 Community Partner Fair, CPC Atrium, 10 a.m.- 1 p.m.

9/10/15 Community Partner Fair, SCC Atrium, 10 a.m.- 1 p.m.

9/11/15 LEAD Strengths Quest Workshop #1, SCC Conf. Cen-ter, 1-3:30 p.m.

9/15/15 LEAD Leadership in the Movies, CPC Conf. Center, 6-9 p.m.

9/17/15 Constitution Day, All campuses.

For more info, visit our website http://www.collin.edu/

academics/csce/

Faculty Development by Mark Garcia This summer at the CHEC, I had the privilege of leading three interactive sessions at the Summer Faculty Institute. The sessions focused on the use and integration of YouTube in the classroom. At the offset of the Institute, we walked through the basics of setting up and customizing a YouTube channel; in the later ses-sions, we uploaded videos and edited them using YouTube’s built-in editor. During the final session we explored the methods by which we could deliver our created content to our students, through Blackboard, PowerPoint, and embedding in our professional websites. The turnout at each session was fantastic, and I have placed resources in the form of documents, slides, and video tutorials on my personal faculty develop-ment website for those who couldn’t attend: http://iws.collin.edu/mgarcia/faculty-development/.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) has supported the creation of six online profes-sional development modules for educators across Texas. They are now available 24/7 for full-time and associate faculty members to use on demand. These modules consist of instruction examples, teaching tips, recommended reading, current pedagogical scholarship, active learning and teaching strategies, and class-room activities. This THECB project is designed to support higher education instruction, particularly new

faculty and faculty teaching introductory level courses. Use of these professional development modules is free of charge via the website below.

Topics include:

Integrating Ethics: From Thought to Action—designed to provide effective strategies for teaching ethics in the core curriculum.

Best Practices in Undergraduate Teaching and Learning—12 mod-ules designed to support student learning.

Critical Thinking—a selection of best practice techniques to help students learn critical thinking skills.

Foreign Language Teaching Methods—12 different aspects of lan-guage teaching from 12 different instructors.

Reading Comprehension—modules that provide effective strate-gies to improve reading comprehension skills.

Online Teaching—information about key issues in online educa-tion.

Making Decisions with Data—modules provide instruction on how to incorporate data-driven decision making into your daily work.

Understanding Data Analysis—introduces data to new and begin-ning data consumers, explaining how data can be useful to educa-tors.

More information about each module can be found at www.txprofdev.org.

NTCCC-Fall Leadership Convocation

September 18, 2015 Grayson College

ntccc.unt.edu

TCCIL October 7-9, 2015

Austin, TX tccil.weebly.com

NTCCC-10th Annual Outcomes &

Assessment Conference October 16, 2015

SCC ntccc.unt.edu

West Texas Assessment Conf.

October 21, 2015 San Angelo, TX

depts.ttu.edu/opa/wtac/

3rd Annual Trends in Teaching College Composition

October 23, 2015 CHEC

collin.edu/community/trendsteachingconference.html

Professional Development Opportunities

September “Technology in the Classroom

and Online”

Leadership and Success Series “An Overview of

Learning Methodologies”

Monthly Featured Webinar “Direct Assessment: What You Need to

Know”

starlinktraining.org Use your Collin College email to set up

your individual login

Updates from THECB, DOE, . . .

Volume IV, Issue II September 2015 Look for Teaching & Learning on CougarWeb!

9/17/15 @ 1:00 p.m. “Meeting Faculty Needs

Through a Curriculum for Active Learn-ing Series”

10/22/15 @ 1:00 p.m.

“Accelerating College Readiness and Student Completion”

nisod.org

User Name: collin.edu Password: nisod2016

9/17/15 Constitution Day 11:30-12:45, CPC Conf. Center 1-2 , PRC Conf. Center 11-12:30, SCC Atrium

9/18/15 LEAD Ropes Course for PRC, 8-5, Heard Museum

9/22/15 Emergency Preparedness Fair, 10-1, SCC Atrium

9/23/15 Emergency Preparedness Fair, 10-1, CPC Atrium

9/24/15 Emergency Preparedness Fair, 10-1, PRC Cougar Den

9/2515 LEAD Leadership Develop-ment Workshops, 1-4, SCC Conf. Center

10/13/15 Distinguished Speaker Series, 6-8, PRC Conf. Center

For more info, visit our website http://www.collin.edu/

academics/csce/

Scott Wright Student Essay Contest Community College Week and NISOD are proud to announce the annual Scott Wright Stu-dent Essay Contest. Student authors are invited to describe a faculty member, staff mem-ber, or administrator who encouraged them to reach their goals. Three winning students will receive a $1,000 check. The faculty members, staff members, or administrators featured in the winning essays will also receive a $1,000 check.

Find complete details at http://www.nisod.org/?q=scott-wright-student-essay-contest.

Faculty Development In May 2014, Collin College introduced the Scholarship of Assessment Awards to encourage dialogue and action around improving learning through assessment. In its inaugural year, twelve faculty members re-ceived the award. The recipients were announced in the September 2014 issue of the Teaching & Learning newsletter.

Submissions received for the 2015 Scholarship Assessment Award were reviewed by a subcommittee of COAT members. This year’s winners of the $1,500 Scholarship of Assessment Awards are:

Rebecca Orr—Assessment of Communication in BIOL 1406

Kay Mizell—Assessment of Social Responsibility in ENGL 2327

Complete copies of their Scholarship of Assessment proposals can be found on CougarWeb under Teaching & Learning/Scholarship of Assessment.

In addition, Professors Mizell and Orr will present their assessment plans to colleagues during various “Lunch and Learn” activities and/or Faculty Development days during the fall and spring semesters.

Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, has stepped down. His successor on an interim basis is Dr. John B. King, who joined the Department of Education in January 2015 as the “Senior Adviser Delegated Duties of Deputy Secretary of Education.” He was previously the Commissioner of Education for New York State.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of the Deputy Secretary has posted Dr. King’s official biography. There is also an editorial posted by Dr. King on the Huffington Post website in 2011 called Education: The Difference Between Hope and Despair. Both provide insight into Dr. King’s past and his vision for education.

U.S. News & World Report succinctly describes this appointee in an article by Lauren Camera posted on October 5, 2015 called 5 Things to Know About the New Education Secretary. Those five things are:

1. “King was most recently the commissioner of New York state public schools.”

2. “King says he owes his life to public school teachers.”

3. “King has gone to battle with teachers unions.”

4. “King is big on charter schools.”

5. “King hasn’t been OK’d by Congress for his current position and probably won’t be the permanent secretary.”

In the October 2nd article, If you think Arne Duncan is controver-sial, meet his successor, in the Washington Post, Valerie Strauss states the New York State United Teachers union passed a resolu-tion declaring “no confidence” in King’s policies.

And finally, Education Week’s article, Meet John B. King Jr., Who Will Be Acting U.S. Secretary of Education, cite King as being both flexible and stubborn on evaluating teachers and instrumental in supporting the development of a common-core-aligned curriculum.

Although there appears to be quite a bit of consternation from the K-12 world, Dr. King’s positions on higher education are less well known. Whether or not he will be in office long enough to form any higher education strategies is equally uncertain.

NTCCC-10th Annual Outcomes & Assessment Conference

October 16, 2015 SCC

ntccc.unt.edu

West Texas Assessment Conf. October 21, 2015

San Angelo, TX depts.ttu.edu/opa/wtac/

3rd Annual Trends in Teaching

College Composition October 23, 2015

CHEC collin.edu/community/

trendsteachingconference.html

ACE Regional Women’s Leadership Forum October 28-30, 2015

Miami, FL acenet.edu/leadership

2015 SACSCOC

Annual Meeting December 5-8, 2015

Houston, TX sacscoc.org

Professional Development Opportunities

October “Effective Listening Training”

Leadership and Success Series “Leadership Training: The Power of

Followership & Characteristics of Exem-plary Followers”

“Arianna Huffington presents “Thrive”

Monthly Featured Webinar “Adaptive Courseware”

starlinktraining.org Use your Collin College email to set up

your individual login

Updates from THECB, DOE, . . .

Volume IV, Issue III October 2015 Look for Teaching & Learning on CougarWeb!

10/22/15 @ 1:00 p.m. “Accelerating College Readiness and

Student Completion”

11/12/15 @ 1:00 p.m. “Effectively Serving the Male Student

Population: Keys to Success”

nisod.org User Name: collin.edu Password: nisod2016

10/16/15 LEAD Ropes Course for CPC, 8-5, Heard Museum

10/30/15 Strengths Quest Workshop #2, 1-3:30, CPC Conf. Center

11/6/15 Leadership Workshops, 1-4, CPC Conf. Center

11/13/15 LEAD Ropes Course for SCC, 8-5, Heard Museum

11/16/15 The Face of Homelessness, 7 pm, SCC Conf. Center

For more info, visit our website http://www.collin.edu/

academics/csce/

Spring 2016 Faculty Development Conference Friday, January 8, 2016, from 9-4 — Proposals due November 13, 2015

Submit proposals at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/proposalsFacDevConf2016

Faculty Development Collin College is fortunate to be home to a wide range of specialists who generously share their expertise with colleagues. The result is such a broad array of professional development opportunities right here on campus that it can be difficult to keep track. To help consolidate information about the many workshops, seminars, conferences and presentations, a new electronic Faculty Development calendar has been created in Outlook.

This new calendar is available on the CougarWeb Teaching and Learning Faculty Development and Re-sources page. For easy access, you can add it to your own Outlook profile. (Directions for this process are on the Teaching and Learning Faculty Resources page.) You can even drag and drop events from the Faculty Development Calendar onto your own calendar so you can focus on the events you want to attend.

To access the calendar, click on the calendar link. To see the details of any event, double click on that event. Just below the calendar link is the link for submitting events to be included on the calendar. No more waiting for e-mails or to have pdfs uploaded to a webpage. As soon as an event is scheduled, it can be add-

ed to the calendar! Please share suggestions via e-mail to teachingandlearning@collin.edu.

The Department of Education has revealed several executive actions and legislative reform proposals in-tended to strengthen accountability in the higher education accreditation system. Authors of these pro-posals want to build on the Administration's efforts to highlight and improve outcomes in higher education, claiming that these changes will help to protect students and taxpayers. The Department's authority relat-ed to accreditation and student outcomes is narrowly defined in statute. As a result, legislative action is required in order to expand that authority. On November 6, 2015, the Department took the following steps it believes will increase transparency and promote outcomes-driven accountability.

Executive Actions:

Publishing each accreditor’s standards for evaluating student outcomes

Increasing transparency in the accreditation process and in institutional oversight

Increasing coordination within the Department and among accreditors, other agencies, and states to improve oversight

Publishing key student and institutional metrics for postsec-ondary institutions arranged by accreditors

Promoting greater attention to outcomes within current ac-creditor review processes

Legislative Reform Proposals:

Drive accountability through outcomes-driven and differentiat-ed recognition

Require robust teach-out plans and reserve funds for high-risk institutions

Establish a set of standardized, common definitions and data reporting

Increase transparency on an expanded set of accreditation material and actions

For more detailed information about each of these actions and proposals, go to https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/department-education-advances-transparency-agenda-accreditation.

2015 SACSCOC Annual Meeting

December 5-8, 2015 Houston, TX sacscoc.org

NTCCC Spring

Leadership Conference January 22, 2015

UNT, Gateway Center ntccc.unt.edu

20th NTCCC Interdisciplinary

Curriculum Development Workshop

February 19, 2016 Colonial Country Club

ntccc.unt.edu

35th Annual First Year Experience February 20-23, 2016

Orlando, FL http://www.sc.edu/fye/annual/

69th Annual TCCTA Convention

February 25-27, 2016 Houston, TX

tccta.org

Professional Development Opportunities

November “Competency Based Education”

“Successful Time Management Training”

Monthly Featured Webinar “Internationalization”

starlinktraining.org Use your Collin College email to set up

your individual login

Updates from THECB, DOE, . . .

Volume IV, Issue IV November 2015 Look for Teaching & Learning on CougarWeb!

11/12/15 @ 1:00 p.m. “Effectively Serving the Male Student

Population: Keys to Success”

11/19/15 @ 1:00 p.m. “Making Adjuncts Part of the Family”

12/3/15 @ 1:00 p.m. “SOS LMS: Using your LMS as an Adjunct Connector”

12/10/15 @ 1:00 p.m. “Mindfulness in the College Classroom

to Increase Success and Well-Being”

nisod.org User Name: collin.edu Password: nisod2016

11/16/15 The Face of Homelessness, 7 pm, SCC Conf. Center

01/23/16 Service Learning Faculty Camp, 8 am-1 pm, SCC Conf. Cen-ter

01/26/16 Rock the Vote, 11 am-1 pm, PRC

01/27/16 Rock the Vote, 11 am-1 pm, SCC

01/28/16 Rock the Vote, 11 am-1 pm, CPC

For more info, visit our website http://www.collin.edu/

Spring 2016 Faculty Development Conference Friday, January 8, 2016

Collin Higher Education Center

Faculty Development Approximately 200 faculty attended the Spring 2016 Faculty Development Conference held Friday, January 8th at the Collin Higher Education Center. Both faculty and staff contributed their expertise, covering a wide range of topics. Angela Payne, Professor of Office Systems Tech-nology, presented to a large audience of over 30 attendees. “Some faculty and staff stated that they were familiar with templates, but I helped them to see how simple it is to download, modify, and customize templates for their specific use in the classroom or office,” she explained.

Professor Payne, along with several other presenters at the Faculty Development Conference, have agreed to encore their presentations at Collaborations: The Associate Faculty Development Conference on Saturday, February 20th. A light breakfast will be available at 8:15. Sessions begin at 9, and boxed lunches will be provided at noon. Immediately after lunch, the plenary session will feature the Collin College Strategies of Behavioral Intervention (SOBI) Team. The agenda and a link to register for the conference will be emailed to all associate faculty later this month. Full-time faculty are also welcome to attend.

These high quality, free professional development opportunities created by the many members of the Faculty Development Committee are a testament to the passion for learning and academic excellence at Collin College.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) held its annual meeting in Houston on December 5-8, 2015. During her “State of the Commission” address, Dr. Belle Wheelan, President Commission on Colleges, announced, among other items, that the 13-member Executive Council of the SACSCOC Board of Trustees has created a Principle Review Committee. This committee is charged with reviewing the Principles of Accreditation. Although not actually implemented until January 2004, the current Principles of Accreditation have remained largely unchanged since they were adopted in December 2001.

Of the changes that have been made, the additions to various principles addressing federal regulations are frequently identi-fied as the most significant. With the DOE’s ongoing push to participate in regulations and evaluation of higher education, it will be interesting to see what changes, if any, are made to Section 4, Federal Regulations, of the Principles of Accredita-tion.

NTCCC Spring

Leadership Conference January 22, 2016

UNT, Gateway Center ntccc.unt.edu

What’s What?

New Faculty Academy February 12, 2016

CHEC 102

20th NTCCC Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development

Workshop February 19, 2016

Colonial Country Club ntccc.unt.edu

35th Annual First Year Experience

February 20-23, 2016 Orlando, FL

http://www.sc.edu/fye/annual/

69th Annual TCCTA Convention February 25-27, 2016

Houston, TX tccta.org

What’s What?

New Faculty Academy March 18, 2016

CHEC 102

Professional Development Opportunities

“Effective Teaching Strategies”

Leadership and Success “Facilitating Online Courses in LMS”

starlinktraining.org Use your Collin College email to set up

your individual login

Updates from THECB, DOE, . . .

Volume IV, Issue V January 2016 Look for Teaching & Learning on CougarWeb!

1/21/16 @ 1:00 p.m. “Coaching for First-Generation College

Students: Unifying Students to Appreciate Diversity”

1/28/16 @ 1:00 p.m. “Online Orientation Content Associated

with Online Student Success”

nisod.org User Name: collin.edu Password: nisod2016

01/26/16 Rock the Vote, 11 am-1 pm, Cougar Den, PRC

01/27/16 Rock the Vote, 11 am-1 pm, Atrium, SCC

01/28/16 Rock the Vote, 11 am-1 pm, Atrium, CPC

01/29/16 LEAD “Winter Games” 1-4 pm, Conference Center, SCC

02/01/16 LEAD Train the Trainer 4-6 pm, Conference Center, SCC

02/02/16 Community Partner Fair 10 am-1 pm, Cougar Den, PRC

02/03/16 Community Partner Fair 10 am-1 pm, Atrium, SCC

02/04/16 Community Partner Fair 10 am-1 pm, Atrium, CPC

02/10/16 Distinguished Speaker: Marty Stroud on “Winning at all Costs: The Resulting Damage of Injustice,” 6-8 pm, Conference Center, PRC

02/12/16 LEAD Ropes Course #1 for CPC, 8 am-4 pm, Heard Nature Center

For more info, visit our website http://www.collin.edu/

academics/csce/

Associate Faculty Development Conference

Saturday, February 20, 2016 Collin Higher Education Center

Faculty Development Everyone is invited to attend this year’s “Collaborations” Associate Faculty Conference at the Collin Higher Education Center, beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday, February 20th. Lunch will be served at 12 noon, followed by a general session at 1pm. Breakout sessions in the morning cover a variety of topics from the latest uses of technology for pedagogical purposes to student and faculty resources.

Classroom and campus safety is the focus of the afternoon. Attendees will learn how to respond to active shooter situations, fires, tornados and other unexpected events. Carie Dippel, Associate Dean of Students-SCC, and Dr. John Glass, Sociology Professor and Chair of the Strategies on Behavior Intervention Committee, will conduct this general session. The complete conference program is available online on the Teaching and Learning CougarWeb page and the registration link is included to the right of this column.

Join us for an eventful day!

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board invited five-member teams from each community college district to attend a block scheduling workshop on February 8 and 9. Representatives from all fifty community college districts were in attendance, a record according

to Rex Peebles, Assistant Commissioner of Academic Quality and Workforce. The workshop included presentations, Q&A sessions and work sessions for the institutional teams. The workshop was funded by Complete College America whose Senior Vice President, Tom Sugar, attended throughout.

The primary points made by all the presenters were three-fold. First, students struggle to cope with the economics of choice and the complications of life. As a result, they need simpler options than our traditional scheduling provides. Second, the structured scheduling promoted as a Block Scheduling best practice does not need to follow any specific block to be effective. It only needs to set out a reliable, predictable and attainable pathway to completion. And third, that it will take adjustment on the part of all college divisions. For colleges to provide predictable, consistent scheduling and registration by program, changes will have to be made by instruction, student services, IT and possibly, even policy departments. But the evidence shows that the results are remarkable.

You can see the presentations from the workshop at the following Dropbox link.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q5lt1eilhel04o4/ AAAHktkJdpdSs835pT8S-TUqa?oref=e

20th NTCCC Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development

Workshop February 19, 2016

Colonial Country Club ntccc.unt.edu

Collaborations

Associate Faculty Conference February 20, 2016

CHEC www.surveymonkey.com/r/2016-

Collaborations

35th Annual First Year Experience February 20-23, 2016

Orlando, FL http://www.sc.edu/fye/annual/

69th Annual TCCTA Convention

February 25-27, 2016 Houston, TX

tccta.org

What’s What? New Faculty Academy

March 18, 2016 CHEC 102

Texas Center for Working Class

Studies Conference March 31, 2016

SCC Conf. Center http://iws.collin.edu/lkirby/

conference.htm

Professional Development Opportunities

Webinar: “Elements of Accessibility in Online Courses”, 2/17/16 at 1:30 pm

Leadership Training: “A Practical Guide to Developing Professionalism, Interper-sonal Communication, and Conflict Orientation Skills”

Featured Course: “Flipping the Class-room Training”

starlinktraining.org Use your Collin College email to set up

your individual login

Updates from THECB, DOE, . . .

Volume IV, Issue VI

TEACHING & LEARNING February 2016 Look for Teaching & Learning on CougarWeb!

2/18/16 @ 1:00 p.m. “Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels: How to Pre-vent Cheating in Online Classrooms”

nisod.org User Name: collin.edu Password: nisod2016

02/16/16 LEAD: Leadership in the Movies #1, 6-10 pm, SCC Confer-ence Center

02/26/16 LEAD: Leadership Work-shop #1, 12:30-3:30 pm, PRC Conference Center

03/04/16 LEAD: Strengths Quest #1, 1-4 pm, SCC, Library L201

03/07/16 Alternative Spring Break, 8 am-4 pm, TBD

03/08/16 Alternative Spring Break, 8 am-4 pm, Habitat for Humanity

03/15/16 The Dog Stars, Author and Book Signing, 7-10 pm, PRC Con-ference Center

For more info, visit our website http://www.collin.edu/

academics/csce/

Associate Faculty Development Conference Saturday, February 20, 2016

Collin Higher Education Center

Register at www.surveymonkey.com/r/2016-Collaborations

Faculty Development The New Faculty Academy wants you! The Academy hosts a year-long

series of programs (known as “What’s What?”) designed to allow new facul-

ty to spend time with colleagues while learning about valuable Collin Col-

lege resources and strategies for effective teaching and learning. Monthly

sessions cover a variety of topics intended to prepare new faculty for the

Collin College experience. Currently, we are looking to expand the New

Faculty Academy to include peer mentoring.

Studies show that peer mentoring benefits include helping new faculty become

excellent in the classroom, established in the college culture and engaged in college

service. If you are willing to mentor a new faculty member during the Academic Year

2016-17 or allow new faculty to observe your class, please contact Kimberly Harris at

kharris@collin.edu. For more information on the monthly “What’s What” sessions, past

and upcoming agendas are available on the Teaching and Learning Faculty Development

webpage in CougarWeb.

Illinois higher education institutions have been hit hard by the inability of the state

legislature to pass a budget for fiscal year 2016. This budget impasse is causing many

institutions in Illinois to consider suspending operations. The situation is so dire that the

Higher Learning Commission (HLC), the regional accreditation organization that serves

Illinois colleges and universities, has requested Illinois colleges and universities to submit

a plan for how their students can continue at other institutions. But it’s not just Illinois.

Many states are facing higher education budget woes.

The Times-Picayune in Louisiana reported recently that “Louisiana’s higher educa-

tion commissioner said all of the state’s public colleges and universities will have to

suspend classes immediately if the governor and Legislature don’t find additional revenue

for higher education by June 30.” In her letter to Louisiana’s Commissioner of Admin-

istration, Dr. Belle Wheelan, SACSCOC President,

explained that suspending classes or failure to continue

to enroll students could result in withdrawal of accredi-

tation and public sanctions. The trend in Arizona to cut

funds to higher education is also continuing. Arizona

state legislature cut funding to higher education by 47%

between 2008 and 2014. In 2016, it reduced state fund-

ing for higher education by 14% or $99 million and com-

pletely removed state funding for at least two communi-

ty college districts.

So where does Texas stand? The Center on Budget

and Policy Priorities (www.cbpp.org) has published a

state-by-state fact sheet on budget cuts to higher educa-

tion. According to their website, 2014 per-student fund-

ing for Texas public colleges and universities was down

23% from 2008 levels. But most of the other states in the

Southern Association were down even more with Louisi-

ana (down 42%), South Carolina (down 38%), and

Alabama (down 37%) hit hardest. Not only does higher

education funding for Texas look brighter than in many

other states, the healthy economy in Collin County

makes Collin College the place to be.

What’s What? New Faculty Academy

March 18, 2016 CHEC 102

Texas Center for Working Class

Studies Conference March 31, 2016

SCC Conf. Center http://iws.collin.edu/lkirby/

conference.htm

11th Annual Developmental Education Regional Forum

(NTCCC & THECB) April 1, 2016

Tarrant County College Southeast Campus

Fort Worth, TX ntccc.unt.edu

TWHE

April 3-5, 2016 Corpus Christi, TX

www.twhe.org

TACTE April 6-8, 2016

Austin, TX tacte.org

TACE

April 19-21, 2016 Austin, TX

taceonline.org

Professional Development Opportunities

Featured Courses Available 3/1/16: “Managing Conflict in the Classroom” and “Tech Integration Tips and Tricks”

Monthly Feature Available now: “Flipping the Classroom Training”

starlinktraining.org Use your Collin College email to set up

your individual login

Updates from THECB, DOE, . . .

Volume IV, Issue VII

TEACHING & LEARNING March 2016 Look for Teaching & Learning on CougarWeb!

3/24/16 @ 1:00 pm “From Koala to Kangaroo: Getting Your Students Hopping with Active Learning”

3/31/16 @ 1:00 pm “Building Interest, Agency, and Interac-tion in Online Learning Environments: A

Toolkit for Superb Online Courses”

nisod.org User Name: collin.edu Password: nisod2016

Book in Common: The Dog Stars Author and Book Signing,

03/15/16 PRC Conf. Center, 7-10 pm 03/16/16 SCC Conf. Center, 7-10 pm 03/17/16 CPC Conf. Center, 1-4 pm

Writers Workshop 03/16/16 SCC Conf. Center, 10 am-1 pm

03/23/16 Leadership in the Movies, 6-10 pm, PRC Conf. Center

04/07/16 Region 10 Poverty Simula-tion, 6 pm, SCC Conf. Center

04/11/16 Leadership in the Movies, 6-10 pm, CPC Conf. Center

For more info, visit our website

http://www.collin.edu/ academics/csce/

Faculty Development Exciting teaching and learning opportunities are on the horizon at Collin College!

Please watch your inbox for information from Mark Garcia re-garding our new Learning Management System (LMS), Canvas. Mark, currently a full-time biology professor for Collin, becomes

the Dean of Strategic Initiatives on June 1, 2016. Professor Garcia will be sending weekly commu-nications about how to incorporate Canvas into our courses. Each email will contain updates, answer frequently asked questions and give insight into how to make the most of this tool.

Save the date! The Office for Teaching & Learning hosts Dr. Jacque Gamino, an authority on advanced reasoning, during the Faculty Development Conference on Thursday, August 11th at the new Central Park Campus Conference Center. The presentation, “Harnessing Brain Potential in the Classroom: Applying Neuroscience not Neuro-myths to Teaching” begins at 9:00 a.m. Come early for coffee and pastries. Dr. Gamino’s presentation description is as follows:

“As neuroscientists open windows into the innermost workings of the brain, successful application of these discoveries often stalls, instead of making its way into the places that could most benefit from the discoveries, classrooms. Leveraging new information about cognitive processing is vital for facilitating translation to create informed educational practices. Unfortunately, findings are often misinterpreted and become neuro-bunk of mythical proportions, in-stead of appropriately applied science. This workshop will offer hands-on expe-rience and ideas to inform your teaching practices with information from brain science. Discussion of brain plasticity will be explored as you learn how your students’ cognition can be enhanced through application of neuroscience-based innovation.”

Dr. Gamino, a cognitive neuroscientist, is currently the director of the BrainHealth Adolescent Reasoning Initiative for the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) hosted a two-day conference to expand institutional knowledge about the third goal of the new Texas Higher Education Strategic Plan, 60x30TX: “all graduates from Texas public institutions of higher education will have completed programs with identified marketable skills.” 100 community colleges and universities sent teams to begin exploring this goal.

The afternoon plenary speaker on the first day, Eluned Jones, was from the University of Birming-ham in the UK. The information she provided about the integration of employability competen-cies into British higher education course documentation helped contextualize the idea of market-able skills in Texas higher education. Jones provided examples of ways to identify and track em-ployability competencies or marketable skills. Her presentation emphasized the fact that these skills were not added to the coursework or programs at her institution. Instead, programs identi-fied relevant competencies already being taught. If not already embedded in the program course-work, they developed assignments to highlight those competencies and documented student completion of assignments.

According to Rex Peebles, Assistant Commissioner, the THECB has not yet made any decisions regarding the identification and assessment requirements for goal three of the Texas Higher Education Strategic Plan.

TACE April 19-21, 2016

Austin, TX taceonline.org

NISOD

May 28-31, 2016 Austin, TX

www.nisod.org

TCCIA June 5-7, 2016

San Antonio, TX www.tccia.org

New Faculty Orientation

August 9, 2016 Collin College

CHEC

Faculty Development Conference August 11, 2016

Collin College CPC Conf. Center

Professional Development Opportunities

Effective Communication for Today’s Learners

Leadership Training: An Overview of

Leadership Theories

Persuasion and Negotiation Training

Leveraging a Student-Created, Pro-fessional Development Website

Improving Student Outcomes in

Developmental Reading and Writing Courses

starlinktraining.org Use your Collin College email to set up

your individual login

Updates from THECB, DOE, . . .

Volume IV, Issue VIII

TEACHING & LEARNING April 2016 Look for Teaching & Learning on CougarWeb!

4/21/16 @ 1:00 pm Two Tools to Use Tomorrow: Universal Design in Online Spaces

4/28/16 @ 1:00 pm Lecture Light Shine: High-Wattage (and Low-Stress) Ideas to Engage Any Student

5/12/16 @ 1:00 pm The QUEST: The Completion Project for Males of Color in Community Colleges

6/9/16 @ 1:00 pm Pedagogical Strate-gies for Engaging Students and Promoting Success

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AUGUST

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