Online Teaching Community


A virtual faculty professional learning community.

Overview

The purpose of the Online Teaching Community is to share creative teaching ideas, best practices and policies, and ideas for research in online teaching. The group is interaction-based and the content we discuss is up to its members — so bring your questions and issues and the tips and tricks you’ve learned along the way.

How We Meet

To honor the fact that this is about “online” teaching and to make this accessible to faculty who are out of state, we offer the meeting online. We use video conferencing and members join by video or audio from wherever they canIt is informal, so eating lunch is encouraged! 

Why We Meet

In each meeting, the aim is to discuss any questions and issues group members bring to the table that week (about 75 percent of the time), as well as to provide some information on specific topics of interest to group members raised in prior meetings (about 25 percent of the meeting). We share resources and have a listserv for accessing shared documents.   

Schedule

Meetings are held on Fridays from noon to 1 p.m. via Zoom
DateTopicPresenter
Sept. 9, 2022 Scaffolding Student Learning in an Online Classroom Dr. Karen Gordes
Oct. 7, 2022 Inclusive Teaching and Curriculum Building Dr. Diane Forbes Berthoud
Nov. 4, 2022 How to Use the Hypothesis Social Annotation Tool Ashlie Sarsgard and Dr. Isabell May
Dec. 2, 2022 Improving Accessibility on Blackboard with Ally Dr. Clark Shah-Nelson
Jan. 6, 2023 Using SoftChalk to Create Digital Lessons that Keep Your Students Engaged Dr. Rebecca Weston
Feb. 3, 2023 Exploring Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Graduate Education  Erin Hagar and Dr. Isabell May
March 3, 2023 Designing and Implementing Group Work in an Online Classroom Erin Hagar
April 7, 2023 The Pros and Cons of Asynchronous Video Feedback Dr. Eric Belt
May 5, 2023 YellowDig: An Alternative to the Traditional Online Discussion Board Ashlie Sarsgard

 

The OTC will resume in September. We’d love your input on topics you’d like to see covered in the upcoming academic year. Please email Dr. Michelle Pearce at michelle.pearce@umaryland.edu with your ideas. Feel free to nominate yourself to present on a topic. The presentations are informal, run for about 25 minutes, and cover topics relevant to online teaching.

Please contact Dr. Michelle Pearce at michelle.pearce@umaryland.edu if you are interested in joining the Online Teaching Community.   

Session Recordings