Bits and Bytes

No tricks! It's already October which means it's Halloween! Keep on reading for treats from your ITS and OLET Teams!

In case you haven't heard, the results from our spring RFP are in! Northampton Community College is officially moving from Blackboard to Desire to Learn's Brightspace learning management system!

We know this is a big change and you may be nervous, but don't worry! Your Online Learning and ITS teams will be with you every step of the way to facilitate a smooth transition!

We're starting to schedule introductory sessions to get everyone oriented to Brightspace and prepared for the move ahead! Check the Professional Development calendar for exact times and dates!

In addition to our regular professional development offerings, OLET will be hosting open office hours in the Pocono and Bethlehem CTLT spaces!

In addition to our regular professional development opportunities, we'll be on hand to answer questions, discuss course ideas, chat about technology, and more!

Look for us at Bethlehem Tuesday thru Thursday from 11-2 every week and at Pocono Tuesday and Wednesday from 11-1!

You can also find us virtually!

Tuesdays from 6-7 PM!

Thursdays from 11 AM-1 PM

Just as the semester continues, so too do the professional development opportunities. This month, we'll have some fantastic social learning sessions with our Craft & Chat events at both Bethlehem and Pocono (complete with tea sandwiches, along with some tool-specific sessions. We'll also be at the CTLT's October 18 T.G.I.F. event, and at the October 24 Academic & Student Affairs meeting for some sneak peeks into Brightspace, our upcoming new Learning Management System. We hope to see you there!

Wednesday, October 2, 11am-1pm

Location: CC 290

Join Sarah and others from OLET for a low pressure Craft and Chat session! Stop by for a snack and the chance to participate in one of several seasonal crafting activities! Touch base with your fellow faculty and staff and share ideas, problem solve, and discuss engaging students in all modalities! This is a drop-in event, and registration is not required.

Tuesday, October 8, 11am-12:15pm

Location: Kapp 011 or via Zoom

Administer Bb assessments with confidence using Respondus LockDown Browser & Monitor – our remote proctoring software. In this session we will cover how to use the software, interpret results and its use in deterring inappropriate behavior. Also, learn Respondus's role to combat inappropriate use of AI.

Wednesday, October 9, 11am-1pm
Location: Kapp 011

Join Sarah and others from OLET for a low pressure Craft and Chat session! Stop by for a snack and the chance to participate in one of several seasonal crafting activities! Touch base with your fellow faculty and staff and share ideas, problem solve, and discuss engaging students in all modalities! This is a drop-in event, and registration is not required.

Thursday, October 10, 11am-12:15pm

Location: CC 290 or via Zoom

Join Chris H to learn about the basic functionalities and advanced features within the Blackboard gradebook. Bring your syllabus and make sure that your Blackboard Grade Center has been set up correctly, especially prior to the move to Brightspace!

Wednesday, October 30, 11am-12pm

Location: CC 290 or via Zoom

Join Sarah B to learn about Kahoot for live-polling and presenting across course modalities. Learn how to use Kahoot to create formative assessments, poll your learners, and bring some extra fun into your class!

Now, with a strong foothold in EchoVideo at NCC, we are taking a peek at 2 other tools/features in their EchoSysytem – EchoExam & EchoPoll.

For some time, there have been many discussions about finding an institutional solution for polling. Plus, certain disciplines, such as NURS, have been searching for a mechanism to assess students using advanced question types. These tools, EchoExam/Poll, are worth considering given our long-term engagement with Echo360 and the ability for them to integrate into our NCC Echo platform and LMS.

Thursday, 9/19, some administrators and faculty gathered for demonstration and discussion of these tools. Below are links to the recordings for all to view:

EchoExam Demo 9/19/24

EchoPoll Demo 9/19/24

OLET welcomes your brief feedback afterwards

***Please remember, instructor and student videos should not be uploaded directly to Bb***

Did you miss the LGBTQ+ SafeSpace training during Opening Days? Well good news, it's coming back! The LGBTQIA+ Caucus is hosting two more SafeSpace training sessions in October and November. Come learn how you can continue to support our LGBTQIA+ students and community members, and help make every space at NCC a SafeSpace. To register, or if you have questions, please contact LGBTQIA@northampton.edu!

For accessibility, this month we wanted to focus on the most common accessibility needs for general content design. Can all your readers perceive your font and colors? Do they all have access to the information included in an image or chart, even if they can't see it? Are your tables configured to work with a screenreader? You can help for all these questions and more, including how to set them up in Word, PowerPoint, Blackboard and Acrobat, in our General Accessibility Guide, and as always, our instructional design team is here to assist!

Whew! You made it to the end, now time for some fun! What is your favorite Halloween candy? Let us know in the survey below to be entered to win a prize!

Click here for the survey!

Our results from last month's poll are in and our winner for the best Summer 2024 movie was Inside Out 2, followed closely by Deadpool and Wolverine!

Our prize winner this month is Krista Trout!

We aren't done with the good news! It is also my privilege to announce the winners of our Open House sign-in prizes!

A huge congratulations to Michael Serfas and Mike Pogach!!!

You can contact the NCC Help Desk by email (helpdesk@northampton.edu) or phone (610-861-5413). Please leave a message if prompted.

If you wish to get help in person, their on-campus locations are Richardson Hall room 117 at the Bethlehem Campus and Kapp Hall room 123 at the Monroe Campus. Their on-campus walk-in hours are listed here.

Need help with course design? Schedule a meeting with Sarah via her Doodle Calendar!

https://doodle.com/mm/sarahburton/book-a-time

Manager, Instructional Design

Email: sburton@northampton.edu
Website: https://nccolet.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/802614507103473
Twitter: @nccolet1