SAGU Faculty Development
. . . . helping faculty practice their roar!
Fall 2017 In-Service
Below are a few highlights from the the workshops presented during FIS. Thanks to each of the presenters for sharing their expertise!
Using Blackboard Gradebook
Joanna Dubiel, a course designer for Academic Services, presented some practical tips for avoiding malfunctions in gradebook calculations that can occur. Many instructors expressed how useful this information was in just better understanding how the gradebook system in Blackboard works.
Enhancing Feedback for Learning
Dr. Garland Owensby’s provided some very practical reasons why students want feedback. He shared out of his own experiences how feedback needs to always be encouraging when it is negative. He provided 12 practical strategies for feedback including the statement, “correction does much, but encouragement does more!”
Defining and Designing Rubrics
Dr. Chuck Wilson shared a number of excellent sources for finding existing rubrics and some practical steps to follow when creating rubrics. His
advice was, it’s much easier to tweak an existing rubric rather than to create an entire rubric from scratch! He also shared many reasons why
rubrics are useful and emphasized that rubrics save instructor time while still giving providing more feedback that encourages student excellence.
Building Rubrics in Blackboard
Dr. Janice Johnson shared her experiences and strategies on how to create rubrics using Blackboard’s rubric-maker tool. Many of the participants were amazed at how easy it was to build a rubric and how the Blackboard’s tool enables a lot of customization!
Security – Crisis Response
Ron Crane shared with instructors on how to handle a crisis on campus. In view of what is happening on a number of campuses these days, Ron provided information on what to do in an event some crisis occurred on our campus.
Using Bible Software for Personal Study
Dr. Dan Langston provided some practical ways to use Bible software for personal study. He shared both the tools and practical strategies that most software programs have and how they can enhance Bible understanding and teaching.
Research Supervisors
Dr. Gilbert provided faculty who are supervising doctoral dissertations some helpful guidelines and strategies on making the supervising task effective. Beyond the expectations of a supervisor, Dr. Gilbert shared practical insights that will encourage students when laboring through the dissertation journey.
“I love the fact that we are using various technology platforms in our in-service activities to live-stream to our off-site campuses and interact with them in real time! It really helps them and us to feel like we are a team, even though we work so far apart geographically!”
Christi Sanders, Business Department Chair
Peter Reynolds, New Faculty Member in Bible and Theology
"I've so enjoyed connecting with, collaborating with, and learning from my colleagues this year."
Chere Blair, English Faculty, Developmental Coordinator