Recent (and not so) Writing

A great way to see what I've written for work over the past decade is to search the iTeachU site by UAF eCampus. Use "Janene McMahan" as the search ... how? https://iteachu.uaf.edu/?s=janene+mcmahan After the ?s= you can put in your words separated by '+' A few of the titles and dates plus excerpts follow Transitioning from on campus to online by Janene McMahan | Jul 26, 2021 Your use of Canvas can help you translate your face-to-face course into an enjoyable online experience for you and your students. Here are…

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Accessibility includes retrieval of materials

What does access mean? In addition to the accessibility of your materials, consider other types of access. Students may not have the money to pay for good internet access or be in an area where it is available. Use the lens of ‘if you can’t reach it, it doesn’t matter if it is accessible.’ Therefore, any item you work to make fully accessible should be reachable by underrepresented tech audiences and poorer individuals. Students want to access and work on their studies using their mobile devices; making…

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Adapting to recent changes in Blackboard

Blackboard was upgraded last month to provide users with better performance and reliability. Get comfortable with the recent changes by reading our tips and solutions for some common tasks. These are the top things you need to know: The editor is more powerful, allows for distraction-free writing, dispels with the formatting nightmares of recent past, and allows you to make accessible materials easily.The date management tool interface has changed.Adding images, or anything you have stored on your local drive, is both a few more clicks and much…

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Read more about the article Three ways to make your course more accessible

Three ways to make your course more accessible

Originally posted 10/20/2020 on iTeachU. I’ve been a web developer and a teacher for decades. These worlds overlap when it comes to accessibility. So, for this tip I’m going to define accessibility as making your materials usable for every student regardless of their abilities. More students than you’d suspect do the majority of their coursework on their phones, or may rely on borrowed or public computers. The pandemic has brought to light the number of people who live with insufficient or intermittent internet access. These students also benefit…

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Recent reads

What am I reading right now? Jim Butcher 17/17: Battle Ground (on my Kindle) - ordered 10/8 and started! Done 10/12!16/17: Peace Talks (Finished last week or so). What else? Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen mysteries including:3. Blueberry Muffin Murder2. Strawberry Shortcake Murder: A Hannah Swensen Mystery What else?While this was late June or early July, I ATE The Union Street Bakery and Sweet Expectations by Mary Ellen Taylor

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Read more about the article Rolling out a renewed iTeach Online

Rolling out a renewed iTeach Online

iTeach Online "iTeach Online offers foundational training in online course design. Through a series of 5 modules, faculty start to build a solid online course founded in current research and relevant learning experiences. Faculty who complete the self-paced version of iTeach Online are prepared to design and teach an online course, and are eligible for a Teachers Who Learn award, endorsed by the Provost’s Faculty Development Team.  *iTeach Online will open for self-paced participants on Wednesday, May 6th." This is being tested by two co-workers right now. -- I've…

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Go back to your happy place

As an instructional designer, I help faculty with their courses. The faculty member is the content expert; I'm a support person. I want to help them make the course easy to navigate, engaging to the student—learning can be fun—and, whenever possible, inspire or remind the teacher why he or she loves doing this. In early 2014 I asked a faculty member to remember his favorite assignment from when he was in school. His face lit up immediately; he got excited and told me all about it. Then…

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Week three ‘school at home’

I've joked a bit about being a brand new homeschooling mom. However, that's not really what is happening. ICS, Immaculate Conception School, in Fairbanks where my son is in first grade is doing an AMAZING job of providing resources, a layout of what is due each day of every week including links to videos, audio files, sheets to print out for practice. Ah, print out... what if you don't have a printer? Well, you can use a regular piece of paper. Plus he has workbooks for math,…

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Credly consolidation to Credly Acclaim

Credly is consolidating... Ah. Are we using badges much anymore? I sure like collecting them. Creating them is a fun experience as well. I'd say Madara's far outpace mine in style and class, but the few I built got the job done.  Perhaps when I go back to making more, I'll be in a similar class as some of the amazing visual artists I'm surrounded by. Externally I earned the VoiceThread Certified Educator badge.  UAF Earned badges include those shown below: iDesign Collaboration: UA iDesign Retreat Work…

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Love Your Data

I've been a data geek for quite some time. Right now you cannot see it on my site so much because I have not been explicit about it. However, I will be filling in how data and I have been happily intertwined over the years. At UAF in 1993 I worked for Administrative Services as a Total Quality Management (TQM) Coordinator. We, Melody Erickson and I, worked with 17 teams over two years. During the first part we co-taught and lead different units through TQM practices. During…

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One perspective on Quality Matters course certifications

We embraced Quality Matters (QM) as a framework for continuous improvement of online and blended courses just over four years ago. To get a faculty perspective I reached out to Gary Copus, professor emeritus, and asked him to share any highlights, benefits or challenges experienced as part of certifying three UAF Justice courses: Introduction to Justice (JUST 110), Research Methods (JUST 222), and Ethics and Justice (JUST 300). This tip provides his answers and a few paths you might take to make use of Quality Matters. History…

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Give a little php Love

As it turns out, every semester the list of course CRNs (identifying numbers) needs updating. That way the list of eCampus courses that have the 25% discount for OEC/CERT will show up properly. The small down arrow with text shows up and the tuition amount is listed as lower.Here's an example: https://ecampus.uaf.edu/courses

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Embracing and Teaching Accessibility

 Sharing my love for helping students & faculty! I went to OLC Accelerate and presented a session that Dr. Healy and I put in together. Here are resources for the session and the focus. Putting students first Making all materials better for everyone Padlet for sharing Strategies EXPRESS WORKSHOP Embracing And Teaching Accessibility Date: Thursday, November 21st Time: 9:45 AM to 10:30 AM Conference Session: Concurrent Session 5 Lead Presenter: Janene McMahan (University of Alaska - Fairbanks) Track: Tools and Technologies Location: Northern Hemisphere D Session Duration: 45min Brief Abstract: Bring your device…

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