PIVOT Webinar Series: Active Learning Strategies

Planning Instructional Variety for Online Teaching (PIVOT) is a new professional development program for faculty who wish to take a more deliberate approach to preparing their courses for remote, synchronous and asynchronous, online instruction. Learn more.

These workshops are appropriate for faculty who are new to online teaching or those who are looking to refresh their pedagogical knowledge and strategies for the virtual classroom. Stay after for a 30-minute deep dive into further pedagogical discussions and/or available technologies at UMBC. Please register for the series by clicking on the GOING button on the event page. You will receive a reminder email before the first event.

Monday, August 10 - Organizing & Designing an Online Course

Teaching online is very different from teaching in the classroom -- both pedagogically and technologically. Explore the fundamentals of online course design and associated pedagogies. Review a variety of exemplary course designs and effective practices for organizing course content for online delivery. Learn more about the Quality Matters Rubric and its framework for preparing your course roadmap.

Tuesday, August 11 - Active Learning Strategies for Online Classes

Research shows that active learning and student engagement can positively impact student learning. Active learning may include in-class activities, reflection, collaboration, and assessment.  This webinar will focus on taking your classroom activities and re-imagining them for the online environment. What tools are available to use? What active learning strategies can you implement into your virtual classroom? 

Wednesday, August 12 - Engaging Students & Building Online Community

Creating and maintaining a sense of community is important to an online course. Without classroom meetings, students may feel isolated from their instructors and peers. COVID-19 social distancing restrictions contribute to the sense of isolation. Incorporating synchronous and asynchronous engagement activities help students connect with course materials, each other, and you as their instructor. Join this webinar to share your tools and strategies for engaging students in the online environment. 

Thursday, August 13 - Reconceptualizing Online Assessments

Instructional technologies provide many opportunities to support assessment and track student performance in Blackboard. While low-impact assessments are easily implemented to check knowledge or skills, authentic assessment requires students to perform real-world tasks and apply those knowledge and skills. Join this webinar to discuss the benefits of low-impact, self and peer, and authentic assessments in your online courses. Share your ideas and strategies for designing, delivering, and evaluating student assessment in a virtual environment.

Friday, August 14 - Supporting Students & Monitoring Progress

Online learning requires students to manage their time and workload. Students also learn in different ways. Explore how usability and accessibility can set your students up for success. Identify reporting tools to track student progress in your course and reduce attrition. Join this webinar to discuss effective practices for supporting students and increasing student success. This workshop is appropriate for faculty who are new to online teaching or those who are looking to refresh their student support strategies.

NOTE: Technology tools may be discussed or demonstrated as supporting resources when planning or developing an online course. However, specific training for these tools is provided in separate instructional technology events. Please check our calendar for more details.

This webinar will take place in a Blackboard Collaborate virtual conference room. Use the link below to enter the webinar up to 15 minutes before the start time: http://tiny.cc/PIVOTAugust

Prior to the session

If this is your first time joining one of our webinars, please review the Getting Started Guide. You will also find additional helpful information for using Blackboard Collaborate at our extensive FAQs. 

For the best viewing experience, we recommend using Chrome or a recent browser update. Webinars are bandwidth intensive, so closing any unnecessary browser tabs will help conserve your bandwidth. After joining the session, please configure your audio and adjust your notification settings. 

The session will be recorded and subsequently captioned before the link is distributed to everyone who registered.