Tuesday, November 26, 2013

CTL Workshop: "Lights, Camera, Action!"


The latest CTL workshop, “Lights, Camera, Action!” is now available on the WINK site.  Videos are the new "hot" thing in online courses.  Some reasons for using videos include: 

1. Most of us today have the attention span of a gnat. Videos give us a more of a feeling into someone’s personality and vibe.

2. Videos engage the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic types of learners. 

This workshop covered use of video in our courses.  Videos are one way that you can get more engagement from students, participation in discussions, and understanding whether you create an awesome video. 

In this workshop, you will learn: 

    Video Topic Suggestions

·         Announcements

·         Introduction to your course

·         Introductions to weekly content

·         Lectures

·         Student feedback

   
    General Tips:

·         Spend some time planning or creating a storyboard for your video.

·         Keep your videos around 10 minutes. 

Watch how to embed a video available on YouTube into your course.  You can also find videos in the library on the Films on Demand database or TedEd link.  Be sure to incorporate an introduction to the video and key points for students to be watching for, as well as discussion for them to utilize critical thinking skills.   

Easy ways to create your own video:

  • Using the Logitec camera on your computer.
  • Using the camera in your laptop.
  • Using Adobe Connect.
  • Using your smart phone or a flip camera.
  • Posting video to YouTube and embedding it into your course. 
If you need a camera for creating videos, you can request a Lecture in a Box.  We will send you a flip camera and tripod with directions, once you send the Lecture in a Box back, a designer will assist you in loading it to your course.  To request a Lecture in a Box, email Jonathan.Eskridge@myunion.edu.

Please include your name and the mailing address with your request. 

From the desk of the VPAA: New Program Proposal Process

Last month, Dr. Lib Pruden developed a revision of the New Program Protocol review process to be in alignment with the Strategic Plan. The new model simplifies and streamlines the steps for proposing academic programs, as well as continued education and certification programs here at Union.

The main issue that the New Program Protocol addresses is the number of different committees working simultaneously on the evaluation of a proposal—often with different evaluation standards in mind. The New Program Protocol eliminates much of the cross-purpose confusion and clarifies the proper approval path of new recommendations.
The flowchart located below indicates the streamlined changes to the evaluation process.
A “proposal” can include ideas for a Degree Program, a Certificate Program, or a Non-Degree Program (e.g., professional development or some form of a continuing education curriculum). This process would also be followed for changes to existing programs, i.e., changing a program from low residency to online.  
The chart below illustrates how a new idea needs a sponsor from an academic program—a dean in this case where the program involves academic credit. Once a sponsor for a new program idea has been found, the originator must create a preliminary two-page abstract with appendices as needed.
The originator then submits the abstract to the Vice President of Academic Affairs for a provisional approval.
Once the VPAA has approved it, the originator prepares a full, detailed proposal with necessary projection information and impact predictions.
Only after that full proposal has been drafted and initially approved by the VPAA do the appropriate committees begin evaluating the proposal: department-level committees, the BS ARC, the BA EIC, or the Graduate Review Committee. Once the committee approves a proposal, they recommend the proposal back to the VPAA who consults with the deans to ensure that no more information is necessary.
If the proposal is satisfactory, the VPAA presents the proposal to the President, to the trustees, and to any external agencies as necessary, e.g., the Ohio Board of Regents, the Higher Learning Commission, etc.  
                                     
 

Faculty Highlights: Dr. Dorothy Firman


Each month I have enjoyed  drawing attention to our faculty members in the Union Strasse newsletter, and this month is no exception. I am honored to present Dr. Dorothy Firman as a celebrated faculty member at Union this month. Dr. Firman takes the value of social responsibility seriously—and she lives out the definition of that value in her work, her teaching, her life in the surrounding communities and in their outreach. I am proud to be in partnership with them here at Union Institute & University.
Dr. Dorothy Firman has been a member of Union’s faculty since 2006. She is a prolific author, speaker, life coach and counselor. She was a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show, and her book Chicken Soup for the Mother & Daughter Soul (2012) was a New York Times best-seller. Fox News, New Morning, Wisdom Television, Nightbeat, Eldervision, Time for Spirit and the CBS special Family 2 Family have all been media venues that have featured Dr. Firman and her work.
Her most recent book is titled Engaging Life: Living Well with Chronic Illness (2013). In this collection of stories, self-help exercises, and meditations on the importance of friendship and family, Dr. Firman tackles the difficult subject of how to successfully navigate the path of pain and suffering and how to support those who are bearing the burden of a long-term illness.
Part of the inspiration for the book came from one of Dr. Firman’s former patients—a woman struggling with terminal cancer, with less than a year to live. This woman’s journey became a remarkable story of survival, recovery, and of finding meaning in the midst of incredibly difficult circumstances. Drawn from similar experiences, Dr. Firman unpacks the emotional methods and interpersonal tools that will allow an individual to seek the help they need and to cultivate the relational support to walk through sickness and loss.
 
Self-reflection and self-examination are among the tools that Dr. Firman recommends for her patients. She provides exercises that help individuals become more aware of their own life narrative—the trajectory of their own story—and to begin to see and shape that narrative as a story of resilience, relationship, and purpose.
Dr. Firman teaches in Union’s Master of Arts with a Concentration in Counseling program, and she is the co-founder of the Synthesis Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she acts as director of training in Psychosynthesis—an integrated,
medical-spiritual approach to psychology and counseling. She is often both a national and international guest speaker and workshop leader. Her focus and expertise prioritizes coaching people around the topic of meaning, purpose, and empowerment in their lives. She is especially equipped for counseling people as they walk through times of transition, including grief counseling, spiritual and existential therapy, and coaching on dealing with age, illness, and disease. She has also worked within the corporate world to provide consultation regarding staff and personnel dynamics.
When asked how she understood the value of Social Responsibility, Dr. Firman said:
“For me, personally, having been in the field for over thirty years, social responsibility requires two things of me. The first is that I see clients and all humans in their social context. In their social context means that a client who is struggling, is struggling within their system (school, culture, family, job, country). No one can be diagnosed, treated, cured, or transformed outside of their community context and often a fair share of what creates a problem for an individual is located squarely in the culture and is not simply a psychological issue. Practitioners in the field now recognize that the most effective treatments occur within a person’s social context and even have come so far as to understand the very different essential impact of treatment on people of various cultures. The meaning of counseling or psychotherapy is different within one culture and another. Even the impact of a particular medication is now understood to have different effects on people of different ethnicities. So that's the first important take home for me. Who is this person sitting in front of me and who is this person within the social system that he or she lives in?

The second value for me that arises from this knowledge is that I, as a professional, have a responsibility within society to work towards its improvement. Having been an activist for most of my life, this responsibility comes naturally to me, but I have had to carve out the ways that a socially responsible activism works within the field of psychology. In part it means being involved in professional organizations, presenting at conferences on issues related to social responsibility, and continuing to be trained on issues of diversity, social justice, oppression, and human rights. It also means helping clients and students see themselves within a system and take steps (however big or small they can) towards being empowered within the system.

To watch an individual find voice, stand up for what they believe, confront injustice and hold strong to their values, is a wonderful thing and one of the great gifts, for me, of being in this field.”

Visit Dr. Firman’s blog at Psychology Today for more on her work!  

Faculty Highlights: Dr. Michael Raffanti

Each month I have enjoyed drawing attention to our faculty members in the Union Strasse newsletter, and this month is no exception. I am honored to present Dr. Michael Raffanti as a celebrated faculty member at Union for this month. Dr. Raffanti takes the value of social responsibility seriously—and he lives out the definition of that value in his work, his teaching, his life in the surrounding community and in his outreach. I am proud to be in partnership with him here at Union Institute & University.
Dr. Michael A. Raffanti is the Associate Dean in Union's Ph.D. program in Interdisciplinary Studies, and he is also a faculty member within the Ed.D. program. Dr. Raffanti has been with Union Institute & University since 2007, but the passion for combining education and social engagement is something that has characterized his life and work, now, for decades.

“Union’s long-time focus on social responsibility is what attracted me to join the doctoral faculty. My professional life has, I think, reflected my desire to connect social responsibility with my day-to-day work," he said. Dr. Raffanti is interested in interdisciplinary approaches to the subject of education, legal issues, social justice, leadership, systems change, qualitative methods, and action-oriented research. Grounded Theory Review, Journal of Qualitative and Ethnographic Research, and Journal of Integral Theory and Practice have all been venues for Dr. Raffanti's research to be published.


His background in history and philosophy, law, and teaching have provided him with an integrated intellectual framework for his engagement of the surrounding community in very practical ways.

In his former career as an attorney in San Francisco, Dr. Raffanti specialized in issues of poverty law:

"My first career as an attorney was primarily spent working in non-profit organizations that focused on serving low-income communities. This work took the form of housing, immigration, and domestic violence matters; it was a combination of legal advocacy and educating the community of their rights."

He has also worked with outreach organizations to the AIDS community, helping develop HIV prevention programs. In addition, teaching elementary school in high-poverty, urban environments and mentoring high school students through weekend tutoring and workshop programs have been signatures of Dr. Raffanti's commitment to being a socially responsible scholar practitioner.

"By the time I came to Union in 2007," Dr. Raffanti said, "my professional career was a bit eclectic, but it had a common thread of educating people of all ages in the hope that such education would improve lives as it had mine. At Union, my sense of worth now comes from helping adult learners, mostly nontraditional doctoral students, achieve something that perhaps would otherwise seem out of reach—a doctorate. As a first-generation college graduate and someone who grew up poor, I understand some of the obstacles that people may face, not only the financial barriers and the academic challenges of higher learning, but also the self-doubts that can arise when perhaps one hasn’t been groomed for higher education. In my current work as an educator and administrator, I gain some satisfaction from knowing that I am helping to facilitate adult learners in their educational journeys. And from the perspective of social responsibility, what really motivates me is the knowledge that our doctoral students (who already come to us with strong values of social responsibility), will use their enhanced knowledge, skills and credentials, to better serve their communities.”