DoIT Offers PIVOT Webinars for Online Teaching

Initial focus will be prep for summer sessions

As UMBC prepares to offer all SU2020 courses in an online format, DoIT’s Instructional Technology team is pleased to introduce Planning Instructional Variety for Online Teaching (PIVOT), a new professional development program for instructors who wish to take a more deliberate and holistic approach to preparing their courses for remote, synchronous and asynchronous, online instruction. PIVOTconsists of five 60-minute webinars over five days with recorded replays available later that same day. Prototype versions of the live PIVOT webinars will occur daily from May 4 to 8 at noon (up to 225 people can participate, but registration via myUMBC is required).

PIVOT topics will focus on helping instructors achieve competency in areas related to pedagogy, course design and development as well as technical and administrative skills:

Deep Dive - Blackboard Collaborate recorded session
Deep Dive - Panopto recorded session
Deep Dive - VoiceThread recorded session

The first phase of PIVOT is the live webinars open to all instructors, including graduate students, especially those teaching in the Summer [view proposed agenda]. Throughout the summer, PIVOT webinars will be available and part of college-based models with experienced online instructor colleagues who can help provide support or customize content, pending feedback on the early prototype of topics and formats.

In addition to the PIVOT live webinar series, two additional tracks to support faculty are currently under development: PIVOT+ will be a facilitated, cohort-based online workshop available to faculty who are preparing for FA2020 courses. PIVOT Solo will provide a self-directed experience using the PIVOT webinar recordings (available after the PIVOT protype week), complemented by DoIT’s Academic Continuity and the Faculty Development Center’s (FDC) Keep on Teaching sites, as well as select FAQs for a robust reference collection or “playlist.” Also, the FDC will provide multiple opportunities after PIVOT offerings for faculty to reflect and refine lessons gleaned from the initial training.

Inspired by nearly 90 faculty participating in the Alternate Delivery Program (ADP), which focuses on redesigning select courses for winter and summer delivery in online or hybrid format, PIVOT is grounded in the evidence-based principles for how people learn and shares many of the best practices of teaching in face-to-face classrooms, but leverages those principles and adapts the practices to the online environment. Like the ADP, PIVOT leverages the highly-regarded Quality Matters (QM) standards for effective online course design, and is ideal for participants who found themselves thrust into online teaching this Spring, but would like to be more proactive and intentional about their future online course design and instruction.

Beyond responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, PIVOT leverages the University’s prior investment in instructional technology and supports UMBC’s vision of “redefining excellence in higher education through an inclusive culture that connects innovative teaching and learning.”

For additional information, please contact the following:

Dr. Philip Rous, Provost rous@umbc.edu

Dr. Sarah Shin, Associate Provost shin@umbc.edu

Dr. John Fritz, Associate Vice President, Instructional Technology fritz@umbc.edu

Dr. Sherri Braxton, Senior Director of Instructional Technology sbraxton@umbc.edu

Dr. Mariann Hawken, eLearning Manager mariannhawken@umbc.edu

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options: