Whether you are a new UConn Faculty member or have been teaching for decades, we hope you will explore our short courses and webinars designed to support your online teaching journey.
Exploring Online Learning (a two-week short course)
Exploring Online Learning (EOL) provides faculty with the student’s perspective of being in an online course while gaining foundational knowledge about the design, development and delivery of online courses.
EOL Learning Objectives
Upon completion of EOL, faculty will be able to:
- Use the quiz, discussion, journal, and assignment features in HuskyCT as a student.
- Identify the most effective practices in online teaching and learning.
- Discuss resources for keeping your online instructional practices current and agile in an ever-changing educational landscape.
- Write course-level learning objectives that relate to the content for the course you will be designing.
- Apply Quality Matters (QM) standards to a sample course.
- Reflect on how you will apply the principles of effective teaching practices and instructional design to your online course.
Another major goal of this course is for faculty to experience learning as a student in an online environment and be part of an online learning community. As a result, upon completion of this short course, faculty are better able to design, deliver, and teach a quality online course.
EOL Syllabus
The EOL Syllabus provides more detailed information about the types of activities, timelines, and completion expectations participants should expect.
Please note this course is offered asynchronously online. All activity, assignments, and communication take place online in HuskyCT. There are deadlines for assignments to be passed in, but participants are never required to meet online at the same time and there are no in person meetings. EOL is a noncredit short course. Participants will receive a certificate upon completion of all assignments.
Please contact eCampus with any questions.
EOL Registration
EOL is facilitated by eCampus staff and offered four times a year. Refer to the chart below to determine the best session for you.
| If you are teaching online in: | You should enroll in EOL during the: |
|---|---|
| Summer Session | Previous Fall |
| Fall Semester | Previous Winter or Spring |
| Winter Session | Spring or Summer |
| Spring Semester | Spring or Summer |
Note: Though the course content and activities are geared toward faculty who will soon be designing and teaching their own online or hybrid/blended courses, all faculty are welcome to participate. Priority for enrollment will be given to faculty teaching online courses.
Webinars
Webinar Offerings
eCampus offers webinars that cover a range of topics related to online teaching and learning. The sections below highlight our current webinar titles and descriptions.
Discover how AI can support and elevate your course design and development! This webinar is designed for educators looking to seamlessly integrate Blackboard AI tools into their course design and development practice. Join us as we explore how AI can streamline course planning, enhance content creation, and support personalized learning experiences. Whether you’re a seasoned educator or just getting started with AI in education, this session will provide actionable tips, real-life examples, and hands-on demonstrations to help you make the most of Blackboard’s AI-powered features. Don’t miss the chance to transform your approach to course design! If you’d like to dive deeper into AI Conversations, be sure to join us for Design Smarter 2.0
Explore the advanced capabilities of Blackboard’s AI Design Assistant (Design Smarter 1.0), focusing on the AI Conversation tool (Design Smarter 2.0 – this webinar). This session will guide you through creating AI bots that simulate student dialogues, enhancing formative assessment and critical thinking. Learn to set up AI conversations, define personas, and review interactions. Equip yourself with the knowledge to leverage AI for sophisticated, interactive learning experiences in Blackboard Ultra. Design Smarter 1.0 is NOT a prerequisite for attending Design Smarter 2.0.
Explore ways to partner with Microsoft Copilot to design your course. We will cover how Microsoft’s Copilot GenAI tool may help you draft measurable course and module objectives; chunk out your course meaningfully; and brainstorm ideas for assessments and course materials. Whether you are revising an existing course or designing a new course from scratch, this session will demonstrate how Microsoft Copilot may amplify your course design expertise.
Level: Beginner.
In this introductory workshop, we will provide an overview of instructional design, a systematic process for planning a course. You will begin to build a course design framework and walk away with tools and resources to customize your course plan. Please come prepared with a course or instructional topic to work on during the session.
Are you or your students feeling isolated and anonymous in your online course? Want to learn strategies to overcome feelings of isolation and anonymity? If so, then join us to discuss ways to enhance instructor presence and student engagement in Online Asynchronous (OA) and Online Synchronous (OS) courses.
Online asynchronous discussions in HuskyCT are used to build dynamic learning communities, to synthesize key concepts, and to promote critical thinking skills. Join us as we discuss tips for writing engaging prompts and successfully facilitating asynchronous discussion forums. We will be sharing examples from a number of different disciplines.
Join us for a practical webinar on using ProctorU for your UConn courses. This session will provide general guidelines and best practices for both new and experienced users.
Webinar Registration
To see our current webinar availability and register:
- Navigate to FINS.
- Login with your NetID and password.
- Select “Events”.
- Select “Search Upcoming Events”.
Professional Development Opportunities
As a UConn faculty member, you may want to take advantage of UConn subscriptions related to online and mixed modality teaching and learning. Refer to the listing below.
Quality Matters (QM): UConn is a QM subscribing institution. This means UConn faculty/staff may create a QM account to access QM tools and other member benefits. QM also offers many professional development opportunities at a discounted rate for members. For additional details read Introducing Quality Matters.
*Note: CETL’s Professional Development Resources website contains a comprehensive listing of various professional development resources available to UConn faculty.