Valparaiso University
center for INNOVATION in teaching, assessment, and learning 

cital newsletter
february 13, 2024
Dear Colleagues: 
As Spring slowly peaks its head around the corner, welcome to this issue of the CITAL Newsletter. Hopefully, you are settling in with your classes and having engaging interactions with your students. This issue is all about increasing engagement, through conversation, whether through new or existing technologies and resources. We start by introducing our new CITAL Student Aides and move on to highlighting a guest blog by Abbie Thompson on the importance of conversation. We round out our time together by highlighting various useful software, tools, and resources to help spark engagement. As always, thank you for your continued support and please reach out to us with any questions.
Sincerely, 
The CITAL Team (Ed, Gina, and Cindy)
Valpo's Shield of Honor Logo Image

Meet the new CITAL Student Aides

CITAL is pleased to welcome Raghad Alabdulmuhsin and Soniya Ottayil to our team as Student Aides: 

Raghad is pursuing her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in the College of Nursing and Health Professions and hopes to pursue a career as a registered nurse in the NICU.
Soniya dreams of working at a labor and delivery unit while teaching future nursing students key concepts of the nursing profession and being as much of a helping tool to them as possible. She is involved in St Ts, Honor Council, Intramural Basketball, the South Asian Society, and an independent research study.
As members of the CITAL team, they will work with us to help create new web resources, facilitate events, and develop online course resources for faculty. Please welcome them both to our team.
Link to CITAL Blog web page

Talking is Teaching

In this article Abbie Thompson (Psychology) describes how students in her service-learning courses support new mothers in Porter County to teach our youngest learners: babies and young children.
The name says it all. Talking is teaching as many of us faculty know. We share nuggets of our knowledge with our students through talking. While this may seem natural to us, this is not natural or common knowledge for everyone.  This knowledge is especially important for parents and caregivers of our youngest learners: babies and young children. 
To Read More, Click Here: Talking is Teaching
Talking is Teaching images and link to website

Software Resources for Valpo Faculty, Staff and Students

Have been to Valpo's IT Department website lately? It is filled with resources for our Valpo family including access to free and discounted software.
Download Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) for free!
Click the image below to get started.
Access the OnTheHub e-store by clicking the image below and signing in with your Valpo credentials. This site allows faculty, staff and students the opportunity to purchase software such as SPSS, Norton Security, Adobe Creative Cloud and more at a discount! 
Free Download Office 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) Valpo IT Download Software Resources On The Hub-estore download discounted software

Student Collaboration

Are your students having trouble using Zoom for outside of class meetings? The 40 minute time limit in Zoom can be a frustration and enhanced accounts are not generally provided to students. However, If you have not taken a look at Google Meet lately, it may be time. The platform has substantially improved and is available to all Faculty and Students as part of our Google Suite membership. Students can create a meeting right from GMail or as a standalone. More importantly, there is not a time limit on meetings. For more information, click here.

Resources for Educators

ScreenPal (Formerly Screencast-O-Matic) is a free tool that lets you create, edit, and share videos and capture images from your computer screen. Their top tools are Screen Recorder, Video & Image Editor, Screenshots, Stories, Video & Content Hosting, Video Quizzing, and Analytics. ScreenPal is already being used in 90 or our Valpo courses. To access Valpo's free membership or to create an account, you can log in via Google.
Explore free certifications, webinars, quick video tutorials, and inspiration from their blog.

Member Success Stories, Research, & More

"QM Success Stories" are free webinars that are presented by your colleagues and fellow members. They share experiences on such topics as:
  • What does a course look like that has met QM Standards?
  • How can I promote active learning in online science?
These live-captioned sessions are scheduled once per month and are FREE for all QM Members. Can't make it? These sessions are archived with transcripts and can be viewed in the Reference Library by account holders. To request your account with Valpo's QM membership, submit a CITAL Quality Matters Help Desk Ticket.
Visit the CITAL Website, Your One-Stop-Shop for Faculty Resources
Submit a CITAL Helpdesk Ticket
219.464.5000 - 1700 Chapel Drive, Valparaiso, IN 46383-6493 USA - valpo.edu
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