Fundamentals in Online Learning and Design (FOLD) Institute

Dear Colleagues:

I am pleased to announce and invite Bradley faculty to participate in the new Fundamentals in Online Learning and Design (FOLD) Institute. This two-week online experience will help prepare you for a variety of possible instructional scenarios this fall. While Bradley plans to provide traditional face-to-face instruction, I anticipate all or nearly all of our classes will have some type of remote or online component.

I know all of you have been working harder than ever, and I am grateful for your dedication, effort, and the level of excellence you bring to everything you do. Although I am reluctant to ask you to do one more thing, I encourage everyone teaching classes this fall to engage with the FOLD Institute. I believe it will help you be an even better teacher in online environments, and it will continue to pay dividends well into the future.

The institute, originally scheduled to begin June 8, will now launch June 15. This delay ensured the learning management system Canvas would be an option for course delivery. Faculty may continue to use Sakai for the semester or begin building their fall courses using Canvas. FOLD lessons are relevant to both platforms.

The FOLD Institute consists of asynchronous modules, time for individual course planning, practice using digital tools, and synchronous meetings with faculty cohort members and the facilitator/coach to discuss teaching strategies. Participants will work through 10 online modules on their own time over the two-week institute and have the option of participating in 10 synchronous meetings with institute facilitators and fellow faculty participants. It includes templates and a strategy for rapid course design according to instructional design principles and Quality Matters standards.

During the institute, participants will:

• leverage the available technology tools to deliver course content, assess and interact with their students
• apply the Quality Matters rubric, instructional design principles and best practices to their courses
• develop content, activities, and assessments promoting effective learner content interactions
• develop content, activities, and assessments promoting active and collaborative engagement with other students and the instructor
• assemble their course

The Fundamentals in Online Learning and Design Institute is open to all full-time Bradley faculty, part-time faculty, and professional staff who will teach this fall.

The Institutes offered this summer are scheduled for:

• June 15 - 26
• June 29 - July 10

Click the link below for more details and to sign up for one of the institutes. Please plan at least one hour to work through each module and additional time to work on your course each day of the institute.

Details and Registration for the FOLD Institute

Participants will earn a certificate of completion by finishing the exercises in each module. In addition to gaining familiarity with Quality Matters standards for online and hybrid course design, they will practice using digital tools. Participants will also build out a framework for an entire course, as well as a course map aligning learning objectives with content and assessments, and one or more course modules.

Walter R. Zakahi
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

–Sent To All Faculty and Staff On 06/10/2020