Teaching in Higher Ed

Productivity

Celebrating the Decade

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Confetti

I have enjoyed seeing various members of the higher education community write about what has happened in their lives over the course of this last decade. I'm inspired to share some of what has transpired in my life these past ten years.

ACADEMIC PROMOTION. I received tenure early in the decade, as well as promotion to associate professor. As we near the end of this ten-year period, I'm applying for full professor. Those of us who submitted our portfolios won't find out until 2020 the results of our applications.

Stachowiak kids

CHILDREN. After more seasons than I feel like counting, we finally were able to have our first child in 2012 – and then two years later, had a second. Our children are one of the absolute joys of my life.

Sample episodes of Teaching in Higher Ed

PODCAST. In June of 2014, I started the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, thanks to a lot of nudging from Dave. Nothing has shaped my teaching more than these opportunities to speak to amazing educators from around the world.

LOSSES.  Three of my colleagues passed away from cancer during this period. I can still feel the weight of the grief ever-present in our community. Mary Wilson (librarian) introduced me to writers and thinkers who helped me be able to better integrate my politics with my religious beliefs. Sheri Benvenuti had such a powerful blend of humor, grace, and strength. Elizabeth Leonard had a tremendous capacity to find interdisciplinary ways to extend her research on women who had been incarcerated for defending themselves against abusive husbands. She wouldn't hold back in sharing her perspectives on things, but would transition the conversations back to action with her use of the word: nevertheless… Yes, these are the challenges we face, but nevertheless… Then, we would get back to the work.

CHANGE OF FOCUS. I took on an administrative faculty role a few years back: director of teaching excellence and digital pedagogy. Leadership at the time had wanted me to become the institution's director of online learning, but I wasn't interested in a role that targeted only one way of facilitating learning. However, when I shared a broader vision for what role I would like to play at the institution, they decided to change the focus.

Stachowiak family with Canvas Panda mascot

PARTNERSHIP. Dave and I have had our relationship continued to grow and evolve. I love watching him as a parent and how well he cares for our kids. I also enjoy that even after almost 15 years of marriage, I still look forward to talking with him about things we're passionate about. Some of those conversations even get recorded on his podcast – Coaching for Leaders Q&A episodes.

Speaking engagement at Sam Houston State University

SPEAKING. I started doing more keynote speaking and workshops in 2017. I'm thankful for each organization that has trusted me to come in and share stories and inspiration toward better teaching. I even drove through a snowstorm in Nebraska and learned that there are not-one-but-two convention centers in Miami.

EdSurge Column Graphic

WRITING. I also was paid for the first time to write something. EdSurge launched my monthly advice column in 2018. Toward Better Teaching: Office Hours with Bonni Stachowiak helps me connect what I've learned through hosting the podcast and in my own higher ed teaching these past 15 years with my goal of serving others and giving back. I'm also thankful for the opportunity to be guided through all of this by the ever-capable Jeffrey R. Young, senior editor at EdSurge.

PROMOTION. In August of 2019, I became the dean of teaching and learning at Vanguard University. I continue to lead our Institute for Faculty Development, but I am also overseeing the people who lead our library, student success initiatives, and academic resource center. We are just starting to dream together about possibilities, but I can say that there are great things in store as we work to serve our students and faculty even better than we do today.

BOOK. It looks like it probably isn't quite going to happen in this decade, but in early 2020, The Productive Online and Offline Professor will be released. The work that we do as professors is essential, yet there can often be the sense that there just isn't enough time to do all we want to accomplish. This book seeks to identify those areas where we can identify our priorities and focus on the most essential areas to focus on. I also share ways to save time on the seemingly small stuff, to give us greater freedom to be more fully present for our students and other people who are important to us.

Please consider pre-ordering your copy today, so it gets to you right away once it gets released early in the year.

Thanks for joining me in revisiting this past decade with me.

These past few months have brought some fun speaking engagements and presentation opportunities. Here are just a few links to resources from those talks that may be of interest to you:

If any of you have tweeted, blogged, or otherwise shared about what has transpired for you over the last decade, I would love to read your reflections.

 

Keeping Content Up to Date in the LMS

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Keeping content current photo

This article was first published on EdSurge as part of my column – Toward Better Teaching: Office Hours With Bonni Stachowiak. You can pose a question for a future column here. While the following question was posed about working within two LMSs, the advice applies even to those who only teach within one LMS platform.

This semester—at the same institution—I will be teaching 2 online graduate courses: a brand new one on Canvas, and an existing one on Blackboard. Any tips on keeping my eye on the teaching/learning objectives while having two major LMS’s in play simultaneously? —Adjunct at a tier 1 research university in the mid-Atlantic

Even a little bit of effort toward streamlining content that could be moved to multiple learning management systems (LMSs) can have a big payoff. There are approaches that can help even when only working within a single LMS, particularly given the changing nature of some course content.

I, too, teach between Canvas and Blackboard. I know Canvas much better since I use it both as a professor and in coaching faculty. There is nothing that helps me learn faster than to hear how other people are trying to use an LMS.

Embed Often

Instead of trying to learn the creation tools for each learning management system, I suggest turning to mainstream platforms, like video for Youtube or Soundcloud for audio, and then embedding video or sound clips into any LMS you use.

Examples of this in approach abound, from embedding a form or signup sheet within a page on the LMS, to embedding a Kahoot game for your students to play from within their familiar course environment.

The Embed Responsively website can make this process easier for sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Google Maps or Getty Images, though I find that I can fine-tune most content to display just the way I want it within Blackboard or Canvas without needing to use the help from Embed Responsively.

A Canvas-specific resource I have found helpful in thinking more creatively about embedding is a CanvasLIVE video featuring Laura Gibbs, an online instructor at the University of Oklahoma: Beautiful Curation: Flickr & Pinterest (+Diigo & Padlet).

Subscribe to Class Calendars

Both Canvas and Blackboard allow you to subscribe to your course calendars and have them display within your primary calendar application on your computer or mobile device. On my laptop, phone and tablet, I am able to see all the calendars for courses I teach across both Canvas and Blackboard within my other appointments.

I like being able to see when assignments are due, as it helps me recognize the need to block off time in my calendar for grading. It’s especially helpful for me to be able to see what week in the semester or term we are in, especially as what I have previously called “the dip” starts to take its toll on a class.

Link Smart

I first started down this path of wanting to make my life easier solely when it came to course syllabi. I grew tired of uploading the syllabus as a file within our LMS, only to need to upload a new version every single semester. It also seemed like every time I would send my document off to the department’s administrative assistant, I would find an error, or something else would change. I then found myself needing to send out a revised syllabus to her and once again having to upload a revision to the LMS.

I then found a much better way. Dropbox (a cloud-based storage service) became the place where I would store my syllabi, and then I could just link to the files in the LMS. In Microsoft Word, I would do a file save-as each semester and name the file something time-based, like 2020f-syllabus-BUSN114.docx. However, instead of uploading the Word document in the LMS, as most people do, I would save the file on Dropbox as a PDF. The file name was crucial in eventually saving me time. I would name it something like syllabus-BUSN114.pdf with no indication of what semester’s syllabus the file contained.

Each time a new semester would come around, all I had to do was perform a save-as on the syllabus Word file to have an archive of date-specific syllabi from past semesters and then make modifications to the Word file for the new semester. When all the changes were done, I would save a PDF copy with the non-date-specific name (e.g. syllabus-BUSN114.pdf) that would take the place of the previous semester’s file on Dropbox. The link to the syllabus remained unchanged and therefore did not need to be updated on the LMS.

Here’s a screencast that shows this process of having a syllabus live in Cloud-based storage (like Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, or Google Drive).

A walkthrough of how to “link smart.”

Another option is to maintain syllabi within cloud-based document systems and to embed these documents inside the LMS. Google Docs and Dropbox Paper are two examples of these types of tools. As updates occur throughout the semester, they can be made within the cloud service and those changes are instantly reflected within the LMS.

Leverage Other Cloud Services

Once I saw how easy this process for managing syllabi was, I became intrigued by what other possibilities existed. Scott Self, assistant professor of organizational leadership for Abilene Christian University, joined me on the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast to share how he uses Evernote to minimize the time he needs to fumble around with different versions of documents.

Self uses Evernote notes to convey assignment information and to provide resources related to the course. He links to Evernote notes within the LMS, so whenever he makes changes within Evernote, he can rest assured those changes are instantly reflected in the LMS. Changes can be made to his Evernote notes on his computer, or even via his mobile devices.

Microsoft OneNote has a way to set up a class notebook that you can use in a similar way that Self uses Evernote. However, Microsoft’s OneNote takes it a step further and let you create interactive course content from within OneNote and give each student their own copy of the shared notebook that they can use to complete assignments, take notes, and receive feedback within their own notebook from their teacher.

Next Steps

It is not necessary to try to implement all these recommendations at once. Colleagues who have minimized the need to update their syllabi within the LMS by “linking smart” have said that the one idea saved them a great deal of time.

You can start small, and begin to see what works best within your classes.

An Essential Time Saver

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TextExpander: An Essential Time Saver
TextExpander: An Essential Time Saver

If you have been listening to the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast over the last few months, you have heard me talk about TextExpander (available both on the Mac and Windows). This application is one of the first programs I ever install on a new computer because it is so essential to me getting work done.

However, talking to you about TextExpander isn’t quite as powerful as getting to show it in action. That’s what I’ll do in this post. I have created three, short demos that let you peek behind the curtain to see how I use TextExpander.

You Can Still Keep a Personal Touch

Before I get to that, however, I did want to mention that my goal in saving time with TextExpander isn’t to lose the personal touch that comes from authentically-written prose. Instead, my approach is to consider that whatever time I can save through the automation that TextExpander affords me means that either I can give that much more of a personal approach as I customize boilerplate text, or that I have additional time to be able to reply to more people.

When someone comes on the podcast as a guest, I do use TextExpander to help me curate a message of gratitude to the person. There are a few basic pieces of information I always send:

  • A link to the episode’s show notes
  • Information about where the podcast is distributed (Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, etc.)
  • A link to the quote graphics from the episode

By automating that part of the email, I can spend more time letting them know the kind of response I have been getting about their episode on social media or some of my own personal reflections about our conversation.

When someone gets in touch with me asking about how to join the Teaching in Higher Ed Slack group, by having a “canned” response, I am able to get back to more people who have questions or suggestions.

TextExpander screen
View demonstrations of TextExpander in action below

Demos

Below are three demos that show TextExpander in action.

Demo: Part 1

In this demo, I show TextExpander in action as I create new show notes for an episode. The example I show uses fill-in snippets, where I can customize the text before it gets entered. TextExpander has a video showing how easy fill-in snippets are to create.

Demo: Part 2

In this demo, I give even more examples of TextExpander in action.

Demo: Part 3

In this final demo, I show how to add new snippets to TextExpander and how easy it is to make it work for you.

Purchase TextExpander

Get 20% off your first year of TextExpander and a 30 day free trial (select Teaching in Higher Ed from the dropdown menu os where did you hear about TextExpander?)

Other TextExpander Resources

I’ve only skimmed the surface here, as there are so many ways that TextExpander can save us time and improve our workflows. The more I learn about TextExpander, the more time it saves me (and lets me know with periodic reports on my TextExpander stats).

TextExpander statistics
My monthly TextExpander statistics

Below are some links to articles that extend the benefits of TextExpander in higher education.

This post is a sponsored post. I am grateful to TextExpander for helping to support the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast. However, I have been sharing about the benefits of using TextExpander on the podcast and in the blog long before they provided any financial support.

Four Approaches for When Stuff Happens

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Photo by James Pond on Unsplash

About a year ago, I recorded an episode of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast that I titled:

When Things Will Just Have to Do (Episode 145)

Similar themes are recurring this year, though I suppose in nowhere near as drastic of a case. I have been dealing with frustrating health challenges (dental work, anyone?), but ones that aren't likely to have any life-altering consequences. Still, my already-packed life resists being “forced” to tap into flexibility. Here are the ways I am attempting to navigate these challenges.

Get Perspective

I feel guilty writing about my dental woes, especially after finishing Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved, by Kate Bowler. The author teaches at Duke's Divinity School and researches what is known as the prosperity gospel. She shares the story of her stage IV colon cancer diagnosis and how it impacted her friendships and faith. This book had me laughing and crying from page to page.

Play Music

I have been enjoying exploring NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concert series on YouTube. I am a bit late to the party, but I think the gig is that they all play a concert surrounding a desk somehow. I started thinking it was the desks that were small (they don't seem to be), but I think it is the concerts that are supposed to be small. You can hear The Roots singing Ain't it Fair, Wyclef Jean singing Borrowed Time, and a favorite of mine – Jamila Woods singing Black Girl Soldier and Holy.

Take Stock

My weekly reviews and current projects list have been vital to not having too much fall through the cracks (at least without me knowing about it, in advance and making a conscious decision to let something slip). I write more about the tools I use in my weekly reviews on a post about managing during a stressful season from 2017. In that post, I also link to many of Robert Talbert's blogs about GTD (based on David Allen's book: Getting Things Done).

Celebrate Progress

Another tool I am grateful to be able to leverage is my “trimesterly” goals (based on Robert Talbert's Trimesterly Review process). Instead of being discouraged that I am not as productive as I prefer to be, I can look back at a longer duration and recognize that a lot more has happened than I realize. It is easy to get caught up on a single week's progress, instead of viewing achievement using a broader lens.

Let it Go

Our daughter would be disappointed if I didn't include the name of her absolute favorite song here. I have been in some pain, lately. When my body has had enough, it is showing up in my not being able to concentrate as long as I usually can. When that happens, I tell myself to let it go and to switch gears to something not as mentally taxing. Here are a few items I found on some of these less-structured browsing sessions:

  1. Five Ways to Use PowerPoint to Edit Images
  2. A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age
  3. 4 Questions to Help You Start a Successful Blog
  4. Anchor Turns Itself into a One-Stop Podcast Creation App

After a conversation about the recent Parkland shooting in one of my classes, a student shared this video entitled “Evan,” a gun violence video that is impossible to say much about without ruining it.

Your Turn

What advice do you have for those times when stuff happens? 

Lessons From My Email Emergency

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This past week, I have been experiencing what can best be described as an email emergency. Somehow, all my email folders got erased and I went through processing what life would be like to lose all the emails I had ever been sent using one of my two primary email addresses.

The mostly happy news is that it looks like I am going to emerge out of this with my emails in place. However, I won’t be able to get the multitudes of hours back into my life that I have spent on this project.

Less is More – When it Comes to Email Folders

I had over 35 different folders and subfolders in my email storage structure. As I worked on moving my emails over from the backups, I decided not to replicate the same structure this time around. Instead, I kept it as lean as possible, knowing that search has come such a long way and I’m likely to be able to find what I need from that method of retrieval.

My folder hierarchy is now as follows:

  • Archive
  • Encouragement
  • Family
  • Humor
  • Innovate Learning
  • Personal
  • Purchases
  • Reference
  • Vanguard

There are some people who recommend not having any folders at all, except for archive. If you use an email app on your smartphone, you can likely swipe to one side and automatically send an email right into the archive folder. You can search by sender, receiver, subject line, or even in the contents of the emails, in most email clients.

I think I will probably trim down the number of folders I have in my teaching/work email, too. I like to have a folder for the current semester, in order to zero in on student emails that have come in related to classes. After a semester ends, I move all emails over to the archive folder.

I have a folder directly related to my role of Director of Teaching Excellence and Digital Pedagogy – for those times when I need to get a sense of what I have been focused on in recent weeks. But many of my other folders are excessive and I have far too many subfolders.

When I finish my work-related email clean up, it will look something like this:

  • Archive
  • 1-teaching-excellence-and-digital-pedagogy
  • 2018s
  • Departments
  • Encouragement
  • Personal
  • Research

I can feel myself resisting this change, even as I type it up. Since I was “forced” to in dealing with my email emergency on my personal account, it made it easier to “rip the band-aid off” in that case. I can now see how much more streamlined things are going to be, so hopefully I can remember that when I get to making the change on my work account.

Backups are Essential

Dave and I use a service called FastMail for our Innovate Learning emails. We pay extra for backups – and this past week’s adventures are a testament to why. If I hadn’t had a backup plan with them, I would have lost most of my emails from many years of email use.

Their response time has been less-than-ideal regarding my email emergency. However, the backups of my emails were well worth the money we paid and somewhat worked as expected.

Sanebox is a Game Changer

Another service I have had to live without, as I get this all sorted out, is SaneBox. It sorts through my emails and leaves only the most essential ones in my primary inbox. I have been lost without it. You can receive a free SaneBox trial if you want to experience the sanity that only SaneBox can deliver.

Email Clients are Not Task Managers

The biggest change in how I have needed to work this past week, while all this gets sorted out, involves leaving emails in my inbox for longer than normal. I typically keep with a “touch it once” approach to email. When I first look at an email, I read it for “action” – is there anything that requires action buried somewhere within this message?

If the answer is yes, and it only is going to take me two minutes or less to perform that action, I take care of it right then. If it will take more than two minutes, the email is sent over to my task manager (OmniFocus) and can then be prioritized amongst all the other things I have on my plate.

When we don’t do this, we allow others to dictate to us what our priorities should be, instead of allowing their requests to be considered in the context of the other things that are important to accomplish.

Speaking of task managers, The Sweet Set up just did a nice write up of their favorite task managers, along with recommending Things3 as their top pick.

Next Steps

I have recorded an episode of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast that describes my process for managing email in detail.

Other episodes related to productivity include:

Preorder The Productive Online Professor

I’m excited to announce that preorders for my new book: The Productive Online Professor are available now. The book discusses even more methods for managing email more productively, along with plenty of other topics to help us have more peace in our lives, so we can be even more present for our students. Please consider pre-ordering a copy to support the launch of the book, not to mention your own potential productivity boost.