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Self-Paced and Self-Serve Resources

The SUNY Online Teaching unit promotes professional development in a variety of modes to best fit institutional or individual needs. As we develop our online competency development curriculum and portfolio of training options, we consider delivery options including: face to face instruction delivered regionally, online facilitated instruction, online webinars, and online self-paced courses.

Self-paced professional development options are currently available and being developed for some of our training courses and programs. Your institution may have policies and procedures for online professional development. Please be sure to check with your institution before engaging with these resources or completing any online teaching professional development.

Self-paced instruction is not for everyone. You might want to check to see if self-paced instruction is right for you.

Be sure to check with your campus-based online instructional designer to see what tools, resources, and support are available to you, and what policies and procedures may be required for you to teach online and before beginning any self-paced or self-serve activities.

Current list of available self-paced online professional development options:

    1. New Online Faculty Resources
    2. Remote/Flexible Instruction
    3. Brightspace Templates – NEW
      1. Common Cartridge zip files for Brightspace DLE templates are located in the google folder with the respective zip files.
        • Note on using the DLE common cartridge exports for Bb: On the main content page, click on the 3 dot menu next to the course faculty listing and from that drop down, select Import Content. Then choose the first option, Import Course Content, and it should take you to the finder to select your file. That worked, but some items that should be a document are rendering as an HTML file that has to be downloaded, then opened.
          • What the templates look like in Bb Ultra: https://video.syr.edu/media/t/1_wmpfezte
          • Thanks to Erika Blair, Learning Designer, Open Academy Teaching and Learning Center, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry for providing this info and the video.
        • Notes on using the DLE common cartridge exports in Moodle: D2L has commented that it is a known issue that earlier versions of the Moodle platform that only accept 1.1 common cartridges are not supported by Brightspace. This is, according to D2L, a fairly common problem with Moodle – not only when importing D2L packages, but packages from other LMS platforms as well.
          • The only option is for the campus to upgrade the Moodle platform to a version that accepts 1.2 or 1.3 common cartridges. They provided this link: https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-60803
          • Another option suggested by D2L is to convert the package somehow. It is easy enough to open the xml file in the package and alter the manifest header from 1.3 to 1.1 and then re-pack. The issue here is that once imported, there may be issues that make it import but not cleanly. I took a look around and there doesn’t seem to be any sort of downgrade tool that would do this.
          • Thanks to Andrea Gilbert, Director. Virtual Campus. Monroe Community College for following up with D2L on this issue to get this response. 
    4. Asynchronous Online Resources
    5. Online Course Quality – NEW
    6. Micro Learning Video Playlists for new and experienced Online Faculty & IDs

New Online Faculty Resources

Interested in Teaching Online? – self-paced course.

Online Faculty Readiness – self-assessment resource.

Online Course Design: Step by Step

Online Teaching Handbook – Step by step manual for online (asynchronous) course design. Companion handbook to the N2OL courses below and the Step by Step process listed above.

Fully Online Courses for Observation in Various Disciplines | Exemplar Fully Online Courses for Observation – requires SUNY login.

Remote/Flexible Instruction

Online Mode Decision Tree for new/remote faculty – Draft Instructional Mode Decision Tree (not compatible with Internet Explorer).

Checklist for Remote Teaching

Discipline-Specific Resources

Brightspace Course Templates (DLE Templates Creation Sub-work Group) – These are zip files of course templates that can be downloaded/imported into Brightspace and adapted for for use by campuses and faculty. Includes companion guides with details and recommendations. These templates are intended for SUNY Cohort 1 migration campuses to pilot and provide feedback, and made available to anyone interested.

Suite of 6 Templates– 8/12/22 – NEW

      • Asynchronous Online Template
      • Synchronous Online Template
      • Hybrid Template
      • Hyflex Template
      • Face-to-Face Template
      • Migration Template

Bb Course Templates – These are zip files of course templates that can be downloaded/imported into Bb and adapted for for use by campuses and faculty. All Ally reviewed.

Template Guide – some notes to guide the set-up and campus customization of the templates below.

Community-Shared Resources:

Disclaimer of Endorsement and Liability
SUNY Online does not support, recommend, or endorse community-generated resources. It is our intention to provide links to these resources for informational purposes and as a courtesy. By selecting links to external web sites, you leave the SUNY Online website and are subject to the accessibility, privacy, and security policies of the owners/sponsors of the external site. Furthermore, SUNY Online does not control or guarantee the currency, accuracy, relevance, accessibility, or completeness of information found on linked, external web sites. We urge users to consult with a qualified online instructional designers, and your own campus-based policies and procedures prior to using, adopting, adapting, or following any online teaching, online course design, or online instructional design suggestions.

Common Cartridges – for download and import as a course cartridge.

NOTE: The Common Cartridge* Bb files version 1.1  have been successfully imported into MOODLE.

* Common Cartridge Bb files will allow you to import the templates into an LMS other than Bb.

The 1.2 versions (below) were not successfully imported into MOODLE – June 2020.

Asynchronous Online Resources – for fully online asynchronous instruction.

Online Teaching Handbook – Step by step manual for online (asynchronous) course design. Companion handbook to the N2OL courses below.

Online Course Design – Resources for traditional fully online asynchronous teaching and learning.

New to Online Learning (N2OL) Self-Paced – Bb zip – course that can be downloaded/imported into Bb and adapted for self-paced training of faculty (for online asynchronous instruction).

New to Online Learning (N2OL) Facilitated – Bb zip – a course that can be downloaded/imported into Bb and adapted as a facilitated training of faculty (for online asynchronous instruction).

Online Course Quality

OSCQR – Online Course Quality Rubric

Online Teaching Presence self-assessment resource

OSCQR-informed Syllabus Template – NEW!

Micro Learning Video Playlists
SUNY Online Playlists for new and experienced online Faculty and IDs

Check to see what resources your SUNY Campus has in place to support your online teaching and learning professional development.

SUNY Online Teaching resources are provided free of charge, and openly licensed with a cc-by for adoption and adaptation by anyone regardless of SUNY affiliation.