“Having never taught an online course, I was nervous about transforming my regular classroom face-to-face format Summer courses in Early Childhood Education (ECE 0-8 Add-On Certification) to the hybrid (80% online, 20% face- to- face) format. The hybrid format was held with students from June 26- July 21, 2017. To begin the process, Eric worked with me consistently (weekly during the Spring 2017 semester) to transform the content of my courses into an accessible, clear, insightful, and thought provoking syllabi. Eric shared very helpful handouts that enabled me to think very deeply and critically about the Learner Outcomes, Enduring Understanding, and Questions. We held several meetings to plan the courses – content, assignments, grading policy, office hours, etc. Each section was carefully “birthed” through consistent and clear expectations, metacognition, and student-focused learning. I became a familiar face on the fourth floor every Thursday during the 2017 Spring semester.

Eric was extremely helpful in ensuring students’ accessibility to D2L materials through proper registration, and moving eReserve documents into D2L. He guided me in sharing the most needful documents with the students and suggested how to truly promote learning through short summaries, posts, and reflections.

On the last day of class (face-to-face meeting), students shared their thoughts about the online format. Comments shared by students included “this was by far the clearest format of class I have ever taken – and I have taken several online classes”; “thank you for making this accessible through the online format”; “the Weekly Schedule was very helpful”.”

“I had had experience with online teaching both at UW-Madison and UWSP before I had a chance to work with the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning (CITL) in the summer of 2017. The time I spent with Lindsay Bernhagen and Eric Simkins from May to August has substantially transformed the way I design my online courses. Thanks to detailed and regular feedback from Eric, I have been able to find several ways to make Poli 380: Conflict, Security, and Peace in International Relations, which I am currently teaching as a 100% online course, not only more efficient but also more accessible for students. I am glad to see that the feedback I have received from my students in Poli 380 so far have been very positive. They seem to appreciate the significantly more interactive nature of the course. Given the current trend in academia toward offering more online courses, I firmly believe that CITL has taken on the very important responsibility of assisting UWSP faculty and staff to adopt their online course offerings to the changing dynamics of higher education. I am grateful for all the help they have provided, and I sincerely hope I will be able to share what I have learned with other educators in the future.”

“I really enjoyed spending my summer working through the CITL’s Online Course Development grant program. Being a part of this program allowed me the time, space, and structure to develop a thoughtful, student-centered course. Eric and the CITL team helped me refine my course goals, develop a variety of assessments, and streamlined my course structure to be more user-friendly. I really appreciated the Eric’s willingness to meet with me, provide me constructive feedback, and keep me on a productive schedule. I believe both my students and I will have a great experience in my online course thanks to the grant program and the CITL staff.”

“During the spring semester of 2017, I worked with the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning (CITL) to create an online section of PSYC260 – Introduction to Developmental Psychology for the following summer. Creating an online class from scratch involves a lot of work, but Eric Simkins, who I worked with at CITL, made the process much easier. Specifically, Eric provided many great inputs on how to set up the course to suit online teaching. His assistance with D2L and other technology was also invaluable. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to work with him, and would recommend his expertise in online teaching to anyone who is interested in creating online course materials.”

“The staff of CITL are wonderful. Lindsay is so collaborative and willing to offer new programs to engage the faculty and staff on campus. Sara is always so positive and supportive; making sure every detail of your experience is in place. Eric and Sean were extremely competent and patient instructors when I needed assistance with creating a Qualtrics survey or on-line registration tool. They were always willing to help and encouraged me throughout the process.

The Qualtrics Workshop I attended provided me with the basic tools I needed to begin to create a satisfaction survey to send out to all new students at UWSP. Before I sent the survey, Sean and Eric helped me make the instrument visually appealing and more efficient. After the survey was complete, they provided me with the assistance needed to analyze the data and create understandable charts and tables to present to campus. Overall, the experience was very positive and I will definitely use Qualtrics for surveys in the future.

The new CITL classroom is a great space to hold a workshop for 15-20 people. The space allows you to connect with your audience while using the latest in technology, including individual tablets that are available for use in the room. I recently held a Careers and Coffee workshop in the new space and felt like it allowed you to connect with your audience so true interactive teaching and learning could occur.”

“I am writing to express my appreciation for the fantastic support I received from CITL in the spring semester and summer of 2017 as I prepared to offer a course online for the first time. Eric did a fantastic job of meeting me where I was. He learned about the specifics of my course (no easy task) and was able to offer eminently useful suggestions on a timeline that worked for me. What CITL offers faculty is more than just technical support in preparing online content — they offer the minds of skilled teachers who are at home in thinking about how online learning environments work. Both my online course and my teaching in general greatly benefitted from my work with CITL.”

“Eric Simkins from the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning did a terrific job in helping me convert one of my face to face classes to an online class. He helped me understand the fundamentals of online class design and was especially helpful in teaching me the technical tools necessary to launch the class. The online format allowed many more students to access the class. Online, I feel, is especially good for Winterim and Summer school classes.”

“The faculty at CITL were a vital component in the creation, design and implementation of my new online course. Eric Simkins was able to facilitate every aspect of the design of my course beginning with articulating the big picture concepts to unpacking those ideas into specific course learning goals. His guidance allowed me to think of new and creative ways to address my course learning outcomes. This systematic manner of designing the course not only allowed me to reevaluate the most important concepts in the course but also allowed me to scaffold authentic and active student learning strategies and do so through an online platform. Sean Ruppert was able suggest technology to supplement and facilitate those learning outcomes and provided the technical resources to transfer my pedagogical goals to actual course assignments, tasks and projects. CITL faculty members were engaged and eager to assist in the entire design of the course while still allowing me academic freedom to implement my own ideas. They were able to offer tips for making my lessons more inclusive to all learning styles and challenges. Through the process of developing my online course and working with CITL on a regular basis, I was able to use these lessons learned to enhance and improve my in-person course. While the process of designing an online course is lengthy, I feel that with the assistance of CITL, the process was less arduous; my pedagogical approach became more effective, and my abilities as a teacher greatly improved.”

“I worked with the CITL team to develop an online Spanish 101 course for the Summer 2017 term. The team was very helpful in answering my questions, addressing my concerns, and guiding my thoughts throughout the creation of the course. I gained many insights on how I could improve as an instructor in an online environment as we met on a weekly basis. I am confident that working with the CITL team allowed me to create an online course that provided a much better experience for my students than if I had developed the course on my own.”

“I write to recommend the work of the whole CITL team, especially Eric Simkins and Sean Ruppert. That CITL team transformed me from one of those people on the wrong side of the digital divide to a faculty member who is now quite comfortable on the functional side of that divide. In more specific terms, they helped me to go online this past summer with my Biomedical Writing course, English 391, which I offered for university credit through Continuing Education. Eric Simkins, to whom I was assigned and who served as my mentor in the process, shared with me not only his technical expertise but also his experience as a teacher (of off-line and on-line courses). This is to say that he not only spent many hours over three-or-four months helping to get my online course ready to go in terms of sculpting the course’s digital landscape; he also helped me with issues related to the theory and practice of how to on-line teaching should be done to achieve the most positive outcomes for students.

In addition, I must give a “shout out” to Sean Ruppert, who was invaluable as the go-to person when complex technical difficulties reared their many heads.

Both Eric and Sean always made themselves available, were always encouraging, and were always pleasant—even though they were busy with many other faculty.

The contributions that the CITL team made to my “going on-line” greatly benefitted me as well as the university—as the now digital presence of my Biomedical Writing course (which I also offer in a traditional classroom format in the spring semesters) allowed me to reach a wider range of students than our own matriculating student body here at UWSP—for example, incoming students to the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.”