May 2009 training opportunities with your host Kelley Davis

Experiential Learning with your host Kwame Rakes

"Need to Know" with Lena Maslennikova

All May 2009 training opportunities have come-and-gone, but don't despair! CTL currently has some great classes on the schedule. Register for all training opportunities via the Regent Training System (RTS). Go there now

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eNews: An instructional resource for Regent's faculty.
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Did you know that you can use scenarios, digital game-based learning, role plays, and student-created stories to enhance your students' learning? When students are engaged in course content and can imagine situations and empathize with characters in stories, deep learning occurs.

The Learning Landscapes Series course entitled "Experiential Learning" will discuss why storytelling and scenarios work. In addition, you'll learn about digital storytelling and its promotion of student-created course content.

Finally, you'll learn how to build your own storytelling scenarios. And throughout the course, you'll discuss your ideas about experiential learning with your colleagues.

The course is just an hour long and takes place on Wimba Live Classroom. So, go ahead and experience some new learning strategies and register for the Experiential Learning course today. Visit the RTS webpage at regent.edu/rts for more information. Now you know!

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The QEP Connection with Dr. Mihai Bocarnea

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How does our Christian worldview inform our definition of global competence? Well, in Matthew 22: 37-40, Jesus says: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. This commandment is fundamental to my understanding an practice of global competence.

Global competence involves awareness of self and engagement with others in the tumultuous context of different worldviews and cultures across socioeconomic, political, and cultural boundaries. To me, being globally competent means to always be ready and willing to live out the biblical commandment of loving my neighbor as myself.

This may come as a big surprise to you, but there are NO Regent courses which are purely on-campus! That's right! Every single course at Regent is either a distance course, or a hybrid course. By "hybrid," I mean it has on-campus and online components to it.

You see, every course offered by Regent is first registered in Banner. Banner then automatically creates a Blackboard shell for each course.

A shell is basically a course container created to serve as a point of communication between you and your students, to serve as a repository for materials without overloading anyone's email accounts. But why does Regent automatically create an online shell for an on-campus course?

Here is what you need to know.

It's because of Blackboard's powerful features! With a Blackboard shell you can:

1) Create a Gradebook so your students may check on their progress at any time

2) Post announcements that all your students will see instantly. Let them know of a change before they come to next week's class with the click of a button!

3) Post your in-class lecture notes so students can later reinforce your content. This is a real life-save for students who might have missed a session!

4) Create quizzes in Blackboard that help students prepare for their mid-term or final exams! And save your questions for the next time you offer the course!

5) Have your students submit their assignments in the Blackboard course, where everything will be securely stored for your grading and feedback. Assignments will be tied to your Gradebook, thus simplifying the grading process!

6) With a Blackboard shell, students can easily contact you and each other, providing them with an easy way to stay connected outside the class session.

Check out the other features of your Blackboard shell! It's already there for you, so why not give it a try? If you'd like more assistance, CTL's Blackboard Certification course is an easy way to explore how you can utilize your Blackboard shells for your on-campus classes!