Create a Blaze "Blazing a trail of student success with resources, support & innovation."

Celebrate good times, come on!

It is hard to believe that we officially began the Bb Ultra UGRAD course conversion process well over two years ago. Thanks to the hard work and incredible efforts of so, so many, our final wave of courses will be complete and ready to roll for the 2024 Spring Semester. To date, 54 programs have fully converted all courses and General Education only has six courses remaining. Our current course conversion rate overall is nearing 700, with approximately 70 to go. Impressive or what? Work with the best, try our best, be the best!

As this specific Northwood Technical College EVOLVE XXIII Strategic Plan Action comes to an end, or rather a new beginning, here are a few things to note:

Wave #3 - Spring 2024

AI Design Assistant "Go Live!"

Anthology is introducing six new Bb Ultra features to enhance student engagement and accessibility while saving instructors time and effort. Northwood Tech will launch the second of these features on 12.4.2023.

Drumroll please...introducing AI Design Assistant, our newest Ultra feature flavor. It is available to all, with individual choices to apply or not. Always remember to evaluate AI-generated content for accuracy and relevance. Check it out!

Please watch the 1.13-minute video to learn more about Bb AI Design Assistant.

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iTLC AI Sub-Committee

Insights & Advancements

Focus: AI Teaching & Learning Integration & Best Practices

• Benefits & Challenges
• Practical Application
• Tools, Resources & Training
• Academic Policy & Syllabi Statement

DRAFT: AI Syllabus Statement

Your feedback is requested

All are encouraged to review the AI Syllabus Statement below and complete the brief survey provided by 12.13.23.

More AI Learning

Are you new to AI and curious to learn more? Are you wondering how to help students develop the skills they need to be successful in an AI-enabled future? AI literacy involves developing competencies to assess the accuracy and biases of AI technologies and to communicate effectively with them. Check out the article recommendation from Nicky Ellet-Petersen, Faculty Developer, from CourseHero’s Faculty Club, Teaching AI Literacy, for five strategies to teach AI literacy. Additional resources include the iTLC AI Blog and AI Homepage.

Assessment: A New Hope

The Assessment of Student Learning (ASL) Team is bringing things full circle.

While the team has focused on planning and building in its first few years, this academic year, program faculty are reporting assessment results to the ASL Team, providing plans that use assessment to improve teaching and learning, thus, closing the assessment loop. The reports are part of a three-year assessment schedule, focusing on using TSA-program outcome assessment results to improve student success.

At the September ASL Team meeting, Accounting faculty identified areas of improvement and reported a change to how program-level assessments will be administered. Faculty also focused on additional supports to improve student success.

“While we were preparing for our presentation, we reflected on our efforts over the past few years and were able to see how our small, incremental changes really affected student learning,” said Ben Strege, Accounting Instructor. “Often, we are focused on the moment and on the things we have to do right now, but this allowed us to view the bigger picture and see how it all fits together.”

The reports to the ASL Team include the results of the most recent TSA-program outcomes assessments, an analysis of the results, and plans to improve teaching and learning based on the results.

When the Criminal Justice Studies program reported to the ASL Team in October, faculty focused on the development of a handbook specifically designed for its students and a more personalized student orientation, better preparing them for the program.

“When you look on paper, we have 100% students passing our TSA. However, we always are looking for ways to improve and prepare our students with the needed employability essentials skills,” said Kristen Vicker, Criminal Justice Studies Instructor. “The ability to listen to the presentations from other programs provides us with ideas and strategies we might use in our program.”