Workshops
OpenLab Handbook, Support section
Workshops are a major part of what we do and a good way to interact with our users. Below are some best practices for scheduling and managing them along with the agendas associated with each workshop. Be aware, however, that the attendees for each workshop won’t necessarily be the assumed target audience. With that in mind, take the agendas as a framework and not a set-in-stone procedure. Improvisation is always required and since the main purpose of these workshops is both to train our users to use the OpenLab and build community around the platform itself, our approach should always be as adaptable to the users themselves as possible.
Created by Andrew McKinney, 2017.
Scheduling Procedure 2
General Scheduling Protocol 2
Room Booking 3
RSVP Procedure 3
Other Workshop Logistics 3
Sign-In 3
Feedback Form 3
Adjunct Compensation 4
Staffing 4
Faculty workshops 4
Getting Started on the Openlab 4
Purpose 4
Agenda 5
Using Your Site as a Dynamic Syllabus 6
Purpose 6
Agenda 7
Designing and Assessing Student Work on the OpenLab 8
Purpose 8
Topics covered 8
Agenda 8
Cloning/Reorganizing Your Site 11
Purpose 11
Agenda 11
Openlab Open Hour 12
Purpose 12
Student workshops 12
Getting Started on the Openlab 13
Purpose 13
Agenda 13
Openlab Tools, Tips, and Tricks 14
Purpose 14
Agenda 14
Presenting Yourself Online 15
Purpose 15
Agenda 15
Club workshop 16
Scheduling Procedure
How to schedule workshops.
General Scheduling Protocol
We generally run workshops in two separate time frames: pre-semester and during the semester.
The pre-semester workshops are for faculty and staff only and run in the week before classes start until a couple of days before classes start. This sometimes changes (as the first day of classes is sometimes earlier in the week) but we have traditionally run 7 workshops in August and January respectively. The breakdown of these vary, but we offer all 4 of the faculty/staff workshops and try to offer a least 1 advanced workshop twice. The pre-semester workshops are generally scheduled with one full day of workshops (10 am to 4 pm) and two days of two workshops each. For example, in Fall 2016 classes started on the Thursday 8/25. We ran three workshops on Tuesday 8/16, two workshops on Thursday 8/18, and two workshops on Tuesday 8/23.
The during the semester workshop schedule includes both faculty/staff workshops and student workshops. We have generally run 5 faculty workshops and 4 student workshops per semester. The faculty and student workshops are run back to back to ease scheduling concerns. Student workshops generally run on Thursdays from 1-2 as this is Club Hour for students but we have traditionally offered 1 workshop on a Tuesday (paired with a faculty workshop) to try to reach students who are busy during Club Hour. Two faculty/staff workshops and one student workshop are offered in the first 2 weeks of classes, generally focusing on basics. The end of the first month or beginning of the second month of classes, the third month, and the last month will each have one workshop for faculty and staff and for students, focusing on more advanced skills. The last faculty workshop is an open hour with no agenda.
Room Booking
See Administration — Room Reservation — Workshops.
RSVP Procedure
We do not ask students to RSVP for workshops but faculty and staff can RSVP one of two ways. Faculty and staff often RSVP via email to the OpenLab account (see Support — E-mail for that procedure). Faculty and staff can also RSVP via a Gravity Form on the Open Road which is linked to in the general outreach email and the posters. If a faculty member has RSVP’d via email, CT members should fill out a Gravity Form entry to log the RSVP, so that all RSVPs are in the same place. Community Team members can check the number sign-ups by going to Forms –>Forms in the Dashboard of the Open Road. Once in the list of forms, find the form that corresponds to the workshop you’re looking for and click on the number in the “Entries” column. Note that faculty often sign up twice by accident so the number might be inflated. Also, an RSVP is in no way a guarantee of attendance. Often faculty sign up for all the workshops once the schedule for the semester or pre-semester workshops are announced and then either attend one or none. It is rare, however, that faculty come to a workshop without having RSVP’d, so the RSVP number generally represents the upper limit of possible attendance.
Other Workshop Logistics
Sign-ins, feedback, payment, and staffing.
Sign-In
Before heading to the designated workshop room, make sure one of the facilitators drops by Charlie’s office to get the folder that contains the sign-in form and flyers for upcoming workshops. This folder should also have copies of the agendas in it. Make sure that workshop attendees (both faculty and student) sign-in as this is a vital part of our record keeping process.
Feedback Form
The feedback form for faculty and staff workshops is a google form that is linked to from the Sandbox project used for workshops and has a tinyurl link: tinyurl.com/OpenLabWorkshop. Save time at the end of each workshop to direct faculty and staff towards it. The results of the survey are accessible here.
The student feedback form is still a paper handout, copies of which will be in the folder.
Adjunct Compensation
At the start of each faculty/staff workshop, make sure that part-time faculty have provided their EmplIDs on the sign-in sheet (if they do not know their EmplID they will need to email it to the OpenLab email account; the EmplID is needed in order to process payment). Adjuncts are compensated at adjunct teaching rate (roughly $40/hour), so for an hour and half workshop they are compensated approximately $60, depending on their rate. Payments will be made by the college by the end of the semester.
