Collin College Podcast

In this episode, Mark sits down with Collin's CFO, Melissa Irby, to talk about how Workday will streamline a large number of the day-to-day processes at Collin. During our chat we discuss her role, along with the role of others in the Workday initiative, how Workday will impact and streamline the processes that are currently handled by CougarMart, TimeClockPlus, and CougarTravel. Also covered are the various types of information, data, and reports that Workday will allow faculty and staff to visualize, and the devices that they can be accessed from. At the end, we explore the features of Workday that Melissa is the most excited about.

Additional Resources Discussed in this Episode

Workday - Official Workday Website

Collin Workday Microsoft Team - Join the Collin Welcome 2 Workday Team

Join us for our first episode of the Workday Series of the podcast!

In this week's episode, Mark sits down with the Chief Information Technology Officer at Collin College, David Hoyt to talk about Workday. We scope out what Workday is, why Collin chose to make the switch, the anticipated deployment date, and what it means for Collin staff, faculty, and students. Dave also takes some time to talk about the features and functions of Workday that have made him a fan of it.

Additional Resources Discussed in this Episode

Workday - Official Workday Website

Collin Workday Microsoft Team - Join the Collin Welcome 2 Workday Team

In this week's episode of the podcast, Mark sits down with Summer Helm and Francis Choy of the eLC. Francis and Summer are experts on just about everything as it applies to accessibility and compliance. During the episode we talk about why accessibility is important for all users, not just a few, and we take a deeper look at the many ways that a course may not meet accessibility needs. With their wealth of knowledge, the guests breakdown some of the more common mistakes that are made when curating course content and they also discuss many of the low-hanging fruits that faculty can begin to assess today if they are wanting to work towards having a course that is more accessible. Finally, Mark asks his guests to talk about some of their biggest challenges and successes as they have worked towards creating their own content of faculty content that is more accessible. 

Technologies discussed

Blackboard Ally - https://www.blackboard.com/teaching-learning/accessibility-universal-design/blackboard-ally-lms

Canvas Studio - https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-9669-50736467895

Canvas Accessibility Checker - https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-26400-how-do-i-use-the-accessibility-checker-in-the-rich-content-editor-as-an-instructor

Windows 10 Accessibility Features - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows?activetab=pivot_1:primaryr2

Microsoft Office Accessibility Features - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/office?activetab=pivot_1%3aprimaryr2

MacOS Accessibility Features - https://www.apple.com/accessibility/mac/vision/

ReadSpeaker - https://www.readspeaker.com

Dragon Speech Recognition - https://www.nuance.com/dragon.html

WebAIM - https://webaim.org

WAVE Accessibility Evaluation Tool - https://wave.webaim.org

In this week's episode, members of the department of strategic initiatives at Collin sit down with some of the Virtual Campus Faculty Fellows to discuss how the Spring semester went for them. During our discussion, we breakdown successes that the faculty celebrated, and challenges that they encountered as they progressed through the semester. Additionally, they talk about some of the key pieces of software that they used as they proceeded through the semester.

In this week's episode the Department of Strategic Initiatives team sits down to discuss the lessons that were learned during the shelter in place. Some of the more important lessons included:

So join us as we explore the things the challenges and successes of our time working remotely, and the things that we have missed and will once again enjoy as we return to the office.

In this week's episode, Mark takes a trip down memory lane to when he first started working at Collin College. As he moves through the podcast, he recalls various times when he was able to identify a need that his students had, and select the appropriate tool to address that need. From creating lecture videos and review sessions, to discussing how a podcast can be turned into a useful feed of information that students can use as a way of studying while they commute, Mark covers some of the most commonly requested features that he faced during his time as a lecturer at Collin.

In this week's episode Mark sits down with Kasie Moon, the assistant graphic designer in the department of strategic initiatives to talk all things design. Join us as we discuss the laws and principles that encompass good design, and how these principles can be applied to Powerpoint presentations and Canvas courses.

After talking about how we would go about creating or preparing our assets for implementation, we also then discuss the different file formats that we could use for our assets and what the advantages and disadvantages are for each.

Reference's in this week's episode

Cognitive Overhead - How many logical connections or jumps your brain has to make in order to understand or contextualize the thing you’re looking at? Read more about Cognitive Overhead

Hick’s Law - The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices. Read more about Hick's Law

Jackob’s Law - Principle of usability ((described by Jakob Nielsen)) that recommends the use of familiar patterns in design in order to facilitate user-experience, because users prefer it when a site works in the same way as all the other sites they already know. Read more about Jackob's Law

Law of Pragnanz - People will perceive complex information in the simplest forms possible. Read more about Law of Pragnanz

Law of Similarity - People perceive elememts together based on type and color. Read more about Law of Similarity

Serial Position Effect - We best remember the first and last items in a series. Read more about the Serial Position Effect

Show Me What You're Working With Apps

Affinity App Suite - Creative Suite that allows for image manipulation and asset creation. Download the Affinity App Suite for Windows, MacOS, or iPadOS

Sketch - Asset and Layout Design Tool for MacOS. Download Sketch for MacOS

Font Awesome - A webfont library of over 7,000 icons. Download any icon as an SVG file. Visit FontAwesome Website.

Assembly - Icon and asset creation tool for iOS. Download the Assembly App for iOS

In this week's episode Mark sits down to discuss the changes that have happened the rich content editor of Canvas. For those of you who haven't heard of this element before or maybe didn't know its name, the Rich Content Editor (RCE for short) is the blog-like interface that appears on Pages, Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussion Boards in Canvas, and allows instructors and students to curate and insert content. Recently, Instructure, the creators of Canvas issued a huge update for the Rich Content Editor that brings with it a fresh approach to its User Interface and User Experience.

Mark talks through not only the changes that happened to the RCE, and his suspicions as to why they happened, but he also dives, head-first, into the concepts of User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) Design. As he explores the definitions, best-practices, and methodologies of both of these critical components in software development he also attempts to edify the significant changes in the RCE as they apply to both UI and UX. 

So buckle up and enjoy this week's episode as we explore UI, UX, and how they apply to the RCE.

Reference's in this week's episode

Canvas Guides - "What is the Rich Content Editor?" Want to read up a bit more on the RCE in Canvas? Check out this article in the official Canvas Guides on the Rich Content Editor. Read the Guide on the RCE

Canvas Guides - "The New Rich Content Editor" Want to see the changes that happened with the RCE in video form? Instructure has also produced the following video on the new RCE. Watch the New RCE Video

Webflow Blog - "UX vs UI: key differences every designer should know," read this illuminating article on the principle differences and touchstones of UI and UX design. Read the Webflow Article

UX Honeycomb - This Medium article discusses the UX Honeycomb and breaks down the different components of it. Read Medium Article on UX Honeycomb

Asana - Task management application with a Unicorn animation when some tasks are completed as a means of enhancing the user experience. Asana Website

Steve Job's Keynote for iPhone (2007) - Watch the video of the original iPhone's debut wherein Steve Job's discusses what makes the iPhone a "revolutionary new product"

Show Me What You're Working With Apps

Microsoft Office App - Download the all new MS Office App for iOS, Download the all new MS Office App for Android

In this week's episode, Mark sits down with eLC members Ann Blackman (Director of the Collin eLearning Centers) and Brad Hennigan (Instructional Designer, Plano eLearning Center) to discuss online proctoring. During our dialogue, we discuss some of the most frequently asked questions that the eLC fields when it comes to proctoring online exams, solutions we have used in the past, and the advantages of our current solution, HonorLock. Additionally, we take a deep dive into faculty and student testing scenarios within HonorLock, and breakdown what happens at any given point during each scenario. What's more, Ann and Brad shed some light on some of the HonorLock successes and challenges that have been brought to the eLC by both faculty and students.

A huge thanks again to Brad and Ann for their time and perspective in this week's episode, and all of the members of the eLC who have provided countless hours of support and training to the Collin College faculty and students.

Apps & Resources Discussed in the Podcast:

HonorLock - Honorlock website

Show Me What You're Working With Apps:

FindTime - Send meeting-time polls to other Office 365 users, and, when an agreed upon time is received, the app automagically schedules the meeting for that time. Learn more on the FindTime Website.

Calendly - Need to have a vendor set a meeting time with you, but don't want to go through the back and forth of finding a day and time that do/don't work for the both of you? Hook Calendly up to your Office 365 email account, and then just send the link to your calendar to the vendor. Calendly Website, iOS App, Android App

In this week's episode of the Collin College Continuity Podcast Mark talks about automation applications and the ways in which they can streamline our workflows. Specifically, Mark discusses the different uses of IFTTT, Zapier, and Microsoft's Power Automate, with a primary focus on Power Automate. Not only does Power Automate empower Office 365 users with the ability to streamline workflows, but it can also significantly reduce the number of applications that a user has to access on a daily basis, and it also allows a user to pass data acquired by one application to another.

Microsoft Power Automate - Website, iOS App, Android App

IFTTT - Website, iOS App, Android App

Zapier - Website

Microsoft Power Automate Documentation - Read up on how to best utilize the tools that Power Automate provides with the official Microsoft PA Documentation.

Show Me What You're Working With Apps:

Shortcuts App - iOS App

Google Action Blocks - Google Blog Post