Summer: Relax, Rejuvenate then Reorganize with WolfSNAPS

Summer means soaking up the sun, eating your weight in Howling Cow ice cream…and prepping courses for the new academic year. Whether you’re polishing up existing courses or designing new ones, these tasks can be more achievable if you tackle them in small steps. 

DELTA staff created several short, self-paced, fully asynchronous online course design training sessions to help you out. Each WolfSNAPS (Short, Nimble, Asynchronous Pedagogy Series) session is an actionable introduction to a foundational concept in online course design created to be quick and flexible.

You can access templates, tips and resources designed for immediate use. These flexible training sessions were designed to support best practices for every skill level from graduate students and first-time online instructors to experienced ones seeking to learn new tips and tricks.

Eight of the WolfSNAPS sessions fall under the Online Course Design Series umbrella. These sessions are inspired by the eight Quality Matters General Standards. They contain many of the templates, approaches and resources created by DELTA’s Course Quality team as part of the Course Improvement Grant and Course Essentials Grant. 

Topics for these sessions include: 

• Setting Up for Success
• Engaging Students with Online Active Learning
• Guiding Students to Success with a Course Map
• Writing Effective Learning Objectives
• Providing Powerful Online Learning Materials
• Choosing Technology that Works for Your Students
• Measuring Learning
• Reaching All Learners. 

The most recent WolfSNAPS session, Inclusive Teaching, offers 35 bite-sized tips for engaging with empathy and flexibility, providing equity and equal representation in the student experience, and cultivating connection and community in your online or hybrid course. The strategies were collated from research literature and best practice guides created by special interest groups and higher education institutions. 

In any WolfSNAPS session, you can choose what topic you want to cover and work at your own pace — there are different options for participating. At the most basic level, you can quickly work through the short, interactive content to pick up some ideas. If you want to spend a little more time, you can access templates and resources that will help you use the information in your courses. 

You might choose to work through some practice exercises or complete a short application exercise to apply what you have learned. If you complete and submit the application exercise (the “assessment”), you will receive a certificate of completion. If you complete the assessment for all eight sessions in the course design series, you will earn a digital badge that you can include in your course, email and online presence to demonstrate your commitment to quality online teaching. 

Your journey on each topic also doesn’t have to end with a completion certificate or badge. If you’d like to develop more in-depth expertise on any WolfSNAPS topic, each session has a  Keep Learning section that can direct you to next-step opportunities at DELTA, Office of Faculty Excellence (OFE), Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity (OIED), or NC State University Libraries.

What are Instructors Saying About WolfSNAPS?

“The WolfSNAPS sessions provide valuable resources and practical tips in a brief format. I took the Reaching All Learners session and used it to complete the Usability & Accessibility Checklist for the updated BIT 479/579 High-throughput Discovery course. The session and accompanying tools helped me learn about accessibility and campus resources, and I was able to prioritize and address potential issues as we developed new course materials. This process ultimately led to improvements in the course!”

– Carlos Goller, Associate Teaching Professor, Biotechnology Program (BIT)

“Participating in the WolfSNAP series made me more attentive to the intricacies of teaching in a virtual environment. For example, prior to this training, I have never given serious consideration to the font, formatting, and text color of my teaching materials. However, since engaging with these learning series, I have become more intentional about ensuring my teaching materials are accessible for all students.” 

– Mario M. Jackson, Doctoral Candidate, Educational Leadership, Policy and Human Development

You can explore the WolfSNAPS topics and self-register by going to REPORTER and searching for “WolfSNAPS.” Sign up for a few sessions today and get started whenever you’re ready. And enjoy the “wolf days of summer!”