Welcome back for Spring 2024! I’m looking forward to seeing you all at our Spring Kickoff (FKA In-Service!) and am incredibly proud to share this semester’s line-up of breakout sessions – nearly 40 offerings over two days facilitated by faculty and staff from across the College. Sessions range from 50-minute presentations to 3-hour experiential learning opportunities, and include in-person, online, and hybrid options.

Wednesday Breakout Session Schedule: https://bit.ly/wed-1-17
Thursday Breakout Session Schedule: https://bit.ly/thu-1-18

What’s new this semester?

“Kickoff“
You may have noticed that we’re not using the term “in-service” this semester to describe the three days of programming that start off the term. Instead, we’re kicking things off and – I hope – setting you up for success for the year to come.

Themes & Audience Tags
All of the breakout sessions are tagged in two ways: theme and audience. The session themes – Adaptation, Disruption, and Transformation – correspond with the major themes in the book The Great Upheaval and highlight the perspectives and approaches of session facilitators. Audience tags have been added to help direct and include all COD employees to sessions that might be the most relevant to them.

Half-Day Institutes
Half-Day Institutes are back! For anyone interested in a deep-dive on a topic, these three-hour sessions are for you. Half-Day Institutes run from 1 PM to 4 PM.

Faculty have two Half-Day sessions to choose from on Wednesday: OER Foundations: How to Find and Use Open Educational Resources in SRC 3114 (Library); and Technology @ COD in TEC 1038. Please note that the session facilitators for Technology @ COD are requesting attendees to RSVP for this event in Cornerstone.

On Thursday, Faculty are invited to attend Doing Dual Credit in BIC 3425.

Cornerstone Agenda
In addition to the traditional breakout session agendas, you can also access the schedule of events in Cornerstone. Simply click on Events Calendar – we recommend selecting the Agenda view for an hour-by-hour listing of daily events and their locations.

QR Code Sign-Ins
Session sign-ins are going digital this year. All attendees will have a unique QR code on their Kickoff badges which can scanned at breakout sessions. Why do we ask you to sign in? Sign-in sheets allow session facilitators to reach out to attendees after the fact with links to presentations and follow up materials. Tracking attendance also allows us to identify topic trends and help us plan for future faculty development.

Professional Development Hours
Up to 2 hours of PDH will be available to full-time faculty for attending breakout sessions. More information on this will be forthcoming from the Provost’s Office.

Questions or Comments?

If you have any questions about the breakout sessions – prior to or after they begin – you can reach out to me at kelleyj@cod.edu. As I will be attending and facilitating sessions on Wednesday and Thursday between 1pm and 4pm, I won’t be able to address any emails during the events.

You can find the full 3-day event schedule for Spring Kickoff online at
https://www.cod.edu/kickoff