Instructional Technology Training

The Instructional Technology department provides a variety of in-person and online training to faculty, instructors, staff, and students. 

D2L Essentials

A 2-hour workshop gets you started using D2L for online, hybrid, and remote classes.  Attendees learn how to add news announcements, upload content, create discussions, and setup the gradebook. 

D2L Essentials Details

Level:   Beginner, Time Commitment:  2 Hours.  Format:  Synchronous Format delivered in-person.

Accessibility 101

Accessibility 101:  This hybrid workshop goes into basic information on how to make accessible materials for your courses along with the plan and requirements for the institution. 

Accessibility 101 Details

Level:  beginner, Time Commitment: 4 Hours of Professional Development Reimbursement Available, Format:  Hybrid: 2 hours Synchronous format delivered in-person; 2 hours Asynchronous format delivered via D2L to be completed within two weeks of live session. 

Instructional Design and Innovation Support

Interested in exploring innovations in teaching and learning? Using a new technology? Redesigning your instructional activities? Instructional Technology is here to help. The staff is knowledgeable in instructional design – the practice of organizing instructional media and content to help learners and faculty transfer knowledge more effectively. We have compiled a number of resources to help as you develop and teach your online, face-to-face, and hybrid courses.

Quality Enhancement Resources
Quality Matters

Red Rocks Community College understands that the instructor makes the difference in student learning experiences.  Our students deserve a dynamic learning experience online and the outcomes are the same as face-to-face courses.  In addition to academic credentials, a number of our instructors who teach online have completed Quality Matters (QM)™ training.

Quality Matters is a faculty-centered process that is designed to ensure the quality of online and hybrid courses.  QM is a leader in quality assurance for online education and has received national recognition for its peer-based, collegial, and collaborative approach to assuring continuous improvement in online education and student learning.

Don’t wait until your course is already designed to learn about QM standards!  Examine the Red Rocks Community College Online Course Standards Review Checklist, which is a QM-based rubric that was created by a faculty-led committee to help ensure that online and hybrid courses meet the highest quality standards.  Instructional Designers are available in the Instructional Design and Innovation Center (IDIC) to help you evaluate your course, and ensure that it meets RRCC quality standards.

Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for teaching and learning that addresses the widest possible variety of learning needs, styles, and preferences.  It recognizes that each of us has preferred modes of receiving and processing information or demonstrating knowledge and abilities.  The importance for Universal Design for Learning cannot be understated as the CCCS president, Nancy McCallin, provided the following message in the presidential procedure:

“The Colorado Community College System is committed to facilitating access to its Colleges’ instruction, communication, and businesses for the broadest possible audience. CCCS strives to employ principles of Universal Design and the use of the World Wide Web Consortium’s WCAG 2.0 standards in the design, development, implementation, and enhancement, of all Web-based information and services.”

UDL reframes the concept of accessibility from "special features for a few" to good design throughout the program. It makes course content and activities accessible to people with a wide range of abilities, disabilities, ethnic backgrounds, language skills, and learning styles.

Course Accessibility

If you are a student with a disability, Red Rocks Community College has an outstanding Accessibility Services office. 

They support and assist students with physical, psychological, developmental and learning disabilities through appropriate accommodations and by acting as a resource for the college.  If you are a student in need of accommodations or  assistance, visit the Accessibility Services page.

This page is intended to provide resources to help faculty and staff develop web accessible content. Accessibility information for students taking online courses can be found on the Accessibility Services webpage.

Red Rocks Community College's Web Accessibility Procedure states that all web-based information for use by faculty, staff, students, prospective students, and the public must be accessible. In implementing this procedure, RRCC faculty and staff will employ principles of Universal Design and the World Wide Web Consortium's WCAG 2.0 standards in the design, development, implementation, and enhancement of all web-based information and services.

Best Practices

A group of Red Rocks Community College staff and faculty have compiled a short list of Best Practices for Accessible Course Design.  This cheat sheet is intended to provide a brief summary of key accessibility issues that need to be addressed when producing any course related content.  The Accessibility Guides below will help you to implement these best practices.  While you are addressing accessibility needs for your coworkers and students, it might help to review our guide that looks at Why We Need Web Accessibility. If you need help ensuring that your course content or web based files are accessible stop by Instructional Technology.  We're here to help!

Accessibility Guidelines

These guidelines are based on the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) WCAG 2.0 AA standards, which will help make your content more accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, and combinations of these disabilities.

D2L

A step by step instruction guide

Word

A step by step instruction guide

PowerPoint

A step by step instruction guide

Adobe

A step by step instruction guide

Our Team

Nicholas Oliveira

Technical Support Analyst

Jordan A Reece

Director
303-914-6603