Continue your journey. We’ll help.
We support you! Providing faculty and staff with teaching and technology help is what we do. Please explore our site for tools and resources to help you in your professional development. If you find you still have questions, contact us at cci@potsdam.edu to open a support ticket. We’ll do our best to respond promptly and even schedule a follow-up meeting with you if needed. If you’re interested in collaborative discussion, join the Creative Instructors Community team and post your thoughts and questions in the Professional Development and Brightspace channels (watch Joining a Microsoft Teams with a code – 01:16, code n9v5whd).
Come by each week and check out our Featured section. We’ll post on important CCI news and highlight new functionality available on your favorite program or app. (Week 5 – 09/25/23)
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Like Email, the Internet, and Online Meetings, the use of LLM (Large Language Model) tools will become part of our daily working and learning life. As with any tool, learning to use it properly is the key to maximizing its potential effectiveness. Watch the “You’re using it wrong” video to learn how to “prep” your prompting to get the best results.
More Prompting Tips
ChatGPT is an incredible tool. Watch Master the Perfect ChatGPT Prompt Formula – 08:29 for detailed instructions on how to craft effective prompts. You’ll learn prompting structure and hierarchy of importance in designing your prefect prompt.
Posted on Week 4
Keep Teams from Lagging
Microsoft Teams is an extremely powerful app, but (to be honest) it’s a resource hog (demanding a strong internet connection and a robust computer). While a new, super-fast version of Teams is scheduled to be released at the end of the year (which will address many performance issues), you can still seamlessly share your videos and presentations with your “audience” if you follow these simple steps (watch How to present videos in Microsoft Teams meetings WITHOUT LAG – 06:17).
New SUPER FAST Teams
Change is coming!! Teams will soon be 2x faster and require significantly fewer computer resources to run (watch FIRST LOOK at the NEW Microsoft Teams App – 09:29). In addition, features like Copilot (AI) and Loop (real-time collaboration) will soon be added. Change is happening fast and the CCI will help you explore these fantastic new tools as they come online.
Posted on Week 3
Forms Overview
Microsoft Forms is a simple, lightweight web-app that lets you create surveys and polls. It has straightforward branching and skip-logic functionality and can be used with Power Automate to create automatic approvals and complex email notifications. Watch Microsoft Forms | The Right Way to Design a Questionnaire – 06:47 for a quick overview.
More about MS Forms
For those that have been using Qualtics for surveys, Microsoft Forms (and Power Automate) provide many of the same tools and features. Please check out the recently updated Forms section in Tech Tools for helpful resources.
Posted on Week 2
Brightspace Notifications
Communication in Brightspace is vital! Whether you’re an instructor or student, watch this Brightspace Notifications video – 02:40 to learn how to adjust your notification settings to get the information you need.
Posted on Week 1
Manage Tasks with To Do
Microsoft “To Do” is a great way to manage your tasks! To Do is integrated with Teams, Outlook, Outlook online, and Planner. Watch Microsoft To Do | Getting Things Done – 05:08 to get a quick overview.
More To Do
Accessing To Do can be done from within Outlook (by selecting the Checkmark icon on the left menu), in Teams (by adding the Tasks by Planner app), in M365 (by selecting the To Do app or in Outlook), or by installing the desktop version on your computer. However you choose to access To Do, watch How to use Microsoft To Do (2023) – 20:09 for an overall tour of this excellent tool.
Posted on Week: Summer 2B
Share update in OneDrive
Microsoft has made changes to the “Share” feature in OneDrive. Watch New OneDrive simplified sharing – 03:56 to see how to access the share settings to make changes to a link (e.g. how to change settings to create an “Anyone” link).
Cool OneDrive Tips
You have files and OneDrive is the best place to store them! Saving all your files to OneDrive allows you to access them from any location on a computer or device. Best of all, OneDrive automatically backs up the saved files. Watch Six Reasons Why OneDrive is Cool – 15:30 for handy tips including how to free up space on your computer for sync’d OneDrive files.
Record in M365: Find a complete guide to recording in Teams, Stream, and PowerPoint and sharing with OneDrive.
Base Camp- Find step-by-step guidance on what to learn first if you’re just starting to use technology.
Accessibility- Find resources and tools to help you create accessible content and courses.
Professional Development- Submit this form to request a specific PD session or to volunteer to deliver a session.
Brightspace- Find How-to guides and resources on Brightspace (used to deliver course content and instruction).
Mission & Goals
The mission and goals of each administrative unit have been compiled into one document. View Mission & Goals (PDF).