Enhancing Online Course Discussions through Conference Roles and Blogs.

What makes a good instructional video? (Shared by Dr. Michael Barbour

Strategies and Tips for Successful Online Teaching.

In this six-part series, SAGE author and education expert Dr. Linda Dale Bloomberg shares strategies and tips for successful online teaching. She covers multimodal strategies for synchronous and asynchronous delivery of content, shows how to engage students who may feel isolated or who may be struggling, discusses how to adopt an accessible and equitable instructional approach, and offers a handout that instructors can give to students on the first day of class with tips for student success in the online environment.

Creating a Culture of Caring: Practical Approaches for College and University Faculty to Support Student Wellbeing and Mental Health

Engaging Students Through Asynchronous Video-Based Discussions in Online Courses – EduCause Review

As growing numbers of students take online and hybrid courses, higher education institutions are looking for ways to cultivate and sustain engagement with students remotely. One method is the use of asynchronous video-based discussions, which offers unique opportunities for instructors and students.

Active Learning by Dr. Jim O’Connor

What Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Tell Us About Learning

What Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology Tell Us About Effective Learning

Canvas Tip of the Week (02 March 2020)

Creating Video-Based Instruction

Did you know that there are a variety of instructional videos related to Canvas on the CILT website?

Not a traditional “Canvas Tip of the Week” this week, but some specific information that is somewhat related to Canvas that I did want to pass along.  Over the past few days, the academic leadership team have been asked to ensure that all programs make plans to institute and use Zoom recordings, MediaSite, and Kaltura recordings as able.  All programs should ensure that course material is available to students on Canvas.  This will provide source material for students who require remediation due to short and long term illness.  These sources provide a digital platform to maintain didactic coursework should campus require closure.  As such, I wanted to pass along the following resources for faculty and staff.

Kaltura

Zoom

Box

Canvas

If I have missed any functions of features of these tools that you would like to have instructional videos for, please let me know.

In fact, you can access a full range of instructional videos related to Canvas that are specific to Touro University California at:

https://western.touro.edu/cilt/canvas/#faculty

Additionally, a week or two ago I received a notice of this webinar recording that I thought was relevant to pass along given the topic.

Accuracy Matters: Accessibility in Faculty-Created VideoJeanna Cronk
In our latest webinar, Co-Director of the Center for Excellence at Northwood University Jeanna Cronk shares ways to ensure faculty accurately caption their course videos.

For your convenience, here’s the full recording for you to review or to share with your colleagues. The webinar covers: 

  • Strategies to emphasize the importance of accessibility to faculty
  • New ways to use captioning tools in instructional videos
  • How student workers can help edit captions

Watch the Recording

Further, there was a recent podcast by a Canadian faculty development organization Teaching Strides entitled “Season 4, Episode 4: Flipped: how this “read first, lecture second” model makes Chemistry accessible.”  The podcast is described as:

Dr. Brett McCollum’s students loved his lectures so much that he stopped doing them. After realising that his students weren’t doing much reading outside of their classes, he wanted to introduce a new, problem solving-based approach. In a move to encourage them to read academic texts and engage with what they were learning, he developed the “flipped classroom.” In this episode, Dr. McCollum talks about the success of the approach and its benefits can be found outside of class and how it can encourage team building in a highly competitive discipline.

You may view the latest post at:

Teaching Strides
Academic Development Centre
Mount Royal University

Finally, all of the Canvas Tips of the Week are archived on the CILT website at https://western.touro.edu/cilt/canvas/#tips


March 2, 2020, Monday
8:00am – Canvas General Training Sessions (to register, click https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kV8F1Z0KSw21HZ_Dmq5Vjw )

March 4, 2020, Wednesday
10:00am – Canvas Basics: Making Sure You’re Compliant (to register, click https://zoom.us/meeting/register/vpEod-mgrDgsYDa0hTYwgAxC-RvYgOVb5A )

You can access the complete training schedule at https://touro-iits-dept.s3.amazonaws.com/canvas/calendar.html

The TCUS team has also introduced Touro’s One-to-One Canvas Tutorial Program.  The program is described as “we’re offering one-to-one Canvas tutorials to help you accomplish your goals with the Canvas LMS. Whether you’re just getting started with Canvas or have a unique challenge—we’re here to help.”

Click here to sign up for one-to-one Canvas Training

If you have questions, feel free to contact Michele Jenkins, Jim O’Connor or myself.

As a reminder, you can access TUC and TUN specific resources at the Center for Innovative Learning and Teaching website at:

https://western.touro.edu/cilt/canvas/

Canvas Tip of the Week (10 February 2020)

Getting to Know The Calendar

Did you know that there is an undated space on the student’s calendars?

The Calendar is a great way to view everything you have to do for all your courses in one place. You can view calendar events by day, week, month, or agenda list. The calendar also includes access to the Scheduler, which is an optional scheduling tool in Canvas.

The Calendar spans all courses and displays information for each of your enrolled courses and groups. In the navigation bar, you can choose to view the calendar in Week, Month, or Agenda view [1]. The view you choose dictates the style of the calendar window [2]. By default, the calendar appears in Month view.

The sidebar shows a quick-view calendar [3], your list of courses and groups, and undated items for your courses and groups.

To view the iCal link for exporting your Canvas calendar to other calendar apps, click the Calendar Feed link [4].

One of the features that most students miss is the UNDATED entries (number 3 in the above image).

Expanding the Undated items link will show you a list of events and assignments that are not dated. The assignments and events will be differentiated by icons and by the personal, course, or group calendar color. You can assign due dates to undated items by dragging and dropping them into the Calendar.

To learn more about all of the calendar features in Canvas, you can view the complete instructional guide here.  One nifty trick is to manually add entries to the calendar (as opposed to the automatically generated ones), and you can view that instructional guide here.

All of the Canvas Tips of the Week are archived on the CILT website at https://western.touro.edu/cilt/canvas/#tips


As a reminder, the Canvas team at the Touro College and University Systems level continues to offer webinars on various aspects of Canvas.Webinars that are coming up this week include (all times in Pacific):

February 11, 2020, Tuesday
7:00am – Winter is Here! Using Zoom to Stay on Schedule (to register, click https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMoce-rrDopxKdofd34c1vEG3eQTLyujw )

February 14, 2020, Friday
7:00am – Canvas Basics: Making Sure You’re Compliant (to register, click https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwvcumgqDMj3KAyBKC6xp5faREFHosR_w )

You can access the complete training schedule at https://touro-iits-dept.s3.amazonaws.com/canvas/calendar.html

If you have questions, feel free to contact Michele Jenkins, Jim O’Connor or myself.

As a reminder, you can access TUC and TUN specific resources at the Center for Innovative Learning and Teaching website at:

https://western.touro.edu/cilt/canvas/

Michael K. Barbour, Ph.D.
Fellow