As faculty, at some point you’ll have to rebuild and refresh your existing course or rebuild and rebrand one you inherit. If you’ve found yourself in this situation for the upcoming semester, read on. I’m right there with you and these are the steps I’ve taken:
UAF’s Master of Education in Special Education program became the first online special education program in the nation to earn the Quality Matters’ Online Program Design Certification. Here’s how they did it and how you can earn Quality Matters certifications for your course or program.
If you use Google Docs in your online course or share them electronically with your face-to-face students make sure they are readable. Some students use a screen reader to assist them. Here are three tips with the needed steps to make your Google Docs more usable.
Welcome to the fall semester. Here are quick tips to clean up your course today. There is one amazing “Wow” item for Blackboard and a few very clear steps on cleaning up your WordPress shell. Feel free to stop into UAF eCampus during Open Lab to learn more.
Teaching online since 2011, Janene McMahan has learned some things along the way. In this tip she shares three ideas for making the best use of your time: set expectations, set up your workspace for good flow, and prep a layout once then replicate it.
As of this month when your students turn in programming code and graphics inside of Blackboard you can use the New Box View inline grading tool to view the code and add comments to the images. If you previously used Crocodoc to quickly view spreadsheets or papers inside of the Blackboard Grade Center, you’ll find the expanded list of supported file types a breath of fresh air!
During National Distance Learning Week UAF eCampus conversed with students via Facebook. Here’s a light read on student strategies to stay on task as well as a few shared challenges we all face. Read on; it might spark a small change to make in your course as a result.
Even seasoned WordPress users can learn a new trick. WordPress actively changes as new updates are applied to the main product. Years after I began using WordPress almost daily, a coworker showed me how to edit multiple settings from within one screen! This tip will show you how.
A few well-placed visuals may help students find their path through your course. Consider providing both a course calendar and a course map to guide them.
Let go of some of the how. How will the student generate the video? How will the student submit his or her paper? Focus on the what and the why. Grab your list of learning objectives and analyze course learning experiences and assessments to determine if they support students progressing toward course outcomes.
Building a rubric can help you determine how—or if—an assignment aligns to your course objectives. Once built, you may use it to frame your feedback. Sharing the specifics with students prior to task assignment helps focus their efforts. Your students may not know about the wealth of information provided by clicking on the link, “View Rubric.”
Last year I spent two days in a cold hotel conference room in Dallas practicing how to build connections between group members. Connecting individuals increases their chances of building community. Building community helps with success.
You instruct your students using various resources: textbooks, lectures, outside speaker videos, etc. You’ve switched texts and realized you need that item to round out a module or replace an outdated product. Searching the web may not meet your needs. This tip discusses resources available via the deep web.
Here’s a common scenario: You will be teaching a course online that you normally teach face-to-face. Since you’ve taught the course before, you have lecture notes and ideas for what you want to cover each week. What are the options and best practices for delivering your lecture in an asynchronous online format?
It’s important to establish a way for students to reach you when teaching an online course. If it is not easy–for you or the students–it isn’t likely to work. In this week’s Teaching Tip, we share a few instructors’ methods for connecting one-on-one with students.
Engage your students via voice over visuals. You can do it with tools you already have. Sure, you can make a video and incorporate it, but if you’re not quite ready, don’t despair. Put your voice into your course today. Use Keynote (or PowerPoint) and Quicktime to bring your materials to life.
Dr. Nicole Cundiff and Janene McMahan travelled to the Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference 2015 in La Verne, California. The session, Building Collaborative Community Development Tools, was met with interest with one faculty member wanting Nicole to consider another target audience, non-profits and the boards of nonprofit organizations, for this app. The session description was: A collaborative application […]
Got a minute? That’s how long it takes to set up Screencastify if the Chrome web browser is installed on your computer. As an instructor, you are the content expert. Sometimes it is hard to explain a concept. If you could just show your students what you mean it would be so easy! Using Screencastify is one more way you can do that.
There are at least two great ways to search for images you can use in your course materials (or homework):
-Google Images search
-Website repositories of graphics labeled for commercial or non-commercial reuse
If your students are using Google Docs for any portion of their assignments, you can teach them how to provide peer feedback verbally using the Google Docs Add-on Kaizena Mini. You can also use this product yourself to guide your student through changes you would like to see in their written work.
I’d advise everyone who uses Blackboard’s Grade Center to embed this tip—or a link to this WordPress post supporting it—in your “Getting Started” folder. It’s perfect for the student to understand how to see your feedback.
Joanne Healy, while pursuing her CITE project goals, wrote two grant submissions in the last two months. She notes, “It’s important for new teachers to shift their pedagogy to a more collaborative approach based on continuous improvement of learning with 21st-century mobile devices.” Her proposal work parallels and supports recent SOE initiatives. While Joanne hopes […]
How do you know they are listening? You put an incredible amount of effort into your online or flipped course. If you’re curious to see how often—or, how long—people are listening, reports and data help. Blackboard, SoundCloud, and YouTube track user views.
Use service learning in your course to help students gain perspective. As an instructor, you strive to encourage students to learn, strengthen their understanding by adding depth to their knowledge, and give them real world experience through service learning. Service learning is another facet of active learning. Ask students to apply what you teach.
Is your department counting on you to bring new students into the discipline? Are your class sizes smaller than you’d like? Often times being listed on the course schedule isn’t enough. Here are some ideas to increase enrollment and visibility of your class.