eLearning Drop-in Sessions – New Dates!!

The eLearning team will be offering scheduled drop-in sessions for faculty needing support with D2L, Collaborate, Kaltura, Assessments, and Final Grades. Come to the sessions with your questions, curiosities, and dilemmas and we will be happy to help you with them. These sessions are not formal workshops; instead, sessions will respond to the needs of those who participate. The sessions are organized around specific tools, but we will do our best to answer any questions that participants have. No registration is needed.

You can join the sessions through the Collaborate link on the nav bar in the D2L On-Demand course or email Emily Schudel for a link.

Drop-in Dates Times Topics
Thursday, October 15 2pm-3pm Kaltura Questions
Tuesday, October 20 2pm-3pm D2L Dilemmas
Thursday, October 22 10am-11am Collaborate Curiosities
Tuesday, October 27 2pm-3pm Kaltura Questions
Thursday, October 29 10am-11am D2L Dilemmas
Tuesday, November 3 11am-12pm Alternate Assessments
Thursday, November 5 2pm-3pm Collaborate Curiosities
Tuesday, November 10 10am-11am D2L Dilemmas
Thursday, November 12 2pm-3pm Kaltura Questions
Tuesday, November 17 2pm-3pm D2L Dilemmas
Thursday, November 19 10am-11am Collaborate Curiosities
Tuesday, November 24 10am-11am Final Exam Set Up
Thursday, November 26 10am-11am Alternate Assessments

eLearning resources

Facilitating Learning Online: Summary of Defining Online Community Discussion

So, right now I am co-facilitating the Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) Fundamentals course at Camosun.  And this first week our participants had a full plate of orienting themselves to the online FLO environment, learning how to make video introductions, learning about their co-participants, AND engaging in a couple of lively discussions around online community.

I thought I would take a moment to share a summary/synthesis of the conversation in the Defining Online Community discussion, which was one of their activities this week, as well as add a few additional optional resources you may want to explore.

Some common ideas that leapt out at me in the discussions around what online community is:

  • Conversation/communication
  • Participation and interaction
  • Supportiveness, comfort, safety, trust
  • Co-operation, contributing, and sharing (shared knowledge space)
  • Co-creation and collaboration
  • Growing circle of knowledge/building of knowledge (peer to peer learning)
  • Interconnecting/convergence
  • Common interest, purpose, working together to meet common goals
  • Inclusiveness and belonging, connection
  • Diversity of people coming together to build knowledge (not bound by geography/fewer borders)
  • Mix of learning and social

Certainly, like any community, online community is about all these things. The question then becomes how do we create an online community with/for our learners that helps them balance the benefits of an online learning community with the pitfalls of being too connected (leading to exhaustion and stress), or feeling isolate and disconnected, or just having too many choices you don’t know where to turn.

I don’t have easy answers to this. Some participants talked about starting small – both with the amount of technology you use, and also with the kinds of activities you integrate (i.e., a lot of online group work can lead to stress, both from an exhausted by being online all the time perspective, and a trust perspective if you are thrown too soon into a large group project.) I am always happy to talk more about strategies, and have developed some that I present in my Creating Community Online workshop.  If anyone would like more information about this workshop, drop me an email (schudele@camosun.ca).

To close this summary/synthesis, I would like to give you some optional readings on online community specific to the online classroom space.

I hope you all have a great long weekend!

Emily

Open Education Challenge Series

New to open education? Want to learn more and find out how you could use open educational resources (OER) in your teaching? Follow along with the Open Education Challenge.

While it’s too late to register for official participation (meaning you won’t get regular email reminders), the challenge is, as the title would suggest, open, so follow along and give the bi-weekly challenges a try!

Want to know more about open education at Camosun College, or just want to talk more about OER and how they might work in your teaching? Email Emily Schudel (schudele@camosun.ca).

 

Some Resources to Help Students Learning Online

Looking for resources for your students with tips for learning online? Wondering where to send students to find support at Camosun College? We have some resources for you!

First, check out a collection of links for students on our Tutorials site.

Here you will find links to the Student Learning Success Guides put together by Camosun’s Learning Skills which includes tips for remote learning, stress management, and time management. Also, a link to Online Learning at Camosun College, which contains information about what kind of technologies students should have, and how to access it.

In addition, if you are wondering how students can access Office 365, the link for this is on this page as well as the link to Student Technical Support. You will also find direct links to Student Affairs and the Centre for Accessible Learning at Camosun.

If there are other links you would like us to include on this page, email Emily Schudel.

Looking for resources specific to learning online?  Check out Kwantlen College’s open textbook Learning to Learn Online,  or eCampus Ontario’s identically named Learning to Learn Online which was co-written by students, for students!

And finally, more for you as online instructors, also from eCampus Ontario, a chapter from their open textbook Remote Teaching: A Practical Guide with Tools, Tips, and Techniques called Helping Students Become Effective Online Learners with some strategies you can try yourself.

Reminder of eLearning Drop-ins

The eLearning team is offering scheduled drop-in sessions for faculty needing support with D2L, Collaborate, and Kaltura!

Come with your questions, curiosities, and dilemmas and we will be happy to help you with them. These sessions are not formal workshops; instead, sessions will respond to the needs of those who participate. The sessions are organized around specific tools, but we will do our best to answer any questions that participants have.

No registration is needed.   You can join the sessions through the Collaborate link on the nav bar in the D2L On-Demand Training course or by emailing Emily Schudel for the Guest link, or if you have any questions.  We will be adding more drop-ins and workshops for October/November, and will announce those here on the blog as they are scheduled.

Drop-in Dates, Times and Topics:

  • Tuesday, October 6, 10am-11am: D2L Dilemmas
  • Thursday, October 8, 2pm-3pm: Collaborate Curiosities

eLearning Supports

Reminder – eLearning Drop-in Sessions and Supports!

The eLearning team is offering scheduled drop-in sessions for faculty needing support with D2L, Collaborate, and Kaltura!

Come with your questions, curiosities, and dilemmas and we will be happy to help you with them. These sessions are not formal workshops; instead, sessions will respond to the needs of those who participate. The sessions are organized around specific tools, but we will do our best to answer any questions that participants have.

No registration is needed.   You can join the sessions through the Collaborate link on the nav bar in the D2L On-Demand Training course or by emailing Emily Schudel for the Guest link.

Drop-in Dates, Times and Topics:

  • Tuesday, September 29, 2pm-3pm: Kaltura Questions
  • Thursday, October 1, 10am-11am: D2L Dilemmas
  • Tuesday, October 6, 10am-11am: D2L Dilemmas
  • Thursday, October 8, 2pm-3pm: Collaborate Curiosities

eLearning Supports

Camosun Library offering Virtual Workshops and Tours

Need library help?  Well, look no further.  Our fabulous librarians are offering  free virtual workshops and tours of the Camosun library for Camosun students, faculty, and staff.

  • Monday, Sept. 14 (3:00-3:30pm) and Thursday, Sept. 17 (11:00-11:30am) are Virtual library tours for students
  • Monday, Sept. 21 (2:00-2:45pm) and Wednesday, Sept. 23 (11:00-11:45am) are The Power of Permalinks workshops for instructors.

Register now for the tours and workshops – seating is limited.

 

eLearning drop-in sessions, workshops, supports… and a survey!

The eLearning team are offering scheduled drop-in sessions for faculty needing support with D2L, Collaborate, and Kaltura. Come with your questions, curiosities, and dilemmas and we will be happy to help you with them. These sessions are not formal workshops; instead, sessions will respond to the needs of those who participate. The sessions are organized around specific tools, but we will do our best to answer any questions that participants have. No registration is needed. You can join the sessions through the Collaborate link on the nav bar in the D2L On-Demand Training course or visit the CETL Events Calendar for access information for specific drop-in sessions.

Drop-in Dates Times Topics
Tuesday, September 15 10am-11am D2L Dilemmas
Thursday, September 17 2pm-3pm Kaltura Questions
Tuesday, September 22 2pm-3pm D2L Dilemmas
Thursday, September 24 10am-11am Collaborate Curiosities
Tuesday, September 29 2pm-3pm Kaltura Questions
Thursday, October 1 10am-11am D2L Dilemmas
Tuesday, October 6 10am-11am D2L Dilemmas
Thursday, October 8 2pm-3pm Collaborate Curiosities

eLearning workshop survey The eLearning team would like to solicit your feedback and input on our training workshops and what additions we should offer this term. We appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing from you. Our short survey will take only a few minutes to complete. Thank you!

Kaltura Post-Upgrade Training Sessions

As you may or may not know, we (Camosun College, but really anyone who has their Kaltura hosted at UBC) are having a Kaltura upgrade this weekend (Kaltura will be unavailable from Saturday, August 22 at 4:00 am until Sunday, August 23 at midnight). Things should be up and running, and new improved on Monday (August 24th).

BCNet is offering some training on the upgrades for our faculty and staff who use Kaltura, so please register using the Registration links below.  The sessions will also be recorded in case you are unable to attend.  Please feel free to forward this invitation to anyone else you think would be interested in attending.

A couple things to note:

  • Sessions will be executed in a Moodle environment given the popularity of this LMS amongst members.
  • Sessions will be hosted using Zoom webinar. As such we have a 500 attendee limit to each session.
  • Sessions will be recorded for anyone who cannot attend and for use as an additional training tool after the fact.

Kaltura Capture and Media Management

  • When: August 27, 2020 from 10:00 – 11:00am PT
  • Where: Online via Zoom
  • Description: This session will focus on the Kaltura Capture feature including everything from install, to access, to usage. Also included, will be a review of best practices on effective media management.
  • Registration

Kaltura Analytics and Student Engagement

  • When: September 1, 2020 from 10:00 – 11:00am PT
  • Where: Online via Zoom
  • Description: This session will provide an overview of the new KAVA analytics tool and how to interpret the analytics you receive. With a focus on student engagement, this session will also cover the use of video quizzing and captioning.
  • Registration

Let us know if you have any questions about Kaltura in general, or about the upgrade by emailing elearning@camosun.ca.

 

eLearning Tutorials – updates and new tutorials being added this month!

This month is “Update eLearning Tutorials and Add New Ones” month for our eLearning Tutorial site (and the On-Demand Training D2L site). We will be updating and adding new tutorials for the next several weeks, so check back on a regular basis.

For example, this week we have been working on a new structure for our D2L tools tutorial pages, and updating/creating new Assignment tutorials. Find out more at eLearning Assignment Tutorials.

And now, I wanted to showcase one of our new tutorials here, which will introduce you to a new Assignment Creation Experience which is available for opt-in in Camosun’s D2L right now. This interface will eventually replace the current interface, so I encourage you to try it out and let us know if you have any comments or problems that we can pass on to D2L.

Using the New Assignment Create/Edit Experience – D2L Tutorial

This tutorial is for faculty who have previous experience using D2L and will cover the basic steps involved when you wish to create an assignment submission folder using the New Assignment Create/Edit Experience interface (opt-in as of August 2020).. For further information, please contact elearning@camosun.ca for assistance.

Steps

  1. Go to the Assignments tool in your course (e.g., through the My Tools drop-down).
  2. Click New Assignment.
  3. You will be given the option to turn on the new Assignment Create/Edit Experience. Click Turn it on to enable it.

    Turn on the new assignment create/edit experience
    If you have previously clicked Leave it off, you can turn it on by clicking the arrow at the top right, and clicking turn it on.

    Click arrow to find the enable settings

  4. The new creation interface consists of a main area, a side panel, and a bottom set of buttons.  We will look at each area in turn.

    New Creation/Edit interface

  5. First, the main area. You will need to give your assignment a Name. You can then choose to add a Score Out Of and a Due Date. When you click Score Out Of, you are given the option to connect your Assignment folder to or disconnect it from a Grade Item (Choose from Grades, Remove from Grades, or Reset to Ungraded). You can then add instructions into the Instructions box.

    Add Name, Score, Due Date, Instructions
    Under the Instructions box are options to add additional items such as an instructional document or a template file (File Upload – the first icon), Attach Link to Existing Activity in D2L such as a Content page (the second icon), Attach a Weblink (the third icon) or Record Audio instructions (note that the Record Video option is currently not enabled at Camosun).

    Upload file, attach activity or web link, record audio instructions

  6. Availability Dates and Conditions allows you to set a Start Date (which opens the Assignment folder) and an End Date (which closes the Assignment folder). As of the August upgrade, you will also be able to attach Release Conditions to the Assignment folder. Special Access is not yet available in the new interface, so if you have students needing special access, you will need to return to the old interface.

    Availability Dates & Conditions

  7. Submission and Completion allows you to set the Assignment folder as an Individual or Group Assignment, and to add your preferred Assignment and Submission Type settings.

    Submission & Completion options

  8. Evaluation and Feedback allows you to attach a Rubric, and select or deselect the Annotation Tools setting.

    Evaluation & Feedback options

  9. Finally, at the bottom you can save your changes, or toggle to make the Assignment folder Visible or Hidden.

    Save, or Hide

Things to Remember

You can turn off and on the New Assignment Create/Edit Experience as needed, but be aware that eventually this new interface will become the default. New features will be added to this interface over the next few months.

Once you have turned on the new experience, any old assignments you have in your Assignments area will open it automatically when you go to edit them.