Author: eschudel

Minister of Advanced Education announces big investment in Open Education in BC!!

I don’t normally do re-blogs, but this is big news for BC Post-Secondary educators working (or wanting to work) with Open Education Resources.  If you want to know more about Open Education Resources and how to create them or integrate them into your teaching, come see us in eLearning!  Contact desupport@camosun.ca to arrange to meet with an instructional designer.

More open textbooks arriving on student bookshelves

 

Exempting Students from Grades – D2L Tutorial

Scenario

This tutorial will cover the steps involved when you want to exempt a student from a specific grade item. For example, if a student has missed an assessment due to illness and you want that assessment to be excluded from their final grade (meaning that their final grade will be automatically recalculated to exclude that grade item). For further information, please contact desupport@camosun.ca for assistance.

Steps

  1. Go to the Grades tool in your course, and make sure you are in the Enter Grades.
  2. Click the down arrow next to the title of the item you wish to exempt the student from, and select Grade All.Select Grade All
  3. Select the student you want to exempt, then click Exempt. The word Exempt will appear in the Scheme column for that student. Click Save and Close.

    Select the student, click Exempt. Click Save and Close.

  4. In the Confirmation pop-up, click Yes. The selected student will now have a Final Grade calculation which excludes the exempted item.

    Click Save and Close, then in the pop-up, click Yes

  5. You can also exempt a student from multiple items. To do this, from Enter Grades, click on the name of the student you wish to exempt from multiple items.

    Click the name of the student you want to exempt from multiple items

  6. Click on the down arrow next to their name, and select Bulk edit exemptions.

    Select Bulk edit exemptions

  7. Select the items you wish to exempt the student from, and click Save and Close.

    Select the items to exempt the student from

  8. In the Student details area, click Save and Close to return to Enter Grades. In the Confirmation pop-up, click Yes. That student will now be exempted from the items you selected.

    Click Save and Close

Things to Remember

Exempting a student from a grade is not the same as dropping the lowest grade item in a Category. See the tutorial Dropping the Lowest Grade Item in a Category for further information.

 

Top 10 Things for Faculty to Know about Kaltura in D2L

What is Kaltura?

Kaltura is a new streaming media tool recently adopted by Camosun, which will be integrated into D2L, and supported by eLearning, in May.  Kaltura gives faculty and students a place to upload, create, and edit their course-related videos, audio files, and images.  These media files can then be embedded into the HTML editor, wherever it appears in D2L (for example, in the Content tool), or viewed in your course’s Media Gallery.  Because Kaltura is hosted in BC (at UBC), and not on U.S. or foreign servers, it is compliant with BC-FIPPA legislation.

Talk to eLearning before starting!!

Because Kaltura is a complex tool, we recommend you either attend a Kaltura workshop or make an appointment with an instructional designer in eLearning prior to setting up and using Kaltura in your D2L course site.  Tutorials will be available in the On-Demand Training site, but they have been designed as reminders rather than as first-step learning tools.

Top 10 questions about Kaltura:

1.      Where do I find Kaltura in D2L?

Kaltura is an External Learning Tool in D2L, and has two sides: a personal My Media space (which links a user to a personal media upload space) and a Course Gallery (which you can set up to contain all the media for that specific D2L course site).  You can either set up a link to your My Media area in a draft Content topic (preventing students from using it) or add links to My Media and/or the Course Gallery on the NavBar or My Tools menu in your D2L course.

2.      Can my students use Kaltura in D2L?

If you have the My Media link on your NavBar or My Tools menu, your students will also be able to upload video to their own personal My Media space.  You will need to make sure they have access if you are requiring them to upload videos to Discussions or Dropbox for assessment.

3.      Can I share videos with other instructors?

If other instructors have access to copy components from your D2L site (we recommend using a DEV or Master Course site for this purpose), they can copy videos embedded in Content, and from other tools with video embedded in the HTML editor.  They would either copy the whole course, or select the appropriate components (for example, Content and External Learning Tools) to copy into their own course site.

4.      Can I create a video in Kaltura?

You can use the Kaltura Capture tool to create audio files and/or video containing video captured from your webcam and/or your computer screen(s).  In addition, you can use Kaltura Capture to create a PowerPoint presentation with voiceover.  And yes, students can also use this function.

5.      Can I add YouTube videos into my Kaltura?

You can add YouTube videos to your My Media space, and also include them in playlists you create in the Course Gallery. This means when you embed these videos into a Content page, for example, they will play without advertising or providing “helpful” suggestions for additional videos to watch.

6.      Do Kaltura videos have closed captions?

Every video you upload to Kaltura will have captions automatically created for it.  You can then edit the captions if they are not accurate, or replace the auto captions with paid captions if you have arranged for those to be created.  Be aware: the automated captioning is about 70% accurate and is it your responsibility to ensure captions are accurate.

7.      Can I edit videos in Kaltura?

You can make minor edits to videos through Kaltura (for example, you can trim beginnings and endings of a video, or chop pieces out of it).  If numerous edits are needed, especially if they are complex, we recommend you make them in a video editing program on your own computer before uploading your video to Kaltura.

8.      Can my students download my videos or audio files?

No.  At this time, you cannot give permission to students to download media from Kaltura.  You could, however, email copies of your media to students if you need to.

9.      Where can I get help with Kaltura?

You can get help with Kaltura from eLearning.  Contact desupport@camosun.ca to arrange for a consult with an instructional designer to get you started!

10.   What else do I need to know?

  • You can create Interactive Video Quizzes out of your uploaded videos, adding multiple choice, true/false questions, or reflection points. These can be connected to the gradebook in your D2L course.
  • You can also create Playlists from videos you add to the Course Gallery, so you could, for example, create a playlist of videos for each of the Modules or Units or Topics in your course. You can then embed these playlists in the Content area.
  • When creating a video for a course, consider its purpose and length. First, take some time to consider if video is the best presentation option for the content in question.  Remember, you can present content in multiple ways – use video when it makes the most sense.  Second, the longer the video, the longer it takes to plan and create, edit, and upload it into Kaltura.  In addition, research shows that students stop absorbing video content after about 6 minutes, so keep your videos short and sweet, and make sure to chunk longer videos into shorted pieces.

Restoring a Dismissed News Item – a Student D2L Tutorial

Scenario

This tutorial will cover the steps involved in dismissing a News item from, and restoring a News item to, the News widget in your D2L course site. “Widget” is the name for the boxes that contain information on your D2L homepage. Dismissing a News item means that you are deleting it from the widget, but it is still available to you in the News tool itself. We will show you how to both dismiss and restore News items in this tutorial. For further information, please contact desupport@camosun.ca for assistance.

Steps

  1. Go to your course in D2L.
  2. Click on the X next to the News item(s) you wish to dismiss from the News widget. You will no longer see the News item in the widget.

    Click the X to dismiss the News item from the widget

  3. To restore a News item into the widget, click on the down arrow next to News, and select Go to News Tool.

    Click the arrow next to News and select Go to News Tool

  4. Click on the down arrow next to the name of the News item you want to restore into the widget, and select Restore.

    Click the arrow next to the title of the News item and select Restore.

  5. Click Course Home to go back to the course’s homepage. The News item you restored will now appear back in the News widget on your D2L course homepage.

    Click Course Home to go back to the Homepage

Viewing Students Who have Not Attempted a Quiz – D2L Tutorial

Scenario

This tutorial will cover the steps involved when you wish to see a list of students who have not yet attempted a Quiz yet. For further information, please contact desupport@camosun.ca for assistance.

Steps

  1. Go to the Quizzes tool in your course.
  2. Click on the down arrow next to the Quiz you wish to see attempts for, and select Grade.

    Click the down arrow and select Grade

  3. In the Restrict to drop-down menu, select Users who have not taken an attempt.

    Select Users who have not taken an attempt

  4. Click the magnifying glass in the Search for box near the top of the Grade Quiz area.

    Click the Magnifying glass

  5. Scroll down, and you will now see a list of the students who have not yet attempted the quiz.

    List of students who have not completed an attempt

Things to Remember

When you go back to the Grade Quiz area, the Restrict to drop-down should retain the last option you selected, meaning if you want to see a list of students who HAVE attempted a quiz, you will need to select that option (Users who have completed an attempt) from the drop-down.

 

Viewing Students Who have Not Attempted a Quiz – D2L Tutorial

Scenario

This tutorial will cover the steps involved when you wish to see a list of students who have not yet attempted a Quiz yet. For further information, please contact desupport@camosun.ca for assistance.

Steps

  1. Go to the Quizzes tool in your course.
  2. Click on the down arrow next to the Quiz you wish to see attempts for, and select Grade.

    Click the down arrow and select Grade

  3. In the Restrict to drop-down menu, select Users who have not taken an attempt.

    Select Users who have not taken an attempt

  4. Click the magnifying glass in the Search for box near the top of the Grade Quiz area.

    Click the Magnifying glass

  5. Scroll down, and you will now see a list of the students who have not yet attempted the quiz.

    List of students who have not completed an attempt

Things to Remember

When you go back to the Grade Quiz area, the Restrict to drop-down should retain the last option you selected, meaning if you want to see a list of students who HAVE attempted a quiz, you will need to select that option (Users who have completed an attempt) from the drop-down.

 

Walls Optional at Camosun College- May 2nd

I wanted to let you know what is happening at Walls Optional this year (on Thursday, May 2nd to be exact).  For those of you who don’t know, Walls Optional is Camosun’s annual one-day conference celebrating the amazing work of the people at our college.  Every year we have a different theme, and with the launch of the new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy, this year’s Walls is all about Inclusion through Universal Design for Learning.

“Our goal is to explore how we can develop and support teaching & learning environments that are inclusive to an increasingly diverse student population:

“The homogenous class made up of students of similar abilities, backgrounds, ethnicities, interests, learning styles, languages and expectations is long gone – if it ever existed.” [from “You Need to Know About Universal Design for Learning”, 2014]

Inclusivity is at the heart of the proactive strategies found in the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines. The more we practice and discuss UDL strategies in our teaching & learning environments, the more flexible our course materials, activities and assessment methods will become, and the fewer barriers members of our diverse student population will encounter.

Walls Optional 2019 will open with a facilitated dialogue consisting of faculty and students who will speak to the theme of “inclusion through UDL”, and their experiences with this approach in their own classrooms. We will then break into peer-led workshops, of either 45 minutes or 5 minutes (“lightning rounds”) in length, and end with a closing plenary session.”

To find out more once our presentation schedule has been posted, and to register for this immersion experience into UDL, go to our website (http://camosun.ca/about/teaching-learning/events/walls-optional.html) – We look forward to seeing you there!

Viewing Quiz Attempts in D2L – a Student Tutorial

Scenario

This tutorial will cover the steps involved when students want to view their quiz attempt results in D2L. NOTE that you will only be able to review quiz results if your instructor has released them! For further information, please contact desupport@camosun.ca for assistance.

Steps

  1. Go to your course in D2L.
  2. Go to the Quizzes tool (through the Tools drop-down menu in the navigation bar) or click on the title of the quiz in the Content area (if your instructor has put a link in Content).

    Go to Quizzes

  3. Click on the down-arrow next to the title of the completed quiz you want to view, and select Submissions.

    Click the down arrow for the quiz and select Submissions

  4. Click on the Attempt you want to view.

    Click the Attempt you want to view

  5. When you have finished reviewing the attempt, click Done.

 

Customizing Your Enter Grades Table in D2L’s Gradebook

Scenario

This tutorial will cover the steps involved when you want to only see specific columns in your Enter Grades table. This will make it easier to grade specific items when you have a really large gradebook – especially useful at this time of year! For further information, please contact desupport@camosun.ca for assistance.

Steps

  1. Go to the Grades tool in your course, and make sure you are in the Enter Grades.
  2. Click the More Actions button and select Hide/Show Columns.Click More Actions and select Hide/Show Columns
  3. In the Hide/Show Columns pop-up box, select the Grade Item columns you wish to see in the Enter Grades table, and then click Save. You will then see only those items in the table – you can go back to Hide/Show Columns at any point to change which columns you see.Select items and click Save
  4. You will now only see those selected items in the Enter Grades table.Customized table view

One other function that can help with grading in the Enter Grades table is switching the table from Standard View to Spreadsheet View.  This is especially handy if you have more than one grade item to grade – Spreadsheet View allows you to enter grades for multiple items at once.  To use Spreadsheet View:

  1. Go to Enter Grades in the Grades tool.
  2. Click Switch to Spreadsheet View.

    Click Switch to Spreadsheet View

  3. You will now see your grades table with boxes into which you can enter grades.

    Spreadsheet View

Things to Remember

When you choose which columns to see, remember that this is only for your view, as the instructor for the course. This will not affect the students’ gradebook view. To choose which grade items students see, you will need to edit the grade item(s) and use the Hide this grade item setting in the Restrictions tab.

eLearning Spring Workshops!!

Don’t forget to register for our spring workshops.  They start May 6th, and we have some great new offerings, including our Kaltura workshops which will introduce you to our new streaming media service, Camosun’s YouTube, if you will.  Hope to see you this spring!!  We will be updating this page with room numbers for the Lansdowne workshops soon.

Check out the workshop descriptions below, and register at https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/B7KYD8P

If you have any questions, or don’t see what you are looking for, email Emily Schudel at schudele@camosun.ca.

Lansdowne Workshops

What’s new in D2L: Monday, May 6, 10:00-11:30am, Room Ewing 110

  • Designed for instructors who have previously taught with D2L, this workshop will focus on the new features available in the recent upgrade. This session will focus on new functionality and some of the benefits for faculty and learners.

Introducing D2L to your Students: Tuesday, May 7, 10:00-11:30am, Room Ewing 110

  • Using D2L, but not sure how comfortable your students are with it? Come and find out what other faculty at Camosun are doing to introduce D2L to their students.

D2L Quizzes – How, Why, and the Daylight Experience: Monday, May 13, 2:00-4:00pm, Room Ewing 110

  • This hands-on workshop will cover creating, managing, and grading quizzes and the question library in the new version of D2L, Daylight Experience. Basic familiarity with D2L is recommended for participants interested in this workshop.

Facilitating Discussions and Collaborative Work in D2L: Tuesday, May 14, 10:00-11:30am, Room Ewing 110

  • In this workshop we will examine a variety of online communication tools within D2L, and discuss various facilitation techniques that you can use to engage learners and promote collaboration online.

Fun with Rubrics: Friday, May 17, 9:00am-12:00pm, Room Ewing 110

  • This hands-on workshop will discuss best practices around designing a variety of rubrics and integrating them into your assessment, participation, and feedback strategies.  Note that we will set up a simple rubric during the session to practice using the tool, but participants are encouraged to bring their own rubrics for discussion with the group. Basic familiarity with D2L is recommended for participants interested in this workshop.

D2L Design Considerations for Mobile Devices: Tuesday, May 21, 2:00-3:30pm, Room Ewing 110

  • More and more students are using mobile devices (phones and tablets) to work in their D2L course sites. But how does it actually look to students? Bring your tablet and phones to this workshop, and try out some design techniques to make sure your students can get the most out of your D2L site on their own devices.

Ethical Dimensions of Educational Technology: Online May 15-22 + Face-to-Face, Wednesday, May 22, 1:00-4:00pm, LLC151

  • Many of us are integrating educational technology into our teaching, but how many of us are discussing the ethical issues that come along with those technologies? This blended workshop will support conversations around institutional policy, privacy, social justice, accessibility, and personal risk, when it comes to educational technology, and help you develop strategies for being creative and innovative while keeping these issues in mind.  NOTE: the online component will run first, taking 1-2 hours to complete over a week, and will be followed by a 3 hour face to face session.

Creating Community in the Online Classroom: Online May 20-27 + Face-t0-Face Monday, May 27, 2:00-3:30pm, LLC151

  • What does it mean to create an online community for your students? What considerations do you need to keep in mind when developing online activities to support that online community? This blended workshop will give you the opportunity to engage in online community building, and to work with your peers face-to-face to develop strategies for integrating online community-building activities into your course. NOTE: the online component will run first, taking 1-2 hours to complete over a week, and will be followed by a 1½ hour face to face session.

WordPress for Students: Tuesday, May 28, 2:00-4:00pm, Room Ewing 100

  • WordPress is a blogging and website creation tool which is now available in the Canadian cloud, meaning that if you would like your students to build blogs and websites as part of their learning, we can now offer a solution which will be in compliance with the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Come find out more about how to set up a site for yourself, and what you need to know to get your students started.

Social Media use in Education: Wednesday, May 29, 10:00am-12:00pm, LLC151

  • Interested in integrating social media into your classroom?  This workshop will examine various social media tools used in the teaching and learning and discuss best practices.  In addition, participants will have the opportunity to share strategies on how social media can be incorporated into their own courses.

Getting Started with Readspeaker/TextAid in D2L: Thursday, May 30, 2:00-4:00pm, Room Ewing 100

  • ReadSpeaker offers text-to-speech solutions for websites, online course materials, e-books and digital documents. In this session, we will introduce you to the collection of ReadSpeaker tools we now have available within D2L courses and show you how you and your students can use and access these tools.

Getting Started with ePortfolio in D2L: Friday, May 31, 10:00am-12:00pm, Room Ewing 110

  • Looking for options for your students to collect and share documents, assessments, presentations, etc. with other students and faculty across their Program? Come find out how ePortfolio in D2L might support you!

Kaltura 1: Getting Started with Kaltura: Streaming Media at Camosun!  Monday, June 3, 2:00-4:00pm, Room Ewing 110

  • Kaltura is Camosun’s a streaming media tool (we sometimes call it Camosun’s YouTube). This means faculty and students now have a place to create, edit, and house their course-related videos. Kaltura also integrates with D2L. Come to this hand-on session to find out more about what Kaltura is, what it can do, and learn how you can use it for your courses.

Kaltura 2: Kaltura Media Capture: Creating Multimedia Magic!  Tuesday, June 4, 10:00am-12:00pm, Room Ewing 100

  • Are you interested in creating engaging media pieces for your courses?  Not sure where to begin?  Join Bob Preston for this hands-on workshop Kaltura Capture Space.

BlackBoard Collaborate Ultra: Information session: Wednesday, June 5, 10:00-11:00am, LLC151

  • Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is a synchronous classroom tool that is coming to Camosun. This means that faculty now have an online tool with audio, video, chat, and whiteboard/desktop sharing capabilities to support their teaching in real-time. Come find out more about Blackboard Collaborate and how it can be used, as well as when it will be available, at this information session.

Kaltura 3: Best practices around integrating media into D2L: Wednesday, June 5, 2:00-4:00pm, Room Ewing 100

  • This hands-on workshop covers the technical consideration of integrating multimedia into a D2L course, answering the questions: What do you need to keep in mind when integrating a multimedia piece into a D2L course? What are the benefits of linking versus embedding? Where can I store my video files?  Why can’t I just import media files into D2L?  How do I effectively insert audio files? When is copyright a consideration? Time will be set aside for you to integrate and test your multimedia components in D2L. Basic familiarity with D2L is recommended for participants interested in this workshop.

Interurban D2L Workshops

Getting Started with D2L (New Instructors): Friday, May 3, 10:00-11:30am, LACC235

  • This workshop will provide you with an overview of the essential teaching tools available in our learning management system, D2L. Participants will be able to take away a practical, course development checklist to assist with learning D2L. Whether you are looking to supplement your face-to-face classes, transition from using a basic course website or simply want to learn more about how to enhance your current teaching methodologies with using D2L, this workshop has a little something for everyone. Come explore the possibilities!

What’s New in D2L (for instructors with D2L experience): Friday, May 3, 1:30-3:00pm, LACC235

  • Designed for instructors who have previously taught with D2L, this workshop will focus on the new features available in D2L. This session will focus on new functionality and some of the benefits for faculty and learners.

Introduction to Kaltura (Streaming Media at Camosun): Information Session: Monday, May 6, 10:30-11:30am, LACC235

  • Kaltura is a streaming media tool that is coming to Camosun. This means faculty and students will now have a place to create, edit, and house their course-related videos. Kaltura also integrates with D2L.  Come find out more about what Kaltura is, what it can do, how you can use it for your courses and when it will be available.

Course Spring Cleaning: Thursday, May 9, 10:00-11:30am, LACC235

  • This workshop will focus on setting up (or refining) your course homepage, widgets, navigation and themes. We’ll also show you some best practices surrounding course maintenance (cleaning up manage files & question libraries) and how to manage release dates associated with your course from one central location in D2L (saving you time!).

Working with Master Courses and Development Sites: Friday, May 10, 10:00-11:30am, LACC235

  • This workshop will highlight various models and collaboration strategies used by faculty to support the development, use and maintenance of master courses and development sites in D2L. Come learn how master courses are being used to share content, resources, teaching strategies, activities and assessments.

Open Education Resources: What, Why and How: Wednesday, May 15. 1:00-2:30pm, Room TBD

  • At the heart of the Open Education movement lies the idea that publicly-funded knowledge and knowledge products (textbooks, curricula, lecture notes, tests, assignments, video, images) should be made freely available to the public (including students). As educators dedicated to the creation and transfer of knowledge this idea is appealing. But how does it work? What constitutes Open Education Resources (OER)? How are they licensed? Where can you find them? What are the best ways to use them? In this workshop we will explore how to use Open Education Resources to remove barriers to education.

Designing for Engagement: Moving beyond Text and Images: Thursday, May 16, 10:00-11:30am, LACC135

  • Come learn how to transform your content to accommodate a variety of learning styles and abilities. We’ll begin with an overview of the content tool and its functionality to get you started with building content. We’ll then explore how you can transform various types of content including (but not limited to): PDFs, PPT and Word documents to a web-accessible format that improves the teaching and learning experience.

Introduction to Blackboard Collaborate Ultra: Information Session: Friday, May 17, 10:30-11:30am, LACC235

  • Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is a synchronous classroom tool that is coming to Camosun. This means that faculty now have an online tool with audio, video, chat, and whiteboard/desktop sharing capabilities to support their teaching in real-time. Come find out more about Blackboard Collaborate and how it can be used, as well as when it will be available.

Setting up Your Gradebook: Thursday, May 23, 1:00-2:30pm, LACC235

  • This hands-on workshop will focus on setting up your D2L Gradebook from start to finish. Please bring your course outline (or a breakdown of your assessment items) to the workshop if you wish to build your own Gradebook.

Quizzes & Leveraging Course Analytics in D2L: Friday, May 24, 10:00-11:30am., LACC235

  • This workshop will begin with an overview of how to create, customize and grade quizzes. Participants will also learn how to take advantage of the D2L’s robust analytics to enhance the learner experience and identify redesign opportunities.

 Exploring Different Ways to Use Rubrics: Thursday, May 30, 10:00-11:30am, LACC235

  • Come learn how you can streamline your assessment strategy, communicate expectations and feedback for your learners while also building in quality assurance measures and cutting down on manual marking. Various examples, lessons learned and planning tips will be shared. Participants will have the opportunity to build or refine a rubric.

Taking a Closer Look at Communication & Collaboration in D2L: Thursday, June 6, 10:00-11:30am, LACC235

  • Take a closer look at how instructors can use communication tools to connect with students and support collaborative learning experiences. 

Using WordPress for Student Blogs: Information Session: Friday, June 7, 10:30-11:30am, LACC236

  • WordPress is a blogging and website creation tool which is now available in the Canadian cloud, meaning that if you would like your students to build blogs and websites as part of their learning, we can now offer a solution which will be in compliance with the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Come find out more about how to set up a site for yourself, and what you need to know to get your students started.

Conditional Release + Intelligent Agents: Thursday, June 13, 10:00-11:30am, LACC235

  • This workshop will provide participants with an overview of how conditional release and intelligent agents can support the development of personalized learning paths for students within your course.

Creative Applications in eLearning: Friday, June 14, 10:00-11:30am, LACC235

  • This workshop will showcase some creative ways to deliver content, engage learners and put a twist on some of the common teaching tools in D2L.