Category: eLearning

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.

 

eLearning Tutorials – Licenced to Share!

Did you know all our eLearning Tutorials were licenced CC-BY? This means that you can take and use, adapt, modify our tutorial documents for any purpose!   So, if you want to take our materials and use or adapt them for your own situation, please feel free! The only thing we ask is that, in addition to attributing us as the original authors, if you make improvements, please send them back to us so we can share those improvements with everyone.

And while I have you here, here are the six Creative Commons (CC) licenses that can be created from the four CC licence elements – note that all six licenses require attribution.

CC BY image  “CC BY” allows people to use the work for any purpose.

CC BY SA image   “BY-SA” allows people to use the work for any purpose, but adaptations must be made available under the same or a compatible license.

CC BY NC image “BY-NC” allows people to use the work for any noncommercial purpose (so, they can’t make a profit from the work or adaptations of it).

CC BY NC SA image  “BY-NC-SA” allows people to use the work for noncommercial purposes, but must be made available under the same or a compatible license.

CC BY ND image  “BY-ND” allows people to use the work for any purpose (even commercially) but NOT to adapt it.

CC BY NC ND image  “BY-NC-ND” allows people to use only the un-adapted work for noncommercial purposes.

For those of you who would like to see an more visual explanation of these elements and licenses, here is a video from censiCLICK (note that this video also explains the relationship between CC licenses and the public domain, which I will talk more about later in this post).

Creative Commons Licenses, Explained

 

Reminders for Fall – Where to Get Help

As we gear up for the new school year, I wanted to remind you of some important information related to D2L, and for online teaching/learning, both for faculty and students.

For Students:

For Faculty:

Wondering where to get help?  You can get help from eLearning Support, or book an appointment with an instructional designer, by emailing elearning@camosun.ca.   Check out our list of workshops and the Events Calendar on the CETL website.

eLearning Workshops – Fall 2020

Welcome to the eLearning Team’s offerings to support the start-up of the fall term (note: the first day of classes is September 8th, 2020).

These workshops will provide faculty with a basic orientation to Camosun’s core educational technologies:

  • Desire2Learn (D2L) – Learning Management System
  • Blackboard Collaborate Ultra – Web Conferencing
  • Kaltura – Video Streaming Service

We are hoping to offer more advanced eLearning workshops later in the term. If you are unable to attend the workshops and need assistance, contact elearning@camosun.ca and you will be connected with an instructional designer.

Visit the Registration form to register for the Fall Start Up workshops.  To learn more, scroll down to the workshop descriptions.  If you are unable to attend a workshop, and would like to access previously recorded eLearning workshops, please submit the following request form.   To see other learning opportunities offered by CETL, please visit the CETL Event Calendar.

D2L Overview

Description:

This workshop will provide you with an overview of the essential teaching tools available in our learning management system, D2L.

Dates & Times

Monday, August 17, 10:00 am-12:00 pm

Monday, August 24, 1:30-3:30 pm

Tuesday, September 1, 10:00 am-12:00 pm

D2L Course Set-up

Description

This workshop will focus on setting up your course for Day 1. We will demonstrate how to copy course components (from your DEV or MASTER course to your LIVE offering), customize your homepage, apply a course banner, create a welcome news item and streamline your navigation bar.

Dates & Times

Tuesday, August 18,  10:00 am-12:00 pm

Tuesday, August 25, 10:00 am-12:00 pm

Tuesday, September 1, 1:30-3:30 pm

Content Management in D2L

Description

We will begin with an overview of the content tool and the importance of content organization and getting a handle on file management. We will also demonstrate how to upload your course outline and other materials to prepare for your first week of classes.

Dates & Times

Thursday, August 20, 1:30-3:30 pm

Wednesday, August 26,  10:00 am-12:00 pm

Wednesday, September 2,  10:00 am-12:00 pm

Working with Ally and its Accessibility Feedback in D2L

Description

As you add documents, PDFs, webpages, and PowerPoints in D2L course content, you will now receive feedback from Ally on how “accessible” your files are (as defined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines – WCAG). The more accessible your file format is, the better the experiences or students will be, including students working with mobile devices, tablets and assistive technologies. In this workshop, we will look at some of the feedback instructors commonly receive from Ally, including what the feedback means and what you can do with it to improve the accessibility of your content.

Date & Time

Thursday, August 26,  1:30-3:00 pm

Setting up Your Gradebook in D2L

Description

This workshop will focus on setting up your Gradebook from start to finish. We will provide you with an overview of key functionality while also sharing some best practices.

Dates & Times

Friday, August 21, 10:00 am-12:00 pm

Friday, August 28,  10:00 am-12:00 pm

Friday, September 4,  10:00 am-12:00 pm

Creating Discussions in D2L

Description

This workshop will show you how to set up and facilitate asynchronous discussions in D2L.

Date & Time

Friday, August 28,  1:30-3:30 pm

Building Quizzes in D2L

Description

This workshop will explore ways to create, customize and grade quizzes, tests and/or exams. We will also demonstrate how to organize your questions in the Question Library.

Date & Time

Friday, September 4,  1:30-3:30 pm

Managing Assignments in D2L

Description

The Assignment tool enables students to submit assignments online while streamlining the grading process for instructors. This workshop provides an overview of creating, managing and grading assignments.

Date & Time

August 21, 1:30-3:30 pm

Introduction to Blackboard Collaborate Ultra

Description

Collaborate is a web-conferencing tool that integrates with D2L. This session will provide you with a basic overview of the tools and functions within Collaborate as well as provide instructors with tips on how to use this tool to connect with students and facilitate effective learning experiences.

Dates & Times

Thursday, August 20, 10:30 am-12:00 pm

Thursday, August 27, 10:30 am-12:00 pm

Thursday, September 3, 10:30 am-12:00 pm

Thursday, September 10, 10:30 am-12:00 pm

Engaging Students and Using Breakout Rooms in Collaborate

Description

Wondering how to engage students during your Collaborate sessions? Not sure how to use breakout rooms? In this session, we will give you some ideas and best practices, as well as invite you to share what you have done yourselves to make those Collaborate sessions work for you and your students.

Dates & Times

Thursday, August 27,  1:30-3:00 pm

Thursday, September 3, 1:30-3:00 pm

Video Basics with Kaltura and D2L

Description

Kaltura is Camosun College’s streaming media service that offers easy-to-use video management and creation tools that integrate directly into D2L. Think of it as Camosun’s own YouTube service. Learn how faculty and students can create and manage their videos from one central location and publish those videos directly into D2L.

Dates & Times

Wednesday, August 19, 1:30-3:00 pm

Wednesday, September 2, 1:30-3:00 pm

eLearning workshop recordings available

Are you a Camosun faculty/employee?  The eLearning team in CETL offered a series of workshops in May and June to support faculty in the delivery of online teaching.

Recordings for the following workshops are available upon request:

  • Intro to the new BB Ally Tool in D2L
  • Intro to Online Learning
  • Facilitating Online Learning in D2L and Collaborate
  • Integrating Blackboard Collaborate Ultra into the Online Classroom
  • Getting started with Kaltura: Streaming Media at Camosun
  • Going Deeper with Videos and Kaltura
  • Accessibility in the Online Classroom
  • Community Building and Student Engagement in the Online Classroom
  • Discover the Quizzes Tool in D2L
  • Online Assessments

Workshops for Fall Start Up

Starting the week of Monday, August 17, the eLearning team will be offering a series of workshops to support faculty in the delivery of their online courses for the fall term. Stay tuned for the schedule which will appear in early August on the CETL Event Calendar!

 

Introducing the new ALLY tool in D2L course sites.

As you prepare for a more digital Fall 2020 term, wouldn’t it be great if there was a tool that was always on hand to help make to your online course materials more accessible?

We are happy to share some welcome and exciting news with you, in the form of a new tool we will be launching in D2L on Monday, June 29. The name of this tool is ALLY, which is entirely appropriate because it’s going to be one of our new best friends.

Here’s a snapshot of why we are excited about ALLY:

  1. Support for all students.

Many students actually need or prefer to access their text-based content on different devices or using assistive technology. ALLY makes it possible for students to download alternative formats to the Word, PowerPoint, PDF, and HTML files you added to the course site.

ALLY generates the alternative formats as soon as students select the option they need; alternative formats include such options as HTML (web page), MP3 (audio file), ePub (for e-readers), Electronic braille, or Tagged (formatted) PDFs. Any student in a D2L-based course can access these alternative options in Course Content.

  1. Support for all instructors.

ALLY provides instructors with immediate feedback and guidance on how to improve the accessibility of their course content. By extension, this improves the quality of the alternative formats students access through ALLY.

Note that you can gradually work on improving the accessibility of your content; you do not have to do everything ALLY recommends all at once.

  1. General institutional support.

ALLY also provides in-depth feedback through its administrator tools (Course Reports and an Institutional Report). These reports provide data on how technically accessible course content is across all courses in D2L and what we could be doing better as a whole.

When will you be able to meet this new Ally?

  1. You can email the Centre for Excellence in Teaching & Learning [CETL@camosun.bc.ca] to request a copy of the recording from the 1-hour information session Thursday, June 11.

    ALLY tutorials and tips will be added to the eLearning Tutorials site over the summer.

  2. ALLY will be enabled across D2L on Monday, June 29.

eLearning/CETL workshops for May/June!

The eLearning team is offering the following online workshops in May and June:

  • Introduction to Online Learning in D2L
  • Facilitating Online Learning in D2L and Collaborate
  • Articulate 360: An Overview
  • Working with Master Courses
  • Articulate 360: Content Management
  • Articulate 360: Creating Quiz Games
  • Articulate 360: Choose Your Own Adventure
  • Designing for Engagement: Moving beyond Text and Images
  • Setting up Your Gradebook
  • Quizzes & Leveraging Course Analytics in D2L
  • Going Deeper with Videos and Kaltura

Registration

The dates and times for each workshop are listed on the registration form. For a full description of the workshops, please visit the CETL calendar.

Note that if demands warrants, we will add more sessions to our schedule, so please check back on the CETL calendar regularly.

For more information about these workshops, or if you are looking for something not covered here, email Monique Brewer or Emily Schudel.

Weekly Bulletin from CETL – April 3, 2020

Here is this week’s CETL bulletin we are sending out to our Camosun faculty every Friday.  These tips might be useful to you, and if you have your own to share back, please add them in the Comments!

The Sacred Circle

When the Creator put us on this Earth, he gave us four gifts to help us through troubled times.
The first was the gift of prayer; the second was the gift of sharing;
the third gift was the gift of crying to wash away the pain and the fourth was laughter.
If you are  able to do these four things, it is said that your are on a healing journey.
 (Education is our Buffalo, The Alberta Teacher’s Association, 2016)

Newly highlighted teaching resources and tips

Library resource highlights

  • AskAway online chat: Camosun Librarians have significantly increased the amount of time they spend monitoring this virtual reference service. If you follow the links on Camosun Library pages, chances are greater that you will connect directly with a Camosun Librarian. Not just or students, faculty can use this service too!
  • Google Scholar: Can be accessed via the library’s Databases A-Z . It will connect you with full text content from Camosun research databases as well as free coronavirus-related content from Elsevier, the Lancet, JAMA, Wiley, and many more!

Basic glossary for online teaching

  • Synchronous = “at the same time”. Teachers and students meet online in real time through videoconferencing or live chatting. USE SPARINGLY during previously scheduled class times, or one-on-one office hours, or as an optional chance to connect.
  • Asynchronous = “not at the same time”. Teachers create learning experiences for students to work at their own pace and take time to absorb content.
  • Blackboard Collaborate = Camosun’s web conferencing tool for synchronous learning (similar to Zoom, except Zoom does NOT meet privacy requirements as it is hosted in the USA. ) Contact eLearning for training.
  • Microsoft Teams = another Camosun-supported web conferencing tool. GREAT for staff meetings, but not available for students.
  • Kaltura = Camosun’s tool for recording, storing and distributing video through D2L (similar to You Tube). Contact eLearning for training.

An adjusted syllabus for our time (reprinted with permission from Brandon Bayne UNC – Chapel Hill)

Principles

  1. Nobody signed up for this.
  • Not for the sickness, not for the social distancing, not for the sudden end of our collective lives together on campus
  • Not for an online class, not for teaching remotely, not for learning from home, not for mastering new technologies, not for varied access to learning materials
  1. The humane option is the best option.
  • We are going to prioritize supporting each other as humans
  • We are going to prioritize simple solutions that make sense for the most
  • We are going to prioritize sharing resources and communicating clearly
  1. We cannot just do the same thing online.
  • Some assignments are no longer possible
  • Some expectations are no longer reasonable
  • Some objectives are no longer valuable
  1. We will foster intellectual nourishment, social connection, and personal accommodation.
  • Accessible asynchronous content for diverse access, time zones, and contexts
  • Optional synchronous discussion to learn together and combat isolation
  1. We will remain flexible and adjust to the situation.
  • Nobody knows where this is going and what we’ll need to adapt
  • Everybody needs support and understanding in this unprecedented moment