CETL Blog – Page 39 – Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

New Assignment Types in D2L Dropbox

If you use the assignment Dropbox in D2L, you may have noticed some new options for acceptable assignment types.

Previously, students had to submit a file to Dropbox in order to complete a submission. Now, this is not mandatory! Instead of a File Submission dropbox, you can now create Dropboxes for:

Text submission (so students can write a one-paragraph text without uploading a file, or embed an audio file, a video, an image, etc. into the HTML editor)
On-paper submission (allowing you to use the Dropbox to give feedback for something submitted in class)
Observed in person (allowing you to use the Dropbox to give feedback for an in-class presentation, for example)

Selecting the Assignment Type for your Dropbox is simple. First, go to the Dropbox tool in your course. Then click New Folder.

Give your Folder a Name, then scroll down to the Submission, Completion and Categorization section. Click the Submission type drop-down menu and select the submission type you want.

If you select Text submission, you don’t need to do anything else.

If you select On paper submission or Observed in person, you will also need to click the Marked as completed drop-down and select one of the following choices:

Manually by learners (the students will get a Mark as complete button to let you know that they have completed the assignment)
Automatically by evaluation (the assignment will be marked as completed once you, as the instructor, evaluate it)
Automatically by due date (the assignment will be marked as completed on the due date if one is set)

You can then finish setting up your Dropbox (adding your due date, etc.) and click Save and Close when you are done. If you want to see what a student sees, you can then Preview the Dropbox to make sure the assignment type you selected is indeed the one you want.

Note: Once you select an Assignment Type for your Dropbox and save it, you can’t change it, so if you choose the wrong assignment type, you will have to delete the dropbox and create a new one.

Planning for SD? Consider eLearning Workshops this Spring!

If you are thinking ahead to what you might want to do on your Scheduled Development in May/June (2019…crazy!), consider what eLearning will have to offer.

Here is a list of workshops we will be offering in between May 3 and June 21, 2019. The final schedule will not be available until February (and dates will be subject to change due to the fact that we can’t book all our spaces until April), but this list will hopefully inspire you!

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

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

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

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

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.

D2L Design Considerations for Mobile Devices

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.

Fun with Rubrics

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

Top 10 Digital Learning Skills Strategies for Your Students

Are you looking for strategies to support your students who are learning using digital resources? Whether you are using D2L to support your face-to-face teaching, teaching blended, or completely online, we have some tips and resources for you!

Making Your D2L Course Accessible: 7 Things You Can ALWAYS Do!

Do you know if the digital course materials you’re providing for your students are accessible? Would every student in your class be able to access required readings or videos or audio content? In this workshop we will cover 7 key things you can – and should! – always do to support equitable access to your course materials.

Ethical Dimensions of Educational Technology

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.

Social Media use in Education

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

Creating Community in the Online Classroom

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.

Flipping the Classroom

Wonder what all the hype is around the “flipped” classroom? Come experience one way to flip a classroom in our 2-hour workshop.

WordPress for Teaching and Learning using Camosun’s WordPress

WordPress is a blogging and website creation tool now available at Camosun College. In this workshop you will learn the basics of how to set up a WordPress site on Camosun’s WordPress instance. Prior to attending the session, you will be set up with a WordPress account so you have a place to work during the session!

Getting Started with Kaltura: Streaming Media at Camosun!

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 Media Capture: Creating Multimedia Magic!

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.

Best practices around integrating media into D2L

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.

Open Education Resources: What, Why and How

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.

BlackBoard Collaborate Ultra: Information sessions

- 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

WordPress for Students

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.

Getting Started with ePortfolio in D2L (Tentative pending pilot)

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!

Getting Started with Readspeaker/TextAid in D2L

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.

Interurban D2L Workshops

Getting Started with D2L (New Instructors)

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 who have previous teaching experience using D2L)

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.

Course Spring Cleaning

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

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.

Designing for Engagement: Moving beyond Text and Images

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.

Setting up Your Gradebook

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

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

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

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

Conditional Release + Intelligent Agents

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

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.

Introduction to Kaltura (Streaming Media at Camosun): Information Session

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.

Introduction to Blackboard Collaborate Ultra: Information Session

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.

Using WordPress for Student Blogs: Information Session

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.

eLearning Workshops Winter 2019

Register now for eLearning Winter 2019 Workshops!

The eLearning Workshop Series is designed to assist faculty (beginner to advanced) with incorporating educational technologies (including Desire2Learn (D2L), WordPress, Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, Kaltura, and multimedia) into their teaching. Note: This schedule is subject to change. Make sure to register for the session(s) you would like to attend so that we can notify you if there is a room change or cancellation. Don’t see what you’re looking for or not sure where to begin? Contact eLearning Support (desupport@camosun.ca) to book a consult with an Instructional Designer.

We also have drop-ins (no registration required)!

Our Lansdowne drop-ins are on Tuesdays 12:30-1:30pm in the CETL offices in the Lansdowne Library, and out Interurban drop-ins are on Fridays from 11:30am-12:30pm in our CETL offices in the Liz Ashton Campus Centre, room 235.

Lansdowne Workshops

Title: ReadSpeaker in D2L
Date & Time: Friday, February 8, from 2:00-4:00pm
Location: Ewing 112, Lansdowne Campus
Description: 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.

Title: Top 10 Digital Learning Skills Strategies for Your Students
Date & Time: Tuesday, February 19 from 2:00-4:00pm
Location: LLC151, Lansdowne Campus
Description: Are you looking for strategies to support your students who are learning using digital resources? Whether you are using D2L to support your face-to-face teaching, teaching blended, or completely online, we have some tips and resources for you!

Title: Introduction to Kaltura (Streaming Media at Camosun): Information Session
Date & Time: Monday, March 4 from 3:00-4:00pm
Location: LLC151, Lansdowne Campus
Description: 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, and how you can use it for your courses, as well as when it will be available at this information session!

Title: Introduction to ePortfolio in D2L (info session)
Date & Time: Friday, March 8 from 12:30-1:30pm
Location: LLC151, Lansdowne Campus
Description: 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.

Title: Introduction to Blackboard Collaborate Ultra: Information Session
Date & Time: Monday, March 11 from 3:00-4:00pm
Location: LLC151, Lansdowne Campus
Description: 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.

Title: Using WordPress for Student Blogs: Information Session
Date & Time: Thursday, March 14 from 3:00-4:00pm
Location: LLC151, Lansdowne Campus
Description: 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.

Interurban Workshops

Title: Getting Started with D2L (New Instructors)
Date & Time: Thursday, Jan 3 from 10:00am-11:30am
Location: LACC 235, Interurban Campus
Description: 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!

Title: What’s New in D2L (for instructors who have previous teaching experience using D2L)
Date & Time: Friday, Jan 4 from 10:00am-11:30am
Location: LACC 235, Interurban Campus
Description: 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.

Title: Course Set-up
Date & Time: Friday, Jan 4 from 2:00pm-3:30pm
Location: LACC 235, Interurban Campus
Description: 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 and how to manage release dates associated with your course from one central location in D2L (saving you time!).

Title: Incorporating eLearning Projects into Your Scheduled Development (SD) Plans
Date & Time: Friday, January 11 from 10:00am-11:00am
Location: LACC 235, Interurban Campus
Description: This workshop will focus on the key planning considerations to think about when estimating the amount of time required to complete eLearning projects during SD.

Title: Setting up Your Gradebook
Date & Time: Friday, January 25 from 10:00am-11:30am
Location: LACC 235, Interurban Campus
Description: 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.

Title: Managing Final Grades in D2L
Date & Time: Friday, April 12 from 10:00am-11:30am
Location: LACC 235, Interurban Campus
Description: It’s grading time again! This workshop is designed to provide a quick refresher on how to input and manage grades in D2L. An overview of how to apply grade schemes and release calculated and adjusted final grades will also be provided.

D2L Monthly Upgrades – What’s new in June and July 2018!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted on what’s happening in our monthly D2L (now the version known as Daylight) upgrades – well, it’s been awhile since I posted at all! Apologies for that. But, without further ado, here are some of the changes coming this month and next in D2L. Then, in August, I will get back to more regular posting.

Changes for June

Quizzes – Question Pools replace Random Sections

This is a name change, but one which could confuse. In Quizzes, you were able to add folders (called “sections” in the Quizzes tool) called Random Sections, which you could use to randomize a selected number of questions so that each student received a different set of questions. Now, “Random Section” is called “Question Pool”. Here’s what it looks like:

In the Edit Quiz area, click Add/Edit Questions.
Click New, then select Question Pool.
Give your Question Pool a title, add a number for the Number of Questions to Select (for example, if you put 100 questions in the Pool, you may want students to see 10 random questions from that Pool), add Points per Question (all questions in a Pool have to be worth the same number of points), and then click Browse Question Library.
From the side panel that opens, select ALL the questions you want your Pool to draw from, and click Add.
Click Save.
Click Done Editing Questions, then finish editing your Quiz and click Save and Close.

Changes to Rubrics

Control rubric visibility for learners

There is a new setting in Rubrics (on the Properties tab) which allows you to decide how (or if) your students see your rubrics. Here are the three options you will now see when you go to create your rubrics:

Rubric is always visible to learners (so they can see the rubric before and after you have graded it)
Rubric is hidden until feedback published (so they can only see the rubric after you have graded it)
Rubric is never visible to learners (so they never see the rubric)

Improvements to rubric feedback for learners

This is an exciting because now rubrics will act the same way in all tools, and be presented to students in the same way in Discussions and Dropbox. If you remember, students could not see the graded rubric in the Discussion area before, but now they will be able to!

Display graded rubric feedback in Gradebook

Finally, a really nice addition to how rubrics work in D2L. Now when there are graded rubrics in a Dropbox or Discussion, those graded rubrics will also appear in the Gradebook when that Dropbox or Discussion Topic is associated with a Grade Item! This means that students can see their graded rubrics in the Gradebook, whether they are attached to a Dropbox assignment, a Discussion posting, or a Grade item. Exciting times!!

Changes coming in July

I can’t show you these changes yet, as they won’t be available until July. But here is a preview of some improvements you will see very soon!

Dropbox – New Text Submission type and workflow

Instructors can now create Dropboxes that allow students to create assignment directly in the HTML editor in the Dropbox tool, without having to upload a file. This will be great for students submitting short (i.e., one paragraph) assignments!

Course grouping tabs in the My Courses widget

Now you will be able to view your courses in the My Courses widget by term. This will make finding courses, when you have a LOT of them in your list, much easier.

Quizzes – Removal of image and text information items

This change is one I am not thrilled about on the surface. I will know more when I have a chance to see and test this, so don’t get too worried yet. Image and Text Information are two items available when creating a quiz. Typically they are used to provide a piece of text (like a cast study) or an image that relates to a series of questions. These “question types” will no longer be available as of July, but D2L says that you will be able to use Sections to provide the same functionality moving forward. I hope they are right – we will see…

And those are the major changes coming this month and next in D2L. I will be back in August to double-check the July changes and update you on anything I find. Have a great summer!

Introduction to Daylight, Post 6: New Question Creation Interfaces

As we move closer to our upgrade of D2L to what is called The Daylight Experience, I have been publishing a series of posts showing you what the various tools will look like come May. So far, we have looked at the changes to the Content, Grades, Dropbox, and Quizzes tools. Today we will finish our look at Daylight with a tour of some of the new Question creation interfaces in the Question Library.

As I noted last time, the changes in the Quizzes are primarily visual, rather than functional. That is, except for some of the question creation interfaces. We’ve now looked at the visual changes in the Quizzes tool itself, and in this post, I will give you a tour of the changes in the question creation interfaces for True/False, Multiple Choice, Short Answer, and Written Response questions.

Note that this will be my last “peek of Daylight” post as we will be making final preparations for our upgrade next week. Stay tuned for posts covering some cool feature changes that have been appearing in D2L (current and Daylight) over the past few months.

Before we start looking at the question creation interfaces, here is the Question Library area in the current version of D2L.

And here it is in Daylight.

Now, let’s create a True/False question. Remember, to create a question, click the New button and select the question you wish to create.

Here is the True/False question creation interface in the current version of D2L. I have reduced the browser view size by 30% so you can see more of the interface.

Now, here is the True/False question creation interface in Daylight. Notice that the interface has been simplified so that everything you need to create a True/False question is on one page (no scrolling needed). Just add your Question Text, select the correct answer (True or False), change the Default Points, if needed, and click Save.

If your monitor is large enough, you can see the Preview pane on the right side of the creation interface.

Otherwise, you can click Preview to see the question preview, and click Done when you have finished viewing the Preview.

Now let’s take a quick look at the Multiple Choice question creation interface. Here it is in the current version. I’ve shown it in two screen shot, as it is a very long interface!

Now, here is the Multiple Choice creation interface in Daylight. Note the Preview pane on the right.

And now, here is the Written Response question interface in the current version (note that Written Response used to be called Long Answer).

And here is the Written Response interface in Daylight.

Note that you can click Options and select Add Custom Response Box Size to choose what size of text box your students will have to answer the question.

Finally, here is the Short Answer creation interface in the current version of D2L.

And here it is in Daylight. You can have multiple possible answers in blanks, add Blanks, assign how many points each blank has, and decide if the answers need to be case-sensitive. To find out more, register for one of our quiz workshops this spring (https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/DLMPPR5)!

Note that eventually all the question creation interfaces will have the same design. These will change as we continue our monthly updates after the major upgrade on April 30^th.

Thanks very much for reading my Daylight upgrade posts over the past few months. Next month I will be resuming regular posts about our monthly feature changes, tips for how to use some of the tools, and other exciting things happening in eLearning.

Introduction to Daylight, Post 5: The Quizzes Tool

As we move closer to our upgrade of D2L to what is called The Daylight Experience, I have begun to publish a series of posts showing you what the various tools will look like come May. So far, we have looked at the changes to the Content, Grades, and Dropbox tools. Today we will begin our look at the Quizzes tool.

Similarly to other changes I have shown you in previous posts, the changes in the Quizzes are primarily visual, rather than functional, except for some of the question creation interfaces. This post, however, will look at the visual changes in the Quizzes tool itself, while my next post will give you a tour of some of those question creation changes, which are both visual and functional!

Here is what the main Quizzes area looks like now.

And here is what it will look like in Daylight. Notice that the table is much bigger, although it contains all the same rows and columns.

Now let’s take a look at the Edit Quiz area. Here is what it looks like in the current version.

And now, see that in Daylight, as with other tools, the editing area takes up much more room due to default font size and cell padding, so even though this Daylight quiz has the same number of questions in the Pre-Daylight quiz shown above, you would have to scroll down to see all the questions.

Now let’s look at the quiz grading area. In the current version, here is what we see on the initial Grade Quiz area.

And in Daylight:

Now, to grade a quiz, here is what you see in the current version

And now, in Daylight. Note that for this screen capture, I zoomed out in the browser to 80% of the default size so you would be able to see a bit more of the grading area here.

In my next post, I will show you the Question Library, specifically the changes in the question creation interface for several question types.

Introduction to Daylight, Post 4: The Dropbox Tool

As we move closer to our upgrade of D2L to what is called The Daylight Experience, I have begun to publish a series of posts showing you what the various tools will look like come May. So far, we have looked at the changes to the Content and the Grades tools. Today we will look at the Dropbox tool.

Similarly to the changes in the Content and Grades tools, the changes in Dropbox are visual, rather than functional.

Here is what the main Dropbox area looks like now.

And here is what it will look like in Daylight. Notice that the table is much bigger, although it contains all the same rows and columns.

As with all the tools in D2L, the icons denoting specific functions have changed. You will still recognize the pencil (for edit), the trash can (for delete), and the people (for Groups). The icon noting the connection of a Dropbox to a Grade item has, however, changed from a ruler (see left image below) to a ribbon (see right image below).

Now, let’s take a look at the Folder Submissions area.

Here it is in the current version:

And here is what the Folder Submissions area will look like in Daylight – I’m dividing it into 2 screen shots so you get a better example of the size difference.

And finally, here is the individual student Evaluate Submission area, first in the current version:

And now, in Daylight

And there you have it – the Dropbox in Daylight. In my next post, we will start looking at the Quizzes tool and Question Library.

3 CETL workshops you don’t want to miss!!

Well, you don’t want to miss any of our workshops, so in addition to the ones I will tell you about below, you can find out more about other exciting Camosun eLearning workshops, and register too, at: https://decamosun.wordpress.com/2018/02/02/elearning-spring-2018-workshops-open-for-registration/.

But there are three in particular I want to mention today.

First, Ethical Dimensions of Educational Technology

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 (first part online, second part face-to-face) 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.

Who: Brian Lamb, Thomson Rivers University and Emily Schudel, Camosun College
When: Mon., May 14, 1:00-4:00 pm
Where: Lansdowne, Library and Learning Commons, Room 151
Register at: https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/DYZ3KFS

Second, Creating Community in the Online Classroom

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.

Who: Emily Schudel and Martha McAlister, CETL
When: Online: Wed., May 16-May 23; Face-to-Face: May Wed., May 23, 11:30am-1:00pm
Where: Lansdowne, Library and Learning Commons, Room 151
Register at: https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/D2LFHQ2

And finally, Flipping Out over the Flipped Classroom

Wonder what all the hype is around the “flipped” classroom? Come experience one way to flip a classroom in our 2-hour workshop. In this flip, the first hour will be online in D2L and will start on Friday, May 5 and run until May 12, and the second hour will be in the “classroom” on May 12. In this workshop, you will: Learn about what it means to flip a classroom; Discuss your own ideas for flipped classroom activities with Camosun colleagues; Learn about the pros and cons of flipping the classroom

Who: Martha McAlister and Emily Schudel, CETL
When: Online: Wed., May 9-May 16; Face-to-Face: May Wed., May 16, 11:00am-12:30pm
Where: Lansdowne, Library and Learning Commons, Room 151
Register at: https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/D2LP2XF

Have questions? Want to know more? Email Emily Schudel at schudele@camosun.ca.

Introduction to Daylight, Post 3: The Grades Tool

As we move closer to our upgrade of D2L to what is called The Daylight Experience, I have begun to publish a series of posts showing you what the various tools will look like come May. My last post gave you a glimpse of the new Daylight Content tool design. Today we will look at the Grades tool.

Similar to the changes in the Content tool, the changes to the Grades tool from our current D2L to Daylight, are about the visual: the white background, the larger font size, more space between items in tables, etc.

So, without further ado, let’s have a look at the changes.

Here is what the Manage Grades area looks like now.

And here is Manage Grades in Daylight. Notice the change in spacing in the table. This gradebook is identical to the one presented above, but you will not be able to see all the items on one page – you will have to scroll to see the whole thing. Otherwise, the Manage Grades area in Daylight functions the same as it does in the current version.

Now, let’s look at the Enter Grades area. Here it is in the current version.

Now, here it is in Daylight. Notice again the larger table size which will lead to more scrolling, the more students there are in the list. Notice also that, in addition to the scroll bar at the bottom of the page (which you also see in the current version), there is a scroll arrow at the top of the table.

When grading an item, choosing Grade All in the drop-down menu for a grade item (here, for In-class Writing Test), here is the current interface:

And here is the Daylight interface. Notice that the tool icons (Grade, Clear, Exempt, Unexempt, and Email) only appear at the top of the table (and that the icons have been updates, and are in black and white).

Finally, we will look at previewing a student’s gradebook. First, clicking on a student’s name, then selecting Preview from that student’s drop-down menu (the grading interface for an individual student has not changed). If you are not sure how to preview a student’s gradebook, see the Previewing a Student’s Gradebook pdf.

Here is what this looks like in the current version:

And here is what it looks like in Daylight. Same gradebook, taking up much more space! And no, the name of the student still does NOT appear at the top of the pop-up window with their gradebook preview…sigh…

To wrap this up, I’ll note that both the Schemes and Settings area have not changes, except visually. You can expect all the same functionality in the Grades tool (for good or bad) in Daylight that you have in the current version of D2L.

Next time, we will have a look at Dropbox in Daylight!

Introduction to Daylight, Post 2: The Content Tool

As we move closer to our upgrade of D2L to what is called The Daylight Experience, I have begun to publish a series of posts showing you what the various tools will look like come May. My last post gave you a glimpse of the new Daylight homepage design.

And now that you have seen what the new Daylight course homepage will look like, it’s time to take a brief look at some of the other tools in D2L and what they will look like in Daylight. Today we will look at the Content tool.

In general, the changes to the Content tool, as with most of the tools, are visual: the white background, the larger font size, all those things that lend themselves to the responsiveness of the design for mobile devices.

Here is what the Content tool looks like now. Note the placement of the content tool in the course page set against the green background.

And here is what it will look like in Daylight. Note that the Content tool takes up the whole page space, there is no colour background, and how you can see less of the content on the main page without scrolling than you can in the current version.

Now, let’s take a side-by-side look at the content in one of the modules.

Not too many changes here, but there are a couple of things to notice. First, in the Table of Contents box, note that the open module is much easier to see in the current version than in Daylight. You really need to look at the main page to see which module is open. Also, in Daylight, the icons have been redesigned, and there is text indicating whether the content is a PDF document, a Link, a Web Page, etc. Here’s a closer look at the Daylight icons here:

One final change is with the Upload File interface.

In the current version, if you click New and Upload File, the upload box gives you options of where to upload files from, AND the Upload interface:

However, in Daylight, the initial upload box you will see gives you the option of selecting files from My Computer, Course Offering Files, or Shared Files.

In this box, you need to select where the file will be uploaded from before you can select a file, so if you click on My Computer, you will then be able to upload a file from your computer.

Aside from these design changes, the Content tool looks and functions the same as it does in the current version, and rest assured that all your content will still be in your courses after the upgrade!

Next time we will have a look at the Grades tool!