CETL Blog – Page 41 – Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Adding Text or Images to Appear above a Set of Questions: A D2L Tutorial

This tutorial is for faculty who have previous experience using the Quizzes tool in D2L. For further information, please contact desupport@camosun.ca for assistance.

Scenario

This tutorial will cover the steps involved with making some of your quiz questions bonus questions (counting above the total grade for the quiz).

Steps

Go to the Quizzes tool in your course.
Click Question Library.
Select a Section to add your Text or Image information to, or create a new section (for the purposes of this tutorial, we want to create a Case Study text that accompanies a set of questions in the Week 1 Quiz, so we will click the Week 1 section to open it).
Click New and select Section.
Give your Section a Title and click Hide Section Title from students if you like (we will keep it unselected to show you want it looks like in a quiz). Add your text or image to the Section Text box. This is where your case study text would go, for example. If you would like all the questions in this section shuffled (so that each student sees the questions relating to the case study in a different order), click Shuffle questions in this section. Then click Save.
Click on the title of the Section you just created, and using the options under the New button, add your questions to it. Click Done Editing Questions when you have finished.
Now, you can add your Section (along with your questions) to a Quiz. Click on the title of the quiz you want to add your Section to (or create a new Quiz).
If you need to, give your Quiz a Name, then click Add/Edit Questions.
Click Import, and select Browse Question Library.
Find your Section – you may need to scroll down in the Browse Question Library window and click the down arrows next to Section titles to open them to find it. Click the select box next to your Section, and click Add.
Click Done Editing Questions.
Finish setting up your Quiz, then click Save and Close. Make sure to Preview your Quiz to check that your Section text or image appears above the questions you placed in it.

Things to Remember

NOTE: If you have old quizzes in your course site (for example, if you have copied them from Master or Dev or old course sites), you may have old versions of Text or Image information “question types” that have been converted into Sections called “Untitled [converted from a Text/Image Information Item]”. You will want to check your quizzes to make sure these sections work the way you want them to in the context of your quiz, and may even want to take the time to give them an appropriate title and move the questions the original “question type” was associated with so that they are inside the section.

Continuous Upgrade Post – Catch up from September through December

I have been sadly remiss in posting information about all the changes that have been happening in D2L with our monthly upgrades. So, what has been happening in D2L since September that you might want to know about? Here are some of the highlights:

September Updates

Students can now print or download content added to the Overview area in the Content tool.
You can now attach a Group to existing discussion topic while creating the group. You’ve always been able to create a Discussion Topic while creating a group, but now you can also select an existing Topic to attach a group to. You will find this option when you click Set up discussion areas, when creating a New Group. Select Attach to existing topic, and choose the Topic you want to attach your group to.

October Updates

There are some new assignment types you can choose from in Dropbox, which means that students don’t have to necessarily upload a file for Dropbox to work properly. This will open all kinds of options for accepting embedded videos or audios (rather than students having to upload them and you having to download them – you will be able to play them right in D2L!), or setting up a Dropbox for assignments students hand in in class. I will post about this change separately so I can give you a closer look at how these new changes work! Stay tuned…
You may have noticed (or your students may have noticed, and may or may not have pointed out to you) that quiz questions now auto save. This means that students no longer have to click Save for each question (the Save button is in fact gone) – but their answers will be saved automatically once they answer the questions. Student do still need to Submit the quiz when they have finished it though!!

December

In the new Question Creation Interface for Written Response questions, the option to add Initial Text for students has been added back! See below for how this will now work:
All graded rubrics, whether they are in Dropbox or Discussions, now will appear in a student’s Gradebook (if the Dropbox/Discussion is linked to a Grade Item). Below is a Preview of a student’s gradebook – the View Graded Rubric links are links to the rubrics as graded in Dropbox!

Next week I’ll let you know what is coming later this month for the first updates of 2019!

A very brief introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER)

One of the big topics in education these days, especially when talking about elearning or online educational resources, is Open Educational Resources (OER) (and generally, Open-ness). I thought I would take a moment today to very briefly give you some idea of what people mean when they talk about OER, and give you some resources you can explore to find out more.

Open Educational Resources

The Camosun Library Open Resources Guide is a great place for you to go to find out more about OER and where to find them. The guide provides a nice definition of OER as well, which I will repeat here for you: “Open Education Resources (OER) include textbooks, course readings and other teaching and learning content available online at little or no cost. These resources are produced by libraries, universities, government agencies, archival organizations and individuals, and can be used, reused and modified depending on how they have been licensed by the creator of the content.” OERs are especially important in today’s high-cost educational market. Open Textbooks in BC have

According to http://opencontent.org/definition/, “The terms “open content” and “open educational resources” describe any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is described by other terms like “open source”) that is either (1) in the public domain or (2) licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities”, which are as follows:

Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
Reuse – the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

Creative Commons

One of the hallmarks of OERs is that they are licenced as Creative Commons (https://creativecommons.org/). Creative Commons “are flexible copyright licenses that allow copyright holders to decide for themselves who can share, reuse and build upon their creative works.” (http://camosun.ca.libguides.com/open/OpenCulture)

Other kinds of “open” in education

In addition to Open in OER, you may hear Open being used in other contexts as well, some of these include:

Open source (software that is available at little or no monetary cost, but often costs a lot to set up and maintain in terms of people resources)
Open access (resources – articles, books, etc. – that are available freely on the Internet)
Open culture (the concept that knowledge should be shared openly and collaboratively, free of copyright restrictions)
Open pedagogy (a little more complex, but defined briefly at https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2975 as “that set of teaching and learning practices only possible in the context of the free access and [5]R permissions characteristic of open educational resources.” – you can explore its complexities further at http://openpedagogy.org/open-pedagogy/)

A few resources

Now that you know a bit more about what OERs are, here are some great resources for you to explore so you can find out more to help you decide how to integrate OERs into your own teaching!

Camosun Library Open Resources Guide: http://camosun.ca.libguides.com/c.php?g=92346&p=597478
BCcampus Open Education: https://bccampus.ca/category/curriculum-development-and-professional-learning/
BCcampus Find Open Textbooks: https://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/
The OER Commons: https://www.oercommons.org/
Open Content.Org: http://opencontent.org/
The Open Pedagogy Notebook: http://openpedagogy.org/open-pedagogy/
Rajiv Jhangiani’s website: http://thatpsychprof.com/
Open Education conference: https://openedconference.org/2019/
Open Education consortium: https://www.oeconsortium.org/

Introducing D2L to your Students

Last May, I ran a workshop for faculty called Introducing D2L to Your Students which asked “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.” The workshop outcomes invited participants to:

Decide how best to talk about D2L with your students
Rethink the assumptions we make about what students do or don’t know about D2L and accessing online resources
Integrate strategies for introducing D2L and referring to it throughout the term

During the workshop, participants discussed how they introduce, or might introduce, D2L to their students. Expanding on their discussions, I shared what I have learned what faculty across the college are doing to introduce students to D2L, which ranges from nothing (typically assuming students will be able to figure it out for themselves), all the way to full scavenger hunts, and regular sessions in the lab using D2L.

So, here in this post, I now share with you the strategies which have been shared with me. Faculty at Camosun who are introducing D2L to their students in some way are:

Providing students with information about D2L prior to the first class, typically via email (and in some cases via a physical letter). I have seen this being done at a Program level, as well as by individual instructors.
Creating handouts (or using the ones created by eLearning) to support students in their use of D2L.
Giving students a tour of D2L and the D2L course site on day one, for example,
- Showing them how to log in;
- Showing them how to set email forwarding and/or notifications;
- Showing them all the tools that will be used during the course (or introduce tools throughout the term when they need to be used);
- Showing them what specifically will be in the tools (content pages, dropboxes, etc.);
- Showing them how they will see things like quizzes, dropboxes, and grades (using Preview or View as Student options); and
- Explaining how the various tools, and D2L in general, will be used (what can they expect – for example, how often will News items be posted, or Email checked, or how long it will take to grade a Dropbox assignment).

Having students complete a D2L scavenger hunt either in a lab, using laptop carts in a classroom, or asking them to use mobile devices (for example, having them complete one activity (i.e., discussion or dropbox) or multiple activities in your D2L course site).
Pulling up D2L for your students at different points throughout the term to remind them to access D2L, or refresh their memory of how a tool works (for example, show them where to find feedback for their assignments, quizzes, in grades, etc.)
Giving students a quick survey asking “how’s D2L going” after 4 weeks or so.

After talking to faculty and surveying students, I was surprised that some faculty and students don’t know where they can get help with D2L. Because students don’t always know that there is help available, they often either ask other students or don’t ask anyone at all, which can lead to frustration, and to students giving up on using D2L. Here are some of the places students can (and do) get help with D2L – please make sure to let your students know them!

The D2L Student Guide (screen cap) which is available as a link on the main D2L homepage
eLearning Support (desupport@camosun.ca), available 8:30-4:30, Monday-Friday.

Finally at the end of the workshop, participants shared what they were going to try with their own courses, either to enhance what they already do, or as a first step. Consider trying some of these, or some of the strategies mentioned above, yourself and let me know how it goes!

Including News items around where to get help, or tips on how to use different tools, how to login, using email, etc. (and creating ongoing News posts to help remind students that they need to go to the Dropbox to submit an assignment, or go to Content to view a video).
Providing students with a Checklist in the Content area. A checklist can provide students with more clarity around what tools they are supposed to be accessing, what needs to be completed, and by when.
Staggering the D2L intro so students don’t have to learn everything at once. This can help students learn how to use the various tools WHEN they need to, so they don’t forget everything after Day 1.

In the end, I can’t stress enough how important it is for instructors using D2L to take the time to show students D2L on a regular basis. If students are continually reminded (visually!) that they need to go to D2L to read content, complete quizzes, submit to the Dropbox etc., they will be assured that using D2L is an important component of their learning and of your teaching. It only takes a few minutes at the beginning of class to call up D2L and give a quick reminder/refresher, so please take the time!

eLearning Drop-ins and Getting Support with D2L (and more!)

Happy 2019 from eLearning at Camosun!

We wanted to remind you that if you need any help setting up your D2L course sites, or have any questions now or during the term about D2L or how to use (or why you might want to use) any of its tools, we are here for you!

Our eLearning Support team is available from 8:30-4:30, Monday-Friday by phone (250-370-3488) or by email (desupport@camosun.ca) or even by in-person in the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) offices in the Lansdowne Library. And they are available for your students to, so be sure to direct them to eLearning Support if they have technical issues with D2L (like logging in!)

We also have 6 instructional designers who are available to help you by appointment, or during our eLearning drop-ins. 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.

If you would like to contact an instructional designer to schedule a consult regarding a specific question you are having around using D2L, or for information on how to use a specific D2L tool, or with any questions you may have about using other educational technologies to support your teaching (or even if you have a pedagogical challenge and are wondering what educational technology might help you with your challenge), contact eLearning support (desupport@camosun.ca) and we can set you up!

You can also find out more about who is available to help you with your eLearning needs by visiting the Contact Us section of the main CETL website and email an instructional designer directly.

We look forward to hearing from you – and good luck with your term!

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.