eLearning – Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Getting Ready for the New Term at Camosun with D2L and eLearning

I can’t believe it’s almost September – the fall term is almost upon us and it’s time to refresh our courses, and our memories, about D2L, how to get started setting up your course in D2L, and where to get help.

Are you a new instructor at Camosun, or coming back looking for a memory tweak? See our Things for Faculty to know about eLearning and D2L at Camosun PDF.

Are you a new student wondering how to access D2L (and what to expect in your D2L course)? See our Logging into D2L PDF tutorial and also our Introduction to D2L Videos!

Need help? eLearning is here for you all year round! Just visit our Support Portal to find help.

Have a fabulous term.

Camosun Faculty Story #47: Sue

Sue is an instructional designer and one of my colleagues in eLearning (part of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning) at Camosun. I wanted to speak to Sue so she could tell me, and you, about her experiences supporting faculty when we all moved to online teaching in March 2020. On a personal note, going back in time to when we in eLearning were working long hours helping faculty and students navigate this new world brought back feelings not just of exhaustion but also of the excitement we felt as our faculty colleagues began to see first-hand the benefits of online teaching, something we have known for years.

One of Sue’s passions is accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). In fact, she was a co-author (2015) of the BCcampus Accessibility Toolkit. Sue tells me that while eLearning had offered some workshops on accessible design and had some accessibility tools available in D2L (namely ReadSpeaker) prior to March 2020, when everything moved online “challenges around accessibility hit people like a brick wall and I think we had one of our greatest teachable moments possible for digital accessibility. We saw more awareness around issues students were having enhanced by the fact that faculty themselves didn’t have the right infrastructure to teach online. That shared lived experience, of a sudden lack of access impeding your ability to do something, well you can’t manufacturer that.”

Sue also reminded me that we had enabled another online accessibility tool just prior to the pandemic, BBAlly (aka Ally) which we turned on across D2L in June 2020. “We were barely through wrapping up the pivot term when we turned BBAlly on across the system and as a result, I have had way more interest in accessibility workshops and learning about UDL skills since 2020.” But the accessibility tools we had incorporated into our D2L system turned out to have a broader impact, beyond, for example, simply converting text-to-speech. “We learned that Textaid was also a great asset for our language programs. Faculty teaching Japanese, Spanish, and Korean were able to use TextAid to support some spoken and written assessments that they had struggled to do even before COVID.”

In addition to accessibility tools, our streaming media service, Kaltura, had only been enabled for a year or so and “we went from barely having started to use it to an exponential production of videos, which quickly shone a light on the poor quality of auto-captioning in services like these. While many faculty recognized that this bad video captioning needed to be fixed and wanted to do that work, they were overwhelmed, sometimes to the point of tears, by the work this added to their already heavy load. That was the motivation to rattle the cage for some professional captioning support.” And now, we have access to a captioning service, REV, to assist faculty with their video captions in Kaltura. And as Sue notes again, good video captions are not just useful for people with hearing impairments. “You can watch videos in locations where you have no sound capabilities, students have access to a searchable transcript for study purposes, etc.”

In terms of assessment, Sue recalls faculty struggling with assessment methods that would not work in a fully online environment. Instead, they needed to ask “what if I provided more options for students to be able to complete the assignment? What if instead of a time-based test it was a take-home exam? Some Faculty were looking at their assessments with fresh eyes for the first time in years. Coming up with alternate assessments exemplifies UDL by exploring flexibility in the way we get students to show they’re engaged. I think that this focus on alternative assessments, in one of the biggest shifts to UDL we’ve seen.”

While Sue wonders how much less stressful the move to online teaching would have been if content had been built with accessibility and UDL in mind, she says, “there is no going back from the spotlight on accessibility and the awareness that’s been developed around the tools to support accessible design. I think we raised the baseline a bit, and while we’re still going to have new people who are not there yet, I’m confident that most faculty can, and will, use these tools without the trepidation they may have had before.”

When talking a bit about rewards Sue has seen over the past two years, she tells me “I am more aware of the multi-dimensional challenges each individual student is dealing with because I’m dealing with them more myself too.” This also means that while she had to press pause on the UDLProject she was working on pre-COVID, “these past two years have provided much additional material for that project that I couldn’t have even imagined.” And building from that awareness of what overwhelmed students were experiencing, well she found herself supporting faculty who were similarly overwhelmed from trying to support those students. “I had to meet faculty members where they were at, trying to make things work for that individual in the moment realizing they were just keeping their heads above water. So, if I can help you to achieve this thing that’s more important than even you know at this moment, let alone how you would do it in the future, well, like any new language you learn the vocabulary, then you put the words together, and then start to build sentences. When you talk about accessibility and UDL, you can find a point of entry and then build thoughtfully from there. I think the way we were all meeting faculty where they were at was in many ways a UDL model of support.”

If there was one shining moment for Sue, “I think coming out of this we have forged a tighter bond with our colleagues in the Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL) and that we now have the foundations from which we can continue to build a model of collaboration in our teaching and learning community. We are all committed to creating good online learning experiences for students and faculty, and because we work with so many different groups, we’re in a position to influence change. So having CAL be more of a partner, for me, that’s amazing and is a model other Post-Secondary Education institutions should take note of.” And what really resonated for me was Sue’s comment that, as a result of increasing online options at the college, “we’re a three-campus college now and we in eLearning sit mostly on this third campus. We need to make sure that we are supporting students and faculty fulsomely and accessibly in this third campus environment.”

When I asked Sue what some of her biggest lessons learned over the past two years were, she tells me “What I have gotten out of the past couple of years is confidence that in our team we have a range of skills and experience. There are so many skills we need to be current with: technologies, pedagogy, inclusive education, accessibility, decolonization, open education, etc., that each of us alone can’t possibly know it all. So, it’s a huge asset to have, say, a colleague who is deeply focused and committed to bringing open education practices, examples, and opportunities to the college. I can both participate in those and continue to develop my expertise so I can work with faculty, but I don’t have to be the expert in everything to recognize expertise and to draw on it.”

Advice Sue has for anyone faced with moving to online teaching echoes what so many other faculty have said: “Work with peers, connect with folks who have been where you are, so you are not recreating the wheel, try something small and build your confidence in lower stakes moments, and don’t feel afraid to reach out and borrow ideas from people.” We reflected a bit on how learning to teach online is similar to training for a marathon: you do it gradually, upping your mileage as you go. “Of course, March 2020 was like running a marathon with no training, multiple times. But in normal times, take it slow. Oh, and get a good chair at home for all your online classes and meetings!”

I wanted to end with Sue’s reflection on where she feels we, as eLearning and CETL, are now as a team. “We as a unit no longer face concerns about feeling left out because of being on different campuses, because we have a more universal place for us and faculty we work with, in this new, third campus. I also have deeper relationships with faculty, some of whom I had worked with very little before, and I feel like I have a much deeper awareness of what’s going on in different parts the college than I ever did before. Even amongst our CETL community I feel like our communication and collaboration is stronger.” Our third campus has enabled and supported this enrichment, so we need to respect and nurture it going forward.

Grading Assignment Submissions using Anonymous Marking – D2L Tutorial

This tutorial is for faculty who have previous experience using the Assignments tool in D2L and will cover the steps involved when you wish to grade student submissions for an Assignment using Anonymous Marking. For further information or assistance, go to our Team Dynamix Support portal and click the appropriate Category to submit a ticket.

Steps for enabling Anonymous marking

Go to the Assignments tool in your course.
Either create a new Assignment, or click on the drop-down menu (down arrow) next to the title of the Assignment you want to set for Anonymous Marking and select Edit Folder.
Give your Assignment a Name if needed, then click Evaluation & Feedback on the right.
Under Anonymous Marking, select Hide student names during assessment. Finish editing the Assignment and click Save and Close.
You will now see a symbol next to your Assignment title indicating that it has Anonymous Marking enabled.

Steps for grading using Anonymous marking

Go to the Submission area for the assignment and click the Evaluate link for an assignment. Note that student names are anonymized.
You will not see student names in the Submission areas, nor in the names of the submitted files if you choose to download them for offline marking. Add your feedback, and/or upload your feedback files, and click Save Draft. You will NOT be able to Publish individual student grades – you will need to Publish All at the same time.
Once you have finished saving all Draft feedback, return to the main submission area, select all students and click Publish All Feedback. In the Confirmation pop-up box, click Yes. You may need to refresh your browser window to see that the submissions have been published.

Things to Remember

You can enable and disable Anonymous Marking as you need to, but once it is enabled and you have a submission, you will NOT be able to disable it.

If you publish some assignments, and not all (for example if you are grading assignments before all students have submitted), after publishing you will be able to see all student names (so you will not be able to grade any new submissions anonymously).

Introduction to Kaltura Express Capture in D2L – Kaltura Tutorial

This tutorial is designed for faculty who have previous experience using Kaltura in D2L, as well as the Assignments tool. For further information or assistance, go to our Team Dynamix Support portal and click the appropriate Category to submit a ticket.

This tutorial will cover the steps involved when you wish to create a simple video right within D2L. Kaltura Express Capture allows you to created videos using your webcam and audio within various assessment tools in D2L (such as Assignments) as well as in your My Media area. Kaltura Capture Express recordings are saved in your My Media space in D2L.

Scenario 1: Adding a Kaltura Capture Express recording to My Media

Go to your course in D2L.
Go to My Media.
Click Add New and select Express Capture.
You will see your webcam video appear with a red round record button at the bottom centre. Click the Settings icon at the top right of the video to change your camera and/or microphone settings. Click the record button to begin recording your video.
After the countdown (from 3) ends, start talking (note that it’s good to have a script or very clear idea of what you want to say to avoid having to re-take or edit your video(s) later. Click the Stop button to end the recording.
Click the Play icon to play the video. Click Record Again to re-record your video. Click Download a Copy to download the video to your device. Click Use This to save the video to My Media.
Once the video is saved to My Media you can change the Name, add a Description, etc. See the Tutorial Uploading Media to My Media (page 4) for more information.

Scenario 2: Adding a Kaltura Capture Express recording as feedback to an Assignment submission

Go to your course in D2L. Go to Assignments (through the link on your Navbar, or in your My Tools drop-down menu, or in a draft Topic in the Content tool).
Go to the Submissions area for an assignment and go to a specific assignment submission.
In the Overall Feedback box, click the Plus drop-down menu and select Insert Stuff.
In the Insert Stuff pop-up box, click Add from My Media.
Click Add New and select Express Capture.
As per step 4 in the previous scenario, you will see your webcam video appear with a record button at the bottom centre. Click the Settings icon at the top right of the video to change your camera and/or microphone settings. Click the Record button.
As per step 5 in the previous scenario, after the countdown (from 3) ends, start talking (note that it’s good to have a script or very clear idea of what you want to say to avoid having to re-take or edit your video(s) later. Click the Stop button to end the recording.
Click the Start Over icon in the centre of the video to play the video. Click Record Again to re-record your video. Click Download a Copy to download the video to your device. Click Use This to save the video to My Media.
Click Save and Embed.
Click Insert.
Publish or save your feedback as Draft and continue to the next submission.

Things to Remember

You can add a Kaltura Express Capture video into the HTML editor wherever it appears in D2L. For example, you could add a quick video into a News post or a Discussion post. But we recommend if you are creating videos you want to use for more than one iteration of a course (a video for more than just in the moment feedback), use the regular Kaltura Capture on your device. See the tutorial Introduction to Kaltura Capture for more information.

All videos you create using Kaltura Express Capture will be saved in your My Media area no matter where you create them, so you should delete them from the My Media area periodically (e.g., a year after a course has ended) so you don’t end up with hundreds of feedback videos in your My Media space.

eLearning Where to get Help Reminders for Winter 2022

As the Winter 2022 term begins, I wanted to remind you of some important information related to D2L, both for faculty and students.

First, how you contact us for support has changed! If you need help with D2L, Collaborate, or Kaltura, you can now submit a ticket on our eLearning Support Portal. Click Faculty or Student, then select your issue, or click “My Issue is Not Listed.”

In addition, you can find out more about D2L by opening the following documents:

Important Things for Faculty to Know about eLearning and D2L at Camosun this Fall!!

Preamble – Who is eLearning?

eLearning is a unit within the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, with face-to-face offices at Lansdowne and Interurban, and virtual “offices” through Teams or Collaborate. We support the use of Desire2Learn (D2L) Brightspace and other educational technologies available at Camosun College (Kaltura, Camtasia, WordPress, Collaborate). Our eLearning Support team can help you and your students when you have technical issues or questions about D2L or our other technologies. Our instructional designers work with faculty to design and develop online learning opportunities, understand best practices in online pedagogy, set up and manage their D2L courses, explore options for using other online tools to support their teaching, and discuss considerations for integrating those tools into their course design.

Want to know more? Let us know – our contact phone numbers and emails are on page 2!

What is D2L?

Desire2Learn (D2L) Brightspace is Camosun College’s learning management D2L enables faculty who are teaching face-to-face, blended, or completely online to deliver content, manage online activities and group collaboration, as well as provide online assessment options for students.
Your D2L site can only be accessed by students registered in your course, eLearning staff, and other Camosun employees you request access
To get started with D2L, please request a consult with an eLearning instructional You also check the current workshop schedule for upcoming eLearning and D2L learning opportunities.

How are D2L course sites set up?

NEW: Every semester, by default, instructors will be provided with a D2L shell for every section of course(s) they teach (regardless of whether they use D2L), as long as they are tagged as the instructor for the course sections in myCamosun. If you are unsure if you are correctly assigned in myCamosun, check with your Chair or the person in your area who is responsible for scheduling. NOTE: If you do not wish to use D2L, you can put a notice up in the course to let students know, or send a request to elearning@camosun.bc.ca listing your courses and sections, and we can hide them. This request needs to happen each term for each course.
Approximately 30 days before the course start of the term, you will have access to your blank D2L course shell (as long as you are listed in myCamosun as the instructor of the course).
NEW: As students register for your course, you will see their names appear in your D2L course site Students are added to and dropped from this list as they are registered in, or unenrolled from, the course through myCamosun in real time. Waitlisted students cannot access D2L courses until they are officially registered.
Students will have access to D2L course sites they are registered in on the start date of the course (as it appears in myCamosun). Students will then have access to the D2L course site for 20 days after the end date of the course (as it appears in myCamosun). This is typically the exam period plus a few days.
You, as the instructor of the course, will retain access to your D2L course sites unless you arrange with eLearning Support to have them removed from your list of courses in D2L. Permanently deleting a course requires an email from you to eLearning Support (eLearning@camosun.ca) clarifying which courses you wish to have.

If I teach multiple sections in a term but only want one D2L course site (and thus one D2L gradebook) for all my students, what do I need to do?

Contact eLearning Support to let them know which sections need to be merged into one course Provide as much notice as possible to eLearning support if you want your course sections merged to ensure they are merged by the first day of class.

What is a DEV (Development) course site, and how do I request one?

A D2L DEV course site is a course site that students cannot It is a place where you can build and revise your course site before your live course shells become available to you.
A DEV site must be associated with a course you are teaching (for example, if you teach Math 100, you can request a Math 100 DEV site).
To request a DEV site for one of your courses, email eLearning Support. To learn more about DEV sites and how they can be used, talk to an eLearning instructional

How do I get access to someone else’s course site?

You will need to ask that person to contact eLearning Support and request/give permission for you to be added to their course site, and indicate what level of access you should be given.

Where do I go to get help with D2L?

You can ask for help from eLearning Support (eLearning@camosun.ca) or book a one-on-one consult with an eLearning instructional designer (see contact information below).
You can come to an eLearning drop-in session or
You can also access our D2L On-Demand Training site under My Courses in D2L (when you click on Student) in D2L, or on our eLearning Tutorials site.

How do I log into D2L?

Go to http://www.camosun.ca, click D2L at the top, then enter your C# and password.

How do I find my courses in D2L?

Once you have logged into D2L, you can find a list of all the courses you have access to in the My Courses widget on the main Camosun D2L page, or in the Select a course… menu on the right-hand side of the navigation bar.
You can pin courses in the My Courses widget or in the Select a course… menu so that, for example, the courses you are teaching right now always appear at the top of the listings. You can access instructions for this in the On-Demand Training course site, or through eLearning Support.

How do I copy course material from one course to another?

Use the Import/Export/Copy Components tool in your D2L course site (under Edit Course). You can access instructions for this in the On-Demand Training course site, or through eLearning Support.

	Contact Information	Role	Primary Campus
eLearning Support	Elearning@camosun.ca	General Support Requests	N/A
Wendy McElroy	mcelroy@camosun.ca \| ext. 3488	D2L Administrator + Support	Lansdowne
Bob Preston	prestonb@camosun.ca \| ext. 3937	Web Analyst + Support	Lansdowne
Kailin Gillis	gillisk@camosun.ca	D2L Support	Interurban
Monique Brewer	brewerm@camosun.ca	Instructional Designer	Interurban/Lansdowne
Meghan Campbell	campbellm@camosun.ca	Instructional Designer	Interurban
Sue Doner	doners@camosun.ca	Instructional Designer	Lansdowne
Patricia Larose	LaroseP@camosun.bc.ca	Instructional Designer	Interurban
Emily Schudel	schudele@camosun.ca	Instructional Designer	Lansdowne

Reminders for Fall 2021 Term from eLearning

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

For new students logging into D2L for the first time, find out how to Log into D2L, and also check out all our tutorials and student support on our eLearning Tutorials site.

For ALL faculty, new and those who have enjoyed their summers so much that all things D2L have drifted away, here are some Things for Faculty to know about eLearning and D2L. NOTE: This document contains updated information about how D2L works now with our new Colleague integrations, so make sure to review it!!

And for all students and faculty don’t forget to check out our eLearning Tutorials site, jam packed with D2L, Collaborate, and Kaltura help documents, as well as links to other resources on Accessibility, and online teaching and learning.

Camosun eLearning Updates

There have been some changes with some of the tools we support here in eLearning at Camosun we wanted to let you know about here:

D2L/Colleague Integration

The new D2L/Colleague Integration will result in changes and improvements to the faculty and student experience in D2L. Read our CETL notice to learn more.

Coming Soon to Collaborate: Gallery View with 25 Simultaneous Videos

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra has been working on improvements to its video gallery to enable Moderators and Participants to view up to 25 simultaneous video feeds. Moderators will see up to 25 simultaneous video feeds beginning April 8, and Participants will get access to this functionality later in the month. Note that we still recommend not having all videos active all the time during a session to conserve bandwidth especially for students with poor connections.

Read our CETL notice to learn more about what’s coming to Collaborate in the future.

eLearning Workshops for Spring (April-June)

Getting ready for your scheduled development? Registration is now open for the eLearning Spring term workshops. Here is the list of workshops, along with descriptions and dates/times. Please contact Emily Schudel (schudele@camosun.ca) with any questions – your questions will be forwarded to the appropriate workshop facilitator if needed.

Getting Started with Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Web Conferencing

Monday, April 26: 10:00-11:30am

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.

Getting Started with D2L

Tuesday, April 27: 11:00am-12:30pm

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

What’s New in D2L

Wednesday, April 28: 10:00-11:00am

Description: Every month brings new features to D2L, which you may or may not have noticed yet. In this session we will go over some of the highlights and also provide you with a preview of the new grades export from D2L to Colleague that will be available for faculty to use beginning summer 2021.

Content Management in D2L

Monday, May 3: 10:00-11:30am

Description: Come learn how to build content in D2L. We’ll begin with an overview of the content tool and the importance of content organization and getting a handle on file management before diving into how to upload your materials and layer in activities and assessments.

Articulate 360: An Overview

Monday, May 3: 1:00-2:30pm

Description: TBD

Articulate 360: Content Management

Tuesday, May 4: 10:00-11:30am

Description: TBD

Managing Assignments in D2L

Tuesday, May 4: 1:00-2:30pm

Description: This workshop will explore ways to modernize asynchronous discussions and create an engaging learning experience for your students. We’ll provide an overview of how to facilitate creative discussions and demonstrate how to set up private groups.

Introduction to Quizzing in D2L

Wednesday, May 5: 10:00-11:30am

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.

Take the First Steps in Creating Accessible Content for your Online Classroom

Wednesday, May 5: 1:00-2:30pm

Description: Before you add more content to your online course, how confident are you that it is accessible? If students are using personal devices to access the content in your course, will the materials resize to fit on different-sized screens and devices? If students are using assistive technologies such as text-to-speech screen-readers, will your content be available in the format they require?

Take the first steps to make your text-based online course content more accessible to a diverse population of students. This session will guide you through some of the key steps you can take when creating Word documents, PowerPoints, PDFs and webpages, to ensure they are as technically-accessible as possible.

Text-to-Speech Support for Students: An Orientation to the ReadSpeaker tools in Your D2L Course

Thursday, May 6: 10:00-11:00am

Description: Did you know that we have 3 text-to-speech tools integrated into our D2L environment? ReadSpeaker’s webReader, docReader, and TextAid tools are available for any student to access in D2L and they don’t require students to download or install anything to use them.

Text-to-speech tools support Universal Design for Learning by giving students the option of listening to the content they are reading online. For instructors, the integrated ReadSpeaker tools can also provide quick feedback on how accessible your content files are to students with visual disabilities.

Attend this info session to learn more about how the ReadSpeaker tools can support accessibility and inclusive practices in your D2L courses.

Creating Great, Accessible Kaltura Capture Videos

Thursday, May 6: 1:00-2:30pm

Description: Kaltura Capture is a desktop recorder that is part of the Kaltura Streaming Media service that enables instructors and students to create videos that capture web cams, screens, and audio. This session will provide you with an in-depth overview of the tools and tips on how to create effective and accessible videos.

Facilitating Creative Online Discussions

Friday, May 7: 10:00-11:30am

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.

Articulate 360: Choose Your Own Adventure

Friday, May 7: 1:00-2:30pm

Description: TBD

Introduction to the ALLY tool in D2L: Designing for Accessibility & Inclusion

Monday, May 10: 10:00-11:30am

Description: Wondering what to make of the Accessibility Report in your D2L course site, or the accessibility feedback in your D2L Content? These are just some of the features of Ally, a tool we have integrated into our D2L environment.

Ally doesn’t change how anything works in your course, and won’t affect your course files. For instructors, Ally provides feedback on how to correct technical accessibility issues with your digital course content. The more technically-accessible learning materials are, the better they will work for students on mobile phones and tablets as well for students who use assistive technologies to access content.

For students, Ally provides “alternative formats” of your Content files, allowing them to choose from a range of options to access content in a file format most appropriate for their device and need.

Attend this info session to learn more about how Ally can support accessibility in your D2L courses.

Introduction to Open Education and Open Educational Resources

Monday, May 10: 1:00-2:30pm

Description: 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.

Setting Up Your Gradebook in D2L

Tuesday, May 11: 11:00am-12:30pm

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

Using Rubrics to Streamline Your Assessment Process

Part 1 – Tuesday, May 11: 1:00-2:00pm

Part 2 – Tuesday, May 18: 1:00-2:00pm

Description: This is a two part workshop over two weeks: Session 1 addresses the pedagogical theory of rubrics and Session 2 address the practical application in D2L. Two main themes are explored in the first rubric session: the pedagogical advantage of digital rubrics; and how to build a nuanced and sophisticated rubric.

Some advantages to a well constructed rubric seem obvious – established standards, consistent feedback, and efficiency – other advantages are less obvious – immediacy, considered criteria, and pedagogical renewal. In the first part of this session participants will consider the positive pedagogical impact of a digital rubric. The second theme of this first day examines the major considerations when building a rubric. Participants will consider categories, gradients, ranking and weighting, iteration, and personalization. Along with a variety of suggestions and tips, participants will be provided a template to start their building their own rubric.

The goal of the first session is to furnish participants with the perspective and tools to craft their own draft rubric between session one and session two.

Session two will provide an overview of how using the Rubric tool in D2L can help to streamline the assessment process, including how to create a rubric in D2L, attach it to various assessment items, and mark student work using the rubric.

Advanced Quizzing in D2L

Wednesday, May 12: 10:00-11:30am

Description: Picking up from the Introduction to Quizzes, in this workshop we will explore in more depth how to set up Sections for holding text, audio, and video information, Question Pools to allow you to randomize questions from a larger bank, Special Access accommodation settings, using TextAid with Quizzes for accessibility, and some other advanced features.

Working with Master Courses

Thursday, May 13: 1:00-2:30pm

Description: Master courses are an excellent way to ensure consistency in course delivery across multiple sections and increase workload efficiencies for instructors. However, master courses also require annual review and maintenance in order to reap their benefits. This workshop will help course owners assess the current state of their master courses and develop a strategy to ensure the courses are read to go for September. Come to the session with any questions and concerns you have about your course. Workshop participants may want to book a follow-up one-on-one session with an instructional designer for individual training and support.

Introduction to H5P

Friday, May 14: 1:00-3:00pm

Description: H5P technology makes it possible to integrate interactive learning elements into HTML pages in D2L, WordPress, or Pressbooks. H5P applications include formative quizzes (with immediate feedback), flash cards, slide decks, images with clickable hotspots, and interactive videos; see: https://h5p.org/content-types-and-applications for more information. This workshop will introduce you to a range of H5P applications that are commonly used to support teaching and learning. During the workshop you will build some H5P content that you can reuse to support your own courses.

Using the Accessibility Reports in D2L: What should I do first? (And how do I do it?!)

Monday, May 17: 10:00-11:30am

Description: As you add documents, PDFs, webpages, and PowerPoints in D2L course content, you will now receive feedback and Accessibility Reports 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 for 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. You are welcome and encouraged to share Ally feedback you have received and have questions about.

Spring Cleaning

Wednesday, May 19: 10:00-11:30am

Description: Do you have a development site or a course offering that is need of clean up? Question libraries that need tweaking or manage files that need organization? This hands-on workshop will cover key best practices surrounding course maintenance and efficiencies in how to manage release dates associated with your course from one central location in D2L (saving you time!).

Enhancing Your Courses with Video: An Introduction to Kaltura

Thursday, May 20: 10:00-11:00am

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. This means faculty and students now have a place to create, edit, and house their course-related videos from one central location. This hands-on workshop will provide you with a high level overview of the Kaltura tools and get you started with using them in one of your courses. The workshop will be more meaningful if you come with a video to work with.

Going Deeper with Videos and Kaltura

Thursday, May 20: 2:00-3:30pm

Description: If you have dabbled with Kaltura this year, you may be ready to learn more about the service’s capability. This hands-on session will cover advanced Kaltura topics, including video editing and chaptering, editing closed captions, creating video quizzes and linking video quizzes to the gradebook. To get the most of out the session, come prepared with some videos ready to edit and/or develop into a quiz.

Designing for Engagement: Moving Beyond Text and Images

Tuesday, May 25: 10:00-11:30am

Description: 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.

Online Assessments Workshop

Thursday, June 3: 10:00-12:00

Description: Worried about how to assess your students in an online environment? This workshop will be led by Faculty Development, Program Renew, and eLearning to help you with your move to online assessments.

Flipping the Classroom

Tuesday, June 2-June 9: Asynchronous component opens (in D2L – you will receive information on how to access the course site in an email)

Tuesday, June 9: 10:00-11:30 Synchronous Component (in Collaborate)

Description: In a flipped classroom students engage with learning content such as lectures and other materials outside of class to prepare for an active learning experience in the classroom. Join us as we explore how to take this concept into our current fully online world. How can we make the best use of our real time synchronous classes as opportunities for active engagement, by augmenting them with asynchronous learning activities? In this workshop we will demonstrate an example of providing content in advance, and using our synchronous time for active engagement. Come prepared to share your ideas.

Custom Collaborate Workshops

Does your department or team need some custom training on advanced features in Collaborate, such as creating breakout groups, or need strategies to engage students in online synchronous sessions? If so, include your name, contact information, and a brief description of your needs and we will follow up with you.

Re-post from the TRU Digital Detox

Seems a bit lazy, but I thought this was definitely worth the re-post (or re-blog, whatever you call it – let’s call it sharing!)

In this week’s Digital Detox post (if you don’t know about the Digital Detox, check it out), Dr. Brenna Clarke Grey talks about e-proctoring in a post aptly called E-proctoring Sucks, So Why Won’t It Go Away?

The thing I appreciate the most about her post is her comment that while she does think cheating is a problem, she thinks “it’s largely a structural problem, not an individual one,” which I completely agree with. Automatically assuming students are going to cheat online and forcing them into invasive proctoring solutions is not addressing the larger issue(s) – we need to examine why students cheat (and yes, there are many, many reasons) and think about our institutional role in pushing them there.

So, I encourage you to check out Dr. Clarke Grey’s post, and join in on the discussion!

Digital Detox #3: E-proctoring Sucks, So Why Won’t It Go Away?