November 9

Free online course: Designing Digital Media for Teaching and Learning

A team of students and a teacher at the UMassAmherst College of Education have created a 4 week long open online course on digital media in education. The course has its own website and a Google + community.

I have enrolled in this course in just a few easy steps, and its open access to anyone. Today, Week 2 started, but the course has Week 1 materials available and the only firm deadline for completing the assignments is the end of the course, December 7th, 2015.

The activities are there to help “explore, evaluate, and choose digital media tools for use in your own classroom.” I would recommend it both to beginner and advanced users of digital media. It suggests and teaches many useful tools, so this could be a good starting point if you have thought about using digital media in your classroom.

photo credit to Designing Digital Media course website, welcome page screenshot

 

 

Category: Online Teaching Pedagogy, Open Educational Resources, Professional Development, Spotlight on Ed Tech | LEAVE A COMMENT
July 8

FREE Webinars on Using Brightspace by D2L!!!

The Academic Technologies Team recommends these free webinars for instructors who are new to D2L Brightspace.

For more information, view the PDF: D2LGettingStartedWebinars

Photo credit: www.brightspace.com

The MnSCU Special Interest Group: Learning Spaces & Instructional Technologies will be holding a series of free 1-hour webinars to get faculty who are new to D2L Brightspace up and running. Internet access available from home or campus – whichever works for you. Session size is limited!

The following sessions will be held July 27 thru August 31:

  • Organize Your Content (Content & Course Builder Tools)
  • Using Respondus Quiz Tool
  • D2L Brightspace Quiz Tool
  • News, Classlist and Email
  • D2L Brightspace Discussion Board Tool
  • Points Based Gradebook
  • D2L Brightspace Dropbox

For full description, dates and registration: https://mnquality.eventbrite.com

 

Category: Course Design, D2L Tip of the Month, Professional Development | LEAVE A COMMENT
April 22

The Positive Impact of Online Collaborative Learning on Student Success: An Assessment of Harvard Business School’s ‘HBX’ Initiative

Creative Commons "Harvard Business School Baker Library” by Chensiyuan (CC BY-SA) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harvard_business_school_baker_library_2009a.JPG http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Creative Commons “Harvard Business School Baker Library” by Chensiyuan (CC BY-SA)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harvard_business_school_baker_library_2009a.JPG
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

An article in Inside Higher Ed highlights the following positive effects of Harvard Business School’s HBX CORe program which was designed to facilitate extensive collaborative learning:

  • A course completion rate of over 85% (usually lower than 10% for MOOCs).
  • High satisfaction rate with 80 to 90% of learners evaluating the teaching and program content as either four or five out of a five.
  • Very high levels of engagement with peers and course materials through program analyses, reflections, and content discussions with peers (via required participation).

Read the article to learn the principles of collaborative learning that Harvard Business School used in their online course design.

Category: Course Design, Online Collaborative Learning, Online Teaching Pedagogy | LEAVE A COMMENT