On April 1st, 2021, a group of faculty joined Sandie Morgan in a Zoom session devoted to exploring ways to engage students during online synchronous sessions! We were able to explore various ways to help grow the relationships between students during online sessions as well as participate ourselves in some rounds of community-building activities to…Read More
It’s Game Time! with Alex Lin
On March 4th, 2021, a group of faculty joined Alex Lin in a Zoom session devoted to games! We were able to both learn and play some games that you may be familiar with, but in a new way – through Zoom. Alex got everyone involved in playing games just for the fun of it…Read More
Use Games in Your Classroom
Games are a great way to get students engaged in course content in a fun and exciting way, while at the same time building community. These customizable games can be played live in the physical or virtual classroom, some can be played asynchronously, and some can allow students to choose how they play. Kahoot Game…Read More
Improving Usability and Visual Design
Seeing your course and materials from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with your content and organizational structure can help you to clarify important instructions and emphasize important concepts. Having someone else review your course for usability provides a useful second set of eyes to help you see things you hadn’t notices before. Here are some usability questions…Read More
Improving Accessibility in Your Course
By employing a few simple techniques when creating your courses and materials that maximize accessibility, you won’t be scrambling when a student needs an accommodation, because you will have done most of the work already. Many accessibility problems in instructor-created course content can be prevented by three relatively simple practices that will significantly improve accessibility for your course. Use…Read More
Visual Design for Usability
Using images and visual organizers supports learning and can improve recall. Because the brain codes visual and verbal information separately, associating facts and concepts with clear graphics provides two channels to memory. Visual Design and Attention As you have likely experienced, students don’t always pay attention to everything you give them. That’s not unexpected since people in general do not…Read More
Tools for Interactive Teaching and Learning
It is tempting to fall into the habit of thinking that you have to use a lot of complicated technological tools to provide opportunities for meaningful active learning. You can provide meaningful interaction with quite basic tools as long as they are well-structured and clearly support students in reaching learning outcomes. Consider the Experience While…Read More
Using Video in Your Classes
You may ask yourself, ‘How should I do videos?’ The answer is, ‘it depends’. It depends on your learning objectives, your content, your activities, and your students. If you want your students to be able to do something that someone can demonstrate, then video would be the best option. If your content involves specific places…Read More
Making Your Own Videos
While making even basic webcam video can be a scary process for some, personal video shows students that their instructor is an “active participant in the presentation of new material rather than just selecting appropriate readings or videos for students to passively absorb” (Bronsky, 2015). If you’ve never done video before, it’s okay to start small. A personal…Read More
Presentations and Interactive Media
Watching a presentation where the instructor simply reads the text on the slides is like going to a conference where the presenters read their papers. A large section of the audience could have read the paper faster and likely with greater comprehension of the content and less inclination to multitask or doze. If you are…Read More
Video and Presentation Planning Checklist
It is always recommended that you use a checklist to guide your multimedia presentations. Use the following as a tool to help you create the best presentations possible. Initial Questions What should your students be able to know and do after watching your video? What course learning outcome does it support? Prepare your script (Don’t forget to write for the ear!)…Read More
Get Started in Canvas
As a faculty member it is a good idea to make yourself familiar with Canvas so you can know what tools are available to you as you build your courses. Canvas Overview Canvas Interface Overview Script Set up your Notifications By default, your notifications will go to your organizational email address. If you would like your notifications…Read More
Assess Student Learning in Canvas
It is recommended that Canvas be used for all assignments and grading for your courses. Consistent use of these tools across all courses will help students be as successful as possible. Creating Graded Assignments To create a gradebook item you create an assignment and Canvas then automatically creates a place in the grade book for that assignment.…Read More
Create and Organize Your Content in Canvas
There are a lot of excellent tools in Canvas to help you engage your students both inside and outside your classroom. Creating and organizing your content is much easier when you understand how to use Modules, Pages, the Rich Content Editor, and Discussions. Use Modules The Modules Tool is the easy way to organize your…Read More
Using the Hyflex Template to Build Your Course
IFD has designed and built Hyflex course templates that incorporate principles from James Lang’s “Small Teaching” and a Flipped Learning version of Blooms Taxonomy that detail pre-class, in class, and post-class best practices. These templates allow you to build your course in such a way that you can offer it as: a FlexVU-Campus or FlexVU-Virtual…Read More