Category: ETD Updates

This section contains all updates from the Educational Design & Technology office

Online Course Support for Faculty of Agriculture

smantleETD Updates

With the news that the Winter 2022 term will begin online, please note the following online teaching/learning supports and reminders available for the Faculty of Agriculture:

  • Copying content: ETD can assist you in copying content from last winter and checking permissions on Panopto videos so that current students will be able to view. Email etd@dal.ca
  • Synchronous sessions: Consider keeping your timetabled lecture times by offering synchronous sessions to connect with students. ETD can help you get up and running with Collaborate, or Teams. Email etd@dal.ca
  • It is suggested you keep your original scheduling of lecture and lab topics as much as possible, to avoid overloading the latter part of the term.
  • Communicating with students: You can easily email all currently registered students by going to the Brightspace course > Course Admin > Classlist > Email Classlist button. The classlist is refreshed with new enrolments each business day, and will be updated on weekdays over the holiday break as well.
  • Extended support: 
    • ETD will be available on a limited basis during the week of Dec 27th – 31st. Please email etd@dal.ca with requests for assistance, course building, content copying, etc.
    • Halifax’s ATS is also offering extended technical support hours over the holiday. See the announcement on the Brightspace homepage for hours. To access during open hours, click Help inside Brightspace and choose ‘Virtual Support Room’.
  • Last-minute support:
    • ETD will be available on January 4 at 10 AM for an optional Q&A, and to coordinate any last minute adjustments. Join the Teams meeting Click here to join the meeting on Jan 4 at 10.

If you have any questions or concerns about online delivery, you can also reach out directly to Brian.Lesser@Dal.Ca for additional support. Through this period of continued uncertainty, we’re here to help so please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Wishing you all a restful, restorative, and safe holiday break. 

The ETD Team

End of Semester Reminders from ETD

smantleETD Updates

As we near the end of the semester and instructors work to prepare final assessments and grade student work, Educational Technology & Design can offer assistance along the way.  

Final Assessments 

Dalhousie Letter Grade 

 

Winter 2022
For instructors already keen to work on their winter courses, some of the things you can do now are covered in our Semester Start Checklist (https://edtechtruro.edublogs.org/2021/08/20/semester-start-checklist-for-brightspace-courses/). Namely, the list includes: 

  1. Copying course content 
  2. Activating the course and setting dates 
  3. Formally requesting the cross-listing of multiple course sites 
  4. Preparing to reuse Panopto videos 
  5. Preparing to reuse Collaborate Ultra recordings, and 
  6. Adding users (not on the list but our blog post (https://edtechtruro.edublogs.org/2021/05/20/adding-users-to-your-course-in-brightspace/) runs through the steps. 

Last but not least, ETD is again offering a Panopto Video Audit for instructors who wish to reuse Panopto videos. Please get in touch with us as soon as possible to take advantage of this service! Email etd@dal.ca to get your name on our list. Visit our blog post (https://edtechtruro.edublogs.org/2021/07/30/successful-reuse-of-panopto-videos/) for more information. 

Educational Technology and Design – Getting Help/Support

smantleEducational Technology & Design

The Educational Technology & Design (ETD) team is here to assist members of the Faculty of Agriculture by providing personalized support and expertise in instructional design, visual design, course development, technical support, and course delivery through a range of delivery modes. ETD is available for support virtually (preferred) and as of September 2021, for in-person support in Room 236, Haley Institute. To book an appointment, visit https://bit.ly/etd-bookings or view the PDF linked below for more information.

Educational Technology and Design – Getting Help/Support [PDF]

Template Changes for Fall 2021

smantleBest Practice

Educational Technology & Design’s Brightspace templates, as defined in a previous blog post, are “visual and structural design guidelines that can help instructors organize courses and create consistency for students”. The templates were heavily used in the 2020-2021 academic year and appeared to have achieved the intended goals. To affirm this achievement and to inform our template revision process, ETD was keen to speak with students directly to hear what they had to say.  

The Faculty of Agriculture’s Winter 2021 templates were modified based on results from a (Faculty of Agriculture) student survey conducted in Fall 2020. The survey provided valuable feedback, but by engaging students in user testing, ETD would be able to obtain real-time feedback with the opportunity for both sides to ask questions. With the Assistant Dean, Students’ (Nancy McLean) assistance, an email was sent to students asking for participants. Three students were randomly selected from the respondents and in early July 2021, ETD ran three separate tests with students sharing their screens via Microsoft Teams as they navigated through a test course site in Brightspace.  

Screen shot of Test Site in Brightspace


The test course site (shown above) was a fictional but realistic blended-format Faculty of Agriculture course, and the scenario was Day 1 of classes. The students were asked to explore the course homepage, the course centre, and module 1 within the course, all while being encouraged to think out loud, sharing what they saw and how they felt.

Key takeaways from the user testing: 

  • All three students read the Announcement on the homepage and stated its importance; preferred a shorter announcement with visual cues (bullets, bold text) over a “wall of text”.
  • All three students appreciated a welcoming and short instructor bio with photo and detailed contact information on the homepage. 
  • After leaving the homepage, all three students looked for the Syllabus to either print or download. 
  • All three students appreciated the concise and consistent course navigation (shown below).

Thumbnail screen shot of the navigation in the test site
The key takeaways greatly confirmed our best practice recommendations and ETD will continue to encourage a thoughtful and welcoming, detailed but not wordy homepage, an easy to find Syllabus, and an organized and consistent layout. 

The design template is something to which we have a degree of control in Brightspace, and it was important to obtain feedback in this area. Template feedback was not unanimous, but the students agreed that visual interest, consistency, and introductory text was all helpful. 

Specific to the template, ETD made the following changes: 

  • Changing the “Course Centre” to “Syllabus and Course Centre”, to clearly communicate where the syllabus could be found.  
  • De-emphasize the Student Help Resources module, to include it in the “Syllabus and Course Centre” module but to designate the content links as “not required”. 
  • Streamline the colour progression in the submodule description areas, to minimize visual surprises.

Thumbnail of the two templates for Fall 2021 at the Faculty of Agriculture

This was an exciting project this summer for ETD, and the student feedback greatly helped to affirm our best practice recommendations and informed our decisions on the template modifications to focus on for Fall 2021. 

 

ETD Welcomes Matt Goodman, Learning Technologies Specialist

smantleEducational Technology & Design
ETD's 3 person team
Left to right: Matt Goodman, Brian Lesser, Sondra Mantle

Educational Technology and Design is delighted to formally welcome Matt Goodman to the team for a one-year term as a Learning Technologies Specialist. Matt has been employed as a Course Builder since July 2020, supporting many Faculty of Agriculture instructors with the move to online course delivery for the Fall 2020 semester. In his new role, effective January 6, Matt will focus on providing advanced support and guidance for instructors in their use of Brightspace and other educational technology tools. You can get in touch with Matt and the rest of the ETD team by emailing etd@dal.ca . If you’d like to reach Matt directly, his email address is Matt.Goodman@dal.ca.

Updated ETD Winter Templates

smantleBrightspace

ETD’s Templates are visual and structural design guidelines that can help instructors organize and prepare courses for students, and have been specially developed by and for our campus. Prior to COVID, templates were used heavily in all online courses developed with the ETD unit, and have now been used successfully in many of our Fall 2020 courses. Beyond ‘colour boxes’ and structural consistency, the templates reached deeper into content pages and provided courses with their own unique, visual identity.

Streamlining our selection of templates was a strong initiative in the fall. Valuable student and instructor feedback gathered through surveys and through support requests helped ETD determine which changes were necessary in the deployment of three updated Winter templates.

Key changes made for Winter 2021 include:

Consistent and condensed suggested layout for Content
Students indicated confusion with different course layouts and designs. Our goal is to help inspire instructors to establish patterns early in how content is organized and articulate the instructor’s style of assessments and communication. The suggested layout won’t work for all courses, and is therefore fully adaptable.

Use of the Brightspace Calendar
Although use of the calendar tool was widespread in the fall, ETD is making a stronger effort to encourage its use this winter. Students reported relying on the calendar and found the courses that used this tool created far less stress. All that’s needed is to add start, end and/or due dates for all assessments and other critical dates or milestones within the course. We can help you with this, or show you how.

Encourage clearer language in Content links
Providing context by using descriptive titles (i.e. “6.2 Different Vertebrate Skulls [22:39 mins]”) when linking content is a simple but effective step that helps students prioritize, time manage, and gain a level of control in their learning. In this example, a student knows how much time they’ll need to view this lecture video and what topic will be discussed.

Link Assessments within Content
Assessments can always be found within their associated tool (i.e. Assessments/Quizzes), but when they are also linked within Content amongst related topics, students are more apt to find and engage with the assessment when they need it. Additionally, it can be helpful to link all Assessments within the Course Centre (as suggested in the Winter templates) to further reinforce their importance.

Create an Open Discussion for students to talk amongst themselves
Many students described feeling isolated from their classmates. One option ETD explored was to create a discussion forum where students were free to engage with each other and feel a sense of community.

Student Resources and Help module in content
Students expressed confusion with some of the features in Brightspace. ETD created additional Student Help Documents this semester to be included as part of the template package. This module includes links for IT and Brightspace student help, and Student Services and Mental Health links. Instructors can remove any documents they feel are unnecessary.

To provide instructors with additional explanation to our template thought process, ETD created three short videos linked inside each template. Linked in a hidden Information for Instructors module and also embedded in an Announcement (set to disappear prior to the start of classes), these videos provide helpful tips on using the template sites.

The videos can also be viewed using these links (Dal Login required):

Part 1 – https://dal.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=0f10fd96-c520-4b3c-9290-ac6b0120cda7

Part 2 – https://dal.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=8a513a0d-51e9-4634-a172-ac6b01224fe0

Part 3 – https://dal.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=05295312-fbec-4e5a-82a2-ac6b0123136c

To have a template added to your winter course, please contact etd@dal.ca. We can also set up your course structure and create placeholders for your content, if you attach a course outline.

Update from ETD for Fall 2020 Instructors

smantleEducational Technology & Design

With the start of classes just around the corner, we’d like to remind instructors of some important items, below. The ETD team is here to support you throughout the term as you continue to develop and deliver your online courses.

Semester start

  • Instructors must make sure that they make their course active before it will be available to students.

https://edtechtruro.edublogs.org/2018/06/25/making-your-course-available-to-students/

  • First impressions are important – all instructors are encouraged to post a syllabus (course outline), a welcome/introduction message, and at least one module/week of content for the first day of classes. If you need help with adding any of these items to Brightspace, please contact us immediately.
  • Please note that enrolment changes (add/drop) can take up to one business day to be reflected in Brightspace.

Technology needs

  • If you have any teaching-related technology needs, please contact Brian Lesser (brian.lesser@dal.ca) to determine if special funding might be available to support you. We are also able to loan certain items for instructor use during the semester.
  • A professional videographer can now be made available for faculty who may need assistance with creating professional-quality video content. Please contact Brian Lesser (brian.lesser@dal.ca) to discuss further.

Builder support

  • After a very busy and successful summer supporting instructors, our Course Builder program will be changing slightly.
  • Builders will still be available to help instructors design/build their Brightspace course sites, or make changes, but we ask that you email etd@dal.ca to request this work, rather than emailing your Builder directly.

Communication & Contact Info

  • Email:
    • Email etd@dal.ca to reach the full ETD team for general help, training, builder assistance, and support. An individual team member will respond to you as quickly as possible.

We wish everyone a successful semester and we are here to help and support you along the way!

Sincerely, the ETD team:
Brian Lesser (Manager) – brian.lesser@dal.ca
Sondra Mantle (Instructional Media Designer) – sondra.mantle@dal.ca
Matt Goodman (Learning Technologies Specialist) – matt.goodman@dal.ca
And additional part-time builders, working behind the scenes and ready to help

The Faculty of Agriculture’s Move to Online in Fall 2020

smantleEducational Technology & Design

This blog post will be followed by subsequent posts, where we will elaborate on topics introduced in this post, as well as other topics, in our attempt to provide an overview of online course development.

It’s true, this summer will be like no other. Never before have so many instructors on our campus endeavoured to prepare their coming fall semester courses for delivery online. Although this is new territory for many, the tasks ahead are far from impossible, and Brian, Sondra, and their summer assistants are ready to help guide you along the way.

What will matter the most in the months ahead is understanding what is required to design, develop and deliver online learning at a high quality. Allow your experience in teaching a course face to face to provide some comfort but embrace the unfamiliar as well. The ETD Unit will work with you to formulate a strategy for the online design, development, and delivery of your course, carefully ensuring a strong alignment between your learning outcomes, communication, assessments, and instructional materials.

Learning Outcomes

The learning outcomes will help pave the way for choosing appropriate assessments and in identifying the overall strategy for developing a course for online. The learning outcomes for an online version of your course should be the same as the in-person version, however your instructional methods may change in the online environment.

This link provides a good general overview of things to think about when moving online: https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/advice-online-teaching

This link discusses how to keep students front and centre while envisioning your move to online delivery: https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2020/4/student-centered-remote-teaching-lessons-learned-from-online-education

This link from Dalhousie’s Centre for Learning & Teaching (CLT) discusses aligning learning outcomes during online course design: https://qualityguidelines.elearning.dal.ca/course-design-learning-outcomes

Communication

In the online environment, communication is key. The absence of a physical environment in which you share space with your students will drastically change how you interact with them. Even if you arrange synchronous meetings, assignment instructions and due dates will all need to be written out and easily located. Communication with your students includes providing ways for students to ask questions, providing feedback, and building a community within the course. There are a number of communication tools that are built into, or integrated with, Brightspace. We will work with you to help design an environment that fosters communication and connectedness.

This link from Dalhousie’s CLT discusses how and when to interact online, and how to ensure instructor presence: https://qualityguidelines.elearning.dal.ca/interaction

This article from Dalhousie’s CLT discusses tips for building an online community: https://focus.clt.dal.ca/blog/creating-a-virtual-learning-community

Assessments

Online assessments should always be directly connected to the course learning outcomes. In other words, the assessments will provide assurance that students have learned what you have stated they should learn by the end of the course. In the online environment, it’s crucial that your assessments are varied, that the learner expectations are well-defined, that the grading criteria is clear, and that you will provide timely feedback. The choice of assessment will also be driven by the availability of the technology and tools, and in particular, how accessible these tools will be for your students.

This link from Dalhousie’s CLT discusses online assessment: https://qualityguidelines.elearning.dal.ca/assessment-evaluation

For those interested in more in-depth reading on the subject, this scholarly article discusses various online assessment options and the evidence behind each: https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/1712/544

Instructional Materials

The content or instructional materials that will comprise the course will be determined upon the Learning Outcomes and establishing the Assessments. What supporting content will enable students to meet the intended outcomes and complete the assessments and learning activities? It’s very tempting to provide extraneous information, but by continually ensuring the close alignment of the core elements of a well-designed course, you will be better able to determine what content is essential. You may include supplemental resources but be sure to mark them as optional.

Determine the kind of instructional materials that will best suit your learners, as well as the learning experience you want your students to have. Often, it is a variety of materials and methods, and which you choose should be based on the accessibility (social inequalities, internet or technical access issues, or physical limitations) of that delivery mode.

The instructional materials you decide to use can be a mixture of material that you create yourself (text content, video lectures, etc.), and links out to resources elsewhere on the web. In either case, the instructional materials chosen should meet accessibility standards and the ETD office will help you with this.

This link provides a list of sources of high quality Open Educational Resources (OER) that can searched and incorporated into your course for free: https://dal.ca.libguides.com/c.php?g=257259&p=1717419

Educational Technology and Design will use the blog as a regular stream to communicate with the campus. If you have any questions, please get in touch with Brian (brian.lesser@dal.ca) or Sondra (sondra.mantle@dal.ca).