Why and How to Teach Teamwork

smantleBest Practice

A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Why and How to Teach Teamwork written by Jane S. Halonen and Dana S. Dunn (November 15, 2021), provided some great suggestions on how instructors could improve the structure and design of group projects. “We ask students to exercise their leadership and interpersonal muscles, but we rarely offer any instruction on how to operate effectively in a group.” There is great value in improving students’ experience with working in groups, and adopting even one of their suggestions could make a huge difference.

The article requires a username and password (access is free), but the key takeaways are:

  1. Link group projects to future success on the job.
  2. Improvise a model of a dysfunctional group.
  3. Have students practice how not to cooperate in a group.
  4. Guide their group discussions with a structured list of questions.
  5. Dedicate precious class time to group projects.
  6. Enlist students to provide feedback to one another.
  7. Ask groups to rotate the leadership role.
  8. Conduct equity reviews at the end of major projects.
  9. Require self-assessment.

Why and How to Teach Teamwork, by Jane S. Halonen and Dana S. Dunn – https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-and-how-to-teach-teamwork?cid=gen_sign_in

Ouriginal – Plagiarism detection (formerly Urkund)

smantleBest Practice

Urkund, now known as Ouriginal, is a software platform that integrates with Brightspace for the purpose of verifying the originality of student submitted assignments. Operationally, there aren’t a lot of differences and the name change is reflected in most places within Brightspace.  

From the company’s website, “Ouriginal brings together the combined expertise of Urkund and PlagScan’s plagiarism detection solution, that combines text-matching with writing-style analysis to promote academic integrity and help prevent plagiarism.” Their Quick Start Guide (https://www.ouriginal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Guide-to-the-Analysis-Report_EN.pdf) provides a detailed, step-by-step overview of their improved and modernized interface. At this time, it is still possible to toggle back to Urkund’s report interface.  

After being integrated with a course and connected to assignment dropboxes, Ouriginal works by immediately searching for matches in a student’s submission with the internet, journal publications, assignments submitted by other Dalhousie students, and Ouriginal’s global database of student submissions. Depending on the size of the submission, reports are typically generated within 30 minutes. 

Ouriginal/Urkund can be enabled for any Assignment in a Brightspace course, and reports are generated automatically for any submissions. For information on setting up Ouriginal in Brightspace, visit this post on our blog https://edtechtruro.edublogs.org/2021/08/20/adding-ouriginal-to-your-brightspace-course/. 

Best Practices for Using Ouriginal 

  1. Remind students that their work will be submitted for originality review
    The Faculty of Agriculture’s Syllabus template includes specific language to be included advising students that “all assignments may be submitted to Dalhousie’s current plagiarism detection software”. Please ensure that this language, in its entirety is included in your Syllabus if Ouriginal will be used for student submissions. 
  2. Reiterate the importance of academic integrity
    Including Ouriginal in your teaching provides an opportunity to discuss academic integrity and intellectual property with students. It’s easy to assume that students grasp the significance of academic integrity, but the reality is that they may not have a complete understanding of what constitutes academic integrity. Be clear about your expectations for original work. 
  3. Consider introducing Ouriginal with a low-stakes assessment
    Consider offering a short introductory assignment enabling Ouriginal on this so that both you and the students become familiar with the tool. You can also turn on the setting that allows students to view the Similarity Report for the work they’ve submitted. This setting is off by default, but enabling it can give students a closer look at which skills to focus on. 
  4. Supplement the use of Ouriginal with the resources available from Dalhousie
    The Faculty of Agriculture Brightspace homepage has a widget available that outlines the role students play in academic integrity. Ensure this widget is included on your course’s homepage as it includes links to central resources and additional information. 
  5. Provide Additional Information
    Include Ouriginal’s Student Guide (https://www.ouriginal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/D2L-Student-Guide_EN.pdf) as a link in your course. 
  6. Remember –
    Ouriginal is a tool that helps identify issues with academic integrity, but it does not replace instructor intuition. It is possible for Ouriginal to miss instances of blatant plagiarism (false negative), and it’s also possible for a submission to be flagged as problematic when it shouldn’t be (false positive). Instructors should still complete their own analysis to verify integrity, while assessing the submission. 

 

 

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]

Preparing for Return to Campus – A Trauma-Informed Approach

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BCcampus recently published a short article providing suggestions for a compassionate transition for instructors and students as we head into the fall semester. Whether classes will be face-to-face, blended or online, recognizing the impact that prolonged stress can have on the “ability to process information, make choices, and stay focused” (Joudrey, 2020), we can better support students by incorporating trauma-informed pedagogy. This includes establishing consistent routines and offering flexibility.

Source: Preparing for Return to Campus – A Trauma-Informed Approach (https://bccampus.ca/2021/07/28/preparing-for-return-to-campus-a-trauma-informed-approach/)

Resources:
Joudrey, Susan, “Trauma-informed Pedagogy: What It Is and How It Can Help Now,” Focus, November 23, 2020. https://focus.clt.dal.ca/blog/trauma-informed-pedagogy-what-it-is-and-how-it-can-help-now

Debbie Zacarian, Lourdes Alvarez-Ortiz, and Judie Haynes, “5 Essential Trauma-Informed Priorities for Remote Learning,” ASCD, April 7, 2020. https://www.zacarianconsulting.com/2020/04/08/5-essential-trauma-informed-priorities-for-remote-learning/

Brightspace Rubric Tool

etdmadiyaBrightspace

Link to PDFRubrics are a useful tool instructors can use to define their expectations for students and can be used in providing feedback. The Brightspace Rubrics tool makes it easy for instructors to integrate rubrics into their online or blended courses. The following instructions will cover creating new rubrics and adding rubrics to an assignment or a discussion in Brightspace. A document on viewing rubrics for students has also been included. It is recommended that instructors intending to use rubrics circulate this document to their students.

Brightspace Rubric Tool [PDF]

Viewing Rubrics for Students [PDF]

 

Template Changes for Fall 2021

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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. 

 

Successful Reuse of Panopto Videos

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The significant investment in preparing content over the past year for online delivery resulted in an expansive bank of quiz questions, Panopto lecture videos, and content files within courses. These resources have a shelf-life beyond the 2020-2021 academic year, and while minimal effort is required to reuse most types of content year after year, Panopto videos may require extra attention. 

Request Access message
This image depicts the Request Access message that students see for videos they cannot access.

For instructors wishing to reuse videos from previous offerings, ETD is offering Panopto video audits to catch issues now before the semester start date. To receive an audit, please contact etd@dal.ca as soon as possible, indicating the course number(s) and providing a brief summary of the videos you wish to make available for students.  

To ensure videos will be available in future offerings with minimal finesse, it is recommended that Panopto videos be linked using the “Insert Stuff” method [https://edtechtruro.edublogs.org/2021/05/10/how-to-link-panopto-videos-in-your-course/]. 

Some course videos will need no work at all, while others may need permissions added or videos may require relinking.  

For information on re-use of Collaborate Ultra Recordings, please see the following document: https://edtechtruro.edublogs.org/2021/03/26/viewing-collaborate-ultra-session-recordings/.

Setting up Discussions

etdmadiyaBrightspace

Link to PDFThe Brightspace Discussion tool is very useful in enabling student interaction within online and blended environments. To set up discussions, forums must be created first. A forum exists to organize or group similar or recurring discussion topics. For example, to set up a weekly discussion, start by creating a forum titled “Weekly Discussions”. Within that forum, you would have weekly “topics”.

Setting up Discussions [PDF]