Tag: Best Practice

Blog Posts that include Best Practices for a variety of topics

We need to get online learning right before the next crisis hits

smantleTeaching and Learning

George Veletsianos recently contributed an article to The Globe And Mail about being proactive in investing the time and effort into online learning. Besides the COVID-19 Pandemic, climate-related crises have and are likely to continue disrupting the much-preferred mode of in-person learning.

“Design makes or breaks online learning, which is the exact reason why much of the online learning that happened during the pandemic – what researchers have dubbed emergency remote learning – was indeed awful. It was designed and delivered by professionals who were never trained for it, who never signed up for it and who were doing it while dealing with grief, loss, anxiety and the broader repercussions of the pandemic. What students need more than access to education is access to well-planned and purposefully designed education.”

Read the full article – https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-we-need-to-get-online-learning-right-before-the-next-crisis-hits/. George Veletsianos is a professor of education and Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Technology at Royal Roads University.

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. 

 

 

Preparing for Return to Campus – A Trauma-Informed Approach

smantleBest Practice

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/

How to Link Panopto Videos in Your Course

smantleBest Practice

Link to PDFTo ensure your videos are available to all students, the instructions available in the link below outlines the process of adding a Panopto-housed video to ensure ease of access to all users. You do not have to use Panopto for recording, but it is strongly recommended to use the system for embedding videos in your course.

How to Link Panopto Videos in Your Course [PDF]

Note: factors such as bitrate, aspect ratio, file size, and video length can all impact the time it takes for a video to upload and process. If you are uploading multiple videos at the same time, expect increased delays. This is simply the nature of working with video files. Please allow adequate time for this process.

Best Practice for Quiz Integrity

smantleBest Practice

Link to PDFETD has pulled together a resource document covering the suggested best practices to promote academic integrity regarding quizzing and testing in Brightspace. There are three main components of increasing integrity that we will discuss; including Shuffling and Randomization, Quiz setup, and Quiz Instructions. Using one or all of these practices in combination will reduce the potential of students committing academic integrity violations and increase the quality of course quizzing/testing.

Best Practice for Quiz Integrity [PDF]

Panopto Folders and Sharing Videos from your personal folder

smantleBest Practice

screenshot thumbail of Panopto folders and sharing videosPanopto offers several ways videos can be stored and distributed. This article will explore the differences between where videos can be stored (i.e. My Folder or Course Folders), and the methods of sharing videos from one folder to another. These sharing techniques include either granting permissions for an individual or class list to access a folder/video, or creating a copy of a video and moving the copy to a different folder with the permissions already intact.

Panopto Folders and Sharing Videos from your personal folder [PDF]

Panopto Permissions Issues and Video Linking Best Practice

smantleBest Practice

There has been a widespread ongoing issue with students not being able to access Panopto videos in courses this semester. This error comes in many forms – Access denied, permission requests, or being redirected to the course homepage. The root cause of this issue is that Panopto is failing to automatically update the class list and the permissions between Brightspace and the Course Folder in Panopto. This article will cover how to fix this issue and prevent it in the future.

If instructors or students are experiencing this issue, please use one of the following options to trigger the permissions for students to update:

  1. Post a video in the course via Insert Stuff and have the students view that video first.
  2. Post a video in the course via Existing Activity>Panopto Video or Quiz option.
  3. Have the “Panopto Recordings” link visible for students to click on, an announcement would work for sharing this.
  4. Have the student open a new browser tab and log directly into Panopto at https://dal.hosted.panopto.com/.

Each option is explored in greater detail in the full instructional PDF.

Best Practise for Video Linking

smantleBest Practice

Video has become increasingly common in all Faculty of Agriculture courses, whose typical points of origin include:

  • Videos linked and shared from another server, such as YouTube or Vimeo;
  • Your own video upload (i.e. a lab demo you recorded, a PPT recording, etc.) via Panopto; and,
  • Video recorded using the Panopto recorder.

For the first bullet point, linking a YouTube video is quite flexible, in terms of your choice to link or use the provided embed code. The latter two bullet points both should involve Panopto. Think of Panopto as our own, paid-for and password-protected YouTube streaming server. Although Panopto is not perfect, understanding its limitations and working with its strengths has resulted in an overall positive experience for students and instructors alike.

While it is possible to upload a video directly to Brightspace (thus circumventing Panopto) and then link that video in the Content area, we have received reports of serious issues in viewing these videos and it is a reality that linking video files in this manner will compromise many students’ ability to view the videos. Uploading videos directly to Brightspace is not considered best practise for several reasons:

  • Low bandwidth users will experience difficulties viewing the videos;
  • Some users may be using devices or browsers that will not allow viewing the videos; and,
  • The videos will not be available for students using the Panopto app (that allows exclusively in-app video download for offline viewing).

Visit our blog post, “How to Link Panopto Videos in Your Course” for specific instructions on how to make your videos available for all students.

For assistance in linking or sharing videos from YouTube, or with uploading and linking Panopto videos, please contact etd@dal.ca.

Note: factors such as bitrate, aspect ratio, file size, and video length can all impact the time it takes for a video to upload and process. If you are uploading multiple videos at the same time, expect increased delays. This is simply the nature of working with video files. Please allow adequate time for this process.

Best Practice for Organizing Course Files

etdmadiyaBest Practice

Link to PDFAs many have learned through experience, good organizational habits are key in keeping online courses running smoothly. To assist with course file organization, each Brightspace course comes equipped with the Manage Files tool. This tool stores all files within the course and gives a useful overview of these files. The following document will outline the best practice for using Manage Files.

Best Practice for Organizing Course Files [PDF]