Every month TLC will post the newest and noteworthy materials up on the Teaching & Learning Hub. Here is March’s list. Teaching Strategies & Pedagogy: Why Digital Portfolios – Why use digital portfolios? Now that is a question worth exploring in more detail! Here are some of the skills we…
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Use Brightspace to communicate clear expectations and keys to success. The following may not be included in your syllabus, but you may want to add them to your Brightspace Overview page, or in a Brightspace Module like “Syllabus and Course Information”. Make the expectations crystal clear so that students understand…
Leave a CommentIn this blog post, we promote Release Conditions as a strategy to ensure students actually read the syllabus or other important course content. When you set a release condition in Brightspace, the course material is locked until a student completes the defined requirements. Examples: You could hide a content item…
Leave a CommentUse student feedback to inform instruction and promote learning! This article has ideas for different types of student feedback that you can evaluate for your own courses. If you find one you like, you can copy the instructions and questions and use them in your courses. After that, explore different…
Leave a CommentZoom has been the mainstay of many instructors’ toolkits during the pandemic. And although we are transitioning back to face-to-face classes, Zoom won’t be going away anytime soon. Zoom can be very useful for things like individual calls or virtual office hours. Zoom can also be used to bring outside…
Leave a CommentWhat is plagiarism? Plagiarism is the “submission or inclusion of someone else’s words, drawings, ideas, or data (including that from a website) as one’s own work without giving credit to the source” (from wit.edu website: Academic Honesty Policy). One common example of plagiarism in student papers is copying and pasting…
Leave a CommentHave you ever felt like Ben Stein in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? Standing awkwardly in front of your silent class and staring at blank faces (or blank Zoom screens)? How can it be that no one besides you has any idea why the Smoot-Hawley Tariff was so terrible?…
2 CommentsIt’s hard teaching over Zoom— let’s start by acknowledging that inevitable truth. But it’s definitely possible to design and facilitate engaging virtual classes. I’ve experienced it personally, finding myself transformed in Zoom workshops despite the tangle of wires that both separate and connect us. Those experiences have helped me realize that Zoom teaching, despite its challenges, offers new ways of engaging meaningfully with material and connecting with each…
1 CommentIn an earlier post, I discussed how Blackboard calculates averages – something that can lead to confusion and suspicion that the system is not calculating grades correctly. Because we are changing Learning Management Systems (LMS), I’m revisiting this topic this time using Brightspace as the reference system. Common problems and…
Leave a CommentIn parts 1 and 2 we looked at how Brightspace calculates averages and how it can accommodate complex grading systems. In this installment, I’m going to advocate for simpler grading systems. I’ve heard the argument that calculating grades is simple math that every student should be able to do. And…
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