Ally and PDFs Instructors – can your students fully access the PDFs you share in Brightspace? Ally, a tool active in Brightspace, can help you check the accessibility of Portable Document Formats (PDFs). PDFs are a common and convenient way to share information with your students, but these files have…
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Ally and Alt Text Instructors – can all your students “see” the images in your course? For students using screen-readers, alt text is essential for viewing an image. Ally, a tool active in Brightspace to help you improve the accessibility of your content, provides coaching on how to add alt…
Leave a CommentEvery 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…
Leave a CommentInstructors: Are you tired of answering the same questions about assignment guidelines? Do you think grading takes too much time? Have your fingers ever cramped up from typing the same feedback over and over again? Are you sick of explaining to students why you gave them a certain grade? If…
Leave a CommentThe Overview Page is an opportunity to make an impactful first impression on your incoming students. Furthermore, it could be a continued resource as the semester progresses. Here are 5 inspirational ways to set up your Overview Page. ONE: How to Get Started and Where to Find Various Course Components…
Leave a CommentUse 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 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 CommentIt’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 CommentLearning a new system takes some time and Brightspace is like learning any other new system. We’re getting lots of questions (keep them coming!) about how to “best” set up various tools. Best here is always subjective, so I’ll point out some decision points and let you decide what’s the…
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