Remote Teaching
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Comparing two online quizzes: Formative Assessment
This post aims to compare the design of two online quizzes to determine how each design impacts student learning. Formative assessment is a process used to: Identify what students already know and where they need more support to reach the desired learning outcomes. Provide feedback that the student can use to increase learning before a final assessment. For example, using feedback from a draft assignment that can be used to increase understanding for future revisions. Evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction during the learning process so the teacher can adjust instruction to meet students’ needs. “You almost want kids to make mistakes on formative assessments because that’s how you figure out…
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Perusall or Discussion Boards
Previous Educatus blog posts have introduced Perusall to turn pre-class readings into social learning. In this post, I discuss how instructors might use Perusall to overcome discussion board fatigue and provide resources on using Perusall along with sample learning activities. Perusall is a free social learning tool that students can access through Canvas. Students have discussions in the same space as they read course material. The image below shows what a student would see in Perusall, with the reading in the middle and the conversation on the side. Throughout this post I only refer to the use of readings in Perusall. However, videos, images, podcasts, and webpages can all be…
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Keep it active with classroom polling
After about 15 minutes listening in a large lecture hall, many students’ minds are likely wandering. An easy way to make your class more active and allow your students to see if they are understanding is to use polling software. A poll can be an open text response, multiple choice, and even a visual you interact with. The USask tool is called Poll Everywhere. You can see all the details for how to set up and use Poll Everywhere, including in Canvas, in the Poll Everywhere teaching guide in the Learning Technology Ecosystem. To keep students engaged when you are doing a lot of the talking, space questions and activities…
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Discussions in Canvas – Asking Good Questions – Part 1
By Roberta Campbell-Chudoba Asking questions is one of the most powerful tools we have as instructors. Just like asking good questions in class, promoting discussion with questions that capture students’ attention and stimulate intellectual engagement can be facilitated online, using Canvas Discussions. Crafting questions for a discussion forum depends on the purpose of the discussion, and your learning outcomes. Open-ended questions with multiple possible responses challenge students and can help to deepen the discussion, supported by your facilitation (or your TA’s) in the forum. One way to create open-ended questions with multiple possible responses is by using Bloom’s hierarchy (1956; Anderson & Krathwohl, 2000) of cognitive skills, a framework that…
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Choosing a mix of F2F and remote online? Tips for smoother hybrid approaches
The University has announced a return to campus stating Feb. 7th. With the exception of some specific programs designed to provide hybrid options, instructors are not expected to teach students face to face (F2F) and online at the same time in their F2F course(s). However, you may be trying to provide some extra options for your students in these complicated times, and if you are, here are some tips you may wish to use to help your students avoid pitfalls: Help students hold the details: Review where to find everything in your Canvas course, and remember that half of USask students access Canvas through the app. (see how to video…
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Using Zoom Meetings in Canvas
Zoom is a web conferencing tool available in Canvas. To be enabled, it has to be added to the course navigation menu. Zoom can be used to schedule lectures, group meetings or appointments. Students can join any virtual meeting directly through Canvas and can review any recorded sessions through the Zoom Meetings link. The videos below explain how to use Zoom to schedule meetings and office hours in Canvas. Using Zoom to schedule meetings in Canvas (7.31) Using Zoom to schedule office hours in Canvas (4.05) How students can join a Zoom session in Canvas Once in Canvas students can simply click the Join button, either from the Zoom Meetings…
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Generating an attendance report in Zoom
Term has started and whilst the instructors who are back in the classroom can clearly see who is present in their classes, for those who are teaching virtually it is not so easy to determine. Luckily for the instructors who are hosting their virtual classes in Zoom, an attendance report can be generated. This report will show you who was present in your virtual session and for how long. Follow these simple steps to generate an attendance report in Zoom. Sign into the Zoom portal through PAWS. Click Reports on the left-hand side navigation, then click Usage. Enter the appropriate dates of the classes in question and click Search.…
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Canvas Online Attendance
Canvas has just released an online attendance dashboard for instructors who are teaching online and who want to define attendance around students’ interactions within Canvas. You can access the online attendance dashboard through the New Analytics link either from the course navigation menu or through the course homepage. This dashboard gives instructors an at-a-glance view of which students are engaging with Canvas-based activities and on which days. Instructors can use the Weekdays dropdown menu to select their class days, so they can easily see online attendance for these days & Instructors can filter the results to show students who have met (or not met) the attendance criteria, making…
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Keep recording when you present content
The move to remote instruction with COVID-19 forced a pivot that was frustrating for educators and students alike. USask collected data about the student learning experience in focus groups and surveys throughout the pandemic. Students consistently told us they missed community and direct connection with their professors. However, they also told us how much they value recordings of the times when the professor is presenting information in class – a practice they would like to see USask educators continue as we return to traditional classroom formats. What research says A recent meta analysis of video in higher education using only randomized controlled trials found that while recorded video is not…
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Introduction to Teaching Online
If someone asked you “How is online teaching different from face-to-face teaching?”, the first thing you might say is that face-to-face teaching involves real time interaction between students and instructors (synchronous) whereas online teaching happens through a computer, with students typically working through course content like lectures and other materials in their own time (asynchronous). In an online environment students and instructors access the course at different times and from different places; therefore, it is necessary to deliberately build in opportunities to develop a rapport with students and guide them through the course so that they are successful. There are a number of strategies that are effective in online courses that…
