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Online Presentations and Poster Sessions Within Canadian Copyright Guidelines
We’ve had several instructors approach us about how to move their poster sessions and student presentations to a remote (online) environment. After extensive conversations with the Copyright Coordinator, Undergraduate Research Initiative Coordinator, and our Distance Education Unit, we felt it was a good idea to develop some support resources around this topic. An earlier post addressed choosing appropriate technology, while this one will provide guidance on staying within appropriate copyright parameters. If the work does not contain any copyrighted materials then you have the option of having the students share their posters openly. Give them the option of what license they wish to put on their own work. This could…
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Panopto or Narrated PowerPoint
With regards to the use of Panopto for instructional videos, a frequently asked question is, “why one would use Panopto instead of a narrated PowerPoint file or video?” Instructors who are comfortable with using the “Record Slide Show” feature in PowerPoint are encouraged to continue to use it. However, someone who is new to recording slideshows or who is interested in learning a new way of recording instructional videos should consider using Panopto. Reasons to consider Panopto over PowerPoint: One of the benefits of using Panopto is that it creates streaming video files. This means they can easily be viewed on any web-enabled device. In order to view a narrated…
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Virtual Poster Presentations – Recommended Tools
Note: This list assumes student work is already coming in the likely poster formats (PDF, image as JPG or PNG, PPT, DOC) as opposed to being presented using some unique platform (e.g., Prezi, Sway). Please investigate the help pages linked below first. If you require additional help with one of these tools, email itsupport@usask.ca. Tool Strengths and Challenges Canvas Discussions · Asynchronous (students can access at any time ahead of a given deadline) · Students attach their poster to a thread which classmates can view · Classmates can add comments / feedback to the thread · Simplest tool that enables student interaction! Panopto assignment · Asynchronous · Students produce…
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It’s Okay to Keep it Simple
As we all rapidly transition to remote instruction this week due to COVID-19, it is actually better to keep it simple. When a friend sent me a blog post called Please do a bad job of putting your course online, I was initially offended. As I read the post, I realized it offered some really good advice. We aren’t trying to make awesome online courses (that takes too much effort at this stage), and faculty and students are dealing with lots of complications in their lives. We are trying to protect ourselves and others with social distancing while ensuring students don’t lose the credits they are working for. With that…
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Featured instructor: Martin Gaal
Course Innovation Community CIC 2019 Martin Gaal, Lecturer Faculty Member in Political Studies Martin teaches Political Studies 112, Justice and Injustice in Politics and Law to 100 students. He participated in CIC to help address his concerns regarding how to link learning outcomes to active learning strategies that ladder-in formative and summative assessments. Martin has noticed that student support for success is much more difficult with 100+ students than it is when he has smaller classes of 30 students. He continues to look for ways to tighten the course structure with technology and teaching strategies that increase student engagement and maintain a personal connection with students while seeking to maintain…
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Featured Instructor : Colleen Bell
Course Innovation Community CIC 2019 Colleen Bell, Assistant Professor Faculty Member in Political Studies Colleen teaches International Studies 110, Global Studies, to a class of over 80 students. By participating in CIC, Colleen was able to gather new ideas on structuring student debates, improve her use of rubrics, and better able to select and sequence the content necessary to engage students (which sometimes felt like a sacrifice!). She used some of her CIC funding to support grading and coaching and another part to have a team-based competition in class. The competition motivated students to watch and evaluate videos made by their classmates. Colleen’s concerns with large class teaching were that…
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Feeding Learning: Mark better work, in less time
In the last two decades we’ve learned a lot about feedback. We know Our Learning Charter tells us that as educators, we’ve agreed to “Provide prompt and constructive feedback for students on their learning progress at regular intervals throughout the course.” What does that actually mean, and why does it matter? What do we know about prompt feedback? The most useful feedback occurs early on in the learning process (formative), not at the end (summative), because feedback is most useful when students do not yet have mastery. In both cases, feedback closer to when the task is completed is usually more useful. When students have clear criteria or examples to…
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Featured Instructor: Derek Postnikoff
Course Innovation Community CIC 2019 Derek Postnikoff, Lecturer Faculty Member in Mathematics & Statistics Sessional Lecturer in Philosophy Derek teaches Math 100, Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers, to a class of 85 students. By participating in CIC, he was able to attend two math education conferences: First Year Math and Stats in Canada in May 2019 and Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group in June 2019. Both of these events provided him with many specific ideas for themes and activities to incorporate in MATH 100. He is planning to use what remains of his CIC funding to attend both of these conferences again this year. Some of his struggles were that…
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Aligning assessment and experiential learning
I didn’t know what to expect as I rode the elevator up the Arts tower to interview for a research assistant position for a SOTL group. I certainly didn’t expect the wave of information and Dr. McBeth’s joyful energy. She, Harold Bull, and Sandy Bonny explained the project in a unique dialect; a mix of English and their shared academic speak. I hope they didn’t catch onto my confusion when they were throwing around the term MCQ, or multiple choice question, (which refers to the Medical Council exam in my former profession). I realized that I had quite a lot to learn if I was going to succeed in this…
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Internationalization of Teaching & Learning : Featured Instructor
Dr Lucy R. Hinnie Postdoctoral Fellow Lucy is a postdoctoral fellow in the department of English and completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. In her work, she looks at written text through the frame of intersectionality, interrogating the accepted ‘canon’ of white male scholars and looking to find relevance to every student, regardless of their background. She has a desire to strengthen her teaching practice and do better by all of her students. She took the internationalization short course because she has a desire to strengthen her teaching practice and do better by all of her students, especially those who face difficulties in what is perceived to…