LTDC Virtual Showcase 2020

A1 – Using CANVAS Outcomes for Embedded Course Assessment

Canvas Outcomes allows for programs to use shared rubrics to assess student learning. Faculty and instructors are able to assess alongside grading using the SpeedGrader function. Data can then be pulled using CANVAS outcomes reports to aggregate assessment data by outcome, section, course, and instructor. Because CANVAS reports at the student ID level, we can combine CANVAS outcomes reports with data from our Student Information System to disaggregate assessment data in useful ways. At the most basic level, this can be by program or major. However, we can also disaggregate by course pathways, demographics and any other SIS data that we have. Canvas embedded assessment allows for sustainable, shared assessment practices that helps us engage in meaningful conversations about student learning. In this presentation, we will discuss the onboarding process, share experiences about strengths and weaknesses, and provide examples of our pilot CANVAS assessments. While CANVAS is the tool we use to collect data, we will also share our practices around rubric creation and working with faculty to improve their assessment instruments. We will also talk about workflow processes and providing instructors with agency to determine their own assessment needs. Finally, we will discuss how CANVAS outcomes has been a tool to increase assessment on our campus and provide opportunities for streamlining data related to student learning.

A2 – Faculty reflections on OER adoption

Two recent studies of Open Educational Resources have important implications as the OER movement continues to grow in Higher Education. First, in its latest report on Open Educational Resources in Higher Education, the Babson Survey Research Group finds that faculty are increasingly more aware of OER, but still unsure how it will improve learning in their courses. Second, in “Efficacy of Open Textbook Adoption on Learning Performance and Course Withdrawal Rates: a Meta-Analysis”, Virginia Clinton and Shafiq Khan conclude that Open Textbook adoption significantly impacts the course withdrawal rate. At UW Milwaukee, The Open Textbook Project led by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and the UWM Libraries has sought to remove the barrier of textbook cost in large enrollment, first year courses. To that end, we have asked faculty to identify their own goals for adopting an open textbook including any course design changes they would like to make. Additionally, we ask them to identify how they will make the adoption scalable to multiple sections of the course and sustainable over multiple semesters. In this presentation, we will share some of our successful open textbook adoptions including faculty and student reflections on the impact of OER in their courses.

A3 – More than an “Award Winning” S’mores Stout: The Story of UW-Whitewater and UW-Stout’s Teaching and Learning Exchange Program

Learn how UW-Whitewater and UW-Stout came together in collaboration to explore how to leverage IT strengths and talents from various programs across a variety of topics. The key question we asked was: why are we doing this alone? How can we work together across campuses to support each other across a variety of challenges. How do we find ways to develop collaborative best practices, learn from each other, and share resources to support each other.

• Participants will learn about an exchange program between two IT teams and their respective journeys to each other’s respective campuses.
• Share agendas and processes in a variety of areas including
• Attending a cross-campus collaborative workshops on Accessibility entitled “a practical guide to accessibility”, developing a vision for online and blended teaching and faculty development, exploring emerging technologies, touring studios and campus resources, discussing canvas QA strategies, sharing textbook and OER strategies, and developing a shared vision for leadership.

Takeaways you can learn by attending our session include:

• Strategies to form your own collaborative partnerships
• Receive the “Award-Winning” Whitewater Stout Collaboration S’mores Stout recipe
• Leverage strengths to develop key resources and support across campuses

B1 – Lessons from Training and Supporting Instructors New to Adaptive Learning

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Learning Technology Center (LTC) has been exploring adaptive learning since the Summer of 2018. During Academic Year 2019-2020, the LTC has revamped its approach to training and supporting instructors using adaptive learning based on information received from instructor and student feedback, as well as challenges and obstacles faced along the way. In this session, the presenters will provide information on experiences training and supporting instructors using adaptive learning focusing on: (1) how to use the platform; (2) how to create content; (3) how to introduce adaptive learning to students; (4) how to mindfully and meaningfully incorporate adaptive learning into course design; and (5) ongoing instructor support. Examples of training and support materials will be shared.

This session is a sequel to the 2018 LTDC Virtual Showcase blockbuster hit “Discussion on the Rocks? Add a Twist of Fresh Alternatives!” Kristin Kowal and Laurie Berry are back to share more new, creative ways for you to add a little zest to make online discussions more meaningful and enjoyable. Attendees will learn field-tested strategies that facilitate increased student engagement while still achieving the goals of student interaction, knowledge sharing, critical thinking, and broadening one’s viewpoint. Participants will leave the session ready to implement these strategies immediately. Evidence collected via student work and faculty interviews are used to support each strategy, as well as tips and tricks for how to avoid student or instructor pitfalls.

If you joined them for the 2018 Virtual Showcase, please come again as they’ll share new twists that you can add to your mix! For new attendees, the presenters will briefly review the original twists before sharing new ways to liven up your discussions.

The Kaltura media management tool is a key part of the UW System’s Digital Learning Environment, but many users don’t take full advantage of it. In this presentation, we will discuss ways to improve the use of Kaltura video in your online courses. We’ll discuss novel video use cases and the pedagogy behind them. We will also discuss Kaltura’s machine captioning tool, which can easily make your videos more accessible.

This session introduces basic concepts, approaches, strategies, and resources for the creation, design, and delivery of Canvas courses that are more accessible to all students, particularly those with sensory disabilities.

D1 – Lights, Camera, Action! Using Video in Canvas for Student Engagement

Student Engagement in an asynchronous digital learning environment appears to be a daunting task to many. Tweaking course interaction with students based on best practices of Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education (2018) and Principles of Teaching and Learning (2020) this presentation will provide insights on how to utilize CANVAS for student engagement. Through this session one can learn to do the following: 1) how to create videos in CANVAS announcements tool; 2) how to use videos in CANVAS announcements tool for student engagement 3) how to provide opportunities for students to comment with respect to weekly content in announcement tool; 4) how to create segmented video mini-lectures for content materials to engage students in Science Education.

Keywords

Videos in announcement tool, segmented video lecture, student engagement, science education

References

Principles of Teaching. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/principles/teaching.html

Principles of Learning. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/principles/learning.html

Tobin, T. J., Behling, K. T. (2018) Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education. West Virginia University Press, Morgantown, WV.

D2 – This Seems Backwards! Using Backwards Design in Course Development

Using the backwards design model, UW Extended Campus instructional designers will demonstrate effective online course design and development practices when collaborating with faculty. Our presentation will introduce the audience to what backwards design is, and its importance to the design and development process. By using backwards design we ensure that courses are fundamentally sound, leading to student success. We will discuss best practices for aligning objectives, assessments, and resources. The presentation will define and explain the roles and responsibilities of the instructional designer, faculty, and media representative. Examples of working documents will also be shared during the presentation.

The University of Wisconsin River Falls created a mentorship program for a transition to a new digital learning environment (DLE). This work involved migrating substantial content within a short timeframe and training faculty, staff, and students. Participating mentors were first trained to create and deliver content and then they trained and mentored their colleagues. This mentorship program increased subject matter expertise early on, leading to a successful outcome of adoption and usage. Session Outcomed: By the end of this presentation, participants will: 1.Understand the process involved in a successful DLE-transition mentorship program, 2.Consider multiple aspects of the value of an inclusive strategic planning process, and 3.Understand ways this program model can be applied to other transformational digital changes in the academy.

E1 – Using Canvas Quizzes to Grade Assignments in the “Fuzzy” Humanities

How can we automatically grade " fuzzy " Humanities subjects? The Canvas grading system favors definite answers, yet, for the Humanities, a single correct answer is a rarity. As we train students to work things out for themselves, they will do so in a variety of ways that are variably valid. The degree and quantity of human judgment required to grade a Humanities quiz, paper or discussion, has always been enormous.

Surprisingly, most students struggle with their writing technology. So, by training them in the rich and relevant potential of Word, Google Docs and Open Office Writer (vetoing Pages as ungradable), I free them to think about the process and content of their work. Then, by focusing on the logical processes used to arrive at personally formulated conclusions or knowledge, I can train the students to write dynamically. Better still, I can use repeating quizzes as grading rubrics for professor, peers, and submitter, thus getting us all speedily onto the same page. Instituting key process-words and visual signals, allows quizzes to seek and reward their presence. The system thus automatically grades for me, and reveals to the students how they earn and discard grade points, and they learn quickly. If the students use these processes, their quality of work necessarily improves. Adding a few specific content-questions to the end tailors the quiz to each assignment. The course is taught 100% consistently this way, the students learn by repetition, the professor has more time to interact individually with the students, and the quizzes add a visually stimulating component to an otherwise bland environment.

E2 – The Learner Engagement Analytics Dashboard: LEAD to Action

The Learner Engagement Analytics Dashboard (LEAD) was created to help instructors learn more about their courses, their teaching and to better support their students. This course-level dashboard was developed in Tableau and includes three visualizations and numerous filters; it is being piloted for the third semester at UW-Madison this spring.

LEAD aggregates data from Canvas, Kaltura MediaSpace and Engage e-Text to help instructors see how students are interacting with course materials. The dashboard was developed to help faculty/instructors have more holistic views of how their students interact with their courses; on behavioral data (something within the students’ control); to provide actionable intelligence, and in conjunction with instructors to help answer pedagogical questions.

In this session, we’ll share more about the faculty engagement process that informed the dashboard, the technical components of LEAD, how we’ve been able to enhance the dashboard based on instructor feedback from the first two semesters of the pilot, and several ways the dashboard has scaled. We’ll also provide a demo of the Learner Engagement Analytics Dashboard.

E3 – How to engage students by scaffolding content for flipped learning

Many educators are flipping their lessons. Research indicates that this pedagogical approach is only successful when the student and instructor become aware of what students do and don’t know during independent learning. Enter interactive technologies in Canvas. With a series of connected activities using tools such as H5P, Flipgrid, and Canvas functionality, the instructor and student identify misconceptions in preparation for contextualized use of the target language. Students are better able to demonstrate and build on their knowledge in pair and group synchronous activities. Presenters will share examples in Russian of the framework and activity variety used in courses shared across UW institutions, that guide student learning through an interactive online lesson. Presenters will include why this approach is used, student voices in response, and next steps to expand upon approach to new blended formats of shared courses.

Direct Evidence of Student Learning

Are students learning in your classroom? Do you have evidence to support your answer? Using Canvas and AEFIS (Assessment, Evaluations, Feedback, and Intervention System), see how students are achieving course and program learning outcomes using the Direct Evidence of Student Learning (DESL). We started using DESL in 2015 at the program level and in 2019 at the course level. Students have access to a Comprehensive Learner Record in AEFIS at the program to see their own success.

Embracing Crisis-tunity: Cross-Departmental Collaborations with Librarians and Instructional Designers

With the move to the new Digital Learning Environment (DLE), Librarians and Instructional Designers found a common cause to improve campus practices regarding video storage, copyright, and the library streaming video offerings. What started to feel like an overwhelming crisis quickly turned into an opportunity. When discussions between the electronic resources librarian, campus instructional designers, and the copyright officer started, a partnership blossomed and continues to grow. The cross-departmental collaborations have led to a better understanding between the library and the instructional designers, more effective referrals, joint messaging, and improved integration of the library’s streaming video content into Canvas. Bridging the differences in professional knowledge and workflows led to a partnership that is better for all. In this session, Electronic Resource Librarian Roxanne Backowski and Instructional Designer Avonlea Hanson will discuss the cross-departmental partnership with new streaming video resources as well as collaborating with faculty to support students in online courses.

The ease with which we can record and share videos has changed the way we deliver online instruction. However, the term “lecture video” has put this medium in a box and ignores the potential it brings to better learner engagement. In this session, you will learn the principles and best practices that guide the use of video as a means of promoting teacher presence and giving learners thoughtful feedback. You will also see examples of how Canvas Studio is being used at Chippewa Valley Technical College as a means of assessment by giving learners the chance to showcase their knowledge and skills.

In this presentation, I will discuss 9 simple and effective strategies I used in Canvas to engage students in my undergraduate-level, fully-online summer course in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). The course was intended for Women’s and Gender Studies majors and represented one of the few courses devoted entirely to the study of masculinities on campus. The course was titled “Gender Bodies: Masculinities,” and had 25 students enrolled by the end of the first week. Because the course was offered in the summer when students often return home and work full-time jobs, it provided them with a great deal of flexibility in terms of scheduling, but the accelerated nature of the course also created many challenges. To this end, I used the following 9 strategies to keep my students engaged and active in the course throughout the shortened semester:

1. Syllabus and Checklists
2. Context-Based Readings
3. Recursive Quiz Design
4. Escalating Discussion Prompts
5. Video Response Shout-Outs
6. In-Video Quizzing
7. Proactive Student Support
8. Reflective Surveys
9. Badges for Module Completion

In addition to my role as an instructor at UWM, I provide faculty development for online and blended instruction on campus. In this position, I lead UWM’s Online and Blended Teaching Program and the UWM Certificate in Online and Blended Teaching. I meet regularly with instructors who are teaching online courses, so I understand the complex challenges that instructors face when teaching fully-online courses. Therefore, in designing this course, I focused on ways to engage students that were scalable and could be used in multiple disciplines and situations. My goal was to both engage my students but to provide a potential model for helping other instructors re-envision their own online courses.

G2- Online/Blended Faculty Development Pathways at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater

Faculty development pathways are arranged along a range of opportunities:

• Building pre-requisite technical competencies including Canvas training
• Designing and teaching online or blended courses
• Skill-building workshops: deeper dives into specific areas, tools, and technologies related to teaching with technology to develop skills and inspire new course creation
• Quality course design support through course redesigns and consultations
• Quality course teaching support utilizing peer review and mentorship projects.
• Creating and sustaining a culture of quality through ongoing community of practices.

The Online/Blended Teaching Institute is the foundational workshop series for faculty. The Institute is offered twice a year. The Winterim Institute prepares for teaching during the Summer and Fall terms; the Summer Institute prepares for the Winterim or Spring.

After a call for applicants, each college’s dean approves their participants. Successful completion of the program awards a stipend.

The workshops are taught in partnership of our LTC and a faculty member. Providing a faculty perspective reinforces the collaborative culture for sharing best practices while reinforcing a collaborative and collegial peer to peer environment. The cohort model has been very well received.
Designed as a series of interactive workshops focusing on best practices, pedagogy, and research, the workshops start in a face to face format utilizing blended components and conclude fully online.
Attendees experience the workshop from the perspective of a student and must complete the creation of an online module that they could use in the courses they teach.
Institute Learning Objectives:
1. Develop a unit utilizing best practices in online/blended course design.
2. Apply best practices in online/blended course delivery.
3. Demonstrate methods to facilitate assessment and evaluation.
4. Promote engagement.

G3 – The Power of Digital Learning Tools

My ultimate goals as an instructor are to create a joyful environment for learning, make classes more interactive, and be able to assess students’ learning on the spot. However, it was very challenging to meet these goals simultaneously until I discovered Kahoot and Clickers. Kahoot is a fun and interactive form of digital learning used to engage students, encourage their critical thinking and assess their understanding of class materials. It is an online game played individually where students answer multiple-choice and true-or-false questions using a device (i.e., cell phone, computer, iPad). Clickers are also a form of digital learning used to engage students and assess their learning. Just like Kahoot, students answer questions using a device called a clicker. Clicker is slightly different from Kahoot because, as opposed to Kahoot, it allows the insertion of questions in the lecture slides. Because of their successes, I am highly interested in doing a presentation on these forms of digital learning.

If you joined them for the 2018 Virtual Showcase, please come again as they’ll share new twists that you can add to your mix! For new attendees, the presenters will briefly review the original twists before sharing new ways to liven up your discussions.

This Analytics session will highlight the analytics features available in Canvas. Time will be devoted to both basic administrator reporting and analytics, as well as analytics tools available to teachers within a course. Using these features, teachers can view student activity within the course to help identify both successful and problematic course features, while administrators can gain insight into institutional use patterns and engagement.

An ePortfolio is a collection of evidences of learning and professional development. ePortfolios help students showcase their skills and accomplishments and help instructors guide students through the learning process as well as assess learning outcomes. ePortfolios can be used as a tool by the students to document their education, learning, achievements, and skills making them more competitive on the job market. It allows students to showcase and personalize these accomplishments beyond the resume. It helps the student identify and think critically about what they have learned and how their courses fit together. Furthermore, it helps them distill meaning from their experiences. This session will: introduce the ePortfolio we us on our campus; explore ways and provide examples of ePortfolios use for student development, assessment, and reflection; and create a space for open discussion on the topic.

The presenter teaches an online course outside of the UW System, on the side. In his course, he set-up groups in Microsoft Teams — which is a part of Office365 — to help facilitate group work. In this presentation, he will talk about his reasoning to use Teams — including some of its features and advantages over the LMS, how he set up the groups/teams, and lessons he learned along the way.

This session will explain how to utilize the data in CANVAS’s course analytics to both guide instructional development and to provide guidance to students on how to be successful in online courses.
The first area to be discussed will be the utilization of the student activity by date data from Canvas along with correlating the data with student achievement within the course. Particularly looking for trends in the student data that trend towards student success. The presenters will discuss how those trends are shared with students to encourage successful student behavior. The next area will be the data related to student page views and time on the course site.
Reviewing the transcripts of discussion boards within the courseware will be the last facet of analytics to be presented. The presentation will cover how instructors set up the discussion boards to facilitate student engagement and use the data to assess the effectiveness. For instance, the importance of sharing of the rationale/purpose of discussion boards with students along with discussion board guidelines and the use of concise rubrics. The impact of engagement of allowing student choice within the context of the discussion board activities will be considered. Strategies for sharing participation methods for success will be included.
Participants will be able to utilize course analysis to determine correlations between student activity and student course success. Analyze the comparative amount of time students spend on each assignment within a course to determine the appropriate comparative weight of assignments. The presentation will conclude by sharing access to resources for additional review of the data and sample materials presented to students to improve engagement and student success.

As instructor and instructional designer together, we will present our collaborative process to address synchronous, face-to-face, live-distance as well as asynchronous online learning content for improve course design and delivery. Deconstructing multifaceted variables of this complex delivery mode with use of Canvas, we will provide details and benefits with changes made from direct student feedback and with applications of rich content editor tools, immersive reader, video creation, and online workspaces to connect learners to a holistic, guided, content-focused block and interleaving learning experience.

J2 – Writing Quality Learning Objectives

How do you write a quality learning objective? These are a foundational part of online learning, yet many are not sure of how to reliably create them. It is time to get clear what a quality learning objective consists of and develop the confidence to write them.

This highly interactive presentation will begin by developing a well-formed learning objective using the three required elements of an objective; performance, conditions, and criteria. It will then discuss granularity and levels of learning objectives from institutional to lesson. Finally, it will locate learning objectives in cognitive and knowledge dimensions as described by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001). Throughout the session, participants will be called upon to work with concepts with the goal of leaving the session with at least one quality learning objective.

Learning objectives create a transparent \educational environment for learners while preserving pedagogical choices for instructors. Learning objectives have become increasingly important in the design and evaluation of academic courses. They are also essential to a successful QM Course review. They bring a disciplined approach to analyzing and defining educational goals that is vital to the creation of a successful learning environment. Yet few faculty have been taught to write measurable learning objectives and many resist them as mechanistic and constricting.

In this session, participants will:
1. Write a measurable learning objective using three key elements; performance, conditions and criteria.
2. Discuss and develop relationships between different levels of learning objectives.
3. Use a chart to analyze the relationships of course learning objectives on the cognitive and knowledge dimensions.

College students can easily feel anxious trying to juggle school, work, friends, and family while struggling to figure out the rest of their lives. On today’s college campuses students experience intense anxiety that interferes with their daily routines. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental health problems on college campuses today, resulting in a decrease in student retention rates (2017). As this problem becomes a reality on the UW-Stout campus the presenters will discuss coping tools and stress management techniques for college students to be utilized now and in their future careers. We recognize the importance of referral for students in need of specific mental health counseling and we are in no way trying to substitute.
Three colleagues from UW-Stout discuss their ongoing research in the area of stress management and its application in the courses they teach in both face to face and online formats. The three faculty teach in various disciplines within the College of Education, Hospitality, Health and Human Sciences. The three presenters are part of a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning team who identified a common teaching question/challenge associated with student learning that they study in a cross-disciplinary collaborative format. At the core of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning philosophy is an understanding that intentionally studying teaching practices and student learning outcomes is crucial for producing excellence in instruction. The presentation will provide an overview of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning process as well as deep dive into coping tools and stress management techniques that can be incorporated into any curriculum to aid our students in academic success.