August 17th is the start of the Fall 2015 semester. Here are a couple of tips to get you (and our students) off to a great start. If you have questions about any of these tips, please contact me. Also, please share your own tips as a comment to this post.
D2L
GALILEO: High Quality Resources, No-Cost to Students
Through Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG), the University System of Georgia (USG) aims to provide affordable textbook alternatives to distance-learning students. These electronic alternatives are low cost or free (most typically in the form of open education resources), and build on GALILEO and USG library resources.
Recently, ALG shared information about how you can use GALILEO resources within your D2L course. Let’s have a look at what is available to you and how it can benefit our students.
What Makes a Successful Online Discussion?
Research shows that active discussions among online learners are essential to cognitive gain as well as student satisfaction with and perceived learning from asynchronous online learning [1-10]. But how can faculty teaching online courses ensure that students do not engage in shallow participation, but actively engage with the subject matter and peers, use critical thinking, and create new meaning? What goes beyond knowing and gets students to do something with their knowledge? In other words, what makes a discussion successful?
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Enrolling a Faculty Member in Your Brightspace/D2L Course
Need to enroll someone in your Brightspace/D2L course?
If so, the following 30-second video will show you how. The video does not have narration but it does have subtitles. To enable/disable the subtitles, click the CC symbol (found at the bottom right corner of the screen after you start playing the video).
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Getting Ready for Summer 2015
To assist you with instructional design and technology needs for the Summer 2015 semester, Randle and I are offering two types of sessions, as follows:
New D2L Capability: Attendance Tool
Where is it?
Did you notice that your D2L menu just got bigger? It’s because we now have the Attendance tool. Look for it at the top left corner of the screenshot in Figure 1, between Course Home and Classlist. Continue reading
Getting Your Course Ready For The Upcoming Semester, Part III: D2L Post Production
As you get ready for a new semester, let’s have a quick look at how you prepare your D2L course.
Getting Your Course Ready For The Upcoming Semester, Part II: Content and Resources
As you get ready for a new semester, let’s have a quick look at your content and resources.