Teaching and Learning

PD Recap

The OWI’s October professional development (PD) session discussed converting face-to-face courses for hybrid and online courses. The lively conversations in both meetings led to some interesting ideas around hybrid and online course set up. 

Two main ideas came out of PD: consistency and use of modules.

Consistency: We know that students want the same due dates each week. They also want a reliable way to interact with the class. Some suggestions to make the class more consistent are: 

OWI@UCD Podcast: Meta-Commentary and Discussion Boards

 

 

In this episode, Kory and Theresa are responding to issues and themes raised in a discussion board for OWI instructors. The topic for the discussion was "access and inclusion," but much of the discussion had to do with the concepts of "meta-commentary" and challenges with discussion boards.

Here are the texts referenced in this episode: 

Try "Ready-Set-Go" for Zoom Discussions

In a recent post on his blog, Agile Learning, Derek Bruff (Director of Vanderbilt's Center for Teaching) describes a technique for Zoom discussions called "ready-set-go." The basic idea is that an instructor poses a question, asks everyone to type a response in the chat window, but tells them wait until instructed to hit "return." After allowing time for everyone to type a response, the instructor says "ready, set, go" and students all hit return at the same time.

Using a "Liquid Syllabus" for Pre-Course Engagement

One of the problems facing teachers of remote or online courses is that, because nearly all of our course materials are walled off inside a learning management system like Canvas, many students may not know much about the course beyond the generic course description. One way to encourage students to start thinking about your course is by creating what Michelle Pacansky-Brock calls a "liquid syllabus"—one that is more sharable and easier to engage with than a static document sitting in an LMS.