Learning Labs

Introducing Learning Labs

Learning Labs are interactive, focused, and supported learning sessions where you can learn how to implement Langara’s teaching and learning technologies and tools. Capacity is limited to ensure all attendees have an opportunity to ask questions, try out tools, and receive support. Support in the room will reflect the technology, tool, and learning outcomes; however, you can expect to interact with EdTech Advisors, Specialists, and Technologists as well as TCDC Curriculum Consultants. The Labs are an opportunity to implement something new or improve what already exists with experts who can answer technical questions and provide advice.

Fall Learning Lab session topics include:

Brightspace HTML Templates

After participating in this lab, participants should be able to:

  • Use the Brightspace HTML editor.
  • Explain the benefits of using the Brightspace HTML templates.
  • Apply the templates to a new Brightspace HTML page.
  • Apply the latest version of the template to an existing Brightspace HTML page.
  • Mix and match HTML elements—such as image placement, accordions, callouts, tables, and tabs—from the various templates.

Adding closed captions to a video in Brightspace

After participating in this lab, participants should be able to:

  • Upload a video to MediaSpace.
  • Add closed captions to a video.
  • Use the MediaSpace captions editor.
  • Use the OneDrive captioning tool.
  • Embed a video in a Brightspace course file.

Creating an accessible Word document

After participating in this lab, participants should be able to:

  • Employ plain language.
  • Select styles that improve legibility of text.
  • Structure a document.
  • Create accessible hyperlinks and tables.
  • Add alternative text to visual content.
  • Use the built-in accessibility checker.

Improving the accessibility of existing PowerPoint slides

After participating in this lab, participants should be able to:

  • Avoid the most common PowerPoint accessibility mistakes.
  • Use the accessibility checker and make corrections.
  • Apply templates.
  • Apply structure.
  • Select accessible fonts and font styling.
  • Employ accessible use of colour.
  • Add alternative text to images.
  • Write meaningful hyperlink text.

Save time marking with Rubrics

After participating in this lab, participants should be able to: 

  • Define the purpose of the assignment or assessment 
  • Decide which type of rubric will be used with assignments
  • Create statements of expected performance at each level of the rubric 
  • Transfer analog rubrics into a digital version on Brightspace 
  • Associate their rubric with the assignment in Brightspace 

 

Accessibility Teaching Practices at Langara College

Accessible Teaching Practices

Accessible BC Act – Start acting now. 

On June 21st, 2021, the Accessible British Columbia Act came into effect. The intention of the act is to create accessibility standards that will reduce accessibility barriers and promote inclusion throughout the province.  The act is being implemented in a phased rollout, with education one of the first sectors expected to comply. This mean that course content, such as presentation material, communications, documents, and videos will need to be made accessible to students with disabilities. 

EdTech is publishing resources, offering workshops, and providing other learning opportunities for instructors and other employees to develop the skills needed to improve the accessibility of course materials. 

Improving accessibility in the classroom. 

When aiming to improve accessibility in the classroom, instructors need to consider learning spaces, course design, assessment, content, and delivery. Read Bridging the Gap to get a sense of the ways in which critical barriers to learning may be addressed. 

Langara’s Assistive Technologist is here to help. 

Langara instructors (and students) are uniquely supported in improving access with an Assistive Technologist. If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Luke McKnight, consider joining one of EdTech’s upcoming accessibility focused learning opportunities. Luke will be on hand to offer expert advice and support in improving accessibility. 

Participate in EdTech’s upcoming accessibility-focused learning opportunities. 

Start developing your accessibility skills and knowledge by joining us for: 

Learning Lab: Brightspace HTML Templates 

September 15th, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM in C202 

How to Create Accessible PowerPoint Slide Presentations 

September 27th, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM online 

Learning Lab: Adding Closed Captions to a Video in Brightspace 

October 13, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM in C202 

Learning Lab: Create an Accessible Word Document 

November 3rd, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM in C202 

Learning Lab: Improve the Accessibility of Existing PowerPoint Slides 

December 8th, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM in C202 

Using Peer Assessment for Collaborative Learning

Peer Assessment

Peer Assessment PictureThere are several benefits to using peer assessment within your course, one of which is to provide students with a more engaging experience. Opportunities to assess other learners’ work will help students learn to give constructive feedback and gain different perspectives through viewing their peers’ work. There is evidence to show that including students in the assessment process improves their performance. (1) (2) (3)

Research also shows that students can improve their linguistic and communicative skills through peer review. (4) The exposure to a variety of feedback can help students improve their work and can even enhance their understanding of the subject matter. Furthermore, learning to give effective feedback helps develop self-regulated learning, as ‘assessment for learning [shifts] to assessment as learning’ in that it is ‘an active process of cognitive restructuring that occurs when individuals interact with new ideas’ (5).

In addition to the benefits to students, peer assessment can also provide instructors with an efficient way of engaging with a formative assessment framework where the student is given the chance to learn from their initial submission of an assignment.

Options for Peer Assessment within Brightspace:

Within Brightspace, there are several ways that instructors can set up peer assessment activities depending on the nature of the assignment and the needs of the instructor. Here we highlight several use cases.

Peer Assessment Example #1:

The instructor wants to have students assess each other’s group contributions for an assignment within Brightspace.

Using a Fillable PDF, which gives the students a rubric-like experience, a student can rate their peers based on different criteria that has been built into the assessment by the instructor. Students can provide feedback on a rating scale but also can provide more in-depth feedback if needed.

The advantage of using a fillable PDF is that the student can easily download the file and fill in the blanks. The student can reflect on the built-in criteria and the entire process should be quick and easy. The scores are calculated, and the instructor can interpret the results once the student has uploaded the PDF into the assignment folder.

A few disadvantages of this method are that the instructor will have to download each fillable PDF and manually enter a grade if marks are captured for peer assessment. The other issue is the level of student digital literacy. Directions on downloading the fillable PDF to the student’s desktop and not using the PDF within the browser is a key step for this process to work. Not all students are aware that fillable PDFs cannot be used successfully in-browser.

Peer Assessment Example #2:

Students are working towards a final paper that is worth 15% of their overall mark. Before they submit the final version to the instructor, they will have the opportunity to evaluate another student’s draft and their own work using a rubric. If time is limited for this activity, learners can be invited to submit just the first paragraph of the paper, rather than the whole draft.

Through peer assessment, learners can often receive feedback more quickly than if they had to wait for the marker or instructor to review the class’s work.Aropa

Students upload their work to Brightspace Assignments where they are given a link to Aropä, a third-party open software which pairs students so they can assess each other’s work using a built-in rubric. Assessment can be anonymous, and the instructor can restrict feedback to students who have already submitted one review. Self-assessment can be required.

The advantages of Aropä is that it is free and gives instructors the ability to modify rubrics to suit one’s objectives. The disadvantage of this software is that it requires more time to set up. Rubrics provide only basic options: radio buttons or comment boxes. Instructors should be aware of privacy issues with Aropa and only upload first names of their students but avoid uploading student numbers.

Peer Assessment Activity #3

Students complete group presentations after which the class assesses each group’s performance, including their own group’s presentation, using a predetermined marking scheme.

The activity of assessing presentations encourages engagement with the work, versus passive observation, since students will be required to give feedback, encouraging deeper learning and enhancing retention.

The advantages of using an H5P Documentation tool are that H5P can be created directly within Brightspace. It looks nice and is versatile. The disadvantage is that learners will have to export their feedback and then upload it into Brightspace. This two-step process requires some digital literacy skills.

Sample H5P Documentation Tool

Peer Assessment Activity #4:

This peer assessment activity is more about checking completion. Instructor needs to ensure accountability with group work.

Students are given an MS Form with some basic criteria by which to rate themselves and their peers in terms of attendance to meetings, work on the final product / assignment and collaboration. Students will use a point rating scale and need to justify their evaluation by providing a concrete example.

Similar to Example #1, students can complete a form using a Fillable PDF or another software such as Jotform or MS Forms to reflect and assess their own work as well as the work of their teammates. Jotform allows for more complex form building and will calculate totals for each student while MS Forms will not calculate but will allow you to get a sense of how students are doing overall with a basic rating on each criteria. (Focus on qualitative assessment)

Sample MS Form

Sample Jotform

A Note on Third Party Peer Review Software:

There are many different software available for peer assessment. Edtech is currently testing out several different ones and hopes to pilot them in the spring or summer semester. Currently, the only one that we are recommending (because it’s 0-cost) is Aropa. Aropa does a great job of providing several options for peer assessment, including self-assessment, privacy options for students, anonymous assessment, etc. It does not integrate completely with Brightspace so that is one disadvantage over some of the paid peer assessment programs currently available. Programs such as peerScholar, Feedback Fruits and Peerceptive have the capability to integrate into the Gradebook, thereby making it very easy to provide marks for the feedback that your students provide for one another.

For more information on any of the above tools, please contact edtech@langara.ca

References

  1. Wu, Wenyan, et al. “Evaluating Peer Feedback as a Reliable and Valid Complementary Aid to Teacher Feedback in EFL Writing Classrooms: A Feedback Giver Perspective.” Studies in Educational Evaluation, vol. 73, June 2022. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2022.101140.
  2. Double, Kit S., et al. “The Impact of Peer Assessment on Academic Performance: A Meta-Analysis of Control Group Studies.” Educational Psychology Review, vol. 32, no. 2, June 2020, pp. 481–509. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09510-3.
  3. Planas-Lladó, A. et al., 2018. Using peer assessment to evaluate teamwork from a multidisciplinary perspective. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(1), pp.14–30.
  4. de Brusa, M. F. P., & Harutyunyan, L. (2019). Peer Review: A Tool to Enhance the Quality of Academic Written Productions. English Language Teaching, 12(5), 30-39.
  5. Western and Northern Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Education, 2006 p.41

Showcasing Innovative Teaching

Join us on December 8, 10 am – 12:30 pm, in C408, and be inspired! The Langara Educational Technology Instructor Gathering brings together educators to showcase their innovative work and foster dialogue and cross-college idea-sharing.

For the main event, instructors will share their teaching ideas using educational technology. Listen to talks about innovative ways to use Brightspace discussions for summative assessments, podcasting, strategies to ensure academic integrity in Brightspace quizzes, ungrading, accessibility, and more! These talks will be followed by a Q&A and a tour of EdTech’s Studio and the newly upgraded lecture theatre in A130. Refreshments and snacks will be served.

Bring a colleague to be eligible to win a draw prize. (Maximum capacity 30)

Register now to save your spot and remember to register your plus-one: Registration Link to the Instructor Gathering.

Podcast Playlist – Podcast recommendations from your Ed Tech team

Looking for inspiration? Podcasts are a convenient and approachable way to pick up some new tools for your teaching toolkit. In this new feature, we’ll share a few of our favorite episodes with a teaching and learning focus.

Maybe It Doesn’t Need to be a Video

In this episode of Think UDL Clea and host Lillian Nave talk about multiple ways of representing information in online classes, customizing the display of information, offering alternatives for text or auditory information, and guiding information processing and visualization for students

In this episode of Teaching in Higher Ed, Dan Levy, faculty director of the Public Leadership Credential, the Harvard Kennedy School’s flagship online learning initiative, talks about his book, Teaching Effectively with Zoom.

Talking Tech

In this episode of tea for teaching Michelle Miller, author of Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology, examines how we can talk to students about technology in ways that will help them become more efficient in their learning and professional lives.

How to Use Audio Lessons in Your Course to Engage Students and Improve Learning

In this episode of Lecture Breakers Yehoshua Zlotogorski the power of audio for learning, especially when the audio lesson or audio course is intentionally designed based on cognitive science and pedagogy.

Equity-Enhancing Data Tools

In this episode of Teaching in Higher Ed Viji Sathy, award-winning Professor of the Practice in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Kelly Hogan, Teaching Professor of Biology and Associate Dean of Instructional Innovation at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, share two equity-enhancing data tools.

Podcast Playlist

""Podcast recommendations from your Ed Tech and TCDC team

Looking for inspiration? Podcasts are a convenient and approachable way to pick up some new tools for your teaching toolkit. In this new feature, we’ll share a few of our favorite shows with a teaching and learning focus.

Trends and Issues in Instructional Design, Educational Technology and Learning Science is a bi-monthly podcast presented by Abbie Brown (East Carolina University) and Tim Green (California State University). Episodes are short at around 10-15 minutes and cover news on a wide range of topics connected to technology enhanced learning. Accompanying the podcast is a Flipboard magazine.

Hosted by Thomas Cavanagh and Kelvin Thompson, the monthly The Teaching Online Podcast focuses on issues related to online and blended learning. Episodes clock in at about 30 minutes. Recent topics explored in the show include OER adoption, blended learning course design, community engagement, and the role of synchronous online teaching post-COVID.

ThinkUDL host Lillian Nave interviews guests about their experiences implementing Universal Design for Learning. Recent guests include Kirsten Behling, co-author of Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education, Flower Darby, co-author of Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes, and Kevin Kelly and Todd Zakrajsek, authors of Advancing Online Teaching: Creating Equity-Based Digital Learning Environments.

 

Spring 2021 Online Book Club

Pivoting to remote online teaching has been a learning journey that has felt more like a roller coaster ride than a road trip at times. Let’s continue on this adventure together.

Join the online book club as we read selected parts of Tony Bates’s Teaching in a Digital Age and continue evolving and improving our teaching practices through reading, discussion, and self-reflection.

“Through 12 informative chapters, Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for Teaching and Learning answers your questions and provides helpful guidance and suggestions on a host of topics including:

  • How do I decide whether my courses should be campus-based, blended or fully online?
  • What strategies work best when teaching in a technology-rich environment? What methods of teaching are most effective for blended and online classes?
  • How do I make choices among all the available media, whether text, audio, video, computer, or social media, in order to benefit my students and my subject?
  • How do I maintain quality of teaching, learning, and resources in a rapidly changing learning environment?
  • What are the real possibilities for teaching and learning using MOOCs, OERS, open textbooks?

While understanding and respecting the individual nature of teaching, Tony talks theory, options, best practices, point-by-point strategies – offering clear, practical, and actionable advice and guidance based on research and best practices.”

As a group, we will decide on which chapters to focus and set goals together. The book club is a supportive environment in which to share ideas, questions, and learn about effective online teaching practices, EdTech theory, and hands-on online tools.

Date: Tuesday, January 12 – Tuesday, March 23, no meeting on Feb. 16

Time: 4:30 – 5:45 pm

Location: Online

Link to e-book: https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/

Sign up here: Spring 2021 Online Book Club

A Curated List of Ed Tech Articles

A Curated List of Ed Tech Articles

""Whether you are on your NID and preparing for the spring semester or you are currently tackling your debut semester teaching remotely online, this list has something useful for you. In this short curated collection of articles, you will find practical tips for the use of educational technology in online classes, lessons learned and opportunities made possible by the pivot to remote teaching and food for thought related to the use of tech for teaching and learning.

Ideas for Remote Online Classes

""“Structuring Synchronous Classes for Engagement” by Bonni Stachowiak suggests how one can structure a 50-minute online synchronous session followed by an after-party office hour.

Zoom to the next level: Active learning in the virtual classroom An openly licensed Pressbook from Indiana University.

From note-taking tools, to online book creation, to 3D modelling tools, you’ll find a plethora of free tech tools in a “Typology of Free Web-based Learning Technologies” by Matt Bower and Jodi Torrington.

“7 High-impact evidence-based tips for remote online teaching” by Youki Terada offers ideas on organizing your virtual learning space and time, and other simple but powerful practices.

Lessons Learned

""The pandemic is forcing many instructors to rethink and sometimes reinvent their teaching practices. Here are one instructor’s reflections:

“What an Ed-Tech Skeptic Learned About Her Own Teaching in the Covid-19 Crisis” by Manya Whitaker

Nine ways online teaching should be different from face-to-face by Jennifer Gonzalez (Cult of Pedagogy podcast).

For certain courses, technology may be a learning outcome, but for most courses, it isn’t, so it’s useful to be reminded that it’s a tool and re-direct our attention to how we can effectively achieve our learning outcomes.

The images gives examples of how technology can be used as a tool, not a learning outcome.

Spark your creativity!

There are many misconceptions about creativity. One is that it is the exclusive preserve of geniuses – think Mozart or Picasso. Another is that creativity is a genetic trait passed on within families (while partly true your environment still plays a major role in how creativity is expressed).  A third is that it is the domain of teachers and students in creative arts subjects. Forget encouraging creativity in Math, Business or Physics.

The good news: researchers from Durham University argue that we all possess “small c creativity,” that is, the kind of creativity that encourages us to “think differently” in social circumstances (including teaching) and find new ways of doing and thinking about things (Davies and Newton, 2018). Sir Ken Robinson goes further; paraphrasing Picasso he argues that the education system stifles the artist within all of us and one of our jobs as educators is to take risks in order to nurture and spark our creative capacities.

 

 

Thanks to Robinson and people like Andrew Churches (2008) who reformulated Bloom’s Taxonomy for the digital age, creativity is now seen as an essential 21st century set of skills alongside those of literacy, numeracy, critical thinking and collaboration. The ability to adapt and remix, make, publish, build and construct are considered valuable higher order skills in the classroom but also increasingly in the workplace. A 2014 Adobe study of over 1000 hiring managers found that 94% look for evidence of creativity in job applications. In the classroom both teachers and students are expected to demonstrate a degree of digital fluency when it comes to creative higher order skills. Students in particular are being encouraged to move beyond a consumer model of education and instead co-create their learning experiences while as educators we are being told we should provide opportunities for our students to demonstrate multiple means of action, expression and communication.

The Digital Media Creator (DMC) Program

In EdTech our response to the need for more more creativity in the classroom and online has been to offer a program of professional development which we call Digital Media Creator. There are six modules: one a month from September through to March, focusing on creative practices such as podcasting, video production, screencasting and using cartoons/comics in teaching. We also offer an intensive DMC ‘boot camp’ where we cover all six modules in one week around NID time in early May. Each session is 90 mins long with an additional 30 mins “stay and play.” We aim to create an informal, stimulating and supportive learning environment in which to develop your creative skills, and we help you to create digital artefacts that you can use in your teaching. While we encourage you to sign up for all six modules you can also sign up for them individually depending on your interests and skill levels if you wish. Spots fill up quickly so you need to move fast!

Register for the DMC here

DMC 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

References:

Adobe (2014) ‘Study reveals students lack the necessary skills for success.’ https://blogs.adobe.com/education/2014/09/29/study-reveals-students-lack-the-necessary-skills-for-success/ (retrieved September 04, 2019)

Churches, Andrew (2008) Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228381038_Bloom’s_Digital_Taxonomy (retrieved September 6, 2019)

Davies, Lucy M and Newton, Lynn (2018) ‘Creativity is a human quality that exists in every single one of us.’ https://theconversation.com/creativity-is-a-human-quality-that-exists-in-every-single-one-of-us-92053 (retrieved September 5, 2019)

Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) – Synchronous

To help educators in B.C. become effective facilitators of learning online, we have developed a family of courses designed to expand and enhance your online facilitation skills.

The next offering is FLO Synchronous, a 3-week immersion into planning and facilitating live online learning sessions.

When? February 25 – March 15, 2019 

Cost? $150 ($100 for first 3 registrants)

Who is this for? Everyone who runs live online sessions, meetings, or webinars! This event has no pre-requisites.

This offering of FLO Synchronous is being co-facilitated by dream team: Ross McKerlich, Education Technology Coordinator at Okanagan College and Clint Lalonde, faculty member at Royal Roads University and Manager, Educational Technology at BCcampus.

Register