Tag: assessment

PebblePad Brief: Activity Logs

susanbonham

Langara’s pilot of the ePortfolio learning platform, PebblePad, is now in its second year. This is the third in a series highlighting some of the platform’s features. Whether you’re already using PebblePad or considering using it at some point in the future, our hope is that the PebblePad Brief series extends your understanding of the platform’s capabilities.

This month’s “Brief” is going to focus on activity logs. Whether you’re asking students to track how many minutes or hours they spend on a task, or you have developed a “point” system based on your own criteria to log an activity, this can all be digitized and linked to a PebblePad workbook. In addition, instructors can run reports to get a snapshot of how the entire class is progressing towards their targets.

Please watch the video for an example of how this works, or read the article below.

Activity logs can be used when you want a student to document how many times they’ve engaged in an activity, or how much time they’ve spent on the activity.

Time Sheets

Let’s look at an example of how this works. In a practicum, a student may have to complete a required number of hours in their placement… let’s say 120 hours.

In their practicum workbook, the student goes to a page called “Activity Log”. Here they find a link to their timesheet.

They click on the link and enter their time:

When they go back to the workbook it tells them how many hours are now left to complete. Since they should be in the workbook regularly doing other course-related tasks, this makes it very easy for the student to keep track of their hours.

These types of workbooks are usually shared with the instructor for feedback and assessment. That being the case, it’s easy for the instructor to see whether the student is on track to complete their hours. There’s a demonstration of how instructors can monitor activity logs in the video above.

Feedback on timesheets has been positive from both students and instructors who have used them in PebblePad. It’s easy for students to track their hours right where they’re completing the work for the course, and it’s easy for instructors to check on the students’ progress towards the goal.

If you have questions about PebblePad or any other learning technology that EdTech supports, we can be contacted at edtech@langara.ca

PebblePad Brief: Feedback Options

Ari Crossby

Langara’s pilot of the ePortfolio learning platform, PebblePad, is now in its second year. This is the second in a series highlighting some of the platform’s features. Whether you’re already using PebblePad or considering using it at some point in the future, our hope is that the PebblePad Brief series extends your understanding of the platform’s capabilities.
This month’s “Brief” is going to focus on the variety of feedback options available within PebblePad, and how they can benefit students and instructors. Whether you’re looking for a tool to give formative or summative feedback, PebblePad has multiple options.

Feedback in Brightspace Versus PebblePad:

PebblePad functions differently than Brightspace when it comes to assignments. In Brightspace, students usually submit a file by a due date and the instructor has no way of giving formative feedback on the developing assignment unless they ask students to submit a draft of their work. PebblePad, on the other hand, doesn’t work with file submissions but with shared links. If an assignment is set up for auto-submission, the instructor is able to see the students’ work in real time as soon as they start it. This enables instructors to give formative feedback any time prior to a due date, as well as summative assessment after a due date. Further, unlike Brightspace, students have access to the feedback after their course finishes and even after they graduate.

Feedback Options:

Simple Comments:

  • The simplest way to give feedback in PebblePad is through general comments. To use the comment feature, a student shares a link with someone else. When that person clicks on the link, there’s a comment icon on to the top-right which can be used to by instructors, mentors, or peers to provide feedback. The student can reply to the comments so feedback is potentially dialogic.
Adding Comments Via the Comment Icon

 

Feedback Comments:

  • By using the tools in the formal assessment part of the platform called ATLAS, there are extended options. Here we can to a specific answer, a page, or the entire assignment. If an instructor will be using the same comments for many students, feedback statements can be created that will be available when marking. Any comments added via ATLAS have the advantage that they are only visible to the student and won’t be seen by anyone they share their work with. When assessing in ATLAS, instructors have the option to release feedback as it’s added, or hold all feedback for later release so that the whole class receives it at the same time.
Adding Block Feedback Comments via ATLAS

 Assessor Fields:

  • When creating scaffolded learning activities for students, assessor fields can be inserted right into body of the assignment. It’s possible to assign “blocks” or sections to either the students or the instructor to complete. Instructors can be assigned text fields, drop-downs, radio buttons, checkboxes, and rubrics that only they can complete (the student will see them but not be able to complete them). These fields are easy for instructors to find when they’re assessing, and easy for the student to see when they’re looking for feedback. This type of feedback will always be visible so is generally used for activities to develop knowledge or skills, rather than assignments that might be used as a showcase in future.
Adding Feedback via Assessor Fields

Feedback Templates:

  • These are very similar to rubrics in Brightspace, and can be created and used to assess students’ work in ATLAS. They can include any or all of: clickable rubric components, comment fields, radio buttons, drop-downs, and checkboxes. Because this feedback will only be visible to the student, this is a better option to use with assignments that the student might want to use as a showcase to show to others.
Providing Feedback via Feedback Templates

Grades:

  • Assignments can also be graded in ATLAS. Grading is flexible as instructors can enter percentages, letter grades, or even pass/fail wording such as “meets expectations/does not meet expectations”. Although PebblePad is not currently integrated with Brightspace, it is possible to get a CSV file of all grades and easily transfer them to a gradebook.

    Adding Grades

Feedback Longevity:

  • We all know that it takes time and effort to provide meaningful feedback to learners. One of the advantages of using PebblePad is that the students have access to feedback long after the course ends and even after they graduate as students can get an alumni account. This will help them make meaningful connections between assignments, between courses, and between studies and career. Feedback can be fed forward.

If you have questions about PebblePad or any other learning technology that EdTech supports, we can be contacted at edtech@langara.ca

Turnitin and Student Privacy

Ari Crossby

Turnitin is a text matching tool that compares students’ written work with a database of student papers, web pages, and academic publications. The two main uses for Turnitin are: 1) for formative or low-stakes assessment of paraphrasing or citation; and 2) for prevention and identification of plagiarism.

Privacy Concerns

When an assignment is submitted to Turnitin for a text matching report, the student’s work is saved as part of Turnitin’s database of more than 1 billion student papers. This raises privacy concerns that include:

  • Students’ inability to remove their work from the database
  • The indefinite length of time that papers are stored
  • Access to the content of the papers, especially personal data or sensitive content, including potential security breaches of the server

Copyright Concerns

In addition, saving a student’s work on Turnitin’s database without their consent may put an institution at risk for legal action based on Canadian copyright law (Strawczynski, 2004). 

Guidelines for Using Turnitin

To mitigate these concerns, we recommend the following guidelines for all instructors using Turnitin:

  1. Be clear and transparent that you will be using Turnitin. Even if a course outline includes a statement indicating that Turnitin will be used in a course, we recommend not relying on that statement alone. Ideally, instructors should also explain to students that their papers will be stored on the company’s database and ask for their consent. If they don’t provide consent, have an alternate plan (see below).
  2. Decide whether or not students’ work needs to be saved on Turnitin’s database. The default is for all papers to be saved, but this can be changed. Not saving papers to the database means that those papers can’t be used to generate future similarity reports, but it does remove the privacy and copyright concerns.
  3. Coach students to remove identifying details. If the students’ submissions will be added to Turnitin’s database, make sure you get them to remove any personal information from their assignment, including their name, student number, address, etc. Meta-data that is embedded should also be removed (e.g. in track changes or file properties). If you’re having them submit to an assignment folder on Brightspace, their name will be with their submission so it shouldn’t be a problem if it’s not on the paper itself.
  4. Don’t run a similarity report for an individual student without their knowledge. Ethical use of Turnitin occurs when it is transparently and equally used for all students. Running a report only on a specific student’s work without their knowledge or consent is not transparent or equal.
  5. Consider whether or not the assignment is appropriate for Turnitin. If the students need to include personal or sensitive information in the assignment, Turnitin should probably not be used. If you do decide to use it, the students’ papers should not be stored in the database.
  6. If contacted by another institution, be cautious about revealing student information. If at some point in the future there is a match to one of your student’s papers in Turnitin’s database, Turnitin does not give the other institution access to the text of the paper but will provide the instructor at the other institution with your email. If you are contacted about a match, consider carefully before forwarding the paper or any identifying details about the student to the other institution. If you do want to forward the paper, you should obtain the student’s consent.

Alternatives to Confirm Authorship When Turnitin is Not Used

If a student objects to having their paper submitted to Turnitin, or if the assignment is not appropriate for submission to Turnitin because it includes personal or sensitive content, you can increase confidence that the students are doing their own work in other ways. For example, an instructor can require any or all of the following:

  • submission of multiple drafts
  • annotation of reference lists
  • oral defence of their work

Requiring students to complete any or all of these will increase the student’s workload which would mean that students who opt out of Turnitin aren’t at an advantage over students who opt in.

Helping Students Make Turnitin Work for Them

If you’re using Turnitin, it’s highly recommended that you adjust the settings to allow the students to see their similarity reports. You may need to teach students how to interpret the reports if they haven’t learned how to do so from a previous course. Turnitin’s website has resources if you need them (https://help.turnitin.com/feedback-studio/turnitin-website/student/student-category.htm#TheSimilarityReport) and you can also point your students to the Turnitin link on Langara’s Help with Student Learning Tools iweb (https://iweb.langara.ca/lts/brightspace/turnitin/). Finally, remember that these reports won’t be helpful to a student if they’re not given the chance to revise and resubmit after they see the report. In Brightspace, we recommend that instructors set up two separate assignment folders with Turnitin enabled: one for their draft and one for the final submission.

Have questions?

If you need support with Turnitin, please contact edtech@langara.ca

References

Strawczynski, J. (2004). When students won’t Turnitin: An examination of the use of plagiarism prevention services in Canada. Education & Law Journal 14(2), 167-190. 

Vanacker, B. (2011). Returning students’ right to access, choice and notice: a proposed code of ethics for instructors using Turnitin. Ethics & Information Technology, 13(4), 327-338.

Zaza, C., & McKenzie, A. (2018). Turnitin® Use at a Canadian University. Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2018.2.4

Zimmerman, T.A. (2018). Twenty years of Turnitin: In an age of big data, even bigger questions remain. The 2017 CCCC Intellectual Property Annual. Retrieved from https://prod-ncte-cdn.azureedge.net/nctefiles/groups/cccc/committees/ip/2017/zimmerman2017.pdf

PebblePad at Langara

Ari Crossby

What is PebblePad*?

PebblePad logo

PebblePad is Langara’s online portfolio and experiential learning platform. Digital portfolios, or ePortfolios, are powerful tools for learning, assessment, and career development because they enable users to document their skills, learning, and creativity, as well as reflect on what/how/why they learn. Using PebblePad, students can create portfolios, blogs, basic webpages, online collections of files, formal and informal reflections, action plans, and more. For authentic and scaffolded experiential learning, PebblePad is also a great fit.

How Might it Be Used Within a Course or Formal Learning Experience?

PebblePad is being used in many practicum and clinical courses at Langara. Students use interactive digital workbooks to document their experiences and demonstrate what they have learned. Links to these workbook assignments are then shared with faculty for feedback and assessment.

For programs where students have more open-ended and/or creative assignments, classic portfolios can be created on PebblePad where students document, showcase, and reflect on their creative work. This type of assignment empowers students to design and collate content ranging from text and hyperlinks, to images and video.

To find out more about the possibilities, we encourage you to go to the PebblePad Community Learner Showcase to explore some of the work being done at other institutions.

Why Use PebblePad?

PebblePad is student-owned. Once a student takes a course using PebblePad, they will be issued a PebblePad account that they will have for their entire time at Langara and beyond.  This makes it a great tool for them to make connections across their learning journey, and it can support the transition to further studies or employment.

Research indicates that using digital portfolios like PebblePad within courses and programs also seems to advance student retention and success (Eynon, Gambino, & Török, 2014). Proponents theorize that ePortfolios are beneficial because they support learning in the following ways:

  • learning can be made visible, including through reflection activities
  • connections can be made across and between academic (course, program), extracurricular (work experience, volunteering), and personal (family, community life) learning
  • personal, academic, and professional identity construction can be supported
  • social pedagogies can be employed, supporting group work, peer feedback, mentorship, etc.
  • competencies – within and outside of formal academic courses – can be documented and assessed

Want to Learn More?

If you are interested in learning more about PebblePad, contact EdTech to talk to an Advisor. Please also check the EdTech calendar for upcoming workshops.

Email edtech@langara.ca for more information.

 

*PebblePad is now the preferred ePortfolio technology of BCNET.

References

Blake Yancey, K. (Ed.). (2019). ePortfolio as Curriculum: Models and Practices for Developing Students’ ePortfolio Literacy. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

Eynon, B., & Gambino, L.M. (2017). High-Impact ePortfolio Practice: A Catalyst for Student, Faculty, and Institutional Learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

Eynon, B., Gambino, L. M., & Török, J. (2014). What difference can ePortfolio make? A field report from the Connect to Learning Project. International Journal of ePortfolio, 4(1), 95-114. https://www.theijep.com/pdf/IJEP127.pdf

Penny Light, T., Chen, H., & Ittelson, J. (2011). Documenting learning with ePortfolios: A guide for college instructors. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Watson, C. E., Kuh, G. D., Rhodes, T., Light, T. P., & Chen, H. L. (2016). Editorial: ePortfolios – The Eleventh High Impact Practice. International Journal of EPortfolio, 6(2), 65–69.

Yeo, N., & Rowley, J. (2020). ‘Putting on a Show’ Non-Placement WIL in the Performing Arts: Documenting Professional Rehearsal and Performance Using Eportfolio Reflections. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 17(4).

Ed Tech Sandbox Sessions

Ari Crossby

What is an Ed Tech sandbox?

Playground

The Ed Tech sandbox is a small, contained space to safely learn and practice using various educational technologies and tools. Participants may explore a specific tool or a range of tools that can be adopted to support a specific teaching or learning goal. To create a safe environment and allow time for practice, enrollment is limited to 10 participants.

Do you want to gain confidence with teaching & learning tools?

These weekly sessions are an opportunity to develop an understanding of how technologies and tools can be effectively used in teaching, learning, and assessment before introducing them in the classroom.

When are the sessions held?

Ed Tech sandbox sessions are planned for every Friday from 11:00 am – 12:30 pm. Participants choose whether to attend via Zoom or in-person.

Upcoming sessions

October 22nd – Kaltura Mediaspace and Capture

Kaltura Capture controls.

Using video in your course is a great way to engage students and present learning content in alternative ways, following the principles of UDL.

In this session we will demonstrate recording your screen, using the Kaltura Capture application to record your screen, and uploading the recording to Mediaspace. There will be lots of time to ask questions and play.

October 29th – Brightspace Rubrics Tool

""A Brightspace rubric can:

  • Be reused (they can be copied and used in multiple course shells).
  • Set out expectations and criteria for students.
  • Provide grading transparency and clear feedback.

Join us to learn how to associate rubrics with assignments, graded discussion topics and grade items.

More than technology!

Ari Crossby

There’s more than technology in EdTech! This month, we want to introduce our EdTech Advisors, all of whom are passionate about helping faculty use analogue and digital technologies to enhance the delivery of their materials.   

Sarah Bowers 

sarah avatarOne of my interests in EdTech is using formative assessment in online environments to increase student engagement and success, and my not-so-secret passions are applying universal design for learning principles to course design, dispelling neuromyths in education and researching evidence-based approaches to teaching . I’m happy to talk about anything related to curriculum and course design and redesign regardless of the mode of delivery.  I spend my free time gardening, knitting, cooking and wrangling three teenagers with varied appetites and demands.

 

Karen Budra 

karen photoBalancing between English & EdTech allows me to indulge what I love to do:  teach and create.  When not at work, I dance, write, shoot short documentary films and try to learn as much as possible about the stories we share and the ways in which we share them, especially via video and podcast production.  I’ve been at Langara since 1989 (!), teaching regular and field studies programmes specialising in Literature, Theatre & Cinema Genre and History.  I was once a stage actor, and continue to enjoy co-operative activities, like EdTech’s Digital Media Creator programme, which I was happy to help develop.  In addition to an MA in English (U of T 1984), in 2016, I completed an MA in Documentary Film & TV Production at the Cambridge School of Art (UK)  Currently interested in augmented reality in video, I am pleased to help faculty determine how best to engage students using narrative.  I am film, fashion and music-mad, and thrive on co-creation and discovery.    

Brian Koehler 

brian photoI’ve been an instructor in the Computer Science department since 2000, teaching general computer science courses as well as specialized courses in web development. I’ve worked half time as an EdTech advisor since 2015. I have a keen interest in exploring technologies that can be used to increase engagement directly in the classroom, such as student response systems. I am also interested in applying open source software and platforms to enable instructors and students to publish on the web. Outside of work, I try and spend as much time as possible in the outdoors  hiking and biking.  

 

 

Julian Prior 

julian photoI am currently Chair of Educational Technology and an EdTech Advisor, having come to Langara (and Canada) in Jan 2016. I taught Sociology at a UK further education college for 12 years before moving into learning technologies at the University of Bath and Southampton Solent University. I have a keen interest in digital media (especially podcasting) and am a passionate advocate of open education. In my spare time I play Masters level badminton and get to travel to tournaments throughout Canada and the US. I love photography and noodling around with electronic music – although I’m definitely an amateur at both!  

 

 

Diane Thompson 

diane photoI enjoyed my time as a student in the Library & Information Technology Programme (1993) so much that I pursued a Masters in Library & Information Science at UBC (1995.)  After working for the Centre for Health Services & Policy Research, I moved to the Federal government as Library Manager for Natural Resources Canada.  In 2013, Langara beckoned once more, and I was hired as the Chair of Library Technician programme.  Coupling my love of new challenges with that of technology, I began work with EdTech half time in 2018.  When I am not at work, I can be found with some sort of racquet in hand (badminton, ping pong, tennis or pickle ball), making art with my 2 girls or standing on the soccer field in the rain with my husband.  

Brightspace Quizzes now save automatically.

Ari Crossby

New: Auto-Save for Brightspace Quizzes

You’ve always been told to advise your students to save every quiz question as they finish it, and Save All Responses before submitting. This was to make sure that in-progress quizzes would be saved if a student was interrupted mid-quiz.

As of October 2018, it’s no longer necessary to need to manually save answers when taking a quiz. Quiz responses will now be saved as students complete each question. See below for images showing the old version (with Save button) versus the new, including what it will look like when a question auto-saves.

The old Brightspace quiz question interface, with Save button and disk icon (showing that the question is saved).
The old Brightspace quiz question interface, with Save button and disk icon (showing that the question is saved).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The new Brightspace quiz question interface, without Save button, with the "Saving/Saved" message highlighted.

 

 

 

 

 

Instructor Note: The quiz event log will show whenever a question is automatically saved, including an updated character count for Written Response questions.

Other Updates

No More Save Button

The “Save” and “Save All Responses” buttons at the bottom of a Quiz screen have been removed. The “Go to Submit Quiz” button is now called “Submit Quiz.”

There will still be a submission confirmation screen, after clicking “Submit Quiz,” that prompts students to submit the quiz when they’re ready.

Auto-Save Works Differently for Written Response Questions

If a Written Response question shows the format bar (also known as the HTML Editor), student responses will not be automatically saved as they type. To make sure that the answer is being saved as they work, students must click anywhere outside the text entry field to prompt the “Saving…/Saved” message to appear at the top right.

Other question types, or Written Response questions with the format bar disabled, will auto-save approximately every 30 seconds.

Internet Connection Status Notifications

Brightspace will now display a notification if the student loses their internet connection while taking a quiz.

a red-bordered notification box that reads "Internet connection lost. Trying to reconnect..."

 

 

Students will also see a notification when the connection is restored, at which point Brightspace will automatically save any unsaved answers.

A green-bordered notification that reads "Internet connection restored! Saving all answers..."

 

 

Instructor Note: The quiz log will record when a lost connection is restored.

 

Question is Still “Saving…”

If a student has answered a question and it seems to be stuck on “Saving…” for a very long time, they should double-check their internet connection. If they seem to be connected, they should continue writing their quiz. Any unsaved answers will be saved when they either move between pages, or go to submit the quiz.

Recommendations for Writing Quizzes

As always, we generally recommend using a wired internet connection, if possible. This greatly reduces the chances of losing an internet connection in the middle of a quiz.

If a student is writing a quiz from a mobile device like a phone or tablet, it’s best to access the quiz from Assessments > Quizzes, rather than from Course Materials > Content. This will provide more room on the screen for quiz questions. If possible, a desktop or laptop computer is best for taking quizzes, as these devices offer the best experience.

Updating Your Course Materials

If you’ve been advising your students to save each question as they go, please update those instructions in your courses to account for these updates. You can also just link to the student support page for these changes, which outline the new auto-save function and other new features now active in Brightspace quizzes. Click here, or access the link below, to see the student update.

https://iweb.langara.ca/lts/news/brightspace-quizzes-now-save-automatically/

Turnitin Now Available

Ari Crossby

Turnitin

Langara has purchased a campus-wide license for Turnitin to support faculty in teaching research and writing skills to their students while also encouraging academic integrity. Turnitin is a similarity checker which allows students and faculty to check assignments for matches in Turnitin’s database of papers, articles, and websites.

All Langara faculty have access to Turnitin through their Brightspace courses.

We hope that Turnitin will be used as an instructional tool to help students understand the College’s expectations for academic integrity and to practice their skills in summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting and citing their sources appropriately.

While Turnitin is a useful tool, it cannot detect all forms of plagiarism. However, if used in well-designed assignments and learning activities, Turnitin can play a valuable role in educating our students and emphasizing the importance of academic integrity.

Register for an information session: Turnitin Brown Bag  Sept.14, 2017 1:00-1:45 pm

More sessions will be scheduled throughout the fall semester.

Thanks to members of the Langara School of Management, EdTech, and IT for piloting, implementing and administering this new tool.

For more information about Turnitin and suggestions for its use, see https://iweb.langara.ca/edtech/learning-tools-and-technologies/turnitin/

For instructions on using Turnitin with Brightspace, see https://iweb.langara.ca/edtech/learning-tools-and-technologies/turnitin/using-turnitin-with-d2l/

For help designing assessments to encourage academic integrity, contact tcdc@langara.ca.

For setting up assignments with Turnitin in Brightspace, contact edtech@langara.ca.

 

Video and Multimedia in Education

Ari Crossby
Back in 2008 the NMC/Educause Horizon Report stated “video is everywhere”1 in recognition of the transformative effects that the availability of relatively cheap and easy to use tools to edit and create video were having on teaching and learning. Fast forward seven years and we are continuing to witness the rapid growth of video and interactive multimedia in higher education as the success of platforms such as iTunes U, Khan Academy, Lynda.com and TEDx demonstrates. Our students—labelled by some the “Netflix generation” 2—are coming to Langara with heightened expectations of the role that multimedia should play in the learning lifecycle, from recruitment and course design to content delivery, assessment and feedback. They are equally aware that to succeed in the digital economy they need to demonstrate competence in using multimedia to communicate and collaborate effectively. Being digitally literate requires much more than simply being able to use a word processor or a spreadsheet programme.

This presents new challenges to instructors who perhaps are not always as comfortable as students are working with digital media. They may be understandably sceptical of the idea that binge-watching Netflix translates particularly well to the higher education environment where academic rigor, critical thinking and deep learning are prerequisites for student success. Even if instructors are convinced of the potential of video to enhance student engagement they may have questions about what makes for a compelling video, what the optimum length of a video should be, or how best to distribute it to their students.

In my role as Educational Technology Advisor (Multimedia Specialist) I work with instructors to help answer these questions and assist them in developing the confidence to use, create and share multimedia in their teaching. Using multimedia effectively requires careful planning, an understanding of the importance of accessibility and an awareness of the myriad ways that it can support academic innovation. My job is to help instructors navigate through the potentially bewildering array of applications of multimedia to learning, whether that be screencasting, podcasting, video editing, audio feedback, digital storytelling or flipped learning. Our common aim is to stimulate the appetite of our students for engaging and meaningful learning by harnessing the potential of multimedia to improve learning outcomes.

Julian Prior

Educational Technology

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  1. https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/CSD5320.pdf
  2. https://bit.ly/1RaJl43