AI content generator and detection tools, including Turnitin pose data privacy challenges. An article outlining the data privacy issues associated with Turnitin is forthcoming. In the meantime, visit EdTech’s Turnitin page to learn more about the tool and the guidelines.
Back in October 2022 we launched a competition to see who could delete the most content from their Kaltura My Media, in order to help us save on storage and bandwidth costs. We were delighted with the response so a big thank-you to everyone who took on the challenge and deleted unwanted content to help us out. We are happy to announce that Krista Kieswetter from Continuing Studies (pictured) was the winner of the competition for which she received Marie Kondo’s book Joy at Work and an Amazon gift card. Runners-up were Yue-Ching Chen (Recreation Studies) and Katrina Erdos (Geography) who both receive gift cards.
While on the subject of deleting Kaltura media we would like to direct you to our Kaltura media retention policy which we recently formulated based on good practice from other institutions and in consultation with our Records Management and Privacy Manager. As well as continuing to encourage you to archive and delete any unwanted or unplayed media, we will be carrying out periodic deletions of unplayed media, at the end of the summer and fall semesters.
As ever, if you have any questions about our Kaltura media retention policy (or other Kaltura issues) please email edtech@langara.ca.
There 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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
EdTech is pleased to welcome Dr. Gail Ring and Dr. Melissa Shaquid Pirie Cross to campus to share their expertise on ePortfolios on November 21st from 11:00-12:00 (in person and online).
Here’s what they’ve shared about their presentation:
True learning ePortfolios provide students with multiple opportunities to revisit and reconsider the evidence of their learning experiences and present that learning to an external audience. As ePortfolio practitioners and evangelists, we have long believed in the power of ePortfolios to facilitate student learning, agency and engagement. We also understand that the practices of folio thinking, and the benefits that can be achieved by those practices, often requires a pedagogical shift from both faculty and students.
In this presentation we will share stories that demonstrate how portfolios can contribute a more learner-centered, process-oriented approach to teaching and learning supporting:
The result of these efforts include reflective, evidence-rich portfolios that have future value for both students and the university to showcase learning successes throughout/across the learning journey.
We will share a variety of examples that encompass everything from preparation for university to preparation for career. The examples presented will demonstrate holistic learning and lifelong folio participation practices.
Bios:
Dr. Gail Ring, Director of Service and Partnerships for PebblePad, North America
Gail has had an extensive career in higher education. In addition to her work as an educator, she has founded and directed a number of teaching and learning centers. Formerly, she was the Director, Portfolio Program, Clemson University. For more information about Dr. Ring, including her research and publications, please see her professional portfolio.
Dr. Melissa Shaquid Pirie Cross, Implementation Specialist for PebblePad, North America
In addition to being an educator, Melissa has had roles as a public relations and retention specialist, a coordinator of dual enrollment programs, a director of student and academic services, and a faculty training and development coordinator in several community college and public universities. She has taught with portfolios extensively at Portland State University and is passionate about sharing her expertise with folio pedagogy.
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.
We help you use the latest learning tools & technologies to deliver compelling content, design engaging learning activities & effectively assess your students
As the spring semester winds down, you may now be shifting your focus to final exams and wondering if LockDown Browser will be available for the upcoming exam period. After over six months of troubleshooting, it has become clear that, unfortunately, LockDown Browser is no longer compatible with Langara’s computing infrastructure.
While this announcement may disappoint some faculty members, please know that this decision was not taken lightly. There were several key issues that contributed to our decision:
Since LockDown Browser was most frequently used during midterm and final exams, the fact that it might freeze up a Citrix computer during these critical and stressful times made it an unreliable solution—for both instructors and students. Furthermore, the conditions under which Citrix computers froze were quite random. This made it challenging to identify the specific circumstances / scenarios that might trigger these freezes. And given the prevalence of Citrix computers across Langara’s campus, EdTech and IT needed to ensure a solution that would work with all of Langara’s computers.
In trying to find a solution, EdTech discovered that only an older version (from Summer 2021) worked on the Citrix computers and this older version is no longer supported by Respondus, LockDown Browser’s parent company. Taking into consideration future support and compatibility issues, this was not a viable solution.
During the pandemic, many instructors revamped their online exams and quizzes to address academic integrity in new, innovative, and creative ways. As a result, fewer faculty required LockDown Browser after our return to campus.
That said, we are committed to supporting our faculty and instructional staff. So, if you are still concerned about academic integrity, please feel free to read our article, Designing Online Exams / Quizzes, and/or contact us. We are more than happy to help you explore and implement alternative online exam / quiz options!
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.
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:
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).
To mitigate these concerns, we recommend the following guidelines for all instructors using Turnitin:
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:
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.
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.
If you need support with Turnitin, please contact edtech@langara.ca
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
Have you worked within a discussion board and wished it was more engaging? Hoped for a platform that had a visually appealing user experience? Have you longed for an intuitive space that allowed intuitive posting across all devices? Padlet may be the tool you are looking for.
Padlet is a digital notice board that allows users to post media, documents and links and collaborate with a “wall” based environment. An online platform that describes itself as “somewhere between a doc and a full-fledged website builder”, Padlet allows open dialogue from all users, instructors or students.
The interactive nature of Padlet is generally described as easy to use and engaging. Users can collaborate on real-time, shared boards by adding and editing posts. Users can add rich multimedia, such as images, links, and documents. Posts can be arranged in various formats to best suit the content, including whiteboards, grids, timelines, and maps. Padlet offers a range of interactive features such as anonymous contributions, comments, and reactions.
Padlet is a highly versatile tool, limited only by our imagination. Some of the benefits of using Padlet to improve student engagement include:
Padlet can be used to:
We will explore specific features of Padlet in future posts. If you are interested in triallingPadlet, please email EdTech to request a license. Afterwards, visit the Langara Padlet login page to login with your Langara account. This tool is centrally supported by Langara EdTech, and detailed help is available on our EdTech website or through the Padlet Help website.
Primary photograph by Keira Burton from Pexels used under Pexels License.
References and Additional Reading
Edwards, L. (2020, October 19). What is Padlet and how does it work for education? Retrieved January 11, 2022, from Tech Teaching website.
Meyer, K. A. (2014). Student engagement in online learning: What works and why. In Student Engagement Online: What Works and Why (pp. 1–14). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. DOI link.
Norman, M. (2017). Synchronous Online Classes: 10 Tips for Engaging Students. Faculty Focus. Faculty Focus website.
Padlet Features. (n.d.). Retrieved January 1, 2022, from https://padlet.com/features.
Simon, E. (2018). 10 Tips for Effective Online Discussions. EDUCAUSE Review. EduCause website.
Stake, J. (2021, January 22). Padlet For teachers: The best tips, tricks, and ideas for your classroom. We Are Teachers. We Are Teachers website.
Image CC by Johannes Ahlmann
Did you know that approximately 1 in 12 men is colour blind? Colour blindness — or more accurately, poor or deficient colour vision — can affect a person’s ability to distinguish between certain colors, usually greens and reds, and occasionally blues. Because colour vision deficiency reduces the number of color dimensions, it can be difficult for colour blind individuals to distinguish between certain colors. To improve colour accessibility of course content, it is important to ensure adequate colour contrast and not rely on colour alone as a means of conveying information.
Effective contrast can make the text easier to read and images easier to see for all students. To ensure text is readable it should pass accessibility guidelines based on the combination of text colour, background colour, and text size. Test contrast using the WebAIM colour contrast checker.
Colours used to convey information on diagrams, maps, and other types of images must also be distinguishable from the background. To ensure adequate contrast use a combination of light and dark background and foreground colours.
Color combinations to avoid for people with color blindness include:
If you absolutely must use one of these combinations, adjust the contrast, making adjusting the shades so one is extremely dark, and the other extremely light.
Image source Smashing Magazine
Do not rely on colour alone to communicate meaning. Different patterns and textures can help colour-blind people further distinguish between different elements in charts and infographics.
Use color plus another element to emphasize a point or visually distinguish information differences. Emphasis elements include:
For more information on improving the accessibility and data visualization, visit Penn State’s Charts & Accessibility web page.
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