New look and name for D2L: Welcome to Brightspace!

On Tuesday December 19, 2017, you are going to see a new look and a new name for D2L.
 In line with other institutioBrightspace by D2L logons, we will now be referring to our learning management system (LMS) as Brightspace by D2L. This switch makes sense as D2L is the name of the company based in Kitchener, Ontario, while  their LMS is named Brightspace.
In December, along with the name-change, you will notice a new look and feel with a clean and modern layout. New fonts, icons, colours and a simpler navigation design mean that courses will adapt to different screen sizes and look equally good on different devices. This is known as ‘responsive design’ and it will make the user experience more engaging for our students as they will easily be able to access Brightspace from a desktop, laptop, tablet or phone.
 Some of the key visual changes include:
– A simplified navigation design that looks equally good on screens of any size;
– A consistent, cleaner and more modern design using new fonts, icons and colours;
– A new ‘My Courses’ widget featuring rich photography in a responsive tile-based layout;
– A new image library with over 3000 images to choose from for your tiles.
Even though Brightspace will look different to you and your students after December 19, your workflows will remain the same. Tools such as Assignments, Quizzes, Discussion Forums will work the way you expect them to.
If you have any questions about the upcoming changes,  please contact your EdTech team: edtech@langara.ca

Socrative: A Free Alternative to iClicker and Top Hat

The following is a guest post from Fulton Tom and Bryan Breguet, Economics Department:

Many instructors are now using audience response systems such as iClicker or Top Hat to engage students in their classrooms. These user-friendly systems allow instructors to administer interactive activities such as quizzes and receive immediate student feedback. The caveat, however, is that they are far from being free. Both iClicker and Top Hat charge students a subscription fee. While the fee is not a big expense, it adds to the already rising cost of post-secondary educatOpen Education Resources - CC Licensedion. Should we really expect students to pay tuition fees and buy textbooks and then to pay a subscription fee so that they can take the quizzes? We believe that more instructors should be aware of Socrative.

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D2L Updates

Welcome back to a new semester.  D2L has made some changes to the names of tools and added a My Media tool, as well as new features for the Grades, Groups, Quizzes and Discussions tools.

Tool name changes:

Former Name   Updated Name
Dropbox Assignments
News Announcements
Pager Instant Messages
Edit Course Course Admin
In Content, New Upload/Create
In Content, Add Existing Activities Existing Activities

If you refer to any of the tools within your course materials, you will need to update the language.

For example, if you have instructions in your course outline for students to submit assignments to “Dropbox,” you will need to edit it to read “Assignments tool.”

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Reading Round Up

Here’s what we have been reading lately in EdTech:

The Death of the Digital Native

In these four provocations, anthropologist Donna Lanclos argues that the notion of the “digital native” is bogus and disempowering, that pandering to student expectations can backfire, universities should be open by default, and our attitude to educational technology needs a rethink.

Five Types of Quizzes That Deepen Engagement with Course Content

a Faculty Focus article offering innovative ways to set quizzes.

Open Source Math Software Competes in the Classroom

William Stein is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington,and  founder of the SageMath software project discusses the software’s advantages

The Digital Campus: Tech Innovators 2016

Digital movers and shakers—nine projects using educational technology

Want to share an article you enjoyed? Please post a link in the comments below.

Computer keyboard atop which a pair of reading glasses