Category: Instruction

Presenting Online? No Choice

As a long time advocate for online delivery and knowing that many are not comfortable with this delivery system I am going to share some simple tips.

First – accept my Team invite as your colleagues may be some of your best resources.

Second- Keep it Simple, you know your content so deliver it.  If Mediasite Desktop Recorder or Studio or YouTube are intimidating you can create a voice-over PowerPoint for deliver.

Third – Keep in touch with your students whether by email, chat, try webconferencing for real time communication and there is always the phone.

Fourth – if something doesn’t work, take a deep breath, try again or put it aside and work on something else.

Here’s a new link with a crash course for smaller classes, labs and assessment from the North Carolina School of Science and Math is a leader in providing synchronous education. They’ve opened up some of their training to others in the UNC System.

Teaching Online? Here is a tip which is even good for Face to Face!

I was reading an article about making an online course great and this one tip really stood out to me –

“Explain the purpose of the various modules and content to the students, as well as why particular technology is being used for the various activities. As one instructor observed, “The students need to understand what it is that they are reaching for and how we are going to get through.”

From https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/12/09/5-proven-ways-to-make-your-good-online-course-great.aspx?s=ct_nu_150120&oly_enc_id=8110A1645090C1C

One week!

And exams are done and fall semester will be put to rest.  Review what worked, what didn’t and if take inventory of your Blackboard course as fall semester 2020 it will be in Canvas.  If you use Blackboard grade book you may want to download it before finalizing and/or changing grades, remember to save to your pirate drive and not to your local machine.  To download your grades, click work offline and download.  It will be an xml file which will open in Excel, remember to save as Excel file.  Using Canvas?  Click here for how to do it in Canvas.

Need help?  Contact this office.

And now the end is near

Last Wednesday in the semester, for those remaining classes here is a fun way to check that they have been reading and listening.  Turning Point Cloud, login with your ECU credentials, click to connect to ResponseWare and you can use your PowerPoint presentation or Anywhere Polling to check on what has been retained.  Students download the app on their phone, tablet or laptop.  Enter the code to connect and you are on your way!  Contact this office for a demo to do it your way!

Yes it is!

Only 3 weeks to Thanksgiving break, 4 weeks to reading day and finals begin! But not to belabor that point here are some tips for keeping above water.

  • It is harder for your students, you’ve been here before
  • Calendar activities and set reminders
  • Make notes on what worked and what didn’t (this will help when you transition Fall 2019 BB courses to Canvas Fall 2020)
  • Make lists, there are various programs and apps which can be used to help keep you on track, many available through Office 365  such as To Do, OneNote, Class Notebook, and Teams.  Get used to using One Drive to store your files as you can link them with Canvas.
  • Take a break and watch a funny video, movie or walk outside!

What are your tips???

 

 

 

 

Analytics, Quizzing and Commenting

It’s been a while but wanted to remind you of some features available to you when recording lectures, either from the classroom or your office.

Analytics – Mediasite’s powerful video analytics and built-in reports show exactly who is watching what and when.
• Understand viewing behavior and engagement
• Evaluate each video’s effectiveness and impact on learning and performance
• Measure your return on investment and make informed decisions

Quizzing – Mediasite quizzes are flexible, allowing you to create the type of quiz that works best with your learners. For example, a ‘study guide’ quiz allows learners to go through the video as many times as they like, change their answers and self-assess along the way. Other types of quizzes, like the ‘scored quiz,’ don’t allow students to change their answers.  After completion you can download an excel file with their scores and answers.

Commenting – Can be done in real time during a presentation or on demand.  Once you add a commentedit or delete it as needed. You can also respond to other viewer’s comments and report inappropriate comments.

You can view a presentation’s comments directly below it, with the most recent comments shown towards the top.  All comments include the user’s full username, an avatar that displays the first initial of the username, and when the user made the comment.

Annotating – Add annotations to a presentation to provide additional information to viewers. For annotations to post successfully, you must submit them at least one second apart.

Contact this office to learn more!

Teaching Tips 2019

Specific Lesson Starter Strategies

Start with vocabulary – Post several words and let students guess the topic;

Try the whiteboard purge – Invite the entire class to write everything that they know about a new topic until the blackboard/whiteboard is full. Then asked for students to elaborate on their notes and take the time to correct misconceptions;

Start with video – Show a YouTube clip related to the topic. For example, explainers and author interview trailers;

Incomplete diagram – Provide a diagram with labels removed. Have learners try to guess as many parts as they can before turning the sheet over and viewing the answers;

Tell a story – Read or tell a story related to the topic. Students will become even more engaged if the story is a cliffhanger that you wait until the end of class to finish;

According to Online PD, the following components are useful in engaging students at the beginning of class: A) capture student interest, B) explain what will be learned, C) explain why it matters, D) relate the topic to previous knowledge, and E) tell how the lesson will unfold.