The Digital Spark
Issue 5: November 13, 2107
Greetings from University Park Airport!
In the meantime, this issue will showcase a few cool tools our team thinks might excite you when you think about engaging students in the classroom. There's a few Canvas tips, and we will also prod you to share some of the educational challenges you are facing that we might be able to assist you with.
Counting down the days until I can talk to you again!!
~Melissa
The ODL One Button Studio
The ODL One Button Studio is an offshoot of the Penn State Media Commons and One Button studio. We have a space in Ritenour where faculty can use state of the art media equipment to record videos, podcasts, and utilize our innovative lightboard. With the Ritenour renovations complete, the studio should be up and running in the next few weeks! Please contact us to set up a meeting to see the OBS or talk about strategies for use in your instruction.
Turn off Option to Show Correct Answers in Canvas Quiz Tool
The default setting in the Canvas quiz tool allows students to see both their answers and the correct answers after they submit a quiz.
Faculty who do not want their students to see this information can uncheck the boxes when setting up a quiz.
To learn more, please see http://tinyurl.com/CanvasExamPollock, which has helpful tips for setting up a quiz whether or not it is administered in the Pollock Testing Center.
Student Engagement Network Link in Canvas
The Student Engagement Network is a new initiative to connect students with successful experiential learning opportunities that positively impact their intellectual, personal, and social development. This includes the recently opened Engagement Space in the HUB Robeson Center at University Park.
Verify Date of Last Student Activity After Late Drop
Occasionally, for administrative course cancellations and other purposes, faculty members need to verify the last date of activity for a student after they have late dropped a course.
There is a tool for this in Canvas, but it has to be activated--and the instructions are not in the old KnowledgeBase, but in the new ServiceNow platform.
Instructions are at http://bit.ly/canvasstudentactivity
Interested in creating your own infographics?
The Digital Learning Initiative (DLI)
The Office of the Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses (OVPCC), the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE), and the World Campus (WC) are partnering to provide online and video classes and resources to assist students in making timely progress to graduation and provide them with supplementary materials in classes with high failure rates. This initiative leverages existing University online learning capabilities to support residential student populations and will provide course flexibility, support instructional innovation, and increase student access to the breadth of the Penn State curriculum.
Goals of the program include:
- Support residential populations with online learning resources.
- Increase student access to the breadth of the Penn State curriculum.
- Increase flexibility for course delivery options (Including the sharing of upper-level/major courses across the campuses).
- Support instructional innovation.
- Develop a sustainable costing model for new courses to be added.
- Reduce the number of under-enrolled courses/sections without compromising the 2+2 mission.
Three courses from the College are currently being incorporated in the Digital Learning Initiative: Math 034, Biology 110, and Chem 110.
The Office of Digital Learning is a partner in this effort. As we work through this process, we are discovering that not only do we need to look at ways to support students, we need to find ways to support faculty as well as encourage communities and collaboration around these efforts.
One of the most exciting takeaways so far is seeing faculty from across campuses come together at meetings, share their resources and ideas, and get really energized about doing innovative things for our students.
If you are interested in learning more, contact us!
Events and Opportunities
Accessing Higher Ground Virtual Conference (11/15-11/17)
There will be two tracks of the conference running simultaneously at the following locations:
- Wednesday, November 15 in Rooms 115 A & B of the 329 Building, Innovation Park
- Thursday and Friday, November 16-17 in Rooms 121 G & H of the Outreach Building, Innovation Park
All faculty and staff are welcome to attend any sessions, and recordings will be made available at a later date. No registration required.
This event is being made possible by the Penn State World Campus.
Wednesday, Nov 15, 2017, 09:00 AM
Innovation Park (locations vary)
Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) Symposium
The Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology is an annual one-day event to showcase ways that technology can be used to enhance teaching, learning, and research. Our intent is to give faculty and staff the opportunity to share how they are using technology in unique ways, network with other colleagues, and generate new project ideas.
The symposium is a free event that welcomes all Penn State faculty, staff, and students.
Saturday, Mar 17, 2018, 07:30 AM
The Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center, Innovation Boulevard, State College, PA, United States
The Office of Digital Learning
The Office of Digital Learning (ODL) helps faculty and students make the most of digital learning technology. We collaboratively design and build tools for any pedagogy.
Dream it and we can help bring it to life.
Email: odl@science.psu.edu
Website: odl.science.psu.edu
Phone: (814) 867-1391
Twitter: @eberly_odl