The Digital Spark
Issue 18.1: January 22, 2018
Happy New Year!
Our office spent the first few weeks working with faculty on the successful launch of their courses and other innovations that they have in place. And, yes, some of this involved Canvas, but not a lot. If you have any feedback for the folks at Canvas, please feel to reach out to me or you can email your thoughts to canvas@psu.edu. As always, the Canvas folks have created loads of training for anything Canvas. You can learn more on the Canvas Training Page.
For the coming year, our office is looking forward to new ideas and collaborations with faculty. We will be presenting at the TLT Symposium in March, so I hope you can come and check us out. If you would like us to come to a department meeting or consult on course pedagogy or technologies, please let us know. Our hope is to connect with more of you this year. We love meeting new faces.
In this issue, you will find some information about video conferencing tools, accessibility, blended learning, and some great events, as well as some other cool tidbits. As always, if you have any thoughts, questions, or ideas, please click the handy button below!
Here's to an exciting new year!
~Melissa
Sunsetting Tools: Adobe Connect and Blackboard Collaborate
The use of Zoom university-wide allows for a more consistent experience for both students and faculty. It has a powerful suite of features and is fairly intuitive to use. Many faculty use it for conducting online office hours, whiteboarding/problem-solving sessions, featuring (and recording) guest speakers/experts from a distance, and hosting webinars.
To learn more about Zoom, check out the Penn State Zoom page.
Accessibility tip: Using headings appropriately
One of the most important features a screen reader utilizes is accurate heading tags. When using heading tags on title sections of your course pages, keep these tips in mind:
- ELMS and Canvas pages already have built in <H1> (heading 1) tags for the page titles, so start each new page with consecutive <H2> tags or styles.
- Try not to skip heading ranks, which can be confusing to screen readers. ex. go <H2> to <H3> to <H4>, not <H2> to <H4> to <H6>.
- It is only okay to go back to a higher heading rank when closing a subsection and then beginning another. ex. sub section 1: <H2>, <H3>, <H3>, <H3> sub section 2: <H2>, <H3>, <H3>, <H3> and so on.
- Use consistent heading tags throughout the course, only using subheadings when they are appropriate. ex. if you have 4 separate sections with equally weighted titles, they would all be <H2> tags. If there are any subsections under these titles, you would then implement subheads. The best comparison is to look at your content headings like an outline you would create to write a paper.
- Headings should not be used to format text. Again, this causes out of order tags that can be confusing to screen readers. The tags should be used to make their job easier, not as decorative styles.
- It’s always easier to do accessibility legwork as you build your pages! Accessibility is now a legal requirement, and making your courses accessible now adds to the quality, consistency, and legality of the entire course catalog.
If you have any questions about accessible headings or any other accessibility questions, feel free to contact us!
John Haubrick joins the Department of Statistics
John has been involved in teaching and learning in some aspect throughout his entire career. For the past five years, he was with World Campus Learning Design, first as an instructional designer and then as a manager of a team of instructional designers. At Learning Design, John had the opportunity to work on many different programs across the World Campus portfolio.
Prior to joining Learning Design, for thirteen years, John was a high school math teacher, football coach, and math department coordinator in the Mifflin County School district.
John is excited to join the department where he has been working as an adjunct professor of STAT 100 and 200 since 2009, first for continuing education, and then later World Campus.
When not teaching or designing, John is busy at home with his three children, dog, and the outdoors!
Welcome, John, to the College of Science!
Integrating Library Resources in Canvas
The list of resources can be quite overwhelming, but luckily, the Penn State Libraries has a dedicated staff of librarians to help faculty both at UP and the campuses.
UP
Chemistry and Physics; Math
Forensic Sciences
Life Sciences Group
Science - General
Campus Libraries
360 Photos/Videos
The concept would be similar to this Office Safety prototype, where users are expected to find the five deviant potato heads and click on them in order to clean up and save the office.
There are several potential applications for 360 activities, including identifying objects in the night sky, locating species in a distinct environment (e.g., the Arboretum) , or picking out discrepancies or errors in a laboratory setting, to name a few. Instead of lecturing to students or subjecting them to slide shows, a 360 activity would allow for the actual application of what students have learned and we have the ability to collect information on what students get right and get wrong.
If you are interested in learning more about the use of 360-video or VR in your classroom, let us know. If you want to check out our 360-image in your own Google cardboard, download the image from Box.
Making the Most of Blended Learning
Blended learning continues to be a popular method for teaching classes. Faculty can use blended learning to create educational interactions that are more engaging and interactive for your students.
What is blended learning? Blended learning is an approach to education that combines online digital media with traditional classroom methods. So, students have access to educational content and materials anytime and anywhere online, but at some point, teachers and students must be physically present with each other. Additionally, blended learning asserts that students should have some control over time, place, path, or pace. Additionally, as student engagement and learning increases, so does peer-to-peer and student-to-instructor interaction.
Six Advantages of Blended Learning
- Increases flexibility for students
- Provides higher levels of student engagement and creates more opportunities for effective learning experiences in large enrollment classes
- Provides a manageable framework for faculty to move some of their course content online
- Enables faculty to experiment and engage with the online aspect of instruction at their own pace while receiving instant feedback from face-to-face interactions with students
- Allows faculty to personalize their course in ways that are meaningful to them, but that can be shared across their disciplines, if they so choose
- Translates into lower costs for institutions since they are already leveraging technological solutions for learning
Six Challenges of Blended Learning
- Students may be unprepared to assume increased responsibility for their own learning
- Some students may struggle with the increased use of technology
- Instructors may not be familiar with instructional design approaches and may unwittingly overload students with content
- It is time-consuming to ensure that materials created for online are engaging and challenging. Too often, content is dumped into a repository and encourages passive learning.
- Some faculty may have a hard time changing their behaviors from the "sage-on-the-stage" to the "guide-on-the-side" mindset.
- Finding time to work with instructional designers, librarians, and TAs/LAs to create an amazing course.
For those of you who are looking to shake things up this semester, perhaps just trying out one blended learning assignment or module would be an option. (There is no law that says you have to do your entire course). Our office is open to consultations and exploring any ideas you might have. You really should give it a try!
Events and Opportunities
STEM Teaching Group Workshop on Group Testing (RSVP required)
Julia will demonstrate this novel and powerful testing strategy that she has been using successfully over the past few semesters. While this is not the be all and end all answer to testing, it could be, indeed, a valuable supplement.
From Julia: Warning: group exams can lead to classroom situations where students are animatedly explaining concepts to one another in their own words, critically evaluating each other's work, and passionately defending their reasoning. It's surreal. And pretty awesome.
If you have never attended a STEM Teaching Group meeting, now is the perfect time to try. It's a great place to hear amazing ideas and interact with the Science community...YOUR community!
Tuesday, Jan 23, 2018, 01:15 PM
538 Davey Lab
Canvas Day 2018
Eight Canvas training sessions, led by IT Learning and Development, will be offered in two tracks — basic and in-depth.
In the basic track, four sessions will be offered on these topics:
- Canvas overview
- Content
- Assessment and quizzes
- Gradebook
In the in-depth track, two sessions will be offered at two times on these topics:
- New Tools and Features Integrated in Canvas
- Rubrics
In addition to training sessions, other components of Canvas Day will include faculty panels and large enrollment sessions led by Instructure, the Canvas vendor. More information will be forthcoming.
Lunch will be provided at this free event that will also include opportunities for networking.
Friday, Mar 16, 2018, 08:30 AM
The Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center, Innovation Boulevard, State College, PA, United States
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