No images? Click here December 2019As Fall semester closes and the year ends, it’s a time for reflection and resolve. While I am closing out my time with my Fall semester students, I return to the Learning Objectives for my courses and consider whether I did all that I could to facilitate their fruition for my students. Additionally, I am weighing how I will re-tool these courses in the future to accomplish more. Perhaps most importantly right now, I am considering how Canvas may help me to reach my students and encourage greater engagement with course materials. Some elements of the platform that I experimented with this semester and will continue to use in the future: 1) Moderate Quiz: this screen within Canvas allows me to see all of my students in one dashboard as they are taking Canvas-based Quizzes. This allows me to see whether everyone has logged in to the Quiz, and to watch as students complete the Quiz. If needed, I can quickly add more time to specific students’ Quizzes as well. 2) Discussion Board: The Canvas Discussion Board is incredibly quick to set up and allows me to have facilitated Discussions with my students where they can easily add multimedia content or create their own video/audio posts. I have used it before the class began to introduce key concepts, have had students weigh in on what they have learned, and have had them share links with each other through this feature. 3) Assignment Comments: When students upload an assignment to Canvas they can leave comments for me along with that upload. I have the students record in that area any problems/concerns they had with the assignment, and also add information if I’ve granted them an exception to turn in a late assignment. This saves me having to hunt for email messages about assignments, and I can also respond back directly to the students within the comments in a threaded conversation. It helps so much to have all of these details included along with the assignment rather than living in my email inbox. A few links that you might find helpful as you are working on learning Canvas over the holiday break:
For my newsletter giveaway this month I would like to offer two useful teaching tools. The first four instructors who send an email message to remy@chapman.edu may choose one of these two items: Koosh Ball: I use this ball during class discussions when I am trying to seek out the thoughts of students who might be reticent to raise their hands. I give the students each 1-2 minutes to think about how they would like to reply to a question prompt, and then I toss the Koosh around the classroom to choose a student to respond. It is my experience that some students can think more clearly when their hands are occupied with holding the Koosh, and it also signals to everyone who “has the floor” so that others will not interrupt the student who is speaking. Bar Chime: My Co-Director, Melissa, has been using this chime in her classes. At the beginning of each session she rings the chime to signal to the students that they should leave behind the distractions of their “outside” life and focus on the course material, which she reports has been quite successful. Sincerely, Jana Remy
Register for the January Conference on Teaching (JanCon)Registration is now open for the annual January Conference on Teaching on January 24, 2019. JanCon is sponsored by IETL & ETS. Details will be added to the JanCon website as they are finalized. Planned outage for Bb mobile appsBb mobile apps will be down on December 16th, 2019 starting at 7:30 PM. Planned outage for TurnitinTurnitin reports a downtime window on January 4, 2020 from 8 AM to 2 PM PST. Have you logged in to Canvas yet?Canvas Workshop RecordingsIf you missed the in-person workshops in November and December you can watch them online via Zoom! Are you a Spring 2020 Canvas Early Adopter?If you are planning to teach in Canvas for Spring 2020 please let us know by filling out the Early Adopter form. This way you will get critical information you need to be successful in Canvas. Sign up today! A Fresh New Look for Smith HallHave you been inside Smith Hall recently? Take a peek! More Canvas Training in January 2020!Stay tuned for more in-person training, drop in hours, and Zoom drop in hours. You will have lots of opportunities to get help building your courses in Canvas throughout interterm. All trainings will be posted on our SignUpGenius page in early January. Science on Tap: "Automating the modern-day diagnostic laboratory"Free and open to the public, Science on Tap is a series of casual moderated discussions featuring experts who explore the intersection of science and culture. This particular event will be with Tanjia Anderson from Beckman Coulter. Adobe Creative Cloud is now available for free to all Chapman faculty, staff, and students
The IETL Video Studio will be open for use during interterm.
You can capture class video using Swivl, a video observation technology tool. Swivl can be checked out through the IETL.
New email filtering system at Chapman U -- check your junk mail folder
Training Available for Software and AccessibilityInterested in learning Excel for Mac? Take a look at these upcoming trainings with IS&T. NEW! The Online Classroom InventorySearch and view campus classrooms for available technology, room photos, and basic operating instructions. Find out more at chapman.edu/classrooms Interactive Lecturing: A Pedagogy of Engagement that WorksLecture as a pedagogical approach has come under considerable fire in recent years. The criticisms, however, have more often been leveled at one type of lecture: the full-class session, transmission-model lecture. However, interactive lecturing might help to combat this. Student-Led Lessons Rather than Student PresentationsThere's no question that students learn an enormous amount when they assume the role of the teacher. The problem is that while the student presenters learn much, in most cases the presentations can be less effective for the remainder of the class. Here are a few positive alternatives. |