Thursday, September 27, 2012

eLearning Community on hiatatus

For anyone curious, the Washington eLearning Community is currently in a state of suspended animation.



WaeLearn Undergoes Carbon Freeze

For now we won't take down the list of presenters or presentation dates.  Hopefully be the end of October the group that shepards this community will have time to thaw things out and reorganize.  Some of us have moved into new jobs.  Others are simply swamped with fall term rolling back around.  Stay tuned.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Tomorrow, Thursday, August 16th, at 1 PM, Pacific, Brandy Long of Lake Washington Institute of Technology will give a presentation and lead a conversation on grading and the gradebook in Canvas.

Brandy’s description of the session: An overview of the CANVAS gradebook, to include entering grades and comments using speedgrader and the gradebook and a brief description of the types of comments that can be added. Time permitting, will also discuss extra credit, muting assignments, alt views, and category weighting

Anyone is welcome to attend.

Log into Collaborate: https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/launch/meeting.jnlp?sid=2008170&password=M.76B48BDDE3B7C6157740812A81FD70

View a Schedule of Upcoming Sessions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11r7h1sA3UfoOZZMU2ao_5FJWSRBXeOY0ebz_-n5rUN8/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1

View Recordings of Previous Sessions: https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/recording/playback/link/table/meeting?suid=M.1286F0C21FA258F7D83EE80B8FA025&sid=2008170

Thursday, August 9, 2012

1st Canvas Training Day Recap/Open Office Hours

Yesterday, August 8th, at Peninsula College in beautiful Port Angeles, we held the first (of many to come) eLearning Council/State Board Canvas training day. We had around 45 people and a full day's agenda. Today's eLearning community session will be a review of yesterday's material for anyone interested and a general open office hour from 1 PM, Pacific. Anyone is welcome.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

How do Outcomes in Canvas Work? Find out at an eLearning Community Session, Tomorrow August 2nd

Tomorrow, Thursday, August 2nd at 1 PM, Pacific time, our own Stephanie Delaney of Seattle Central Community College will give a presentation on outcomes in Canvas.  This is a hot topic here in Washington as many colleges and universities begin their migration.

Anyone is welcome to attend.
Stephanie’s session description:Canvas has easy to use features for tracking outcomes. Seattle Central is working on using Canvas to align and track outcomes from the course outcomes to the program outcomes to the college level outcomes. Stephanie will demonstrate how to use Canvas’ outcomes tracking features and will lead a discussion on strategies to encourage use across the campus.

Log into Collaborate:

View a Schedule of Upcoming Sessions:

View Recordings of Previous Sessions:

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Thursday, July 26th at 1 PM, Pacific, Kelley L. Meeusen of Clover Park Technical College will give a presentation on using Softchalk content in Canvas.  This is a hot topic here in Washington as many colleges and universities begin their migration.

Anyone is welcome to attend.


Kelley’s session description:
Learn how to upload SoftChalk lessons into Canvas. The PC-based versions of SoftChalk are a bit trickier to upload into Canvas than they were in Angel, and SCORM packages will not work at all. However, the newly released SoftChalk Cloud provides for easy uploading of both scored and unscored SoftChalk lessons, easy linking to the Canvas Gradebook, and other convenient features. Learn how to upload SoftChalk lessons from both the PC-based and Cloud versions during this week’s session.
Log into Collaborate:




View a Schedule of Upcoming Sessions:




View Recordings of Previous Sessions:




Find more information:




Please forward this message and invite anyone interested to attend or view the recording later.
 


Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Tomorrow, Thursday, July 19th at 1 PM, Pacific, Curtis Phillips of Walla Walla and Mickey Richardson of Seattle Central will give a presentation on best practices and lessons learned (so far) in migrating courses from ANGEL to Canvas.  This is a hot topic here in Washington as many colleges and universities begin their migration.

Anyone is welcome to attend.

Log into Collaborate:

View a Schedule of Upcoming Sessions:

View Recordings of Previous Sessions:

Thursday, July 12, 2012

eLearning Community will meet today, as most Thursdays at 1 Pacific, via Collaborate.  The topic today will be strategies for managing communication in Canvas.  I will do a short presentation and demo and then we can discuss that and anything else people are interested although I’m guessing the topic will mainly be Canvas focused as that has been the recent trend. Topics will include setting communication channels and preferences, managing the course activity stream, chat, and conferencing.

There is no cost and all are welcome to attend.

Log into Collaborate:

View a Schedule of Upcoming Sessions:

View Recordings of Previous Sessions:

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Quizzes in Canvas

Today a small group of us met in Collaborate for a mini-presentation on quizzes in Canvas. View the recording in Collaborate

Screenshot of quiz panel in CanvasTo me, today's session felt a lot like they used to back in abut 2007 when group of us would meet regular to ask each other questions and share what we'd learned about the ANGEL LMS, which was still very new to a lot of people at that time.

Like in the past, several people agreed today to come back in upcoming sessions to lead more mini-presentations as we all are trying to learn as much as we can about Canvas.  Click here to see the upcoming sessions.


I love learning tips and tricks from my colleagues.  When I agree to prepare for and present on a topic this further forces me to sharpen my knowledge ahead of time. 

Anyone is welcome to join us!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Assessment: What has it done for you (and your students) lately?




Tomorrow, Thursday, June 21st, at 1 PM, Noreen Light of the State Board will present on Assessment: What has it done for you (and your students) lately?.  This meeting will utilize the Blackboard Collaborate web conferencing system.  There is no cost and all are welcome to attend.

The presentation will cover:
  • A short-and-sweet overview of classroom assessment basics
  • How assessment improves teaching and learning
  • Thinking in terms of cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains of learning
  • Choosing appropriate assessments
  • Providing feedback after exams, also known as “less whining, more learning”
  • Please have a copy of your course outcomes handy during the webinar.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Articulating and Aligning Learning Outcomes - Workshop Opportunity



If instructional/course design is your cup of tea, you may find the follow message from the Saylor Foundation interesting:

We are pleased to announce the second installment of our course design workshop series: Articulating and Aligning Learning Outcomes.  In this workshop, you will hear from Ellen Bremen, Emily Wood, Andy Williams, and Stephanie Delaney, expert instructional designers from the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, as they share best practices and guidelines for articulating strong and testable learning outcomes and then aligning them with course content. 

Date: Wednesday, June 27th, at 1 PM EST

Monday, June 4, 2012

Thursday, June 7th, Strategies for Promoting Academic Integrity Presentation

Thursday, June 7th, at 1 PM, Stephanie Delaney of Seattle Central Community College, Renee Carney of Lower Columbia College and Connie Broughton of the State Board will present on Strategies for Promoting Academic Integrity.  This meeting will utilize the Blackboard Collaborate web conferencing system.  There is no cost and all are welcome to attend.


The presentation will cover the concept of Academic Integrity as it pertains to setting expectations, assessment design and strategies, and strategies for redirection and remediation when academic dishonesty has occurred.


To view the recording, click the link below:

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

May 24th, Canvas Show and Tell

This Thursday, starting a little after one PM, Pacific, I will be logged into the eLearning Community Collaborate room.  There are many of us in Washington State (and outside Washington) who are currently trying to learn everything we can about Canvas.  I hope others will join me for an informal conversation and show and tell session.

Thanks,
Scott Dennis

Canvas Walkthrough Recording Link Available

Hello All,

It looks like we had 137 attendees at the live Canvas demo and Q&A session that Renee Carney of Lower Columbia College did for us last week.  Wow, a new record!

If you missed the session or what to review, here is the recording link:
https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-05-17.1144.M.1286F0C21FA258F7D83EE80B8FA025.vcr&sid=2008170

Monday, May 14, 2012

Tegrity Users Conf Recordings Now Available






The Tegrity Users Conference was held in Seattle on April 19th and 20th.  Tegrity has now released a list of session recordings from the conference.  You will find them here:
http://goo.gl/lQ02f

Friday, May 11, 2012

Canvas Walkthrough


Thursday, May 17th, at 1 PM, Renee Carney will conduct a live tour of the Canvas learning management system and answer questions about user experience.  This meeting will utilize the Blackboard Collaborate web conferencing system.  There is no cost and all are welcome to attend.



After a year of research and soliciting feedback from stakeholders, in March a committee with representation from across the Washington community and technical College system and all six state universities chose Instructure Canvas as the learning management system that will replace ANGEL at many colleges and universities.  Lower Columbia College conducted Canvas pilots in winter 2011 and is currently involved in full migration from ANGEL to Canvas.

In case you missed it, Renee as previously presented to this group.  She did a Canvas related presentation on March 15th.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Tegrity and iPads in the Classroom

I’ve been interested for some time in how instructors are using iPads in the classroom so I was particularly excited to attend “Tegrity + Tablets = A win-win for connected instructors” at the annual Tegrity Users Conference last week in Seattle.  Professor Kevin Walters demonstrated an intriguing set of techniques that I couldn’t wait to try myself.  He has figured out a way to walk into any classroom on his campus and , without installing anything on the lectern computer, have the presentation that is displayed on his iPad screen appear on the overhead projector in such a way that he can walk around the room, advancing his slides and writing on them with a stylus.

Step-by-step here is what he does:

1.       Save his presentation to dropbox as a PDF.  He also uses PPspliT, which is a PowerPoint add-in that splits animation effects into different slides.




2.       Open the presentation on the iPad using a ten dollar app called Air Sketch, which lets you annotate PDF documents and images live. On the iPad you can an IP number that you can then copy into the browser window of a computer on the same local network and then annotatefrom the iPad in real time.
3.       Start recording from the lectern PC using Tegrity.

All the processor and network intensive stuff happens on the lectern machine and the iPad just has to run the PDF viewer.

I downloaded Air Sketch and tried it myself.  It worked great on an open network although I have heard of people running into firewall issues on certain campus networks.

Another PDF reader that Professor Walters referenced was GoodReader, which I didn’t try as Air Sketch worked fine.  

Another app that I downloaded (for $5 this time) was Splashtop.  With Splashtop you can do an install on your PC and log into your Google account and then run Splashtop on the iPad and log into the same Google account.  Once you have done this, you can ‘see’ the PC from the iPad and take control.  I was able to run Photoshop, enable VPN, and do anything else my PC can do, but from my iPad – well worth the five bucks!

Another thing that I want to do but have haven’t had success with yet, is to have my iPad view go directly to an overhead projector wirelessly.  I have an iPad to VGA projector cable but to add wireless it looks like I will need to spend $100 on an Apple TV receiver and probably another $50 on an HDMI to VGA adapter for it if I want to use the airplay setup in classrooms with older equipment.


Screenshot from iPad remotely launching Photoshop.

Tegrity Summer 2012 Update

On April 18th, following the opening general session of their Users Conference in Seattle, Tegrity shared details on changes coming with the summer, 2012 Update (Tegrity does to major updates every year).

According to Tegrity, 44.8% of students report using tablets or phones to view recordings - This summer emphasis will be on improving iPad and android experience - including the ability for faculty and students to make Tegrity recordings with audio, from their Apple iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone!.  Currently students can make their own Tegrity recordings if the instructor has given them permission on a class-by-class basis. Student recording functionality is identical to what faculty can now do: Tegrity will record the student’s computer screen, their voice, and optionally a webcam video. Recordings are stored in each individual class on a separate student recording tab.  Allowing recording from phones and tablets will dramatically improve opportunities for students and faculty members alike.

Kindle fire support coming.  The fire retails for $200 and has a 7” color screen and is projected by some to be an up and coming competitor to Apple’s iPad.

Other summer 2012 improvements include the ability to play from direct links on iOS, the ability to generate alternate formats when recording on a Mac as well as the ability to switch between multiple instructional video sources.

Also coming is multi-screen support for PC, and streamlined upload processing for proctoring recordings (now works in background).

Friday, April 20, 2012

Faculty Panel on Novel Uses of Tegrity, Shoreline CC

Novel Uses of Tegrity to Augment Fully-Online and Face-to-Face Classrooms

On Wednesday, April 11, Ann Garnsey-Harter of Shoreline Community College facilitated a panel discussion of Shoreline faculty members who discussed how they use Tegrity Lecture Capture.  The session was made available to remote participants via Blackboard Collaborate. 

Here is the session description:
Shoreline Community College faculty use Tegrity in innovative ways outside of traditional lecture capture. A panel of SCC faculty (Emma Agosta, Dennis Chang, Dan King, and Kira Wennstrom) will demonstrate how they use Tegrity in fully-online science laboratories, for introductions / tutorials to the online class environment, for remote proctoring, and to “flip the classroom” even in a face-to-face course.  Facilitator: Ann Garnsey-Harter, eLearning.

This session was recorded.

To view the recording, click the link below:

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Tegrity Users Conference, Best Practices, Advice from Students

Jeff Johnson of Athens State U. in Alabama gave a great presentation based on the 180 responses he received from a student survey, asking about Tegrity.  Here is some really good advice from students:

My notes (anything inaccurate or just plain wrong is on me):
180 students responded to survey
 - 96% said they agreed or slightly agreed that Tegrity recordings helped them
- 93% wished they had Tegrity in all classes
"Even a bad Tegrity session is better than no Tegrity session"
86% -like ease of use

no identifiable preference from students on use of instructor webcam video - if you do video be careful of background

How long videos should be 50% said 20-30 minutes, 25% said less than 20

Keep it short and sweet - get to the point
"When an instructor is excited about the subject, that gets translated through the recording and can become infectious"
Stay on topic.
Don't just read the slides.
Avoid long delays.
Do not mutter or talk to yourself.
Do not apologize or say you don't know Tegrity.
Sllow down - both talking and mousing - sometimes mouse lags behind voice and they can always speed you up.
Be conversational - avoid monotone, avoid sounding like you are reading a script if possible.
Reuse f2f video in DE classes.
Look at a mirror or photo of a person to keep it conversational.
Say things like, "Now pause the video and do this exercise...
If you are in an area with problems work through the problems - don't start with problem already worked out.
If you record ahead of time for f2f class ask questions of students you know will be there and say things like, we have five minutes left in class so let's all turn to page...
Use the Tegrity board to write on if you have access to a tablet.
Snap photos of physical whiteboard and insert later.
Be concise.
Tegrity not just for lecture capture - communicate instructions, give feedback -- (Talk to Boyoung, Renee).
Do a self-introduction
"Professors expect us and our work to be professional and collegiate.  They should be too."
Test your playback on a laptop speakers.
Get a good USB microphone.
Avoid outside distractions - you wouldn't take your cellphone into the classroom so don't have it when recording,
Pause for coughing.
If recording at home keep dogs and kids at bay.
Change dates if you need to reorder recordings in Tegrity, or use lists of links.
Make PowerPoints and visuals available outside of Tegrity recordings.
Break up text with graphs, photos, etc.
Use pause button to add chapters - re-label chapters later - learn about chapters.
Check your presentation - maybe at x2 speed...
"It's not your parent's lecture"
Tell students they are being recorded and give them a hand sign to use if they want the recording paused before they speak and/or put signage up

Tegrity Users Conference, Student Panel Notes

I am at the Tegrity Users Conference in Seattle this week.  This morning we had the opportunity to hear from six system students on what they like and don't like about using Tegrity and had the chance to ask them questions.  What follows are the notes I took:
Student Panel - Six Students, 3 Design, 1 Media Production (I think), 1 Diesel Tech, 1 English language learner

-- 4 of 6 use keyword searching
-- 1 uses Tegrity bookmarks
-- None aware of notes, didn't seem too excited about this feature
-- 2 had iPhones, 2 had Android, 1 standard cell, 1 person with no phone
-- 4 knew about mobile viewing, 1 said he would use, others wanted bigger screen
-- One out of six took a totally online course, one flipped classroom model, 4 traditional lecture capture only
-- None had done or were aware of student recording
-- All six very much wanted to be able to go back and review recordings a term or even a year after, as they move through program.  One student has every recording from all of his courses, downloaded to his hard drive.
-- All would have liked more how-to tutorials on how students use Tegrity
-- 4 of 6 wanted video that is currently 50 minutes to an hour chunked down

Student Quotes:
"I study with my laptop.  My phone is for quick stuff"
"Tegrity moved me from a B- to a B+ student."
"Tegrity is the reason I got a 4.0 in Biology."
"Tegrity didn't replace for me.  It enhanced."
"Helped me to recall and memorize what I learned in class."
"I prefer learning on my own, not having to wait for the instructor to answer everyone's questions. (her instructor has flipped instruction)"
"In class I often don't get it but he (instructor) has 35 students and just has to move on."
"In class she goes so fast."
"There aren't glitches with Tegrity like there were last year with Blackboard."

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Plan Your Class With Stephanie Delaney

Course planning in the open - You have an opportunity to participate in the planning of an online class (with tips for hybrid or web-enhanced) and also maybe work on your own class while Stephanie goes through the process, getting & sharing tips with other participants.

See details from Stephanie’s e-mail below. There is a link to the sign up form towards the bottom of the post.

Stephanie Plans a Class

In the Fall, I will be teaching one of my favorite courses, American Government.  I’ve decided to make my planning of the course transparent as an informal professional development opportunity for faculty.  If you are planning or revising a course for Summer or Fall quarter, this is the perfect opportunity for you to go through the planning process in a supported and organized way.

Each week, I’ll tackle a different aspect of preparing an online course for delivery.  I’ll provide a weekly blog post (and maybe a podcast), instructional videos for new techniques, some educational readings, and lots of helpful resources. While the focus will be on online instruction, I’ll also include tips for hybrid and web enhanced teaching.

Things to note:

·         I won’t be using a textbook, so I’ll be hunting down Open Educational Resources

·         I’ll be making generous use of cool web 2.0 technologies in pedagogically sound ways

·         I’ll be using Quality Matters to make sure my course is well designed and that my students have a quality learning experience

·         I’m going to explore using Learning Analytics tools to track data about my classes.

·         I’ll also be prepping my summer course, a class I’ve taught annually for over 10 years. So, as  bonus, I’ll have tips on reviewing an existing course for a new quarter.

I hope you’ll join me and prepare your summer or fall courses at the same time.  It would be great if we could build a community of folks preparing courses, sharing ideas and resources and learning new stuff. Plus, think of how great you’ll feel when you enter the new quarter fully ready to teach and not scrambling to get stuff done at the last minute (not that I’d know anything about that. . . ).



If you’d like to join me, just fill out this Google Form. You aren’t making any sort of commitment. I’ll just add you to an email list and will send you a message weekly when I post new stuff. How much and whether you participate is totally up to you.


Send me any questions at Stephanie.delaney@seattlecolleges.edu.



Stephanie



"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write,

but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." 

~Alvin Toffler



Stephanie Delaney, JD, PhD

Associate Dean of Distance Education and eLearning

Seattle Central Community College




206-934-2966

Offices BE1139J & BE4174


Test Proctoring with Tegrtiy, Live Demo and Presentation with Andy Duckworth of TCC, Thursday, April 5th, 1 PM Pacific

This week's eLearning Community session, presented by Andy Duckworth of Tacoma Community College will focus on the possibilities inherent in Tegrity Lecture Capture with regards to test proctoring and will discuss their experiences at TCC, having completed a first term using this technique.

There is no cost and all are welcome to attend.

Attendees will learn about Tacoma Community College’s experience with implementing test proctoring using Tegrity to capture student screen and web cam video.  Andy will demonstrate step-by-step how to set up proctoring processes and access recordings after the fact.

Log into Collaborate:
https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/launch/meeting.jnlp?sid=2008170&password=M.76B48BDDE3B7C6157740812A81FD70


View a Schedule of Upcoming Sessions:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11r7h1sA3UfoOZZMU2ao_5FJWSRBXeOY0ebz_-n5rUN8/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1


View Recordings of Previous Sessions:
https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/recording/playback/link/table/meeting?suid=M.1286F0C21FA258F7D83EE80B8FA025&sid=2008170


Monday, March 5, 2012

Live Desire2Learn Demo, March 8th

Thursday, March 8th, at 1 PM, Steve Gance of Portland State University will conduct a live overview and Q&A session regarding PSU's experiences with the Desire@Learn learning management system.  This meeting will utilized the Blackboard web conferencing system.  There is no cost and all are welcome to attend,

As you probably know colleges and universities in Washington State that are current ANGEL learning management system users, are currently deciding where to go after, or leading up to ANGEL being discontinued as a product.  Recent eLearning community sessions have focused on the experiences and insights to be gained from users of the three main contenders for the contract to be awarded by WAOL, the statewide consortium of community technical colleges.  On March 1st, Patricia Wade of Shoreline Community College gave a tour and overview of Blackboard CourseSites and answered general questions about use of CourseSites and Blackboard 9.1 (Blackboards enterprise product) at Shoreline.  Last week, this week and the next (check the blog for dates and links), Renee Carney of Lower Columbia College is demonstrating and answering questions about Instructure Canvas, in use at LCC.

Log into Collaborate:
https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/launch/meeting.jnlp?sid=2008170&password=M.76B48BDDE3B7C6157740812A81FD70

View a Schedule of Upcoming Sessions:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11r7h1sA3UfoOZZMU2ao_5FJWSRBXeOY0ebz_-n5rUN8/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1

View Recordings of Previous Sessions:
https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/recording/playback/link/table/meeting?suid=M.1286F0C21FA258F7D83EE80B8FA025&sid=2008170

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Canvas Demos from Lower Columbia

Please see this note from Renee Carney of Lower Columbia College:

As our campus continues to move courses to Canvas for our continued pilot window we have been providing introductory trainings from the instructor’s perspective and the learner’s perspective.  We are hosting two online sessions next week and an additional webinar the following week for the WA eLearning Community.   I wanted to open these sessions up to anyone that would like to take a look.  You are welcome to share this invite with your faculty as well.

LCC

March 7, 2012
An Instructor’s Introduction to Canvas
4:00 PM
On the day of the event Click here to join
-----------------------------------------------------------------
March 9, 2012
Canvas, the student perspective
3:00 PM
On the day of the event Click here to join
------------------------------------------------------------------
March 15, 2012
An Instructor’s Introduction to Canvas - 1:00 PM
On the day of the event Click here to join

An Instructor’s Introduction to Canvas
The Instructor’s introduction to Canvas will provide a basic overview of dashboard navigation, personal profiles and settings, communication, course setup, course navigation, course content, the calendar, and grading.  It is a lot to cover, but you will leave this session with a better understanding of Canvas as a tool to facilitate active learning and community interaction!

Canvas, the student perspective
The student perspective of Canvas provides instructors with a basic understanding of how students navigate and interact with the Canvas user interface, and course content.  The overview will focus on how students receive communication, how they navigate a course, how they submit work, and other community building tools they have available.  This perspective provides instructors with insight as they evaluate, adapt, or create their own course.

Renee Carney
eLearning Manager
Lower Columbia College
360.442.2521

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Thursday, March 1st, at 1 PM Pacific, Getting Started with Blackboard CourseSites

Thursday, March 1st, at 1 PM Pacific, Getting Started with Blackboard CourseSites
CourseSites is a free offering by Blackboard that allows instructors to create up to five course websites, using Blackboards learning management system.  Patricia Wade of Shoreline Community College will give a real time online introduction and guided tour of coursesites, via Blackboard Collaborate, and demonstrate uploading an archive file from an ANGEL course shell to a CourseSite course environment.  If you are curious about Blackboard come view the demonstration and take advantage of the question and answer period to follow.

Log into Collaborate:
https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/launch/meeting.jnlp?sid=2008170&password=M.76B48BDDE3B7C6157740812A81FD70

View a Schedule of Upcoming Sessions:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11r7h1sA3UfoOZZMU2ao_5FJWSRBXeOY0ebz_-n5rUN8/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1

View Recordings of Previous Sessions:
https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/recording/playback/link/table/meeting?suid=M.1286F0C21FA258F7D83EE80B8FA025&sid=2008170