April 2020 – TEACHING MATTERS NEWSLETTER – Online Teaching Fundamentals / Welcome Claire and Victoria

Moving your course online this summer? A recent satisfaction study listed five online instructional design characteristics that directly impact student success when learning remotely. In order these characteristics are: design and organization, learner support, student interactions with the instructor, content design and delivery, and lastly, assessment.

Earlier this year, Teaching and Learning developed the Online Course Development Guidelines which were reviewed, revised and endorsed by the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council, the Senate Teaching and Learning Committee and the Senior Academic Leadership Team. These guidelines outline suggestions for good learning experiences in the online environment. UFV encourages faculty to use the guidelines to support the development of their online courses. If you have any questions or require assistance, don’t hesitate to contact askTLC@ufv.ca.

Featured Articles by Faculty Focus

Five Tips for Switching to Online Instruction
Leading our Classes Through Times of Crisis with Engagement and Peace


Featured Videos by Magna Mentor Commons

How Can you Help Online Students be more Successful in your Course?

Teaching and Learning has subscribed to the Magna Mentor Commons, 20 minute videos designed to answer a specific question related to teaching and learning. They deliver actionable insights in highly focused and short presentations designed to fit busy schedules. Sign up today by emailing asktlc@ufv.ca.

 

 

MicroCourses- Online Learning Fundamentals

The Teaching and Learning Centre is offering an ongoing series of MicroCourses (essential Blackboard tools for online courses), with synchronous dates and times scheduled weekly.

The primary objective of these MicroCourses is the pedagogy behind the tools and how they can be used to:
*achieve learning objectives
*promote student engagement
*collaborate among peers and instructors
*creative easy-to-navigate course design
*assess student learning
*offer support to students
*create an online learning community

Each course consists of:
*a one-hour scheduled synchronous session
*an additional Blackboard course
*a one-hour asynchronous activity/reading/resource

Workshop schedule and descriptions: events.ufv.ca/tlc/
Sessions are open to all UFV employees.

If you have any problems self-enrolling, please contact:  asktlc@ufv.ca
or phone 604-504-7441 ext 4546

 

 

Welcome Claire Hay!

Claire Hay has been at UFV since 2002 and brings 18 years of classroom experience to the role of Specialist, Teaching and Learning. In her new role, Claire hopes to engage faculty in the stories of their own teaching practice and help them become their best teaching selves to support UFV’s vision and mission.  She says “my hope is to meet faculty where they are in their teaching craft and work with them to see what’s possible and continue to pursue innovation and excellence in the classroom.”

Get in touch with Claire

 

Welcome Victoria Surtees!

As a Teaching and Learning Specialist, Internationalization, my role is to support faculty seeking to enhance the intercultural, international, and global dimensions to their courses and programs.

I am especially interested in discourses related to internationalization and international students, institutional support for academic literacy, and teaching approaches that foster meaningful exchanges between students with different cultural backgrounds. I am also passionate about developing interactive online resources for students and faculty.

For me, working at UFV is an incredible opportunity to get back to my roots – I grew up here in the lower mainland and have seen it change and grow. I am very much looking forward to learning more about the questions, ideas, and needs of faculty, staff and students at UFV.

Get in touch with Victoria

 

 


150 Acts of Reconciliation for Canada’s 150

On August 4th, there are 150 days left in 2017 – the year of Canada’s 150th birthday. There have been robust discussions this year around reconciliation and we would like to contribute to the conversation. Together, we have written 150 Acts of Reconciliation for the last 150 days of 2017. Many of these are small, everyday acts that average Canadians can undertake, but others are more provocative that encourage people to think about Indigenous-settler relationships in new ways. We encourage you to use #150Acts to share your engagement with each item on the list.

11. Choose a plant or flower in your area and learn how Indigenous people use(d) it.

Read more of the 150 Acts…and review UFV Indigenization

 

 

Please join Teaching and Learning Specialist, Indigenization, Lorna Andrews in one or both of her two-part workshop sessions. For more information or to register, please email tlcevents@ufv.ca

 

 

turnitin.com

It is UFV’s mandate that this tool be used as a learning tool for students. Faculty members can set up a Turnitin assignment where students can submit papers several times up to the assignment deadline. Once the deadline arrives, the assignment currently submitted is the final version. By allowing students to see the originality report prior to final submission, students can ensure their papers are not plagiarized. (Proper set up of the assignment is required as paper titles, bibliographies, and common phrases can be highlighted as plagiarized text. Visit the Teaching and Learning Centre for assistance.)

To sign up with Turnitin.com, contact asktlc@ufv.ca. They will sign you up, provide you with a login and any necessary training if you require.

 

asktlc@ufv.ca

online@ufv.ca is no longer – so use askufv@ufv.ca

You may have already heard that Teaching & Learning has a new email address for support, it’s asktlc@ufv.ca. Catchy, right? Please use this new email address for questions or support related to pedagogy and itservicedesk@ufv.ca for support related to basic technical issues. Here is an example: If instructors want to know how to add a discussion forum in Blackboard (a simple how-to) then contact itservicedesk@ufv.ca. If instructors want ideas on how to get better engagement in discussion forums (how-to use a tool more effectively, how to write good discussion questions, how to assess using the discussion board), then contact asktlc@ufv.ca. Don’t worry, ITS and Teaching & Learning work together closely so we’ll make sure the appropriate department responds to your request quickly.

A reminder that Teaching & Learning offers assistance and recommends teaching tools and techniques to apply not only in online courses, but in traditional and hybrid ones, too. We are here to support you.

 

 

Stats Canada’s Survey

The Government wants to hear from your students. Feel free to share the following information:

In these difficult times, when everyone’s lives are being affected by COVID-19, you can do something important for the student community. You can provide your perspective on the current crisis, by letting us know how your studies, financial situation and other aspects of your life have been affected by the pandemic.

Please take five minutes to participate in this crowd-sourcing data collection on the Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on post secondary students.

Survey
Information: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/survey/household/5320

 

 

Webinar: Self-Care in Stressful Times – Putting Theory into Practice

April 23 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm EDT

Self-care resource website specifically for staff and faculty working in higher ed.
This follow up webinar will focus on putting your own intentional self-care plan into practice. The application of the models presented in Part I (see presentation overview ) will be discussed in greater details to encourage participants to examine barriers and opportunities to improve their own well being.

REGISTER

 

 

iLRN 2020: 6th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network

Organized in conjunction with Educators in VR Technically co-sponsored by the IEEE Education Society

June 21-25, 2020, Now Fully Online and in Virtual Reality!!!

Conference theme: “Vision 20/20: Hindsight, Insight, and Foresight in XR and Immersive Learning”

Conference website: http://immersivelrn.org/ilrn2020