Monday, October 29, 2018

Digital Transformation in Higher Ed: What is it, and why should you care?

Transformation, Digital, Visualization
LIVE WEBINAR: Thursday, 11/8 at 1 pm CDT

This free live webinar hosted by Educause gives a glimpse into both the present state of and future view into the digital transformation of higher education. It should be of particular interest to administrators in leadership as well as any faculty or staff member interested in the issues around academic technology integration and digitization of services and support for students, faculty, staff, and administration.

Registration for Digital Transformation in Higher Ed: What is it, and why should you care? is free to any who work for UAH or other Educause member organizations. Online Learning/ETL is happy to host a group discussion around a viewing of the recorded webinar for work groups, colleges, or departments. Please contact Tess.Olten@uah.edu for more information.

NOTE: You may have to register for a free account with Educause in order to register for the live event. This is a one-time thing and you will only need to log in for future event registrations.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Quizzes.Next: New Canvas Assessment Tools are ready for testing!

In late May, I posted a sneak-peek into Quizzes.Next, the next generation of assessment tools in the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS). ETL is ready to begin testing these tools in our LMS test environment! Any faculty with specific assessment challenges using the current tool set are encouraged to work with Online Learning to explore these new tools and test their limits.

For those who missed the sneak peek, here's another peek!

Most faculty who teach in the Canvas learning management system (LMS) are familiar with the "Quizzes" tools and features for creating a variety of surveys, quizzes, tests, and exams. What faculty may not have yet heard is that Canvas is taking assessment to the next level with the release of Quizzes.Next tools, currently available only in the UAH test environment after being released this past summer.

Explore the links below but know that this tool will not immediately replace the current quiz features, and that it can be used in any course, even in combination with the traditional quiz features within the same course. Quizzes.Next is simply a new set of additional tools that support a wider variety of assessment strategies.

Quizzes.Next is not yet active in the UAH instance of Canvas. When we do implement it, faculty will have plenty of time to explore the tools and decide which are right for you and your course, curriculum, and assessment style. After a long period of running both old and new tools in conjunction with one another, the old set of tools will eventually be phased out. But this process will allow for plenty of time for testing, feedback, improvements, and integration into course assessments. For those familiar with the current quiz features in Canvas, this feature comparison chart might prove helpful in determining how best to begin testing. For a peek into how it all looks and feels, check out the video instructor guide for Quizzes.Next.

You can begin exploring Quizzes.Next with these links:
Faculty interested in testing the Quizzes.Next tools and features are encouraged to contact Tess Olten (Tess.Olten@uah.edu) for more information.

Here's an extended introduction and preview from the Canvas folks when Quizzes.Next was introduced at the Instructure conference in 2016:



Monday, October 8, 2018

Free Starbucks Gift Card

decorative: man sitting on edge of coffee cup


I just received a nice surprise in my email! It's a digital gift card for Starbucks for $10. If you are the first to email me at Tess.Olten@uah.edu with "Starbucks" in the subject line of your message, the gift card is yours—just for reading!

Little "Easter eggs" like these are fun to hide in your syllabi and reading assignments too. They could be extra time on a deadline, or a few extra credit points on an assessment. They add a little adventure to curriculum as well as rewards for engagement!

Status: See 12/14/18 post to see if this prize has been claimed.

Monday, October 1, 2018

Visual Thinking Strategies

Utne Reader's book excerpt "Visual Thinking Strategies: Learning How to Teach with Art" (Philip Yenawine) offers relevant and insightful advice to anyone whose work involves teaching and learning, regardless of your subject matter or area of academic expertise.
After a great deal of thought—while digesting developmental research and theory by cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen and others—we realized the problem. What MOMA visitors really needed was what Wyla needs: not answers but permission to be puzzled and to think. Consent to use their powerful eyes and intelligent minds. Time to noodle and figure things out. The go-ahead to use what they already know to reflect on what they don’t: the first steps in learning. Again, not answers but ways to figure out things on their own. ... 
... Here’s one way to think about our conundrum: our teaching seemed to engage audiences, but not enable them. Although attentive and appreciative, visitors still didn’t learn viewing skills, facts, or ideas; we didn’t even empower them to be keen observers. 
This led to confusion: when you consistently command the attention of viewers, and when they praise and thank you for your efforts, it is hard to face that, when tested later, they retain little of what you taught.

Girl sitting on pile of books, flowers and bees floating around