Category: Design

Teaching Tips 2019

Specific Lesson Starter Strategies

Start with vocabulary – Post several words and let students guess the topic;

Try the whiteboard purge – Invite the entire class to write everything that they know about a new topic until the blackboard/whiteboard is full. Then asked for students to elaborate on their notes and take the time to correct misconceptions;

Start with video – Show a YouTube clip related to the topic. For example, explainers and author interview trailers;

Incomplete diagram – Provide a diagram with labels removed. Have learners try to guess as many parts as they can before turning the sheet over and viewing the answers;

Tell a story – Read or tell a story related to the topic. Students will become even more engaged if the story is a cliffhanger that you wait until the end of class to finish;

According to Online PD, the following components are useful in engaging students at the beginning of class: A) capture student interest, B) explain what will be learned, C) explain why it matters, D) relate the topic to previous knowledge, and E) tell how the lesson will unfold.

Not death by PowerPoint!

Try these I recently found on a random search

PowerPoint Presentation Hack #1. Use Poll Everywhere To Ask Your Audience Questions and Keep Them Engaged – available in all classrooms

PowerPoint Presentation Hack #2. Use Control + B to Make The Presentation Screen Black and Draw Attention Back to You – and see who is paying attention

PowerPoint Presentation Hack #3. Draw On Your Slides In Real Time During Your Presentation with Control + P – or use the display pen located on the display if presenting in the classroom at CAHS

Click this link to see more but one final

Hack #10. Zoom In and Out of Your Slides to Focus on Specific Areas – and I hope to have presenter view installed in all classrooms by fall to make this hack workable!

Want to take a peak?

And see what is coming.  Reminder there is a forum tomorrow at 3:00 in the “new” Black Box Theater!

Demo Courses

Two ECU courses were imported into Canvas. You may log in and view these courses as a student using the access information below.

Canvas

Login: https://ecu.instructure.com/login/canvas | E-mail: faculty | Password: ecufaculty

To test drive canvas as an instructor, visit Canvas LMS Try to set up an account and build a course.

BrightSpace D2L

Login: https://ecu.brightspacedemo.com | Username: faculty | Password: ecufaculty

To test drive BrightSpace as an instructor, visit Try BrightSpace to set up an account and build a course.

Blackboard Ultra

Login: https://blackboard.coursesites.com/ | Username: faculty | Password: ecuFaculty2019!

You may also test drive Ultra using Blackboard CourseSites. Register to begin building a course.

Teamwork really does work!

Went to a session sponsored by the College of Business about Microsoft Teams and found out how it might work well in your classes, departments and inter-departments.  Here are some of the highlights –

  • Can embed google drive, dropbox and has better integration with office 365
  • You can create teams, invite members both ECU and guests as well as students.
  • Within a team you can set up channels for students and their assignments.
  • Conversations are easy to start and files can be added and edited directly in the team area
  • Want to see more? Ask to join my team or go to the Microsoft Community for information and training.

Something is coming and you don’t want to miss it!

And it may be a new LMS on the horizon.  Please take time to attend one of the LMS Spring Demonstrations.  They will be held both on East and West Campus, and if you haven’t check out the new student center here is a great excuse.

“ECU is undertaking a review of our current and future learning management system (LMS) needs to determine next steps as our LMS hardware requires replacing in the next two years. The timing of this hardware replacement combined with significant changes in the LMS market make this an opportune time to evaluate LMS options to determine which system will best meet our needs.

The LMS (Learning Management System) is a critical tool in teaching and learning.

 Objectives

Read more

Did you know?

I am part of the New Faculty Orientation planning group and though some of you have been here for a bit sometimes we can all benefit by a review of what is available, here are a few:

You can access any tool provided by ITCS

Course Syllabus Suggestions

Universal Design for Learning: A Rubric for Evaluating Your Course Syllabus

DE Course Syllabus Suggestions

Keeping Stress from Evolving into Distress: A Guide on Managing Student Stress through Course Design

OFE Session Recordings

Contact our office to explore any of the above or something new!

As we enter the final days of Spring 2018 Semester

Already????  You might say but yes only a few days left and here are some reminders to close the book –

Review your Gradebook – are there any missing grades, do you want to set up extra credit, weighting, now may be the time to get this in order before final exams and speaking of

Final Exams – have you written it, Respondus Test Generating tools helps make test creation in BB easier and remember if using Blackboard for a timed test Forced Completion should not be checked.

Assignments – if using Safe Assign make sure you check the correct options and have submission settings correct.

Make up work – if any are allowed make sure the correct options are available to students.

Reusing content – for summer course or future semesters make note of broken links or anything that did not work and correct it.

OR want to redesign, summer is the time to do just that, contact this office if you want to explore some new options.

Since last week’s post was a repost you get 2 this week!

We are 3 1/2 weeks into the semester and here is a Best Practice that is included for Distance Education content but is a great idea for all classes to check in on “How is the course going?” and “Do you have any suggestions?“

Early feedback surveys or just informal discussions ask students to provide feedback on what is working well in a course and what might help them have a better course experience. This early feedback is done early in the course so corrections and modifications can be made. It is an easy opening for students who might have comments or suggestions or questions.”

You could use discussion board, or a doodle poll, or a round table discussion!

There have been a couple of emails inviting you to Mursion Demonstration. I went to one last spring and wrote about it https://sites.ecu.edu/OET/?p=2370 It is a very cool tool available to you.  “Mursion is a great opportunity we have available at ECU for students as well as for potential faculty and staff development. Come see what it is all about.”  and “Mursion is a tool you can use with your students to allow them to practice real-life situations in a variety of environments including education, business, hospitality and healthcare. Mursion is housed in the College of Education, but is available to the entire university. This semester we are providing sessions students can sign up for that are geared toward education students (please see attached handout), but a similar series can be arranged for other areas with interested students. We are looking forward to welcoming 2 new student environments and 10 new adults that can be mixed and matched in a conference room in sets of 3.”

Since this is the longest day of the year . . .

And summer break!

 

 

 

 

Take some time, look at some of these tools

Turning Cloud – Clicker Technology

Socrative – Clicker Technology

Voice Thread – feedback video tool within Blackboard

My Mediasite/Mediasite  – Mediasite is the university’s enterprise video strategy. My Mediasite, an all-in-one tool for recording, uploading and managing video, now gives users more control over their content.

Air Media – classroom tool

Blackboard Tools – This link will provide you with quick tutorials for tools available within BB

Respondus Test Generator – easy import of word documents into BB tests

SabaMeeting – Saba Meeting is a Web conferencing program in which a group of people interact in a virtual online meeting environment.

WebEx – Collaborate with colleagues anywhere, anytime from the Web through a browser or mobile app.

Yammer – Yammer is the official social networking tool of ECU. Think of it as Facebook for ECU. I

WordPress – WordPress allows users to create both static and dynamic Web pages.

Multimedia and Animation Services – Project Applications being accepted

Software supported by ECU

Or explore this blog and contact OET for demos or to explore new ways to distribute your content!