On-Demand Workshop Videos

The pandemic  has driven both students and faculty from the classroom and forced all  of us to turn our homes into remote teaching spaces. Now that we have  some experience under our belts --and we have survived a few academic  terms-- how can we expand our thinking to engage learners, and find ways  to re-envision storytelling? In this workshop, Instructional Designers  and Video Producers from the Center for Teaching and Learning showcased  evidence-based innovations that engage learners through unique  storytelling.

Ryan David  Kennedy, PhD and Jamie Young, PhD were the special guests in this Dean’s  Office workshop, continuing along the theme of Strategies for Moving to  a Virtual Classroom. They shared their experiences and successful  techniques in ensuring student engagement and interaction with their  courses, other students, and the faculty teams. A brief overview of  Universal Design for Learning (UDL) kicked off the session so  participants could really take to heart an understanding of exactly why  engagement matters.

This special  workshop presented jointly with SOURCE highlighted ways for courses to  engage with communities, deepen relationships with students, and develop  meaningful and collaborative projects using critical online  service-learning pedagogy. This session examined the value of connecting  with communities in online courses. It also explored solutions to  common challenges when blending service-learning and online pedagogies.

Brian Klaas,  Instructor (MMI) and CTL's Senior Technology Officer, led this  presentation that highlighted several new enhancements and improvements  to the CoursePlus Quiz Generator (QG) tool. He focused on features built  into the QG over the past six months including the combo question, "tag  rule" quizzes, quiz sets, and multiple choice question improvements:   randomization and rich text formatting. Other call-outs included essay  questions' word counts and templates; new options in the matching lists  question type; and administrative enhancements including copying quizzes  from other offerings, grading guidance and more.

This  workshop saw Elizabeth A. Stuart, PhD, Associate Dean for Education,  joined by CTL's Amy Pinkerton, MIDT; Jennifer Deal, PhD (Epi); Doug  Hough, PhD (HPM); and John McGready, PhD (Biostats). In continuing the  July 2020 discussion regarding designing effective online assessments,  specific attention was given to the careful consideration and  experiences that have made varied assessment techniques successful.  Highlights include considerations of the distance platform, a focus on  assessment objectives in determining the type of assessment, the benefit  of reflecting on assessments toward improving their design and  facilitation, and several opportunities afforded by the CoursePlus Quiz  Generator tool.