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2020 Virtual Conference Presentations

By Kristin Kowal
October 22, 2020

Posted in: News

Our instructional designers have been busy sharing best practices and new ideas at virtual conferences this year! Here’s a list sorted by topic area with resources and presentation recordings (when available).

Course Design Process

This Seems Backwards! Using Backwards Design in Course Development

Presenters: Eric Peloza and Jennifer Russo, Instructional Designers
Conference: LTDC Virtual Showcase, June 2020

Description: Using the backward design model, UW Extended Campus instructional designers demonstrate effective online course design and development practices when collaborating with faculty. The presentation introduces the audience to what backward design is as well as its importance to the design and development process. Best practices for aligning objectives, assessments, and resources are provided, and the presentation defines and explains the roles and responsibilities of the instructional designer, faculty, and media representative. Throughout the presentation, examples of working documents are shared for clear, visual examples of the presented concepts. By using backward design, you can ensure that courses are fundamentally sound, leading to student success!

Presentation Materials

Making Online Course Development a Transformative Experience

Presenters: Eric Peloza, Instructional Designer & Melinda Verdone, Program Manager of MS in Applied Biotechnology
Conference: Distance Teaching and Learning Conference, August 2020

Description: In this session, the MS in Applied Biotechnology program is used as an exemplar for UW Extended Campus’s course development process. The process is described in detail by the Program Manager and program’s Instructional Designer. Feedback from the program’s faculty who have recently undergone online course development is presented, demonstrating how their teaching practices have changed and grown as a result of the development process. Responses from faculty who are new to online instruction and those with previous online course experience are also provided.

Presentation Materials

 

Learning Objectives

Writing Quality Learning Objectives

Presenter: John Hollenbeck, Senior Instructional Designer
Conference: LTDC Virtual Showcase, June 2020

Description: This highly interactive presentation begins by developing a well-formed learning objective using the three required elements of an objective: performance, conditions, and criteria. John discusses granularity and the levels of learning objectives from institutional to lesson. The presentation concludes by establishing learning objectives in cognitive and knowledge dimensions as described by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001). Throughout the session, participants are called upon to work with concepts with the goal of leaving the session with at least one quality learning objective.

Presentation Materials

Begin Here: Writing Quality Learning Objectives

Presenter: John Hollenbeck, Senior Instructional Designer
Conferences: Distance Teaching & Learning Conference, August 2020; Online Learning Consortium Innovate Conference, June 2020

Description: This session addresses issues that faculty struggle with in writing well-formed learning objectives. Learning objectives are a key element in the Quality Matters rubric, forming the basis for determinations of alignment of learning elements. In John’s experience as both a faculty and an instructional designer, he has found that few instructors have had formal training in organizing a course, especially when it comes to stating the learning objectives of the course in observable and measurable terms. With that in mind, this session was designed to provide that training by introducing the parts of a learning objective, how learning objectives relate at different levels, and how learning objectives map out in cognitive and knowledge dimensions.

Presentation Materials

Discussion Design

Part Deux: Discussion on the Rocks? Add a Twist of Fresh Alternatives!

Presenters: Laurie Berry, Instructional Designer & Kristin Kowal, Senior Instructional Designer
Conferences: LTDC Virtual Showcase, June 2020; Online Learning Consortium Innovate Conference, June 2020

Description: This session is a sequel to the 2018 LTDC Virtual Showcase &  2019 OLC Innovate blockbuster hit “Discussion on the Rocks? Add a Twist of Fresh Alternatives!” Kristin Kowal and Laurie Berry are back to share more new, creative ways for you to add a little zest to make online discussions more meaningful and enjoyable. Attendees learned field-tested strategies that facilitate increased student engagement while still achieving the goals of student interaction, knowledge sharing, critical thinking, and broadening one’s viewpoint. Participants leave the session ready to implement these strategies immediately. Throughout the session, each strategy is supported with evidence collected via student work and faculty interviews, and tips on how to avoid student or instructor pitfalls are provided.

Presentation Materials

Tech Tools

Using Microsoft Teams to Facilitate Online Group Work

Presenter: William Weber, Instructional Designer
Conference: LTDC Virtual Showcase, June 2020

Description: On the side, the presenter teaches an online course outside of the UW System where he set up groups in Microsoft Teams—a feature of Office365—to help facilitate group work. In this presentation, he talks about his reasoning to use Teams, including some of its features and advantages over the LMS, how he set up the groups/teams, and the lessons he learned along the way.

Presentation Materials:

Upping Your Game: Advanced Approaches to Kaltura Video in Courses

Presenter: William Weber, Instructional Designer & Thomas Arendalkowski, UW-Shared Services
Conference: LTDC Virtual Showcase, June 2020

Description: The Kaltura media management tool is a key part of the UW System’s Digital Learning Environment, but many users don’t take full advantage of it. In this presentation, Bil discusses ways that you can improve the use of Kaltura video in your online courses. He also covers several new ways to use video and the pedagogy behind each. The presentation concludes with a discussion on how Kaltura’s machine captioning tool can easily make your videos more accessible.

Presentation Materials:

Further Exploration

Hungry for more content and want to peruse a varied menu of Virtual Presentation Options? Hop on over to the LTDC Virtual Showcase 2020 page and peruse the Keynote and Tuesday & Wednesday schedules!

 

 

Faculty Spotlight: Diane Caporale Interview

By Eric Peloza

Posted in: Faculty / Teaching Online

Diane working in her lab with a student. Image Source: https://stevenspoint.news/2019/05/24/dna-research-paves-career-path-to-marshfield-lab-for-uw-stevens-point-students/

As you know, the higher education field had to rapidly shift toward remote (online) learning in 2020 given the COVID-19 pandemic. These are challenging times for all in the workplace, especially for faculty trying to transfer their face-to-face courses to the online format or for faculty who had to transfer in Spring 2020. Luckily, many of the faculty we partner with had the advantage of designing, developing, and teaching online courses with UW Extended Campus, either currently or in the past. You probably felt more comfortable with the switch to online learning at your home campus because of this experience with UW Extended Campus Collaborative programs.

I recently spoke with Dr. Diane Caporale from UW–Stevens Point. As an academic director and faculty member for the UW Applied Biotechnology (ABT) program, Diane was introduced to online learning from her involvement with the ABT program. For this newsletter’s faculty spotlight, we talked about what she gained from working through the online course design and development process as a faculty member and by collaborating with other campuses as an academic director.

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Course Changes: Out With the Old, In With The New

By Kristin Kowal
February 27, 2020

Posted in: Faculty / Instructional Design / Teaching Online

Spring is upon us and growth and change is a fitting topic to explore this time of year. Here are four changes we saw in courses that we’d love to share with you, as well as the instructor’s perspective on these changes.

Adding Choice to Invigorate a Boring Assignment

Course: Introduction to Sociology, UW Flexible Option

Old: Students reviewed graphical U.S. census data and compared racial and ethnic populations over time.

New: Students can choose to conduct research on stratification or attend and analyze a community experience through the lens of race and ethnicity, gender, or social class.

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Mid-Course Surveys: Asking Students How Your Course is Working

By Amy Lane

Posted in: Best Practices / Faculty / Instructional Design / News / Teaching Online

Diverse group of students holding signs that say "survey".
Mid-course surveys capture formative feedback from students.

Mid-Course Surveys

Now that you are midway through a course, how would you say your course is going for students?  Do students have suggestions that could be incorporated to make it a better experience for current and future students? Rather than waiting until the end of the course for feedback, instructors can ask for formative feedback from students midway through a course.

Although it may be hard to ask for feedback, the fact that you are asking shows how much you care about your students. The mid-course feedback is a way for instructors and students to share and respond to formative feedback, which can improve a course that is in progress and have a positive impact on learning now and in the future.

How to Design Questions

It is easy to create and set up a mid-course survey in Canvas. The survey should be anonymous (Canvas has a setting for anonymous responses) and can be as short as three short answer questions.

To motive students to provide feedback, it is important to emphasize in the survey’s instructions that student feedback is valuable and will be used to improve current and future learning experiences. If you would like to ask students for formative feedback, please contact your instructional designer for help in setting up a survey in your course.

Example of formative feedback survey questions:

  1. What is one significant insight you have gained thus far in this course?
  2. What is one question about this course’s subjects that you still have?
  3. Please give your instructor one or two specific, practical suggestions of how they could help you improve your learning in this course.

Benefits of Conducting Mid-Course Surveys

There are several benefits to asking students for feedback in a mid-course survey:

  • By asking open-ended questions during the course, instructors can show that they are interested and open to students’ feedback, which can help motivate students.
  • The survey gathers the overall student perspective and gives the instructor time to respond to constructive feedback that can be implemented in the last half of the course.
  • The instructor can serve as a good role model for students by constructively responding to both positive and negative feedback.
  • Some students will be more receptive to formative feedback because they will see that the instructor is open to feedback as well.
  • Responding to feedback acknowledges the students that provided feedback and manages student expectations for the remainder of the course.
  • Instructors demonstrate that student feedback is valued with their willingness to incorporate recommended changes into the course and explain procedures or policies that may be confusing to students.

Tips for Follow-Up

After you ask students to complete the mid-course survey, it is important to respond to the formative feedback that you receive from students; we suggest that instructors respond by the end of the next week. Carefully consider what students say and look for themes that you can categorize their suggestions into for follow-up, such as:

  • Items you can change during the semester and when you will make the changes.
  • Suggestions that need to wait until the next time the course is revised because of the impact on the remaining instruction in the course.
  • The aspects that you either cannot or will not change because of instructional reasons (e.g. assessments).

Talk to your instructional designer about creating a mid-course survey today!

Resources

Faculty Spotlight: Rich Freese Interview

By Eric Peloza

Posted in: Best Practices / Faculty / Teaching Online / Tips

Course revisions are an exciting time in the life cycle of a course. Faculty reflect upon the past offerings and look for ways to improve the student experience. I recently talked with Dr. Rich Freese (DMA) about how he approaches the revision process. Rich facilitates courses for our UW Independent Learning program and I’ve worked with him on a course revision (U660206 – Legendary Performers) that won the 2018 ADEIL College-level course award. For this issue of IDigest, we talk about Rich’s secret sauce for cooking up award-winning course revisions.

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