In this news bulletin, read a thank you message from the director of our team about the Canvas migration and learn about our new way of connecting with you – live streaming!
Canvas Migration Complete
Gone are the days where we interchangeably use the terms D2L and Brightspace for our LMS! Canvas is our new home, and our faculty and Instructional Design Team worked together to make this a reality. To give you an idea of how much content we migrated as faculty-designer teams, here are a few numbers:
It was no small feat! Our director, Ryan Anderson, wanted to give a personal thank-you to all of the faculty involved:
Ryan Anderson, Senior Director of Instructional Design and Academic Technologies
Higher education both locally and nationally is undergoing tectonic change, and as we all know, stress is often times the companion to such change. One significant change for those who teach online is the need to switch to a new learning management system. After spending close to two years on this transition, I’m happy to say that all of the courses we run in partnership with various campuses are now live in Canvas. Our Instructional Design Team here at the Extended Campus underwent an incredible amount of planning and work to make this transition happen as smoothly as possible. Even with this effort, we know that you all, the faculty, took on additional tasks of reviewing the migrated courses and also learning a new learning management system. In short, accept our sincerest thanks and appreciation for what you did and continue to do to meet the needs of students. We now look forward to continuing down the journey together of bringing great curriculum to students!
Live Streaming
In November, the Instructional Design Team and Media Team partnered to offer our first-ever live stream for faculty! In this live stream, instructional designers led a live Q&A and informational session for Associate of Arts and Sciences (AAS) faculty about developing assessments.
Instructional Designers Laura Giffin and Kristine Pierick field questions from faculty during the live stream.
We loved the interactivity of this format so much that more live stream sessions will be offered this coming year. The next topic will be Creating Active Learning Opportunities with Media on January 30, 2020, from 12:00–1:30 pm CST. Edit: This live stream has been rescheduled. You can still expect an email with details on the live stream at a later date.
You can attend this stream to learn more about how you can insert more activities and opportunities for feedback right into your presentations. If you have ever said, “I have a very active lecture in my class on campus, but how do I do that online?” this live stream will help. If you are developing or revising a course soon, this will be a great session to attend! Stay tuned—you will receive an email later with details, including how to sign up!
About Kristin Kowal
Hello! I’m Kristin Kowal and I’m a senior instructional designer at UW Extended Campus. I love collaborating with faculty from all over the state and with our amazing team here in Madison. I am currently exploring how I can improve the student experience with visual design, UX design, design thinking, and adaptive learning. Outside of work, I’m probably planning my next backpacking trip or hiking in the marshes, looking for my favorite local bird – the sandhill crane.
