In an effort to support both students and faculty transitioning to an online learning environment, we have built an asynchronous, self-directed learning module for students that can be embedded into VIULearn courses. In this module, there are 6 themes for students to explore:
- Tips and strategies for sync and async learning environments
- Time management and staying motivated online
- Communicating in online environments
- Academic integrity
- Health and wellness
- Metacognition (thinking about your thinking)
In designing this module, we’ve tried to balance some “home-made” VIU resources with some excellent borrowed resources from other places. We’ve also tried to include a variety of resources (videos, screencasts, text) and a couple of engagement activities (loose, reflective quizzes and one discussion). The module should take most students 1 to 1.5 hours to complete, and they can revisit the resources at any point.
There are a couple of different ways instructors could incorporate this module.
- It could be included in a course as an optional learning opportunity for any student who would like to explore the resources and activities on their own time.
- It could be included as part of a course orientation, where students are required to engage in the module and complete all associated tasks. As the last task is an anonymous discussion post, instructors would be able to collect some general feedback on what students are confident about, and what they might be struggling with, as they head into the course.
- It could be adapted, and we invite instructors to tweak as they please. There is plenty of opportunity for the module to be enhanced and edited to suit the needs of instructors, their courses, and their students.’
You can download the content by clicking the download button below. Once the content is downloaded, you can import it to your VIULearn course with the steps on our website.
Finally, we would love to know if you used this module in your course. Please email Kathleen Bortolin if you do decide to use it, and/or you have any questions or feedback regarding the content.
For questions about how to upload this module into your course, please contact learnsupport@viu.ca