Category: General
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5 Ways You Can Help Students Navigate Your Course in VIULearn
In 2020, Stephanie Boychuk and the Academic and Career Preparation department conducted a survey of their students to learn more about how course navigation and structure can be used to support student success in online and blended courses. In this blog post, Stephanie summarizes five “quick wins” anyone can use to help students navigate course…
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VIU Learning Technology Orientations for Students – View anytime!
We are running live webinars to introduce students to the learning technologies available at VIU while protecting the health and safety of everyone involved. Not to worry – we recorded the orientation for you! You can watch it whenever is convenient & as many times as you’d like. Do you still have questions? What does…
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The Share Drive (Episode 16): “We in Horticulture are often very adaptable” (Christine Quist, Instructor)
According to Christine Quist (instructor, Horticulture department), horticulturalists are naturally adaptable, moving and shifting constantly with seasons and conditions. In this podcast, Christine describes her and her students’ adaptability, outlining the way in which her greenhouse skills class took to growing poinsettias at home as well as in the greenhouse. Partnering with industry to provide…
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The Share Drive Episode 14: Mackenzie Sillem and her commitment to Intercultural Studies at VIU
Many listeners will know Mackenzie from her long-term and broad-reaching efforts to support Intercultural learning across VIU, most recently with the development and teaching of Intercultural Studies 100: Exploring and Developing Intercultural Competence. In this podcast, we sit down with Mackenzie to discuss intercultural learning from a variety of perspectives, as well as the value…
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LearnSupport Phone Line is Back in Service!
The Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning is happy to announce that the LearnSupport phone line is back in service! Faculty and students can now either reach out for support by sending us an email to learnsupport@viu.ca or by phoning our support line at 250.740.6179. Our phone line and email is monitored Monday-Friday 9:00am-4:00pm…
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UnMarking Institute 2021 at VIU
Liberate Learning: How to Untangle the Web of Feedback and Grading May 12 and 13, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM This two-day workshop includes a series of Zoom interactions, independent faculty work on their chosen course, and consultations with facilitators. Participants will also be invited to participate in follow-up conversations before and during course implementation…
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Creating Purpose by Letting Students Frame the Questions
For our final blog post on Purposeful Assignments, we spoke with Sandra Johnstone from VIU’s Earth Science Department. Sandra Johnstone’s fourth year Earth Science class was about climate change, and the first thing she did was to have the whole class brainstorm an inquiry question to focus learning for the duration of the semester. After…
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The Share Drive Episode 13: Shannon Bence: The Ultimate Online Learning Survival Guide
After witnessing the fear many of her students were experiencing in the transition to online learning, Shannon asked herself the question, “How can I help?” And the answer that came to her was, “I know! I’ll get up before my toddlers and make some videos about how to be a successful online learner!” In this…
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Enduring and Public: Blogs as Purposeful Assignments
In today’s post, we’re going to look at two instructors who have used VIUBlogs to facilitate purposeful assignments that both give students meaningful choices and have lasting, public relevance beyond the length of the course.
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New Way to Set Up Quiz Accommodations in VIULearn
There is a new way to set up quiz accommodations in VIULearn. Previously, student accommodations had to be set for each quiz individually using the Special Access feature. While Special Access isn’t going anywhere, a new Accommodations option allows you to set quiz timing and right-click behaviour for a student at the course level eliminating…
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The Pandemic Broke Our Teaching: Now what?
A Zoomside Chat, hosted by CIEL on Thursday, February 25 @ 3pm A lot has changed in the world of teaching and learning over the past few months. Some of us have been energized by this new reality. Others can’t wait to get back to how things were before. One critical question is, “CAN we…
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New Assignment Create/Edit Experience Available for Opt-In
Starting December 8, 2020, instructors in VIULearn can opt in to using the new Assignment creation interface. This new version of the Assignment tool will replace the current Assignment creation workflow in Summer 2021. In this blog post we will look at the new Assignment Creation screen in detail so you can see what is…