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Bill Gates on giving Instructors Real Feedback
In this TED Talk Microsoft founder Bill Gates proposes a method for getting teachers real feedback on their practice. A recent initiative from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the Measures Of Effective Teaching Project which aims to close the gap between institutional expectations for effective teaching and what is actually happening within classrooms. The initiative seeks to identify…
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Social Media – Part 1 (Social Media Tools – Privacy and Etiquette)
In April the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning held a workshop entitled: Social Media Tools – Privacy and Etiquette Topics included: Basics of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest Etiquette, Set up, Privacy Settings, etc. FIPPA Law related to Social Media for learning and use at VIU in classroom Presenters: Julia Hengstler and Liesel Knaack We…
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Collaborative Documents in your D2L Course
One of the tools which we do not have available in the current version of Desire2Learn is a wiki or collaborative document editor. Collaborative documents allow multiple users, including both instructors and students, to edit a document. These can be used for brainstorming ideas, having students review and edit each others work, or for group projects. One…
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British Columbia moves ahead with Open Digital Textbook Project
Last year at the OpenEd 2012 Conference held at UBC, the BC government committed to being the first province in Canada to offer students free, online, open textbooks for a variety of popular subjects. It was an exciting announcement for all people who have been tracking open educational resources and the open movement in education. The project…
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Will understanding the basics of web design help you build better online courses? Yes!
I recently completed a 7-week course titled Designing Online Information/Dreamweaver CS6. This is just one in many web-related courses that I have either taken or facilitated over in the past 20 years. As you can imagine, working with websites has really assisted me in working with various LMS systems and helping faculty with their online…
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How educators are using free videos to flip their classroom
The flipped classroom method has students watch short videos of concepts at home and come to class the next day prepared with questions, and sometimes having completed a post-video quiz. This method can grab students’ attention and give class time back for student collaboration and beneficial conversations about the new lesson. Some educators have struggled…
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D2L Email: Tracking Recipient Activity
Email: Tracking Recipient Activity To enable your D2L Email to track when recipients open your email messages, follow these steps: From inside your D2L Email, select Settings. Select the first checkbox for Track activity for messages sent to internal email addresses. Choose Save. Go to your Email Message List. Select your Sent Mail folder from…
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New Tools & Resources!
For Mobile Classrooms Readium – with this Chrome extension, it is now possible to read ePubs on a computer. Pixorial – use this a free, web-based video editing platform on any device. It also has an app and connects to Google Drive for easy storing, editing, and collaborating on videos. Croak.It – record up to…
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Desire2Learn Learning Sessions
This March our Centre began running Desire2Learn Learning Sessions, welcoming 31 instructors from various faculties to 25 different sessions throughout the month. The instructors averaged 2 sessions each! If you didn’t get a chance to attend any sessions, we are offering eleven different 50 minute sessions at many times and days in April, May…
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Integrating Online Textbooks within D2L
Online textbook producers for classrooms have created online books that have more than just the printed words from a book on a computer screen. Online textbooks that are used in the classroom come complete with color, pictures, interactive tutorials, and supplemental links. It is possible to integrate these resources within your D2L courses, providing a…
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Block Posters
Block Posters is a simple to use site that allows you to take an image and print it out in poster form. Essentially it takes an image and spreads it over as many pages as you want, which can easily be put together into a large poster. Quick, simple, and useful for students who need…
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Learning, Innovation and Teaching Enhancement Grants Awarded
In January 2013 The Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning along with the support of the Vice President Academic and Provost offered a limited number of grants to VIUFA and BCGEU instructors. The purpose of the grant was to allow instructors the opportunity to purchase a teaching or learning resource to support the teaching…