Educational Enhancement

TEL:US Podcast S02 E02: Online Distance Learning; building communities.

Posted on 5th February 2019 by Daniel Axson

In this episode of the TEL:US podcast, Kitty Horne and I chat to René Moolenaar about his experiences of teaching one of the universities first online distance learning modules. We talk about the ways in which he builds community, promotes peer interaction and how simple tools available in Canvas help him to do this.

I also introduce two new features of the podcast; Shortcut of the Show and App of the Show. I’m a big fan of little wins that keyboard shortcuts can give. They are not the most exciting thing to talk about, so I’ve added reverb…

Please let us know if you have any feedback about the podcast, likewise if you want to get involved or have a contender for Shortcut of the Show.

Thanks for listening.

Posted in Podcast

Improving the student experience of our online study platform: Introducing consistency

Posted on 29th January 2019 by Paolo Oprandi

Early reports suggest that Canvas, our new online study platform at Sussex, has been well received by students, particularly first years. One of the strengths of Canvas is that students find it easier to stay on top of their studies as a result of notifications keeping them abreast of upcoming events and deadlines.

Interestingly, almost half of students have changed their Canvas dashboard to the List view. The List view displays all current module activities with deadlines displayed in chronological order. The Dashboard loads to display the current date, and previous and future dates can be viewed by scrolling up and down the page. In contrast to our students, most tutors still have their dashboard set to use the Card view, which displays a complete list of the modules for which they have a role and is more appropriate for their use of the system.

Screenshot of List View on Dashboard — List view on Dashboard

Anecdotally, students have found the most challenging part of Canvas to be the inconsistency between modules. Many tutors have created a home page and have a reduced module navigation menu showing only the links that they are using in their teaching, whilst other tutors have kept the default Units page for their front page and have left the module navigation menu in case students find it useful.

Templates

In order to increase consistency between modules, Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) have been asked by some School Directors of Teaching and Learning and Department Heads to create Canvas templates for their school so students get a similar experience in each of their Canvas modules and it is easier for them to find relevant information and learning materials.

Our Canvas templates focus on good principles and practices based around three key areas:

Digital pedagogy. The templates are structured to support module curricula, and for tutors to incorporate topic-based activities and resources which advance the extent to which the students meet the module’s learning objectives.
Student experience. The templates are easy to navigate and adhere to the principle that less is often more. They keep the navigation elements to minimum, have a hierarchy of information which makes it easy to find things and have consistency within their design, structure and signposting.
Inclusivity. The templates are fully accessible and ensure access to materials is possible from different devices and different software including screen readers.

There are currently templates for the the Business School, the School of Engineering and Informatics, the School of English, School of Global Studies, the School Life Sciences, and the Social Work department – some of these just include a home page whilst others provide all the pages you would need for a complete module. Other schools, departments and areas of the University are also planning to introduce templates. You can see these on the Canvas School Templates page of the TEL website.

Some areas of the University have not gone down this route and for modules which have not got a set template, TEL have created three templates (so far!) that tutors can choose from to match their teaching style. You can see these on the TEL website.

The ‘intuitive’ template is the simplest and most brightly coloured and provides placeholder headings which inform the tutor what content to put where. You will be expected to drop text and files into the appropriate places.

The ‘weekly’ template allows the easiest navigation between week pages. It expects tutors to have set up their Talis Aspire reading lists by dividing the readings by week and provides folders for the tutors to organise their own files by week.

The ‘flipped learning’ template has been pre-populated with dates in the first three weeks of the Spring semester and for each week includes Units with preparatory materials including learning materials and “readiness” quiz questions, and reflective materials including a journal activity and a revisit to the “readiness” quiz questions to see if the students’ positions have change. The template has a timed release of materials.

All the templates are fully responsive and accessible and are designed to allow students an easy and consistent experience when using Canvas. They all work best when starting with an empty site but they all can be used when there is existing content.

How can I start using a template?

There are instructions on how you can import and use them in your modules on the TEL Canvas pages and if you want help using any of the existing templates or creating your own, please contact tel@sussex.ac.uk

Tagged with: Accessibility, Canvas, Inclusivity, Learning Design, template
Posted in Canvas

Adding Requirements & Prerequisites in your Canvas modules.

Posted on 22nd January 2019 by Kitty Horne

Tutors can develop their use of the Units area in a Canvas module by making use of the Requirements and Prerequisites tools. These tools allow you to further guide your students through your module, directing them through the resources and requiring them to complete certain elements.

What are Requirements?

Requirements are a series of actions that you require your students to carry out before they ‘Complete’ that section of content. This is set up in the Units area of your site.

Depending on the type of activity or resource you have added to your Unit you can require students to:

View an item
Mark an item as ‘done’
Contribute to a page or discussion
Submit an assignment or quiz
Score a certain mark or above in an assignment or quiz

Your requirements for each Unit can include one or more of the above requirements. As well as allowing you to guide your students through your module content, these requirements will also help students to manage their studies and track their progress throughout a module.

Requirements in Canvas Units

Step 1: Go to Units and click the three vertical dots icon to the right of your Unit.
Step 2: Click the Edit option in the menu that appears.
Step 3: Click +Add requirement and define your requirements (see How do I add requirements to a module? for more explanation of the different requirement options). Adding activities, such as Quizzes, will add more requirements options. Repeat this step to add multiple requirements.
Step 4: Click Update unit.

What are Prerequisites?

Prerequisites take this a step further by stopping students from viewing a Unit until they have completed the requirements of the previous Unit. This allows you to lock content until certain actions have been completed. This could help to encourage students to engage with activities and content, highlighting activities that are particularly important or will feed into students’ studies later on in the module or are required for in-class activities.

Prerequisites in Canvas Units

Step 1: Go to Units and click +Unit (or click the three vertical dots icon next to an existing Unit).
Step 2: Give your new Unit a name and then click +Add prerequisite.
Step 3: In the dropdown menu that appears, select one of your other Units (it is only possible to set prerequisite Units that come before a specific Unit).
Step 4: Click Add unit (or Update unit if you are editing an existing Unit).

Why use these tools?

Adding requirements and prerequisites to the Units within your Canvas module sites has benefits to both you and your students. It allows you to encourage students to engage with required activities, stopping them from progressing until they have done so, whilst also enabling students to manage their studies by tracking their progress and easily picking up where they have left off. Setting up your requirements and prerequisites for each week before the start of term could also save you time later on as you will not have to publish content weekly, instead it is students’ progress that releases weekly content.

For further information about how to set up requirements and prerequisites in your modules take a look at these FAQs:

If you have any questions about using these tools in your teaching or any other features of Canvas that you would like to explore contact tel@sussex.ac.uk.

Tagged with: Canvas, Engagement
Posted in Canvas, Learning Design

Custard, empathy and the challenges of teaching: new case studies

Posted on 15th January 2019 by Pete Sparkes

The TEL team recently interviewed staff at the University of Sussex from Education, Economics and Law. They spoke to us about how they have been using technology to innovate their teaching practices.

The topics they spoke to use about ranged from using technology to observe group-work during workshops; engaging students in practical skills during large-group teaching and creating a dialogue with students during lectures.

Observing experiments with Padlet

Joan Williams, Teaching Fellow in Education from the University of Sussex discussed her approach to using Padlet. During a class for trainee science teachers, Joan required her students to work in groups to undertake experiments. In order to monitor their work and provide feedback, a student from each group took photos and wrote short reflections of their results and progress using a mobile app called Padlet.

Padlet is an app for creating virtual bulletin boards which makes it easy for students to share notes and digital content. This software is licensed by the University of Sussex and premium accounts are available to all members of staff and students on request from TEL. The Padlet Backpack for staff and students article from our blog provides a useful introduction to Padlet and examples of different use cases for anyone who’s considering using it in their teaching.

Problem-solving with the Document Camera

Dr C. Rashaad Shabab (Teaching Fellow in Economics) has been using the Document Camera in lecture theatres on a module with over 700 students as a way to engage and involve students in the process of solving algebraic models. Rashaad recognised that empathy with his students was a key factor in motivating them to engage with algebra.

The Document Camera enables teachers to capture and present a live camera feed onto the projector screen and is available in teaching spaces across campus. If you’re considering using this in your teaching, we suggest checking the Room Facilities page to see the range of audio-visual equipment available in our teaching spaces. The Document Camera (or equivalent) is labelled under the ‘visualiser’ column.

Interactive lectures with Poll Everywhere

Dr Amir Paz-Fuchs (Senior Lecturer in Law) has been using Poll Everywhere on the Employment Law module as a way to facilitate interactive teaching, and to create a dialogue with students during class time in large group lectures.

Poll Everywhere is a student response system which provides an efficient way for teaching staff to pose questions (multiple choice, open ended questions and clickable images, among others), collect responses and share back to class. The software is licensed by the University of Sussex and available to all members of staff (on request from TEL) and in all teaching spaces across campus.

Where can I find out more about teaching innovation at Sussex?

The Technology Enhanced Learning team regularly collect short interviews and case studies from members of staff who have been using technology to innovate in their teaching. You can view our growing collection from the Case Studies section of our website. We also organise ‘Show and TEL’ once each term. A networking event where staff are invited to share practice and learn about the use of technology in teaching across different schools.

If you have examples of your own that you would like to contribute, or would like to discuss ideas or seek support to help you successfully integrate technology effectively into your teaching practice then get in touch with your school learning technologist or contact tel@sussex.ac.uk

Tagged with: Padlet, Poll Everywhere
Posted in Active learning, Case Study, Learning Technologies

Preparing for the assessment period and Spring teaching term? Staff development opportunities from TEL

Posted on 8th January 2019 by Pete Sparkes

To celebrate the new year, we are pleased to announce the launch of a new programme of workshops and webinars taking place over January.

What is this and who is it for?

Technology Enhanced Learning provide advice, training and guidance to staff at the University of Sussex in the effective use of technology to enhance teaching, learning, assessment and the student experience. Throughout the year, we provide continued professional development (CPD) opportunities which are free to attend and open to all staff at the university.

Our training sessions are designed and delivered by our team of learning technologists to help staff meet the ambitions and goals of the university. To coincide with the assessment period and start of term, our programme for January has a focus on using the tools to mark assessments online, preparing your Canvas module sites and using the presentation equipment in teaching spaces.

Details of the programme, including fuller descriptions, dates and booking information are available on the Workshops and events page of the Technology Enhanced Learning website.

Here are some of the highlights and recommendations from our programme.

Extend your use of technology in your teaching practice

Integrating the best of the web into your Canvas site – find and embed high quality, interactive tools into your online site.
Canvas Quizzes – Quizzes can be great for concept checking, revision and assessment.

Recommended for new or returning members of staff

Canvas Fundamentals – an introduction to the University’s new online study platform. This session provides attendees with an overview of the new platform and an opportunity to start working on existing course content.
Technology in Teaching Spaces – a practical, hands-on session to introduce you to the technology in seminar rooms and lecture theatres across campus.
Marking with Turnitin – learn how to use the various features of Turnitin for producing marks, feedback and checking similarity with text-based assessments.

Introducing TEL webinars: bite-sized online learning for staff

This year we are introducing webinars to complement our offering of face-to-face workshops. Webinars are designed to provide a more flexible, bite-sized and accessible offering for those who cannot attend scheduled times or commit to longer sessions.

Sessions are delivered online and include a short presentation followed by a discussion. If you book for a webinar you can participate live or catch up with a recording after the session. Each session lasts roughly 30 minutes and will be delivered during lunchtime. Themes for January include Canvas peer assessment, Canvas groups, Poll Everywhere and the Canvas app.

What’s next?

We are in the process of organising a new programme to run throughout teaching term 2 with a focus on accessibility, emerging technologies and innovative assessment. This programme is set to be announced close to the start of February. Please subscribe to our blog (menu on the right-hand side) to receive email updates.

If you (or your department) would like more bespoke training on any aspects of technology enhanced learning which are not covered by our programme then please get in touch with tel@sussex.ac.uk

Tagged with: Canvas, Turnitin, webinar, Workshops
Posted in Events

What’s New in Canvas? (December 2018)

Posted on 18th December 2018 by George Robinson

The new Canvas release for December has just been rolled out across the University, this will bring a few helpful changes to Canvas that will enhance your day to day experience. Two of the biggest changes are the ability to reorder the Card View and an update to the Media Recorder which will make it easier to use, please find information on both these changes below:

Card View Module Ordering

On the Card View Dashboard, module cards can now be rearranged into any order, this means you can organise your display

To do this your dashboard must first be set to Card View.

Once you are in your dashboard there are two ways to move module cards. The first option is to select the vertical ellipses on the card you’d like to move.

Image of a module card with the more options button being highlighted

A module card with the ‘more options’ icon indicated.

This will bring up the options menu, from here select the Move option, this will then give you the option to move the card Top, Ahead, Behind or Bottom of its current order.

An arrow highlights that the Move option can be found in the top right of the move menu

The ‘move’ menu for a module card.

The second option to change the order is to manually click and drag a card to a new position then drop it into the new position

An image showing the drag and drop functionality

Moving a card with drag and drop.

HTML5 Media Recorder

HTML5 is now used instead of Flash for recording within the Rich Content Editor in Firefox and Chrome browsers, this means recording media content directly into Canvas will be quicker and seamless. This recorder can be used anywhere the Rich Content Editor is enabled (Announcements, Assignments, Discussions, Pages, Quizzes, or Syllabus).

Please note that Internet Explorer and Safari browsers do not support this functionality.

To use the new Media recorder within the Rich Content Editor locate and click the Record/Upload Media button

Screenshot of Rich Content Editor showing the record media icon.

The record media icon can be found on the Rich Content Editor toolbar

This will open up the Record/upload media comment menu, (please note at this point you may be asked by your browser to allow access to your computer’s microphone and camera, you must allow this access in order to use the Media Recorder).

There are three main options to be aware of within the Media Recorder:

An image showing the Record/upload media menu highlighting the three key buttons, the Mic, the Start recording and Webcam button

The Record/upload media menu with the Mic, Start recording and Webcam buttons.

Clicking the Mic option will allow you to choose which of your computers microphones you’d like to use.
The red button labelled ‘Start recording’ will begin a 3 second countdown when pressed, after which the Media Recorder will start to record, pressing the same button whilst recording will finish the recording.
The Webcam option will allow you to choose which of your computers microphones you’d like to use. It’s also possible to choose to have no webcam enabled in which case the Media Recorder will only record audio from your microphone, this is useful if you want to make a purely audio recording.

Once you recording is finished you’ll be presented with the below screen:

Record/Upload media menu after media has been recorded.

You’ll find a preview of your recording here, click the play icon to watch through the preview recording.
You can give your recording a name in order to identify it later.
Clicking the save button will save and insert the recording into the Rich Content Editor.
Clicking the Start over button will delete your recording and let you start a new media recording.

Please note you can also upload captions onto media recordings, please see the Canvas help page for more information https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-13043-4152719744

To see a full list of all changes made in the update please see the Canvas Release notes here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-15947-canvas-release-notes-2018-12-08

Tagged with: Canvas, Card View, Dashboard, Media Recorder, Video, Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
Posted in Canvas

Digital tools for reflective practice – an update

Posted on 4th December 2018 by Anne Hole

Back in 2015 I wrote a post for this blog on digital tools for reflective practice, and it has proved to be one of our most-viewed posts, but things move fast in the world of digital tools, so it seemed that an update could be useful.

What is reflective practice and why use digital tools?

Anyone involved in teaching will have encountered the concept of reflective practice. It is also key to many other professions and integral to much Continuing Professional Development (CPD) so it is a professional skill that will benefit students as well as tutors.

For those teaching in Higher Education, the Higher Education Authority (now part of AdvanceHE) has published a guide entitled ‘Reflective practice: some notes on the development of the notion of professional reflection’. The guide explores ‘how reflection – in which searching questions are asked about experience – might be conceptualised, why it can be viewed as rather more than “thinking about teaching” and why a consideration of reflective practice itself might be helpful to both the beginning and the experienced teacher’.

Unfortunately, reflection can easily be overlooked when time is short, which is why any digital tools that can make it easier can bring benefits for learning and professional development. Using digital tools for reflection can also enhance more general digital capabilities, which are increasingly valued in the workplace.

Digital documents, notebooks and journals

Traditionally, people would have used paper notebooks or journals to record their reflections and plans, so let’s start by looking at the digital equivalents of a paper journal.

Documents

Starting with the most basic way of reflecting digitally, Microsoft Word or Google Docs could be used to create one or more files where you can write your reflections, add images and links. University of Sussex staff and students are each entitled to install Microsoft Office on up to 10 devices and store up to 1TB of files in OneDrive with Office 365 so using Word on laptops, smartphones and/or tablets is an option.

Digital notebooks

Digital note-making platforms such as Evernote, OneNote and Google Keep go beyond journalling and offer possibilities for handling notes in all areas of your life. Meeting/lecture notes, shopping lists, recipes, reminders and scanned receipts – all the things you once did in a paper notebook and more. With these tools you can add audio, images and clip websites and as they sync across all your devices you can always have your virtual notebook with you.

Microsoft OneNote combines well with Microsoft 365 (see above), storing your notebooks in your OneDrive account. If you want something separate from your Sussex accounts then Evernote which has a range of free and paid options would be a good choice. Google Keep is another option, though it has slightly fewer features than the others it is very easy to make quick text or audio notes.

If you are not sure whether OneNote, Evernote or Google Keep would suit you best, this brief comparison chart might help.

If you are already using one of these tools for your digital note-making, why not add a notebook or tag for your reflections on learning/teaching?

Online diaries

There are a few online diary options such as Penzu, Journalate or Diaro (which uses Dropbox to store and sync your diary). These let you sort your entries by folder, tag them with keywords, search entries and sync across mobile devices and the web. Most of them let you add photos and some allow attaching files. On the whole, though, these have fewer options than digital notebooks (above).

Audio and video journalling

As most of us use smartphones with built-in audio and video recording functionality it is often as quick to make a short recording as it is to type up notes. Audio and video are not as easy to search as text, but if you attach your audio or video files to a digital notebook (see above) you can add tags to help you find things later.

Reflective blogging and podcasting

Some people prefer to do their reflecting in public and blogs are great for that – but you can also create private posts in most blogging platforms so you can choose what you share with the world. WordPress and Blogger are the most well known platforms and you can add images, audio and/or video to your blog. This comparison of blogging platforms might help you choose which is best for you.

If you prefer your public reflections to be entirely video or audio then YouTube will allow you to record or broadcast live from your desktop or mobile device and anchor.fm is the quick and easy podcasting tool that we use for our TEL podcast.

University of Sussex staff can get help in using any of these digital tools for reflecting on their own practice, or to encourage reflection in students, by contacting tel@sussex.ac.uk.

Tagged with: Apps, Digital capability, digital skills, Reflection
Posted in digital skills

Canvas Know-How: Using the Accessibility Checker

Posted on 20th November 2018 by George Robinson

When developing your teaching materials in Canvas, it is important to consider online standards of accessibility to ensure that your content is inclusive of as many individual students as possible. This is important to ensure that equal access and opportunity is provided to all students including consideration for those who may diverse levels of ability for processing information. To support you in this, Canvas has a built in Accessibility checker feature in the Rich Content Editor that will help you to do this.

The accessibility checker will check for 11 different accessibility errors in total:

Table captions: Tables should include a caption describing the contents of the table.
Table header scope: Table headers should specify scope and the appropriate structure.
Table header: Tables should include at least one header.
Sequential headings: Heading levels should not be skipped (e.g. H2 to H4). However, the tool does not check if the first header starts with H2 or whether the headings are sequential with the rest of the content in the page. Tables do not begin with H1, which is designated for the page title.
Heading paragraphs: Headings should not contain more than 120 characters.
Image alt text: Images should include an alt attribute describing the image content.
Image alt filename: Image filenames should not be used as the alt attribute describing the image content. Currently, files uploaded directly to Canvas create a redirect that does not properly verify image filenames.
Image alt length: Alt attribute text should not contain more than 120 characters.
Adjacent links: Adjacent links with the same URL should be a single link. This rule verifies link errors where the link text may include spaces and break the link into multiple links.
Large text contrast: Text larger than 18pt (or bold 14pt) should display a minimum contrast ratio of 3:1.
Small text contrast: Text smaller than 18pt (or bold 14pt) should display a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1.

The Accessibility checker is a feature within the Rich Content Editor, which is used for editing all pages and descriptive text within your Canvas modules. It can be used for checking accessibility of specific pieces of content that you editing.

Select the button from the Rich Content Editor toolbar to begin a check.

The accessibility checker button is positioned as the last button on the Rich Content Editor toolbar.

After selecting the icon the Accessibility checker menu will appear on the right hand sign of the screen. If any accessibility errors are detected then they will be highlighted in a blue overlay.

Text highlights indicating errors appear within the Rich Content Editor content preview after a check has run.

Where issues are detected, the Accessibility checker menu will explain the nature of the issue encountered and offer guidance on how to correct each issue.

The accessibility checker has displayed a box allowing the text colour within the blue overlay to be altered.

In the example above the text header colour has a contrast ratio that is too low against the page background colour. This means that students, especially those with visual impairments may find it hard to read the text due to the difference in colour between the text and the background. As a result, the Accessibility checker has detected this and offered the option of changing the text to a more accessible colour.

An image of the Accessibility checker showing the option to alter the text colour.

Once it has detected that an appropriate colour has been chosen it will allow you to click apply and resolve the issue.

The Accessibility checker changes can be applied by clicking the Apply button that appears in the bottom right hand corner.

If there are any other issues detected the checker will then move onto them, once all detected issues have been corrected the below screen will be displayed. This screen will also display if the Accessibility checker is used and no issues are detected.

Illustrative image - The Accessibility checker menu displays three balloons floating and showing text saying that no accessibility issues were detected.

The Accessibility checker menu displays three balloons floating and showing text saying that no accessibility issues were detected.

Please note that whilst the Accessibility checker does check for a range of accessibility issues it is not fully comprehensive and only acts as an supplemental aid in making your site more accessible.

Please see the Accessibility within Canvas and General Accessibility Design Guidelines pages for more information on Accessibility within Canvas.

For more general information on web content accessibility guidelines please see the WCAG overview page.

Tagged with: Accessibility, Canvas
Posted in Accessibility, Canvas

TEL:US Podcast S02 E02: Online Distance Learning; building communities.