October 9th
Strategies for Engaging Students (with CELT)
Not all students respond in the same ways to the same classroom activities and teaching techniques. This is why employing a variety of student engagement strategies throughout our courses to better reach as many students as possible is essential. In this session, we will explore and experience multiple options for engaging students in a variety of learning contexts. While not every activity may have the same impact on every student, the range of options will allow for every learner to find a way to connect with course content.
Maximize Your Moodle
Join us for a two-hour session focused on getting the most out of your Moodle course space. This session will include three hands-on mini-modules:
- Creating effective assessments and quizzes.
- Using the Moodle gradebook.
- Building engaging interactives with H5P.
In addition, we will touch on effective use of discussion groups, using Scheduler to arrange office hours, and Big Blue Button’s web conferencing functionality. By the end of the session, you will have a better sense of how Moodle can extend your classroom space and enhance student engagement, and you will have at least one concrete learning activity to upload to your own Moodle space and share with your students right away.
October 10th
EdTech Drop-In
Bring your burning questions about all aspects of Educational Technology. Do you need help with your Moodle shell? Does your project need a WordPress website? Do you have questions about ethical digital pedagogy, learning analytics, or engaging your students online? Do you want to talk about a technology you’ve heard about but don’t know if TRU supports? Do you have a problem in search of a digital solution? Do you just want to come and meet our new EdTech Coordinator? Come talk about all things Educational Technology at this open drop-in session.
CELT Session: Reflective Teaching Practice
Click here to download the slides from Carolyn’s session on reflective teaching practice.
October 16th
Drop-In EdTech Help and Moodle Course Shell Creation
Come and visit us to get your Moodle shell created (and course content imported!), or drop in to chat about any questions you have about using Moodle or educational technologies in your teaching or research practice here at TRU.
Cool Tech Tools: More SPLOTs and H5P
SPLOT stands for “Smallest Possible Learning Online Tools”. These are WordPress-based tools for teaching and learning which do not require accounts or logins for users. Available free to any educator in BC higher ed through the Open Ed Tech Coop, SPLOT applications include the SPLOT-Writer (primarily for writing and publishing); the SPLOT-Collector (for collections of images); and SPLOT-Box (for audio and video content). In this session participants will explore existing SPLOTs from TRU and elsewhere; explore features and functionality of SPLOTs; brainstorm how SPLOTs could be used for their specific course or project; and learn about what supports are available at TRU and through the Open ETC for those who wish to use SPLOTs or learn more.
Add engaging, interactive learning activities to your Moodle course or WordPress site using H5P— a user-friendly web authoring tool that requires little technical knowledge or proficiency. Create activities and learning objects that will help your students succeed in your class, and possibly have fun while doing so. Activities commonly created with H5P include: annotated visuals (i.e., hotspots); interactive videos; and branching scenarios. In this interactive session participants will have the opportunity to create these kinds of activities in Moodle or WordPress.
WordPress for Student Portfolios
WordPress is one of the world’s most popular platforms for publishing and sharing content on the web, powering approximately 30% of all websites. Among its many possible uses in education, WordPress has proven especially useful in allowing students to share examples of their academic and professional work creatively and in ways which can add significantly to their learning in courses and programs. TRU hosts a local instance of WordPress through its TRUBox sites which means that students can create engaging presentations of their academic work in ways which are compliant with Canadian and provincial privacy legislation (such as FIPPA). In this interactive workshop we will explore and discuss examples of student portfolios at TRU. You will have the opportunity to register for a TRUBox account; create a portfolio assignment using WordPress; and become familiar with support for WordPress-based assignments by working with TRU faculty and staff.
- See Jamie’s course prompts and portfolio.
- See some cool examples made by TRU students here, here, here, and here.
Welcome to Moodle / Kickstart Your Quizzes
In this session, get a general introduction to the range of capabilities of the current version of Moodle we use at TRU, with particular attention to creating effective quizzes and assessments. If you’ve ever wondered about what else Moodle can do beyond simply housing your course content, and if you’ve ever wondered if there’s a world beyond multiple choice questions in Moodle quizzes, this is the session for you.