It is hard to believe we are approaching Week 8 for undergrad programs and Week 9 for graduate programs! While we know you are still in the throes of the current term, we'd like to share a recent OTL innovation that can help streamline the organization in your Canvas courses and lighten your load when you're ready to begin looking forward. We are excited to announce our new Canvas template! This template will help you get a head-start on your course design as you prepare for spring, and don't forget to visit our Roadmap to the Term if you are already starting to plan.
If next term is not yet on your mind, and for our friends on the semester system, rest assured we are ready to meet you where you are. Read on to learn more about just-in-time Canvas Coaching programming, an upcoming session on rubrics, FLCs to feed your heart and mind, and a reminder that the NCFDD 14-day writing challenge is right around the corner.
New Canvas Template from the OTL
Created by Lexi Schlosser, Jeff Schwartz, and Dr. Vince Tango, it provides pre-built Canvas modules that are organized, visually appealing, and editable. Each item also provides tips and best practices. Learn more about this template, and how to import it into your courses, in our new blog Eye-Catching, Easy-to-Navigate Canvas Templates. Then join us for our upcoming Canvas coaching session to see the template!
Canvas Template Launch
We also have a workshop series throughout the month of March focused on the tools used to create the template, Cidi Labs Design Tools. This suite of Canvas tools greatly expands aesthetic design and course navigation customization options to enhance student experience. Each workshop will include instruction from OTL Instructional Designers, followed by practice time that participants can use to start preparing their courses. Join us for one, some, or all workshops in this series.
Canvas Design Tools Workshop Series:
Navigating, Editing, Creating
Introduction to the Multi-Tool Canvas Module Builder
Additional Features for Editing
Best Practices for Canvas Design
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Canvas Coaching Sessions
Managing the Gradebook
To help prepare you for wrapping up Winter Quarter grading, join Christine Hood, Instructional Designer, in a Canvas Coaching session on Managing your Gradebook.
In this session, you will learn how to:
- Access and view the gradebook in Canvas
- Organize your gradebook by setting up assignment grade weights
- Mute assignments while grading
- Refresh your memory with SpeedGrader
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How to submit grades to the registrar
Transitioning from Quarter to Quarter
Now that Winter Quarter is wrapping up, you may already be thinking about setting up your Canvas course shell for Spring Quarter. At this Canvas Coaching session with Lexi Schlosser, Faculty Developer of Online Learning, you will learn how to move content from one Canvas course to another. We will also share tips and tricks for transitioning your course from Quarter to Quarter.
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Assessment Coaching Session: Rubrics
How do I Grade on Canvas Using Rubrics?
For our second Assessment Coaching session, please join Christine Hood, Instructional Designer, and Dr. Christina Paguyo, Director of Academic Assessment, to learn how you can grade using rubrics. Rubrics can make grading more manageable, more objective, and reduce uncertainty for instructors. Rubrics can also guide students in better understanding the instructor’s expectations, the learning outcomes of an assignment, and even evaluate their work!
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Faculty Learning Communities
Teaching and Professional Faculty Tools for Success
Teaching and Professional Faculty Tools for Success is a year-long FLC designed for teaching and professional faculty in the assistant rank at the University of Denver. Led by Dr. Laura Sponsler, Clinical Assistant Professor of Higher Education and the Faculty Scholar for Teaching and Professional Faculty, the FLC will explore areas essential to the success of teaching faculty including community building, effective instruction, wellness, DU culture, promotion, national trends, inclusive excellence, and university resources. The winter sessions are organized around the book Inclusive Collegiality and Nontenure-Track Faculty: Engaging All Faculty as Colleagues to Promote Healthy Departments and Institutions (available online through DU Libraries) and learning important to advancement, promotion, and university culture.
In the spring, we will focus on the scholar/teacher model of excellence. We will form a Scholarship on Teaching and Learning (SOTL) group with the intent of writing about and publishing on our experiences as teaching and professional faculty in higher education.
Heart of Higher Education
The Heart of Higher Education (HOHE) is an opportunity to gather as a DU community to share the challenges and opportunities of transcending the institutional, professional and personal choices that tend to separate core identity/integrity from day to day actions. The meetings are open to all faculty (of any rank) and staff (of any title). The Conversations are facilitated by Dr. Paul Michalec, OTL Faculty Teaching Fellow, and Clinical Professor in the Morgridge College of Education. The Heart of Higher Education Conversations create a positive and constructive space where staff and faculty can explore ways of re-connecting calling with professional responsibilities. In Winter 2021, we will explore the theme of connection through the lenses of self (calling), others (colleagues and students), and bigness of life (institution, family, spirit). We will have two sessions each month of this term with the same content. You are welcome to attend one or both sessions, and keep your eye out for future sessions!
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NCFDD Online 14-Day Writing Challenge Starts March 22!
- You commit to write every day for at least 30 minutes.
- At the beginning of your writing time, you login to our online community, start the timer, complete your writing, and post your progress at the end.
- You take 5 minutes to support other writers in your group by commenting on their progress.
If you're up for the challenge, you can sign up by March 17 at the NCFDD website. Those who complete the challenge are eligible for a chance to win a $20 Amazon gift card! Email a screen shot of completion to Dr. Virginia Pitts at [email protected] to be entered in the drawing.
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Teaching Resources
Build your course in 4 weeks while considering the rhythm of the term with this helpful resources guide.
This tool kit provides practical steps for readying your courses, no matter the modality. From Canvas basics to hyflex considerations, and complete with worksheets to guide you, this toolkit is a great starting point for course planning.
Visit this OTL web page for helpful links to resources such as Canvas guides and Knowledge Base articles organized by task, as well as a video walking you through setting up your Canvas course. These resources can be helpful no matter how you offer your courses this term.
This Knowledge Base article provides helpful tips and tricks you can use as you create pre-recorded videos, lectures, and demonstrations to enhance the asynchronous components of your course. You can also learn more about the various tools you can use to create your videos, such as Zoom and Kaltura.
This web page provides access to the robust virtual services and resources that the Libraries provide along with a host of online services and resources.
Visit our Sample Syllabus Statements webpage for optional statements to help you communicate with students your policies around wearing masks in class, social distancing, attendance and participation, and more. Be sure to reach out to your Dean, Chair, or Director with any questions or for clarification around the use of these statements in your syllabus.
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