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EdTech Lessons from your colleagues: Sharing your Online Teaching Experiences

Got something you'd like to share? We'd love to showcase what you've learned and share it with the FASE community. Registration forms for each session are included in the session details; if you can't attend but would like to see the recording, you can indicate that on the registration form.

(If you are not able to register due to not having an O365 account, please email fase.edtech@utoronto.ca for registration.)

Jump to Session Details:

  1. The Quirkiness of Quercus: Debriefing on building the U of T Engineering Academy (Clare Heymans | August 26, 2020 | Read Blog SummaryWatch the recording)
  2. Preparing On-Line Lectures for a Flipped Classroom (Prof. Chandra | August 20, 2020 | Watch the recording)
  3. Study Buddies in a not so dangerous virtual space/time: Creating course-based peer mentors to build community, engagement, and support (Prof. Elham Marzi | August 19, 2020 | Watch the recording)
  4. Reimagining courses for online delivery: Thoughts on an undergraduate building science course (July 30, 2020 - Read Blog Summary | Watch Session Recording)
  5. Lab Options: Off the Shelf to Do-it-Yourself (July 29, 2020 - Read Blog Summary | Watch Session Recording)
  6. Quercus and SCORMs - Lessons Learning from a Half-decade of Creating Engaging eLearning Experiences at UToronto (June 22, 2020 - Read Blog SummaryWatch the recording)
  7. OneNote, two note, red note, blue note: Using OneNote for remote lectures (June 23, 2020 - Read Blog Summary | Watch the recording)
  8. "Engage!" - How to keep students hooked online (June 25, 2020 - Read Blog SummaryWatch the recording)

You might also be interested in events from CTSI and across the three campuses.

Past Sessions:

The Quirkiness of Quercus: Debriefing on building the U of T Engineering Academy

Clare Heymans | August 26, 2020 | 2 pm |  Read Blog Summary | Watch the recording

Claire will talks about the experience of rapidly developing a Quercus course hub for FASE's first year incoming class, focusing on enhancing skills in math, physics, and chemistry. She also shares specific tools and strategies that were used during UTEA.

Examples:
  • "Parking Lot" to keep sessions on track and to give students an opportunity to ask questions anonymously.
  • Games/Ice-Breakers that can be played with small or large groups on Bb Collaborate (and many other platforms)
  • New ideas (from the UTEA Academic Mentors, as in your students) for "bringing the fun" to online learning.

 

Preparing On-Line Lectures for a Flipped Classroom

Prof. Sanjeev Chandra | August 20, 2020 | 1 pm | Watch the recording

Preparing on-line lectures gives us an opportunity to reconsider how we teach courses. On-line video lectures can be a very effective method of conveying information to students, in an asynchronous format that they can replay as many times as they need to understand the material presented. Synchronous lecture times can then be used for a flipped classroom devoted to discussion, solving problems and other activities that reinforce concepts presented in on-line videos. This is a change that should persist beyond our return to in-class teaching and lead to better use of classroom time. We will discuss how to prepare on-line video lectures using PowerPoint for a second-year Thermodynamics course. These use animations and embedded videos to bring concepts to life and are combined with a recorded voice-over.

Study Buddies in a not so dangerous virtual space/time: Creating course-based peer mentors to build community, engagement, and support

Prof. Elham Marzi | August 19, 2020 | Watch the recording

This session will discuss the effectiveness of an in course-based Study-Buddy system to resolve three common challenges presented by online classes; 1. deterioration of community; 2. illicit sharing of coursework and assignments, and 3. accountability and participation in active and experiential learning exercises.

The first challenge is a rather hard one to overcome, how to build community in a space where there are such high levels of dispersion? Creating one small connection with another classmate can help tether students and ensure that they feel visible, included, and supported. 

The second challenge is a tale as old as educational institutions themselves, student sharing their work. Why fight it when we can encourage and utilize it for good! Allowing students to exchange their work with their buddy for feedback motivates students to learn, apply, and evaluate, and critique each others work. This in turn accesses higher levels of learning and thinking (regardless of whether you used Bloom’s taxonomy or Finks).

The third challenge presents a new set of complexities in the virtual space. Many of the traditional active and experiential learning methods used in classes may not be compatible online. Random assignment of students to breakout groups potentially costs time, due to new introductions and role ambiguity, and apprehension on part of the students to speak-up and engage.  Having set study buddies for active learning and pre-assigned teams for group work can take out the randomness and the mystery in active-learning exercises and increase the effectiveness of the experience given the developed partnership over the duration of the course.

Reimagining courses for online delivery: Thoughts on an undergraduate building science course

Prof. Marianne Touchie | July 30, 2020 | 1 pm | Read Blog SummaryWatch Session Recording

This session will begin by describing the process used for the creation of over 100 videos, which were initially envisioned to support a flipped classroom in an undergraduate building science course.  Our current COVID-driven transition to online delivery presents a unique opportunity to use these video resources in a completely reimagined course framework with new modes of engagement and assessment.  There will be opportunities to discuss your own ideas for course reimagination, so come prepared to share!

Lab Options: Off the Shelf to Do-it-Yourself

Panel discussion | July 29, 2020 | 1 pm | Read Blog Summary | Watch Session Recording

In this roundtable webinar we will discuss tips, strategies and solutions for adopting, adapting and creating labs and lab replacements in STEM disciplines. We will share examples of off the shelf solutions as well as open educational resources and provide a focus on do it yourself (DIY) activities and projects. Our panelists will discuss course design decisions as well as the technologies used to integrate these labs and replacements into Quercus.

“Engage!” – How to keep students hooked online

Prof. Fabian Parsch | June 25, 2020 | 3 pm - 4 pm | Read Blog Summary | Watch the recording

When we started teaching online in March, one of the biggest challenges we faced was to keep our students involved in the class. No matter if we taught synchronously or asynchronously, how could we make sure students stay on track and have a meaningful relationship with the course and their teachers?

In this presentation by someone who never taught online before March 2020, I want to showcase some successful methods that required little time but - based on student feedback - had a huge positive impact on engagement. Some of them might involve more music than you expect.

More generally, as someone who coordinates three courses for engineering students with 900, with 200 and with 40 students, I want to give a little sneak peek into what I am planning for the fall, what I am confident about and what I am not-so-confident about. Questions, suggestions and comments are welcome!

Quercus and SCORMs – Lessons Learned from a Half-decade of Creating Engaging eLearning Experiences at UToronto

Dr. J. S. Castrucci and Prof. G. W. Norval | June 22, 2020 | 11 am - 12 pm |  Read Blog Summary | Watch the recording

How can I use Quercus to create a dynamic electronic learning environment for my students? Where do I start? What resources are available that are quick, easy, and I can start using right away? What are the strengths and limitations of these tools? What is a SCORM package and how does this eLearning format interact with Quercus?

Join us on June 22 for a one-hour interactive workshop featuring display and discussion with two University of Toronto instructors that have been developing and deploying electronic learning in their courses for more than half a decade. See what can be done and how you can use this opportunity to innovate and improve the learning experience for your students.

OneNote, two note, red note, blue note: Using OneNote for remote lectures

Prof. Scott Ramsay | June 23, 2020 | 10 - 11 am | Read Blog Summary | Watch the recording

In this session, Scott will discuss the ways that he has been using Microsoft OneNote for lecture delivery in the remote learning environment.

 

University and CTSI Events