About the webinar series
This webinar series began in response to our rather sudden move to online/remote teaching. The goal of the webinars is to share what has worked (and likely also a bit of what has not worked) with your peers from across FASE and the University. As everyone adapts to online teaching, these sessions serve as places to start ideating, share thoughts and concerns, confirm guidelines, select technological tools, and to kickstart your "design for online" process. They are not intended to be stand alone sessions and often are just the start of the conversation - we'd love to keep talking, so please contact us via fase.edtech@utoronto.ca or schedule a 1-1 consultation.
We currently do not have any upcoming sessions schedule, but you can review the accordion items below to watch recordings of our previous sessions. For upcoming sessions, you can see our FASE EdTech event homepage or U of T's Global Calendar for Online/Remote Teaching.
Previous sessions
- MathMatize Your Classroom
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Session Resources
Session Description
Facilitated by Prof. Jonathan Herman | August 12, 2020 | MathMatize is a new online math-learning platform co-developed by Prof. Jonathan Herman. Prof. Herman developed the MathMatize platform in hopes of helping professors easily create quizzes and polls with existing or original questions, and helping students enhance their learning with continuous practice and review. In his webinar on August 12th, Prof. Herman introduced us to the three main features of MathMatize: Live Polling, Online Quizzes, and Gamified Learning Resources.
- The Quirkiness of Quercus: Debriefing on building the U of T Engineering Academy
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Session Resources
Session Description
Session led by Clare Heymans | August 26, 2020 | Claire 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 to foster and encourage community, especially with students participating in an online learning experience for the first time. Examples include:
- "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
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Session Resources
Session Description
Prof. Sanjeev Chandra | August 20, 2020 | 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: Creating course-based peer mentors to build community and support
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Session Description
Prof. Elham Marzi | August 19, 2020 | 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
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Session Details
Prof. Marianne Touchie | July 30 | 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
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Session Description
Round table Discussion | July 29, 2020 | 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
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Session Resources
Related Content
- How to submit handwritten assessments using online tools by Prof. Parsch (Video Link)
- How can I submit handwritten (or paper based) work? (EdTech Support Guide)
- Review tips for creating effective instructional videos (EdTech Guide featuring principle shared by Prof. Parsch)
Session Description
Prof. Fabian Parsch | June 25, 2020 | 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
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Session Description
Dr. Castrucci & Norval | 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?This recording of the one-hour workshop features display of the modules 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
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Session Resources
Related Content
- Visit Prof. Ramsay's YouTube Channel and Website
- MY Manual: A User's Guide to UofT's Jumbotron (EdTech Workshop 2019 Presentation)
- PCV Camera Arm Holder (Crystal Liu, one of Prof. Ramsay's students)
- Capture and Recording Equipment Set up (Examples from your colleagues EdTech Write Up)
Session Description
Prof. Scott Ramsay | June 23, 2020 | In this session for the Webinar Series: Lessons from your colleagues, Scott Ramsay discussed the ways that he has been using Microsoft OneNote for lecture delivery in the remote learning environment and a bit about his teaching set up.
- Adapting Group Projects and Software Development Skills Training to Online Learning
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Session Resources
Session Description
Facilitated by Prof. Jennifer Drake | February 03, 2021 | Facilitated by: Prof. Jennifer Drake | The move to online delivery meant that the curriculum for CIV550 Water Resources Engineering needed to undergo substantial restructuring. Throughout the course, a Group Floodplain Mapping project served as a teaching tool that linked Lecture materials all term. Students were introduced to numerous GIS webtools, R (a statistical package), OTTHYMO (a hydrologic modelling program) and HEC-RAS (a hydraulic modelling project) through asynchronous modules and applied these analysis tools to evaluate flood risks to an Ontario community. This presentation will discuss the advantages and challenges encountered executing such an ambitious group project and teaching software remotely.
- The Quirkiness of Quercus: Debriefing on building the U of T Engineering Academy
-
Session Resources
Session Description
Session led by Clare Heymans | August 26, 2020 | Claire 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 to foster and encourage community, especially with students participating in an online learning experience for the first time. Examples include:
- "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.
