Thank you for your hard work transferring your Desire2Learn courses to Canvas! Starting with the Summer 2019, 100% of our for-credit courses are on Canvas!
While the end of this giant undertaking is in sight, there are still some important things to keep in mind as we close out the Desire2Learn service:
Desire2Learn Courses will be set to Read-Only on January 17th, 2020. Are you still using Desire2Learn for a department or ongoing course? If so – now is the time to get your course migrated over to Canvas! Request your Canvas ongoing course using this form.
Desire2Learn Student Activity exports now available! We have an export report available that allows us to export student activity for: Checklists, Content, Course Files, Discussions, Dropbox, Grades, Group contribution/locker, Homepages, News, Quizzes and Release Conditions. Fill out this form to request a student activity export. Please allow 7 business days for processing. Requests must be received by March 1st, 2020.
UW-System will be removing access to Desire2Learn in June of 2020. All information you would like to keep must be exported out of D2L before June of 2020. Whether it’s an old for-credit based course, or an ongoing course – make sure all material is backed up. Once our access is removed, we will not have any way to obtain this data. Don’t delay, save your course files today!
Tell us about your Canvas support experience. Overall, we have had great success with Canvas 24/7/365 Phone/Chat/Email support. Whether you got an awesome answer from Canvas Support, or if you were wishing they would have provided more information – let us know! We review all support interactions on a regular basis – and we want to make sure you get the support and answers you need! Submit your feedback by going to http://uww.edu/icit/services/canvas and clicking on the Vendor Support Feedback button.
Searching for ways to build community with students in your online class? Looking for a way to facilitate communication and collaboration between your students in your face-to-face class? You may benefit from the Learning Technology Center’s (LTC) “Teaching with Webex Teams Bootcamp!”
Any instructor interested in using Webex Teams is welcome. The LTC’s Fall 2019 “Teaching with Webex Teams Bootcamp” takes place on a series of Thursday afternoons in October (10/10, 10/17, 10/24) from 3:30 pm to 4:15 pm at the UW-Whitewater campus in McGraw Hall. You do not need to attend all sessions, but the second and third sessions build upon the information provided in the first session. Registrations are encouraged.
Webex Teams
Thursday, October 10, 2019: Why Should I Use Webex Teams?
This first session introduces participants to Cisco Webex Teams and why instructors and students might benefit from incorporating it. Participants will be introduced to the concepts of “Teams” and “Spaces.” Facilitators will provide examples to help participants understand what Webex Teams is (and is not), how Webex Teams works, and the purpose in using Webex Teams.
Thursday, October 17, 2019: How Do I Use Webex Teams?
This second session provides participants with a hands-on technical training with Cisco Webex Teams. Participants will practice creating “Teams” and “Spaces,” as well using Webex Teams to communicate and collaborate with others. We will also touch on the use of the Webex integration in Canvas. Please bring a laptop or mobile device in order to get the most of the hands-on training experience.
Thursday, October 24, 2019: Now What Do I Do With Webex Teams?
This third, and final, session provides participants with a forum to discuss potential applications of Webex Teams in their teaching. Facilitators will provide participants with “best practices” for using Webex Teams based on instructor use at UW-Whitewater.
If you have any questions about the “Teaching with Webex Teams Bootcamp,” or any other LTC training or workshop, feel free to contact the UW-Whitewater Learning Technology Center.
Please note: The LTC does not provide a stipend for attending the “Teaching with Webex Teams Bootcamp.” However, if you complete all three sessions, you will receive a digital badge.
The UW-Whitewater Learning Technology Center (LTC) is currently looking for instructors to explore the use of adaptive learning during the Spring 2020 semester.
About Adaptive Learning
Adaptive learning platforms offer a personalized learning experience for students, where the content “adapts” based on how students perform. The LTC’s current adaptive learning project focuses on the use of the platform Cerego.
Cerego adaptive learning platform
Project Purpose
Participants in the LTC’s adaptive learning project will utilize the adaptive learning platform Cerego, which is designed to comprise roughly between 7 and 10% of the learning activities/assessments in a course. The purpose of this Spring 2020 semester project is to explore the new upgrade of the Cerego adaptive learning platform.
Project Requirements
Pilot instructors have flexibility in determining the course in which to implement the Cerego adaptive learning platform. By taking part in the project, instructors agree to fully participate in, and complete, all project requirements. These requirements include attendance at instructional development sessions with LTC staff.
The following semester-by-semester breakdown conveys the expectations for participating instructors:
Fall 2019 -Attend brief (~1 hour) introductory instructional development session with LTC staff (date TBD).
Winterim 2019-2020 -Attend one-day instructional development session with LTC staff (date TBD). -Create content in Cerego adaptive learning platform to comprise roughly 10% of the course (i.e., not used as extra credit).
Spring 2020 -Conduct at least one course using Cerego adaptive learning platform. -Complete “check-ins” with LTC staff. -Support the LTC in administering an end-of-semester (IRB approved) survey about the course to students. -Present on experiences using the adaptive learning platform at a LTC workshop or event.
Project Compensation
Instructors participating in the adaptive learning project will receive a stipend to compensate the work they put into their course redesign. If all required components are completed, participating instructors can expect to receive a stipend of $1000.
Interested?
The Qualtrics application form is available here. The deadline for applications is October 31st, 2019. After that date, LTC staff will be in contact with applicants.
You are invited to join the Learning Technology Center for a conversation about adaptive learning on campus. The meeting takes place next Friday, September 27th, from 9:30 to 10:15 am in McGraw 19A. All UW-Whitewater faculty, staff, and students are welcome to join this discussion. No registration is necessary to join the meeting, so please feel free to join us!
The UW-Whitewater Learning Technology Center Mission Statement
The UW-Whitewater Learning Technology Center (LTC) serves all staff in acquiring technology skills needed to be successful in a 21st century learning and working environment. Our enthusiastic team of experienced staff and dedicated student assistants assist: Instructional Staff to effectively use technology to support teaching and learning; and All Staff to effectively use technology to enhance communication, collaboration, and productivity related to their work.
Canvas
Canvas is the Learning Management System (LMS) for the UW-System. Canvas is capable of organizing course materials, accepting student submissions, housing online discussions, autograding quizzes, and more. Canvas offers an enhanced teaching and learning experience for you and your students, which includes a streamlined grading experience and easy to use rubrics! As of summer 2019, Desire2learn is no longer available for courses but will remain available until June 2020 to transfer materials.
Grade Posting Policy. Located in the gradebook settings, the Grade Posting Policy can be set to automatic or manual. When set to Manual, grades are automatically hidden (muted) by default which can later be released to students from within the SpeedGrader tool.
Total Grade Calculations with Missing Assignments. Any ungraded items can result in different final grades being presented to Teachers, Students, and/or the WINS, depending on the settings used by each individual. The only way to ensure grades are consistently displayed is to follow these best practices.
Course Combinations. Do you want to combine multiple sections of the same course into a single Canvas course? Follow the steps in the Cross-Listing/Merging Canvas Courses guide. If you need to combine courses that you are not the teacher for or if you have any questions please contact Canvas support.
Internet Explorer 11 Support. Canvas recently dropped support for the Internet Explorer Browser. If you have been using Internet Explorer, please switch to a supported Canvas Browser.
Canvas has a robust technical support service that includes 24 / 7 / 365 toll-free hotline and live online chat interactions. Please use this for all Canvas Questions.
Whether you got an awesome answer from Canvas Support, or if you were wishing they would have provided more information – let us know! We review all support interactions on a regular basis – and we want to make sure you get the support and answers you need!
The official UW-Whitewater App is now available to download. Instructors may find the App useful for communication with students, to see upcoming campus events, and to help students connect with resources. Be sure to authorize the UW-Whitewater App to interact with your course in Canvas. This will allow your students to get assignment due notifications inside of the app. For directions, visit our information page on using the UW-Whitewater App in Canvas.
During the Fall 2019 semester, the LTC will be offering opportunities to work on and learn about Canvas features. Open labs will be available to answer your Canvas questions whether you are working on your current course, or planning for the future. Deep Dives will focus on specific tools can help you in your current courses.
During the 2019-2020 academic year, the LTC is continuing to explore adaptive learning. A small group of instructors is currently exploring using adaptive learning in a variety of courses, with the goal of sharing their experiences using adaptive learning next spring or summer. Additionally, the LTC would like to invite all members of the UW-Whitewater campus community (students, staff, faculty) to two open discussions on adaptive learning this fall.
Friday September 27th from 9:30 am to 10:15 am in McGraw 19A
Friday October 25th from 9:30 am to 10:15 am in McGraw 19A
For more information on the LTC’s adaptive learning exploration, please feel free to contact us at icit-techpilots@uww.edu
Humanizing Your Courses
The 2019-2020 LTC Learn Center workshop series explores creating human-centered learning experiences. Humanized learning leverages the potential of digital technologies to connect with students, foster relationships, and build community. This process blends course design and facilitation, while engaging the cognitive and affective domains of learning.
FALL 2019
What is Humanizing? September 24th 12:00pm – 1:15pm
Facilitation: Presence, Empathy and Awareness October 21st 12:30pm – 1:45pm
Choice, Control, Constructing Meaning, Challenges, Collaboration, and Consequences: Human-centered Course Design November 12th 12:00pm – 1:15pm
Celebrating Teaching and Learning Conference – May 2020 – Save the Date!
Thank you to everyone who attended the Celebrating Teaching and Learning Conference this past may. We will be holding the next Celebrating Teaching and Learning Conference on Wednesday, May 20th, 2020!
Did you know that you can get a weekly email update about what’s going on in the LTC? Every Monday morning, you’ll get an email that contains a summary of the latest items from our blog. To signup for these updates, just fill out the form below!
Turning Point 8
Turning Point is a student response system that allows instructors to integrate polling slides into their PowerPoint presentations or to pose standalone questions. Students can respond using an app / website on a mobile device or a physical clicker. Self paced polling and Canvas gradebook integration is also available.
The cost for students has been greatly reduced for the Fall 2019 semester! The student license has been reduced from $24.99 to $14.99 for a 1 year term.
Additionally, a no-cost pilot is available for new instructors who want to try out TurningPoint in their courses.
Contact the Learning Technology Center for more details!
Poll Everywhere
Poll Everywhere offers flexible options for interaction in the classroom. Instructors choose from a large variety of poll activities, including multiple choice, open response, live word clouds, clickable images, up- and down-voting for Q & A, and rank order. Students respond on the web or via SMS texting at no cost to them.
If you think you might be interested in using Poll Everywhere but aren’t sure where to get started, consider attending one of the LTC’s information sessions this spring.
Let the learning begin! All UW-Whitewater staff, faculty and students now have access to LinkedIn Learning, which teaches the latest software, creative, and business skills through high-quality online instructional videos featuring recognized industry experts. Lynda.com was bought by LinkedIn in 2015 and this is the roll out of the same great content under the LinkedIn Learning branding.
Explore a wide range of subjects from Microsoft Office (2013 and 2016), Adobe (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Etc) photography, 3D animation, music, and video to graphic design, project management, and web development. New courses are added every week.
Access the LinkedIn Learning library 24/7 from desktops, laptops, smartphones, or tablets. Use the lynda.com app for iPhone, iPad, or Android or log in via the LinkedIn Learning mobile site. Watch entire courses or single tutorial videos as needed, share course playlists, bookmark courses you’d like to watch, or use exercise files to follow along with the instruction as you learn, and much more.
Here are just a few of the collaboration tools we have available! Looking for something else, just ask us!
Webex Teams is a collaboration tool designed for continuous teamwork with video meetings, group messaging, file sharing and white boarding. Get started at: https://www.uww.edu/icit/services/webex-teams
The Cisco Webex Education Connector is now available for use in Canvas! The Webex Connector allows you to interact with Webex Meetings and Webex Teams directly from your Canvas course. It can be accessed by clicking on “Cisco Webex” in the course navigation menu. Get started at: https://spaces.uww.edu/x/74I3AQ
Google Apps are web-based tools available to all UW-Whitewater users. They allow you to create, share and access documents from any internet-connected computer, tablet, or mobile device. Get started at: https://www.uww.edu/icit/services/google
Technology Training
Hands-on training offered focuses on productivity, communication, and collaboration tools. See the schedule at signup.uww.edu
Custom Consulting and Training Services are aimed at helping departments find software solutions to meet their needs. Small-group training sessions can be customized to cover topics relevant to your team and available schedule.
Contact the Learning Technology Center for additional information!
Media Recording Scheduling
The Learning Technology Center (LTC) offers video recording and media production services for instructional use. We now have a new web based scheduling form!
Are you still with us? If so – great, you made it to the end! Be sure
to stop by the LTC throughout the semester to visit. As a reminder, we
are located in McGraw Hall, Suite 120 and are available between 8:00 AM
and 4:30 PM weekdays. We can also be reached at ltc@uww.edu
or 262.472.1004. We’ll always be willing to help, and have plenty of
treats on hand for your sweet tooth. Have a great semester!
Over the last six months, several Learning Technology Center staff members have given presentations and workshops at national and regional conferences.
In April, several LTC staff members presented or co-presented several presentations at the UW System Learning Technology Development Council Virtual Showcase. The presentations were “Experiences incorporating a student perspective into an adaptive learning pilot project,” “Piloting adaptive learning with an upper-level professional course,” and “Open Educational Resources (OERs) to help transform students to learners.”
In August, Director of Learning Technology Nicole Weber co-presented “Building a comprehensive online and blended faculty development program” at the 2019 Distance Teaching and Learning (DTL) Conference.Learning Technology Specialist Andrew Cole also presented at the DTL Conference, facilitating a workshop called “Facilitate genuine communication in your online course.” Proceedings papers from the DTL Conference can be found at this link.
For more on the Learning Technology Center, please see the LTC website.
Are you looking for ways to increase student engagement in your online course? Are you not sure how to best monitor student progress when you don’t see your students in class? Would you like to be able to have resources that more specifically meet the needs of your students, while allowing them to skip things they have already learned? If so, you might be interested in joining the conversation about personalized and adaptive learning on campus! Adaptive learning platforms incorporate analytics with the aim of helping instructors monitor student progress, and use various methods to cultivate individualized pathways to better meet students’ specific needs.
Adaptive learning pathways can function similarly to nodes in a network.
Over the past year, the Learning Technology Center (LTC) has collaborated with instructors around campus to explore adaptive learning. The LTC would like to invite any UW-Whitewater faculty, staff, or student interested in adaptive and personalized learning to our two meetings discussing the state of adaptive learning on campus this fall:
Friday September 27th from 9:30 to 10:15 am in McGraw 19A Friday October 25th from 9:30 to 10:15 am in McGraw 19A
No registration is necessary! Just stop in and join the discussion!
KNOWN ISSUE: Some instructors report that Canvas Gradebook columns have been “hidden” from students even through the instructors did not choose that setting. Canvas is working on a fix for the issue. There is a workaround and more information available at: https://kb.wisconsin.edu/dle/news.php?id=10487
On Saturday, July 13, Instructure deployed the latest release to the Canvas environment. The highlights of this release are listed below. The full release notes are also available.
New Features
Grade Posting Policy. Located in the gradebook settings, the Grade Posting Policy can be set to automatic or manual. When set to Manual, grades are automatically hidden (muted) by default.
Are you looking for ways to increase student engagement? You might be interested in using Poll Everywhere. Poll Everywhere allows you to receive immediate feedback from your students, who can respond in real-time to polls that you create. Students can respond to Poll Everywhere polls via their computers or mobile devices, thus offering the potential to transform lectures to an active and engaging experience. This service is offered at no charge to instructors and students; all you need is a UW-Whitewater NetID to get started.
This summer, the Learning Technology Center is offering two sessions to help you use Poll Everywhere in your course. Both sessions have the same content, aiming to introduce you to Poll Everywhere and help you set it up in your classes. Lauren from Poll Everywhere will facilitate the training to get you up and running quickly and easily.
You can join in-person on-campus or remotely via Webex Meetings. The dates/times for the sessions are below, just click on the session to sign up. Webex Meeting information is provided in the individual session description (there is a different Webex Meeting link for each session).
On May 22nd, 2019, the LEARN Center and Learning Technology Center held the 2nd Celebrating Teaching and Learning Conference. We had 107 attendees – with almost 50 presenters and 30 volunteers we really owe it to you for making this a successful event!
There were a number of great talks on a wide variety of topics, and a great keynote presentation “Even Online Students” from Dr. Evie Oregon of Western Kentucky University. If you want to see some of the handouts from the sessions,or view the recording of the keynote presentation – jump on over to the conference site: http://blogs.uww.edu/ctl/schedule
Most importantly, we heard your feedback loud and clear –and planning is underway for the 2020 Celebrating Teaching and Learning Conference, which will be held on Wednesday, May 20th, 2020! That’s a lot of 20s! Be sure to subscribe to our blog, and keep your eye out for more information.
Don’t be a stranger in the meantime, look for a great lineup of workshops and events for the next academic year!
