Throw Me a Lifeline! Faculty Tips for Working Smarter, Not Harder
Laurie Grosik, Saint Francis University
Acronym: L-I-F-E-S-A-V-E-R-SLearning Experience
- What do students want?
- Engagement
- Interaction
- Sense of Community – Develop a community site outside of the course site?
Introductions
- Worth 10 points at the end of the first week
- Primary post is due by Wednesday, responses are due by Sunday
- Posts are graded very hard during the first week to set a precedent
First Timers
- Overview – Addresses technical difficulties
- Orientation – Program policies, Learning Styles Inventory, Practice using LMS
Expectations
- Instructor contact information – 24-48 hour response guarantee
- Expectations of students – Assignment table for entire course with checkboxes
- ADA accommodations
- Academic Integrity
- Late policy
Start Here
- Navigates each menu item
- Highlight each course component
- Policy review – academic integrity, refund policy, last day of class, etc.
Announcements
- Course resources & updates
Virtual Presence
- Meetings, conversations, presentations
- Live, synchronous presentations
- Blackboard Collaborate
- Free Conference Pro
Evaluation
- Comments through MS Word – individual, detailed feedback; comments are tied to student work
Rubrics
- Students know expectations
- Limits subjectivity
- Formal assignment criteria
- Grading ranges
Structure
- Course rhythm
- Cadence across program
- Limits surprises for students and faculty
ReviewThis session wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. The presenters came up with a great way of outlining how their instructors approach online learning (including learning styles inventory). This session is a great overview of their orientation/getting started sections of the course, but didn’t really address any tips & tricks for “working smarter.” Maybe it’s that I thought the things they discussed were more “common sense,” but I’m not sure. The one thing that I disagreed with was using the comments feature of MS Word. That assumes that all of the students have MS Word – which I don’t think is a fair assumption. Turnitin has the ability to add comments to all documents, regardless of document format. Overall, great content – it just wasn’t what I was expecting.
Quality Captioning – It’s Easier than You Think!
Cynthia Alexander, Cerritos College
Captioning
- Section 504 is about accommodation – based on disabled person’s request and preference.
- Section 508 is about access – no prior request is needed.
- Videos must be captioned before they are shown in the classroom or online class.
- Under 508, captioning is required whether or not deaf students will be in the class.
- Raw footage does not have to be captioned.
- Captions must be done in the same language as the original media.
- Only media for an audience needs to be captioned (Jing videos for individual users does not
- Student generated work does not need to be captioned. Reusing student work for class discussion does
YouTube captioning
- Can’t add captions if you don’t own the videos
- Single-use, accommodate as necessary
- Amara
Make a script
- Save as plain text (UTF-8)
ReveiwI am not surprised that this session quickly became very controversial. The presenter really wanted to talk about some tips for efficiency in captioning, but the participants were too hung up on the federal law of Section 504 & Section 508. I actually felt bad for the presenter because she has no control over the federal laws. Participants were asking specific scenarios (expected), but were upset when the presenter indicated that they were, in fact, breaking the law. Note to self (and others) – Khan Academy videos are (for the most part) not captioned. Sadly, I didn’t really take away much information about captioning or any efficient methods for captioning. The one thing that I did realize is that I need to brush up on the difference between subtitles and captions. Hmm…
Matthew Evins 