January 2021

Michael Christie In Smeal Academy Sessions

Grading and Assessment Strategies

This January 29, 2021 session reviewed Canvas gradebook setup and essentials for remote instruction and also explored some basics tools (such as Top Hat) and approaches to help evaluate student attendance and participation in a remote context.

Session Slides

NOTE: Core Top Hat features are available at no cost to instructors and students, and without the purchase of a standalone clicker device, students can participate in Top Hat activities with their smartphones or via the web for added convenience.

Session Links

Changing Name in Zoom

During the session, it was asked how someone goes about changing their name in Zoom. Faculty and staff should go into Workday to do this, click on personal information and preferred name. Students need to contact the registrar to do this. Here are instructions.

Michael Christie In

Resources for Remote Teaching – Spring 2021 Newsletter 1

Spring 2021 Remote Instruction Resources

The goal of the Smeal Academy is to equip everyone with best practices and strategies for teaching, learning, and technology to ensure the Smeal community is prepared to respond to the unique challenges in teaching during this time. Throughout the semester, we will be sending emails with practical tips and information, providing live sessions, and holding virtual consultations.

This week, we share resources and strategies that will help ensure a successful course launch and first week of class as we begin the semester. Many of these are resources we have shared before in our newsletters yet may be valuable to you now, especially if you are starting your semester remotely for the first time. The following Remote and Online Teaching Guide for Instructors includes a number of helpful step-by-step guides.

As you finalize your course and prepare to open the Canvas space to students, consider what information and details students require to be successful. We recognize that no one really wants to redesign their course(s) or do more work than you have already taken on with COVID-19 changes. However, ensuring that your course is easy to navigate with a consistent design and provides online details about the tools, processes, and procedures used in the course will, overall, save you a lot of work (as well as help you avoid a flooded email inbox).

If you’re not sure where to start with your course design, Smeal’s Remote Teaching Canvas courses (organized by weeks and by modules) offer some layouts and resources that you can copy and use in your courses. With so many variables surrounding this pandemic, it is critical that courses have a clear and consistent navigation. The way students navigate your course online will overwhelmingly affect how they perceive their learning experiences. Use your Canvas home page as a “North Star” for students. It should guide students to where they want or need to go in the course. Additionally, as you organize your course, imagine if a student landed in the “middle” of your course instead of the home page (this happens frequently when students click on assignments in their Canvas dashboard “to do” lists). Your course should still have a clear navigation path in place for students to easily find what they need regardless of where they are in the course.

End-of-Semester Grading

As a reminder, final grade posting in LionPath must be completed by 12/22/20. If you are using the Canvas gradebook to manage grades this semester, consider saving time by allowing Canvas to transfer final grades directly to LionPath. Helpful resources to aid you in this process are listed below:

Preparing Final Grades for LionPath
Tutorial: Importing grades from an LMS (click “Try It” to begin)
Entering and Importing Grades to the Grade Roster (doc)

If you have questions or would like assistance with the grade import process please don’t hesitate to contact eLDIG via eldig@smeal.psu.edu.

Resources to Prepare for Spring

If 2020 has taught us anything, it is the value of being flexible and the importance of being resilient. With that in mind, we wanted to share a few resources and a little food for thought for the Spring semester. Many who are teaching this coming Spring taught last Spring. It was more than a little bit overwhelming to transition to remote instruction with almost no warning. As you begin preparing your course(s) for next semester, it may be beneficial – whenever possible – to design the course as if you will be teaching at least a portion of your class remotely. This will ensure that you will be prepared for any eventuality. Here are five things to consider as you prepare for next semester:

Make the most of Canvas. Consider using one of eLDIG’s Canvas lesson templates to organize your Module content.
Convert your class resources to a digital format whenever possible. This includes readings, class handouts, videos that you might typically show in class, exams, and quizzes, and all homework.
Add a student “check-in” survey to Canvas to get a sense of your students’ well-being.
If attendance is part of your grading, consider using a tool like TopHat from the beginning of the semester to take attendance.
Consider recording your lecture content in advance and flipping your class or some of your class sessions, using class time for students to work on assignments, engage in active learning, and ask questions. This will make it easier if you need to transition to remote instruction and to support students affected by COVID because your core lecture content will be ready in advance.

We have a number of Smeal Academy session recordings available for your review as you prepare for the upcoming semester.

Current News

Canvas Editing Changes – New Workflow to Embed Kaltura Videos into Canvas ContentCanvas recently introduced a new Rich Content Editor (RCE) to improve ease of use when creating or editing content in your Canvas course. Along with new icons, the updated RCE also includes a new workflow for embedding Kaltura videos into Canvas content. The “Embed Kaltura Media” option, which was readily available in the previous RCE, must now be enabled before use. The steps to do so are below:
1. Click the “Apps” icon in the Rich Content Editor (it resembles a two-pronged plug)
2. Click the text that reads “Embed Kaltura Media”
3. Select a video from Kaltura and click the “Embed” button
After following these steps once, the “Embed Kaltura Media” option will automatically appear under the Apps icon for future media embeds (see Notes below for exceptions).
Notes: You must select the “Embed Kaltura Media” text (and not the more intuitive “Media Gallery and Embed” option) to view your Kaltura videos. Also, you must repeat the steps when using a different browser or after clearing your browser’s cache.
Webcam PoliciesIn short, faculty shouldn’t require students to use webcams during any regular remote instruction. Instructors should adopt a camera-optional practice for teaching through Zoom. Instructors can require webcams for exams and assessments. Note that instructors must notify all students in the class of their intent to record the assessment via a written announcement at least 5 days in advance. For details about webcam policies, please refer to this document linked on the University’s Keep Teaching website.

Upcoming Live Sessions

Smeal Academy – Grading and Attendance for Remote Teaching This session will review Canvas gradebook setup and best practices for remote instruction and will also explore some basics tools (such as Top Hat) and approaches to help evaluate student attendance and participation in a remote context.NOTE: Core Top Hat features are available at no cost to instructors and students, and without the purchase of a standalone clicker device, students can participate in Top Hat activities with their smartphones or via the web for added convenience.   Join us Friday, January 29 from 10 to 11 a.m. via Zoom.
Smeal Academy – Key Lessons Learned from Remote Teaching Well, it’s Groundhog Day – and here we are teaching remotely again this semester! What have we learned from our past experiences of remote teaching? What real-world strategies work? Come and hear from Smeal faculty and staff about tips, tricks, and lessons learned as we continue to deliver instruction remotely. Join us Tuesday, February 2 from 12 to 1 p.m. via Zoom.
Smeal Academy Session – Active LearningThink about the last time you learned something. What was the topic? How did you learn it? What motivated you to engage in learning and stay engaged? What got you thinking critically about the knowledge you were seeking? What kind of innovation had you wished had been applied to the topic? What new tool would have been fun?This session will discuss active learning strategies in online learning that help faculty engage learners, and can lead to innovation in the classroom. Active learning is a teaching method that supports learning. The method uses techniques and activities that promote analysis, synthesis, and evaluation that guide students towards achieving learning objectives. These techniques and activities are based on ideas about how people learn and engage regardless of content discipline. Multiple strategies will be discussed in a very active session, be prepared not to sit passively for this session. Join us Wednesday, January 13, 2021 from 11 a.m. to Noon via Zoom.

NOTE:  Recordings and resources from previous sessions can be found on our eLDIG  Website.

Tips of the Week

Tip #1: Include a Course Orientation in Canvas. We strongly recommend adding an orientation to your course. If you don’t already have one, you are welcome to import and customize the orientation from the Smeal Remote Teaching Canvas space.
Tip #2: Check Your Zoom Settings to ensure that your Zoom meetings or webinars are optimized for security and functionality and that you have updated Zoom to the most recent version. This website outlines steps for updating Zoom.

Resources

Helpful Websites

Website

Check out the eLDIG website for more resources and support.

Contact Us

Email us at: course-support@smeal.psu.edu or fill out our Remote Teaching Support form.

Michael Christie In Smeal Academy Sessions

Active Learning Strategies

Active Learning Session – January 13, 2021

Think about the last time you learned something. What was the topic? How did you learn it? What motivated you to engage in the learning and stay engaged? What got you thinking critically about the knowledge you were seeking? What kind of innovation had you wished had been applied to the topic? What new tool would have been fun? This session discussed active learning strategies in online learning that help faculty engage learners and can lead to innovation in the classroom. Active learning is a teaching method that supports learning. The method uses techniques and activities that promote analysis, synthesis, and evaluation that guides students towards achieving learning objectives. These techniques and activities are based on ideas about how people learn and engage regardless of content discipline. Multiple strategies were discussed in a very active session.

Session Slides

Links mentioned:

Discovery Education Puzzle Maker Puzzlemaker is a puzzle generation tool for teachers, students and parents. Create and print customized word search, criss-cross, math puzzles, and more-using your own word lists.

Kahoot Millions of teachers and students unleash the magic of learning with Kahoot!. Create your own kahoot in minutes or choose from 40+ million ready-to-play games. Engage students who aren’t in school with our distance learning features, play in class, and dive into game reports to assess learning.

Michael Christie In

Fall 2020 Wrap-Up

Welcome to the Smeal Academy: Fall 2020 Resilience

The goal of the Smeal Academy is to equip everyone with best practices and strategies for teaching, learning, and technology to ensure the Smeal community is prepared to respond to the unique challenges presented by COVID-19. This week we will focus on semester wrap-up, strategies for actually having a winter break, and things you need to know to get ready for spring. The eLDIG team wishes the entire Smeal community a very renewing and peaceful break.

Strategies for Self-Care Over Break

We are nearly there! Grades are (or will soon be submitted by the end of the day), and we can take a collective exhale to close out Fall 2020.

That being said, it is likely that your “cup” [read: energy/well-being/outlook] may feel pretty empty after what was likely one of the most challenging semesters of your career. Taking some time for you during the break is critical to refilling your cup.

Researcher and author Brené Brown has talked about the value of creating a “playlist.” She advises being intentional about making dedicated time to those activities through which you “lose track of time and self-consciousness.” Being intentional about making time for the activities that truly replenish us (as opposed to what society/culture/habit tells us we should do) can be transformative.

Another helpful tool is the practice of gratitude. Research shows that it is easy for our brains to focus on the perceived threats and challenges in our lives, but much harder to pick out the positives. Gratitude is a skill that we need to practice. The Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley shared the “Finding Silver Linings” exercise. This brief activity can help you avoid ruminating and refocus your attention on the bright side of tough situations. Research has shown that focusing on optimistic thoughts can increase your happiness and enjoyment of life. That sounds like a great way to approach a new semester and a new year!

And don’t forget the many resources we have available to us at Penn State. This might be a great time to make the Calm app a daily habit. Heide Gibson has many resources available for engaging more fully with the app.

In addition, Penn State has websites with updated information for managing anxiety and stress and staying healthy and strong. Resources include a variety of online wellness classes being held at convenient times throughout the upcoming semester.

At the very least, take time to exhale and feel grateful for the culmination of an amazing semester! We made it through Fall 2020 and learned a lot in the process. Celebrate all that you have accomplished and all the ways that you have grown. Happy New Year!

Resources:

Brown, B. (Host). (2020, September 23). On My Mind: RBG, Surge Capacity, and Play as an Energy Source [Audio podcast episode]. In Unlocking Us with Brené Brown. Cadence13.
Greater Good Science Center. (2020). Finding Silver Linings.