Welcome to another issue of the T&L Tea! As the spring semester comes to a close, it’s important for us to take some time to reflect. This is a great opportunity to evaluate what went well and what could use improvement, both in terms of individual teaching experiences and overall departmental goals. Take time to assess your course(s), view student feedback, and plan time to make updates.
However, we understand that faculty’s lives may be busy and course design takes a lot of time. If you still want to participate in development opportunities this summer, consider setting aside time for personal and professional development. This could be attending conferences, participating in online workshops, or simply taking some time to read and research new teaching strategies. By dedicating a little of your time to design and development, you can set yourself up for an energized and improved fall semester.
If you’d like to continue learning with the CTLE over the summer, visit our Course Catalog for self-paced opportunities. And, as always, please reach out to us for assistance at ctle@cpcc.edu. We look forward to working with you in the fall!
Welcome back to another month with The T&L Tea! This month, we’re going to talk about a tool called Read & Write.
Read & Write is a literacy support tool that offers help with everyday tasks like reading text aloud, understanding unfamiliar words, researching assignments and proofing written work. This resource is available and free to use for all Central Piedmont faculty, staff, and students. The toolbar can be downloaded and used on a variety of platforms from Chrome, Windows and Mac to Android and iPad. Read & Write can help students further develop their literacy skills, become better at note taking, and can even make studying more efficient. Whether a student is highly proficient in their literacy and wants to expand their knowledge or is in need of supplemental assistance, Read & Write can help. Read & Write also has a revision function to assist with revising text for improved phrasing and readability, making it a great tool for anyone!
To learn more about Read & Write, play the video below!
Related Trainings
To continue learning about the Read & Write toolbar and what it has to offer, review the resource links below:
The Parr CTLE offers training courses on the best practices for incorporating the Read & Write toolbar in your course and helping students in it to support their learning. Be on the lookout for the self-paced Read & Write training coming to our Course Catalog very soon, and future in-person and/or virtual training dates by subscribing to the Parr Center Calendar of Events. If you’d like some assistance, feel free to reach out to the CTLE at ctle@cpcc.edu.
In this month’s blog post, we’re going to discuss the differences between two of our partially online-based course offerings: Hybrid and Blended.
Here at Central Piedmont, we offer a variety of ways that students can further their education on a schedule that works for them. One of the most convenient ways that students can learn is through the use of online learning. We offer three types: Online, Blended, and Hybrid. Online means it is 100% online. In addition, you may also see the terms blended and hybrid used interchangeably, and while there are similarities, there are some differences between them.
Our hybrid learning courses have between 51 and 99% percent of their content online on Brightspace, which can give students a chance to complete coursework at their own pace, while giving opportunities for students to still attend class face-to -face. This class structure can be appealing to students with busy schedules and circumstances that might limit their ability to regularly attend traditional classes, but still want some sort of regular interaction with their classmates and instructors to support their learning.
Our blended learning courses have between 1 and 50% percent of their content online on Brightspace. Blended learning courses have students mostly attending class regularly in-person, while supplementing the instruction with online learning activities. This might look like students participating in online discussions or completing other online activities that are directly related to the topics being covered in-class. This structure can help reinforce concepts, and provide a more comprehensive learning experience by giving students space and time to review and explore the content more outside of class.
Play the video below to learn more about how hybrid and blended learning compare.
Related Trainings
To continue learning about this topic and how to build engaging activities in hybrid and blended learning environments, the Parr CTLE offers a self-paced training course:
Piecing Together Digital Learning Environments (1 hour PD credit)
Visit our Course Catalog to complete the course and explore some of the other training sessions that we offer. If you’d like some assistance, feel free to reach out to the CTLE at ctle@cpcc.edu.
In this month’s post, we’ll be discussing an important aspect of any course: accessibility. Digital accessibility is the design of digital resources and websites that are accessible to disabled individuals with or without the use of assistive technologies. At Central Piedmont, our goal is always to create an inclusive learning environment where students can thrive and ultimately succeed, both online and in the classroom.
Not only is accessibility a matter of equity, but it is also required by federal law through the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Both of these acts prohibit the discrimination of individuals with disabilities in education. Watch the video below to learn more about the impact of these acts and how they create equal opportunity for students.
Now that you’re more familiar with digital accessibility, let’s put it into practice. Here are a few strategies that can help improve your course’s accessibility:
Provide alternative formats for texts and readings such as audio recordings or videos.
Use accessible technologies and tools that are compatible with assistive technologies such as screen readers.
Design inclusive and/or alternative assessments.
Use inclusive language.
Communicate with your students about their needs and accommodations.
Related Trainings
This was just an introduction to digital accessibility. To dive in and learn more you can register for training from the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence. Visit our Events Calendar to register for current sessions or visit the Course Catalog for self-paced training options. Or, if you have any questions or need additional assistance, please reach out to us at ctle@cpcc.edu.
Digital Accessibility 101
Introduction to SCULPTing Online Accessibility: Word Basics
Welcome to the Spring 2023 Semester! In the spirit of new beginnings, this blog space is now the home of The T&L Tea, a new blog series presented to you by the CTLE that will provide you with teaching and learning techniques and strategies. You can expect to see a new post from us on the third Monday of each month. If you’re going to miss the Toolin’ Around Blog, don’t worry! We will continue to cover some technology components when applicable to help you incorporate the discussed techniques and strategies in Brightspace. We hope you enjoy!
The T&L Tea: Game On
The beginning of a new year is always a great time to try something different. So, why not try a game? Gamification is an excellent technique for capturing your students’ engagement, helping them achieve mastery and more. From virtual escape rooms to Jeopardy style review games, creating gamified learning experiences for your students is more possible than you may think.
Educational gamification is a great technique to use when you’re first introducing a new concept to your students or as a way to pull them through the end of a module to reinforce your content. The most effective gamified experiences encourage learners to focus on mastering the content rather than winning, incorporate challenges and encourage decision-making, provide equal opportunities for learners to be successful, and engage the interests of a diverse target audience.
The video below is featured in the LinkedIn Learning course Gamification for Interactive Learning. Play the video to learn more about why gamification is a powerful tool for learning.
To continue learning about gamification, the Parr CTLE offers a training centered on this topic. Visit our Events Calendar to find out more about our training offerings. If you’d like some assistance with creating your own gamified learning experiences, feel free to reach out to us at ctle@cpcc.edu.
They are brief, easy-to-implement tips involving the tools we use every day with students to make our teaching lives, well, easier (and possibly even more effective).
Toolin’ Around Tip:
Rubrics can be used to grade multiple items in Brightspace and can be copied within Brightspace.
Benefits?
Use rubrics for more than one graded item
Use rubrics in more than one course
You cannot copy a rubric from a live course, so you want to build rubrics in a
shared or personal model. Let’s walk through the steps of building a rubric and then extracting a rubric from both a shared model and a personal model!
Once you have logged into Brightspace, navigate to the course you want to copy the rubric into.
Navigate through these steps: Course Tools > Course Admin > Import/Export/Copy Components
Copy Components from a Personal or Shared Model
Search for Course offering
Search for and select the course from which you wish to copy the rubric(s)
Select Components
Select ‘Rubrics’
Choose to copy all items or select individual items/rubrics
Select Continue – If you selected individual items, you will now be able to
select which rubric(s) you wish to copy
Select Continue again
Confirm Components to Copy and offset or update any due dates
Select Finish
For questions, reach out to the Parr CTLE by email – CTLE@cpcc.edu!
Ally is designed to help instructors improve the accessibility of their course content and provides accessibility checks for Course and Lesson content in Brightspace. Ally also provides suggestions for improving content and provides alternative accessible formats to enable learners to use the format that best meets their requirements.
View the video below to see the Ally tool in action!
There are two ways to preview Brightspace courses from the student perspective, but they differ between live courses and models.
Live Course: View as Student
Brightspace allows instructors to view courses from the student view. This is helpful to ensure the course is set up in the appropriate manner and to determine that all content is accessible for students.
Note: Any tool where the view is specific to an individual student will not work with the Student Preview option. Examples are Quizzes and Groups. To see a preview of Quizzes, instructors can choose the preview option in the Quizzes menu and see the quiz as if they were a student.
First, log into Brightspace and enter the course.
Click on your name at the top, right corner of the screen. Then click View as Student.
Note: Learner view will not work if there is a Release Condition on content based on completion of an EVA quiz. Since a quiz cannot be attempted in Learner view, you will be unable to meet that type of Release Condition requirement.
To exit this view, click on your name again in the top, right corner and click the X to exit the student view.
Personal Model: Impersonate Student
In Personal and Shared Models, Instructors can Impersonate a Student which is different from View as Student. Each Model course is created with a Test Student in the Classlist. The Impersonate option allows you to view the course just as a student would. You can take quizzes, check open dates, populate the grade book to check things out, and so on.
Note: The option to Impersonate a Student is available to model instructors in either the Personal Models or Shared Models (and sandboxes).
On the navbar, Select Roster and then Classlist.
From the Classlist screen, locate the Student, Test, and the dropdown option next to the Test Student.
In the dropdown menu, select Impersonate.
Click Yes in the popup that appears. This suspends your current session and logs you in as the Test Student.
Note: Using the impersonate option will suspend your current session and log you in as the test student. It is recommended that you only have Brightspace open in one tab when you attempt to impersonate the Test Student.
When you are done, select the Test Student name in the top right corner of the page and select the X to restore yourself back to your own role.
Additional Support
For additional support, contact the Parr Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence:
They are brief, easy-to-implement tips involving the tools we use every day with students to make our teaching lives, well, easier (and possibly even more effective).
Using the Brightspace Accessibility Checker!
When preparing and presenting content in your course, it is essential to consider web accessibility. Brightspace has a built-in Accessibility Checker!The Accessibility Checker will inform you of any problems with your content. You should make changes as suggested by the Checker to ensure all students can access your content.
View the video below to see the built-in Brightspace Accessibility Checker in action!
Brightspace makes it easy to upload a PDF or Word Document syllabus into your course. Use this guide to get your syllabus online and to your students in just a matter of minutes.
For information on writing your syllabus, you can view the syllabus template which can be found under resources and tools on the internal CPCC website (login required).
Uploading Your Syllabus:
We recommend you upload your syllabus to the content area of your Brightspace course. Below are steps to upload your syllabus!
Note: These steps assume that you have uploaded the RCE pack into your course.
Steps:
Enter your course and select Content Tab.
Select “Syllabus and Course Information” on the side menu.
Select “Add Existing.”
Drag/Drop your syllabus from your computer into the designated area in your course.
If you’d like to browse for your syllabus, select Browse, and select “Open.”
Be sure to move the “visibility” toggle at the top left from “Hidden” to “Visible” so that students can view your syllabus.
