Academic Technology
The Instructional Design Service Center consists of 2 instructional designers, a course developer and several graduate assistants. We are a full-service instructional design center, which means we can help with everything from curriculum design, assessments, to building your course in Canvas. The success of our faculty and students are our #1 priority!
Submit instructional design work request ticket: Click here.
Below you will find a series of links to tutorials that will teach you how to use the most common functionalities in Zoom. If you have additional questions, please don’t hesitate to contact an instructional designer (sop.idesign@cuanschutz.edu).
These links will help you get started with Techsmith Relay. If you have additional questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Michael Lampe in the Instructional Design Service Center (michael.lampe@cuanschutz.edu)
IVQ and Conversations pointers
Quizzing is a way to engage viewers and measure their comprehension of the video. Question types include multiple choice, true/false, fill in the blank, and free response. Additionally, questions can be added anywhere in your video. You can require that users must answer the question before the video will continue (or not) and questions can be graded or ungraded, like a survey.
Adding Quiz Questions Tutorial
Analytics
Analytics allow you to track the viewing of your videos. The list identifies the users that have at least started viewing the video. Note that it does not show the viewers that have not started the video. Analytics does not guarantee that the viewer watched the video, only that the video was playing. To help keep viewers engaged in the video, consider adding quiz questions.
Canvas is the learning management system used by the University. Below are a series of tutorials that will help guide you through the basics of using Canvas. If you have additional questions regarding Canvas, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Lisha Bustos (lisha.bustos@cuanschutz.edu)
When considering moving from a traditional, in-person learning environment to an online or blended learning environment it is important to remember that the teaching strategies employed in response to Covid19 are not the same as what you would strive to do in an online learning environment. The articles below do an excellent job discussing the differences and the merits of both.
- What is Remote Teaching?
- What is Online Teaching?
One of the key differences between remote and online teaching is that remote teaching still focuses on trying to have a synchronous learning environment. Thus, you will notice most of the activities listed below involve synchronous instructional methods. You will also notice a few faculty members identified below, remember the instructional designers are not the only “experts” you can turn to!
Breakout Rooms for Small Group Discussions (Zoom)
Just because you are now teaching your students in a remote environment, doesn't mean active learning should stop. In fact, it is more important than ever that you try to make your learning environment as interactive and engaging as possible. One way to do this is with the use of breakout rooms to facilitate small group discussions. To utilize breakout rooms, make sure you have signed into your Zoom session using ucdenver.zoom.us (not just clicking on the link in the invite). To keep things simple, randomly assign students to breakout rooms during the session. We do not recommend pre-assigning students to breakout rooms at this time. Many of you are already using Breakout Rooms in your classes...keep up the good work! Rob Maclaren is a breakout room master!
Patient Interviews (Zoom)
Teaching students effective communication strategies is a key part of our pharmacy program. The good news is you can still conduct patient interviews (as well as a wide variety of other interactions) remotely. Using the waiting room option allows you to control who can interact with your standardized patient at any given time. Just check or click the "enable waiting room" option in the "meeting options" listed in the Zoom meeting details. Additionally, if you have a group of facilitators, you can use the breakout room option to allow small groups of students to interact with a facilitator. Congrats to Ashley Huntsberry for successfully doing this in the PCC2 evaluation with standardized patients and all of our P1 students!
Verbal Evaluations (Canvas and Zoom)
This is a great example of using several available resources to create a diverse learning environment for your students. Here are some suggestions for creating a verbal evaluation in a remote environment:
- Use the quiz platform in Canvas to create a proctored environment where students can work up their patient case
- Use Zoom for the patient presentation portion of the activity
- Each facilitator should create their own Zoom links for the patient presentations. This will make sure there are no conflicts with a host having multiple Zoom rooms scheduled for the same time.
- Course director should post a schedule with all of the Zoom links in Canvas so students know exactly where to go for their patient presentation
Interacting With Your Learners (Zoom)
The polling feature within Zoom can be used to accomplish a variety of learning goals. Polls allow you to quickly gauge student engagement, increase student engagement, assess student learning, and provide formative feedback. Use this Zoom Guide for additional information on using Zoom's polling tool.
Additional features to consider using to increase your interaction with students includes enabling emoji's in your course (keep in mind who your learners are!) and using the chat feature. Both of these options are tools students are comfortable and familiar with using. You will be pleasantly surprised by the conversations that ensue when you employ these tools! Congrats to Meghan Jeffres for successfully using the polling feature in her lectures and getting more than 90% of the class to respond in 45-60 seconds!
When it comes to teaching online, planning is essential. Below are examples of various skills activities, but this is just one component of online education. Please consult with an instructional designer to help make your course as successful and enjoyable as you want it!
Choose Your Own Adventure
In this activity students participate in a survey via Qualtrics that allows them to make decisions regarding patient care. The decisions they make can take them down various paths and allows for simulated patient care in an asynchronous setting.
Just in Time Teaching
This instructional method allows you to customize your lecture to exactly what concepts the students are struggling to understand. There are 3 steps to this process:
- Provide students with the basic information you need them to have. This can be in the form of reading a textbook chapter, reviewing a journal article, watching a video, instructor created notes, etc.
- Students post in the discussion board 1-2 key questions and 1-2 key points they gathered from the reading.
- Instructor reviews these questions/key points and creates a 15 minute video lecture addressing the key questions posed in the discussion board and any key points that might not have been brought up.
Jigsaw
Perhaps the strongest learning method is when you have to become the expert. In this activity students are the ones doing the teaching. Each student (can also be done in groups) signs up for a topic. They create a presentation and activities relating to that topic as well as design a few assessment questions. You are there to provide any key information that might have been missed and address any questions students might have, as well as share professional experience the students might not have yet. The presentations can be shared via the discussion board or on a Canvas page that students are allowed to edit.
Journal Clubs
Similar to the jigsaw activity, students are assigned different journal article to review. They then provide an overview, including key findings, limitations, etc with the class via discussion board and are also responsible for responding to questions posed by their peers. The instructor is there to facilitate the discussion and keep everyone moving in the right direction.