All Collection

Universal ABCD Polls on Zoom

Read or watch a video about how to save time and energy when setting up Zoom polls for your class.

Design with a Purpose (Your Assessment)

Question – As an educator – have you ever experienced the following routine? You teach to large groups of students, you assess, you evaluate, you ‘scratch your head in reflection,’ redesign the assessment, and repeat – sometimes with improvement in students learning goals and sometimes not? We offer five things to keep in mind when designing…

My Worth: A Reflective Journal

Learn from this student as they discuss the impact a reflective journal assignment had on their self-identity and feelings of self-worth.

Transformation Strategy Change Communications Plan Voiced presentation Assessment

Learn about how this faculty developed an authentic and experiential learning assessment by using the college’s current transformation strategy as a case study.

Creating Application Questions for Assessments

Learn how this faculty member adapted their tests to the online environment, including strategies that support student success in answering application-level test questions.

Reflective Journals Drive Centennial College’s 3Es

Assessing critical thinking takes more than chasing a rubric. Reflective journals require more from both educator and student. It moves beyond show me what you learned this week…into more of a focused exploration.

Answer Templates for Calculation Assessments

Create answer templates for calculation assessments to standardize student’s submissions so it is easier to mark.

Open-Book Tests for In-Classroom and Online Assessment

Explore the benefits of open book testing and some tips on how to promote academic honesty through question design.

Made by Students

Discover how this teacher utilizes free online interactive simulations from the PhET website by the University of Colorado.

Designing Personal and Experiential Assignments

Take the tedium out of assignments and marking by implementing more personal and experiential assessments in your class. Explore the benefits of these types of assessments for both yourself and your students!

Using an “Optional Memo” to Give Students a Second Chance

Who doesn’t love second chances? Explore this tip about an “optional memo” that provides students with the opportunity to explain the rationale behind their work and recoup some marks.

My experience with Asynchronous Teaching and Learning using eCentennial (LMS) tools

Explore these five key elements to student success in an asynchronous learning environment. Includes D2L (LMS) tools used to support these elements.

Crossword Puzzle – Lecture Assignment

Transform your quizzes into crossword puzzles to engage your students! Includes a sample crossword puzzle and link to crossword puzzle generator.

Trade Secret #4: Be a hoarder

This took me a shockingly long time to figure out. I am embarrassed to say that it wasn’t until 2012 that I began to personally archive all of my postings in the group discussion forums, and I now use these as a base from which to continuously adapt and reframe year over year. Although I…

Trade Secret #3: Use videos to introduce each week and mix it up

Incorporating a short video of myself at the beginning of each “class” (weekly module) helps to establish instructional immediacy, a key component of effective online teaching and learning. We’re not talking high production values, but just helping students to put a face and personality to my name helps foster a sense of connectedness and engagement.…

Trade Secret #2: Create a consistent course architecture

Institutional Learning Management Systems tend not to be the most intuitive or visually appealing. I create folders for each week’s content, populated with the same kinds of materials in the exact same sequence. This offers a sense of continuity to the online classroom – analogous to holding a face-to-face course in the same room every…

Trade Secret #1: Put out the welcome mat and over-communicate

The most important things that students want to know are: “What is expected of me?” “How do I access the course?”, “Where can I get help if I need it?” and “How can I be successful?” I make a point of addressing these questions by mobilizing multiple communication channels. People access and attend to information…

Trade Secret #5: Show you care and put it in writing!

This is no big secret, but paying close attention to the affective dimension is key to learning and teaching. The majority of online courses at this time are still largely text-based, so I pay special attention to the nuances and emotional tone in all of my communications with students, whether via email or in the…

Don’t wait until it is too late! Using Google Docs to give immediate feedback.

In this video, I walk you through how I use Google Docs in a synchronous virtual classroom for in-class work. I find this technique useful for providing real time feedback on students’ understanding of concepts and prevents students from going too far down a wrong track. By setting up a clearly labelled document for each…

Google Slides: Your Answer to Collaborative Synchronous Work

With Google Slides you can create template slide decks that encourage collaboration. By creating templates, students can follow along – you provide the backbone to support students in creating, researching, and presenting. Working together on slides is an interactive synchronous classroom activity that can be done over and over again to build skills and learn…

Creating a Sense of Community in Online Classes for International Students

In this video I discuss the importance of a sense of belonging within online classes for international students and provide easy-to-implement strategies that benefit all online learners.

Breaking Down Barriers to Marketing Concepts

To help international learners more easily understand marketing concepts, I ask each to choose a brand at the beginning of the term and to become the class expert on their brand.

Teaching at a Distance Etiquette

Explore some rules/norms that will help to maintain respectful behaviour and effective learning in synchronous and asynchronous online classes.

Setting Expectations for the Learner

This submission outlines how you can use an instructional video to set your learners up for success by communicating common pitfalls. This strategy is demonstrated in a video focused on “searching for open educational resources (OERs)”.

The Marshmallow Challenge

Use the Marshmallow Challenge as a Team Building exercise in the virtual environment.

Using News Items and the Calendar

Communicate effectively with your students using News Items and the Calendar in the learning management system.

Music as Pedagogy of Kindness

Learn how this educator uses music to nurture a “kind space” in her classroom, encouraging communication and connection in an asynchronous setting.

Marketing Your Lesson Plans

How can you stimulate curiosity and increase student engagement online? Market your upcoming lessons and spark tenacity in your student’s desire to become active partners in their learning!

Engage with Flipgrid!

A simple strategy to promote student engagement and community building. The strategy is about using a video platform that provides equal opportunities to all students.

The Breakfast Club

Amy Pelvin describes feeling disconnected from the day to day interactions with students, particularly in full or partial asynchronous courses. She decided to start The Breakfast Club. This runs during asynchronous classes and is an opportunity to connect with students and build relationships.

Tips for Developing Wholesome Content from Mike and Mike

See a multitude of tips and tricks from Mike and Mike on how to organize your class, create engaging interactive activities and communicate better with your students in an online setting.

Engaging Math Students using Online Discussion Board Math Problems

Learning math in an online environment could be challenging. To engage students, I created discussion board math problems that have open-ended responses to encourage development of mathematical reasoning skills and communication skills.

Using PeerMark

This video shows the steps to creating a PeerMark submission folder inside a course module and instructions on how students can give feedback to their peers. PeerMark is a great way to get students to share their work before their final submission or as practice. The options are limitless!