Fall 2023 Programming
Join OpenEd’s Instructional Technology Specialist (ITS) team as well as your fellow instructors and teaching assistants this fall as we explore various educational technologies and how they can be leveraged to enhance teaching and learning.
On-going sessions, specific programming for September, October, November and December, and personalized sessions are available.
Web Conferencing Classroom Orientations & Practice Sessions
Date & Time: Ongoing (by appointment)
Location: Day Hall, Room 118
If you are assigned to a Lecture Web Conferencing or Seminar Web Conferencing Classroom, you may be interested in an orientation or practice session in our demo room in Day Hall.
Our 30- to 45-minute, in-person orientation sessions are facilitated by an instructional technology specialist (ITS), and include a walkthrough of the classroom technology, a chance to try out your laptop in the room, and an opportunity to better understand the in-person and remote student experience.
Alternatively, if you are already familiar with the web conferencing classrooms from a previous semester, you may also use the registration form to book time in our demonstration room to practice and test on your own by selecting the Practice Session option.
To register, complete the Demonstration Classroom Booking Form. You will be asked to provide three potential availability windows when requesting an orientation or practice session. Our team will make every effort to accommodate your availability.
Online Workshop: Get Started with Gradescope
Date & Time: Ongoing
Location: Online (Zoom)
Offered directly by our partners at Gradescope, these hour-long workshops are available on various dates and times throughout the semester.
Gradescope's team of trainers provide thorough demonstrations and answer questions about the platform. Please note that the trainers are not affiliated with the University. If you have a question about Gradescope specific to our institution, please contact CourseLink Support.
In the Get Started with Gradescope workshop, you learn how to:
- Set up assignments where students can submit freeform work (no printers or templates needed)
- Grade your existing exams and homework on Gradescope
- Make rubric changes as you grade—changes apply to previously graded work to maintain consistency
- Write each comment only once—apply previously used comments with a click
- Use ‘assignment analytics’ to gain insight into student learning
Online Drop-In Support for Teaching and Learning Technology
Date & Time: Ongoing (details below)
Location: Online (Zoom)
Have questions about OpenEd-supported teaching and learning technologies such as CourseLink, Gradescope, or PEAR? At the end of September, October, and November, members of our Instructional Technology Specialist and CourseLink Support teams will be available to answer questions from instructors and teaching assistants.
Drop-in sessions are held between 2:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on the last Wednesday of each month on a first-come, first-served basis.
Join the Online Drop-in Support Session via Zoom between 2:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on the following dates:
- Wednesday, September 27
- Wednesday, October 25
- Wednesday, November 29
Looking for more in-depth assistance with educational technologies or advice on how to best implement them into your course design? Please book a consultation with a member of our ITS team using our Consultation Booking Form.
PERSONALIZED SESSIONS
Are you looking for a session on a specific supported educational technology for your college, department, or instructional team? Our ITS team offers personalized sessions for large and small groups and will work with you to tailor a session to your needs.
To request a session, please contact the ITS team.
PAST SESSIONS
September
| Web Conferencing Classrooms Drop-In Support: Lecture Rooms |
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Dates & Times: This in-person drop-in session is intended for instructors who are teaching in a Web Conferencing Lecture Room during the F23 semester. Whether it is your first time using one of U of G’s web conferencing lecture rooms or you are just looking for a refresher before the semester gets underway, please stop by during our drop-in period and we will walk you through the setup process. We can go over the following setup options with you:
Please note that drop-in assistance is offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are unable to join us for the drop-in session, please book a time to meet with us in Day Hall’s web conferencing demonstration classroom. |
| Web Conferencing Classrooms Drop-In Support: Seminar Classrooms |
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Date & Time: Wednesday, September 6 | 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. This in-person drop-in session is intended for instructors who are teaching in a Web Conferencing Seminar Classroom during the F23 semester. Whether it is your first time using one of U of G’s web conferencing seminar classrooms or you are just looking for a refresher before the semester gets underway, please stop by during our drop-in period and we will walk you through the setup process.We can cover the following basic steps to get started:
Please note that drop-in assistance is offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are unable to join us for the drop-in session, please book a time to meet with us in Day Hall’s web conferencing demonstration classroom. |
| CourseLink Basics Series |
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Are you new to teaching at the University of Guelph or the University of Guelph-Humber? Are you looking to familiarize yourself with the most commonly used tools available in CourseLink (Brightspace by D2L)? If so, our CourseLink Basics series covers all you need to know to leverage your CourseLink course site this semester. These four distinct demonstration sessions focus on Course Management, Assessments, Collaboration, and Grading. You may register for each session below. Please note that recordings will be made available for each session. Even if you are unable to attend a session, we encourage you to register so you can receive a link to the recording. CourseLink Basics: Course ManagementDate & Time: Thursday, September 7 | 2–3 p.m. This session covers three fundamental tools that most instructors use to manage their course site on CourseLink: Announcements, Classlist, and Content. CourseLink’s Announcements tool allows you to share important information with students and create a social presence in the online course environment. During this part of the session, we demonstrate how to:
CourseLink’s Content tool allows you to share course materials securely with the students in your course site. During this part of the session, we demonstrate how to:
CourseLink’s Classlist tool allows you to view a list of enrolled students, add participants, and communicate with individuals, groups, or sections via email. During this part of the session, we demonstrate how to:
CourseLink Basics: AssessmentsDate & Time: Wednesday, September 13 | 10–11:15 a.m. This session covers the basics of two tools that are most often used to collect student work and assess knowledge and understanding in CourseLink: Dropbox and Quizzes. CourseLink’s Dropbox tool allows you to easily collect assignments, then provide students with grades and feedback. During this part of the session, we demonstrate how to:
CourseLink’s Quizzes tool allows you to conduct online assessments utilizing a wide variety of question types. During this part of the session, we demonstrate how to:
CourseLink Basics: CollaborationDate & Time: Wednesday, September 20 | 2–3 p.m. This session covers the basics of two tools that are often used together to allow students to communicate in small groups online: Groups and Discussions. CourseLink’s Groups tool allows you to easily create groups to help organize students to engage with each other online and even perform group assessments. During this part of the session, we demonstrate how to:
CourseLink’s Discussions tool allows you to create areas for class-wide or group restricted student discussions, which can also be assessed if desired. During this part of the session, we demonstrate how to:
CourseLink Basics: GradingDate & Time: Tuesday, September 26 | 10–11 a.m. In our previous CourseLink Basics sessions, we touched on how to assess dropbox submissions, discussion posts, and quizzes. In this session, we focus on three other tools that instructors use to assess students, enter grades, and ultimately export final grades for students: Rubrics, Grades, and the Final Grades Download Tool. CourseLink’s Rubrics tool allows you to easily create digital versions of grid-style rubrics that can be used to assess student work in dropbox folders and discussion topics, or even directly on any grade item. During this part of the session, we demonstrate how to:
CourseLink’s Grades tool allows you to collect grade information from a variety of sources, calculate grades, and easily share this information with your students. During this part of the session, we demonstrate how to:
CourseLink’s Final Grades Download tool allows you to export your final grades from your CourseLink course site in the format required by the Registrar’s Office, while accounting for final grade adjustments, and incomplete grades. During this part of the session, we demonstrate how to:
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October
| Multiple-Choice Assessment with Gradescope Bubble Sheets (Session 1) |
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Date & Time: Thursday, October 5 | 10–11 a.m. Are you planning to deliver an in-person midterm or test to your students with several multiple-choice questions? Is it your first time doing so since Scantron was replaced by Gradescope Bubble Sheets? Do you simply need a refresher on how to leverage Gradescope bubble sheets? If you answered yes to any of these questions, please join us for this introductory session on Gradescope Bubble Sheets. The following topics will be explored:
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| Introducing the CourseLink Quiz Printing Tool |
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Date & Time: Wednesday, October 11 | 2–3 p.m. Looking to move remote quizzes created in CourseLink back to in-person written exams? Need to print out hard copies of your CourseLink quiz for the Exam Centre? Until now, this was a very difficult process. Fortunately, our team has worked diligently to create an application to streamline the process. Starting in F23, instructors can access the OpenEd Toolbox and use the new CourseLink Quiz Printing tool. Access any quiz from your CourseLink site and export a quiz (and an optional answer key) as an editable Microsoft Word document! During this session you will:
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November
| Options for Collecting Formative Student Feedback |
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Date & Time: Cancelled (will be rescheduled for W24) With the semester winding down, and before formal student feedback questionnaires are released, you may want to ask your students what has been working, what hasn’t, where they might be struggling, or simply how the most recent lecture went. Collecting this additional feedback allows you to reflect on your teaching practice and, where possible, act on the feedback before the semester concludes or incorporate it into future course offerings. The process of gathering feedback can be woven into your teaching practice by leveraging some of the University's available technologies. In this session, we will present some methods for collecting formative feedback from your students and demonstrate the various technologies to collect that valuable information. The following methods of collecting formative feedback from students will be explored as well as some tips and tricks on designing feedback questions that produce meaningful student feedback:
This session also provides brief overviews and demonstrations of the following University-supported technologies available for collecting student feedback:
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| Gradescope for Assessment of Handwritten Final Exams |
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Date & Time: Thursday, November 16 | 2–3:30 p.m. Did you know that Gradescope can be leveraged to digitally assess traditional handwritten in-person exams? That’s right! You can collect student papers, scan them, and then use a Gradescope Exams and Quizzes assignment to assess a wide range of question types, either on your own or as part of a grading team. When you are done grading, you can easily export the grades to your CourseLink course site. Interested? If so, join us to learn how to use Gradescope to improve grading efficiency for final exams. In this session, we explore the following topics:
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| Multiple-Choice Assessment with Gradescope Bubble Sheets (Session 2) |
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Date & Time: Wednesday, November 22 | 2–3 p.m. Are you planning to deliver an in-person exam to your students with many multiple-choice questions? Is it your first time doing so since Scantron was replaced by Gradescope Bubble Sheets? Or perhaps you just need a refresher on the Gradescope bubble sheet process? If so, please join us for this introductory session on Gradescope Bubble Sheets as we explore the following topics:
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December
| Preparing Final Grades for Your F23 Course |
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Date & Time: Tuesday, December 12 | 2–3 p.m. Are you an instructor who completed all your course assessments and is ready to submit your final grades? Or perhaps you still have exams to grade, but want to make sure you are ready to submit those final grades correctly once all your exams are marked? If you answered yes to either of these questions, this is the session for you! Join us as we review the process for preparing final grades in CourseLink and exporting them in the correct format for submission. This demonstration is followed by an open Q&A period. Our team can answer any specific questions and assist those in attendance, where possible. Can’t make the formal session or find yourself with follow-up questions after starting the process? No problem. We are also offering two drop-in support sessions dedicated to preparing final grades with no registration required. Details below! Preparing Final Grades Follow-Up Drop-in 1Date & Time: Thursday, December 14 | 2–3:30 p.m. Join Preparing Final Grades Follow-Up Drop-in 1 (No registration required!) Preparing Final Grades Follow-Up Drop-in 2Date & Time: Monday, December 18 | 10–11:30 a.m. Join Preparing Final Grades Follow-Up Drop-in 2 (No registration required!) |