Summer 2024 Programming
Join your fellow instructors and teaching assistants this summer to explore various educational tools and technologies and how they can be used to enhance teaching and learning at U of G.
On-going sessions, specific programming—during May, June, and August—and personalized sessions are all facilitated by our knowledgeable instructional technology specialists.
ON-GOING SESSIONS
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
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
May
| Web Conferencing Classroom Support Drop-In |
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Date & Time: Tuesday, May 7 | 10 to 11:30 a.m. This on-site drop-in session is intended for instructors who are teaching in a centrally supported web conferencing lecture room or seminar classroom during the S24 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 a member of our instructional technology specialist (ITS) team will walk you through the setup process. After attending the drop-in session, you will understand how to:
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 our ITS Team in Day Hall’s web conferencing demonstration classroom. |
| Teaching and Learning Innovations (TLI) Conference |
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Dates: Wednesday, May 8 and Thursday, May 9, 2024 Beginning in 1988, the TLI Conference has evolved to include the exchange of ideas around effective teaching practice, scholarly teaching, and the presentation of scholarship in the area of teaching and learning. TLI brings together faculty, instructional staff, teaching assistants, graduate students and other University members to exchange new and innovative ideas around teaching and learning. OpenEd representatives will be presenting a poster: Navigating the Hyflex Frontier Designing, Implementing, Evolving, and Sustaining Support Systems for Teaching and Learning Technologies from Emergency Remote Pivot to a Multi-Modal Higher Education Landscape. |
| Accessibility Conference 2024: Building Knowledge, Breaking Barriers |
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Conference Dates: Wednesday, May 29 and Thursday, May 30, 2024 Join OpenEd online for the 2024 Accessibility Conference. All conference sessions will be hosted virtually via Zoom Events conference platform. Details will be emailed to all registrants closer to the conference date. As a registration add-on, the pre-conference Assistive Technology & Alt Format Roundtable discussion is a complimentary bonus for conference delegates. Only 50 spots are available on a first-come, first-served basis. |
June
| Teaching with Artificial Intelligence Series |
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Date: Monday June 3 to Friday June 7, 2024 Curious about artificial intelligence (AI) and teaching? Join us for the Teaching with Artificial Intelligence Series, a collaborative effort with the Office of Teaching and Learning (OTL). More information and registration links for specific sessions are available on the Teaching with Artificial Intelligence Series website. Sessions Topics:
Teaching with Artificial Intelligence Series Partners:
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August
| Scaling for Increasing Enrolment Workshop Series |
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During the month of August, OpenEd is working with the Office of Teaching and Learning (OTL) to provide programming that focuses on scaling classes for increased enrolment. For more information and for college-specific sessions, please visit the OTL website. The following sessions are hosted or co-hosted by members of OpenEd. Leveraging PEAR for Peer Review and Group Assessment to Reduce Instructor Workload in Medium-to-Large ClassesDate & Time: Tuesday, August 13 | 1 to 2:30 p.m.Location: Online (Zoom) Host: OpenEd Presentation Slides: Leveraging PEAR for Peer Review and Group Assessment to Reduce Instructor Workload in Medium-to-Large Classes - Presentation Slides (PDF) Session Recording: Leveraging PEAR for Peer Review and Group Assessment to Reduce Instructor Workload in Medium-to-Large Classes - Session Recording Would you like to add additional opportunities for active learning and help your students improve their critical thinking skills through peer review? Or perhaps you are looking to add more group work to your course but aren't sure how to fairly assess student contributions within a group? Both assessment strategies are effective; however, the task of implementing them into your assessment design can seem daunting, especially in larger classes. Thankfully, U of G’s Peer Evaluation, Assessment, and Review tool (PEAR) provides avenues to facilitate both options that scale with class size. After this session, you will be able to:
CourseLink Tools for Effective Student Communication at Scale: Intelligent Agents, Announcements, Discussions, and ClasslistDate & Time: Thursday, August 15 | 1 to 2:30 p.m. Effective communication with students is paramount to a good teaching and learning experience; however, communicating effectively with students in a large 1st or 2nd year course offers more challenges when compared to a small 4th year or graduate-level course. In this session, we explore some of the options available in CourseLink to help you communicate more efficiently with large numbers of students; for example, CourseLink’s Intelligent Agents tool automates the process of sending emails to students based on triggers such as course access, grades received, discussion participation, and other course site triggers. In addition to Intelligent Agents, we explore effective use of Announcements, Discussions, and the Classlist for student communication. After this session, you will be able to:
Exploring Common GenAI ToolsDate & Time: Monday, August 19 | 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. Join us for an informative session on the most commonly used GenAI tools—particularly those frequently utilized by students. This session provides an overview of these popular tools, demonstrates their functionalities, and explores how students are integrating them into their academic lives. Additionally, we will feature student speakers who can share their perspectives and experiences using GenAI tools in their day-to-day academic activities. No prior experience with AI tools is necessary. AI Playground: Using GenAI for Course Design and Course MaterialsDate & Time: Monday, August 19 | 1 to 2:15 p.m. This interactive session offers a space to explore, ask questions, and experiment with different AI tools. We will introduce various ways to use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) for course design and developing course materials. The session is structured as a guided experimentation with AI tools—including prompts, activities, scenarios, and reflections specifically designed to explore possible uses and limitations of AI for course design and teaching. We will also discuss how to craft effective prompts for AI tools that deliver useful outputs. Following our guided experimentation as a group, we will provide space for participants to share their experiences with using AI tools. No prior experience with AI tools is necessary. CourseLink Tools to Improve Grading Efficiency: Dropbox’s New Multi-Evaluator Options, Rubrics, Quick Eval and Gradebook TipsDate & Time: Tuesday, August 20 | 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. One of the more daunting tasks with larger classes is grading hundreds or even thousands of assignments. A good grading team certainly helps lessen that load; however, coordinating the grading team, determining who is grading which students, and avoiding mistakes is often a challenge. After a recent update, the Dropbox tool now includes a Multi-Evaluator feature to assist with tasks like determining who can grade specific dropbox folders, distribute grading assignments, and define grader roles. This session focuses on the new Multi-Evaluator feature, including how it is accessed/activated, available options, and ways it can be utilized. We will also touch on other helpful grading tools such as Quick Eval for grading assignments across multiple courses, Rubrics for efficient and consistent grading, and how to keep your Gradebook clean and organized to reduce confusion for students and additional emails and questions for you as the instructor. After this session, you will be able to:
Empowering Instructors and Students with AI: Practical Strategies for Online Course AssessmentsDate & Time: Thursday, August 22 | 11 a.m. Explore how you can effectively and ethically utilize AI tools in your assessments when teaching an online course. We will cover practical applications of AI in quizzes, research assignments, discussions, and presentations, highlighting benefits and strategies for each. Emphasis will be placed on promoting AI literacy among students, ensuring ethical AI use, and guiding them to critically evaluate AI outputs. You will learn strategies to model responsible AI use, integrate AI literacy into your curriculum, and provide clear expectations and support for ethical AI practices. Join us to enhance your teaching methods and empower students in the age of AI. Gradescope for Exams: Dynamic Evaluation, Expedited Grading, and Consistent FeedbackDate & Time: Thursday, August 22 | 10 to 11:00 a.m. Looking for a way to expedite grading written exams and/or quizzes? Gradescope could be the answer! Gradescope exams allow instructional teams to digitally assess a variety of questions, such as multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank. Exam grades can easily be exported from Gradescope to CourseLink. After this session, you will be able to:
Get Started with Gradescope HomeworkDate: Tuesday, August 27 | 10 to 11 a.m. Are you exploring ways to assess hand-written assessments consistently and efficiently? Gradescope’s Homework Assignments might be for you! This assignment type is helpful for evaluating take-home assignments or in-class problem sets. A unique feature of Gradescope is that graders evaluate a single question across all submissions before moving on to the next problem. This allows for greater consistency between evaluators’ comments and more efficient team assessment. After this session, you will be able to:
This webinar will be co-facilitated by OpenEd’s instructional technology specialist (ITS) team and a representative from Gradescope. |