by browkaa | May 19, 2021 | Faculty
The Academic Affairs office is organizing a Summer Faculty Development Week, for August 16 – 19. These are based on our previous popular workshop weeks, except this time we’re hoping to have them on campus.
Save the date! We already have plans for some great workshops and webinars that can help you get up to speed for your fall 2021 courses.
If you have an idea for a workshop you would like to lead, let us know. If you would like to help and have some ideas you think other faculty might use or benefit from, but aren’t sure how to package that into a workshop, Email coli@canisius.edu. Let’s discuss it!
Submitted by: Tyler Kron-Piatek, academic technologist, COLI
by browkaa | May 19, 2021 | Faculty
Occasionally, you see PowerPoint presentations using animations. These are sometimes overused or distracting. But you can easily install basic animations that support, rather than compete with you while you lecture. With text appearance and highlighting animations, students find it easier to follow what you say. These animations require little effort to install. Watch the YouTube video below:
https://youtu.be/FrsjD_uDxk8
Submitted by: Tyler Kron-Piatek, academic technologist, COLI
by browkaa | May 19, 2021 | Faculty
- Let students see their calculated overall or average grade within D2L’s grades area. See our Tutorial.
- Do students need access to course content after the end of the semester in order to complete an incomplete? Here’s how to make that happen.
- Make your course space available to all students after the end of the semester so they can review their grades and even course content. Set an end date for D2L course spaces later than the default here.
- Export your gradebook to archive in your personal records by the week after grades are due. See our tutorial on Exporting Grades.
- For safe-keeping, download an archival copy of D2L course content at the end of each term. See our tutorial on Archiving a Course.
- Copy course content into class spaces available for fall 2021 courses. Some faculty do this in May and accidentally copy it again in July, which creates an extra step of deleting duplicate content. Additionally, sometimes course and section organization changes in the summer. We recommend waiting to copy course content until you are ready to prepare it for the fall. We have a tutorial that can help.
Summer is also a good time to take care of digital chores. Here are some tips:
- Some “low-attention” items are great for multi-tasking while watching TV. Delete or file Emails you want to keep. Remember, Emails stored in your inbox disappear after 120 days. Click here for more information. Summer is generally used to clean out online storage of old unused files that clutter up the college’s Google Drive or OneDrive screen and search results. Download or delete files that aren’t likely to be used in future.
- Change passwords and experiment with multi-factor authentication.
- Backup, backup, backup! If any digital file is essential, save a copy of it in multiple places. We like the 3-2-1 backup plan, which can be found here.
- Get started on a tenure or promotion portfolio. Here is a guide to building a navigable PDF.
- Summer is a great time to pickup some tech skills, especially at a leisurely pace. COLI has a variety of workshops and plenty of tutorials on our wiki page.
Submitted by: Tyler Kron-Piatek, academic technologist, COLI
