There are a variety of valuable sessions that include:  

• Four Tried (and True) Methods for Engaging Students in Class 
• Show Students You’re There: Communication, Instructor Presence, and Community Development 
• How to develop on-line group work that is actually enjoyable! 
• Why You Should Stop Ungrading and Use These 7 Assessment Strategies Instead 
• Conversation Cafes: Navigating Online Course Discussions to Reinvigorate Student to Student and Faculty Member Conversation 
• No Attention = No Benefit: Increasing Students’ Use of Assignment Feedback 
• Creative uses of VR in the Counseling Classroom 
• Using Video Feedback to Make Valuable Connections with Your Online Students 
• The New Blend: Strategies For Mixing Asynchronous And Synchronous, Online And On-Site 
• Dream It and Do it: Transforming Traditional Course Content into Playful, Powerful Cartoons 
• and more!! 

Course Announcements in D2L are a great tool to maintain frequent and regular communication with your students. Announcements can be used to remind students of upcoming due dates, provide important updates relevant to the course, and highlight student success! You can schedule your announcements ahead of time to ensure posting consistency and encourage students to keep their notifications turned on so they can stay up to date with any course changes. Erin Schutt, an Academic and Career Counselor for the ITN and Business department, uses Announcements routinely and in an engaging manner! She takes pride in images that grab students’ attention and incorporates other engaging features in her announcements. 

BLOCK QUOTE FROM ERIN: 

“Drawing them in right away is a must! I use announcements as a means to connect with my students personally whether it is a funny meme, video, or post. This is a direct and efficient way to communicate information to students in a timely and relevant way. –Erin Schutt“ 

Interested in learning more about the Announcement Tool? Head over to the Announcements page in D2L Brightspace Community!

As the semester continues, it is important to revisit the benefits of using rubrics in our courses. Rubrics allow students to understand the expectations of assignments, how performance will be judged and how will different levels of performance be distinguished. The Rubrics Reference Guide will walk you through examples at the college, explore the steps to create rubrics in D2L, and demonstrate how to grade using rubrics in D2L. You also will get a glimpse at the student view of rubric feedback in D2L. Use rubrics to not only improve your communication with students but to help you have a consistent method for scoring assignments!