April 2024
EdPuzzle Video Improvements!
Faculty can allow students to control video speed in lessons—speeding up or slowing down! With this update, there is now a toggle option for on and off on Speed Accessibility when assigning lessons. If enabled, students will have the option to change the speed of the video.
When students are reviewing the video, they can select “1x” from the bottom panel and the video speed options will appear.
New Padlet Features
What is Padlet?
Padlet is an online bulletin board that allows participants to post information for each other. What makes it powerful is the way the information can be organized.
What Can You Do with Padlet?
There are several new Padlet updates. If you have used Padlet before, you will find that this is not your grandparent’s Padlet!
- Templates – There are over 250 templates to help kickstart your bulletin board.
- Breakout Links – Provide links for your students for only one section of your Padlet – this is great for breakout rooms!
- Export your Padlet as a PDF – When you want to preserve the information from your Padlet, you do not have to take screenshots anymore! You can also create handouts or slides.
- Pinned Posts – Now you can pin a post at the top of your Padlet. I like to do this for instructions.
- Magic Padlet – Use Artificial Intelligence to create historical maps, reading lists, and activities among other generated content.
Adding Links in D2L: Consistency
In the latest update, inserting a link into Brightspace Editor prompts the Add Link dialog, allowing users to specify whether the link opens in a new window (default setting) or the current window. The dialog includes a text box for adding link text, ensuring a consistent workflow and control over link behavior. The Whole Window option has been removed to eliminate inconsistent behavior associated with it.
The Add Link dialog opens when inserting links with the context menu or with keyboard shortcuts (for example, ctrl+K or command+K).
Additionally, the dialog includes a new Insert Quicklink option, allowing users to easily insert a quicklink. When using Insert Stuff > Insert Link or Insert Quicklink > Link, the same Link, Text, and Open In options are displayed ensuring consistent link creation.
Several options have been renamed from the previous version to improve consistency:
- The option to have links open in the current window was previously called same frame.
- Link was previously named URL.
Lunch and Learn in Spring 2024
This Spring, the focus in Lunch and Learn is Foundational Teaching Strategies. Each session explores effective strategies and describes implementation for in-person, Zoom, or asynchronous courses. Come participate in rich discussions!
Foundational Teaching Strategies: Effective Class Discussions Part 2
Thursday, April 4: There are specific strategies that enhance classroom discussions. We will explore the strategies that are proven to be effective for and enhance asynchronous and synchronous discussions. We will also explore which strategies overlap for effective use in any learning modality
Foundational Teaching Strategies: Inclusive Practices Part 1
Thursday, April 25: When students feel included and that they belong in your classroom, it supports their success. Building an inclusive classroom environment is a foundational strategy to student success. In an inclusive classroom, students from various backgrounds, including different races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, socioeconomic statuses, and belief systems, feel welcomed, respected, and supported. In this session, we’ll address some common assumptions that might occur and methods of overcoming these. We’ll also explore strategies to create an inclusive classroom to ensure that all student voices are heard.
May Professional Develpment Days
Join us during the May Professional Develpment days to learn more about engagement strategies to support attendance and how Delaware Tech is combatting ghost students. In the meantime, check out the Engagement & Attendance Reference Guide to learn more!
(Select the image to view the Reference Guide)
Other Training Opportunities
Ghost Student Training
Lately, a concerning pattern has emerged within higher education: the increase of fraudulent student accounts, particularly within community colleges. These fraudulent students are often referred to as ghost students. A deceitful tactic entails creating fake student identities to manipulate financial aid and scholarship processes. As colleges grapple with the increasing complexity of these fraudulent activities, it’s important to look at what Delaware Tech is doing to mitigate this problem and recognize how active engagement with our genuine learners can serve as a deterrent to these scammers.
Watch the following video to learn more about how ghost students are targeting colleges.
Humans and Robots
A podcast from Faculty Focus Live: Episode 76 – Teaching Tomorrow: Unleashing the Synergy Between Humans and Robots.
The episode addresses AI tools in education and how faculty need to collaborate to learn more about these tools. The use of AI for brainstorming, language translation, and lesson planning is explored.