Monthly Archives: September 2018

Active Learning Tool – Padlet

When Susie Lubbers sent out the interest survey before the start of classes one of the items that faculty appeared to have the most interest about was how to incorporate active learning strategies into their courses.  On October 15th Susie and I will be facilitating a faculty development workshop on this very topic, but I also wanted to write a few specific blog posts highlighting some tools that you might find helpful to incorporate more active learning.

 

First, what is active learning? I’ll give you my own definition: Active learning is any learning activity where students are directly involved in some or all of the process of learning something new.  Students might be involved in the creation of the content, explaining meaning, organizing content, creating connections between ideas and concepts, or creating a meaningful product that demonstrates understanding.  Active learning in my view can happen in any form of classroom: Face-to-face, online, flipped, traditional lecture, student-centered, etc. As long as your students are doing and demonstrating something more than simply listening/reading to content and recording that information down, there is active learning happening.

 

The first active learning tool that I want to highlight this year is something called Padlet.  Some of you have have heard of this or even use it in your courses.  Padlet is at its core a form of shared and collaborative virtual bulletin board.  Here is an example of what Padlet looks like:

 

 

 

 

 

Several of us have asked students to do tasks on a whiteboard such as writing ideas for everyone to view, putting ideas into categories, reorganizing information, or even sometimes providing a backchannel mechanism for posting questions.  Padlet allows for this do be done. Padlet is free for students and teachers to use, and if a student is simply using (i.e. not creating) Padlet, the student does not even need to create an account and is able to use this tool as a ‘guest.’  For teachers, the free ‘basic’ version allows you to have three padlets created at any one time. And unless you plan to keep a particular padlet long-term this probably is a fine choice of plan. The individual pro plan is $8.25 a month and along with the ability to create unlimited padlets, there are other features such as folders, no ads, and larger memory capability.

 

Padlet can be used on computers or mobile devices and there are a variety of ways to share the Padlet that your class might be working on.  On computers, you can simply send a link or you can embed the actual Padlet window into a course Moodle or Website. If your students are using mobile devices, they will need to install the Padlet App, but then they are able to access your padlet through a link, QR code, of even through a ‘broadcasting’ feature that the presenter can use if sharing using a mobile device.

 

Padlet can basically facilitate times when you would like the larger groups to share and manipulate ideas.  Here are a few suggested uses for Padlet (ideas from this website):

  • Posting brainstorm sessions
  • Categorizing information and concepts
  • Mind mapping and concept maps
  • Q&A forum1
  • Exit ticket collection
  • Submitting files
  • Sharing resources (images, web pages, files)
  • Quick formative assessment
  • Collecting student responses to lessons
  • Shared note taking

 

When posting to a Padlet, users have the options to post text, files, images, Google Suite applications, and even other Padlets.  You can enable comments or ratings to be made on posts as well. Padlet is one of those tools that might help faculty with larger courses to get more student engagement or to allow those quiet students participate in class in a different way.

 

Here is a short video that demonstrates the many ways that media can be incorporated into padlet: https://use.vg/sr0aqN

 

Here are a few other websites with ideas on how Padlet might be used in a classroom:

 

Moodle Assignment Feature: Feedback types and bulk grading features

Bear with me in this week’s blog post – I’m about to get a little ‘fan-girl’ crazy here with Moodle.  And for anyone who knew about these bulk grading and upload processes and never told me…Shame! Shame! Shame!

 

Last week I shared with you a way to help the first start of the grading processes for Moodle assignments go a bit quicker using the Download All Submission option.  At that time I also alluded to the fact that this can be the first step in helping later on with submitting assignments back to Moodle. Today I share with you the thing the literally made me want to jump and shout to the world what I think will be a LIFESAVER for those of us who do a lot of electronic grading.

Excited Cat Meme

Image from https://imgflip.com/i/1dqrhu

 

 

 

 

But before I get into the really exciting part, let me share with you a few of the features in Moodle that you can use to provide different types of feedback to your students.  When you create or edit an assignment you can select the different ways of providing feedback: Feedback Comments, Feedback Files, Offline Grading sheet, and Comment inline.

 

Feedback Comments, when enabled, will include a textbox for you to write comments back to your students.  Feedback Files, when enabled, will provide you a place to upload a file – most likely a Word file that you have made electronic comments on.  If you have provided a textbox for your students to type their assignments into (you do this in the Submission Types –>Online Text) and enable the Comment Inline feature, you will see your student’s responses from their online text submission in your feedback comments textbox and you can comment within the student’s text (see below for what I mean by this).

 

The settings:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How it works:

View Video Click Here: https://use.vg/W4gzdm

 

But probably what I am most excited about is the fact that I just recently started to explore just what this Offline Grading Sheet was all about and WOW have I been missing the boat there.

 

 

 

 

When you enable the offline grading sheet, you will then be given an option in the drop-down menu where you can also ‘download all submissions’ to download the grading sheet.

 

 

 

 

 

Doing this will download an Excel file to your computer that is formatted so that all you need to do is enter in the points grades for students on the single excel sheet.  You can also write in your feedback comments on this grading sheet as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once all of the grades are entered, then you can simply upload this sheet back (don’t change anything about the formatting except for the grades and the feedback you entered) and Moodle magic updates all of the grades for you at once!  You can do similar quick grading on the initial page of an assignment in Moodle, but this allows you to also do this while not connected to the Internet (at least until you have to upload the sheet). Here’s a quick demo of how this works:

 

View Video Click Here: https://use.vg/4GnnyW

 

So, once I learned about that I decided to explore the other options in that drop-down menu that I typically ignore (we truly just don’t always have the time to explore this stuff right…plus we don’t want to break the Moodle).  So I explored what the “upload multiple feedback files in a zip” was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, surprisingly it’s exactly what it sounds like.  A way to upload all of those commented worksheets or papers at once (rather than going student by student).  The trick here is that you need to first download all of the files using the “download all submissions” tool.  This names the files in the way that is necessary to batch upload again. After that all you need to do is to save all of these files into a zip folder and then upload it back and BOOM! All the files are there.  What might take you the better part of an hour to do when turning back assignments (especially if you have have 30-40 or more students in a course) is now done in the matter of a few minutes! Now if we can just get the actual grading to go quicker right?! See this magic at work here:

 

View Video Click Here: https://use.vg/g0pIJm

 

So are you as excited as I am about this? This will literally save me hours of time as I grade assignments this year.  The one thing to be aware of is that students do not receive an automatic email notifying them of these updated grades and files.  But this is easily done by simply clicking the “save all grading changes” at the bottom of the quick grade view.

 

**Edit to add information**

Unfortunately if you use ‘Rubrics’ or ‘Marking Guides’ as your grading type in Moodle the Offline Grading Sheet feature is not available.  However, you can still do a bulk upload of all feedback files.

Moodle Assignment Feature: Download All Assignments

When Susie and I had the faculty respond to a short survey, there was a lot of interest from you on learning more about the different features of two particular Moodle activities: Assignments and Quizzes.  These are probably two of the most commonly used Moodle activities (Forums are also very common) at Morningside and there is probably more to them that you are aware.

Even I have learned a few new strategies for using these tools recently and this year one of my goals is to share these with all of you.  This Fall I focus on Moodle Assignments.

Basics:

The Moodle Assignment is basically the drop-box feature in our learning management system (LMS).  Instructors provide instructions and materials for students to complete and then students submit their work electronically through Moodle.  Instructors then provide feedback and grade the assignments, turning them back electronically through Moodle. Here is a document outlining this basic process.

 

Assignment Options:

There are many different options available that you’ve likely noticed if you have ever included one of these in your course.  For example, there are different feedback types, different grading mechanisms, you can use something called ‘groups,’ you can enable multiple attempts, you can use a ‘quickgrade’ or you can grade students one screen at a time.  I’ll discuss using some of these different features in future blog posts, however, In this installment I want to give you one tip that might help the grading process go just a tad bit faster – the Download All Submissions feature.

 

Using Download All Submissions:

After your students have all uploaded their assignments to Moodle there are really two ways to download the files onto your computer so that you can provide feedback on their assignments.  1) you can click on each individual student file and download them individually or 2) you can download all files as a batch. There are a few benefits to using process #2: First, there is WAY fewer clicks and less waiting for downloads and second, using the download all submissions option automatically names the files with the students names.  So you don’t need to depend on students properly naming their files for you to identify them on your computer! Here is a short 30 sec video demonstrating how to do this.

 

https://use.vg/xYu57R

 

The one drawback that I can think of is this.  You really need to wait until after the due date to use this bulk download process in the most efficient manner, so if you are someone who likes to grade as assignments come in, this process might not be the best to use.  This bulk download does not recognize if you have downloaded the same file previously. It’s still possible to use it, there is just more file management that needs to occur on the instructor’s end (i.e. moving new files into your assignment files and ignoring student files that you have already saved).

This process can help speed up grading by basically reducing the time it takes to download each individual student’s file to your computer.  Additionally, using this process also makes it possible to do a type of bulk upload (to be discussed in a future blog post! – This is a feature I just learned about myself).

Morningside College QM Plan. What is it? How do I learn more?

Many of you are likely aware that Morningside College subscribed to Quality Matters, but did you also know that we have an active plan to help us implement the Quality Matters standards into our online courses? One of the services that Quality Matters provides is a process to help institutions create implementation plans.  A college representative (typically the campus Quality Matters Coordinator or QMC) completes a proposal that follows the guidelines given by Quality Matters to describe the process that the institution will take to help implement the Quality Matters standards within is online and blended courses.

 

A couple of years ago, I stumbled across this service and decided to create a QM Implementation Plan for Morningside College which focuses on creating a form of internal review process for our online courses in our online programs (Graduate Education, Graduate Nursing, and Organizational Management).  I worked with John Pino, Steve Gates, Jackie Barber, and Michelle Laughlin as I drafted this proposal. What I liked about the process was QMs flexibility for us to create a plan that fit Morningside and our needs. Our needs were to create a review system for ourselves, guided by the QM standards. I submitted this proposal to QM and they basically said “Great! Go for it!” You can read the specifics of this plan here if you are interested.

 

We are currently in Year 2 of a three year plan.  Last year I recruited several faculty and adjuncts within the Graduate Education program to complete the training necessary to become peer-reviewers for our internal process.  This year, I hope to continue to recruit interested faculty and to begin training those who have completed the training to conduct reviews. Ultimately it is my goal to try to have at least 2 courses from each program reviewed internally.

 

So what does it mean that we have a QM ‘approved’ implementation plan? Each year I submit an annual report indicating our progress on our stated goals.  And we are also able to include a statement in our web pages that states:

Morningside College is committed to implement the Quality Matters Standards for the design of online and/or hybrid courses, and we are systematically building and evaluating our courses based on these rigorous, research-supported standards. The Quality Matters standards assure that the online components of these courses promote learner engagement and provide students with all the tools and information they need to be successful learners. More information regarding Quality Matters may be found at https://www.qualitymatters.org/.

 

Beyond the request for annual reports there is no other ‘policing’ that QM does.  So it’s not like we will be punished for not meeting our goals. But they do provide guidance and resources for those of us trying to accomplish our goals.

 

If you are interested in learning more about the Morningside College QM Implementation Plan, please feel free to contact me.  If you are interested in becoming an internal reviewer I would love to talk to you more! Even if you do not teach online, you can become a reviewer.  Becoming a reviewer for our online programs will allow you to see just what our online courses look like, how our online students are learning, and it can even give you ideas for your own courses!