Author: Kristina Wilson

ANNOUNCING: Distance Learning Consultations

Overview  The Distance Learning team in the School of Professional Studies is excited to announce that Consultations with Distance Learning staff are now available for booking, allowing SPS instructors to discuss course design and technology with online learning experts outside of the course development and revision process.  Whether you are new to teaching online or have been teaching online for many years, we are excited to consult with you and look forward to our conversations! If you have any questions, please contact distanceeducation@northwestern.edu.  Why Book a Consultation?  There are many reasons why you might want to chat with a Learning


Add Quiz Questions to Canvas by Converting CSV Files to QTI ZIP Files

It can be time-consuming to add questions manually to a quiz or exam in Canvas, and it is easy to accidentally omit portions of a question, introduce errors such as typos, or improperly identify a correct or incorrect response. Drafting questions directly into Canvas can also be slow and unwieldy. If you’ve been writing your questions in a word processor, you have a long copy-and-paste session ahead of you before your quiz is available to students. When you have lots of quizzes, an extensive exam, or are planning to build question banks, it is more efficient to automate the process.


Takeaways from UPCEA 2021 Annual Conference

Introduction This year, the Distance Learning team attended the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) 2021 Annual Conference virtually. For three days in April, this conference brought together leaders in the management, administration, and growth of professional, continuing, and online education programs to share best practices and discuss strategies.  In this blog post, Dr. Angela Xiong and Krissy Wilson share their thoughts on two standout sessions. “Supporting Faculty in the Pivot to Online Instruction: Research Insights and Successful Programming” Review: Dr. Angela Xiong, Learning Designer I chose this session because I was interested in learning about the faculty development


The Sessions We Won’t Miss at the PANACEA 2021 Annual Conference

Next week, the Distance Learning team will attend the Pan-American Continuing Education Association (PANACEA) 2021 Annual Conference. While we are excited for the keynote speakers, poster gallery, and network meetings, we were particularly thrilled to see these often-neglected distance learning topics on the list of concurrent sessions.  Starting off our list of must-sees is this gamification session. It sounds like the team at Meles College has really thought about immersive learning strategies as they share takeaways from their innovative approach to engagement. Digital BADGErs: Incentivizing Student Participation in Remote Learning through Gamification To incentivize student participation in remote learning, Meles


Talk It Out, Assign a Podcast

Overview If you had asked me in 2008 if podcasts would be this popular in 2021, I would have guessed not. iTunes U, which began as an audio lecture series offered for free on iTunes in 2007, is winding down, but podcasts on the whole have experienced a renaissance in the last few years.  Last Sunday, I opened the New York Times to find a special section smack in the middle of Arts&Leisure called “The Revolution In Your Ears.” There, on pages 10-15, were a series of articles on podcasts, including “The State of the Podcast,” “What We Are Hearing