Tag: tips and tricks

Why and When to Use PowerPoint in Online Courses

by Mar 04, 2019

While PowerPoint is a very effective tool for creating visual aids when used properly (or artistically, or satirically), it can be harmful when misused. Suggestions for appropriate use of PowerPoint have been documented in various blog posts on the Distance Learning website. For the Summer 2019 course development period, extra emphasis is being placed on on using PowerPoint in ways that go beyond its most convenient form: bulleted lists. Structured, bulleted lists may work well for quickly organizing your own thoughts, but there are other (trendier?) ways of doing that without using PowerPoint. PowerPoint can continue to be a useful

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What Should I Do With My Slides Now That I’m Teaching Online?

by , Jul 02, 2018

Introduction If you’ve taught face-to-face before, there’s a good chance you’ve developed slides to help give lectures in your classroom. You may even have structured your course around them: ten slide decks for ten weeks of class. There’s no shame there–keynote speakers and conference presenters use slides as an important part of their practice, and when properly designed they can make for engaging in-person presentations. Now you’re designing an online or hybrid class, and you’ve got your slides in hand. These worked great in my face-to-face class, you’re thinking. I’ll just put them online for students to read. But wait!

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Spring Cleaning: Five Ways to Spruce Up Your Course Site

by May 07, 2018

Spring has finally arrived in Chicago, and with it, many people are starting to think about spring cleaning. This can apply to more than your home or office, though. In the time before Summer classes start, there are ways you can clean up your course site too. Check your dates Make sure the dates in your course are correct for the next quarter. Students will notice if your syllabus or assignment page says that something is due in September for a class that’s running from June to August. Forgetting to change those dates is not just frustrating for students–it can

Instructor Bio Tips & Tricks

by Jan 17, 2018

The instructor bio is such a simple, basic part of the course that it can be easy to overlook its importance. When so much time is taken up with assignment rubrics, video scripts, and discussion prompts, thinking of how to describe yourself to students can seem pretty minor. But it is worth thinking about. The instructor bio is often the first introduction that students will have to you–as an educator, as a subject matter expert, and as a person. So it’s key to make a good first impression with an instructor bio that students will want to read. Quality Matters

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Use Google Sheets to Adjust Due Dates in Canvas

by Nov 27, 2017

Canvas provides many ways to change due dates of assignments. When copying a course from one quarter to the next you can use the Shift Dates feature during a Course Import. If you keep the same due date pattern each quarter, then simply setting a new start and end date for the duration of the course will distribute the dates evenly. Canvas even gives you the option to change the day of the week, so if in Fall quarter discussions were due on Tuesdays but in Spring you want them due on Fridays you can substitute a new day of

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