Reading Time: < 1 minute In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles chat with Nate Brock, Lead Evaluator in the Science Education Department at Western Governors University. Check out the episode to hear WGU’s approach to Competency-Based Education and the key features that make WGU’s programs distinct. Podcast links Show notes Western Governors University is a fully competency-based institution that designs their courses with a student-centered mindset. If a student can complete a course in a shorter amount of time, that benefits the student as they progress through the degree. This competency-based approach enables a student to progress at their own rate while ensuring they have mastered the…
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Three Tips for Checking your Canvas Gradebook before Submitting Final Grades
Reading Time: 2 minutes Finals are next week, so it’s time to think about wrapping up your courses and preparing to submit your grades. Submitting grades is a quick process, but there are a few items you’ll need to do before you click that button. 1. Check your course grading scheme You should have a grading system defined in your syllabus with the values defined for each grade letter. Canvas can display that letter grade to both you and your students, but you need to make sure you have this setting enabled with the correct values set. 2. Check your grade breakdown The grade breakdown is different from the grading scheme!…
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Transform Your Teaching: Designing Competency-Based Education Curriculum
Reading Time: 2 minutes In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles continue talking about Competency-Based Education, specifically what the design process looks like in developing a CBE course. Check out this episode to hear about the different considerations when creating a CBE course and how that affects planning. Podcast links Show notes Designing a Competency-Based Education (CBE) course is similar to designing a traditional course. The goal is still to design with the end in mind—paying close attention to the course objectives and module objectives, how the assessments give students the opportunity to show mastery of the objectives, and the course content that prepares them for those assessments.…
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Generative AI, In Practice: ALT Text, Part II
Reading Time: 5 minutes Last week, we looked at some examples of alt text that Copilot generated for us and evaluated what we’d need to change before using them. It had done a good job with simple graphics, though the nuance of having elements faded more to the background and the meaning of that was lost on it. Copilot did not do a good job describing a still shot from a movie. But today, we’re going to look at this from a different angle – what can we do to help GAI create better alt text for us? Are there ways to prompt or feed it context to get drafts…
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Transform Your Teaching: What is Competency-Based Education?
Reading Time: < 1 minute In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles kick off a new series on Competency-Based Education. Check out the episode to hear the characteristics of CBE and how it compares with traditional educational practice. Podcast links Show notes In traditional educational models, time is the constant and education is the variable. With Competency-Based Education (CBE) models, time is the variable and education is the constant. In the current educational landscape, CBE is commonly seen in apprenticeships and in trades. Typically, it involves an instructor coming alongside a student to help them achieve mastery of content. Jared is currently apprehensive about CBE because it turns…
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Generative AI, In Practice: ALT Text, Part I
Reading Time: 4 minutes Now that we’ve finished our series on Generative AI over on Transform Your Teaching, we wanted to take this opportunity to dive into specifics for some of the ways GAI can help speed along parts of your process. CTL recently worked on a course project that included designing a lot of figures and graphics to be included in lesson pages – and each of those images needed to have alt text written for it. Now, I’m no stranger to writing alt text, and it isn’t the most complicated piece of work to do; but it can take a decent bit of time when you’re starting with…
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Transform Your Teaching: A Conversation with (Ret.) Lt. General Loren Reno
Reading Time: 2 minutes In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles chat with (Ret.) Lt. General Loren Reno, Professor of Management and Senior Advisor, Office of the President at Cedarville University. Check out the episode to hear how he uses servant teaching to encourage and inspire students. Podcast links General Reno’s goal as an educator is to serve. He seeks to inspire his students instead of attempting to control their involvement in the learning process since educators can intrinsically motivate students through inspiration. With this foundation, General Reno provides several traits of a servant teacher: All these principles are based on approaching teaching with humility. General Reno shares that…