Reading Time: 2 minutesCedarville University (CU) provides all faculty and students access to TurnItIn to help improve writing and prevent plagiarism. TurnItIn accepts user documents and compares them to material located on the Internet and in TurnItIn’s document repository. After the documents are compared, TurnItIn produces the Similarity Report which shows the parts of a student’s paper that are similar to other sources. Here are three tips to help you read the Similarity Report. Tip 1: Familiarize yourself with what Canvas and TurnItIn can do Get up to speed with all of the functionality the Canvas and TurnItIn integration has to offer by viewing or downloading the Canvas Plagiarism Framework…
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Adding External Tools to Your Course
Reading Time: 3 minutesWe’ve previously talked about how to use Ensemble for screen capture and webcam recording. We’ve also talked about how to add annotations, edit, and upload your video. But once you’ve uploaded your video, how do you get it into Canvas? Ensemble is integrated with Canvas as an external tool, so it’s a simple process to add media to your course. We’re going to use Ensemble as an example here, but you’ll follow the same initial process to add any external tool to your course. Add an external tool to a module If you want your video or other item from an external tool to be available directly…
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Best Practices for Online Quizzes
Reading Time: 2 minutesMoving from paper-and-pencil quizzes to online quizzes brings many benefits to students, instructors, and the institution. However, instructors may be concerned about offering online exams for fears of test security, especially for high-stakes quizzes. Some fear a scenario in which students are no longer using the information provided by the instructor to enhance their learning but rather online sources, such as Quizlet, to achieve the high marks they desire. An Inside Higher Education article (McKenzie, 2018) quoted a student’s tweet, “Today I graduated and I couldn’t have done it without God and Quizlet.” In this post, we will talk about some strategies that can be used to…
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Best Practices for Webcam Recording
Reading Time: < 1 minuteLet’s set the scene. It’s the early evening, and there was a concept in class today that your students need a little more help with. You decide to record a short webcam video using Ensemble Anthem for them. As you prepare to make this video, there are a few things to keep in mind to make the video a good experience for your students. Check out this video for examples! Video by Jared Pyles Want to never miss a post? Subscribe here!
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Calibrate: Interview with Rob McDole about InstructureCon
Reading Time: 2 minutesSo, Rob, you went to a conference a couple of weeks ago. Can you tell me what conference it was and a little bit about it? I went to InstructureCon in Long Beach, CA. Instructure is the parent company of Canvas, the new learning management system (LMS) that Cedarville University is using in the upcoming 2019/2020 school year. This conference is geared towards administrators, teachers, developers, instructional designers, and technical support professionals who work with Canvas. There were approximately 3,000 attendees representing various businesses and institutions that use Canvas to accomplish their educational goals. Sessions included Canvas tool usage, previews of new tools that are being released,…
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How to Write Learning Objectives
Reading Time: 2 minutesA learning objective is “a statement that tells what learners should be able to do when they have completed a segment of instruction” (Smith & Ragan, 2005, p. 96). A precise, concrete, and specific learning objective is valuable to the course designer, instructor, learners, and reviewers. In this post, we will focus on module-level or lesson-level learning objectives that are subordinate to the course level objectives. We will use the learning objectives generator to assist in the objective writing process, using the who+verb+goal+condition pattern. Who: Describe the Learner When you are working on module-level or lesson-level learning objectives, the target learner must be identified for the course.…
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Calibrate: Interview with Lauren Eissler about Confab
Reading Time: 4 minutesSo, Lauren, you went to a conference a couple months ago. Can you tell me what conference it was and a little bit about it? I attended Confab, a content strategy conference. This conference is hosted by Brain Traffic, a content strategy consultancy, and it’s really Kristina Halvorson’s brainchild. She co-wrote the book on content strategy, by the way (Content Strategy for the Web). It’s fabulous, and I highly recommend it. But you might be wondering, “What exactly is content strategy” and that’s an excellent question. Content strategy covers a wide variety of roles and tasks including the design, creation, management, and governance of content across any…
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Calibrate: Interview with Jared Pyles about UBTech Conference
Reading Time: 2 minutesSo, Jared, you just got back from a conference recently. Can you tell me what conference it was and a little bit about it? It was called UBTech, put on by the LRP media group which has their hand in a bunch of different professions, including education and educational technology. This conference had several tracks, including Audio/Visual integration and Instructional Technology all tailored toward Higher Education. How did you initially find this conference? What drew you toward it? Google, of course! I was drawn initially to UBTech because it was a higher ed conference for audio/visual professionals. Since I was new to the audio/visual higher ed game,…
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Calibrate: UBTech Conference Initial Takeaways
Reading Time: 2 minutesWelcome to FOCUS’ new “Calibrate” series. As you calibrate a lens to fine-tune its focus, this series will highlight how Cedarville’s faculty and CTL staff are fine-tuning their skills, and they’ll share what they’re learning along the way. In the first installment of the series, CTL’s New Media Developer, Jared Pyles is on location at the UBTech Conference and sent back this reflection on what he’s learned from the conference thus far. What are the characteristics that define the current generation of learners? How are higher education campuses effectively meeting the needs of those students? How can we best utilize existing space to include all learners? These…
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Dos and Don’ts of Quiz Creation
Reading Time: 3 minutesAs educators, we can agree that assessments are essential to the learning process. Quizzes are a popular method for assessing learners’ understanding of material and mastery of knowledge. The real question is – are we quizzing effectively? In this post, we explore some best practices for quiz creation to ensure effective assessment of student mastery in course learning objectives. We will review some Dos and Don’ts for quiz creation. Do Don’t What now? If you have questions about anything you read or suggestions for topics to be covered, leave a comment below. If you need help using these dos and don’ts in your course, contact the CTL…