[Spring Workshop 2017] Session Descriptions

THURSDAY JUN. 1

 

 

Registration, Breakfast & Networking

      Registration Breakfast Networking

 

 

Plenary Session: How (you can help) People Learn

      Plenary

Between education researchers, psychologists, and more recently, cognitive scientists, we now have very good understanding of how people learn. We’ll explore three key findings, and more importantly, how educators can use these key findings to design and deliver experiences that help people learn. And by “educator,” I don’t just mean faculty in classrooms but also consultants in Teaching and Learning Centres, IT staff, librarians, teaching assistants, tutors, professional development specialists,… anyone who has knowledge and skills to share with others, in person and online.

 

 

Networking Break 10-10:30

      Networking

 

 

Student Perceptions of Self Identity in Self-paced course

      Educational Technology, Learning Design

This presentation will show an innovative design approach to engage students enrolled in self-paced courses in a social activity. It will also show through student survey results, that students want this opportunity. At Thompson Rivers University – Open Learning (TRU-OL) there is a movement to create courses that enable students to enrol at any time and complete the course at their own pace. Administrators believe that continuous enrollment, self-paced courses will attract more students. However, as Instructional Designers, the movement towards independent, self-paced learning poses a dilemma. We know that education has a social component to it. The Community of Inquiry model has the Social Presence as one of its core components. Yet, how can a social component be designed for people who are completing their course independently. In a Regional Geography of Canada course, we have created an exercise where students leave an artifact representing key features of their community pinned on a map of Canada. Other students can view the information contained in the pin by scrolling over it. As a result, they can learn about other communities across Canada and make some comparative assessments. In creating this exercise, we also used a new technology that allows people to upload photos on to the map, without the need to use third party software that requires account creation and authentication. This session will be of interest to instructional designers and others who are interested in creating social engagement in self-paced on-line courses.

 

 

A New Format for Course Redesign Programs

      Faculty/Ed Development, Learning Design

Vancouver Island University has done away with most of the traditional formats for faculty development (workshops, consultations, presentations, etc) and created a collection of semester-long course redesign programs. Each program is built around a high impact practice focused on key areas that are known for eliciting highest return on investment for engaging students (such as team-based learning, self-regulated learning, experiential education, structured inquiry, etc). Each program has three parts: pre-program application, readiness inventory and readings; 2-3 day intensive institute and a four month implementation phase including mid-term feedback process, peer observation, reflective pieces and engagement with colleagues. We have seen quite a bit of success with changing teaching practices and now focus most of our energies on building new programs each year. This session will share with participants our design secrets while engaging you in the step-by-step process of designing your own program!

 

 

Intro to Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

      Breakthrough Thinking, Learning Design

Wikipedia-based assignments can engage students in an authentic learning experience that involves open collaboration, critical thinking, and knowledge building for a global audience. When students write or edit in wikipedia, they are not using the same format or skills that they would in writing a research paper or persuasive essay – they are applying new strategies to produce knowledge that people will use in the real world and they are building digital literacies. An edit-a-thon is an organized event where editors of online communities such as Wikipedia edit and improve a specific topic or type of content, typically including basic editing training for new editors. Wikipedia articles are based on verifiability and in this workshop, we will add citations to support Wikipedia’s goal of providing reliable information. In a time when “post-truth” politics prioritize sentiment and personal belief over facts, it is more important now than ever to create projects that involve fact-based digital literacy skills where students engage with communities other than peers in a classroom, open their ideas up to public scrutiny, and evaluate, create and communicate information in new ways. This hands-on session will cover the basics of edit-a-thons for teaching information literacy skills, Wikipedia editing and will involve the hands-on adding of citations to Wikipedia.

 

 

The Robots are Coming: Our Journey Towards Course Production Automation

      Breakthrough Thinking

The Course Production Team would like to share the story of how we streamlined our online course production process. By refining our internal processes, working with stakeholders, automating workflows, and developing a suite of support tools, we have effectively cut our production time in half while increasing quality, consistency, and maintainability.

 

 

Exploring Faculty Support: Successes and Challenges

      Faculty/Ed Development

Many institutions do not have instructional designers or other teams to create and develop online learning activities for faculty members. At these institutions, we need to empower the faculty members to move beyond the more traditional role of subject matter expert and into a blended role where they can create and continuously develop high-quality learning experiences for their students. How can we, as technology and teaching and learning support persons, engage with faculty members given the competing demands on their time and energies? In this session, we will explore together how we have approached this challenge in the past, and what our successes and challenges were. We will then work together to consider what new approaches we could consider, and how those new approaches may fit within our own institutional culture.

 

 

Lunch

      Lunch

 

 

FOIPPA Design Challenge

      Breakthrough Thinking, Faculty/Ed Development

How to shift the thinking of guerrilla teachers and get them to embrace working within the confines of FOIPPA legislation. It can actually be a win-win, and may soon become a must-must. 

 

 

Open sharing systems to support Teaching & Learning Part I – Inspiration

      Breakthrough Thinking, Learning Design

We work hard supporting teaching and learning at our respective institutions, but often it doesn’t feel like enough. Sometimes we lack internal expertise and resources to address emerging needs, but where do we turn for help? What if we could not do more, but share more? What could that look like? In this design thinking-based session, you will actively explore the following challenge: How might BC higher educational institutions effectively share quality teaching and learning resources with each other? During this fast-paced session, you will engage in methods drawn from the Human-Centred Design Inspiration Phase such as “Conversation Starters” (sparking creative reactions and beginning dialogue), “Analogous Inspiration” (drawing insights from sharing/bartering/trading systems that work in other contexts), and “Expert Interviews” (talking with the people we’re designing for). You’ll have an opportunity to stay in the room and work together on inspiration methods and/or leave the room to find conference-goers to connect with in search of new inspiration. All participants will “download your learnings” with each other before the end of the session and leave those artifacts in the room. These will serve to inspire the participants of the next phase of the design challenge, the “Ideation” session that will follow.* (Perhaps that will be you too!) You will leave this session inspired by participating in at least three design thinking methods that you can implement towards your own potential design challenges. *Note: This challenge extends over 2 sessions: 1) Open Sharing Systems to Support Teaching and Learning (INSPIRATION Phase) and 2) Open Sharing Systems to Support Teaching and Learning (IDEATION phase). Although these two design thinking sessions are related, we will ensure that they can be attended independently; you will not have had to attend the first session in order to be able to participate in the second and vice versa.

 

 

Design Challenge: Mobile Learning

      Educational Technology, Learning Design

Laptops and desktops are so last decade! It is now more common that a student on a post-secondary campus today will expect to access different online learning environments using the mobile device of their choosing. While using only a tablet or phone for online learning has advantages there are also challenges as well. As education technology professionals we must design online courses that are accessible by any device, including mobile. The facilitator for this interactive session, Ross McKerlich, went mobile for a recent 6-week online course and he shares his experience of using only his phone to access the course. Large group discussion will follow on how to design an online course that is fully accessible by any device and best practices will be shared.

 

 

Graphic Jams in the Classroom

      Breakthrough Thinking, Learning Design

A Graphic or “Icon Jam” is a design process that can be used to quickly generate a collection of responses, ideas or visual representations, depending on how it is used. It engages participants with an approachable visual practice and involves no other technology! Facilitators can use such a Jam to approach tough questions in the classroom, crowdsource solutions or survey large groups for patterns of understanding. In this fully interactive and hands on session, facilitators Jason Toal (SFU) and Leva Lee(BC Campus) will guide participants through the basics of running an Icon Jam, and explore different ways this may be effective for classroom interactions.

 

 

Open Sharing systems to support Teaching & Learning Part 2 – Ideation

      Breakthrough Thinking, Learning Design

Up for a challenge? We’re going to begin exploring the sparks of ideas collected during the earlier exploration of the design question: How might BC higher educational institutions effectively share quality teaching and learning resources with each other? We’ll use the wisdom of crowds and methods from the Ideation Phase of Human-Centred Design to identify the ideas to link together (Bundling) to create substantive solutions. We’ll build on Inspiring Stories about the systems we envision or have experienced and make them visible by building Frameworks or creating Storyboards. You will leave this session with ideas for creating a sharing culture among BC higher educational institutions. *Note: This challenge extends over 2 sessions: Open Sharing Systems to Support Teaching and Learning (INSPIRATION Phase) and Open Sharing Systems to Support Teaching and Learning (IDEATION phase). Although these two design thinking sessions are related, we will ensure that they can be attended independently; you will not have had to attend the first session in order to be able to participate in the second and vice versa.

 

 

They Want a PDF!!

      Educational Technology, Learning Design

Often, when designing courses we attempt to merge new technologies with tried and true design practices. But what happens when you use “old” technologies to take a fresh approach? A solution that is a hit with learners! This presentation will provide an argument and use case for using interactive PDFs as way to deliver course content. Through the use of multiple cases, this session will cover: – the use case for an interactive PDF – the benefits of an interactive PDF – including privacy, mobile friendly & more! – considerations for design – how to approach developing your own interactive PDF

 

 

Tour of UBCO Campus [Meet in EME 1st Floor Foyer]

      Party and Tour

 

 

Evening Social

      Party and Tour

Join us for some music, appetizers, a cash bar and fabulous networking at the Rotary Centre for the Arts in downtown Kelowna! 

 

FRIDAY JUN. 2

 

 

Breakfast & Networking

      Registration Breakfast Networking

 

 

Student driven OER, 3D modelling and virtual reality tours – the next wave of OER creation and adaptation in B.C.

      Breakthrough Thinking, Learning Design

Open education in British Columbia, Canada is thriving. From open textbooks to virtual reality tours of Stanley Park, the creation, adaptation, and adoption of open educational resources (OER) have skyrocketed since the launch of the B.C. Open Textbook Project in 2012. In 2016, the BCcampus Open Education team, with the support of the Hewlett Foundation, distributed grants to B.C. public post-secondary institutions to create, adapt, or adopt OER. The successful recipients of these grants included: the creation of student-driven subject specific case studies; creation of 3D videos to enhance trades education; creation of instructional videos to supplement open textbooks; student co-created virtual reality tours of B.C. geographical landmarks; the creation and implementation of the first OER protégé program, a faculty development program dedicated to the creation and adaptation of OER; and the student-led adaptation of OpenStax’s Principles of Microeconomics open textbook. This presentation will showcase what is next for OER and Open education in B.C., highlighting the collaboration that has taken place across the institutions, the student-driven open educational resource development, and the innovative practices that have led to successful creation of OER.

 

 

UBC Flex Com Minor Project

      Breakthrough Thinking, Learning Design

In this session we will discuss and explore the benefits, challenges and lessons learned from the implementation of the Sauder’s Flexible Learning Initiatives. In 2013, UBC launched the Flexible Learning Initiative, which aimed to provide an agile yet deliberate approach to transforming and enhancing student learning experience. The Flex Comm Minor project (7 courses for non-commerce students) was part of the larger UBC Flexible Learning Initiative. These 7 courses are entitled “Flexible Learning” courses, which emphasize flexibility in time and space. UBC Sauder Learning Services was leading the academic (in collaboration with the instructors and the UBC Sauder UGO), technology, and media development for the Flex Comm Minor project. This project expanded access to the Minor in Commerce courses to greater audiences by reducing scheduling conflicts with non-Sauder students. In addition, flexibility in time and space helped optimize classroom usage efficiency. It is reported by the Flex instructors that their experience with Flex positively impacted their teaching of other courses including face-to-face courses. The impact of the Flex project is also found in the example of full adoption in some BCOM courses (COMM 491 and COMM 203). Furthermore, the lessons we learned from this project influenced other course/program design and development (e.g., B+MM Dual Program, edX Intro-Marketing course). However, large enrollment growth was not achieved due to some factors such as lack of coordination for the Comm Minor Flex, lack of promotion, and class size restriction. Student learning experiences in Flex are varied depending on their motivation to take the Flex courses, the instructors and the subject matter, etc. More students are becoming aware of the Flex modality and its benefits, so strategic planning for large enrollment classes and enhanced student learning experiences is recommended. Success of the Flex modality is not only about the right students who are self-motivated and self-regulate their own learning process, but also about the instructors who understand Flex approaches.

 

Beyond a Toy: The challenges and potential of Virtual Reality in the classroom

      Educational Technology, Learning Design

This session will consider whether virtual reality (VR) can serve as meaningful teaching tool? Session participants will load VR onto their smartphones and take a VR tour. From there, faculty will reflect on their VR experience and develop an online scenario that might apply to their discipline or workplace. With guidance from the moderators, participants will be encouraged to consider challenges and potential of this medium. The ultimate goal of the session is to take VR out of the world of novelty, and consider its pedagogical potential.

 

 

Designing in the Open: Examining the Experiences of Course Developers

      Educational Technology, Learning Design

When redesigning the MA in Learning and Technology, faculty from the School of Education and Technology and educational developers from the RRU Centre for Teaching and Educational Technologies incorporated openness and networked learning as key design principles. In this interactive  presentation, we will incorporate the feedback collected in a post-design survey to frame the discussion, encouraging conference attendees to add their own experiences, questions, and comments. Considerations that were highlighted in the survey included student comfort level, enhancing digital literacy, risk taking and privacy. We will conclude the session with recommendations for supporting those involved in designing for open learning spaces.

 

 

Networking Break

      Registration Breakfast Networking

 

 

Okanagan College Disruptors Group

      Breakthrough Thinking, Faculty/Ed Development

This session will introduce the Okanagan College Disruptors Group. Prompted by a rapidly-changing context of broad economic, social, political and technological innovation, a small group has been meeting since 2014 to describe, analyze and think about how disruptive innovation is affecting the functions of Okanagan College.  Jumping off from a growing library of collected sources including the Annual Horizon Reports, the group uses a ‘sense-making’ philosophy to analyze trends. For example, the group has discussed and written about competency-based education, adaptive and personalized learning, robotics, Uber-U, the role of ‘big data’, makerspaces, the internet of everything, and many more topics. Developing a risk register and a catalogue of emerging innovations have been embedded goals of the group’s processes.

 

Children of the (WordPress) Theme Part 1

      Educational Technology, Learning Design

Child themes are a key element in WordPress customization. This session opens with a presentation on what Child themes are, when to use them, and a brief outline of the principles of creating them. We will also have an open discussion about the kinds of things that can be done with child themes.

 

 

I Stream, you Stream, we all Stream. DIY livestreaming.

      Educational Technology, Learning Design

 

 

Open Pedagogy: Making Learning Visible through Live, Reflective and Co-created Experiences

      Faculty/Ed Development, Learning Design

VIU’s take on open pedagogy centres around the making of learning visible through community engagement and the design of authentic and lived learning experiences, including non-disposable assignments. This isn’t about using open textbooks or open educational resources (however it may be a side effect) but rather about making the entire learning experience live, unedited and unfolding in the moment following many of the attributes of Hegarty’s (2015) model for open pedagogy (learner generated, peer review, participatory technology, innovation and creativity, sharing, reflection, trust and a connected community). We have a number of faculty applying open pedagogy components in their classes and we’ll share some examples. We also are building a course redesign institute around this impactful learning practice. This session will explore the evolving components of open pedagogy and how it might manifest for optimal student learning. Participants will engage in a mini-version of our course redesign model and uncover the key attributes of open pedagogy. Come explore visible learning with us!

 

 

 

Old School Jam

      Breakthrough Thinking, Faculty/Ed Development

Understand what coding curriculum in the the K-12 space looks like when presented through the lens of challenge-based learning. But first, we have to understand what coding is, and reduce fear and confusion, before adding the confusing layer of technology. And where does the ADST [Applied Design and Skills Technologies] Curriculum fit in? How does computational thinking allow you re-fit favourite assignments in a design thinking model? It’s an epic curriculum mash-up, from the point of view of a K-12 educator who is teaching your future learners

 

 

The role of educational developers in supporting open educational practices

      Breakthrough Thinking, Faculty/Ed Development

Note: We are offering this workshop first at the OE Global Conference in South Africa in March and will revise and enhance for ETUG. While open educational resources (OER) increase in availability, sophistication, quality and adoption around the world there remains a gap in the utilization and contribution to open educational practices, amongst faculty. While an official definition for open educational practices is still emerging, we align ourselves with the following articulation which suggests nascent practices enabled by the affordances of OER and open technology infrastructure allowing for the transformation of learning (Camilleri & Ehlers, 2011) which invites students contribution, engagement, and ownership of knowledge resources thereby flattening the balance of power in student/teacher relationships (McGill, Falconer, Dempster, Littlejohn, & Beetham, 2013). Arguments have been made at various levels to engage and support faculty in using open educational practices – at the institutional level to support strategic advantage through lower cost access to OER textbooks and educational materials (Mulder, 2011; Carey, Davis, Ferreras, & Porter, 2015); through incentives which support faculty engagement with instructional designers in the co-creation of reusable high-impact courseware (Conole & Weller, 2008; DeVries & Harrison, 2016); through the experimentation and adoption of the practice of teaching-in-the-open (Veletsianos, 2013); and in the forming of learning communities across institutions (Petrides, Jimes, Middleton‐Detzner, Walling, & Weiss, 2011). This session will focus on the stakeholder role of the educational developer, often situated within teaching and learning centres, whose responsibility may include support of more open practices in higher education, to meet various institutional goals and objectives. 

 

 

Children of the (WordPress) Theme Part 2

      Educational Technology

This session follows on the principles examined in part 1 and is a hands-on session in which participants begin the development of their own child themes. It will involve some coding. Part 2 will begin with session participants creating basic child themes to work with. As the session unfolds participants will add, build and hone key elements of their child theme including: CSS styling, adding functions, and overriding templates.  ***Strong Recommendation The techniques will be demonstrated, but to extract maximum value it is strongly recommended that participants bring a laptop (or tablet if you are comfortable working with code on a tablet) and have a self-hosted WordPress site (not a WordPress.com site) to work with during the session. Participants should also have: access to their server file system, the permissions to upload/install themes or preferably both. If you don’t have the items listed under the Strong Recommendation above and you are interested in part 2, don’t despair. Techniques will be demonstrated and we can also pair you up with someone who has the recommended elements.

 

 

Applying Design Principles and Collaborative, Visual Techniques to “Modules”

      Educational Technology, Faculty/Ed Development

Jumpstart is an initiative between the Teaching and Learning Centre at SFU and the Faculty of Health Sciences aimed at supporting tenure track faculty to create “shareable” educational resources that will be used by other instructors within the faculty. Our first iteration, involves collaborating by applying  design thinking, dialogic and visual techniques to ideate and develop our  integrated microteam approach to supporting faculty including graduate student fellows  in the development of a set of interactive learning modules. If you are interested to learn more about how you can use similar techniques we will be sharing examples of storyboards, visual mapping, diagrams and templates that we are currently developing. We will share what we are reading to inform our practices going forward. This is a work in progress with two iteration cycles built into our faculty collaborations.  Come and hear the story! Help us to think it through. [Team: John Born, Christina Drabik, Kar On Lee, David Rubeli, Robyn Schell, Jason Toal, Sarah Turner, Duane Woods, Gabe Wong]. 

 

 

 

Lunch

      Lunch

 

 

How students used a comic book app, Blackboard blog and ticking clock to co-create course content and demonstrate social justice action: An example of upstanding to sexism and homophobia

      Breakthrough Thinking, Educational Technology

Our learning challenge was to have students generate their own content of typical scenarios involving sexism or homophobia and then show how students could be “upstanders” (as opposed to bystanders), stop the wrongful behaviour and bring everyone back into right relationships. Rather than lecture on the topic of social justice and social action, we challenged students to describe via a series of comic book panels — and then remedy (a series of “upstander” strategies was provided) — sexist and homophobic scenarios they have witnessed. Teams of students were given an iPad with a comic book app to create the photo-based comic representations of the witnessed scenarios. Then each team contributed its comic book page to our collaborative, “Upstander’s Comic Book” (a.k.a. – a Blackboard blog). There was one catch — the social action comics had to be storyboarded, created and posted in less than 10 minutes! The clock started. Chaos erupted. Comics were made. Sexist and homophobic interventions abounded. Once the “Upstander’s Comic Book” was fully assembled, students freely commented on each team’s scenarios and social action strategies giving critical and validating feedback. Lesson outcomes. Our “upstanders” lesson plan met all our learning outcomes; was completed in one 3-hour class; was nearly entirely based on student-generated content and required minimal to moderate instructor set-up and facilitation time. Best of all, it was fun! You are invited to join us in a hands-on workshop demonstrating, step-by-step, how to coach students through the creation of the social action comics (via iPad app); assembly of the completed multi-team comic book (via Blackboard blog) and critical analysis and discussion of the social action scenarios (via comments on the Blackboard blog). And yes, a ticking clock will also be involved!

 

 

Applying Transmedia to the SFU Educational Media Program

      Breakthrough Thinking, Learning Design

The 4-week Educational Media Program (EMP) at the Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC) at SFU has undergone many changes since its conception in 2014. The EMP is an 4-week course that intends to teach instructional staff at SFU how to design and implement media as a teaching tool. This course began as as a series of separate workshops connected only by homework in various media disciplines such as graphics, video, audio and interactivity. This approach functioned well to teach media skills, but we want to encourage more connectivity among the forms of media when designing courses. By employing a throughline of narrative, engagement could be improved and, possibly, greater retention and further utilization of media as they see the complimentary and fluid nature of logically connected media. A transmedia approach allows us to link the workshops together into a more cohesive whole. We also hope that this approach will encourage participants to apply a transmedia approach in their own pedagogy. The program has changed to restructure the workshops so that faculty is participating and engaged in a rich hands-on creative lab environment. We will discuss our design process, from conception, initial design, production, hurdles, and reflections. Bring your mobile device and be ready to activily participate in solving our transmedia story mystery!

 

 

Spreading the FLO Jam: Sweet Ingredients for Successful Adoption

      Learning Design

Have you discovered Facilitating Learning Online workshops yet? The FLO online facilitation workshops are the result of an innovative, collaborative and open approach to developing online teaching skills in higher education. But it’s time for FLO to spread like jam – to educational institutions, organizations, associations – whoever wants to get better at facilitating learning online. Join us to learn more about FLO and to tackle our Wicked Challenge: How do we spread a good idea without losing its unique flavour and quality? In this session you will: • learn about FLO professional development workshops and open educational resources; • explore the challenges around providing open resources while maintaining their quality and essence; • experience the fun and energy of a crowdsourcing activity to generate and sort through your bold ideas

 

 

Open Space

      Open Space

TBA

 

 

Refreshments

      Registration Breakfast Networking

 

 

Plenary Finale: TRU building outward from vision in Commons in a Box

      Plenary

TRU recently launched an Executive Program for Leadership in Education, a non-credit professional program that focuses on providing opportunities for networking, collaboration, and individualized learning pathways. Because of the unique learning requirements we worked outward from the project vision and curricular intentions rather than inward from the capabilities of the institutional LMS when designing the learning environment.    As we built and layered our environment a plethora of design issues and challenges emerged and a variety of open source and custom solutions were developed to address them.    What are your design challenges? Join us for a collaborative discussion about building outward from a shared vision for learning.