Want to improve your videos? Contact COLRS!

Do you have an idea for video content for your classroom? A lecture you want to deliver in a different way? A lesson plan with interactive elements?

What if you already have video content online, but you’re not sure it’s what you need? Maybe the sound quality isn’t what you think it should be, or it’s missing some graphic elements that could enhance the viewing and learning experience.

Communicating with Learners

Effective communication is an essential part of building an inclusive and engaged learning community. Communication strategies can incorporate many tools in Canvas, including announcements, discussions, rubrics, and feedback (text, audio, video). Sometimes as faculty, we can focus so much on the design and creation of learning materials that we overlook the the enormous benefits of regular communication with our students.

Assessing Learners

Assessment is a word that is used a lot in education. A great deal of scholarship focuses on the importance of assessment in higher education. But what do we mean by assessment? Instructors sometimes conflate grading with assessment. It is more than grading. Assessment is the strategic measurement of the extent of student learning in a course. Assessments should link student performance to specific learning objectives and provide feedback to both the instructor and the student on the performance of the student and areas for improvement.

Engaging Students Online

Many of us who teach online have been there: all of a sudden, a student stops turning in assignments and then disappears from the course altogether. Or maybe another student posts to discussion boards enthusiastically at first, but their responses slowly trickle into sporadic, barely-there participation. 

While we can’t control for disruptive events in students’ lives that might impact their engagement in our classes, we can look at how we intentionally incorporate best practices around engaging students in online learning environments.