Student Engagement and Active Learning

Student Assessment

Check Tests BEFORE Publishing 

ALWAYS test-drive quizzes and tests as a student in a Development (DEV) site, prior to publishing them to students.  Use of Preview is not sufficient to identify any problems. 

This is particularly important when working with tests that were imported from Classic. When tests are designed using the Tests and Quizzes tool, it has good validation and it will not let instructors enter two choices for a single m/c type question NOR will it let them save a question with no choice selected. However, when importing tests from Classic or Word-2-QTI, there is no such validation, so human errors are not caught.

To test-drive course site tests and quizzes as a student, use Add Participant to create a Fake Student account. 

QTI Word Converter

You may want to take note that the QTI Word Converter creates a test with NO high security settings available.  This is a problem for when the instructor needs to make a duplicate of the test for make-up or special accommodation with a password security setting.

Bottomline is to NOT make a test directly with QTI Word Converter files.  Make a Question Pool instead.

The workaround for those who have already created a test directly with QTI Word Convert is: 

1.  Export the existing Test as a file and save on Desktop
2.  Import that Test file to Question Pools
3.  Create a new version of the Test using the new Question Pool  

Prevent Cheating and Plagiarism

• Internet Detective - Tutorial for students to understand how to critically evaluate the quality of information available on the internet and how to avoid plagiarism.
• Minimize Cheating in Online Courses
• VAIL - Virtual Academic Integrity Lab 

Manage Discussions

Insert your own Best Practices and Tips here.

Multimedia

Want to make multimedia files larger than 5mb available to your students in ETUDES NG?

Using the built in RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feature at Box.net, you can allow your students to view your stored files using ETUDES News (RSS feed) tool.   Each publicly shared folder and public Box in your account has its own RSS feed that can be recognized by the ETUDES RSS news feed reader.

Step 1:  Get a free account at Box.net

• Total File Storage Space: 1.0 GB
• Bandwidth: up to 10.0 GB
• Max File-size: 10MB

Step 2:  Upload your chosen multimedia files to your new Box.net account and make them Public.

Step  3:  Select the folder you want to make available.  Click on List View.  Select 'Get Public Link' from the drop-down menu of the folder you'd like to share.  You will be presented with an RSS link that you can post to ETUDES.  Copy the URL (web address) listed under RSS: Open URL.

Step 4:  Login to your ETUDES course.  Click on Site Info.  Click on Edit Tools.  Select News.  Paste the RSS URL from your Box.net account

Powerpoint Slideshows

Consider converting your powerpoint slideshow to webpage(s) or flash, or compressing your slideshow file.

A quick tutorial on how to compress images inside Powerpoint slideshows for smaller file size and easier upload to NG is available at:

http://biguglycouch.wordpress.com/2007/05/17/what-is-the-point-of-your-powerpoint-2-of-3/

Or, post your slideshows outside ETUDES NG at Slideshare (http://slideshare.net).

Podcasting

• #36 Don't record your lectures 
  • There are much better things we can do with the medium of podcasting in higher education than record lectures. Slides for this session are available on at http://www.slideshare.net/amiddlet50/dont-record-your-lectures-educational-podcast-models.
• Engaging Educational Podcasts

Wikis

Insert your own Best Practices and Tips here.

Monitor Student Participation in Etudes

Student Portfolios

• Student ePortfolios
• Student Generated Content 

Fair Use, Copyright, and TEACH Act

• Center for Intellectual Property