Category: Learning Resources

Categories
Orientation

Learning Online: Orientation for Students

Orientation.jpg

Just reminder that we offer a well-developed “Orientation to Learning Online” for learners enrolled in the undergraduate courses we deliver through OLT. Students are given access to the course approximately 2 weeks prior to the start of each term

The self-guided orientation courses offers information on:

  • how to be successful online
  • online communication
  • surviving groupwork
  • technical tools to support learning
  • connecting to the library (via VPN)

We’ve included practice exercises for each module and a discussion area that students can post questions to each other and receive help about general WebCT/Vista related issues.

How Do Students Access It?

We send online students a welcome package by email – with login instructions for the Orientation site specific to their course (WebCT 4.1 or Vista). the Orientation will then appear on their list of courses and they can access it any time during the term.

How Do Instructors Access It?

If you would like to have access to the site, please send your CWL to the olt helpdesk and you will be added in.

Happy start of term!!

Categories
Learning Resources Teaching Resources

Resources to Reflect On




Drawers, Building REsources

Originally uploaded by heather.

Remember card catalogues? Somewhat less satisfying but infinitely easier to access are the resources that are only a click away…

Here are a few that may be of interest to you if you are considering implementation of some activities in your course to encourage and document personal reflection.

The first short piece from the Teaching Professor called Questions that Lead to Self Understanding offers suggestions for questions to guide reflection. These could be useful when providing written feedback on coursework – if you are teaching a print based course, or as questions to lead a discussion online.
If you want to access The Teaching Professor or other Magna Publications, please review the attachment below for access instructions.
UBC Site License

The other piece describes the process of journaling online in this month’s edition of the EDUCAUSE Quarterly

Happy reading!

Cindy

Categories
Learning Resources

Group work




Group work

Originally uploaded by sparklefish.

If groupwork is part of your course, you may want to share this resource with your students. It’s all about group process in the online environment. We’ve mainly pulled together resources from elsewhere but found some excellent pieces on managing conflict, which were developed at UBC.

The Online Groupwork Toolkit is posted on the LEAP site for easy access and we are sharing the content via RSS with the Orientation to Online Learning – which will be revised for May.

Categories
Learning Resources Online Courses Teaching Resources

APA Citation Addendum for Online Sources – CIDER




First day of the Semester

Originally uploaded by PartsnPieces.

I was browsing through the CIDER site and happened to come upon this tidbit that I thought may be interesting to some of you. Apparently, Jamie Anderson, from SFU Surrey Library has created an addendum for the APA Manual that provides updates and suggested formats for citing online resources. He provides some very helpful examples of recommended citation protocol for a variety of electronic sources including webpages, blogs, online journals and email. Look for these editions in the next edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

The UBC Library also has a useful reference on APA style with suggestions for some digital sources (mainly web pages, journals and e-books).

Both of these references will provide some helpful guidance for students using APA citation styles.

Categories
Administrivia Conferences How to Use This Blog Learning Resources New Instructors Online Courses Online discussion Print Courses Start of Term Teaching Presence Teaching Resources

Many things to many people

Weblogs can be used for many purposes. This one is for sharing information relevant to teaching a distance course at UBC. So far, this has kind of been a one way street. But what about you? I’m sure many of you have comments, stories and issues to share with your colleagues, perhaps you’d like to seek some feedback or generate a discussion. One way to do this is through the use of Comments.

Click on the word Comments at the bottom of this entry and try it out! Your comment will appear as soon as it has been approved (annoying, I know, but the approval process cuts down on spam).

You might also want to post an entry on a subject of interest. In this case, for now, please send it to me and I will post it. If you want to post regularly, let me know and we’ll set you up as an author on the blog.

That’s all there is to it! Comment away!

Cindy

Categories
Learning Resources Start of Term

Un-confusing the confused




+five.me

Originally uploaded by discotraxxx.

For whatever reason, many students seem to be confused this term. Here are some of the more common confusions:
Is my course online or print-based?
How do I get my course materials?
When is my course going to start – I don’t see it on my webCT list (it’s a print-based course)?

As you know, students are sent a welcome email at the start of the term by our Course Support Liaison. You should have received a copy of this. If not contact our CSL. Sadly, some students have set their spam filters on high alert and consequently some of the emails were not received.

Here are a few things you can do to help un-confuse the confused (when they contact you):

  • copy the welcome email into the body of an email message and sent it to the student.
    inform the CSL of any course materials issues that students encounter at the Bookstore (so she can follow up).
  • refer students to the e-learning site to login to their course if it’s online.
  • refer students to our website to review the Learner’s Guide
  • contact the Helpdesk if student’s don’t see their online course on their list (if the course is, in fact, online). Sometimes this indicates a course population glitch that we can fix.

    • Cindy

    Spam prevention powered by Akismet