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March 10 Update

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Greetings Instructors,

Happy Wednesday! I am running low on authentic greetings that strike the right balance between optimism and exhaustion. That said, we are ten days from the first day of Spring. We were also delighted to see Linn Posey Maddox featured for her use of surveys in getting to know her students.

Here are some more instructional developments in the School of Education and greater campus:

For Your Students

Are you thinking about your students’ well-being this time of the semester? Given that we’re in the midst of midterms:

  • The School of Education has created The Virtual Den – It’s an online community for School of Education students hosted by School of Education students (and their friends). This week, the Den is hosting a Weeklong Wellness Bingo contest (complete with prizes). It coincides with the Wellbeing Summit for students tomorrow and Friday. Future Virtual Den events in March include mindful doodling and a mini-spring break. Please feel free to share the links.
  • Are your students looking for access to a private campus room to study, participate in their online courses, take online exams, or access a computer and WiFi? They can consult https://virtuallearning.wisc.edu

For You

Updates on Zoom within Canvas

  • Co-hosts can now start break-out rooms
  • Student invitations for a Zoom meeting only include a link to the Zoom meeting, but don’t include a phone number to call the room in case they cannot use the link. Workaround: The organizer of the event can copy/paste the phone number for the meeting in their course bulletin board.
  • Reminder to move recordings out of Zoom cloud recording and move to Kaltura
    • For Zoom, recordings are purged within 150 days of the beginning of the semester. So If you make a recording at the end of the semester, you need to back it up quickly. (The 150 days take us a little beyond the semester).

Professional Development Opportunities

  • 2021 Teaching and Learning Symposium: Join your colleagues on March 18th from 11:30 am to 1 pm to learn more about how to foster connection and especially help online students engage and learn with expert Flower Darby.
  • TeachOnline@UW: This comprehensive faculty learning community is intended for new and experienced online instructors who want to explore and apply in-depth best practices – designing (or re-designing) and teaching fully online, credit courses. The program offers two free courses: Plan & Design: and Facilitation & Management. Applications are also now being accepted for the spring Facilitation & Management course (March 22 to April 30) and both courses for summer 2021
  • Preparing to Teach Online (Spring sessions: March 23-29, April 13-19): This week-long, intensive course built for instructors teaching remotely or online. This course is built around five modules that will help you prepare your course for remote learning.
  • Classroom Assessment Strategies Workshop (5/10, 1:30 to 3 pm & 5/12, 9 to 10:30 am): During this interactive virtual workshop, you will learn how to create an online activity for your course to assess students’ learning progress using a Classroom Assessment Technique (CAT) of your choice.
  • Learning Analytics – explore how to use learning analytics to support student success by attending an upcoming Learning Analytics Community of Practice session or a Learner Engagement Analytics Dashboard (LEAD) Demo and Discussion. LEAD aggregates course data from Canvas, Kaltura, and Unizin Engage eText.
  • Looking for a new strategy to add to your virtual teaching arsenal? Try Pass the Paper

Blackboard Collaborate

Finally, a reminder — if you need help with Canvas, Zoom, activities for engaging students, or any other instructional issues — you should always feel free to connect with our instructional support staff by emailing canvas@education.wisc.edu. We love hearing from you.

With warmth,

Anna Lewis