| Adapting a Research Conference During a Pandemic
Dr. Karen Cousins, Office of Undergraduate Research
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The Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS) is an annual interdisciplinary conference at the University of North Florida in which undergraduate and graduate students showcase their research or creative projects. Students typically present research projects in poster format, and creative projects in various ways, including posters, multimedia, art and 3D models. SOARS, a highlight of UNF Research Week, is organized and sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research with graduate projects sponsored by the Graduate School.
Historically, SOARS has always been a face-to-face conference. Each year at the end of the Spring Semester, students gather to present their research and projects in person, get feedback from faculty, staff, and fellow students, and answer questions about their work. However, this year the pandemic changed the direction of nearly everything. The UNF Campus shutdown on March 17, just as Dr. Karen Cousins approached CIRT about options to move the conference to an online format.
Andy Rush and Michael Boyles of the Creative Team at CIRT began brainstorming ways to present the conference online. Collaborating with Dr. Cousins and the staff in Undergraduate Research, we decided to create a Faculty Domains website for the posters to be uploaded. We used a Google submission form to populate a Google spreadsheet with all the necessary components. Then, we manually built a web page in WordPress by copying and pasting the information. The Google spreadsheet became the database of information for all of the posters. While building the site, we came up with the idea to offer each student an option to record an audio presentation explaining more about their work and post this on the website along with the transcription of their recording for ADA compliance.
The team at CIRT thought it would be a good idea for students to get input from anyone visiting the conference and organized a comment section for people to compliment, ask questions, and allow the participant to respond to the dialog. “SOARS is a welcoming environment where students can refine their presentation skills through interaction with peers and faculty as they explain their projects,” said Cousins. “The valuable comment section added a component of interaction that at first felt missing in the online venue.”
“Not only does the SOARS website allow students to present their projects to audiences on the day of the conference, but it also archives the projects so that potential graduate school admission committees and employers can carefully examine the student’s research products,” she says. “The ability to offer long-distance and long-term viewing is a real bonus.”
CIRT continues to work with Cousins to expand this project further for the SOARS 2021 Conference. We are currently designing custom templates to help students upload their abstracts, posters, and audio recordings directly to the website more efficiently.
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| Navigating the New (and hopefully temporary) Normal
Deb Miller
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I hope this finds you all safe and healthy. The past six months have presented enormous challenges to faculty and students and I am proud to have been a part of the UNF community as we’ve navigated this crisis. The University has committed to supporting faculty in a myriad of ways and to the principle of holding students harmless. As faculty, you have been committed and creative in maintaining high standards while meeting student needs in this new normal.
As we start thinking ahead to spring, there is an opportunity that we have not had to date; to build a course schedule, from the beginning, that considers how to best deliver instruction given the COVID capacity in our classrooms and the new technologies that are available, in both our physical classrooms and online. Work on the spring schedule has begun and includes updated definitions that better articulate current instructional modalities, which should help faculty in planning, and students in course selection. I thought it might be helpful to highlight some of those here and to recap some of the available instructional support resources.
- Remote Instruction (RI) - used for classes delivered completely online with regular required synchronous meetings.
- Hyflex - used for the variation of Hybrid classes that splits students into smaller cohorts to meet classroom physical distancing requirements. For example, in a class with 100 students, 33 students attend class in-person on Monday, 33 attend on Wednesday, and 34 attend on Friday. When not in a physical classroom, students “attend” the balance of the weekly instruction remotely either synchronously (live) or asynchronously (through a recorded session).
- Distance Learning (DL) - used for classes in which 100 percent of the direct instruction of the course is delivered asynchronously online with no required on-campus meetings.
Resources
The Academic Continuity website continues to be updated with information and resources to support remote instruction including links to self-paced Canvas courses, use of various Canvas tools, online proctoring, Zoom, and frequently asked questions. By popular demand, CIRT has also begun recording some of the most popular workshops and posting the links on the Past Events page.
The Teaching Online Foundation Course (TOL) offers tracks for full- and part-time faculty who will teach distance learning courses. Major topics include student engagement, assessment, course facilitation, instructional media, and universal design for learning. Throughout the course, participants have the opportunity to discuss topics with their peers, collaborate with instructional designers, and participate in virtual communication sessions. Fall applications are due soon. Visit the TOL page for information and application links.
Honorlock is an online proctoring service available for DL and RI courses, and with a new contract, instructors can use it for multiple high-stake exams in each course. This service does require students to have a webcam and meet minimum system requirements, so it is important to communicate those requirements early. It is also recommended to include a statement about the service in your syllabus, and to follow best practices, including the use of a practice exam early in the semester.
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Online Testing Best Practices
2:00pm - 3:00pm Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Canvas Bites: Speedgrader
10:00am - 10:30am Thursday, September 17, 2020
Library Databases Meant for Media
11:00am - 12:00pm Thursday, September 17, 2020
Five Steps to Successfully Complete a Quality Course Review
2:00pm - 3:00pm Friday, September 18, 2020
Creating Accessible Electronic Documents
1:00pm - 2:00pm Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Tools for Student Engagement in Canvas
11:00am - 12:00pm Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Recording, Editing and Posting Videos in Studio
11:00am - 12:00pm Friday, September 25, 2020
Using Canvas Analytics to Improve Student Success
2:00pm - 3:00pm Friday, October 2, 2020
For additional events and details or to register, visit the CIRT Events page.
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Tools for Remote Instruction
Dave Wilson, Associate Director, CIRT
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As we all know, many faculty have shifted their classes to remote learning this semester due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The transition can be difficult, and I know many of you are creating course content as you go. So, I wanted to share some resources available to make the experience of creating course content smoother. I break the resources down into three categories: hardware, software, and services.
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Hardware
CIRT still has hardware available for checkout, including Dell and Apple laptops, webcams, camcorders, microphone headsets, and wireless microphones (these use a 1/8" stereo adapter). We also have more equipment on the way, that may be available by the time you get this. That includes more laptops, iPads with Apple Pencils (for recording or Zooming your writing or drawings), adapters, and webcam/microphone towers.
I want to feature our new Dell XPS 13" 2-in-1 7390 laptops. We purchased these laptops with faculty that need drawing capability in mind. The XPS is a powerful ultra-book laptop with a touchscreen that will work with a touch-capacitive pen. Additionally, its screen will fold over completely. These features make this laptop ideal for faculty that want to produce videos where they are writing or drawing.
Software
Several faculty members have contacted us about creating narrated presentations (or screen captures) and editing videos, mainly Zoom recordings. The good and bad news is you have many options for both of these tasks.
For narrated presentations, we recommend using Canvas Studio. All faculty and students have access to Canvas Studio through Canvas, and it is easy to use it to record and edit presentations. Canvas Studio is essentially the same on Windows and macOS computers, and it has limited functionality on mobile devices. Another option is using Office365 to record your presentation directly in PowerPoint. You don't get the same type of editing features that you do with Canvas Studio. Additionally, some faculty have experienced problems when trying to use PowerPoint's narration tool on older PowerPoint presentations.
Canvas Studio is a good option for recording the screen in general, and I recommend it for people that create one or two screen recordings a semester. Faculty making many screen recordings, or want to do more complicated editing may consider upgrading to Camtasia. Camtasia has a few extra features that make it appealing to faculty who are creating a lot of videos. The downsides to Camtasia are that it takes longer to learn how to use, and because it is not built into Canvas, the process of publishing a video to your course is more complicated, time-consuming, and error-prone.
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Video editing is another task where you have many tool options (too many to include here). Both Windows and macOS X have built-in video editors, Video Editor on Windows, and iMovie on macOS. Video Editor is pretty good. You can use it to import a video, like a recorded Zoom meeting, add titles and text, trim, cut, and narrate it. iMovie is excellent; it has all the tools you need to produce a video, including green-screening, audio correction, color correction, and transitions. You can request an Adobe Creative Cloud account from ITS to access Premiere Rush. Premiere Rush is an upgrade from the Video Editor in Windows, and it is comparable to iMovie on macOS. As with screen recording, the application you chose will depend on how much work you will be doing. Need to trim a video quickly? Use the built-in editor. Producing a series of lectures for the semester with custom titles and transitions? Use Premiere Rush.
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Services
Suppose you read the previous section, and you think creating narrated presentations and videos is too time-consuming or complicated. In that case, you should consider scheduling an appointment for the CIRT Video Studio in Building 1. The Video Studio offers a range of options, from full-service support, where we will film you, edit the video, and post it to your course to completely self-supported with our new one button feature. Appointments in the Video Studio work similarly to the way they did in the Online Learning Lab. Please see the One Button Studio article for more information. We have also added a LearningGlass lightboard to the studio. The lightboard is a transparent whiteboard that we can film you through, so the video shows you looking at the camera while writing. Click the video above to see a demo. Let's not forget the WhisperBooth sound booth. It's a great option if to create a podcast or have a quiet place to narrate a video or have a web meeting.
Finally, we are happy to help you edit a video you created, teach you how to use these applications, and provide whatever media support you need. Please feel free to reach out to us at cirtlab@unf.edu.
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Hybrid-Flexible Course Delivery
Laura Jackson, Instructional Designer
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Overview
Hybrid or blended courses integrate learning experiences both in the face-to-face (traditional) classroom and online. The HyFlex (Hybrid-Flexible) course delivery model leverages this structure through synchronous and asynchronous mixed-mode delivery. In a HyFlex course, the instructor utilizes lecture-capture technology in the classroom to provide face-to-face and online delivery simultaneously (Maloney & Kim, 2020). At UNF, the term “HyFlex” is used to describe a course delivery method that is a variation of Hybrid delivery in which students are split into smaller cohort groups to meet classroom physical distancing requirements. In addition, UNF has used the term “BlendFlex” as a variation of the Distance Learning (DL) modality to describe a course delivery method in which students select their attendance modality on a class to class basis. Instructors implementing either of these delivery methods can utilize the instructional strategies presented below.
In Practice
Planning
When planning a HyFlex course, instructors should be intentional about providing activities that lead to equivalent learning outcomes across all participation modes: face-to-face, synchronous online, and (optionally) asynchronous online (Beatty, 2019). Instructors can start by looking at the course objectives, reviewing the content normally presented during the course, and identifying the typical assessments used. (See Best Practices: Aligning Objectives, Content, and Assessment.) Then, instructors can consider what aspects of the course may need to be modified based on the additional participation modes. For example, if exams are typically given face-to-face, how will online students be accommodated? Will all students take the exams online? Will more frequent low-stakes quizzes be used in place of high-stakes exams? Asking these questions during the planning phase can help the course run more smoothly.
One of the key components of a HyFlex course is the Learning Management System (LMS), which instructors can utilize to communicate with students across participation modes. Instructors can also make use of Canvas to post materials and resources for students. It’s highly recommended that all materials that will be used during the class session (e.g., PowerPoint decks, articles, handouts) be made available to students prior to the class session. This will allow students in all modalities the opportunity to download, print, or make any necessary accommodations to the documents so they are accessible during the class session. If any materials are created or added during the class (e.g., solutions, brainstorming, website links), they can also be made available to students in Canvas after the class session. CIRT's online course templates are available to guide your efforts in constructing HyFlex courses. The Canvas course templates provide ready-made modules and pages to aid in the organization and delivery of the online portion of your class. Contact CIRT (cirtlab@unf.edu) to request a template be added to your Canvas course. Schedule an appointment to consult with an Instructional Designer (ID) if you have any questions about using the templates for your HyFlex course.
Assessment
While all assignments/assessments will likely have the same due dates across participation modes, it may be helpful to consider each course assessment (e.g., attendance/participation, exams, group projects, assignments) and determine what “equivalency” would look like. For example, will students attending class sessions face-to-face and synchronously online receive points for attendance or participation? How will students who watch the class session asynchronously receive credit? One option is to credit face-to-face and synchronous online students with points for attending the class live, and give points to asynchronous online students who have watched the entire class session online (see How to View User Analytics in Canvas Studio). Another option is to have all students (regardless of participation mode) take a brief quiz in Canvas on the content covered during the session. These options both provide equivalency in what is being assessed - attendance or comprehension.
Engagement
Student engagement continues to be a challenge, particularly in the online environment. (See Best Practices: Engaging Students in Canvas.) When utilizing mixed-mode instructional techniques, it’s important to remember to engage with all students, not just the ones in the physical classroom (Beatty, 2019). This may include creating polls/surveys in Canvas or another instructional media tool that can be completed by students synchronously or asynchronously (i.e., Kahoot!, Poll Everywhere). The instructor can summarize the responses provided by the students synchronously, and send an announcement later with the updated responses after the asynchronous students have completed the survey (Kelly, 2020) to build community across modalities.
To ensure all students can fully participate in class sessions, be mindful of aspects of the course that may potentially be hindered by technology. When recording class sessions, minimize auditory and visual distractions. This may mean reminding face-to-face students to silence their cell phones, or requesting that synchronous online students mute their microphones or turn their webcams off during certain portions of the class. The instructor may also need to read typed comments from online students, or repeat verbal comments from face-to-face students so everyone has access to what was said.
The following course examples outline some of the many options for HyFlex courses and serve as possible models to guide lesson development.
HyFlex Course Example 1
Special Focus: Skills-based Course
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Watch recorded lecture online
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Hands-on practice, recitation (i.e., language, performance), enrichment activities
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Recorded practice, recitation; online enrichment activities
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Complete assignment related to practiced content
| HyFlex Course Example 2
Special Focus: BlendFlex Cohorts
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Complete readings, review any preparation materials
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Cohort A
Attend in-class lecture
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Cohort B
Participate in lecture synchronously
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Watch recorded lectures
Complete survey while watching recording
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Cohort B
Attend in-class lecture
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Cohort A
Participate in lecture synchronously
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Complete assigned homework
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Additional Resources References
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In order to better protect the privacy of registered students, instructors will soon see changes to the way users are added in Canvas and to Canvas course creation. Instructors can no longer add student enrollments to term-based Canvas courses. Instructors with a valid reason to add a non-registered student to a term-based Canvas course, such as a student who needs to finish an Incomplete, may request that the non-registered student be added to their course by completing a request form. For guidance on valid reasons for adding a non-enrolled student to a term-based course, please contact the University Registrar at records@unf.edu. For more information, including the request form, visit the About Canvas page.
In addition, course enrollments will now update every four hours rather than every hour. This change aligns Canvas course enrollment with other Banner jobs and is expected to improve the enrollment update process.
In the coming year, another change will be implemented so that only course sections which are cross-listed on the University schedule will be combined at course creation.
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aPlus+ Attendance
Michael Russo, Coordinator of Online Learning Support
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Designed specifically to simplify student attendance tracking in large classes as well as remote learning environments, aPlus+ Attendance is now integrated into UNF’s instance of Canvas.
aPlus+ Attendance allows instructors not only to take attendance manually but also to choose from a wide variety of attendance statuses (such as “absent,” “sick,” or “attended via Zoom.”) It also includes options for taking mass attendance by providing instructors with a secret code that can be shared with students and entered by students via their Canvas accounts – either on desktop or mobile.
aPlus+ Attendance integrates with Zoom, streamlining the recording of attendance by connecting directly to UNF Zoom accounts. When using Zoom and aPlus+ together, meeting participants are automatically matched to students using authenticated UNF email accounts; the time students spend in Zoom meetings is recorded in total.
Instructors can review and edit student statuses, course meeting events, and attendance grade weighting. Attendance can be recorded as an Assignment, reflected as a percentage or point value, then synced to the Canvas gradebook.
aPlus+ Attendance is currently not activated by default but can be activated through Course Settings > Navigation. CIRT has provided QuickStart materials on our aPlus+ Attendance page to help those instructors interested in using aPlus+ to track student attendance. Any questions about aPlus+ should be directed to cirtlab@unf.edu .
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Faculty Advancing Textbook Affordability
Kevin Hulen, Assistant Director, Quality and Assessment
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According to the Florida Board of Governors (BOG) Online Education 2025 Strategic Plan, by 2025 at least 50% of State University System institutions should be working collaboratively to reduce the costs of educational materials for students. To meet this goal, UNF launched the Affordability Counts Initiative during Summer 2019 to raise awareness about this statewide effort. Beginning in Fall 2020, UNF will be required to report to the BOG on credit hours generated for no-cost or low-cost undergraduate course sections to be incorporated in Performance-Based Funding Metric #3: Cost to Student.
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By-The-Numbers
We are excited to announce that in just one year, 130 UNF faculty have participated in AC, resulting in 234 courses with an average cost of $5/credit for required course materials.
Top 5 departments with the most courses awarded an AC medallion are:
- Physics (n=21)
- Communication (n=20)
- Exceptional, Deaf, and Interpreter Education (n=17)
- Psychology (n=16)
- Public Health (n=14)
How Does It Work?
If the cost of required materials in your course is zero ($0) or no more than $20/credit hour, you are encouraged to submit your course to the statewide Affordability Counts website.
To be eligible:
- Course must meet these criteria.
- The total cost of the required materials is determined based on the price of a hardcopy (new) or digital (purchase or rental).
- Course textbook adoptions must be submitted via the bookstore’s Follett Discover textbook adoption tool. This provides an accurate picture of the cost of course materials as well as being aligned with the BOG performance metrics on cost-to-degree. It is important that courses that use no textbooks and/or OER are entered as such in the adoption tool or the course will appear “missing” in terms of adoption compliance.
- Directed Individual Study (DIS), internships, practica, study abroad, and thesis/dissertation credits are currently not eligible.
Kudos to everyone who participated in this initiative and for your commitment to lowering educational costs for students.
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Natalie Gray, Instructional Designer
Natalie earned a bachelor’s degree in both anthropology and classical archaeology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Natalie then completed her Master of Arts in history at Appalachian State University specializing in Roman history. After teaching history in higher education for several years, Natalie developed an interest in instructional design and online learning leading her to pursue a Master of Arts in educational technology leadership from the George Washington University. In her spare time, Natalie enjoys reading, learning, and spending time with her pets. Natalie is the instructional design liaison for the Coggin College of Business and the College of Computing, Engineering, and Construction.
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One Button Studio
The original concept of a One Button Studio (OBS) has been around since 2012 when Penn State University first launched the idea of a studio with lights, cameras, microphones, and a single button to start a video recording that was saved to a USB flash drive. Our current Online Learning Lab (OLL) previously served as a form of One Button Studio, but CIRT is always looking to provide something that is high quality and easy to use. Thus, our new One Button Studio as part of our larger video services.
The CIRT Video Studio in Building 1 provides a hands-on support model, and we have added a prototype service that is similar to the service we had in the OLL. After attending a short training session, you can schedule self-supporting sessions in the video studio for recording yourself and the screen. We are continuing to improve the Studio so it is simple where it needs to be, but with greater flexibility and higher quality. For example, we have added a Lightboard to the studio that will allow faculty to be recorded on video while writing on a glass screen - think of it as a see-through whiteboard! We’ll continue to add new functionality as we build out the studio during the Fall 2020 semester.
We have specific hours for making appointments in the studio, and they are currently limited as we deal with COVID-19 restrictions. The hours are Tuesdays and Fridays starting at 9:00am and ending at 4:00pm (meaning the last scheduled hour is 3:00pm). If you desire to make self-service recordings, you will need to schedule a 20-minute training session to orient yourself to the studio. Note also that you must book at least 24 hours in advance.
We continue to improve the Video Studio. It is a work in progress, but the hope is that this space will be very flexible and highly functional.
The reservation calendar page is available at this link when you’re ready to record!
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CIRT News is published four times a year by the Center for Instruction and Research Technology at the University of North Florida.
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