<div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://webapp4.asu.edu/photo-ws/directory_photo/llott1?blankImage=fals…; style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="photo of Lenora Ott" border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="239" height="200" src="https://webapp4.asu.edu/photo-ws/directory_photo/llott1?blankImage=fals…; title="Lenora Ott, Instructional Designer, Center for Evolution &amp; Medicine" width="198" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;">Lenora Ott<br />Center for Evolution &amp; Medicine</td></tr></tbody></table>Although"a picture says more than a thousands words" is quite a popular saying these days, have you ever wondered how to utilize graphics effectively in your own instruction? In our latest webinar, <a href="https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/1557404&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lenora Ott</a>, Instructional Designer at the Center for Evolution &amp; Medicine, provided some helpful guidelines and useful tools for adding impactful visual elements to teaching. Drawing from her rich background - and passion - in graphic design, she explained how concepts, such as spacing and coloring, can influence learning experiences. In addition, the lively contributions from attendees offered several great examples and also resources that can be immediately utilized.<br /><br /><b><br /></b><br /><br /><b>Among the topics addressed:</b><br /><ul><li>Using Graphics in Canvas</li><li>Canva for Canvas</li><li>Accessibility Considerations for Graphics</li></ul><b>A selection of resources shared &amp; discussed during the webinar:</b><br /><ul><li><a href="https://www.canva.com/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Canva</a>&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://thenounproject.com/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nounproject</a> (Icons)&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://pixabay.com/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pixabay</a> (images)&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://www.pexels.com/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pexels</a> (images)&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://unsplash.com/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unsplash</a> (images)&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://usabilla.com/blog/how-to-design-for-color-blindness/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Designing for color-blindness</a></li><li><a href="https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-2060-general-accessibility-des…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">General Accessibility Guidelines</a></li></ul>Please take a moment to watch the recording of the webinar as well as explore the time-saving resources.<br /><br /><b>Resources:</b><br /><ul><li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RRv5ZvbGDnMQNfurIi3A8SixRPL01yJn/view?…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Recording of webinar</a></li><li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M2Vi4f-K4g6-AuZcMrY_p_xlbiDL_xq2/view?…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">PDF of slides</a></li></ul>

<div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://webapp4.asu.edu/photo-ws/directory_photo/llott1?blankImage=fals…; style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="photo of Lenora Ott" border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="239" height="200" src="https://webapp4.asu.edu/photo-ws/directory_photo/llott1?blankImage=fals…; title="Lenora Ott, Instructional Designer, Center for Evolution &amp; Medicine" width="198" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;">Lenora Ott<br />Center for Evolution &amp; Medicine</td></tr></tbody></table>Although"a picture says more than a thousands words" is quite a popular saying these days, have you ever wondered how to utilize graphics effectively in your own instruction? In our latest webinar, <a href="https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/1557404&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lenora Ott</a>, Instructional Designer at the Center for Evolution &amp; Medicine, provided some helpful guidelines and useful tools for adding impactful visual elements to teaching. Drawing from her rich background - and passion - in graphic design, she explained how concepts, such as spacing and coloring, can influence learning experiences. In addition, the lively contributions from attendees offered several great examples and also resources that can be immediately utilized.<br /><br /><b><br /></b><br /><br /><b>Among the topics addressed:</b><br /><ul><li>Using Graphics in Canvas</li><li>Canva for Canvas</li><li>Accessibility Considerations for Graphics</li></ul><b>A selection of resources shared &amp; discussed during the webinar:</b><br /><ul><li><a href="https://www.canva.com/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Canva</a>&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://thenounproject.com/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nounproject</a> (Icons)&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://pixabay.com/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pixabay</a> (images)&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://www.pexels.com/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pexels</a> (images)&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://unsplash.com/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unsplash</a> (images)&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://usabilla.com/blog/how-to-design-for-color-blindness/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Designing for color-blindness</a></li><li><a href="https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-2060-general-accessibility-des…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">General Accessibility Guidelines</a></li></ul>Please take a moment to watch the recording of the webinar as well as explore the time-saving resources.<br /><br /><b>Resources:</b><br /><ul><li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RRv5ZvbGDnMQNfurIi3A8SixRPL01yJn/view?…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Recording of webinar</a></li><li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M2Vi4f-K4g6-AuZcMrY_p_xlbiDL_xq2/view?…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">PDF of slides</a></li></ul>

We tend to reflect a the end of the semester, but perhaps we should consider reflections throughout the semester. Take the challenge, and pause for a moment each day and ask: How can I do that differently? Or how can I do that the same? Here are some articles that have<br /><br />Reflections on Teaching<br />- Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher book<br /><br /><a href="https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-development/reflections-o… /><br /><a href="https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-development/reflections-o…;

We tend to reflect a the end of the semester, but perhaps we should consider reflections throughout the semester. Take the challenge, and pause for a moment each day and ask: How can I do that differently? Or how can I do that the same? Here are some articles that have<br /><br />Reflections on Teaching<br />- Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher book<br /><br /><a href="https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-development/reflections-o… /><br /><a href="https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-development/reflections-o…;

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<span style="font-family: verdana;">How accessible is online education? Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students across the globe have had to adjust to a new normal as colleges and universities rapidly transitioned from in-person instruction to online and hybrid instruction. Though many applauded the newly found flexibility of online instruction, many undergraduate students found new challenges, specifically those students with disabilities. In a recent <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">study</a&gt; published in the journal CBE Life Sciences Education, researchers interviewed science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) undergraduate students with disabilities (SWDs) from large-enrollment universities about the effects of the transition to emergency remote instruction.</span><div><div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ben-wicks-zw…; style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Road Closed sign with detour sign indicating road is closed" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ben-wicks-zw…; title="Image source Ben Wicks @ Unsplash" width="320" /></a></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The experiences of students with disabilities in STEM courses</span></h2><span style="font-family: verdana;">Disability is often overlooked in education and in STEM education in particular, even though there are legal mandates for these students to be supported. Students with disabilities makeup about 5% of STEM undergraduate programs and are less likely to receive accommodations in STEM courses, in comparison to students with disabilities in non-STEM courses. Previous <a href="https://www.lifescied.org/doi/full/10.1187/cbe.20-03-0049">studies</a&gt; have shown that when STEM learning environments are altered, students with disabilities may not be properly accommodated because instructors and disability resource centers are not proactive in providing these accommodations. So, what happened when the learning environment changed with the transition online?<br /></span><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Students with disabilities were forgotten as courses transitioned online</span></h2><span style="font-family: verdana;">Students with disabilities that were interviewed about their experiences after the transition online reported generally negative experiences. Neither disability resource centers nor instructors seemed to consider how standard accommodations would translate to the online environment. Most students reported that they were not contacted by the disability resource center or their STEM course instructors about their accommodations and whether they might need new or revised accommodations.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/tim-gouw-1K9…; style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Students staring at their laptop feeling frustrated" border="0" data-original-height="1369" data-original-width="2048" height="214" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/tim-gouw-1K9…; title="Image source Tim Gouw @ Unsplash" width="320" /></a></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Without the physical testing space available, many students were not able to have quiet, distraction-free testing environments. Some of the test proctoring systems online created more stressful testing situations for students with disabilities, particularly students with high anxiety. One student with disabilities talked about how the instructor ended the virtual testing session for the students in the class and even though they were supposed to get extra time for their testing, the instructor simply forgot. Beyond testing issues, the transition online prompted instructors to use more videos or recorded lectures, but these were typically not closed-captioned.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></div><div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Students with disabilities had to self-advocate</span></h2><span style="font-family: verdana;">Likely because of the chaotic nature of how quickly courses had to transition online, there seemed to be no recognition of the needs of students with disabilities. However, this continued to be a problem weeks to months after the transition online. Students with disabilities were required to self-advocate for what they needed. Notably, some instructors were resistant to providing them with the accommodations that they needed. In one case, a student was supposed to receive lecture slides before the class session and had to email the instructor repeatedly to get these slides. In another case, an instructor thought that a student did not need extended time on exams because all of the lectures were recorded, even though the student already had permission from the disability resource center to have extended time on exams.<br /></span><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So, how do we make online education more inclusive for students with disabilities?</span></h2><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div></div><div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/200617-Ogilv…; style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Student with mask looking at their computer in class" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/200617-Ogilv…; title="Source image @ ASU Collective" width="320" /></a></div></div>Given the increase generally in online course offerings, it is surprising that there are not standard accommodations for students with disabilities for online education. If these had existed, then the emergency transition online would have likely been smoother for students with disabilities. It is important to listen to the challenges of students with disabilities taking online courses and standardize accommodations for online education. Previous research has shown the utility of having proactive accommodations, meaning that they are implemented before a problem arises, which saves students time and helps them receive the accommodation faster. Having standard accommodations for online education and quickly conveying this information to students and instructors would have resulted in a more positive experience for most students with disabilities taking courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, students with disabilities were mostly forgotten, due to the ableist structure and assumptions of higher education. We argue that we must be proactive before a situation like this happens again.</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Want to incorporate proactive and standard accommodations in your course but don't know where to start? The Teaching Innovation Center created a "<a href="https://canvas.asu.edu/courses/84315/modules#module_965570&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Working with Student Accommodations" module</a> in their Teaching Development canvas course. Click <a href="https://canvas.asu.edu/enroll/BER7J3&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">here to register for the course</a>&nbsp;that includes many other strategies for teaching. In addition, email <a href="mailto:tic@asu.edu">tic@asu.edu</a&gt; to work with an Instructional Designer to design your course for all types of learning!&nbsp;</span><div><h4><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><div style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-weight: 400;"><div></div></div></span></span></h4><h4><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><br /></span></span></h4><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><i><u><hr /></u></i><i><b>Post-Author:</b></i></span></span></div><h4><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/danielle-2Bp…; style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="677" data-original-width="508" height="320" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/danielle-2Bp…; width="240" /></a></div>Danielle Pais&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: normal;">is a senior undergraduate student in Sara Brownell's <a href="https://sebbers.wixsite.com/biology-ed-lab&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biology Education Research Lab</a> at ASU. She studies Biological Sciences (Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior) and French at ASU and desires to focus on researching the experiences of students with disabilities in undergraduate STEM education.</span></span></h4></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></div></div></div></div>

<span style="font-family: verdana;">Everyone is on Slack right now. Including me, as I write this blog! Oh, you aren’t? I’ll do my best to help you make the leap! What is Slack anyway, and what makes it different from, say, the AOL Chatrooms of yore? And even if it is special, how can you effectively use it in classrooms? It’s time to Level Up Immersive Conversation Using Slack!<br /><br />In <a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/2021/07/19/discussion-bored-to-discussi…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 1 of this series, we talked about Yellowdig as an online social media platform</a> that lives in your Canvas course fully equipped for online asynchronous discussion and immersion synchronous discussion. It has auto-grading capabilities and can help learners organize thoughts about the course around major themes. Its gamification features ensure learners stay on topic and contribute consistent and quality posts and replies.</span><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEji5W48rVLS3nSIzv5HJK1…; style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="Cartoon of two megaphones with sound waves emerging from them" border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="995" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEji5W48rVLS3nSIzv5HJK1…; title="Image by Cheska Poon from Pixabay" width="311" /></span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Slack is different from Yellowdig, but can also be used to enhance your classes. Here are some of the major features of Slack.<br /></span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Independent workspace</b>, Slack is not a Canvas embedded tool. It’s an independent workspace for your course. It’s like the world's biggest whiteboard and classroom chat room just waiting for your students. We can link to it from within Canvas, but it doesn’t “live” there. Students can access it from their MyASU portal, or on an app on their smartphone, or in their browser.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>An ungraded learning opportunity</b>. Slack is not integrated with the Canvas grade book in any way, and sometimes that’s a good thing. It helps solidify Slack as a place for students to share, discuss, collaborate, make mistakes and grow. They are never “performing” for a grade.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Organized channels</b> for communication in smaller groups, or around a specific topic. Use channels like <b>#general</b> or make a new <b>#live-lecture-questions</b> channel to help students identify the best place to ask questions in class. They can keep the responses and refer to them forever. Use further designated channels for group activities (we’ll explain below).</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>This is a long post. Feel free to scroll to the part that is the most relevant for your needs:</b><br /></span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Slack Basics</b>: a tutorial on the features inside of slack and how to organize Slack in an optimized way for school.&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Slack in Class:</b> Creative ideas for conversations in immersion classrooms on Slack and ideas for asynchronous use in online classes including channels set up and activity suggestions.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Getting Started with Slack at ASU: </b>how to request Slack for your course.</span></li></ul><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Slack Basics: Welcome to the Pizza Party</span></h2><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Slack Terminology and Functions</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Before we dig into Slack applications for classes and getting started with Slack at ASU we should first define some terminology. The University Technology Office (UTO) at ASU has written a <a href="https://uto.asu.edu/slack/101&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Slack 101 page, here</a>. And even provides a <a href="https://uto.asu.edu/sites/default/files/2020-asu-slack-101.pdf&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">printable PDF of basic terminology and functions</a> on Slack.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiyrbQlkNnpj1C7R5i_Vso…; style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="Pyramid of Slack levels with the base at the top as the largest unit. The order of levels goes Workspace, Channels, Threaded replies, and then Direct Messages" border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiyrbQlkNnpj1C7R5i_Vso…; width="485" /></span></a></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Workspace</span></h4><span style="font-family: verdana;">A workspace is the largest container of the Slack environment, or “instance”, that lives in the ASU Grid. There is an ASU Community Workspace that is university-wide, there is a workspace for The College, SOLS has a workspace for Inclusive Teaching Community of Practice, and if you want to use Slack in your classroom you will request a workspace specific to your class that semester. This workspace will live in your Slack Application, and you can navigate to and from it to attend to situations. Think of workspaces as individual communities that live on Slack.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />For example, consider we created a workspace on Pizza. It’s a Pizza Party! Everyone who needed to be involved in a community about Pizza would join that workspace. But then how would they speak to each other once inside? They would use channels.<br /></span><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Channels</span></h4><span style="font-family: verdana;">Channels are topics of conversation that occur inside of a workspace. Some channels can be shared across multiple workspaces, but in your course, you will likely have channels that are specific to the workspace at hand. Some channels are auto-generated for you when you request a workspace. These channels are <b>#general</b> and <b>#random</b>. All channels in Slack are indicated with a # symbol before the channel name. <br /><br />In our Pizza workspace we’d be given channels like:<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>#general</b>- All pizza lovers unite here. We will always talk about pizza on this channel.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>#random</b>- Things that are not pizza, maybe they are calzones or pita bread, but they aren’t pizza, but you can still share them here.</span></li></ul></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />And then as the workspace administrator, you can create more channels in your workspace and invite others to join them. <a href="https://slack.com/help/articles/201402297-Create-a-channel&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Use this tutorial to learn to create channels.</a><br /><br />In order to help our workspace members find smaller more specific areas to share their love of a particular type of pizza. <br /><br />Maybe we need channels like:<br /></span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">#pizza-pepperoni</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">#pizza-veggies-only</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">#pizza-is-pineapple-really-so-bad</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">#pizza-gluten-free</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">#pizza-melty-cheese-blends</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: verdana;">When an administrator creates a new channel, members are not automatically added to the channel. Members need to manually join it. In order to invite members to join, you could post in the #general a <a href="https://slack.com/help/articles/205239997-Pin-messages-and-bookmark-lin…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">pinned announcement</a> like this:<br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;">@channel Hello, pizza party people! I have created channels to help us organize conversations around specific types of pizza. Please join the channels relevant to your pizza needs.<br /></span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">#pizza-pepperoni</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">#pizza-veggies-only</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">#pizza-is-pineapple-really-so-bad</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">#pizza-gluten-free</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">#pizza-melty-cheese-blends</span></li></ul></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;">By including the phrase “<b>@channel</b>” at the start of the post, all members of the workspace will receive a notification that there is something new to read! By including the names of the channels in your announcement, Slack will create a direct link for your members to navigate to and join that channel. <b>Just don’t forget the “#” symbol or this will not work.</b><br /><br />After joining channels, members can navigate between small topic-based channels and the general channel at any time.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhYQiTt2-827ZrIAnh_jtj…; style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="A single pizza crust but half of the pizza is ham and pineapple and the other half is pepperoni, bell pepper and sausage." border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1920" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhYQiTt2-827ZrIAnh_jtj…; title="Image by Davgood Kirshot from Pixabay" width="400" /></span></a></div><div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Threading</span></h4><span style="font-family: verdana;">We included threaded replies in the pyramid above because it’s really easy for a channel to spiral out of control without some guidelines on how to use it effectively. It’s tempting to use a single channel as a back and forth instant message system, but channels work best when you use threading inside of them. For an initial post, members can right-click and respond directly to that post and the channel will create a nested thread of comments. This helps keep the channel organized and allows the channel to change from one conversation to another without missing things or losing track of what you are actually responding to. <br /><br />For example:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><b>Without Threading (i.e. everything is an “initial post”)</b><br /></span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">What is the difference between chives and green onion?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Chives are the bigger ones.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Does parmesan melt nicely on pizza or will it burn?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">No, green onions are the bigger ones.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">I enjoy the subtle flavor of chives.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Parmesan is a lovely necessity on pizza. It melts fine, but I wouldn’t use it as the only cheese. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Why not?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because green onion is powerful.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because parmesan is lower in moisture than mozzarella and won’t be as stretchy!</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><b>With threading (i.e. replies occur under an individual initial thought)</b><br /></span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">What is the difference between chives and green onion?</span></li><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Chives are the bigger ones.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">No, green onions are the bigger ones.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">I enjoy the subtle flavor of chives.</span></li></ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Does parmesan melt nicely on pizza or will it burn?</span></li><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Parmesan is a lovely necessity on pizza. It melts fine, but I wouldn’t use it as the only cheese.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Why not?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because parmesan is lower in moisture than mozzarella and won’t be as stretchy!</span></li></ul></ul><span style="font-family: verdana;">When you use threads, members can retrace their steps through a single conversation where new connections were made or resources were shared, etc. We won’t talk about it in this article but the types of messages and resources you can post on slack are vast. You can even post coding languages into their system to send sections of codes between members when you are testing development. Pretty neat!<br /></span><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Direct Messages and student created channels</span></h4><span style="font-family: verdana;">If for some reason a student needs to message you, or their homework buddy, or their group project members they could create a direct message to any of the above. This is a private conversation between specific members of the group, not necessarily organized by topic.</span></div><div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Slack in Class: A Silent Disco-ssion</span></h2><span style="font-family: verdana;">So realistically, how would you implement this into your classroom? There are a couple of ways, but one of the creative ways we brainstormed up at the Teaching Innovation Center is how to use slack for real-time conversations in immersive classrooms. <br /><br />An instance of slack with well-organized channels can be used as active learning and discussion tool: Welcome to the Silent Disco-ssion!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjE9Fn3hw1ZbeRchnDQ7pb…; style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="A pile of lighted and vibrantly colored headphones used for Silent Disco parties." border="0" data-original-height="1079" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjE9Fn3hw1ZbeRchnDQ7pb…; title="Image by dittberner from Pixabay" width="400" /></a><br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Live Lecture Questions: Opportunity for Everyone</span></h3><span style="font-family: verdana;">Consider using your mobile device or desktop as your Slack “instructor hub”. Use #general or other specific channels to catch student questions during a live lecture. Plan places in your slides that you will “check the Slack” to see if you could clarify concepts during your session. <a href="http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/12.2.1.pdf&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vu and Fadde (2013)</a> determined that the ability to submit questions via text-based response throughout a lecture allowed students to carefully consider their questions, and calmed anxiety about interrupting the presenter or speaking out loud in class. Using Slack to capture questions helps promote inclusivity and allows more students to get their questions answered.<br /><br />Even if you are unable to verbally answer all the questions submitted in a live session, you can return to the channel and reply to individual questions, or encourage peers to reply to the remaining questions after a class session. Peers can use emoji with “likes” to help the instructor determine which questions are held by multiple students. Include the best way to “upvote” student questions when you have your community discussion around Slack at the beginning of term. Make sure to discuss if students should use threading or not during the live lecture.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Instructors can even<a href="https://slack.com/help/articles/229002507-Create-a-poll-in-Slack&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener"> launch polls</a> within their slack channels to ask for important follow-up topics, or give a quick multiple-choice test question sample!<br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In-Class Group Activities: A silent disco, but more academic</span></h3><span style="font-family: verdana;">Use Slack to fuel small group discussion or active learning activities like “think-pair-share”. During the live lecture, pose a question for consideration to students and give them time to silently discuss in Slack within their groups. When typing everyone is able to be “heard” without students needing to move around the classroom or raise their voices. Get comfortable with silent discussions that allow for reflection before response! <br /><br />You could organize the students into consistent groups at the beginning of term (Pro Tip: Use <a href="https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-automatica…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Canvas Groups features</a> to sort students into groups and then create Slack channels that match those group names for them to join) or you could create a set of channels for groups that all students join, and then assign them by class sessions to a specific group for discussion. You could use a <a href="https://www.randomlists.com/team-generator&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">random group generator with first names</a> and post the list for the day in #general before students join their smaller channels to talk about big ideas! <br /><br /><b>Benefits of Slack in-class conversations:</b><br /></span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Gives students independent time to think about their questions and answers.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Documents the growth of a conversation and allows students to use it as a reference.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Should a student need to attend virtually at any time, they could still join their Slack workgroup to have conversations as prompted in class. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">The instructor can scroll through different groups and see how the conversation is progressing and respond or bring items to the attention of the full class as needed. If students get stuck encourage them to tag you with @firstnamelastname so you are notified they need assistance.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Students can also share any Google documents or materials as needed for other types of group activities within their small group Slack channel.</span></li></ul></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Channel Suggestions:</b><br /><br />Only <a href="https://slack.com/help/articles/201402297-Create-a-channel&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">create channels</a> that are relevant to your course and the activities you will use with Slack in your sessions, or in-between sessions. <br /></span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>#general</b> (autogenerated) or <b>#live-lecture-questions </b>Normalize this channel as the place to ask questions during live lectures. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>#homework-help</b> Normalize this channel as a space to get homework help. As an instructor, you could help bring students to this channel by providing tips on specific homework assignments, or even helping review submitted homework within the channel after it’s all graded. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>#anygroup1</b> and <b>#anygroup2 </b>i.e Create smaller channels for groups of students to interact with each other. Name these around conventions that make sense for your course and activity plans.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>#random</b> (autogenerated) Consider keeping this autogenerated channel. It’s a good place for students to request an impromptu study session or share the details of the next meeting of the Biology Student Club without clogging up your important #general channel!</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: verdana;">The more you model the use of Slack in class, and refer to it for activities and discussion, the more students will reflect your enthusiasm and use Slack for their learning. It’s not enough to create a Slack for your class. You must give the Slack workspace and each of its channels a purpose.<br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Asynchronous Ideas for Online Courses</span></h3></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Even if you won’t have synchronous class meetings you can use Slack to encourage small group discussions in a more informal way in asynchronous online. You could:<br /></span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Encourage the use of Slack to ask questions for a weekly check-in video that the instructor or TA records as a virtual office hour. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Include a Slack prompt at the end of each lecture video in the text below your video embed that asks students an open-ended prompt about the lecture content. And then respond to questions (or have a TA assist) so they can see you are present and engaged!</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Use Slack to organize any group work and projects. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Classes that deal with coding languages enjoy using Slack to ask homework questions!</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: verdana;">Since Slack is ungraded if you want to guide participation with points, <a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/2021/07/19/discussion-bored-to-discussi…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yellowdig </a>may be a better option for promoting course discussion around class topics, as it helps students stay on track with weekly participation efforts that contribute to their grades. <br /><br /></span></div><div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Getting Started with Slack at ASU</span></h2><span style="font-family: verdana;">All classes at ASU can <a href="https://lms.asu.edu/how-add-slack-canvas-course&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">request an instance of Slack when requesting their Canvas shell</a>. If you already have your Canvas shell you can <a href="https://asu.service-now.com/sp?id=sc_cat_item&amp;sys_id=a0f192ed7c76a1…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">request it retroactively using this form to LMS</a>. Select “Other” as the reason for your request and then explain you need a Slack workspace. You can also reach out to <a href="mailto:TIC@asu.edu">TIC@asu.edu</a&gt; for assistance getting your workspace. <br /><br />Once you’ve requested your Slack workspace you can join it from your MyASU portal, as can students, but if you’d like you can also<a href="https://lms.asu.edu/how-add-slack-canvas-course&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener"> embed a Slack link into your Canvas class</a> navigation using the Redirect Tool in Canvas using the URL from your Slack Workspace. <br /><br />Now you’re ready to get started in Slack! If you need help brainstorming new and exciting immersion conversations in Slack, reach out to the Teaching Innovation Center at <a href="mailto:TIC@asu.edu">TIC@asu.edu</a><br /></span><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Resources:</span></h4><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Vu, P., &amp; Fadde, P. J. (2013). When to talk, when to chat: Student interactions in live virtual classrooms. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 12(2), 41-52. <a href="http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/12.2.1.pdf&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/12.2.1.pdf</a></span></li></ul><di… style="font-family: verdana;"><span><a name='more'></a></span>Post Author:</span></h4></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IMG_1877.jpe…; style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="1094" height="200" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IMG_1877-300…; width="200" /></a></div><a href="https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/1557404&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lenora Ott</a>&nbsp;is an instructional designer in the School of Life Sciences Teaching Innovation Center at Arizona State University. Lenora assists faculty with developing and launching their online courses and provides long-term evaluation, redesign, and support for online coursework. Her passion is empowering faculty to create meaningful learning experiences for their students and themselves online. She has worked in higher education for 8 years and has a Master of Science in Global Technology and Development from Arizona State University and a Graduate Certificate in Educational Technology from Northern Arizona University.</span></div><br /></div></div>

<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Fall semester is upon us and like many folks in higher education, the <a href="https://sols.asu.edu/research/teaching-innovation-center&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Teaching Innovation Center</a> (TIC) is preparing to return to the classroom. Uncertainty follows us as we transition into the classroom and many are feeling the anxiety of how to return to normal. In the last few weeks, I have felt the pressure of everyone trying to go back to the way things were, and what we really ought to focus on is reimagining education to what it could be. In reimagining education, students and educators are <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/03/24/student-experiences-duri…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">reflecting on what worked during remote learning</a>&nbsp;and what could be improved in a (sort of) post-pandemic world. As you find yourself bracing for the fall semester, here are three tips that you might not think of:</span></p><p></p><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/201002-ASU-2…; style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Student wearing mask in class and paying attention to lecture" border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1907" height="320" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/201002-ASU-2…; title="Image Source ASU Widen Collective" width="298" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">1. Edit your syllabus language.&nbsp;</span></h2><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Updating your syllabus language is crucial between each rendition of a course, and especially important as we return to the classroom. Faculty and instructors in the <a href="https://sols.asu.edu/">School of Life Sciences</a>&nbsp;(SOLS) at ASU need to edit syllabi language regarding policies on COVID and masks. You may find yourself also needing to update your syllabi language and take out sections related to remote learning (or in ASU's case ASU Sync) and options for one-off opportunities like laptop and hotspot rentals. For SOLS Instructors, you might consider.</span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Staying up to date with ASU Policies</b> from the <a href="https://provost.asu.edu/fall-2021-learning-expectations&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Provost office</a>.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="mailto:tic@asu.edu&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Emailing or visiting the TIC office</a> for <b>Syllabus Templates</b>&nbsp;with updated policies and syllabi statements</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Comparing your syllabus to <a href="https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/advan.00119.2020&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener"><b>i</b><b>nclusive syllabi practices </b></a>by the RISE Center and Dr. Sara Brownell's team. Their research describes how an <b>inclusive syllabus creates a positive climate</b> and is the start of a relationship between instructors and students, and respect for identities.</span></li></ul></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2. Record live lectures.</span></h2><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">As students return to the classroom from a year and a half of remote learning, the #1 learning desire is being able to revisit recorded lectures. In fact, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/03/24/student-experiences-duri…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">in one stud</a></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/03/24/student-experiences-duri…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">y, 79 percent</a> of students want to keep lectures available online, even for in-person classes. Students use the recorded lectures to revisit material and reinforce learning outcomes. While some faculty fear recording their lectures saying that students won't come to class, revisiting recorded lectures is crucial to student success and learning outcomes.&nbsp;</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/200618-ASU-2…; style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Professor teaching in college classroom with students in classroom and over zoom" border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/200618-ASU-2…; title="Image Source ASU Widen Collective" width="400" /></a></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Not sure how to best set up your classroom to record live lectures in SOLS? Visit the ASU&nbsp;<a href="https://asu.service-now.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0017679&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">UTO Knowledge Base article</a> on how to integrate Zoom with Canvas to get started. Meet with your instructional designer for additional help!</span></div><div></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">3. Have a backup plan.</span></h2><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Things are everchanging in a&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">(sort of)&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">post-pandemic world. Policies around masks, vaccinations, in-person classes, and more may change and it's important to have a backup plan in case they do.&nbsp;</span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">For ASU folk, continue to check out <a href="https://eoss.asu.edu/health/announcements/coronavirus">ASU's COVID policy updates</a>&nbsp;and ASU's Provost website for <a href="https://provost.asu.edu/fall-2021-learning-expectations&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Learning Expectations this Fall</a>. This website has updated information for faculty on syllabi language, face masks, and more.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Consider using technology that can easily be integrated in-person or remote for synchronous courses. Technology like <a href="https://lms.asu.edu/iclicker&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">iClickers</a>&nbsp;or <a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/2021/07/19/discussion-bored-to-discussi…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yellowdig</a>&nbsp;is great because they can be used in-person and remotely. iClickers and Yellowdig also allow for collaboration, peer learning, and checking for understanding, all of which are good practices in and out of the classroom.&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Revisit practices from the remote learning era. Check out our previous blog posts with tips from <a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/2020/09/04/tips-from-the-teaching-trenc…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">teaching in the trenches</a>&nbsp;at the start of the pandemic.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Practice <a href="https://www.columbiapsychiatry.org/news/coping-covid-19-turning-mind-to…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">radical acceptance</a> knowing that things may change and that's okay. Having a backup plan will help both you and your students adjust.</span></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Keep these tips in mind when returning to the classroom. Want to collaborate with an instructional designer? Email <a href="mailto:tic@asu.edu">tic@asu.edu</a&gt; to get started! We are here to help.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="font-family: Times;"><i style="font-family: verdana;"><u><hr /></u></i><i style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Post-Author:</b></i></div><div style="font-family: Times;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Christy-2Bhe…; style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="973" height="320" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Christy-2Bhe…; /></a></div><b>Christy Jersin Woods, M.Ed.&nbsp;</b>is&nbsp;an Instructional Designer Associate for the&nbsp;<a href="https://sols.asu.edu/">School of Life Sciences&nbsp;</a>at ASU. She leverages technology and inclusive teaching pedagogy to assist faculty in curriculum and design of their courses. She has several years of experience teaching and in curriculum design in higher education and continues to stay up to date in literature and best practices.</span></div></span></div><p></p>

<span style="font-family: verdana;">Within the last 10 years, learning analytics has become an important field with stakeholders beginning to look at how data can be used to assist education. Instructors may not be used to thinking about data that comes from student learning, so here are some basics to get started.&nbsp;<br /><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/annie-spratt…; style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="People working on laptops" border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1366" height="400" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/annie-spratt…; title="Image source from Anne Spratt @ Unsplash" width="265" /></a></div>Learning analytics is <a href="https://naerjournal.ua.es/article/view/v9n2-6">referred</a&gt; to as the collection and analysis of student data to<br /> provide insight into courses and student education. It is often used with the goal of better optimizing learning. This process is not new as you may have already been doing a similar process in the form of observations. Through relying on visual data such as the number of students paying attention, you can determine how well students are learning and make necessary changes to the course. Learning analytics is similar as it gathers data through online resources. It allows for a deeper insight by collecting data that is often not visual. However, due to the recent development of the field, instructors are not as familiar with using learning analytics. You should be thinking about learning analytics for 3 main reasons.<br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">1. Understand how your students are engaging in the course</span></h3><span style="font-family: verdana;">Learning analytics allows for a glimpse into the activities students are engaging in. For example, a course might show how often students are viewing a page or the amount of time a student spends on an assignment. This data is often used to connect how engagement in a course affects the student’s outcome. However, on an instructional level, this data can inform you on whether the design of a course is engaging to the students and thus <a href="https://naerjournal.ua.es/article/view/v9n2-6">promoting their learning</a>. Likewise, it can guide you on changes that will produce desired student participation.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><i>Scenario #1:</i> By observing student data regarding engagement and whether they are on track to pass the course, we can create assignments <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12528-020-09262-y">designed to compel them to access the course material</a> for certain amounts of time.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2. Create better learning models to help students be successful</span></h3><span style="font-family: verdana;">The use of learning analytics can inform you about course design that would allow for more students to be successful. It is a fact that there is not one model that works best for everyone. Further, assuming an activity or assignment that does work well for one group will also not work well for a different group is <a href="https://naerjournal.ua.es/article/view/v9n2-6">sometimes incorrect</a>. As such, having data regarding the students' past performance and experiences would help <a href="https://bera-journals-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/doi/…; target="" rel="noopener">accurately guide the development of more personalized courses</a>. Thus, the design of the course would be around the students, allowing better learning to occur.<br /><br /><i>Scenario #2:</i> Through noticing trends within the student data, we can observe what students know from prior experience in order to prioritize what topics they still need to learn, updating the course design in real-time to provide a better learning model specifically around those topics.<br /><br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">3. Proactively support students that might be struggling in your course</span></h3><span style="font-family: verdana;">Learning analytics allows instructors to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12528-020-09262-y">identify students that are struggling</a> in the course. Through noticing patterns in the student’s performance, you can see if a student is starting to fall behind. Further, it details the specific areas where a student needs help. One way this can be easily done is by having students answer a question asking whether or not they understand the concept after a section. Having this information would allow you to <a href="https://naerjournal.ua.es/article/view/v9n2-6">make quick real-time modifications</a> to the course. Further, this would give you feedback on the specific revisions to the course that would help these students succeed.<br /><br /><i>Scenario #3:</i> Through collecting data over many runs of a course, we can identify the connection between a student doing poorly on the first exam and whether additional resources or particular assignments would help them pass the second exam.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/scott-graham…; style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Two people holding pencils near laptops" border="0" data-original-height="1367" data-original-width="2048" height="428" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/scott-graham…; title="Image source from Scott Graham @ Unsplash" width="640" /></a></div></div><div></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">How can instructors find this data?</span></h3><span style="font-family: verdana;">Learning analytics relies on data that is gathered and viewed online. This means students would need to use online tools for class activities in order to have data generated. Nearly all our ASU technologies generate data including Canvas, Cogbooks, Labster, Yellowdig, Mediamp and Zoom. Being part of ASU, means some data is viewed through Canvas’ analytics. Canvas provides information about students' participation such as the number of page views, interactions on a page, and even the last time they participated. You can find a guide to Canvas’s analytics <a href="https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-view-Cours…; target="" rel="noopener">here</a>.<br /><br />Understanding and using the data to its full extent is often not an easy task. Once you’ve accessed this data, working with an instructional designer can help you recognize which data has the highest importance. Furthermore, instructional designers can assist in determining which adjustments to your courses would best achieve improvements in learning outcomes for your students. If you are SOLS faculty, write to <a href="mailto:tic@asu.edu">tic@asu.edu</a>&nbsp;to get started on this process.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">References</span></h3><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">de Freitas, S., Gibson, D., Du Plessis, C., Halloran, P., Williams, E., Ambrose, M., Dunwell, I. and Arnab, S. (2015), Foundations of dynamic learning analytic: Using university data to increase retention. Br J Educ Technol, 46: 1175-1188. </span><a href="https://doi-org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/10.1111/bjet.12212&quot; style="font-family: verdana;">https://doi-org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/10.1111/bjet.12212</a></li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Muljana, P.S., Luo, T. (2020), Utilizing learning analytics in course design: voices from instructional designers in higher education. J Comput High Educ 33, 206–234. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-020-09262-y">https://doi.org/10.1007/s12…, J., Tamoliūnė, G., Volungevičienė, A., &amp; Duart, J. (2020), Using learning analytics to engage students: Improving teaching practices through informed interactions. Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research, 9(2), 231-244. doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.7821/naer.2020.7.561">http://dx.doi.org/10.7821/na… style="font-family: verdana;"><u><hr /></u></i><i style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Post-Author:</b></i><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div style="clear: both; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IMG_0683.jpg…; style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2889" data-original-width="2167" height="200" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IMG_0683-225…; width="150" /></a></div></span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Isaac Gray is an undergraduate student at Pacific University. He has been interning at ASU, shadowing the Teaching Innovation Center within the School of Life Sciences. His interests include data analysis and how it can be incorporated into higher education. He is currently working towards a bachelor’s in Mathematics. </span></div>

<p></p><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/9756-tic-800…; style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="ASU School of Life Sciences Teaching Innovation Center" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/9756-tic-800…; width="200" /></a></div><br /></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Last week we introduced the many ways the </span><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/2021/07/23/teaching-innovation-center-w…; style="font-family: verdana;" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Teaching Innovation Center</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">&nbsp;(TIC) partners with faculty, instructors, and lab coordinators in the </span><a href="https://sols.asu.edu/&quot; style="font-family: verdana;" target="_blank" rel="noopener">School of Life Sciences</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">&nbsp;(SOLS) at ASU.</span><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This week, our faculty are speaking to their experiences working with the TIC team and the impact it has had on their courses. Here's what they have to say:&nbsp;</span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="font-family: Times;"><i style="font-family: verdana;"><u><hr /></u></i></div></span></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Carolyn Compton, MD, Ph.D.</span></h2><div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Carolyn-2BPi…; style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Woman with glasses, light hair, and a pink shirt" border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="444" height="320" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Carolyn-2BPi…; title="Image Source: Carolyn Compton" width="314" /></a></div></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Course:&nbsp;</b></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">BIO 394: Medicine - Getting In, Being In, and Going Beyond</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Modality:</b> Online</span></li></ul><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Project:</span></h4><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I chose to work closely with the Teaching Innovation Center for several important reasons. First, the course with which the TIC is helping me is entirely unique among undergraduate offerings, both in goals, content, and format - a unique combination of content, variety of superb expert instructors, exercises in self-knowledge, and career preparation. There is no “standard formula” for such a course and no objective information to be tested, so evaluation (grading) is challenging. Second, the course is intended for a very broad student audience: both ASU students and pre-med students anywhere in the country/world. I sought help making the course maximally inclusive and effective, irrespective of race, gender, cultural background, or socioeconomic status. Third, the course is to be given asynchronously, online, a format with which I am a complete novice. The expertise of thetic has been invaluable to me for all these reasons.</span></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Working with the TIC I was able to:</span></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Create a logical, balanced presentation of course content in the most impactful way for an online audience.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Create a novel, effective rubric for grading subjective student assignments.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Navigate the technical challenges of pre-recording classes, collecting and grading assignments, and handling student interactions asynchronously.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Develop a syllabus that was clear, comprehensive, and correct.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Learn about educational resources of which I was previously unaware.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Have fun working with and learning from the superb TIC staff while doing all of the above.</span></li></ul><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="font-family: Times;"><i style="font-family: verdana;"><u><hr /></u></i></div></span></div><h2><span style="font-family: verdana;">Pierre Deviche, Ph.D.</span></h2><div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Pierre-2BPic…; style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Man looking down and holding camera" border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="444" height="320" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Pierre-2BPic…; title="Image source: Pierre Deviche" width="314" /></a></div></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Course:&nbsp;</b></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">BIO 362: Endocrine Physiology</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Modality:</b>&nbsp;Immersion (in-person)</span></li></ul><p></p><h4><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Project:</span></h4></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">We received a SOLS JEDI Fellowship in spring 2021 to review all aspects of the course with an emphasis on enhanced equity, diversity, and inclusion. We worked with the TIC team because of their experience and established track record in this area, and especially to facilitate the development of new assignments, active learning activities, and assessment methods.&nbsp;</span></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Working with the TIC I was able to:</span></h4><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Working with the TIC team throughout the summer greatly facilitated our achieving the objectives outlined in our JEDI Fellowship proposal. The team provided consistent support and offered many ideas related to increasing inclusivity and accessibility, improving the tools used for testing and grading, and developing and implementing teamwork and active learning activities with our students.</span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="font-family: Times;"><i style="font-family: verdana;"><u><hr /></u></i></div></span></div><h2><span style="font-family: verdana;">Kate MacCord, Ph.D.</span></h2><div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Kate-2BPictu…; style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Woman holding camera and looking back smiling" border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="446" height="320" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Kate-2BPictu…; title="Image source: Kate MacCord" width="315" /></a></div></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Course:&nbsp;</b></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">BIO 318: History of Medicine</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Modality:</b>&nbsp;Online and iCourse</span></li></ul><p></p><h4><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Project:</span></h4></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">I worked with TIC to get ideas about how to be innovative in my delivery of course content and how to create assignments that build skills in an online environment.&nbsp;</span></div><div><h4><span style="font-family: verdana;">Working with the TIC I was able to:</span></h4></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The TIC team did a rapid review of my course and really helped me to increase my inclusivity and to reconceive the final project for the course in a way that I’m excited to implement.</span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="font-family: Times;"><i style="font-family: verdana;"><u><hr /></u></i></div></span></div><h2><span style="font-family: verdana;">Kathleen Pigg, Ph.D. &amp; Soon Flynn</span></h2><div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Kathleen-2BP…; style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Woman with brown hair smiling" border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="301" height="320" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Kathleen-2BP…; title="Image Source: Kathleen Pigg" width="272" /></a></div></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Course:&nbsp;</b>PLB 302: Plants and Civilization</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Modality:</b>&nbsp;Immersion &amp; Online</span></li></ul><div style="display: inline;"><h4 style="display: inline; text-align: left;"></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Project:</span></h4></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">We ran a test online summer version of the course several years ago. Then when Covid made it necessary to deliver the course online during Fall 2020 we needed help with how to modify our hands-on activities and how to keep students' attention in Zoom format. This summer my student Soon Flynn and I are developing an ASU Online version, to be taught Spring 2022 (along with the regular immersion course that same semester).</span></div></div></div><div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Soon-2BPictu…; style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Man with hat on and sunglasses on top of head" border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Soon-2BPictu…; title="Image Source: Soon Flynn" width="271" /></a></div></div><div><div><h4><span style="font-family: verdana;">Working with the TIC I was able to:</span></h4></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/1557404&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lenora Ott</a>,&nbsp;especially, has been incredibly helpful in developing course structure and underlying pedagogy and in migrating it to an online format.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">She has helped me navigate Canvas, and we also used Flipgrid for students to make short introductions of themselves in last year's online synchronous course.&nbsp; I particularly appreciate her willingness to recognize my teaching style, listen to my narrative and pull out the learning objectives and help us structure the course for ASU Online.</span></div></div></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="font-family: Times;"><i style="font-family: verdana;"><u><hr /></u></i></div></span></div></span><h2><span style="font-family: verdana;">Jon Harrison, Ph.D.</span></h2><div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Jon-2BPictur…; style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Man with short hair wearing glasses" border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="444" height="297" src="https://dev-tic-blog.ws.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Jon-2BPictur…; title="Image source: Jon Harrison" width="291" /></a></div></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Course(s):&nbsp;</b>BIO 360: Animal Physiology &amp; BIO 362: Animal Physiology Lab</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Modality:</b>&nbsp;Online</span></li></ul><div style="display: inline;"><h4 style="display: inline;"></h4><h4><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Project:</span></h4></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">I thought that an outside, educated viewpoint would help me improve the organization of my course. Two particular things I wanted help on were how to get more students engaged (come to office hours, interact with each other), and how to get groups to work together more effectively and harmoniously.</span></div></div><div><div><h4><span style="font-family: verdana;">Working with the TIC I was able to:</span></h4></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The TIC group definitely helped the organization and clarity of my Canvas site. They had excellent suggestions for improving engagement, including how to use Yellowdig to improve student attendance at office hours and how to create group charters to help students work in groups.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="font-family: Times;"><i style="font-family: verdana;"><u><hr /></u></i></div></span></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Summary:</span></h2><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">These are just some of the many wonderful faculty we get to work with at TIC.<b> A special thank you to Carolyn Compton, Pierre Deviche, Kathleen Pigg, Jon Harrison, Kate MacCord, and Soon Flynn for sharing their experiences! </b>If you're interested in partnering with our center, please email <a href="mailto:tic@asu.edu">tic@asu.edu</a&gt; to collaborate. We'd love to partner with you!</span></div>