March Faculty Community Conversation: Student Presentations

We’re all familiar with the traditional end-of-semester final presentation where each students speaks to the class for a period of time, often while sharing Powerpoint slide. But what if it could be different? This March Ingrid Stobbe, Assistant Professor of Digital Filmmaking, and Jason Butler, Associate Professor of Drama Therapy, led our Community Conversation on alternative ways to do student presentations or as Jason put it, how we can “play and innovate with our students.” 

Ingrid teaches film production and theory classes at Lesley and one of her students proposed an alternative. He wanted to create a short film as his presentation. As with any other presentation or final paper, he started with his thesis statement: Pink Floyd’s “Live at Pompeii” was an innovative documentary that merged the medium of music with innovative techniques that were starting to appear in documentary filmmaking of the time. He then provided Ingrid with an outline where his thesis statement would be supported by media clips. Ingrid liked the idea enough to open the option up to all the students in the class. They still needed to hit the objectives of the assignment, synthesize what they had learned in class, and communicate that information to others, but it allowed filmmaking students a chance to express themselves in their own medium. For Ingrid, the question at the end of the day was “Is there a way that I can support and allow for the key moments in my class?” 

Ingrid’s alternative presentations were the result of a student request. However, Jason purposely designed his into his Drama Therapy course. Jason based his approach on Universal Design for Learning theories (UDL) where multiple avenues are provided for students to engage with the content and to share their knowledge. 

Jason had both asynchronous and synchronous elements to his course assignments. Students began by creating a fictional story and character to learn about embodiment. They then created short videos of themselves showing how their character is embodied. In the follow up assignment, students compared autobiographical theater with self-love pieces. Many students created traditional Powerpoints, but others did a more creative interpretation which was then shared in VoiceThread. VoiceThread allows the presenters to have traditional slides, images, and video. Viewers can provide feedback in multiple ways, text, audio, or video, allowing them some choice in how they respond.    

Jason also had some tips for synchronous presentations. He hides non-video attendees in Zoom and then asks the students who aren’t presenting to turn off their camera in order to create a stage for the performers on screen. Other times, he asks students to move closer to the camera if they agree with what is being said and to move away if they disagree in order to get the audience involved and interacting rather than just sitting back and watching. He also uses the reaction buttons in Zoom or asks the viewers to enter a word or two in the chat that expresses their thoughts on the presentation.   

But how do you assess such innovative assignments?  

According to Ingrid and Jason, you must give it structure. Jason shares the criteria of what needs to be covered while Ingrid has a workshop day where the student comes in with an outline of the goals they need to meet and how they will do that. While you are providing the student with some flexibility and room to explore, it must still meet the assignment criteria and stay within the boundaries of what the instructor can grade. Having a rubric helps communicate the criteria and to grade.  

How do you provide options when you teach more traditional content?  

Look for places where you can provide a little bit of choice for students. Where can you provide a small piece of creativity for them. Your students might not be ready to dance their dissertation, but can they share a picture or a piece of music that will transmit another aspect of the article they presenting on? The process forces us to think in different ways. 

One significant goal is to create a classroom culture where students feel empowered and comfortable talking risks and stepping out of their comfort zone. Small gestures over time where you allow students choice or opportunities to be themselves helps to create that safe space. Jason shared that in partnership with UDL, there’s a trauma-informed pedagogy perspective that says when we are activated due to trauma, we can’t function or reason… or learn. One of the common reasons for trauma is a lack of choice. It’s difficult to properly engage with something when we feel that it is being imposed on us. Providing some form of choice in your assignments diminishes that activation and allows students to more fully participate. 

Do you provide alternative ways for students to share their knowledge? Let us know how. 

 

Create a Screencast for Your myLesley Course

Kaltura CaptureSpace Lite is a presentation production tool that allows users to record any combination of their screen, voice and webcam. Features include: the ability to pause your recording, activate drawing tools, edit the video after recording as well as add titles and credits. CaptureSpace Lite is a standalone application that you install on your computer, which means it can be used even without an internet connection. All recorded presentations can be easily uploaded to your My Media library in myLesley with just one click.

Use CaptureSpace Lite to narrate your Powerpoint presentation and post it in your course. Record an application demo on your computer. Walk them through a process or analysis of something while providing commentary. Give a tour of your myLesley course site. If you can view it on your computer, you can record it, narrate it and share it with your students. They can then review it as often as needed.

 

Fall Technology Bootcamp Recap

Last Thursday, eLIS welcomed over 20 Lesley instructors to our Fall Bootcamp: Teaching and Learning with Technology. We covered a wide array of topics, helping participants think about approaches to integrating technology into their teaching as well as practice using some of the available technology tools.

Designing a Blended Experience
This session provided a guiding framework for creating a blended course by defining and delineating the two interwoven themes of learning design and technology integration.
Designing Blended Learning Experiences

Using myLesley (Blackboard)
A myLesley (Blackboard) course site is available for all Lesley courses, whether held fully online, face-to-face, or somewhere in between. You may use myLesley to post your syllabus, post resources and readings, communicate with your students, collect and grade assignments and much more. Based on participant interest, we had a couple of breakout sessions, covering a variety of topics from basic myLesley navigation and tools to grading.
Using the myLesley Text/Content Editor
Communicating Within Your myLesley Course
Adding Content to Your myLesley Course
Creating and Managing Assignments in myLesley
Grading myLesley Assignments
myLesley Grade Center and Grading

VoiceThread
VoiceThread is an asynchronous tool which allows you to place collections of media like images, videos, and presentations at the center of a conversation. People may then be invited to view, comment, and interact with the VoiceThread using any mix of text, audio, and video. In this session we walked through creating and commenting on VoiceThreads.
What is a VoiceThread Anyway?
Creating a VoiceThread
Additional VoiceThread Resources

Adding Video to Your Course with Kaltura Media
Kaltura Media is the university’s media sharing platform, allowing users to share video securely within the myLesley course environment. In this session we walked through recording a webcam video using Kaltura Media.
Recording a Video in myLesley
Webcam Recording Tips
Additional Kaltura Resources

For those that were unable to attend last week’s training, we will be hosting another training on Thursday, September 8th, focusing on using the features of myLesley (Blackboard) most essential for supporting teaching and learning in the classroom. Stay tuned for the official announcement, including a link to register for the event.

Add Office Mix Presentations to Your myLesley Course

Office Mix is a new add-in for Powerpoint that allows users to create interactive online videos that include images, video, voice, digital annotations, and quizzes. Watch the Mix below and see how to get started. Then check out the Office Mix Gallery to see how others are using Office Mix.

 

How Can I Get Office Mix?

Office Mix is a free add-in for PowerPoint, but it is PC only. Sorry Mac folks. It also requires Powerpoint 2013 or later.

Download the installer to get started. 

 

How Do I Add a Mix to My Course?
AddMixToolAdding a Mix to your myLesley course is an easy two-step process.

Start by navigating to an area of your course. Click on the Tools menu and select Office Mix.

Enter a Name for your Mix and an optional Description. Then click Submit

 

Next, navigate to the Mix at the bottom of the window. Click on the title as if you were going to view it.
MyOfficeMix

Enter the URL for the Mix you want to add and click Find.AddMixURL

 

 

 

 

Click Yes to confirm this is the Mix you want to add.ConfirmMix

 

 

 

 

Learn More…

Learn more about creating Office Mix videos with these tutorials: https://mix.office.com/gallery/category/how-to?lcid=1033

 

 

Upcoming LMS Demos for Faculty

The Digital Experience Committee and Teaching and Learning with Technology (TL Tech) Committee are currently conducting a review of Learning Management Systems (LMS). Lesley has been using Blackboard as its LMS since 2005. eLearning and the LMS market have changed a lot since then. It seemed worth looking at the available options to see if Blackboard is still meeting the needs of our faculty and students.

After a careful review of several LMS options and conversations with a smaller group of TL Tech faculty, Canvas and Blackboard have been invited to campus to provide demos for faculty. We strongly encourage you to join us and bring your questions.

Blackboard, Friday April 8 
The Blackboard vendor will demo upcoming changes to our current myLesley product.
Session 1: 11:00am-12:00pm, University Hall 2-078
Session 2: 2:00pm-3:00pm, Wolfard 204
Attend online: http://tinyurl.com/BbApril8. View the Collaborate Ultra Quickstart for assistance.

Canvas, Wednesday, April 13
The Canvas vendor will give us a tour of the Canvas software and discuss what a myLesley course might be like in Canvas.
Session 1: 10:00am-11:00am, University Hall 3-076
Session 2: 1:00pm-2:00pm, Wolfard 201
Attend online: https://bluejeans.com/nferrari
To call in for audio: 1.888.240.2560; Use Conference ID: 8254491254

Contact elis@lesley.edu with any questions.