Food for Thought about Online Teaching and Learning: A D2L Design Story from the University of Calgary - Danielle Dore

I recently attended the D2L Connection: Alberta event hosted by SAIT which provided a wonderful opportunity to connect with other institutions regarding their practices and insights into using D2L. Representatives from D2L were also on hand to talk about new Daylight features and implementation. One particularly interesting session I attended was Changing the Conversation about Online Teaching and Learning: A D2L Design Story presented by the University of Calgary’s Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning.

This session centered on what was learned about increasing learner success and engagement in an online course. Over two years of learner and instructor surveys, feedback, and subsequent changes, the Educational Development Unit proposed and implemented a number of changes to their online courses. What I found quite interesting is many of these changes are quick, easy to implement, and are modifications made directly in D2L.

Changes made include:

-          Elimination of submodules – Learner feedback suggested that content was difficult to locate when learners had to navigate into submodules.

-          Cut content – Learners found it hard to prioritize and process what information was the most important when too much content was presented. Course content should only include what is essential for learning, and supplementary resources or resources for extension should be selectively released for individual learners as needed. D2L provides many options for selective “Release Conditions” that can allow additional resources and content to be released to learners including set scores on Dropbox rubrics, grade rubrics, scores on quiz totals, and/or even certain quiz questions. This allows D2L to remain uncluttered while providing target resources to particular learners.

*For more information about Release Conditions in D2L please see Lorna Malanik’s post: Personalize Learning with Intelligent Agents and Release Conditions

-          Naming modules by week instead of “Module X” – Naming modules by week provided learners another way of keeping on-track in their courses. Also, feedback suggested that using the word “module” actually presented a barrier to some learners as they did not fully understand what the term referenced. When the content/topic of a module is referenced, it should be done so with an action verb. For example:

o   Week 1: Applying Reading Strategies vs Module 1: Reading Strategies

-          Online environment as the third teacher – Significant changes were made to “humanize” the online environment to increase learner engagement and reduce anxiety through:

o   Use of videos, gifs, holiday greetings, videos from instructors. *On an interesting side note, feedback suggested that learners found having a video greeting from their instructor to be very important; however, many learners did not actually watch their instructor video. It seems that just having their option to watch the instructor’s video was enough for them.

o   Use of learner pictures.

o   Groupings of learners within the course.

-          Implement mental health strategies – The need for normalizing mental health and wellness was recognized as an important consideration for course development. It was implanted in the course through:

o   Extending the length of the course to include a “Break Week” allowing for learners (and instructors) a time to incorporate mental health/wellness strategies and access mental health resources. 

o   Imbedding self-care strategies through:

§  Mindfulness/meditation activities.

§  Use of D2L Intelligent Agents and then personal email to check-in with learners.

§  Course cafés. (Opportunities for learners in a course to connect with each other that is not necessarily content related.)

-          Role based discussion – Each learner is expected to perform in each of the following roles throughout the course:

o   Director/facilitator – oversee the discussion and keep it relevant and on track

o   Connector – make real-life connections to discussion content

o   Wordsmith – research to support connections

o   Reporter – present discussion to whole class

By providing learners with discussion roles and expectations, all aspects of an effective discussion can be covered while allowing learners the flexibility to choose when and what discussions they would take on in a specific role. Also, it allows learners to decide which weeks might be better or more difficult to perform certain roles. For example, if a learner had a more demanding week with other courses, they may decide within the group that they would take on less demanding role for that discussion.

-          “Veedback” – Video feedback in which the instructor provides learners with a video of feedback in place of written feedback. Learners suggested this mode of feedback was more preferred and reviewed than written feedback. This feedback strategy also contributes to the humanizing of the course.

-          Develop inquiry skills – Learners are presented with a discussion topic in the form of a driving question over time through discussion threads. This allowed learners to “connect the dots” of content to see the bigger context of what they were learning. This also allows the instructor to see the navigation of a learner’s understanding of a topic over time and support, enhance, direct or redirect a learner’s exploration of a topic.

One of the most impactful messages I gained from this session was the importance of continual surveying and feedback of both learners and instructors to inform modifications for course improvement. All courses should be seen as continually under development with room for enhancing learner success and engagement.