In part one of this post, “digital duct tape” was defined as the act of creating or improvising problem-solving with technology tools to solve a teaching challenge. The following are a few more tools and methods that may assist you as you are creating learning events or facilitating lessons.
Teaching challenge: Determining virtual class participation
Solution: BigBlueButton Dashboard
One of the most common online virtual classroom technologies in our sector is the BigBlueButton. With more than 15 students in most classes, it is difficult to make notes during fully online sessions to determine the levels of individual student’s participation. The BBB’s learning analytics dashboard provides a wealth of data to assist instructors. At the end of an online meeting (class), instructors have 30 minutes to save the data for future use and consideration. Data that is reported for each session’s participant are:
- username along with the time and date they joined the session
- the duration the user was online
- the total duration of time the user was speaking
- the total duration of time the user had their webcam on
- the number of chat messages the user sent
- the number and type of emojis the user used
- the number of times the users raised their hands
- the user activity score for the session
Teaching challenge: Renaming digital files and folders for better organization and retrieval
Solution: Microsoft Power Rename
While working with digital files there is a way to save time and reduce stress. This is achieved by enabling the ability to quickly find lesson plans, worksheets, and assessments and avoiding searching through multiple folders. File/folder renaming apps can rename multiple files and folders simultaneously. File extensions can be changed as well. A free option is the PowerRenamer app that is a part of the Windows PowerToys utility.
Teaching challenge: To hyperlink or to embed content?
Solution: Acquire embed code or weblink from online resources
Hyperlinking or web linking forces the learner to jump to another server to see content. Embedding hosts the external content within the course page currently being viewed. To share additional online content, decide whether you will share a link with your students or embed the resource into your course page. To embed content such as a Quizlet study set, just copy the embed code from the app’s share options. This embed code must be pasted into the HTML editing feature of your online course. For online objects that do not provide an embed code, copy the link address, and then generate an HTML IFrame code with the IFrame Generator. This code can be pasted into your course’s HTML editor to display the item.
Teaching challenge: Expensive and heavy – Educational resources
Solution: Open Educational Resources
OERs are free resources that can be used and sometimes adapted to enhance or provide the structure of an online course. Examples of these are Open Stax, OER Commons, ecampus Ontario Open Library and BC Campus OpenEd. These, as well as content from MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses, are potential places to locate learning materials for your online course. These open and free sources offer learning objects that can be integrated into your lessons. Be sure to check the copyright statements to ensure that you are complying to the expectations of the authors/owners. Heavy? Many textbooks are physically heavy. In providing your learners with open and free alternatives to burdensome textbooks, you can make their routines less demanding.
Teaching challenge: Facilitating collaborative writing activities
Solution: Collaborative online editors
These allow students in a full class, groups, or pairs to collaborate on writing projects in real time. Some collaborative online editors such as Microsoft Word support multimedia. More than writing assignments can be accomplished through these cooperative tools. Project work from ideation, brainstorming, planning, delegating, generating, editing and presenting can be streamlined if the project members are working on a common document. These usually provide a track changes feature to improve collaboration. An example of a free and basic online tool is EtherPad.
Teaching challenge: Repurposing PowerPoints into interactive activities
Solution: PowerPoint and the H5P Interactive video tool
Instructors commonly have access to Microsoft PowerPoint. If they do not, they can access a free version of Office at https://www.microsoft365.com and sign up with a free account. To make PowerPoint slideshows more accessible online, consider changing a PowerPoint into a video by opening the document and removing unnecessary content. These can be text, decorative images, embedded videos and complex backgrounds. Slideshows present better as a video when content and visuals are spartan. One option to enhance a presentation is to add a layer of audio to the PowerPoint. A teacher can record audio over each slide within the PowerPoint program. After edits and recording have been completed, export the presentation to video format. This video can be shared with students through a hyperlink embedded in an LMS course or during a screen-share in a live online classroom.
After the movie is ready, it can be added to the H5P interactive video tool. Instructors can add interactivity including questions, comments, navigation, images to make the video more engaging and even make it an assessable learning object.
Final thoughts
To learn more, consider exploring the resources listed below and viewing the recorded Digital Duct Tape webinars on the Tutela.ca site.
Resources referenced:
BC Campus Open Ed,
https://open.bccampus.ca
Big Blue Button Learning Dashboard,
https://support.bigbluebutton.org/hc/en-us/articles/19304662953751-Learning-Analytics-Dashboard
Digital Duct Tape, TESL Ontario blog post.
https://blog.teslontario.org/digital-duct-tape-for-language-instructors-part-1
Digital Duct Tape for Language Instructors, Part 1. TESL Ontario webinar.
https://tutela.ca/GroupEvent?organicgroup=8594&itemId=72618
Digital Duct Tape for Language Instructors, Part 2. TESL Ontario webinar.
https://tutela.ca/GroupEvent?organicgroup=8594&itemId=69906
Ecampus Ontario Open Library,
https://openlibrary.ecampusontario.ca
EtherPad,
https://etherpad.org
IFrame Generator,
https://iframe-generator.org
Microsoft 365,
https://www.microsoft365.com
Microsoft PowerToys,
https://apps.microsoft.com/search?query=powertools&hl=en-US&gl=CA
OER Commons,
https://oercommons.org
Openstax,
https://openstax.org
Image Credit: Lucas-van-Oort
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