Digital Learning & Innovation Program

This workshop is for participants who have little to no experience teaching online with SLATE. Participants will get oriented with SLATE and how to accomplish common teaching tasks. We will cover the main function of SLATE, and what to do to prepare for the start of the semester. We’ll also outline the main resources and support available to you throughout the semester.

Participants in this workshop will learn about how to use SLATE Assignment tool to receive, organize, and provide feedback on student submissions. We will also explore how to use Turnitin with your assignments by creating self-check folders and connect to the gradebook.

This session will incorporate navigating the various communication tools with the SLATE environment. We will focus on setting up discussions and associating them to the gradebook, using the announcement tool to message the class, finding your class list and emailing your class using the SLATE email. We will also introduce you to the Activity Feed – an interactive tool for instructors and students to post messages that are visible to the entire class.

Setting up a gradebook requires careful thought at the beginning of the semester in order to facilitate course delivery. Join us in this 60-minute workshop to learn how you can set up your grade book to reflect your approach to evaluation, grading system, grading scheme, grade display to students and the treatment of ungraded items. We will explore how to create grade categories and items for projects, assignments, discussions, quizzes, etc. to include in your gradebook and how to associate them with other tools (e.g., Assignments, Quizzes, Discussions). We will also discuss how to manually enter grades and release grades to students at the end of the semester.

This session will guide you through creating quizzes, managing quiz questions from the Question Library or the Quizzes tool, and organize quizzes into categories to make it easier to find assessments with similar or related content. We will use the quiz preview option to test the accuracy of content and grading before you release a quiz. We will talk about Lockdown Browser, Respondus Monitor, date, and time restrictions, giving students special access, submission views and much more. Once you receive completed quizzes from learners, you can view quiz statistics such as grade distribution, grade average, question statistics, and user statistics on the Statistics page.

Whether for teaching or just increasing your human presence, videos add a dynamic element to any course. In this session, we will cover many ways to create videos for any purpose. Simple instructor videos, with some considerations about equipment, can be created with almost any device with a camera and microphone. You will see a few options for creating videos with PowerPoint. Often processes are best shown through screen recordings, and we will see how to make screen recordings with PowerPoint and Kaltura. Finally, you will learn how to make videos with multiple people using Teams to add additional voices to your course.

Whether for informative or decorative purposes, images add to the basic text of any document. However, many images cannot be freely used based on their copyright status. In this session, you will learn how to find images that are free to use and understand any requirements for including them. You will also learn how to insert the images in Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and HTML files as well as add the proper alternative text to an image.

In this workshop, participants will learn how to use the content tool to post and organize course content so that information about course expectations, lecture notes, and important dates can be displayed to users clearly. If you do not have any existing content, we will show you how to add content to your course. We will also go over how to copy existing material from other courses in SLATE.

HyperText Markup Language (or HTML) is the foundation of the Web. HTML is the most powerful, flexible, and accessible way to provide information online. SLATE provides a “What You See Is What You Get” (or WYSIWYG) editor that allows you to create HTML pages without having to know how to code HTML. In this session, you will learn how to create HTML files in SLATE and then edit those files with the HTML editor. You will learn what each of the buttons does, but the session will focus on the most important features such as inserting images, hyperlinks (including quicklinks), and iframes (with the “Insert Stuff” button).

Providing content in an accessible format is a legal and ethical requirement. By creating your Word documents in an accessible format from the start, you will not only fulfil that requirement but also make any future accommodation requests more manageable. This session forms the basis of understanding content creation in an accessible way by understanding the structure of documents while providing useful formatting with a pleasing aesthetic; understanding how to insert links and media accessibly; and, finally, understanding how to use the built-in accessibility checker to review your document.

PDFs (or Portable Document Format) are meant to be consistent and universally available. However, PDFs often have a bad reputation for their accessibility. These issues are often caused during the authoring of PDFs. In this session, you will learn how to improve the accessibility of your PDFs. You will become familiar with Adobe Acrobat and the conversion process of your Word documents to PDF. You will learn about reviewing your document using the Accessibility tool and correcting any issues with reading order and tagging.

Providing content in an accessible format is a legal and ethical requirement. By creating your PowerPoint presentations in an accessible format from the start, you will not only fulfill that requirement but also make any future accommodation requests more manageable. This session forms the basis of understanding content creation in an accessible way by understanding the structure of presentations while providing useful formatting with a pleasing aesthetic; understanding how to insert links and media accessibly; and, finally, understanding how to use the built-in accessibility checker to review your presentation.

Providing content in an accessible format is a legal and ethical requirement. By creating your Word documents in an accessible format from the start, you will not only fulfil that requirement but also make any future accommodation requests more manageable. This session forms the basis of understanding content creation in an accessible way by understanding the structure of documents while providing useful formatting with a pleasing aesthetic; understanding how to insert links and media accessibly; and, finally, understanding how to use the built-in accessibility checker to review your document.

PDFs (or Portable Document Format) are meant to be consistent and universally available. However, PDFs often have a bad reputation for their accessibility. These issues are often caused during the authoring of PDFs. In this session, you will learn how to improve the accessibility of your PDFs. You will become familiar with Adobe Acrobat and the conversion process of your Word documents to PDF. You will learn about reviewing your document using the Accessibility tool and correcting any issues with reading order and tagging.

Providing content in an accessible format is a legal and ethical requirement. By creating your PowerPoint presentations in an accessible format from the start, you will not only fulfill that requirement but also make any future accommodation requests more manageable. This session forms the basis of understanding content creation in an accessible way by understanding the structure of presentations while providing useful formatting with a pleasing aesthetic; understanding how to insert links and media accessibly; and, finally, understanding how to use the built-in accessibility checker to review your presentation.

In this session, we will be covering advanced SLATE topics. You will learn how to use intelligent agents to email your students when certain parameters are met. Add release conditions to restrict course materials, activities or grade items based on criteria. Create an attendance sheet in SLATE to track student attendance in addition to how to monitor student progress through the course.

This session will focus on creating and managing questions in the Question Library and then using them in Question pools. We will learn how to set up a quiz in sections with a section for essay style questions or case studies. We will also review various Submission views so students can review their performance on the quiz. This session assumes a Brightspace Quiz has already been set up.

Rubrics can expedite the grading process and provide clarification on assignment expectations. This session will provide instructions on setting up rubrics in SLATE and how to associate the rubric with an assignment. We will also provide guidance on creating the categories and level descriptors. Once a rubric is set up you can provide clear feedback to your students with just a few clicks.

In this session, we will cover how to customize your SLATE course homepage to provide better student engagement. You will learn how to find your default homepage and define what widgets are and how to use them effectively. You will learn how to create a custom widget in order to add office hours, welcome message, etc. Create a custom homepage your students will love, including the activity feed function in SLATE.

HyperText Markup Language (or HTML) is the foundation of the Web. HTML is the most powerful, flexible, and accessible way to provide information online. SLATE provides a “What You See Is What You Get” (or WYSIWYG) editor that allows you to create HTML pages without having to know how to code HTML. In this session, you will learn how to create HTML files in SLATE and then edit those files with the HTML editor. You will learn what each of the buttons does, but the session will focus on the most important features such as inserting images, hyperlinks (including quicklinks), and iframes (with the “Insert Stuff” button).

In this session we will see how to create a new document in Photoshop, set resolution, size and orientation. We will also see how to import and modify image, bring two or more images together in a seamless manner, enhance the image by changing its brightness, contrast, and saturation. Eventually creating some image that is useable in a course.

SheridanH5P is Sheridan’s local instance of the open-source H5P software. SheridanH5P creates robust presentational and interactive elements for use on SLATE without needing to know any code. Building interactivity is a proven way to improve student learning. This session will ensure that you are prepared to use SheridanH5P, knowing how to access the site, to create new assets, and embed your creations on SLATE. After a general overview of the options for presentations and interactive activities available in SheridanH5P, the session will cover four specific assets to get you started using SheridanH5P.

Following on ST101, this session will ensure that you can create advanced asset types using SheridanH5P. Since more advanced assets may need more preparation by students before encountering the asset, some considerations for scaffolding will be provided. Some assets—Course Presentation, Interactive Book, Column—combine other H5P assets; creating those assets will be demonstrated, including how to insert basic H5P assets into advanced assets. You will also learn to create interactive videos. Finally, how to create and submit a reflection exercise will be demonstrated using the Course Presentation tool.

This session will serve as refresher for those who are familiar with ID models and will serve as a base for the upcoming ID sessions in our DLI webinar series. In this session we will discuss the importance of instruction design as a framework. What different instructional designs are used commonly in technology integrated course design. How to use ADDIE, one of the most popular ID models in a technology integrated course design. We will also discuss the limitations of ADDIE model and see how we can overcome these limitations.

The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework is particularly helpful among ID models for understanding technology integration in a course. The TPACK framework is a Venn diagram of three types of knowledge: content, pedagogical, and technological. The overlapping areas of these three types results in seven areas of more specialized knowledge. By analyzing each area, you can make better instructional decisions about technology integration in your course in a methodical way.

This session will serve as an introduction to introducing virtual content in class.

IMPORTANT:

Please note that this session, unlike other DLI sessions, is not a webinar, rather the session will be held IN PERSON at Trafalgar Campus. There are very few seats available presession due to equipment availability, however, depending on the waitlist for this session more sessions may open. If you are interested in learning about virtual reality SPARK encourages you to sign up and put your name on the waitlist.

In this session you will learn about the technologies available i.e., VR and AR, pros and cons of these technologies. How to use VR in classroom settings. Some hands-on experience with VR headsets. Experimentation with free available content online.

How does learning analytics help us understand our students’ learning experience? How might this knowledge inform our approach to course design and teaching? Insights Portal is a tool on SLATE that helps us collect data about learner behaviour online and provides us with interactive tools to understand how learners learn and progress. We invite you to reflect on your learners’ engagement in your courses and make decisions to adapt your teaching using a data-driven approach.

In our first session, we looked at how learning analytics helps us understand our students’ learning experience and how we can get a holistic picture of our students’ online behaviour. We then reflected on how learner engagement might inform our approach to course design and teaching. You will continue this exploration in our session on using the adoption and assessment dashboards on Insights Portal. How might the data on assessment help us reflect on your existing assessment strategies? How can you adapt your assessment strategies and methods to create a more meaningful learning experience for your students?

This session lays the groundwork for effectively harnessing AI in educational settings at Sheridan College by clarifying AI concepts and revealing its transformative potential. Grasping the fundamentals, such as how AI systems learn and make decisions, prepares participants for deeper engagement with this technology. It enables instructors to begin to critically evaluate AI integration into their teaching practices, fostering an informed and thoughtful approach to leveraging AI for enhancing learning experiences.

• Mode of Delivery: Asynchronous

Ethical use of technology, including maintaining academic integrity, is paramount in educational settings. This session will address critical issues such as data privacy, bias in AI algorithms, the ethical implications of using AI in decision-making about students, and the challenges of ensuring academic integrity when AI tools are used. By confronting these issues directly, instructors can be better equipped to select and utilize AI tools responsibly, fostering an environment of trust, ethical awareness, and integrity in their classrooms.

• Mode of Delivery: Asynchronous

Personalized learning has the potential to significantly enhance student outcomes by tailoring educational experiences to individual needs, preferences, and learning paces. This session highlights the transformative power of AI in enabling personalized learning at scale, demonstrating how AI can identify learning gaps, recommend resources, and adjust learning paths in real-time. Instructors will explore practical examples of AI tools that can be adopted to support diverse learning needs, making this knowledge directly applicable to their teaching.

• Mode of Delivery: Synchronous Workshop - Noon, 1 hour

Assessment is a critical component of the educational process, and AI offers innovative approaches to creating effective and engaging assessments. This session will explore how AI can augment traditional approaches to assessments, including quiz, prompt, and rubric generation, as well as using AI for more situated and simulated forms of learning. This is a key area where AI can directly impact instructors' workloads and the quality of their assessment

• Mode of Delivery: Synchronous Workshop - Noon, 1 hour

As AI becomes increasingly prevalent in all sectors, including education, preparing students to understand and interact with AI is essential. This session covers strategies for integrating AI literacy into the curriculum, helping students to critically evaluate AI tools, understand their workings, and consider their societal impact. By equipping students with AI literacy, instructors can contribute to developing a workforce that is ready to navigate a future where AI plays a central role.

• Mode of Delivery: Synchronous Workshop - Noon, 1 hour

This highly practical session is designed to give instructors firsthand experience with AI tools relevant to their teaching disciplines. It will provide participants with a guided exploration of various AI applications, from content creation tools and adaptive learning platforms to AI-driven analytics for tracking student engagement and performance. The aim is to practice using AI technologies by providing a safe space for instructors to experiment with these tools, understand their functionalities, and envision how they can be integrated into their current teaching and assessment methods.

• Mode of Delivery: Synchronous Workshop - Noon, 1 hour