We found 221 results that contain "open badging"

Project Title: Opening New WindowsProject Leads: Sunil Kishore Chakrapani and Jenifer Saldanha





College/ Unit:







Department of ECE, College of Engineering and Biological Science Program, College of Natural Sciences








 














 











Elevator Pitch:Quick response or QR codes are machine readable (typically by smart phone/tablet cameras) systems similar to bar-codes that can contain information within the image. They are used to provide an easy, fast and concise way to connect to information via the internet. QR codes are used in stores as payment options, and to display information, especially becoming commonplace during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project explores the use of QR codes in improving the delivery of instructional content in engineering and biology laboratories. The specific objective of this project is to implement QR code-based instruction strategies for laboratories, which will help to make “lab-manuals” more accessible and engaging. Standard laboratory manuals can be overwhelming due to clutter and overloading of information. Students can find it unengaging, and accessing specific information can be challenging. This project will utilize sequentially programmed QR codes placed at different locations in the lab to “walk” students through experimental procedures. The QR codes will be linked to interactive web pages which will display the course content in an engaging manner. When students want to find information regarding a specific instrument or experimental protocol, they can simply scan the associated QR code which will lead them to the information along with a video of how it works. This project also employs this QR code concept to design interactive assessments. Students will answer questions by identifying and scanning the correct QR codes. Team Bios: Dr. Sunil Kishore Chakrapani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in both departments in the topics of computer aided manufacturing, and mechanics. His research interests include use of ultrasonics for nondestructive evaluation. Dr. Jenifer Saldanha is an Assistant Professor in the Biological Sciences program in the College of Natural Science. She is the Curriculum Coordinator for introductory molecular and cellular biology labs. Her broad research interests include student success and retention in STEM disciplines, life science education research, and stress biology.What are some of the successes?QR coded links for videos and initial course content were embedded in HTML pages and these work well. The use of sequential QR codes for activities was tested and we found that these work well and smoothly. QR coded assignments were developed for the lab and they work as expected. What are some of the challenges that you have experienced on this project?The QR coded assignments work for the engineering lab, but will require more time and effort to adapt for the biology lab. Web design requires a lot of effort. Using the tools from this project requires a smooth web interface. In the future, it’ll be great if the project resources can be used for web design and development in the form of undergrad hours. Supply chain issues delayed our ability to order tablets for the courses.Image attribution:QR Code for Object Taggingby preetamrai is licensed under CC-BY-2.0

Nominations for the AT&T Faculty-Staff Awards Competition are now open! The awards recognize innovative instructional technology within credit-bearing courses at MSU. This past year has required many instructors to utilize instructional technology in more frequent and groundbreaking ways, so they deserve to be celebrated! Faculty, instructors, and teaching assistants are eligible to apply. Awards will be given for the following categories:
 

Online: Instructors who use technology to enhance effective teaching practices in online courses.

 

Hybrid: Instructors who provide at least 50% of instruction with online experiences in hybrid courses.

 

Best Technology-Enabled Innovation: Instructors who enhance in-person courses with technology, or “flip” their courses. Flipped courses are those in which much of the lecture and content work is done outside of the classroom, so course time is preserved for more active instruction.

 
The deadline for entry is Friday, March 5, 2021 by 5 pm.
 
For more details on nominating an instructor, or for information on past winners, visit https://att-awards.msu.edu/entry-information. If you have any other questions, email Nick Noel at lepeschk@msu.edu.
 
 
 

What is Information Technology?
MSU’s Information Technology (IT) Department oversees all technology-related initiatives on campus and attempts to stay on top of trends in technology. They provide support for technology used in the pursuit of education, research, and engagement.
What role does IT play in digital accessibility on campus?
IT understands digital accessibility as “how our users access digital goods and services, and how students, faculty, and staff can ensure that web pages and web-delivered content can function with assistive technology used by persons with disabilities.”
To do this, IT provides support for web and course accessibility, creative design and production, and evaluation and purchasing. As part of their support for web and course accessibility, IT teaches a variety of courses and workshops Additionally, they have created a number of guides and tutorials, including  the Accessibility Captioning Resource Guide, Course Accessibility Review, Web Accessibility Policy, Guide for Spartan Ally, and the Digital Accessibility Support Cookbook.
Who should I contact about digital accessibility in IT?
For general inquiries about tutorials, workshops, and policies related to digital accessibility, you can email webaccess@msu.edu. However, you may find the answers you are looking for on the Web Access Digital Accessibility site.
Each college and administrative unit has its own digital accessibility liaison. You can find yours on the Digital Accessibility Liasons directory.This article is part of the Digital Accessibility Toolkit.

Studying and Learning
Study Tips for Open Book and Take Home Exams
Study Through Active Recall
How to Read Your Textbook More Efficiently
Study Less, Study Smart
How to Motivate Yourself to Study
How to Study by Subjects
How to Study for Any Test or Exam
How to Improve Your Memory: A Comprehensive, Science-Backed Guide
How-To Videos
How to Learn Faster with the Feynman Technique
How to Make Effective Flash Cards
How to Remember More – Spaced Repetition
How to take Better Notes: The 6 Best Note-Taking Systems
How to Make Studying Fun
How to Deal with Essay Questions on Exams
How to Improve Your Grades on Multiple Choice Tests
How to Overcome Test Anxiety – 5 Strategies that Work
How to Create a Study Schedule for Final Exams
Confidence Tracking: A Brain Hack for Improving Your Exam Grades
How to Recover from a Failure
 
Math Resources
mathTV.com
Khan Academy
Worksheets (Kutasoftware)
Online Graphing Calculator (Desmos)
Print Your own Graph Paper:
Rectangular
Polar
Science Resources
Biology Online
Chemistry Resources
Virtual Organic Chemistry Textbook
Physics Resources
In-House Guidelines
Academic Planning Calendars
Instructions for Academic Planning Calendars
Strategies and Tips for Online Learning
Getting the Most Out of Mathematics
Post-Test Evaluation (Math)

In addition to caring for your own well-being and openly acknowledging a tragic event with your students, there are a number of tangible ways instructors might consider modifying their syllabus or lesson plans immediately after a crisis. This resource contains examples of policies and adaptations you may consider. These are not meant to be read as recommendations that every instructor should adopt, but rather as possibilities that instructors can individually assess and adapt to their own teaching context.
When modifying your course policies or syllabus after a crisis, it is helpful to keep a few basic principles of trauma-aware pedagogy in mind. The overarching aim of these principles is to cultivate a sense of safety in the classroom, especially when this sense has been disrupted by traumatic events. Some key principles of trauma-informed teaching include:

Empathy - take time to understand what students are experiencing, and allow them to process those experiences together
Flexibility - be patient, and forgiving with students if they aren’t able to progress through the course as you initially imagined they would.
Autonomy - give students choices that can help them feel in control
Clarity - reduce unknowns by over-communicating about what will stay the same and what will change as a result of the event
Transparency - be transparent about why you chose to respond to the event in the way that you did
Consistency - be as predictable and reliable as possible, perhaps leaning on existing classroom habits or routines to create a sense of familiarity

Next, you will find concrete examples of ways you might consider embedding these principles into your class.
Modifying the Course Content/Timeline

If classes are canceled due to a crisis, communicate to students where you plan to pick up after classes resume.
Consider pushing the course plan back a week rather than asking students to prepare for two weeks at once (e.g., the week that was missed and the current week). Then identify a week’s content to skip later on, if possible.

Explain to students why you chose to cut that section and provide a few resources for them to study on their own if they’re interested.
Revise assessments accordingly so that students aren’t evaluated on material not covered.


Review your course learning goals and think about what is truly necessary and what can be left out this time. Students’ cognitive load will be reduced after a crisis and class time might be better spent focusing on a few key topics rather than trying to get everything covered.
Reduce the quantity of readings and other work required for students to prepare for class where possible.

Modifying Assessments

Consider emphasizing low-stakes formative assessments like in-class activities and discussion posts over high-stakes summative assessments like quizzes and exams. This could be done by allowing students to choose to weight their formative assessments more heavily or by making certain summative assessments optional.

Reduce anxiety of high-stakes tests by making them take-home, or allowing students to choose a certain number of questions or problems on an existing exam to respond to as opposed to taking the entire thing.


Consider grading certain assessments pass/fail.
Make sure to revise assessments to ensure they don’t evaluate students on material that may have been skipped or not covered in detail due to an altered schedule.
Consider giving students options about how and when to complete existing assessments.

For example, allowing them to work individually or in groups. Or allowing them to submit in various formats (written, video, audio, creative, etc.)
Create new deadlines for existing assessments in conversation with students.


If using grading rubrics, consider how to adjust expectations in light of the situation, and communicate any changes to students.

Modifying Late Work Policies

Consider removing late work penalties, where possible. Ask students to stay in touch with you if they need an extension.
Give students the option to throw out a certain number of assessments, or for certain assessments to be graded pass/fail.

Modifying Attendance and Participation Policies

Consider dropping or loosening any required attendance policies. For example, increase the number of days that can be missed before incurring a penalty. You may decide to ask students to email you or their TA, when possible, if they need to miss class. Make explicit that they do not need to provide a reason for missing class.
Clearly explain to students what they need to do to make up for any classes they may miss. Try to be respectful of students’ cognitive load as you create this policy so that work doesn’t pile up when they miss class.
Consider giving everyone full credit for the “participation” score of their grade, or provide students with a variety of options about what will count as participation, especially for those who do not feel like speaking in class.


 
This resource was created by Michael McCreary. It is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Topic Area: Student Success
Presented by: Regina Gong, Andrea Bierema, Casey Henley, Rajiv Ranjan, Sadam Issa
Abstract:
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research resources that are copyright-free (public domain) or have been released under an open license that permits others to reuse, revise, remix, retain, and redistribute them. The MSU Libraries’ OER Program was created to address issues of affordability, access, and equity in providing course learning materials for students. Since its launch in the Fall 2019 semester, the OER Program has grown considerably, with 27 courses in 272 sections and 70 instructors utilizing these materials in the Spring 2021 semester. To help support faculty, the OER Award Program was launched as an incentive program for instructors that encourages and supports the use of openly-licensed materials as a pathway to increase student success. You will hear from the first cohort of OER Program awardees and their experience teaching with OER, how it changed their pedagogy, and how it facilitated better student engagement with the course material as they learn remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Open University provides a free course that focuses on developing teaching skills, managing the demands of academic life, and assessing student learning.

The Cube (publishing - process - praxis) is a publishing nexus housed in Michigan State University's Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures (WRAC). The Cube supports, promotes, and produces open-access works created by diverse members of the mid-Michigan and Michigan State communities. Our publishing focuses on messages of social justice, accessibility, diversity, and inclusion. We provide a space for diverse voices to publish and advocate for their work and engage with audiences they would otherwise have difficulty reaching. This Poster, featuring The Cube's director, its graduate assistant, and its lead undergraduate web developer, will provide an overview of the work the Cube does, from brainstorming to final product, and show how we faced adversity and thought creatively in the wake of massive budget cuts to the humanities. 

To access a PDF of the "We Are The Cube" poster, click here.
Description of the Poster 
This poster is made using something similar to a mind map, with bubbles named “high-impact experiential learning,” “people,” “mentorship and community,” “projects,” “process,” and “skills.” Surrounding those bubbles are smaller bubbles with descriptions (described below). 
We are The Cube. 
Publishing - Process - Praxis  
We are a publishing nexus that supports, promotes, and produces open-access work created by diverse members of the mid-Michigan community, focusing on messages of social justice, accessibility, diversity, and inclusion through high-impact experiential learning. We provide a space for diverse ranges of persons, places, and communities to publish and advocate for their work and to engage with audiences they would otherwise be unable to reach. 
High-Impact Experiential Learning Circle: 
Mentorship is key. Project proposals come to The Cube via our website; from there, we review projects and hire paid undergraduate and graduate interns to complete the work. At any given time, The Cube has between twelve and twenty interns, and our entire budget is dedicated to labor. 
 Throughout our processes, students are mentored by faculty members, encouraged to take risks and make mistakes,  praised for their good work, and given credit for that work. For a full list of our mentors and interns, see our website: https://thecubemsu.com/. 
Experiential learning programs allow students to take risks, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes in a safe and supportive environment. 
There are two goals. One is to learn the specifics of a particular subject, and the other is to learn about one’s own learning process. 
Experiential learning works in four stages:  

concrete learning,  
reflective observation,  
abstract conceptualization, and  
active experimentation. 

All of these are key for developing both hard and soft skills, which students will need to be ethical pioneers in their fields and in their communities. 
Representative People Circle: 
Catherine Davis, User Experience and Design Intern 
Shelby Smith, Writing and Editing Intern 
Grace Houdek, Graphic Design Intern 
Jaclyn Krizanic, Social Media Intern 
Jeanetta Mohlke-Hill, Editorial Assistant 
Emily Lin, Lead UX Designer  
Mitch Carr, Graduate Assistant and Project Coordinator 
Kara Headly, Former Social Media Intern 
Community & Mentorship Circle: 
Dr. Kate Birdsall, Director 
Dr. Alexandra Hidalgo, Editor-in-Chief  
Dr. Marohang Lumbu, Editor-in-Chief 
The Writing Center at MSU 
Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures (WRAC) at MSU 
Projects Circle: 
The Current, digital and print magazine 
JOGLTEP, academic journal 
Constellations, academic journal 
Agnes Films, feminist film collective 
The Red Cedar review, literary journal 
REO Town Reading Series Anthology, digital book 
Superheroes Die in the Summer, digital book 
Process Circle: 
Brainstorming 
Collaboration 
Client Relations  
Consistent Voice and Branding 
UX Design and Engineering 
Skills Circle: 
Confidence  
Editing and Writing Style Guides 
Professional Development 
Risk Analysis 
Develop Professional Portfolio 
Human Centered Design 
Developmental and Copy Editing 
Poster by: Dr. Kate Birdsall, Mitch Carr, and Emily Lin (Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures (WRAC) Department))