We found 224 results that contain "student wellness"

I might have to fire Microsoft Copilot if it doesn't catch on soon. . . Let me explain. The second week of each semester, once enrollments have stabilized, I form my classes of 50 students into 10 student learning teams that will collaborate each week through Week 14. In the past, I have used a free, completely random online team-builder app to do this. It's a little time consuming, but basically pretty easy.

This summer, as I was developing 10 podcast episodes that address how we might better integrate GenAI into our classrooms (see The Collaborative Cafe@WSTKS-FM Worldwide on Youtube), it occurred to me that I might be able to engineer more cohesive student learning teams by collecting information from students on Day #1 about their academic strengths and preferences. My idea was to use Copilot to group students in such a way that each person would bring unique talents, skills and abilities to the collaborative table, making for stringer teams that would work more effectively together.

Sounds easy enough, right? Dine in just a few minutes, right? Au contraire!

Actually, I ended up spending at least as much time, if not more, double-checking Copilot's problematic output. Here's what it and I kept running into. Despite a fairly straightforward prompt, Copilot neglected to include ALL students in the class list and doubled or tripled up on other names, randomly ignoring some names and their assets/preferences while assigning others to two or three learning teams at the same time. This happened more than once despite repeated attempts to clarify my initial prompt(s), and Copilot never managed to correct its errors.

In the end, quite a bit of additional time was necessary to comb through what Copilot spit out and fix its mistakes to ensure all 50 students in each section were, in fact, assigned to five-person learning teams. What should have taken five minutes at most, took more than two hours when all was said and done. Time I had not anticipated and don't really have to waste.

Sigh. A rather frustrating way to start the semester. Live and learn, right?

If we are completely honest with ourselves, many students come into our courses lacking basic planning and organization skills. Even when armed with a syllabus, course schedule, or online course modules, many still have difficulty planning for and carrying out weekly assignments and/or projects by designated due dates.

To assist them, I suggest that we include due dates for assignments, projects, quizzes and exams not just in our syllabi or online course modules, but that we should also include what I call an 'Important Due Dates' tab in the D2L pages we set up for our courses. Likewise, I suggest we do so whether we teach in a traditional face to face setting, hybrid, or online.

A quarter century of teaching undergraduates leads me to conclude that few consult the syllabus (or online modules) in more than a cursory way after Week One. More generally, when people have to search for something, they are less likely to find it. So, be sure to drag your 'Important Due Dates' tab to the very top of all other tabs on the left side of your D2L course content page, making it as easy as possible for students to find.

They will then be able to access all of the dates for assignments, projects, quizzes, or exams in one place without the need to wade through denser, text heavy syllabi, course schedules, or weekly course modules. At a glance, they can find what they need to know and prepare accordingly.

Given the various challenges so many young people seem to face in 2021, why not make things as easy as we can for the students in our courses?

We are writing to invite you to join the pilot program for H5P’s D2L integration and a few special features.

Through CTLI’s Catalyst Innovation Program, we are giving out a limited number of free H5P.com accounts for faculty/grad students for this academic year. This will allow you to create lots of different types of activities, assign them to your students through D2L, have their grades automatically populated in the Gradebook (if desired), and also receive data about how your students interacted with the content.

The D2L H5P basic integration lets you:
Insert activities with one click directly into a D2L course (no more embed codes requiring activities to be public or going through another provider like Pressbooks)
Connect select activities with the D2L Gradebook

+ our subscription also includes these special features:
Detailed reports on how learners interact with the activity, no matter where the H5P activity is in the course (as a topic or in a page)
Let learners resume activities (especially useful for larger content types like Interactive Video/Course Presentation/Interactive Book)

+ Smart Import feature (AI) lets you import audio/text/video and you will get quick transcripts and suggested activities pre-built that will shorten activity creation time (currently only in English, more languages to be added soon).

Any activities you create via our pilot account using Smart AI, for example, can certainly be exported out to a different regular H5P account(s).

Some of you might have also looked into nolej.io recently (very similar to Smart Import), but we have been told that H5P.com is much better with regards to compliance, privacy, security and stability.

You could contact me (gacs@msu.edu) or Shannon Quinn (sdquinn@msu.edu) to request an account, you will be given a form to fill out listing any D2L course shells (development courses or communities would work too) where you would like to test the H5P integration.

It's the start of Week Three! Now that enrollments have stabilized, I have students begin working in student learning teams of four-five people this week for the rest of the semester. To assist the student learning teams in my courses, I developed three brief Doodly whiteboard animations in May-June '21 that replace some rather pedestrian Prezi videos used during the 2020-2021 AY. I embed code for these animations in my Week Three course modules on D2L and direct students to them in the Week Three 'Start Here!' guidelines, which are both emailed and shared at the top of the related course module, so student have them in two places. The procedure is similar each week. Anyway, here are links to the animations for those who might be interested:

Week Three: Your Studeunt Learning Team Kick-Off -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBDLxczyhx4

Week Three: Create a List of Team Values -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1BgH3x7U4w

Week Three: Ensure Civil Discourse in Your Student Learning Team -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lYcq6O2w3w

In a conscious attempt during the last two or three years to include high impact teaching practices as part of the courses I teach here at MSU, I have my students write reflections on their individual assignments each week, team reflections for their three collaborative projects, and an individual semester reflection during Week 15. Here are the guidelines I provide each week to help individual students (or student learning teams) craft their reflections:

Guidelines for Writing an Effective Reflection and Self-Critique
For your team-based project reflection that is part of this assignment – or individually written semester reflection -- develop and refine two FULL pages in which you discuss the following:
• For you introduction, describe the project in general and your respective activities associated with it.
• Briefly describe the projects, process and skills you will talk about.
• Explain three aspects of the project that your team members found most enjoyable and why.
• Explain three processes used for the project described above. Describe how the processes were challenging and rewarding for your team members.
• What are one or possibly two things you might change about your contribution to the project in question. Why?
• Explain three skills your various team members gained or improved upon during the semester. These do not have to relate to what you have discussed already, but they can.
• Describe why you find these new or improved skills interesting, useful, enjoyable, and/or challenging.
• If there was a problem of some kind, how might you handle it more proactively next time around?
• In your conclusion, do not simply summarize what you have already said. Answer the implied “So, what?” question.
• Leave yourself (and your reader) with something to think about.
• Remember, this is not a forum to complain about other members of your team, assignments, the course, the instructor, or previous grades. Your team should reflect on its work habits, processes, and related choices made.


In addition to the guidelines above, I have also embedded a brief video from Essay Pro into each weekly course module, which includes additional explanation and examples of what reflective essays are and how to write them. Here is the link for those who might be interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH5W0iaayRo

Here's a fascinating (and very useful) tutorial from Sam Kary of New EdTech for creating student choice boards in Google Docs to empower students by giving them offer a choice in how they are assessed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u_TXmQhIwU

And here is the link to his website The New EdTech Classroom: https://newedtechclassroom.com/

Stumbled across a recent piece on Faculty Focus that provides a very handy starting point for how we might better engage our students emotionally, behaviorally, and cognitively. Here's the link for those who might like to take a closer look: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-student-engagement/student-engagement-strategies-how-to-encourage-behavioral-emotional-and-cognitive-engagement-in-your-course/

Good morning! I'm today's AMA Host on Making/Using Videos. I believe adding videos to any course (online or face-to-face) can provide students with a number of benefits. Videos can often provide deeper connections to course content, inspire and engage students, and put more autonomy into the hands of learners. The key becomes making videos effective, efficient, and adaptable. I have lots of tips that I've learned from so many experts on campus. Looking forward to your questions, your own suggestions, and any advice we can all use.