Ed/Tech must-reads

Standards, Canvas collections and ChatGPT versus student voice

August 21, 2023

A redhaired woman in a dark coat stands side on, facing down a giant wild cat coming down from the top right of frame. They are in some kind of 19th century gallery space perhaps. People sit on the right watching. Other figures dance in the background. Nonsense text appears at the bottom

(I generally run the newsletter subheading through Midjourney to make an image, and despite repeatedly asking for no text, the robot evidently has something that it needs to say this time)

What standard is that? (Tools for evaluating online courses) - Webinar Thursday 31st August, 12 noon AEST from ASCILITE TELedvisors Network

Everyone has an opinion about the quality of online courses (ok, everyone in my world) but who actually gets it right? There are hundreds of factors that can shape whether an online course is effective (and what do we even mean by effective) and establishing standards to examine the right ones can lead to better experiences for educators and students alike. Conversely, handled badly, they risk becoming a punitive audit of teaching practice. Join Scott Casley (Eastern Institute of Technology - NZ), Dom McGrath (UQ) and Sarah Thorneycroft (UNE) as they discuss their work in focusing on the former and avoiding the latter in their work with standards to support educators. (Register via the link, if you miss it, there will be a recording)

Announcing (finally) Canvas Collections from Some Assemblage Required

People who know me well will know that I have some opinions about the Canvas LMS and its highly linear structure, but this blog post from David Jones (Griffith) about an open source tool that they have developed makes me think there might be hope for it yet. In a nutshell, it allows users to add a basic nav bar and cluster modules into a few collections. Visual information about modules can be added, with other basic course information - dates, summary details and coming soon information about unpublished modules.

Screenshot of a Canvas LMS course, with the Modules option selected, a nav bar at the top and three modules represented by images with additional unit information

I will, naturally, add the relevant disclaimers that any modifications/customisations come with an element of risk the next time the official version of the platform is updated - and the more changes you make, the greater the risk - so talk to your Ed Tech team to see if Canvas Collections is right for you. (But it does look kind of cool)

This probably isn’t the first time that you’ve seen this suggestion but it’s always good to explore lived experiences of teaching with technology. Kim Mitchell is a Canadian Nursing educator who blogs about Academic writing more widely and writes well. Kim’s students had mixed feelings about the exercise, with just on half using ChatGPT in a variety of ways. Some commented that they felt that it ‘stole their voice’, which is something that I don’t think we consider enough in these discussions. The replies and comments bring additional richness to this discussion.