Tip Sheets: Blended Learning and Educational Technologies

In the context of higher education, the word “backchannel” refers to conversations that take place among students during a classroom lecture or presentation.

Start by writing student-centred learning outcomes

This document is a general resource for teaching teams seeking to incorporate lab activities in their remote courses

Concept mapping tools allow you and your students to visually depict a system of relationships by creating a map

How to have conversations with students about academic integrity and discipline norms in order to discourage the use of artificial intelligence tools for nefarious purposes. 

Transcripts are text alternatives to multi-media materials

Crowdmark is an online platform that helps instructors manage and grade assignments and tests quickly and efficiently

Data visualization is the process of presenting large amounts of data in a visual form that helps to reveal meaningful patterns in the data.

If you choose to create your own course material, keep file sizes small

Active learning in the classroom can increase student engagement and promote learning

Tutorials supplement learning that has occurred in lectures by providing further opportunities for students to discuss course material, ask questions, practice skills, and receive formative feedback on their learning

While ePortfolios might be described as digital collections of artifacts, a good academic ePortfolio also represents a process

Games can introduce goals, interaction, feedback, problem solving, competition, narrative, and fun learning environments, elements that can increase learner engagement and sustain motivation

Similar to in-person office hours, virtual office hours support student learning through one-on-one interactions between students and instructors or TAs

In a flipped classroom students engage with lectures or other materials outside of class to prepare for an active learning experience in the classroom.

Many types of assignments can be done online. 

When an instructor writes on a classroom’s whiteboard, two problems arise

Technology has become an integral part of students’ lives

In a flipped classroom, students engage with lectures or other materials outside of class to prepare for an active learning experience in the classroom

Fostering an effective discussion can be challenging in a face-to-face situation and even more so in an online environment.

Hypothesis is an online tool that allows students to collaboratively annotate course readings and other internet resources.

Padlet is an online platform that describes itself as “somewhere between a doc and a full-fledged website builder

Clickers are stand-alone handheld devices or apps installed on a smartphone or laptop that allow students to respond to an instructor's multiple-choice questions. These responses are instantly tabulated by software so that the instructor, and potentially the students, can see the results. Used effectively, clickers can foster participation as well as student engagement with course content.

Piazza is a online question-and-answer platform that blends the functionality of a discussion forum with that of a wiki

The following best practices for creating PowerPoint presentations were compiled from Kapterev, Delwiche & Ananthanarayanan, and the University of Western Ontario’s “PowerPoint Primer." 

Prezi is a “pan and zoom” tool, which means that it allows you to create a multi-item presentation that your audience can explore either according to a pre-determined path or in whatever sequence they prefer

A screencast is a narrated video recording of your computer screen. 

Social bookmarking tools allow you to save, curate, and share online resources.

Asynchronous learning means that the instructor and the students in the course all engage with the course content at different times (and from different locations)

A blended course sometimes reduces face-to-face "seat time" so that students can pursue additional teaching and learning activities online.

Timeline tools are used to create a horizontal "scroll bar" which is laid out with text, images, or videos that correspond to specific dates or events

When transitioning your class online, there are a variety of options for delivering your essential course content—especially lecture content—in the digital environment

Twitter allows you to share and find brief, text-based updates about things that are of interest to you. Users who follow you on Twitter are automatically sent your updates or “tweets".

Virtual reality (VR) involves the use of technology to enter an alternate, three-dimensional view of the real world, a fantasy world,