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This week, Brenna is joined by some colleagues from across campus to preview the Teaching Practices Colloquium, and she issues a wee reminder about rest. Show Notes On the show today, Brenna is stoked AF about the Teaching Practices Colloquium. You can review the schedule and plan your day in advance — but don’t forget to register! Learn more about Bonnie Stewart and Dave Cormier, the keynote speakers, on the TPC website. Transcripts Available for download as a .docx file here. Available for download as a .pdf file here.

This week, Brenna has some thoughts on That VitalSource Letter, and is joined by someone who really knows copyright to talk about what faculty need to know about using materials online. Show Notes On this show today, Brenna references research on automatic textbook billing services. She’s primarily referring to this USPRIG Education Fund report, which is fascinating reading. These documents from the UC Davis implementation also paint quite a picture. Dani talked about the Intellectual Property Office website — it holds a wealth of resources! The FAQ referenced on the show is particularly helpful, and the document on online teaching in Covid-19. Dani mentioned Unsplash, which is an OL-favourite site for finding openly licensed images (Brenna uses it every single day at work). Brenna mentioned that Equitable Access is an existing term, and she’s kind of annoyed by VitalSource walking all over it. You can read more about the concept of Equitable Access here. Brenna still doesn’t know what constructivism means. But then she’s never successfully used epistemology in a sentence, either. Transcripts Available for download as a .docx file here. Available for download as a .pdf file here.

Brenna is thinking about the rise in numbers of students seeking accommodations, and talks with two TRU community members who have ideas about how we can pre-emptively make our courses more accessible. Show Notes On the show today, Brenna references UDL, or Universal Design for Learning. This is one of her favourite introductory UDL resources. Carolyn and Carol spoke last year at the TPC, but if you missed that you can find the abstract here. They’re scheduled to present again this year, February 16 at 3:10 pm. Here’s a handy overview of the distinction between accessibility and accommodation. Brenna mentioned that all staff and students have access to Read&Write, an accessibility tool. IT Services provides access to Read&Write. This article offers an overview of making your PDFs accessible using tools — Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat — that we have access to at TRU. Carolyn talked a lot about the importance of heading styles in Word. This video gives an overview of using the heading function correctly. Transcripts Available for download as a .docx file here. Available for download as a .pdf file here.

Brenna wants to talk again about asynchronous teaching and what we want to carry forward into the brave new (hybrid?) future, and invites someone with a really positive Fall experience to talk about how she did it. Show Notes This week, Brenna’s thinking a lot about hybrid teaching, because folks are talking about it as part of the return-to-campus plan. But hybrid doesn’t just happen! It requires lots of planning and prep. Brenna favours a flipped-hybrid approach. We’ll talk more about it soon, but here’s some reading about its application in Engineering and in foreign language learning. Brenna first met guest Shannon Smyrl through ACCUTE, and they worked together on the CanLit Guides project — which is an OER worth checking out! Here’s Brenna’s contribution on comics. Transcripts Available for download as a .docx file here. Available for download as a .pdf file here.

Brenna is thinking about how the semester seems to be off to a slow start and recommending guest voices as a way to find your mojo — and is joined by one such guest voice. Show Notes Brenna talks a lot about the forward-facing Big Blue Button today. You can access it at this URL and use your TRU single sign-on to log in: https://bigblue1.tru.ca/b One of our amazing TRU faculty made this great BBB tutorial, which is a great place to start if you’re just learning the tool. Brenna references Blue Monday today, which is probably not actually a thing. Erin May joined us from the TRU Library today. You can use this form to book a library session for your class. Use this handy table to find your subject librarian. TRUSpace is really cool! And the Academic Integrity Day collection Erin and Brenna talked about is available for perusal here. Transcripts Available for download as a .docx file here. Available for download as a .pdf file here.

Brenna is back for one more solo episode before resuming interviews next week, and we’re talking New Year’s resolutions. Show Notes There’s a lot of Groot noise this week. Working from home, folks. Kids happen. There are tons of great Learning Technology and Innovation workshops this term. Check them out! Download and review the summary of the survey on student experiences of virtual delivery. If you’re logged in to TRU Moodle, you can access the Moodle 3.9 overview — with some videos for the most-changed features — on the Support for Virtual Delivery site. Brenna teased the Digital Detox at the end of this episode. If you want to register to get Brenna’s essays on the post-pandemic university in your inbox, you can subscribe at the Digital Detox site. Transcripts Available for download as a .docx file here. Available for download as a .pdf file here.

Brenna is ready for vacation, but not before she tells you all about the Winter term programming, and hectors you about taking a rest. Show Notes Nothing for you here, folks. Watch your email inboxes for links to register for Winter programming, or keep your eye on the LT&I calendar, which Brenna swears she will update before she blows this popsicle stand. The book club Brenna mentioned is looking at Critical Digital Pedagogy in the winter term. Check it out! It’s open access! Transcripts Available for download as a .docx file here. Available for download as a .pdf file here.

Brenna is flying solo this week and reflecting on the results of the latest findings of the Student Survey of Virtual Delivery. Show Notes The survey shows that many of us need to consider rethinking the workload in our classes. If you haven’t run your courses through a workload calculator yet, it’s a great place to start. Our students are feeling isolated, and maybe that matters to online learning more than you know. Check out this review of research on social presence in online learning. Brenna talked this week about Sara Goldrick-Rab and Jesse Stommel’s essay, “Teaching the Students We Have, Not the Students We Wish We Had.” It’s worth revisiting, if you haven’t checked it out in a while. Transcripts Available for download as a .docx file here. Available for download as a .pdf file here.

Brenna is reflecting on how being bad at things is hard — maybe something to remember in our teaching? — and is joined by a video enthusiast to talk about Gen-Z teaching. Show Notes Brenna talked a lot about Ian Linkletter’s case off the top of today’s show. You can read more about the context in this article from The Verge. And if you want to attend the event Brenna has organized for Tuesday, you can find more information here. By the way, Bonnie Stewart has a recent excellent take on why higher education needs more attention on data ethics. Find Trent on Twitter. How about a supercut of those weekly videos he talks about? Read some (corporate funded, full disclosure) research on how Gen-Z students use captioning in their learning. Transcripts Available for download as a .docx file here. Available for download as a .pdf file here.

Brenna is looking for a laugh this week, and is joined by the Dean of Students to make a point about making learning meaningful (and share love for supplemental instruction). Show Notes Brenna has been enjoying this Twitter thread of memes about the US constitution and presidential politics, like, way too much. Thanks to Liz for sharing it. Got an idea for a meme or gif assignment for your students? Why, we have resources for that! This is the persistent resource for the TRU session, and this is the one for the SFU version. Christine Adam is the Dean of Students. You can find out more about her and her office from their web presence. The book Chris mentioned was Stretch by Scott Sonenshein. Chris and Brenna talked a little about Universal Design for Learning (UDL). If you’d like to learn more about UDL, Brenna really likes this introduction. If you’re interested in the urgent issue of students with disabilities in a Covid-19 context, there is some emergent research to review; this article is a good place to start. Transcripts Available for download as a .docx file here. Available for download as a .pdf file here.