It's Time to Request D2L Courses for the Fall

Now is a good time to request your fall 2013 Desire2Learn course from OIT.

- To submit a request to create your D2L course, you will need to go through MyCUInfo. Log in at MyCUInfo, then follow these steps linked to here.

** If you do NOT see your fall course within your Faculty Tool Kit, be sure that you have selected the correct term (Fall 2013) at the top right. Once your D2L course is created, you will simply go to https://learn.colorado.edu/ to access it.

If you have content within another D2L course that you would like to copy into your new D2L course, you can do this yourself once your new course is created.

To move you last semester's materials into the new course, visit the OIT Copy Course Content Tutorial.

Harnessing the Web in your Hybrid: Authentic Resources for your Students

In my individual consults with many of you, I have encouraged the incorporation of authentic resources  into your curriculum.

Why incorporate the real-world into your course?

• improve student motivation- students find real-world activities more pertinent/relevant; they are seen less as busy-work and more as a practical application of concepts
• equip your students for the real world- we want our students to be equipped for the job market  when they complete their studies at CU; the more experience they have with authentic scenarios/situations, the better
• because we can- a portion of our coursework is conducted online, which permits us to easily incorporate internet resources into our curriculum 

Depending on your course, the look and feel of these resources or activities will vary greatly.

Where do I start?

• think of a lesson that is in need of an activity/example- this could be a topic that students have a hard time with; or a topic that has not gone so well in the class before; or a topic that you personally find particularly relevant/interesting
• conduct a web search to see what is available- as you do so, keep your mind open and bookmark any resources you may be able to use in the future
• consider any support or scaffolding- what will your students need (eg instructions, handouts, a list of useful links, a list of relevant terminology) to be successful
• be creative- students don't always want to summarize information; think of more creative ways for them to use/digest/present/interact with the material
• the magnitude of the activity depends on you- it could be an introduction to a larger concept that you are teaching; it could be a follow-up "put into practice" activity; it could be extra credit
• high tech vs. low-tech- choose technology tools that can help organize/facilitate the process; or go low-tech
• get help- schedule an appointment with me if you have an idea and need help executing it!

* Please leave a comment below if you have any suggestions for others!