Author Archives: jrfreese

Canvas Webinar / Partners in Giving

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Earlier this month, UW-Extension offered a webinar regarding the transition from d2l to Canvas. You can view that webinar here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8viROorbBL8&feature=youtu.be

Please note: we are now teaching new IL students in Canvas and previously enrolled students in d2l. The presentation discussed timelines of students working in d2l and Canvas, along with more help with navigating and getting the most out of Canvas.

On a different note: with the revamping of IL faculty positions last summer, we are able to participate in the Partners in Giving campaign. You can find more info (and donate) at the link below. Even a donation of $1 can positively impact great causes in our community.
https://giving.wi.gov

Best wishes on your Thanksgiving holiday!

Massive Open Online Courses

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In recent years, MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses, have become more popular and common. These online courses can each have tens of thousands of students enrolled. Since summer, 190 universities have announced or launched 600 free online courses in a wide variety of fields of study. A list of these courses, along with links to other lists of MOOCs, can be found here:
https://medium.freecodecamp.org/190-universities-just-launched-600-free-online-courses-heres-the-full-list-3d9ad7895f57

Some things to consider:
What is your own familiarity or experience with MOOCs?
What are the pros and cons of these kinds of courses?
Many of these courses have free and open access. Is there anything in these courses (content, layouts, ideas, etc) that we could incorporate in our own courses?

Resource: Creative Commons; ADEIL thank you!

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Are you looking for media – images, video, etc – to incorporate with your courses? Try Creative Commons:
creativecommons.org

From their website: “Creative Commons helps you legally share your knowledge and creativity to build a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world.” It’s not a search engine, but you can use it to search through things like Wikimedia Commons and various media repositories. Please note: they don’t guarantee that just because you found it through them, that you have the copyright permission to use it for your specific needs. However, you can generally look up information on the media that you find through Creative Commons and determine the copyright information from there.

Also, thanks so much to everyone who attended or assisted with ADEIL’s conference last week at Memorial Union in Madison! It was a great time to connect with colleagues from around the country and share ideas.

ADEIL Conference This Week: Schedule

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The 2018 ADEIL Conference is almost here! For a complete list of the schedule – workshops, keynote, reception, breakout sessions, etc, – go to:
https://continuingstudies.wisc.edu/conferences/adeil-program-full/

The conference will be at Memorial Union at the UW-Madison campus. To locate the registration table, enter the Memorial Union via the East Wing (Peets Coffee Shop) and use the stairs or elevator to go to the second floor. Registration will be set up outside Tripp Commons.

ADEIL Conference Next Week

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Next week, UW-Madison hosts Join us at the Lake: ADEIL 2018 Annual Conference at Memorial Union. We hope that you’re able to take advantage of the learning and networking opportunities.

As some of our instructors are based outside of Madison, information for those coming from out of town (and for our Madison-based instructors, reminders of places to explore in Madison) are included below.

If you Arrive at the Dane County Regional Airport: You will find ground transportation near the baggage claim area. You may elect to take a cab from the airport to the hotel, or you may call the Graduate Hotel to arrange for shuttle service (608 257 4391).
Union Cab: https://www.unioncab.com/Contact
Badger Cab: http://www.badgercab.com/index.php
Green Cab: https://greencabmadison.com/

If you Arrive by Car: You may use the parking service at the hotel.

If you Arrive with the Badger Bus from the Milwaukee Regional Airport:
You will get off the bus at the UW-Madison Campus Stop on Langdon Street: https://www.badgerbus.com/tickets/locations/locations/madison/uw-madison-campus-stop-on-langdon/ The conference hotel is a 5 minute walk away. https://goo.gl/maps/6G1JdHgP2Lu

If you Arrive with the Van Galder Bus from O’Hare International Airport:
You will get off the bus at the UW-Madison Campus stop on Langdon Street: https://www.govangalder.com/Chicago-Airport-Shuttle-Bus-Map-information The conference hotel is a 5 minute walk away. https://goo.gl/maps/3xZ14VBp8mG2

The Conference Hotel:
If you reserved a room at the conference hotel, you will be staying at the Graduate in Madison. You can visit their website at https://www.graduatehotels.com/madison/ If you need directions to the Graduate Hotel, you may use Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/jXEUZN6yeEJ2

The Memorial Union:
The conference will be held at the UW-Madison Memorial Union. (Note: This is the Campus Bus Stop for Badger Bus and Van Galder Bus). To locate the Memorial Union with google maps, go to: https://goo.gl/maps/esKAugZHfXQ2 Conference registration will open at 2 pm on October 24th. To locate the registration table, enter the Memorial Union via the East Wing (Peets Coffee Shop) and use the stairs or elevator to go to the second floor. Registration will be set up outside Tripp Commons.

Places to explore when you arrive:
If you arrive early, you may wish to explore the following places:
The Memorial Union has many quiet spaces as well as dining options: https://union.wisc.edu/visit/memorial-union/
The Chazen Museum of Art: https://www.chazen.wisc.edu/
The Memorial Library: https://www.library.wisc.edu/memorial/ (check in at the Welcome Desk at the Library entrance near State Street for a visitor’s pass)
The State Capitol: http://tours.wisconsin.gov/
State Street (shops and restaurants): https://goo.gl/maps/MAnsuiznZLK2
The Veterans Museum: https://www.wisvetsmuseum.com/
Walking the Lakeshore Path to Picnic Point: https://lakeshorepreserve.wisc.edu/visit/places/the-lakeshore-path/
Camp Trippalndee (a restaurant in the Graduate Hotel) https://www.graduatehotels.com/madison/restaurant/camp-trippalindee/

Hope you have an inspiring time at the conference!

Open Educational Resources

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Two Independent Learning Courses – German for Reading Knowledge and Legendary Performers – incorporate Open Educational Resources, or OERs (links are included below). OERs are “are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation.” (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization).

As they’re free, they can save students a lot of money. As they can be freely shared and adapted, it also allows you to pick and choose which subjects or topics you’d like students to learn about in your courses; perhaps you’ll use one chapter from one source and another chapter from another source. An additional benefit: you don’t run into the issue of a publisher no longer printing a textbook you’ve been relying upon, or have students accidentally purchase the wrong edition.

There are a wide variety of sources available online to find OERs. Some act like a search engine, while others include lists of courses with attached OERs. A by-no-means-exhaustive list includes:

https://open.umn.ed
The Center for Open Education with the University of Minnesota includes a library of free, downloadable texts that you can search through and a community of people sharing their expertise in OERs. Perhaps one of sources could work as a textbook in your courses.

https://www.oercommons.org/
OER Commons allows you to search for textbooks, activities, and courses by subject matter and education level, and includes Open Author to create and share resources, lessons, and modules. You can also make an account to collaborate with others.

https://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm
Connected with the California State University System, the MERLOT system offers curated online learning, support material, and content creation tools. It could especially useful for supplemental materials for a course.

http://cnx.org/
OpenStax CNX of Rice University lists courses, each one linked to a digital, OER textbook.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/online-textbooks/
MIT OpenCourseWare offers online texts for STEM courses.

http://opencourselibrary.org/course/
The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges manages the Open Course Library; the listed courses link to a google drive, which contains materials for the course.

UW Independent Learning OER Examples:
A Foundation Course in Reading German
https://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/wp/readinggerman/

Learn the Legends
https://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/wp/musicalperformers/

Technology Services Available

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As employees of UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies, we have access to a wide variety of technology services for our Independent Learning work. Some of these services involve assistance with computer/network help or borrowing equipment like a laptop or headset and microphone. There are also resources to administer online surveys or tutorials for general computer tasks.

For those interested in content creation, we have resources and assistance to make teaching materials: possibilities include informal recordings, narrated slideshows, a course blog, and even open online textbooks and tutorials.

For more information, go to:
https://connect.continuingstudies.wisc.edu/techservices/

Resource: Internet Archive

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During a course revision earlier this year, a member of the Extension Instructional Design Team made me aware of Internet Archive. It describes itself as “a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.”

It’s something of a resource of resources that’s user-friendly to navigate. There’s community-uploaded content alongside material from physical libraries and hosts of other sources. You can look through video, audio, patents and trademarks, journals, and even video game speed runs. Especially interesting is their Wayback Machine, their archive of websites as they have appeared throughout the years.

You can explore Internet Archive at:
archive.org

Internet Archive also allows you search for media based on its distribution rights (for example, if it’s in public domain). To learn how, go to:
archive.org/about/faqs.php

ADEIL October Conference: Funding and Presenting Opportunities

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The Association for Distance Education and Independent Learning (ADEIL) conference comes to Madison next month, October 24-26, and funding is available for you to attend and receive one year complimentary membership in ADEIL.

If you’d like to attend the conference on an Independent Learning scholarship, please do the following as soon as possible:

1. Register online: https://www.talent.wisc.edu/Catalog/Default.aspx?CK=61943&_ga=2.237196736.197182927.1534275168-2054138019.1514562850/

2. Select the pay later option

3. Email sarah.korpi@wisc.edu indicating that you have registered and wish to attend the conference on scholarship

If you are interested in presenting, there is still space for posters during our poster sessions. If you would like to present a poster, please email sarah.korpi@wisc.edu

You can find more information on the conference at
https://continuingstudies.wisc.edu/conferences/adeil/0

IL Instructor/Facilitator Orientation

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This past summer, the Independent Learning Instructor/Facilitator Orientation migrated from d2l to Canvas.

If haven’t yet completed the orientation and need access in Canvas, please e-mail your Net ID to Sarah Korpi: sarah.korpi@wisc.edu – this is the ID you use to sign in to my.wisc.edu and access your earning statements.

If you have questions as you go through the material, please e-mail Rich Freese, who is helping facilitate the orientation: jrfreese@wisc.edu

As a reminder, all DCS IL instructors are required to complete this orientation course. In addition to the opportunity to navigate Canvas before teaching in that platform, we hope this learning resource helps generate some ideas in your own courses.