The Academic Development Team are planning to run Café Style Workshops over the coming months.
The plan is that these workshops will be held in cafés (dates and times to be arranged) where we will get a chance to share our experiences of what has worked and not worked in a number of different areas. It may be that after a first workshop relating to a topic, the participants choose to continue meeting into the future.
Suggested topics at this stage are:
Technology for engaging students in large lectures
Designing effective assessments that are not invigilated exams or tests
Engaging distance students in synchronous face-face lectures
Creating communities of learners amongst distance students
What did we change for delivery during lockdown that we have continued with and why?
If you are interested in any of these topics or have any other suggestions, please contact Trevor Nesbit via trevor.nesbit@canterbury.ac.nz so that we can starting putting them in place.
Academic staff can now see their Semester 2 course shells in their course list in LEARN | AKO. Course details (the name of the course, the course description, and assigned teaching staff) are generated through an integration with the course information system (CIS). If this information appears incorrect in AKO | LEARN, it should be updated in the CIS as soon as possible. You may view the CIS entry for your courses by clicking here.
Please follow the step-by-step directions linked below to locate your new course shells in AKO | LEARN and import the content you would like to have for your Semester 2 courses.
Do you have a question about LEARN | AKO or Echo360? Have you tried our new FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Search yet? If not, this may be the help you you’ve been looking for!
We have recognised that there are often a number questions we receive over and over again. To give you the opportunity to find quick answers we have developed a searchable list of these questions using a LEARN | AKO Glossary. You will find the link to this, (icon shown above) by going toe-Learning help for staff.You can get there from anywhere in LEARN | AKO by clicking on your name and then e-Learning help for staff. The link to the FAQ Search is at the top of the front page.
Beginning in June, we will be showcasing one of our DLTP Scholars in the FL&D newsletter each month about the research projects they are undertaking. In the June newsletter we will also give the details of a new monthly event that will take place, where the profiled DLTP Scholar will present a short ‘Ako Anamata: EdTalk’ at the University of Canterbury Staff Club about their project.
Before and after these showcase talks there will be an opportunity to network in a casual and friendly setting – where we can talk all things teaching and learning with like-minded colleagues and experts in the field. We are very excited about this initiative, and hope that it will grow into a monthly ‘must-attend’ event for those interested in the innovative work being carried out by our DLTP Scholars.
With AKO | LEARN sites being one of the most important ways that your students access information about your course – try to break down a daunting overall semester timetable by providing a weekly ‘mini-timetable’ with updates and expectations for each week. This can help by acting as a checklist for students – making time management (especially when undertaking several courses at once) a skill that can be developed and encouraged in an authentic way.
Weekly timetables like these can also be delivered as a quick video – allowing the students to see you and your engagement with keeping them up to date with important aspects of the course, and breaking away from the usual format of a text notice. It is also a way to inject some of the reality of who you are as a person – you can make it relevant with your perspectives on what is going on with the course, your research or what is going on in the wider world to have a real-time effect on engagement levels.
