Happy February, instructors! It’s a great day to have a great day. If you’re having a bad day — we hear you and want to support any way we can. Though we don’t want to dwell on our hard days, there is some wisdom in examining our behavior during rough times and preparing for the future:
Your worst day is a chance to show your best qualities, to stand out, and to learn an enormous amount about yourself. Very few people plan or prepare for what they’ll do and how they’ll act during those times. Those who do might well end up turning their worst day into their best.Shane Parrish from Farnam Street blog
Just like we practice emergency fire and earthquake drills, we can personally practice and help students practice how to act when they are having a tough day in their personal life. This could lead to important conversations about being a hardworking employee. We hope you’ll take the time to discuss some of these things with your students and help them mentally prepare for rough days, because we all have them!
- Canvas Q & A: Friday February 12, 2021 @ 10:45 am
- Designing Accessible Digital Course Materials: Friday February 26, 2021 @ 10:45 am
In case you missed last month’s webinar or want to peruse some new Bridge courses, here are a few for you!
- Effective Online Discussion Boards
- Creating Accessible Digital Course Materials
- Open Education Resources
Canvas Feature Spotlight: ‘Copy to’ and ‘Send to’
Have you ever wanted to copy an assignment or module over to a different course really quickly? Or send it to another instructor for use in their class? This month we are highlighting the Copy To and Send To functions inside of Canvas. Watch the video below for instructions.
Learning Science Spotlight: Retrieval Practice
It seems self-explanatory, but students who practice putting away their textbooks, notes, and study aids, and just try to recall information, will perform better and learn the information quicker than students who do not do this. This is called “retrieval practice” – which means students practice retrieving information in their mind without the help of outside sources.
As an instructor, try giving students a chance to practice retrieval by having them put their notebooks and textbooks away from their desks, and do a mini-lecture for 10 minutes. Then have the students pull out their notebooks and write down or draw the main points you just taught. This small practice will hopefully keep students alert while you teach, and give them a chance to learn information better.