December 2020 DOLCE Invitation: Online Discussions and Accessible Materials in Remote Instruction

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of Academic Technology Services (ATS), I hereby invite faculty and graduate students to attend the December DOLCE (Discussing Online Learning and Collaborative Education) taking place this Friday, December 11th at noon PST via Zoom.

This month we will feature a faculty speaker, graduate student speaker, and a question and answer session about technology-supported remote instruction. As fall courses wind down, please join ATS for the last DOLCE of the quarter to engage with these presentations and conversations on teaching and technology. This event will be recorded, but we still hope you can join us synchronously!

Our featured faculty speaker is Dr. Marc Tancredi Facciotti, Associate Professor with appointments in the Genome Center and Department of Biomedical Engineering. Our featured graduate student speaker is Larissa Saco, Doctoral Student in the Department of Sociology and Graduate Student Researcher for ATS. I will facilitate the question and answer session on instructional technology in the remote learning environment. Please register now so that you can learn from the discoveries and wisdom of our faculty and graduate student colleagues.

Dr. Marc Tancredi Facciotti is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Genome Center at UC Davis. He will talk about a tool called NotaBene for online discussion “in context” (i.e., directly in the course content). With collaborators at MIT and Edinburgh and funding support from an NSF grant, the team studies the use of this type of forum, develops artificial intelligence to predict student engagement and sentiment, and builds tools for students and instructors to learn from the discussion. Dr. Facciotti will discuss this tool and its implications for collaborative learning in the classes we teach.

A longtime graduate student researcher in instructional design for Academic Technology Services, Larissa Saco will present suggestions for making remote courses more accessible. Building upon accessibility topics Saco co-presented at the 2019 December DOLCE with Dr. Margaret Merrill of ATS and Joshua Hori of the Student Disability Center, Friday’s presentation will review accessibility concerns and opportunities in light of this year’s large-scale move to remote teaching. Topics to be covered will include an accessibility overview of Canvas sites, electronic documents, and instructional videos, as well as the application of accessibility principles when designing presentation slides, working with Zoom recordings, and editing Aggie Video captions. Saco looks forward to presenting at her last DOLCE on staff. To learn more about Saco’s background and work at ATS, check out her interview in The Wheel.

As a reminder, ATS is offering a number of live webinars before the quarter ends. “Grading with Canvas” occurs today and next Monday, December 14th, at 1pm PST. “Using Respondus for Improved Quizzing” is scheduled for this Thursday, December 10th, and next Thursday, December 17th, at 10am PST. “Designing Remote Lessons in Canvas” takes place next Wednesday, December 16th, at 1pm PST. Finally, “Creating Interaction in Live Remote Sessions” takes place next Thursday, December 17th, at 12pm PST. Please attend one or more of these live sessions. I also invite you to review the webinar recordings or contact instructionaldesign@ucdavis.edu to discuss adapting your teaching for remote delivery with an instructional designer.

Your questions and comments will be welcome this Friday at the December DOLCE. Please register for this free event, share it with faculty and graduate students, and plan to join us every first and third Friday of each month during the school year for presentations and discussions on remote and mediated teaching at UC Davis. I look forward to seeing you at DOLCE this coming Friday at noon!

Best regards,

Dr. Andy Jones Academic Associate Director, Academic Technology Services Editor in Chief of The Wheel: The Instructional Technology Blog of UC Davis University of California, Davis

The December DOLCE: Facciotti and Saco Friday, December 11th at noon PST Register now to join us via Zoom

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