What Happened During the Spring 2022 Ed Tech Week?

During the first week of this spring term, Academic Technology Services staff again held Ed Tech Week where instructional designers and technologists hosted live webinars and curated asynchronous resources to help UC Davis instructors quickly set up the technologies for their upcoming courses. For those of you who could not join us, here’s a quick look at what you missed!

• In Organizing Courses with Canvas Modules, we examined approaches to setting up course materials in segmented chunks based on time, topic, or task. We looked at a sample series of modules divided by week, so students can see all the items they need to access at the same moment without having to hunt through tools like Quizzes, Assignments, or Discussions. Watch the recorded session to learn more about setting up modules as a quick table of contents for your course materials.  
   
• In Maximizing Learning from Instructional Video, we discussed research-based strategies for designing video content that engages students and helps them learn effectively, including limiting the length of each video, providing context for each clip, and developing moments for active learning. We demonstrated AggieVideo’s built-in media editor, embedded clips in Canvas pages, and quickly looked at PlayPosit, a tool for placing interactive questions on the timeline of your videos.  
   
• In Effectively Reusing Long or Short Lecture Videos, we shared tips for reusing existing lecture videos, edited into focused vignettes to address common student questions, share important information, or streamline lecture capture recordings for evergreen uses. We examined tools for doing light video editing and placing interactions within or between clips in Canvas.

We enjoyed meeting some new instructors and hope these webinars and resources made the beginning of the quarter a little less stressful. As always, our instructional design team is eager to consult on your teaching and technology questions (instructionaldesign@ucdavis.edu). Finally, please keep an eye out for the next ATS Ed Tech Week ahead of Fall 2022!