CASL Digital Education Initiatives
CASL Digital Education Collaborative (C-DEC)
Would students in your program or discipline benefit from repetition and practice of core concepts? Would they master concepts more easily, if given additional opportunities to apply or generalize their knowledge? Would they perform at higher levels, if given easy access to prerequisite course materials? If so, then consider C-DEC, a CASL initiative aimed at student success.
The goal is for disciplines or programs to develop shared digital resources, accessible to all UM-Dearborn faculty and students. The C-DEC resource will consist primarily of series of modules containing short video lectures and quizzes. Modules will be developed with the goal of being easily incorporated into Canvas course sites.
Currently the Biology, Mathematics, and Psychology disciplines are developing short videos to supplement existing course content and support student learning. During the 2020-2021 academic year, Art History, Sociology, and English Literature will begin developing C-DEC materials.
As you develop digital course materials and/or convert courses to remote or online formats, please keep these questions in mind:
- How can existing C-DEC materials contribute to your courses and support student learning?
- How can the materials that you are developing contribute to the C-DEC repository?
Please contact Marie Waung at [email protected] with questions about C-DEC.
CASL Digital Education Collaborative Announcement
The College of Arts, Sciences and Letters will partner with the Mardigian Library and the HUB for Learning and Teaching in designing, developing and implementing the CASL Digital Education Collaborative (C-DEC), a database consisting of digital content that will be open to UM-Dearborn students and faculty alike, and more broadly to the Open Educational Resource (OER) community.
In the initial phase, a functional prototype of the database will be developed. Thismprototype will house new digital content, as well as existing digital materials. The development of new content will be funded by CASL. In this phase the newly developed materials will be discipline-specific, in response to student learning needs. Existing digital content from CASL faculty members will be solicited and will comprise the balance of the digital content. These materials will be accessible to all UM-Dearborn students, regardless of whether they are enrolled in face-to-face, online, or hybrid courses. Likewise, UM-Dearborn faculty members may incorporate this digital content into their classes, independent of the mode of delivery. After evaluation and revision of the prototype, the formal version of the database will be launched.
Overseeing this three-year initiative will be a tenured CASL faculty member serving as the Collaborative Manager. The CM will report to the Associate Dean for Special Projects and will be responsible for providing a structure and process for the development and delivery of content for the C-DEC. The CM will serve as principal liaison with the Library, the OER Group, and the HUB. The CM will coordinate the work of discipline leaders in the development of new digital content.
It is expected that both the Get-to-20Strategic Initiative and the C-DEC will leverage the skills of faculty with expertise in the development of digital content. Where appropriate the online course developers will be encouraged to incorporate digital content from the C-DEC, and to possibly contribute to the Resource.
The Mardigian Library and the OER Task Force will partner with C-DEC. The System's Department Head will serve as the principal contact in the Library. The Library and Task Force will initially support the collaborative by examining and critiquing models for housing digital data including Canvas Commons, Google Drive, UM-Dearborn YouTube Channel, etc. Subsequently, they will: develop a mechanism for organizing content and making it accessible and user friendly; develop processes by which content can be installed and shared electronically and on Canvas; develop search & viewing processes if needed; provide guidance to faculty on adding Creative Commons licensing for digitally created material. For the dissemination and distribution component they will develop a library webpage so that the content can be searched and viewed. In the initial phase of the collaborative, they will provide virtual space and technical expertise to support the initiative.
Get to (Almost) 100 WIP Check List
The philosophy here is that your online WIP sites in Canvas should be developed enough that you have a “running start” if you have to pivot to remote learning, or your department needs you to offer your course online for the first time on short notice.
It assumes two things:
- Submission of a Change of Course to add “Online Mode” in CIM (with a syllabus for your online course).
- Submission of a “self-assessment” based on the rubric developed for online by the HUB.
That is why these two items are first in the table below, even though I won’t be reviewing them in the WIPs. Flexibility is built into each criterion. So, you will not be authorized for course releases unless every item can be checked “Yes” or “Not Applicable.”
For example, you are not required to have multiple choice tests(or other types of quizzes) as an assessment. But, if you do, you need to figure out how to implement those assessments and to have made progress on implementation to the extent indicated below.
Want to convince me that only20% or less of your course is synchronous? Don’t schedule more than 6 “live chat” or Zoom sessions for which students are required to be present or do a particular task in order to earn credit. You can have more synchronous sessions than that, but they have to be optional and/or have asynchronous alternativesfor students to get credit for required work.
| Task | No | Yes | N/A |
| Change of Course Submitted in CIM? | |||
| Self-Assessment Rubric Complete? | |||
| Course syllabus is available in some formin WIP? | |||
| Materials 1 (Tutorials/Guides to Course) 100% Complete(any related recordings by instructor uploaded or posted to MiVideo or Canvas)? | |||
| Materials 2 (Course content; lecture text/notes) 60% Complete(any related recordings by instructor uploaded or posted to MiVideo or Canvas)? | |||
| All readings or media to be delivered via Canvas are uploaded to or have links in Canvas? | |||
| All assignments (including graded discussions) exist in at least draft form and are weighted as appropriate in gradebook? | |||
| IF online tests or quizzes are to be administered question banks are 60% complete OR 60% of scheduled quizzes/tests exist in draft form and are weighted as appropriate in gradebook? | |||
| WIP meets the 80% asynchronous delivery threshold? | |||
| WIP is organized via Pages, Modules, or some combination to reflect the syllabus/course schedule? |
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