You’ve crafted learning objectives, designed your course, updated your syllabus, and set up your course Canvas site and now it’s the start of term. At this point, you may be wondering what else you can do to support your students and set the class up to run smoothly. In “How to Teach a Good First……
Creating Accessible Materials Guide
Supporting accessibility in your classroom begins with your course materials. While you will work with Student Accessibility Services to provide legally required accommodations for individual students, it can be extremely beneficial to think proactively about how accessible (and inclusive) your course can be. On our team, we like to frame this work as Liberatory Access,……
New and Visiting Faculty Guide
Welcome to Dartmouth! There are a variety of resources for New and Visiting Faculty that will help orient you to the unique teaching and learning context at the College. We’ve pulled some of them together here, with a particular focus on course design and Dartmouth’s educational technologies. In addition to these resources, you should be……
December Teaching Institutes
December is for digging deeper into your teaching! In the lull between fall term and winter break, join DCAL and LDI to dig deeper into your teaching through one of three distinct institute experiences: Each institute offers: Read on for more information about the December institutes! Want help choosing among them? Contact us! Interested in……
Middle of Term Guide
You have reached the middle of a fast-paced term, creating a class community and digging into your course materials and assignments, together. Now it’s time to check-in with your students and ensure that they’re on track to meet course outcomes (and their own learning goals) by the end of the term. In this guide, we……
Attendance Guide
Attendance matters. Researchers continue to draw positive connections between learners’ regular attendance and participation and their academic performance. However, during the first two years of college, as undergraduate learners learn to juggle their academic and extracurricular obligations, time management and prioritization of tasks can become challenging. The benefits of regular attendance may not be obvious……
Canvas Updates Fall 2024
Canvas has a few features that have gotten updates and additions over the past few months. As you head into Fall, it might be helpful to acquaint yourself with some of these updates/changes. The two most notable changes are the Discussions Redesign and the “Assign to” feature. Discussions/Announcements Redesign We published a blog post about……
End of Term Guide
As you near the end of the term, you might be thinking about how you can wrap up your course successfully. In 7 Ideas to Perk Up Your Last Day of Class, Kristi Rudenga, director of the Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Notre Dame, notes that despite best intentions and due……
Announcing the 2023-24 Canvy Awards
Creating a great Canvas course site requires care and creativity, so the Learning Design & Innovation team wanted to recognize the efforts of the faculty members who design great Canvas sites! This Spring, we relaunched Dartmouth’s Canvy Awards for the first time since COVID. The Canvy Awards is a program designed to elevate the student……
We’ve Moved…
Beginning this April, the Learning Design and Innovation group moved to the Provost’s office. Erin DeSilva continues to lead the group with support from Josh Kim. Our team will continue to provide the same high-quality learning design and educational technology support as in the past but with an additional focus on supporting the emergence of……
Discussion Update for Canvas
Canvas has been busy building an updated and redesigned discussion tool. This new tool is available for preview now in your Canvas course. The new discussion tool provides users with flexible viewing options; a mobile-friendly and responsive design; @mentions for course members and anonymous discussions and new filtering and search options. In addition, Canvas redesigned……
Mid-Course Evaluations
Student feedback offered through mid-course evaluations provides a great opportunity to improve your course, both for yourself and your students. Read below to discover how to implement them in your class in five easy steps. Why collect feedback from students mid-stream? Evidence suggests that when students provide feedback mid-term, there can be meaningful improvements in instruction,……