Academic Innovation Blog

The goal of the FIC blog is to provide helpful hints and great tips when utilizing Falcon Online, keep our faculty in the know about the latest software updates, as well as allow faculty to share their knowledge and skills of online education. In other words, we want you in the know!

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**This blog is part I of a series to introduce you to features in Falcon Online to personalize your online courses.**

Part II - Release Conditions
Part III - Intelligent Agents

Hello Instructors,

In this blog, we introduce you to replacement strings.  Replacement strings are command variables to replace the corresponding configuration variable values in Falcon Online.  A replacement string lets you personalize communications with your students and customize course content through the magic of the HTML editor.  There are additional features, which we will introduce in the series, to personalize the course without having to target students individually.  Replacement strings are most often used in Homepage widgets and Announcements.  A recent addition in D2L is the ability to use replacement strings in Grades when adding bulk feedback.  A great feature to engage substantively with your students!   

Curly brackets {} identify replacement strings and the brackets act as placeholders for system variables like name, org id, and course id.  The HTML editor will replace the string (i.e., {FirstName}) with predefined text (configuration variable value) in Falcon Online.  Here is a list of commonly used replacement strings:

1. {OrgUnitName} – The name of the current course.
2. {UserName} – The user's Falconmail prefix.
3. {OrgDefinedId} – The user's DSC ID.
4. {FirstName} – The first name of the user.
5. {LastName} – The last name of the user.
6. {RoleName} – The user's role in the course (e.g., Instructor, Student).

There are three items to consider of when using replacement strings.  

1. Replacement strings will not pick up a nickname.  The configuration value is set to a predefined field, and there is not a nickname configuration variable in Falcon Online.  
2. You cannot use replacement strings in the body of an e-mail.  Please note this is different than using them in an e-mail template.  We will provide more information on the e-mail template in our Intelligent Agents blog. 
3. DO NOT use replace strings in content. Replace strings in content are evaluated only once and replaced with the relevant data. So if you use replace strings in content and then copy the course to a new shell, the new shell will show the information from the old shell in place of the replace string unless you recreate the replace string(s) in the content of the new shell

You can view the video below from Brightspace by D2L to learn more about adding replacement strings to personalize your course. 

As we stated, replacement strings are to personalize the student experience in Falcon Online, and if you want to use them in your course, please stop by the Faculty Innovation Center for assistance. 

Aaron Sunday
Instructional Designer
aaron.sunday@daytonastate.edu | 386-506-3209

In this post, I will cover a couple of feature updates coming for the Gradebook and Manage Dates tool in Falcon Online. This update will be applied on 25 May 2018.

Grades - Locked Name Column and Header Rows

NOTE: The feature will be present on Chrome, Firefox, and Safari web browsers but not present on Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Edge web browsers and will not be active when using a mobile device.

Currently, the gradebook repeats the header row and name column every x columns/rows based on your personal settings (figure 1). To access these settings, go to your gradebook and select the settings link in the upper right, then select the Personal Display Options tab.

These settings will continue to be applied to those using Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft Edge or mobile devices. However, for users of Chrome, Firefox and Safari browsers, this update introduces the locked name column and header row. To see this in action, access your gradebook and go to the Enter Grades tab. If your gradebook requires scrolling vertically or horizontally, you will see that the header row and name column lock in place. The video below provides a demonstration. This feature works in the standard and spreadsheet view of the Enter Grades tab and the enter grades page for an individual grade item.

Manage Dates Improvements

This update will provide the following improvements to the Manage Dates tool.

• Offset other activity dates – In addition to offsetting start, end, and due dates, instructors will have the option to offset other dates associated with activities. Affected dates are: discussion topic and forum locking dates, quiz submission view dates, quiz report dates, and survey report dates. These dates will appear in the Other Dates column of the Manage Dates tool.
• Manual calendar events - Instructors will be able to edit the start and end dates of events that were manually created and not tied to existing activities or content topics. As a result, instructors can manage all course dates from a single location.
• Display of course start and end date - The course start date and end date appears at the top of the Manage Dates page and acts as a reference for instructors when operating on the dates of the various activities.
• New links to the Manage Dates page - The new Review and Manage Dates button appears at the end of copy course components, course import, and course import advanced. See figure 2 below.

The video below demonstrates some of these settings.

I encourage you to subscribe to this blog to receive notifications of future posts and give us your comments or contact us in the Faculty Innovation Center.

Bill Harrison
Senior Instructional Designer/Instructional Technologist
william.harrison@daytonastate.edu | 386.506.4306

I am writing this blog based on the entries posted in the discussion forum in our Substantive Interaction online training course. Many of you have expressed student disengagement in active discussion boards after they have met the minimum requirement of an original post and two replies, for example. I am not providing a solution; however, I am offering things to consider as you create learning activities.

Questions to consider as you design your discussion board activities:
- Do you begin with the end in mind?
- Do you create your topics before you decide on the specific, measurable goals?

Questions that may be relevant for assessing the students and if you are trying to determine why they are disengaging:
- Did they meet the specific, measurable goal for the activity?
- Did your students get what you wanted them to get from the activity?
- If your students are not getting what you want them to get out of the activity, can you reword the question(s) or provide additional context like personal experience?  

If you are unfamiliar with social constructivism theory, the emphasis is on either creating meaning from experience or through interaction with others. You provide guidance through examples and personal experience and, if the students see your engagement, they can trust that you care about ongoing collaboration with their classmates. Your students may know the value of the learning activity if they see the authenticity in your feedback; therefore, reversing sedentary behavior in the active discussion board.

You have established the minimum effort to construct the bridge (scaffold) to the next learning activity through your requirements and assessment technique, whether that is a rubric, word count, citing a professional source, or a number of original posts and replies.  However, maybe some students view peer input as less capable than instructor feedback; therefore, they opt to no longer participate in ongoing discussions with classmates. Your goal could be to engage them in an ongoing discussion as the more experienced or proficient peer and challenge them to contribute and socially construct the collective knowledge of the class.  

Additional considerations may be the timeliness of feedback and if the input is efficiently engaging. A solution to enhance engagement could be to provide specific feedback on how to achieve the goal and clear suggestions for improvement. Valerie Shute (2008) suggests the following guidelines for feedback:

Provide immediate feedback when:
•    Immediate gain is desired
•    The task is complicated
•    The task requires motor skills
•    The task requires retention of procedural or conceptual knowledge
•    Learners are low achievers

Provide delayed feedback when:
•    When the aim is a better transfer of learning
•    The task is relatively simple
•    Learners are high achievers

So, why are students disengaging and how do we reverse the sedentary behavior in ongoing learning activities? There is plenty of research and theory on student engagement in distance education and, as an educational institution, we need to challenge every student to have an active role in his or her development.  

Please comment and collaborate with your peers if you have additional design ideas or practices for creative activities.  

Shute, V. J. (2008). Focus on formative feedback. Review of Educational Research, 78 (1), 153-189.

Aaron Sunday
Instructional Designer
aaron.sunday@daytonastate.edu | 386-506-3209

Managing online student teams (groups) can feel like navigating through the abyss of organized chaos, but I’ve found several best practices that help keep the players in the game and sticking to the game plan. Utilizing teams can really enhance collaboration in your online classes and provide students with a realistic simulation of what it feels like to work with others in today’s workforce. Here are things to keep in mind as you corral through an online group project:

• Clear Course Schedule (Specific Deadlines & Adequate Time) - It’s critical that students know what tasks are due at each stage of the assigned project. Allowing them to have multiple weeks to work through a larger project provides time for real collaboration and to complete all stages of a natural cycle of group productivity (forming, storming, norming. and performing). This is completely possible even within the expedited 7 week terms. For example, I give my teams 3 of the 7 weeks to work on their business correspondence drafting project. They have very specific tasks each week that relate to the final deliverables.
   
• Detailed Instructions/Guidelines - Just like any online assignment, you’ll have to give very specific instructions of how to complete the project. I break my project down by weeks and give them step by step instructions in a “guidelines” document, which coincides with my weekly Course Schedule.
   
• Identified Platform for Collaboration (Disc Boards) – Teams need both a platform to work and to understand your expectations for how much involvement you expect within that platform. Falcon Online provides a Group Discussion Board option which makes online teaming very achievable. You can allow students to select their own teams, or you can choose the team compositions. Research proves that teams of 5-7 tend to work best. Although I explain that teams might ALSO want to communicate via Office 365, Skype, text, e-mail, etc., I require that they make an initial post into the Disc Board with their preferred contact info AND post ALL drafts and revisions there.
   
• Clear Expectations of Participation – You’ll want to provide your expectations for the level of involvement necessary to be considered “participating,” ideally mentioning this several times. I’ve found that if I discuss participation expectations within each group’s discussion boards and both within the assignment guidelines and Syllabus, students are likely to look to at least one of those places; hence, getting less “I didn’t know what you wanted from me” responses.
   
• Provide Model Examples if Possible (Showcase Samples) - Showing students a few examples of projects that were successful gives them something tangible to compare to. 
   
• Ongoing Instructor Involvement & Intervention – Students appreciate seeing you active in the group’s discussion board: observing their progress at least weekly, mentioning any lack of participation you see, and quickly intervening if the conversations become counterproductive or drafts get off track.
   
• Summative Assessment (Students Self-Review Team/Project) – Research shows that students need a chance to reflect on the project to really understand not only what you wanted as the end result of the project itself, but of working in a team. This final summative assessment closes the loop on their learning. For example, you might allow teams to review their teammates in a team survey or draft a short document (mine is a Memo to me) explaining what went well, what needed improvement, and what they learned.

If you have questions about any of the tools I discussed, I encourage you to reach out to me and/or stop by, email, or call the Faculty Innovation Center (385-506-3485). 

Dr. Shana Deyo
Professor, Bachelor of Applied Science Program
(386) 506-3709 office
Attorney at Law (*Alabama licensure)
shana.deyo@daytonastate.edu | 386.506.4306