August 2020 Archives

CTAAR is piloting the use of BluePulse. This is a new tool that allows instructors to ask quick questions of the students in their courses. Student's can reply anonymously, and can maintain anonymity while engaging in an ongoing dialog. BluePulse is well-suited to "one minute papers", checking in on the well-being of students, or getting quick feedback about the a particular lesson or topic. 

Fall rosters are now loaded into BluePulse and the system is ready for instructors to begin using it. Simply log in at https://rutgers.m.bluepulse.com and click "Add a Question", then give your students the same link so that they can respond. If you are teaching a course that does not appear as an option when adding a question, please contact us at ctaar@brokenmail.rutgers.edu please replace brokenmail with docs.rutgers.edu and we will ensure that you are correctly listed as the instructor. 

See our web site for more information about how to use BluePulse and details about limitations during the pilot phase.  

CTAAR, in collaboration with OIT, is pleased to offer: 

This session will demonstrate the features of the Zoom integration in Canvas including how to set-up your Zoom account in Canvas, schedule meetings, record meetings, manage recordings, and set up polling. Advanced set-up options of these meetings will be covered including how to pre-assign students to break-out rooms and security options. How to manage your Zoom synchronous sessions will not be covered in this meeting, but is rather to assist faculty and instructors in organizing their synchronous meetings within Canvas. 

 

The Rutgers Active Learning Community will hold a virtual get-together THIS Friday, August 14 from noon to 1pm to discuss the use of active learning techniques in a remote environment. What are the challenges? What are the opportunities? What are the resources? And what in the world is everyone else doing?

• We'll lead off the session with some insights and tips from Justin Kalef of the Philosophy Department and Christy Beal of the Division of Life Sciences.
• There will then be a chance to meet in smaller breakout groups to engage in a brief activity led by Christina Bifulco and Chris Drue from the Center for Teaching Advancement & Assessment. This activity will help you develop your own thinking and ask specific questions, but it will also seamlessly demonstrate some of the tools you might use in your own teaching.
• We'll then reconvene for a conversation to share our thoughts.

This virtual session will be useful if you were planning on utilizing an active learning approach already, or if you want to employ some of these techniques specifically to enhance students' remote learning experience.

Apologies for the late announcement. Getting schedules together this summer has been a challenge. We hope you can drop in and add to the discussion. 

Please send an email to chris.morett@rutgers.edu if you are able to make it.

Online & Remote Instruction for Quantitative Disciplines Round Table

Faculty within quantitatively based disciplines may have difficulties such as how to handle student submissions of problems or calculations, how to provide feedback on this work, and how to use technology to replicate a "blackboard" for writing out problems in a synchronous environment or asynchronous videos. This round table will provide an opportunity for faculty to engage in a conversation surrounding their unique challenges and solutions they have developed. A survey will be sent closer to the event to all registered participants to help focus the discussion of the first meeting of the round table. 

Monday, August 17th, 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Please RSVP at: https://ctaar.rutgers.edu/workshops/register/index.php?ws=1094 

BluePulse Pilot - Student Engagement & Feedback Tool Demo 

CTAAR is running a pilot of a new tool called BluePulse for collecting informal feedback from students.  This provides a way to "take the pulse" of your class and will be available for all instructors to use in the fall. This is a pilot with BluePulse being available through Spring 2021. BluePulse is a simple tool to ask one question at a time and collect anonymous feedback from students.  You can also respond to students comments in follow-up dialogues. More information is available on our website: https://ctaar.rutgers.edu/technology/pulse  Please consider attending the demo if you are interested in using the tool to engage your students in Fall 2020. 

Wednesday, August 12th from 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Please RSVP at: https://ctaar.rutgers.edu/workshops/register/index.php?ws=1071

Managing Zoom Sessions

Due to high demand, we have opened additional "Managing Zoom Session" trainings!

It order to efficiently run the sessions, we recorded a 30-minute presentation which we ask that you watch prior to the session. It contains screen shots of the controls and explanations for how to set up meetings, manage Zoom security, build and launch polls, and create breakout rooms. Here is the link: https://ru-stream.rutgers.edu/media/Managing+Zoom+Sessions/1_cp6b7ry3

It is important that you watch the video prior to enrolling in a session, because we will not be reviewing the video content in each session. Instead, the sessions will consist of a Q&A followed by hands-on training where we will practice together.

To learn more and register for a hand-on practice session, please go to https://rutgers.instructure.com/courses/16464/pages/managing-zoom-sessions (you must be signed in to Canvas to view the page). If you have trouble registering for the session, please email ctaar@docs.rutgers.edu for assistance.