APR App Launch

Thank you to program teams who were involved in the APR App launch in spring 2022. We’re pleased to share that it was a successful launch for program teams, Deans and CTL. We will work to continuously improve the App for further launch with additional programs in spring 2023.

QA Team Appreciation

Thank you to all who participated in academic quality assurance (QA) processes during the 2021-2022 academic year including new program development, annual program review, program change, comprehensive program review and the analysis of the many data points including curriculum mapping, as well as contributions to working groups for digitizing QA inputs and committees supporting the review of QA initiatives, proposals and requests. The Quality Assurance Team greatly appreciates all of your contributions and thoughtful engagement with the processes.

DC Quality Assurance

Durham College (DC) implements quality assurance (QA) processes regularly throughout the institution as part of our ongoing commitment to academic excellence and continuous improvement. As part of DC’s culture of collaboration and to encourage further exploration, examples of QA best practices from across the organization are available on ICE including programs which have recently completed their Comprehensive Program Review (CPR).

Please visit QA Best Practices to view presentations by program teams highlighting findings from their comprehensive program reviews.

Welcome to a new academic year! SALS is here to support all students on their academic journey at DC. From subject specific supports to learning strategies to peer tutoring, our team is here to help your students move through their courses successfully. Remember, you can also refer students to SALS for specific support! Please visit our new services infographic to see how we can help your students succeed:

Need an alternate version of this infographic? A PDF version is also available​.

What’s New

• The SALS ONLINE widget in DC Connect has been redeveloped to better reflect all of the resources available through the self-registration portal. If you provide instructions on accessing SALS ONLINE in your course, please have a look at the new widget and revise your materials to reflect the change.
• Resources to support students in navigating Respondus Lockdown Monitor and Respondus browser are now available for your students! These resources include a video introduction, written instructions for installation and set-up, and a practice quiz for students to understand how the platform will look and feel during an assessment. These resources can be found in the SALS ONLINE Navigating DC Connect unit and will be available in the Academic Success Toolkit in the Learning Resources section on MyDC very soon.

Updated August 30, 2022

*NEW* EdTech Tools Launch at DC

In collaboration with IT, DC CTL is excited to announce the acquisition of Padlet and Kahoot for DC faculty! Padlet and Kahoot are EdTech tools used to engage active learning strategies for demonstrating knowledge and understanding in the classroom and increase student engagement.

PADLET

Padlet is a virtual wall, or online bulletin board, that allows multiple users to collaborate, express their thoughts and share ideas on a common topic or theme at the same time. Faculty and students can post text, hyperlinks, audio or video content. It is a great way to engage with students and promote constructive engagement with each other in an activity simultaneously. Padlet has many uses in education, such as mind mapping, brainstorming on a topic, statement or idea, generating a question bank, creating an alternative to a discussion group, etc.

KAHOOT

Kahoot allows faculty to create their own interactive learning games, such as quizzes, and play them asynchronously or synchronously with their students. Example question types include quiz, poll, open answer, word cloud, and type answer. As an assessment strategy, Kahoot is an excellent tool for diagnostic and formative assessments, allowing faculty to check-in on students’ knowledge quickly and easily.  As a learning strategy, it is a great way to apply the science of learning principle, retrieval practice, allowing students to recall information learned in a previous class and strengthen their knowledge of the content.

We are expecting Padlet and Kahoot to be available when faculty return in August. When the implementation is complete, an announcement will be sent to faculty with instructions on creating a DC account, how to log in, resources, and professional development sessions. Students do not need accounts for either tool. When working on course development, consider integrating Padlet and Kahoot into your teaching practices!

CTL would like to acknowledge the early faculty adopters who participated in the Kahoot eCampusOntario pilot project, your eagerness, participation, and feedback led DC to purchasing these licenses.

MENTIMETER

DC faculty are now able to access Mentimeter, thanks to OntarioTech. These EdTech tools can be used to engage active learning strategies for demonstrating knowledge and understanding in the classroom and increase student engagement. Students do not need accounts for either tool. 

Creating Accessible Courses  /  Accessibility Hub

As you’re working on updating your courses, remember to ensure your course content and learning activities are accessible. To support you, Niagara College has launched a new digital Accessibility Hub, with over 55 articles, checklists, videos, and resources with straightforward recommendations for those seeking to build accessibility-first practices into your courses. Resources that may be of interest to you are document accessibility and accessible academic delivery. Reminder, DC has detailed resources on captioning your videos.

Using Intelligent Agents to Automate

As you prepare for the upcoming school year, consider using Intelligent Agents in DC Connect to check-in with your students, increase student engagement, all while reducing your workload? Check out this video to learn about Intelligent Agents, and this resource to implement them in your courses. Recently, the Intelligent Agents tool, Create Agent page, has received a handful of cosmetic and feature updates that facilitate additional scheduling options and frequency options to allow for improved flexibility. Of particular note is the addition of One-Time Run and Hourly frequency options, and the addition of a Scheduled Time for the Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Annually frequencies.

Create a DC Connect Banner Using PowerPoint

As you are working on your courses in DC Connect, sometimes the template images may not suit your needs. When this happens consider creating a custom banner using this easy hack with PowerPoint – no Photoshop skills necessary! Download this PowerPoint file and watch this short video to learn how you can easily crop an image in PowerPoint for use within DC Connect. The banner size will work on content pages and module descriptions.

If you need graphics or images, here are a couple resources we recommend:

• DC Photo Database
• Graphics and Video Resources

Remember to stick with images or graphics that are available for use under a Creative Commons license or you have the permissions to use for your courses, including attribution where required.

AI is perhaps most commonly used when referring to machine learning. However, SALS supports students’ understanding of the ‘other AI’ – Academic Integrity. Through the self-paced SALS ONLINE AI workshop, various learning resources in MyDC, and synchronous AI workshops offered throughout the semester, students have access to information that reinforces classroom expectations about completing their studies in an open, honest, and responsible manner.

Additionally, in fall 2022, SALS will launch the enhanced Academic Success for International Students workshop. This 1.5 hour workshop guides incoming International students in areas such as college and professor’s expectations, the importance of maintaining academic integrity during their post-secondary studies, and strategies and resources to successfully complete their studies at DC. The workshop will be offered in the week prior to the fall semester and again in weeks 2 and 3 to ensure that as many students as possible benefit from this valuable information.

If you would like an AI workshop delivered to your class, please:
Contact SALS