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Using ChatGPT in Conversations with IDs

Using ChatGPT to Lead In-depth Conversations with Instructional Designers

The following are notes from OTL’s session for the AI in Action series.

Sirui Wang and Brittany Goodwell explored possible ways to use ChatGPT to start thinking about different teaching and learning challenges using two scenarios to begin instructional design conversations between faculty and instructional designers. Both scenarios included questions and requests often asked by faculty. There were opportunities to interact with ChatGPT and instructional designers.

How can ChatGPT be involved in the course design process?

  • ChatGPT integrates related information and output in a well-structured way. The advantage of using this generative AI enhances the consultation process with higher efficiency.
  • The conservation style allows the information to be built upon one another, forming a useful dialogue designers can share later.
  • Using ChatGPT in the initiative process of an instructional design consultation helps focus on what faculty needs and narrow the topics, making the discussion with instructional designers more efficient and allowing in-depth discussion.

However, what ChatGPT provides is usually very surface and general, and instructional designers must step in and continue the in-depth conversation.

Instructional Designers’ Roles in the AI Age

  • In-depth conversation
  • Connect with the real course design
  • Ensure equity and inclusion
  • Create personalized learning experiences that adapt to the needs of individual learners
  • Incorporate gamification and simulations to make learning more interactive and engaging
  • Share experience

Scenario 1 – Identify the Teaching and Learning Challenges

ChatGPT Screenshot 1: Engaging students more effectively

How to use ChatGPT to begin the conversation?

  • Start with the basic question/challenge
  • Go through the options, and see if there is anything that interests you
  • Ask for or think of more specific questions, such as #5, why frequent feedback will engage students more efficiently, how to provide frequent feedback, what types of feedback can be provided, etc.

But ChatGPT does not have the accurate context for what it outputs, so a continued conversation with instructional designers are strongly encouraged.

How to continue the topic with an Instructional Designer?

  • Discuss and continue the specific questions: Why feedback loop is important, especially online? What feedback loops can and will include?
  • Clarify the focus: what could be a good fit for your class? How do involve the three parties in a class: instructor, TAs, and students?
  • The deeper conversations: how does it align with other class pieces?
  • Access to other successful course design experiences from different courses

Scenario 2 – Educational Technology Recommendations

Screenshot 2: ChatGPT advice on good class technologies
Screenshot 3: Refining ChatGPT session

How to continue the topic with an Instructional Designer?

  1. Review and refine the recommendations: The faculty member could work with the instructional designer to review the recommendations generated by ChatGPT and refine them based on their specific course needs. The instructional designer could help the faculty member evaluate the options based on factors such as ease of use, accessibility, cost, and pedagogical value.
  2. Identify and address potential challenges: The faculty member and instructional designer could discuss potential challenges that may arise from implementing the selected educational technology in their course. This could include issues related to technology integration, student engagement, and support for students who may have varying levels of technological proficiency.
  3. Explore implementation strategies: The faculty member and instructional designer could work together to explore implementation strategies for the educational technology recommendations.
  4. Determine next steps: The faculty member and instructional designer could determine next steps for moving forward with the implementation of the selected educational technology. This could include identifying any additional support or resources needed, setting timelines for implementation, and designing appropriate activities.

See also the original session document.

AI in Action – Course Design Opportunities with AI

Course Design Opportunities with AI

On May 16, 2023, as part of the campus series, “AI in Action: Exploring AI’s Potential in Teaching and Learning,” OTL instructional designers worked with over 30 participants across three breakout rooms to explore ways that AI can be used to enhance teaching and learning.

  • Using ChatGPT to Lead In-depth Conversations with Instructional Designers: Sirui Wang and Brittany Goodwell explored possible ways to use ChatGPT to start thinking about different teaching and learning challenges using two scenarios to begin instructional design conversations between faculty and instructional designers. Both scenarios included questions and requests often asked by faculty. There were opportunities to interact with ChatGPT and instructional designers.
  • Using ChatGPT to Write Quiz Questions: Mark Kaysar and Agustin Ríos used AI to create quiz questions with different question types. They also prompted ChatGPT to properly format a quiz for uploading into Bruin Learn.
  • Syllabus Refresh Using Prompt Engineering in ChatGPT: Kim DeBacco and Kate Schaller worked with faculty to generate and regenerate a course syllabus. Together they investigated prompt engineering to iteratively refine their choices.

ID Showcase – Using Slack in Education

Using Slack to Build an Equitable and Diverse Learning Community in Education

In this showcase, Prof. Glory Tobiason will demonstrate how she uses Slack in undergraduate courses to engage and welcome students, streamline communication, and conduct formative assessments.

Slack is a UCLA-approved app that facilitates communication and collaboration in a variety of contexts: project teams, administrative units, research groups, etc.

The showcase is organized like a “tasting menu” of several possible pedagogical uses of Slack, including:

  • Community building
  • Shared course FAQs
  • TA communication
  • Making students’ thinking accessible to their peers
  • “Slack Hands,” a strategy for more inclusive participation
  • Collaborative study guide for quizzes

Presenter Bio

Prof. Glory Tobiason is clinical faculty in the Education Department (where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in research methods) and a Research Scientist at the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST). She also co-leads the Holistic Evaluation of Teaching initiative at UCLA. The goal of her research and faculty-engagement work is to understand and support the work of teachers.

ID Showcase – SCAND 60 – Introduction to Nordic Cinema

Scandinavian Studies 60 – Introduction to Nordic Cinema

SCAND 60 course screenshot

In this course showcase, Prof. Patrick Wen will share his experience designing a fully asynchronous online course on Nordic cinema based on earlier experiences teaching similar courses in person. The aims of the in-person and online courses remain the same: to offer undergraduates a broad introduction to a lesser-known cinematic tradition while also engaging them in critical thinking and writing.

Topics to be covered include:

  • Employing various pedagogical strategies, such as podcasting, peer review, and blogging, to foster student engagement and build a vibrant learning community.
  • Encouraging students to have informal discussions through podcast activities to increase their engagement and interaction.
  • Effectively managing asynchronous student schedules.
  • Utilizing Bruin Learn to facilitate a successful transition from in-person to asynchronous learning in the Introduction to Nordic Cinema course.

Presenter Bio

Prof. Patrick Wen is a continuing lecturer in Scandinavian within the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies. He teaches courses on film history, modern literature, and also Norwegian language.

Selected Q&A from the Showcase


QuestionAnswer
Given that the films aren’t screened live, do you find that the students do other things to create community when screening them for themselves (chatting, watching over Zoom, etc.)?Students did organize/gather informally to watch together in person and virtually.
How do you grade the peer reviewed blog postings?Canvas has some quirks to assign points. The instructor created a separate assignment to give points.
How often did you or the TAs respond to the students posts or submissions?For a roughly 60-person class, every week TA or instructor responded to individual responses (not a general post to all). The instructor enjoyed responding to students and got “sucked in.”
Are the responses to the blog posts from peers expected to be done within a certain time frame? Or at any time? If a student did not complete the peer review/response, how was that handled?For asynchronous work, it was important to keep students on the same page re: submissions. (Some wanted to do things early, others wanted to wait right up til the deadline.) This created a peer review issue because if a student posts early, they have to wait for other students to post to complete their peer review.

The instructor set expectations about what students could do in advance, but for back-and-forth type of activities–like blog posts–students need to complete tasks more “at deadline.”

This was a learning curve!

Were rubrics used for podcasts/blog posts?A rubric was used for the blog post/podcast (3 points total), as well as for the peer review portion of the blog post assignment (2 points total). The instructor explained this as a two-part assignment.
Did you use the podcast feature in Bruin Learn discussions for the Week 5 Podcast Postings? (And….how does that work? I’ve never known…)Students either recorded on Zoom or just created an audio file. The instructor provided instructions on how to do this. It was simple because students had already been using the discussion boards in Canvas.
Was there some buildup or scaffolding done for the podcasts? Creating an outline or talking points?The students were given prompts, pretty similar to the ones for the blog postings – but more designed for conversation (between two students).
Can you talk a little bit about students’ choices for the projects – how many of them chose a paper vs. a group video assignment? And what kinds of video assignments did they create?Video assignments took different forms depending on prompts chosen. Often they were borne of blog postings – that got them thinking about something that they wanted to fully develop in a longer project. Often the videos were powerpoint-style presentations that they may have written about. In group video projects, they were interacting, but in a more formal way than in the podcast – a thesis, evidence, etc.
What do you see as next steps or enhancements for the course?Changing up the syllabus, but keeping the podcast/video presentation options open for the students. How can more of this be incorporated, is a question. Also, thinking about adding more informal conversations, like Patrick’s informal conversation with a colleague working on a book about Ingmar Bergman. (Not long – but this would bring in other voices)
What is the demographic of the course – do they already have film studies/Scandinavian studies knowledge going in?For the most part, the students don’t have knowledge of Scandinavian studies going in (readings are in English, films subtitled). Some students do have this knowledge/background, so it’s a nice mix. Tendency towards older students (fourth years) taking and appreciating the course! Maybe this is specifically because it’s an online class and that’s what this group wants.
How do you think the quality of the blog writing compares to the written papers?More polished than expected. Peer reviews in particular felt like a conversation.
Do you know if students ever continue blogging after your class?A few students in particular – avid film buffs! Some continue other forms of film writing, not necessarily blogging.
Is there a difference between blogging on Bruin Learn and blogging on WordPress (for example)?Technical differences yes – WordPress/others are third party sites and students will need to create logons for them. (They are also public, which can be an issue for students.) They may afford more for creativity/incorporating media, but using BL Discussions keeps everything in Bruin Learn (and you can still add images, videos, links).
Do you think the sporadic grading positively contributed to increased instructor/social presence?Aim – students should feel like the TA and the instructor were both engaged. Responding to the posts (not necessarily on time) should impart that he was engaging with the students, reading what they were writing. He does think this was a positive thing!

This Google Doc contains the comments, questions and answers collected during the showcase.

ID Showcase – Engaging STEM Students with Perusall – CLUSTER M71 and SOC GEN M144

Engaging STEM Students with Perusall – CLUSTER M71 and SOC GEN M144

In this course showcase session, the instructor will compare two different Biology and Society courses that have integrated Perusall as one of the engagement solutions for a large general education course and an upper division elective in the Human Biology and Society major.

The presentation will include the following aspects:

  • How Perusall has been selected and integrated
  • Benefits for collaborative learning and critical thinking 
  • The challenges of using Perusall in interdisciplinary science courses

Presenter Bio: 

Prof. Michelle Rensel is an adjunct assistant professor in the Institute for Society and Genetics (ISG) and the coordinator of the freshman Biotechnology and Society GE Cluster course. Prior to joining the Institute, she completed a PhD and postdoctoral work in behavioral endocrinology. As full-time teaching faculty in ISG, she teaches a broad range of upper and lower division courses that bridge the life and social sciences, and regularly implements new instructional strategies to improve learning, belonging, and retention in the life sciences.

Presented: Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Selected Q&A from the Showcase


QuestionAnswer
What is the average enrollment in the cluster?Cap enrollment is 240 (usually reached); 6 TAs all year; sometimes a little dropoff in enrollment in winter but little from winter to spring.
If copying a course to a different quarter, will the Persuall set up be copied over too, such as the assignments list, instruction, etc.?Yes – you can select what you want to copy! (You could just copy over the library, or you could copy individual readings, or you can copy the whole thing).
How much do you/other faculty in the cluster annotate in Perusall, or comment on annotations?Prof. Rensel usually does not intervene. Sometimes students tag her and ask a question, and then she responds. But usually not! If she intervened, it would be in a smaller course to guide discussion. Students also benefit from feeling like Perusall is “their thing”.

There haven’t been issues so far with students saying anything horrible – they spend time talking about codes of conduct.

It seems that you have to manually build individual assignments in Perusall, is that correct?Yes and no. Once you add your resource you can create your annotation assignment for that resource. Please note that you can use your Perusall course scoring settings for all your assignments – you do not have to set your scoring settings for each individual assignment.
Do students see other people’s annotations before they post their first comment? Did you have any issues with repeated points or syntax?Students have noted plagiarism by other students. Students can choose to turn off seeing other annotations but they need to make that choice.

Oftentimes there are double annotations (could be from wifi issues or glitches) – there is a setting to automatically flag duplicates.

Is the grading that happens in Perusall automatic?Yes – you can set (and later change) the scoring settings and the annotations are auto-graded. You can set a formula in the grading scheme so students have multiple ways to reach full credit. You can also adjust students’ scores before releasing them to the gradebook.
How is “Reading to the end” determined?The reading metric gives credit based on how many pages the student has viewed. If the student only viewed half the number of pages, they would receive 50% of the score.

If students are commenting on a video or podcast, students will receive full credit upon opening the assignment as there are no pages in a video or podcast assignment.

Does an instructor need to create the scoring columns? Is there a limitation of how many columns/criterion? Or is that fixed?The columns in the scoring criteria show up as fixed options – you set the percentages of what things are worth.
What is roughly the distribution of scores you might expect?The goal is that everyone gets 100% – they do the reading and they do their annotations! Occasionally some get flagged as plagiarism – re: Michelle, Perusall doesn’t do much to detect that but students themselves have detected it! It’s not the norm but it is a possibility.

There is continued discussion in the class about best practices for using Perusall, so students are aware of how to use it.

Is there a way to filter by section so TAs can read over before their section?You can set up groups by section – but it was manual! There is a way to manually import now. You can import Canvas/Bruin Learn groups to Perusall.

If students move groups, their initial comment threads move to the new group and disappear from the old one.

When students are working on an assignment, do they have the same view as you are showing here? The texts are all covered by annotations.No, they do not have the same view; they can see each other’s within their groups.

There is an option to see what comments display. “My Comments” is the menu item that includes the flexible view of how they can view the comments.

Did students engage more with reading using Perusall compared to how they did reading before the tool?Students felt positive about using the tool and provide meaningful annotations.
How do you connect what the students post with your lectures and interaction with the students?With a smaller course you can use their annotations as inspiration for discussions. Other folks using it in seminars use it to have “questions in back pocket” when discussion stalls!

It is harder to make the connection in a big lecture course with lecture materials.

Do you know if it would be possible for students to upload materials that would become part of the assignment?In the “Library” section there is a “Student upload folder” so that students can share files directly. You may still need to put these materials into an assignment.

This Google Doc contains the comments, questions and answers collected during the showcase.

ID Showcase – ISLM ST M20 – Introduction to Islam

Islamic Studies M20 – Introduction to Islam

This showcase demonstrates how the instructor and TAs have applied different design approaches to build the Introduction to Islam course in Bruin Learn and use educational technology tools to bring an immersive learning environment to students to discuss and reflect on Islam’s history and contemporary practices through visuals and social annotation. By creating several interactive activities in Canvas/Bruin Learn, the instructor and TAs encouraged student participation and highlighted key passages to focus students’ attention for discussion and reflection.

In this course showcase session, the instructor will share his experience of using a variety of design approaches and educational technologies, such as Bruin Learn and Perusall, to create an immersive learning environment for students to discuss and reflect on Islam’s history and contemporary practices. Highlights from the session include but not limited to:

  • Use of Perusall for: 
    • Low-stake reading assignments to encourage students’ participation
    • Highlighting key passages to focus student attention for discussion and reflection
  • Interactive activities through Canvas discussion boards and quizzes to complement lectures
    • Use of media, includes audio and images to create immersive learning experience of Islams’s history and contemporary practices
  • Creation of a user-friendly homepage and modules structure to guide students

Presenter Bio:

Dr. Mohsin Ali is a lecturer for the Global Islam Writing Cluster and an instructional designer for the UCLA Library. He completed his PhD in Islamic Studies at UCLA in September 2022 and wrote about modern changes in historical writing among Muslim scholars in India writing in Arabic and Urdu. While a graduate student in the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (NELC) Department, he helped transform Professor Asma Sayeed’s Introduction to Islam course into an online course. He also served as an instructional technology assistant for NELC while it transitioned from CCLE to Bruin Learn. 

Presented: Thursday, March 9, 2023

ID Showcase – Hypothesis – A Social Annotation Tool

Hypothesis – A Social Annotation Tool

Hypothesis is one of the social annotation tools that have been integrated into Bruin Learn. This showcase demonstrates the set-up, ideas, and pedagogical strategies for using Hypothesis for different subjects and modalities.

The session explains how to get started with Hypothesis and set up assignments in the tool. We also discuss how Hypothesis supports learning from the perspectives of critical thinking, simplicity, community, and inclusion. In addition, the session explores the ideas and pedagogical strategies for UCLA faculty to use social annotation to engage students in teaching and learning. UCLA faculty join to informally share how they implements Hypothesis for social reading assignments in their course.

Presenters: 

Prof. Adam Millard-Ball is Professor of Urban Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and Acting Director of the UCLA Institute for Transportation Studies. His research and teaching touches on transportation, the environment, and urban data science.

Ashley Hood, Ed.M, is the Customer Success Manager at Hypothesis.

Resources

Selected Q&A from the Showcase


QuestionResponse
Will .doc or .docx files work with Hypothesis, or do readings need to be in PDF format?Readings need to be in PDF format, but if you load the .doc/docx file into your Canvas files, that will work.
When you check the group assignment, does it give you a chance to select the group members?You would need to set up your groups first in Canvas, then have the option to select your group set as part of the Hypothesis assignment. See: Using Canvas Groups To Create Hypothesis Reading Groups.
Can you only have one group set in your Canvas class to work with Groups in Hypothesis?You can use any group set you have set up in Canvas.
Is there language support for other languages in Hypothesis? Can you use other character sets when annotating in Hypothesis?
You can use whatever language that your keyboard is set up in with Hypothesis, and also use readings in other languages.
Do you work with non-Roman script languages?Yes – these languages will work with Hypothesis.
Can students export the annotations?There isn’t yet a great way to export annotations from the tool itself. This is something on the product roadmap.

A student’s annotations can be saved in the Hypothesis notebook. Students can print their annotations from the notebook, but there is not yet a way to export a document with annotations.

Does Hypothesis track students in any way?Hypothesis does not track student data. We receive their name as a part of them using Single Sign On from Canvas, but we do not message them directly. Their annotations stay with the Canvas course.
Can you get a summary of one student’s Hypothesis posts in a class?You can search for a user and see any of their annotations (as well as anywhere their name was used). You can also do the same in Speedgrader.

The Notebook (accessed using the human icon) will show all annotations across the entirety of a course. You can then filter the annotations by user.

This could be beneficial for a potential culminating assignment, whereby a student could assess their contributions across the course.

It could also be used in office hours when work with a student.

Is Hypothesis compatible with the Canvas Teacher and the Canvas Student apps?While Hypothesis does work within the mobile app, it displays the text quite small.
For Dr. Millard-Ball: Do you use Hypothesis for each reading assignment or just selected assignments?The course used Hypothesis for all readings. Occasionally there was an older reading that was scanned as an image. Optical character recognition (OCR) is not a feature of Hypothesis, so documents used for annotation does need selectable text.
What are some instructional strategies for working with annotations? Any examples and suggestions for how instructors can take annotations to another level or space?

  • Dr. Millard-Ball picked out certain posts/topics to explore further in live class.
  • In a literature class, an instructor copied and organized the students’ annotations thematically into Padlet notes, and then commented on those in class. The instructor asked students to use a prescribed list of hashtags in their annotation posts to identify a theme or topic. In class, the instructor could search for a tag and pull up all the associated posts to discuss.
  • Select particular annotation comments to use to start a discussion forum thread.
  • Students could write a culminating reflection of their annotations.
  • Pick one of their peer’s annotations and explore how it changed their thinking.

How accessible is Hypothesis (for screen readers, for those unable to use a mouse, etc.)?Please see: Hypothesis and Screen Readers
For Hypothesis: What is the process for using Hypothesis as a Canvas Module?
Please see: Using the Hypothesis LMS App With Modules in Canvas

When the assignment is submitted, can the instructor use Canvas’ native annotation tools to annotate the Hypothesis assignment? Unfortunately not. However, Hypothesis grading allows instructors to continue the annotation conversation and provide private feedback to students on their reading progress.
For Dr. Millard-Ball: Do you think Hypothesis makes any difference to your teaching?
It is easier to assume that students have done the reading, so there is a better starting point coming into class because students are more prepared coming into class.
For Dr. Millard-Ball: Have you experienced having to moderate any “inappropriate” annotations by your students?
Not in Hypothesis, but has had it in other discussion forums. In those rare occasions, he talked to student privately.
Can an instructor remove or hide an annotation if it is inappropriate?
That is not a current feature of Hypothesis.
Can a user attach other files, such as an image or a voice recording?
Yes: they add videos, images, and links. They cannot add voice recordings directly in the tool, but can add links to recordings.

This Google Doc contains the comments, questions and answers collected during the showcase.

UC Instructional Design Grant Award

UC Instructional Design Grant Award

In October 2022, University of California Online approved a professional development award of $95,000 for the project: The IDEA Project: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access (IDEA), a 2-year Participatory Research & Professional Development Project for UC Instructional Designers.

Senior Instructional Designer and Lead PI Dr Kim DeBacco will work with instructional design colleagues from the 10 campuses of the UC to offer a program of DEIA-focused monthly seminars and writing projects throughout 2023 and 2024.

For more information contact: kdebacco@online.ucla.edu

ID Showcase – Nursing 171 – Public Health Nursing

Nursing 171 – Public Health Nursing

Nursing 171 – Public Health Nursing is designed and taught by Prof. Dorothy Wiley.

This showcase demonstrates how Prof. Wiley uses several features and tools in Bruin Learn and digital portfolios in support of the competency-based curriculum design in this hybrid Nursing course. Prof. Wiley uses Modules in Bruin Learn to support course content organization, which helps students easily recognize their learning path. The emerging technology of Learning Glass adopted by Prof. Wiley produces high-quality instructional videos and lectures to encourage student engagement with learning materials. Prof. Wiley also experiments with the approach of learning pods and the digital portfolio to allow students collaboratively document and contribute to where they can apply what they learned from the class to the local community.

N171 has experimented with several educational technologies and applied different pedagogical strategies to increase student engagement. In this presentation, the instructor will share their experiences with the following aspects:

  • Using Modules in Bruin Learn to organize content for this hybrid course
  • Using Learning Glass to pre-record lectures
  • Creating and redesigning several learning activities to support competency-based learning
  • Using different educational technologies to help students build their learning portfolio and encourage collaboration across projects

Faculty Bio

Dorothy Wiley, a professor with the UCLA School of Nursing, has clinical expertise in community and public health prevention strategies, including the sexually transmitted diseases HIV and HPV. She led UCLA’s randomized clinical trial study site that contributed to the first HPV vaccine approved for use in the U.S. Her areas of scholarly expertise and interest include sexuality, sexually-transmitted diseases, including HIV and HPV infection; cancer screening, cancer prevention, vaccine efficacy, molecular biomarkers for acute and chronic infections and infection clearance.

Presented: Thursday, Nov 16, 2022

Selected Q&A from the Showcase


QuestionResponse
Can you share more about their Padlet experience? What would be the difference between using Bruin Learn Discussion and Padlet?Dr. Wiley uses both Discussions in BL and Padlet! Uses Discussions in BL for students to post and then comment on short essays, for instance. Big focus on reflection – proven to help nurses learn. Padlet is mainly used for icebreaking. GoReact is another tool being used in different courses.
Does “doodle-y” just draw lecture content you submit?It provides you with the images. You then voice-over them; there is a music feature that you can pay for. You submit the text and the hand draws over them.
Do these additional programs (Doodle-y, Padlet, etc.) incur additional costs?Yes – Prof. Wiley purchased these (at least Doodley) with her own funds. Padlet has a fee too. She also purchased a Wacom tablet to help with tracing, sketching, and drawing.
Did you have to re-record any (or many) of your own videos since 2020?Yes, and used different media/recording methods for videos and lectures. Learning Glass is one tool for re-recording lecture content and key concepts.
What are some differences between the Learning Glass recordings than recording through Zoom and making them available from Kaltura?Learning Glass captures the attention of students, universally. The Learning Glass is a see-through screen that allows you to draw or write on a “board” while directly facing the students. UCLA has a couple on campus and you can go and film with one (a video recording in a studio – free to you), and then it is uploaded to Kaltura.

A tip on using the Learning Glass: Make sure you have fresh pens! It is awful to draw and record with weak pens and realize later they do not display well; you have to re-record the segment.

But yes it is different from recording in Zoom at home. There are many many video options!

OTL can help faculty use Learning Glass and other media. Please see: OTL Media Production.

You mentioned that some students navigated directly to assignments and skipped over other course content. Have you considered hiding the Assignments section and only use Modules? Is this is too limiting, or more streamlined?Yes, Prof. Wiley tried to hide Assignments, but there were some issues of navigation. Work with OTL and the Bruin Learn team to discuss possible options.
What are some considerations with gamification?Prof. Wiley suggests working with OTL instructional designers to understand the ramification of class size, such as what you might do differently with 7 students compared to 40 students.

This Google Doc contains the comments, questions and answers collected during the showcase.

ID Showcase – Mathematics 32A – Calculus of Several Variables

Mathematics 32A – Calculus of Several Variables

Mathematics 32A is designed and taught by Prof. Richard Wong.

This showcase demonstrates how Prof. Wong uses Bruin Learn and other educational technology tools to establish an interactive and collaborative teaching and learning environment for a math course. Prof. Wong organizes the learning objectives of this math course using Modules in Bruin Learn, which allows students easily track their learning progress. Prof. Wong adopted Gradescope and Campuswire to support student collaboration and provide instant and constructive feedback on assessments.

In MATH 32A, the instructor has used Bruin Learn’s native features as well as integrations to encourage students’ participation and collaboration. The presentation will share the experience of:

  • Using Modules to organize course learning objectives
  • Using Gradescope integration to grade and return quizzes and exams
  • Using Campuswire to create an environment where students are encouraged to ask questions and work collaboratively.

Faculty Bio:
Richard Wong is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at UCLA in the department of Mathematics. He has taught both large (210-student) and small (25-student) courses on multivariable calculus. In his courses, he uses inquiry-based and active learning techniques to make his classroom a welcoming environment where students are encouraged to actively engage with the course material.

Presented: Thursday, Nov 3, 2022

Selected Q&A from the Showcase


QuestionResponse
Do you upload the annotated module slides after the lecture?Yes! Annotated slides and the recording are posted after the lecture, and the non-annotated slides are posted before the recording. Students then get a sense of the flow of the course.
Is Campuswire integrated into Bruin Learn?Not currently, but it is in process.
Do you use CampusWire for grading or just for Q&A?It’s only for students asking questions.
What is the student reaction to Campuswire?Students liked Campuswire. Also used Slack. Engagement was much lower on Slack than on Campuswire – seemingly because you can use Campuswire in browser rather than in an app.
What is the advantage of using Gradescope in your opinion?Gradescope makes it easy to organize assignments; saves administrative work of collecting papers and grading each one; eases collecting and sharing feedback; allows students to easily see where they lost points; easier to give same/similar feedback multiple times.
For the Gradescope template, does it only accept PDFs?Believe so – but when students are uploading their responses, they can upload pictures or PDFs.
Do you have to do the grading one-by-one manually in Gradescope?Can also do a group grading if there are similar responses to an item.
Gradescope is new to me, so I wonder the differences between Canvas Quiz and Gradescope? Is that because some math problems cannot be handled by Quiz?With Gradescope there is no need to put an assignment into the quiz format. With Gradescope I can still use paper quizzes to hand out to students.
When you say “export” grades to Canvas, do you have to do it manually, or will the grades be sent to Grades in Canvas automatically?This is done manually – there is a “Publish Grades” button (which releases grades to students on Gradescope” and then a “Post Grades to UCLA Bruin Learn” button (which releases/pushes grades to Bruin Learn).

This Google Doc contains the comments, questions and answers collected during the showcase.