FUSION Conference summary, June 22-24

“The new Brightspace Insights track, measure, and monitor student progress and help improve engagement at every step. With the transmission of IMS Caliper learning events from tools like the Kaltura® Video Platform, Microsoft® Office Mix and Microsoft OneNote® Class Notebook Creator into Brightspace, faculty and teachers now see a richer view of learning activities across all tools. The new Brightspace Insights pull the data into high-performance reports, comprehensive data visualizations, and predictive analytics to provide instructors with visibility into student issues at just the right time. Instructors can act immediately as real-time analytics are embedded into instructors’ workflows to make information timely, in-context, and actionable.” (D2L)

I attended these sessions:

·         Brightspace Learning Environment for Instructors (At the heart of Brightspace platform, the Brightspace Learning Environment combines usability and sophistication to support educators as they deliver a more personalized, social and engaging learning experience.)

·         Providing Feedback to Your Students (D2L wants to hear feedback on the Discussions, Quizzes and Dropbox tools. Attendees are invited to share ideas on how to improve the user experience when providing feedback to students. The goal is to make this consistent across all three tools.)

·         Connecting Students and Learning: Enhancing Student Engagement and Persistence (This generation is history’s first always-connected one and on course to become the most educated generation in American history – a trend driven largely by the demands of a modern knowledge-based society and economy. Attendees are invited to join others in this session to learn active instructional methodologies which engage students and have achieved results, such as a 94% persistence rate as estimated by South Florida State College.)

·         Brightspace Community 101 (Do you find yourself lying in bed at night asking questions like, “How can I find answers to my Brightspace questions?”, “Where do I find the latest release notes?”, or “How can I get the most out of my course discussions?” The Brightspace Community has a wealth of knowledge and resources available at the click of a button. This session discuss the features and functions of the Brightspace Community, as well as empower those experienced users to provide feedback.)

·         Using Brightspace to Deliver Competency-Based Learning (Motivating students online can be difficult. Hekademia’s Adaptive Competency-based eLearning (Ace) courses release targeted remedial and enrichment content to students based on individual needs. Using existing Brightspace tools and dynamic page descriptions help create engaging learning environments that ensure all students are motivated to achieve. Increasingly, institutions are turning to competency-based education to meet student needs and preferences. CBE allows students to move at their own pace, ensures that they can demonstrate what they have learned, and awards credit for what they already know.)

·         Re-Invent Student Interactivity and Productivity with Office 365 (See what Office 365 and Office 365 Pro Plus with Student Advantage can offer your campus in terms of productivity and social communication. Discover how Office 365 can help students gain the skills they need to achieve high-growth, high-pay careers upon graduation. Learn how Microsoft can help transition your campus to the cloud while allowing you to collaborate faster with Enterprise Social via Yammer from virtually anywhere.)

·         Blended Learning: Enhancing Face-to-Face Teaching and Learning with Brightspace (The challenge in a blended learning environment is selecting technologies that suit teachers’ pedagogical preferences, discipline-specific teaching methods, and diversity of students. A range of common teaching scenarios will be used to examine ways in which Brightspace technologies can enhance blended learning.)

·         Brightspace, SCORM, and Articulate Storyline: A Teaching and Learning Trifecta (Covering necessary information about literacy topics in one session can be difficult. To overcome this challenge, librarians created eight interactive Storyline SCORM packages, allowing them to flip parts of their sessions. Attendees will learn about the development, implementation, and evaluation of these packages.)

·         If You Build it, They Can Achieve – Objectives, Outcomes, and Assessments (The competency tool, insights the Brightspace Learning Environment can be a powerful combination to assess achievement at any level of an organization. One of the hardest parts is to get started. In this workshop, attendees will learn more about the tools at their disposal, and build a framework that can be applied in their own areas of focus.)

 In summary:

Most of the sessions I attended were focused on resources for instructors and creating engaging learning environments for students. As a new teacher, it was interesting for me to see how instructors in different universities use the Brightspace LMS. The sessions on blended and competency-based learning were very informational. Some of it I already knew, and some of it was new to me. I enjoyed the hands-on sessions the most because I had a chance to see what instructors could do and/or add to their courses utilizing Brightspace tools.

I stopped at the Office 365 booth as I was curious about it because Regis has recently introduced it to the Regis community. At that time they demonstrated and introduced Office Mix (A free add-on for PowerPoint, for more information see: https://mix.office.com/en-us/Education). In order to be able to download and use Office Mix, you need to have PowerPoint 2013. I am planning on learning more about Office Mix and how it works.

After that, I went to the Re-Invent Student Interactivity and Productivity with Office 365 session, where I learned about Microsoft and D2L Brightspace and Office 365 integration (video: http://www.brightspace.com/resources/video/view/1_x8gqgul5/)

D2L Resource Center: https://documentation.desire2learn.com/en/Microsoft%20Office%20365%20Administration%20Guide

If you are interested, I found these two short videos on this topic:

Microsoft Office 365 Integration with Brightspace - For Administrators https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efg5JqeY9eQ or

Microsoft Office 365 Integration with Brightspace - For Instructors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_OXkYQE7CU)

 

  I enjoyed the conference, and I am grateful that I had this opportunity. Thank you.