Month: March 2024

Brainfuse… New Online Tutoring & Academic Resource
Brainfuse… New Online Tutoring & Academic Resource avatar

Nita Staley-Abney

PTC has partnered with a new vendor to provide free online tutoring and academic resources!  Starting February 19, the college will begin to transition from our current online tutoring provider, NetTutor, to Brainfuse.  Students will be able to access Brainfuse in D2L and will continue to have access to NetTutor for the next few weeks.

Brainfuse provides 24/7 help in math, science, and English. They also offer live tutoring in many other disciplines. Whether students need assistance with assignments or feedback on written projects, they can receive on-demand help anytime, anywhere.

Brainfuse assists students by:

• Providing On-Demand One-to-One Assignment Help: Brainfuse tutors employ a range of field-tested techniques based on current research and best practices that have been specifically adapted for online tutoring to ensure high-quality service and instructional consistency.

• Offering Personalized Asynchronous and Live Writing Assistance: Brainfuse’s writing lab methodologies, customization features, and quality control safeguards truly make them unique among online tutoring providers. They employ a multi-layered review process to maintain methodologically consistent feedback.

• Hiring Highly Qualified Tutors: Brainfuse employs a team of approximately 4,000 tutors, of which 96% have a graduate degree in the area they tutor. Their ongoing monitoring and review system helps ensure student satisfaction.

In addition, students enjoy unlimited access to academic tools, which include flashcards, SkillSurfer practice tests and lessons, MEET virtual meetings, LEAP diagnostic testing, language lab, Brainwave recorded notetaking, and eParachute career aptitude tests.

Instructors also have the added benefit of a faculty dashboard in Brainfuse where students can be targeted for tutoring intervention.  Please see below for a training video for faculty.

D2L March 2024 Updates
D2L March 2024 Updates avatar

Joseph ClampLeave a comment

D2L March 2024 Updates

Brightspace Editor – Consistent link creation with the ability to choose link format | Updated

As of this release, inserting a link into Brightspace Editor opens the Add Link dialog which allows users to determine if their links open in a new window (set as the default) or in the current window. The text box in the Add Link dialog also allows users to add text to their link.

The Add Link dialog opens when inserting links with the context menu or with new keyboard shortcuts (for example, ctrl+K or command+K).

Additionally, the dialog includes a new Insert Quicklink option, allowing users to easily insert a quicklink. When using Insert Stuff > Insert Link or Insert Quicklink > Link, the same Link, Text, and Open In options are displayed ensuring consistent link creation.

Image: You can access the new Add Link dialog using the context menu, or with keyboard shortcuts.
Quizzes – Improved experience for generating quiz reports | Updated

This release introduces a better experience for instructors when running and exporting quiz reports with large amounts of data. To avoid time-out failures and screen freezing, the following report types now run asynchronously:

  • Attempt Details
  • Question Statistics
  • Question Details
  • User Statistics
  • User Attempts

When reports are ready for downloading, Brightspace generates a notification that instructors can access from the bell icon in the navbar.

Previously, quiz reports were generated slowly and would time-out in large classes.

The User Stats tab with the Export to CSV and Export to Excel buttons. After clicking on the Export to Excel button, a pop-up notification box opens. It reads, "Your report is being generated. You will receive a notification in Brightspace when your file is ready to be downloaded". There is a Close button at the bottom of the pop-up box. After clicking the Close button, a notification update alert appears next to the bell icon in the navigation bar. By clicking on it, a pop-up with all finished exports opens. By clicking on the new finished export, the Quiz Report Export Summary page opens. In the main content area, there is a message stating, "The Quiz report export was successful." Below this message is a link with the text "Click here to download the export file" and the Done button underneath.
Image: Quiz reports are generated asynchronously. Instructors are notified when they are ready for download via the bell notification icon in the navbar.


Register for the Live Webinar
Register for the Live Webinar avatar

Nita Staley-Abney

Using AI to Design Better Online Learning

What’s AI promising now, mood-sensing textbooks? Overnight Latin fluency? Campus-wide brilliance?

Let’s focus on what AI can do for you today.

Join us as we explore the practical applications of AI for educators and instructional designers, with real-world examples of how you can use tools like ChatGPT, Google Bard and DALL-E to design better online learning experiences.

Get the inside scoop on AI and start rethinking learning strategies, building your own GPT, applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) perspectives and more.

April 9th, 2024

1:00 PM to 2:00 PM EST (Virtual)

Using AI to Design Better Online Learning Registration Link: 

https://www.d2l.com/events/using-ai-to-design-better-online-learning/

Designing the Courses of Your Dreams with Creator+
Designing the Courses of Your Dreams with Creator+ avatar

Nita Staley-Abney

As an educator, you need content creation tools that maximize your time and add value to your learners. Creator+ gives you the tools to create engaging course material without having to learn unnecessarily complicated workflows or become an HTML wiz.

This session will show you how to insert elements, practices and templates to create dynamic content that will wow your learners! Elements enable you to easily and seamlessly create dynamic content and chunk concepts following a lesson using flip cards, tabs, timelines and more! Practices help to deepen comprehension and reinforce concepts using formative practice questions using activities like fill in the blanks, sorting and multiple choice activities. Lastly, templates allow you to build lessons with consistent design while saving you time.

Creator+ helps you deliver engaging lessons that learners want to interact with, without spending all your planning time creating online content.

Designing the Courses of Your Dreams with Creator+ Registration Link: https://www.d2l.com/events/designing-the-courses-of-your-dreams-creator/

TLT: HOW DO YOU BECOME A BETTER VERSION OF YOURSELF TO PREPARE STUDENTS TO THRIVEIN THE WORKFORCE OF TOMORROW? 
TLT: HOW DO YOU BECOME A BETTER VERSION OF YOURSELF TO PREPARE STUDENTS TO THRIVEIN THE WORKFORCE OF TOMORROW?  avatar

Nita Staley-Abney
 
You are invited to the upcoming TLT: HOW DO YOU BECOME A BETTER VERSION OF YOURSELF TO PREPARE STUDENTS TO THRIVEIN THE WORKFORCE OF TOMORROW? 
MARCH 19, 2024 @ 2:30pm  
 ABOUT THE WEBINAR Becoming a better version of yourself isn’t just about having good habits in the classroom or the workplace; it’s also about knowing how and when to overcome the bad ones. When we become better versions of ourselves, this is reflected in the growth and success of our students.


LISA TOLAND is a proud graduate of Newberry High School, and soon after went on to receive her B.A. degree from Winthrop University in Political Science with a minor in History. Ms. Toland later attended the University of Georgia where she received an MA in Political Science with an emphasis in American Politics. Her career in Higher Education also afforded her the opportunity to earn a certificate in Higher Education Leadership from the University of South Carolina. Professionally, she gained experience as a first-year instructor at Lander University where she taught a course in American Government. Ms. Toland then went on to serve as a full-time instructor at Piedmont Technical College.
 
While at Piedmont Technical College, she was entrusted with the privilege of serving as the Department Head of Social Sciences. Her gift for authentic and transparent leadership facilitated her promotion to becoming the Off-Campus Program Coordinator for the Arts & Sciences Division, the Associate Dean of Arts & Sciences, and currently in her most recent role as the Dean of Off-Campus. Ms. Toland is at home serving in this role housed at the Newberry Campus location.
 
Ms. Toland is chair of the OER Committee and the recipient of various professional awards and honors. She is a Piedmont Technical College Presidential Medallion recipient, the first Visionary Award recipient at the college, and most recently the Arts & Sciences Division at Piedmont Technical College awardee for “Excellence in Teaching, Committee Involvement and Advising”.
 https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qAe1Nb3tT0mGU58VTbJSyg

For more information or questions, please contact Emily Fox at foxe@sctechsystem.edu.