Free Virtual Webinar: Supporting Student Success in Online Courses: Insights from Students and Faculty Thursday April 3rd, 2025 from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm ET
Free Virtual Webinar: Supporting Student Success in Online Courses: Insights from Students and Faculty Thursday April 3rd, 2025 from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm ET avatar

How can online college courses better support student motivation, engagement, and help-seeking behaviors?

Join the Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative for a public webinar where we explore student experiences in online courses and new evidence-based strategies to address challenges students encounter in online formats.

Panelists, including researchers, students, and faculty, will share and reflect on key findings on the role that self-directed learning (SDL) can play in promoting student success in online courses.

The webinar will feature findings from interviews with students enrolled in online courses at eight colleges and universities, an introduction to a set of practical strategies that instructors can implement to enhance student support in online learning environments, and a panel discussion featuring community college students.

Presenters

  • Susan Bickerstaff, Senior Research Associate, Community College Research Center
  • Akilah Thompson, Senior Research Assistant, Community College Research Center
  • Hannah Cheever, Senior Education Researcher, SRI
  • Candace Walker, Associate Professor, Palm Beach State College
  • Mason Gallagher, Sophomore, Wake Technical Community College
  • Emily Vershay, Sophomore, Wake Technical Community College

Related Resources

Registration link: https://sri.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_69RVvkolSFGfVg0GyW_3Yg#/registration

Virtual PD Opportunity – Brightspace presents: Immersions series 2 – ABC’s of Content Friday March 28th, 2025 from 10:00 am – 11:00 am.
Virtual PD Opportunity – Brightspace presents: Immersions series 2 – ABC’s of Content                         Friday March 28th, 2025 from 10:00 am – 11:00 am. avatar

Wondering how to add content to your course? Join us as we explore how to copy existing content into courses and learn to create new materials within your course using the Brightspace Editor.

To register for this Brightspace PD and other upcoming sessions, please click on the registration link below. Complete the Wufoo form to register for PD event: https://ptcgwd.wufoo.com/forms/zu7eaz1019jz6l/

A link to the PD event will appear on Outlook calendar within 1 week of the scheduled PD event.

Registration deadline is by Wednesday March 26th, 2025 by 12:00 noon ET.

D2L March 2025 Updates
D2L March 2025 Updates avatar

D2L March Updates

Brightspace Training Resources | New

Following our Brightspace Training webinar series, all past recordings and information from the trainings are accessible via the Discover tool from the Brightspace homepage where instructors can now self-enroll in the course. This course is purely for the archival of webinar training content but it has been opened for Instructor view!

Figure: Discover link on the homepage navbar and the Brightspace Training Resources course

Quizzes – Additional question types in new quiz evaluation experience | Updated

The new quiz evaluation experience, introduced in September 2024, initially supported a subset of question types, including Multiple ChoiceWritten ResponseTrue or FalseShort AnswerFill in the Blank, and Multi-Select. It also allowed Question Pools containing these question types.

To fully support the new quiz evaluation experience, this release expands support to include the following additional quiz question types:

  • Arithmetic
  • Matching
  • Ordering
  • Multi Short Answer
  • Significant Figures

Rubrics – Added Rubric Level Range Visual | New

This release introduces rubric level ranges in rubric headings, improving clarity for instructors and students:

  • Instructors can now see rubric level ranges while creating and evaluating rubrics, except for holistic rubrics and non-sequential custom points.
  • students can view rubric level ranges in assessments, ensuring a clear understanding of point distributions.

Previously, instructors had to manually explain rubric level ranges to students. This feature enhances consistency and reduces ambiguity.

Figure: Define the scoring levels and criteria when creating or editing a rubric. Adjust custom points by entering values in the corresponding fields under each level column.

Instructor Guided Training – Reminder

If you have not done so already, please feel free to access our D2L guided instructor training course by clicking the link with the D2L moose on your homepage. At first this training looks barren with only a few items, but as you complete each module a new one will open up! This training goes through the basics of D2L all the way through more advanced tools and is available to all instructors of the college. You will also be entered to win some D2L branded prizes such as a Morris the Moose plushie, travel pillows, and tumbler cups!

Figure: The instructor guided training link.

March 2025 PD Opportunities
March 2025 PD Opportunities avatar

D2L Brightspace is an LMS designed to enhance the learning experience by combining artificial intelligence, learning science, and human creativity to boost learner success. Whether you’re a new faculty member or a seasoned educator, explore the various upskilling opportunities available through Brightspace training programs.

The deadline to register for PD session Brightspace presents: Immersion series part 1 is by Friday March 7th, 2025 by 2 pm.

The deadline to register for PD session Brightspace presents: Immersion series part 2 is by Wednesday March 26th, 2025 by 2:00 pm.

To register please click on the link below. A link to the PD event will appear on Outlook calendar within 1 week of the scheduled PD event.

https://ptcgwd.wufoo.com/forms/zu7eaz1019jz6l