D2L Connection: Georgia

Location: Room CL

• Designing Online Courses for Flexibility

  
  Online students place high value on the time flexibility that online learning can bring to their lives. However, online learning is not inherently flexible; it needs to be designed with flexibility in mind. What are the course design factors that impact a student’s time flexibility in an online course? Let’s examine.
  

Host: Barry Dahl, Teaching & Learning Advocate, D2L

Location: JCLRC Auditorium

• Lights! Camera! Action! Maximizing Video Opportunities in Brightspace with Media Library

  
  As we make our way back to the new normal of educational settings, we are greeted with a renewed sense of appreciation for doing great work as educators. With grace and an openness towards change, these trying times will be yet another opportunity to show just how prepared and determined we can be in tackling difficult challenges that come our way. Together let us face this season head on while showing resilience through empathy – it is what has gotten us here thus far!
  

Host: David Gomes, D2L
Location: Room CE 1120

• D2L Review of the Stuff you Desire2Know

  
  We understand that there is a lot going on in your day to day.  It’s hard to keep up with all the changes to the platform in a continuous delivery model. The goal of this session is to provide insight into the changing landscape and how to stay engaged. We’ll review the great features that have recently been released by D2L, what is being released this month, and what is coming soon. We’ll also show you how to engage with the Brightspace Community, the PIE (Product Idea Exchange) and the ability to directly engage in our Research and Pilot groups helping to steer product development from your input.
  

Host: Gideon Sears, D2L
Location: Room CE 1130

• Customizing the Homepage with Community Input

  
  In this session, we’ll go over how GSU’s UX and Learning Technology teams changed the function and flavor of our Brightspace homepage through listening to our student and instructor communities. We’ll cover the ways that students experience Brightspace as an online campus, and how that provides opportunities for customization.
  

Hosts: Will Kerr, Victoria Patterson, Eric Floyd, Brian Johnson; all of GSU
Location: Room CE 1150

• Ten Bright Ideas to make your Brightspace Courses More Accessible to Students with Disabilities

  
  Web accessibility concerns have moved to the forefront in the world of online learning. This session will provide ten simple techniques for improving the accessibility of courses offered in the Brightspace Learning Environment. The focus will be on correcting common accessibility errors in Course Content, although the same techniques would apply in many other tools within Brightspace. All techniques can be executed by people with minimal knowledge of the generally accepted standards for web accessibility.
  

Host: Barry Dahl, D2L
Location: Room CE 1160

• Grading, Rubrics, and Brightspace

  
  Do students ask a lot of questions about assignments and how they are graded? Using rubrics can help answer their questions before submitting assignments, standardize grading, and create a more consistent way to grade. See how rubrics can help you.
  

Host: Terri Brown, East Georgia State College
Location: Room CE 1170

• Badges! Awards! Certificates! oh My! Reinforce Learning and Improve Student Engagement with Brightspace Awards

  
  Do you want to commend your students for a job well done, or provide incentives to motivate them? Brightspace Awards allows you to create and issue badges and certificates to students for completing a range of activities, from visiting the course to achieving specific grades. You can even issue badges to build community in your classroom. In this session, you’ll learn some best practices for creating badges and issuing them to students on an individual basis or automatically based on a condition.
  

Host: David Gomes, D2L
Location: Room CE 1120

• Using Brightspace Tools to Increase Student Engagement and Instructor Presence

  
  There are many tools available within Brightspace that instructors can use to increase their course presence and to inspire greater levels of student engagement. Several use cases will be shared to demonstrate effective practices learned over years of using Brightspace for online and blended learning.
  

Host: Gideon Sears, D2L
Location: Room CE 1130

• Multiple Needs, One System- How GOC Leverages D2L to Serve a Variety of Programs

  
  Gwinnett Online Campus supports a variety of programs using D2L Brightspace. In this presentation, GOC’s site admins will discuss how the organization leverages resources, including D2L Brightspace, to facilitate staff onboarding, housing teacher support resources and professional learning, as well as providing the flexibility for multiple instructional models based on the circumstances of our students. Relying heavily on collaboration among our tech team, administration and teacher leaders, we provide an exemplary education for a wide variety of students with disparate needs.
  

Host: Laura Herring and Kristin Sokol, Gwinnett Online Campus
Location: Room CE 1150

• Designing Competency Structures/Learning Objectives in D2L

  
  In this session, we’ll go over how course developers can create and use Competency structures and learning objectives for the purpose of associating graded assignments with learning objectives within Brightspace. Come join the session if connecting competencies, learning objectives, and activities interests you.
  

Host: Theresa Butori, University of North Georgia
Location: Room CE 1160

• Using Brightspace Data to Inform Institutional Strategies

  
  In this session, we will discuss how we have collaborated with our College of Education & Human Development to develop a process for using data from Brightspace to measure student performance, collect data, and provide reports required by the State of Georgia. We will also discuss how this collaboration has led to establishing an institutional strategy to provide similar reports to our campus partners, including Student Success and Institutional Effectiveness. These reports will allow our institutional partners to make informed decisions about supporting student learning and course curriculum.
  

Hosts: Eric Floyd and Chad Marchong, Georgia State University
Location: Room CE 1170

• Mastering the Master Gradebook View

  
  If you’re interested in learning more about how Learning Outcomes can be aligned and assessed to give you an overall view of a student’s progress, this is the session for you! In this session, we’ll look at how to import and align outcomes to assessments, and assess student work by outcomes, and view the ongoing progress of students using the Mastery View of the Gradebook.
  

Host: David Gomes, D2L
Location: Room CE 1120

• Effective Practices for D2L Admins: A Roundtable Discussion

  
  Join administrators across your region for a conversation about topics relevant to D2L site administrators. Facilitated by D2L and/or local admins, you will have the opportunity to learn from peers as well as share experiences your organization has had using Brightspace.
  

Host: Gideon Sears, D2L
Location: Room CE 1130

• Expanded and Interactive Templates

  
  This is a session looking at some of the possibilities of templates within D2L. Some of the examples shared will include pages with interactive exercises, algorithmically generated schedules, and templates for quicker page building. All of this is done directly in D2L with no outside integrations!
  

Host: Jeremy Speed-Schwartz, Georgia State University
Location: Room CE 1150

• Don't Freak Out About ChatGPT. Don't Ignore it Either

  
  With the advancement of natural language processing technology, ChatGPT has emerged as a promising tool for online education. We will explore the various applications of ChatGPT in online courses, and also examine the potential misuses of AI tools and discuss strategies for mitigating these risks. Through a combination of presentation, group discussion, and live demos, participants will gain a better understanding of the benefits and challenges of incorporating ChatGPT into online courses and how to navigate the ethical considerations involved. (Note: this description was generated by ChatGPT.)
  

Host: Barry Dahl, D2L
Location: Room CE 1160

Wrap-up and Prize Drawings
Location: JCLRC Auditorium