University of Toronto – Digital Learning Innovation Digital Learning Innovation

For programs offering online courses, access to tools and services that ensure academic integrity for students who are at a distance is a priority. Several divisions at UofT have successfully used video-based online proctoring of exams for a number of years, allowing for student convenience at a relatively low cost.

Now, following an extensive review process involving consultation with our current users of online proctoring or “eproctoring” services, the university has identified two recommended vendors of these services and confirmed campus-wide pricing.

https://examity.com/	https://www.proctoru.com/

These service providers use a combination of strategies to ensure academic integrity is maintained. Example strategies include:

• Students show photo identification to webcam to verify identity
• Live proctor observes student taking the test via webcam
• Screen-sharing technology allows proctor to view student computer screen
• Browser lock-down software used to restrict access to other computer applications
• Recording of student taking exam
• Automated video review and flagging processes to increase accuracy and efficiency

Each of these vendors has been thoroughly vetted to ensure that they meet our requirements for data security and privacy; reliability and accuracy; technical support services; and full feature platforms. While these providers provide a new option for online assessments, decisions regarding use of these tools and responsibility for follow up on any potential issues remains with our academic program areas. See: Online Proctoring Guidelines

eProctoring Listserv

Join our eProctoring-L list serve for regular updates and information sharing among current campus users of these services. The list is called ePROCTORING-L To subscribe please send an email to listserv@listserv.utoronto.ca and, in the text of your message, write: SUBSCRIBE onlinelearning-l.  You should then get a message confirming your subscription.

For more general information contact digital.learning@utoronto.ca.

Imagine students discovering concepts through exploration and honing skills through an immersive simulation experience.  

At the end of October faculty and staff gathered at the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation to attend a full capacity event to share and explore these emerging trends.  

Developed by Diane Michaud and Laurie Harrison, this orientation workshop brought future looking instructors and educational technology support staff together to introduce the potential of AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) for teaching and learning.

Timeline of stereoscopic viewers to VR headsets. Images from L to R: Holmes_stereoscope_invented 1861_Photo by Davepape_Public Domain_Wikimedia, 2014: Google Cardboard VR headset_photo by Evan-Amos_Public Domain_Wikimedia, 2016: Oculus Rift CV1, photo by Evan-Amos, Public Domain, Wikimedia

The session was co-facilitated by several pioneering faculty members who presented their creative examples of the use of these technologies at the University of Toronto and beyond. Anesthesiology Professor, Dr. Fahad Alam presented his research team’s preliminary findings after sending out stereoscopic viewers for their ChildLife app featuring 360 videos that aim to reduce pre-procedure anxiety in patients coming to the Hospital for Sick Children. Johanna Carroll and Martina Steiner, Teaching Stream Professors in Molecular Genetics discussed their project using immersive virtual reality-based wet labs for students to view and experience via some of the latest wireless VR headsets. The final faculty demo was from Professor Dawn Kilkenny of the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering who described her project of creating custom virtual labs.

Participants were asked to consider how these technologies could serve their learning objectives for students or solve an instructional challenge. They were then able to discuss the applicability of extended reality technologies for specific course goals and explore related instructional design considerations. By the end of this session attendees were able to identify VR integration and development options, apply a practical framework for teaching and learning activity design ideas and begin to assess their own level of readiness for adoption of extended reality technology.

Dr. Chirag Variawa, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering watching a 360 video on a mobile phone in a stereoscopic headset.

As a bonus, participants who arrived early were treated to a demo of VR and AR equipment and content. There were AR triggers for the ARchemy app created by Shadi Dalili, UTSC Chemistry Professor and a team of talented developers. Participants were able to try out a few VR headsets ranging from stereoscopic viewers for smartphones such as Google cardboard and a comfier plastic headset. A few folks tried out the fully immersive Lenovo daydream headsets with controllers to explore Labster’s virtual science labs. Those who demo’ed equipment were curious and enthusiastic, a reflection of the growing interest in the engaging learning possibilities of AR and VR and there was certainly an inspired buzz at this full-to-capacity workshop. 

 Full list of event facilitators:

• Laurie Harrison, Director, Digital Learning Innovation
• Diane Michaud, Instructional Technologies Liaison Librarian, UTM Library
• Dawn Kilkenny, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering
• Fahad Alam, Assistant Professor, Anesthesia, Collaborative Human Immersive Interaction Lab (CHISIL)
• Johanna Carroll, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Molecular Genetics
• Martina Steiner, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Molecular Genetics 

If you’re interested in connecting with peers exploring the use of AR and VR consider joining our network – https://onlinelearning.utoronto.ca/ar-vr-network/

Last month OLS co-presented a talk on the experiences of University of Toronto and Ryerson University faculty members who authored Open Textbooks in the previous academic year at the 15th annual Open Education conference held in Niagara Falls, NY.

The well-received presentation titled “Learning about Open Educational Practice through Open Textbook Publishing” provided an overview of our work to date with OERs, including:

• The number of Open Textbooks we have authored
• Participating faculty members’ past and current use of Open Textbooks (OERs in general)
• Reasons for authoring Open Textbooks
• The existing and desired institutional support for authoring and publishing Open Textbooks
• Insights for future Open Textbooks authoring projects

Over the past two years, faculty members at Ontario’s post-secondary institutions have applied for funding to author open textbooks with the support of the Ministry of Colleges and Universities and administered by eCampusOntario. eCampusOntario recognizes the importance of Open textbooks to the post-secondary culture in Ontario because they have the potential to;

• Make education more affordable and accessible for students
• Improve learning experiences by allowing faculty to customize resources
• Create possibilities for sharing, creating, and collaborating to expand knowledge

Summary of the presentation

The Open Ed 2018 presentation was a collaboration between U of T and Ryerson University. Between the two institutions, 28 authors and co-authors created nine open textbooks in a variety of disciplines including sciences, social sciences, medical sciences, and humanities.

Seventeen faculty members shared their experience of the OER creation process through a survey and the presentation focused on the synthesis of the survey responses from both institutions. Instructors chose to author open resources in order to reduce the cost of textbooks and increase the variety of resources available to local and international students. One instructor underscored how open textbooks enable faculty members to contextualize the context based on their geographical location. The majority of the respondents, 76%, had little previous experience using or creating OERs, which highlights the importance of institutional support structures and resources.

Between both institutions, the instructors had access to an extensive array of support structures and resources. Among the highest used resources were: technological information, copyright information, existing open textbooks used as examples, PressBooks platform information, and accessibility audits. An insight for facilitating future open textbooks was to provide authors with a prototype of a sample chapter. Another insight related to facilitating team work by providing the team with project management support and to monitor the steadiness of the work progress.

The authors also shared the main benefits of authoring open textbooks as a commitment to open pedagogical tools, deeper understanding of the affordances of OER, and the ability to inform other faculty members about the open textbook authoring process to other faculty members. For more details on the study view the Learning about Open Educational Practice through Open Textbook Publishing presentation file.

For More Information

To learn more about the process of creating your own open curriculum materials, explore information related to processes and practices in our Open Textbook Toolkit which offers information related to stakeholders, technology, copyright, accessibility, and more general production, classroom use workflows and more

Hearing a lot of hype around experiential learning? Are you new to this idea, or have you been a long-time advocate and facilitator of experiential learning opportunities? If you fall into either of those categories, this blog post is for you. The University of Toronto is developing a suite of open-source,  reusable modules  to respond to a range of needs in this broad domain. Whether you currently facilitate or are in the planning stages of developing a curricular or co-curricular EL experience, these modules and the flexible learning assets within them can be tailored and integrated into your context.

How did this project come about, and how can you get involved? Read more to find out.  

In 2017, the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development (now the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities) offered funding through the “Career Ready Fund” to support the development and expansion of experiential learning (EL). Specifically, funds were made available to support coordination and streamlining of EL experiences, developing faculty resources to support EL integration, and improving access to EL opportunities for students.

At the University of Toronto, a number divisions asked for a suite of online modules to support EL. Rather than having everyone create their own material, the University decided to establish a group to look at developing a suite of open educational resources that can be adopted or adapted across faculties and divisions. Which brings us to this project.

These resources are being created specifically with re-use, adaptation, and customization in mind so they can to be integrated in multiple ways to support differing practices, goals, and outcomes including curricular and co-curricular needs. To date, a group of representatives, including both content and subject matter experts, from divisions across all three campuses have collaborated on the initial topics and outlines and will continue to provide input into the planning and development of the resources. With student-facing and instructor/staff-facing modules, topics include: student readiness quick start, personal learning plan, student roles & responsibilities, reflection, partnership stewardship, instructional practices, assessment and reflection design.

What are re-usable modules? We are creating a group of learning assets—including powerpoint slides, videos, and learning activities—and suggesting the ways in which you can layer these assets into a cohesive module. Just want a video or a few slides? You will be able to take these individual assets and integrate them into your program.

We are currently in the design phase and drawing upon a broader group of stakeholders and subject matter experts to both incorporate existing and develop new material to make up the content of the EL resources. We will be developing these resources until January 2019 with ongoing consultations and contributions.

The final phase of the project is to support implementation over the months of January to April 2019. In this phase, we will be consulting with partners to discuss how these modules can be used in their context.

If you are interested in furthering EL opportunities and wish to contribute to these resources feel free to get in touch with us. Email Kimberly Elias  at kimberly.elias@utoronto.ca .

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Collaborators on this project include: Vice-Provost Innovations in Undergraduate Education; ITS – Digital Learning Innovation; and Student Life.

The Riipen platform as an on-ramp to facilitating work integrated learning experiences. Riipen helps instructors set up micro-experiential projects with community organizations and businesses by finding matches and streamlining ongoing coordination and communication between the faculty, students and partners. This initiative is unique in its focus on integrating small projects into course contexts in alignment with learning outcomes.

[New: Riipen project extended for 2021]

Learn more about the Riipen Pilot Project

To find out how you can get involved at the University of Toronto please email digital.learning@utoronto.ca

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Shadi Dalili, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream is one of the instructors who pioneered the use of Riipen in her  course CHMD71 – Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Students in this 4th year course worked alongside research and development at pharmaceutical organizations to consult and create promotional materials.

We spoke with Shadi to ask about her experience with Riipen:

How did using Riipen help meet your teaching and learning goals?

For my fourth year Pharmaceutical Chemistry course (CHMD71H), I had two major sets of learning goals: disciplinary knowledge learning goals (such as research, analytical, and critical thinking skills) as well as transferable, professional development learning goals (such as teamwork, time-management, multi-tasking, communication, delegation, and decision-making skills).

Using Riipen helped meet most of these goals by providing a platform through which I could find an industry partner with whom my students could participate in a project in the field of pharmaceutical chemistry. This allowed them to gain firsthand knowledge on how to research information on molecular modelling and simulations used in the process of drug discovery and development, and then critically analyze this information to prepare a deliverable defined by the industry partner for a particular audience. This allowed them to practice critical analysis skills in appropriately using information for the intended purpose.

Additionally, as they had to work in teams and deliver the project by a set timeline, they used a project charter based on the RACI (Responsibility, Accountability, Consultation, and Informed) matrix used in industry for team projects, to prioritize, delegate, and manage their time as a group. This was a valuable exercise in teaching them interpersonal and communication skills, as well as exposed them to a real-world scenario of how to work as a team and delegate responsibilities.

With whom – community organizations, industry – did you partner?

We worked with Cognigen Corporation, a SimulationsPlus company, that is based in Buffalo, NY. They were established in 1992, and have partnered with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as provided pharmacology consulting and pharmacometric analyses for more than 100 drugs. They aim to advance the science and engineer the systems for model-based drug development, which is more efficient and cost effective in getting a drug to the approval stage at regulatory agencies compared to traditional methods of drug development.

Why did you partner with them?

We partnered with Cognigen Corporation as they had a wealth of experience in the field of molecular modelling and simulations in drug discovery and development, which is one of the topics of the course I wanted my students to get industry knowledge on. In addition, Cindy Walawnder, their VP of Operations who was the contact from the company on Riipen, was extremely helpful and communicative in defining a project for the students that was within their level of understanding and manageable in the period of the course.

How did this experience meet (or not meet) your needs and expectations for your course goals?

This was my first time using the Riipen platform, as was the case with the industry partner (Cognigen Corporation), and as a first time user, it exceeded my expectations of meeting the needs of our course. Many students commented that they thought the project was interesting and valuable, considering it allowed to work with a real company and familiarized them with the pharmaceutical industry. In addition, our students now each have a profile on the Riipen site, with ratings and comments from the industry partner in their portfolio, which I hope will help in their employability in the future.

For more information contact: digital.learning@utoronto.ca

Do your students need access to online resources to brush up on software or technical skills? How about coaching on communication and presentation skills? Or perhaps as an instructor you need a quick tutorial on creating course modules in Quercus – or using Office 365. From A to Z, Adobe to Zoom, you can find a treasure-trove of instructional videos and practice activities via the Lynda.com learning platform now available at U of T.

That’s right. Students, staff, and instructors have access to the full catalogue – all videos, assessments and activities – through a new provincial licence to Lynda.com. Using your UTORid to log in, you may choose from more than 1,400 online self-paced courses that cover a wide range of topics, including professional development, business, IT, software, and design. There are even playlists for teaching strategies! Use the resources to support personal learning and development or integrate relevant content as a supplement to course materials. Explore Lynda.com to find, curate and share content, whatever the learning need.

Read the full details for Lynda.com access.

You may have heard the buzz around Integrated Learning Experiences (ILEs) in the last several months at the University of Toronto. Interest and engagement has been growing with news of institutional priorities related to the Integrated Learning Experience framework developed by the Provost’s Task force on Experiential and Work Integrated Learning and a range of initiatives aimed at increasing capacity in these areas.

One new project to come out of this exploration is a pilot that supports the experiential learning across a range of discipline and course contexts, targeting opportunities for undergraduate students. Within a course context, they will work on mini-projects, or “micro-experiential learning” assignments that are aligned with course goals, as well as an external partner needs. The project leverages a third party platform, Riipen, to facilitate partnerships with community organizations and businesses by helping with the matching process, project set up, and ongoing coordination. Instructors who are experimenting with the Riipen platform are aiming to provide a wider range of experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate students, while at the same time streamlining the administrative workflow and coordination tasks. Another feature is the opportunity for students to get feedback directly from community partners and create a portfolio featuring their demonstrated skills.

The initiative, lead by Prof. Phanikiran Radhakrishnan of UTSC, has been funded by the Learning and Education Advancement Fund (LEAF) as a two-year pilot. The aim is to evaluate Riipen’s potential to advance the goals described by of the Task Force on Experiential Learning. Across the institution we are seeking to provide students with the “ability to bridge theoretical and practical learning and to observe how the material they have learned in class takes shape in the world… and include(s) examples of experiential, work-integrated, and community-engaged learning that integrate disciplinary outcomes with community engagement and competency development.

We are currently looking for more instructors who would like to get involved. For more information, or if you are interested in joining the pilot, contact digital.learning@utoronto.ca

Members of the U of T AR/VR Network had an engaging visit to the Collaborative Human Immersive and Interactive Lab (CHISIL) at SickKids Hospital on Thursday November 30th, 2017. We were hosted by Clyde Matava and Fahad Alam, Professors of Anesthesia and founders of the CHISIL Lab (with sites at both SickKids and Sunnybrook Hospitals).

It was an inspiring presentation during which they shared some highlights from their current research into the effectiveness of immersive VR for patient care and education (exposure therapy and VR for pain distraction.) They talked about some research topics for future inquiry such as the effectiveness of having a parent or caregiver present virtually in the operation room and the development of immersive VR modules that use actual medical tools rather than gaming controllers.  

Also, our hosts allowed us to experience some of their VR modules first hand. We were shown a suite of immersive 360 videos (available as the “ChildLife VR” iOS app) intended to educate and assuage patient anxiety. They also had us try an immersive VR module that required a head-mounted-display and controls which put us into the role of a physician in a trauma scenario with an injured virtual patient. One of the procedures we had to perform as virtual physicians was a laryngoscopy (camera inserted via the patient’s mouth) featuring live video feedback on a monitor within the virtual scene which was dynamically tracking the user’s movements and positioning of the virtual endoscopic camera.  We could certainly all see how such an experience would help build a future physician’s skills and confidence before attempting any actual procedures for the first time. 

We look forward to future visits and potential opportunities for collaboration with the CHISIL team.
 

First/left panel: Clyde Matava, Professor of Anesthesia and co-founder of CHISIL Lab at SickKids Hospital, Laurie Harrison, Director, Online Learning Strategies – photo by Mike Spears. Middle panel: Clyde Matava, Alexander Sullivan, student and VR developer, Diane Michaud, Academic & Collaborative Technology Support – photo by  Alexandra Bolintineanu.  Right/last panel: Ron Wilson, Associate Professor and Acting Director, Human Biology Programs –  photo by Mike Spears.  

The latest MOOC Activity Report is now available on the Open UToronto web site!

Now in its fifth year of support to MOOC initiatives, DLI has decided to condense our annual Activity Report into a visually engaging, one page, sharable infographic.

Click to see full infographic

This infographic is organized into four main sections, each of which focuses on an important dimension of our work in this domain:

• Design and Pedagogy
• Community Engagement
• Demographic Reach
• MOOC Research and Outreach

Course information, such as discipline representation and student numbers, are taken from live courses in the self-paced modes in both Coursera and edX. Outreach data represents our institutional reach from the last five years of activity.

Feel free to view and share.

For more information about our Open Course Initiatives visit http://www.ocw.utoronto.ca/open-course-development/