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--- fundamentals_of_avenue_to_learn [2017/08/24 14:13]
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+++ fundamentals_of_avenue_to_learn [2020/06/19 10:18] (current)
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 [[:start|{{:avenuewiki:avenue.jpg?nolink&200x50}}]]
+<html><h1><b>***UPDATES: PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING WEBSITE FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION ABOUT AVENUE TO LEARN:***</br></br> <a href="https://avenuehelp.mcmaster.ca">https://avenuehelp.mcmaster.ca</a></b></h1></br></br></br> </html>
 ====== Avenue Fundamentals ======
@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
   * You will be able to use the Classlist tool to see who is in your course and manage enrollments.
   * You will be able to use the Avenue Mail function and know the differences between Avenue Mail and McMaster e-mail.
+  * You will be able to use the Discussions tool, create a forum, and create a topic.
@@ Line 18: / Line 19: @@
 . Activate your **MacID** and enable your macid services
-Macid's are created and maintained by University Technology Services. To enable your macid services, go here: [[http://www.mcmaster.ca/uts/students/gettingstarted/activateMACID.html|http://www.mcmaster.ca/uts/students/gettingstarted/activateMACID.html]] If you do not have a MacID, please contact UTS at [[uts@mcmaster.ca|uts@mcmaster.ca]] or by phone at 905-525-9140 x24357. Typically new accounts come over from UTS to Avenue to Learn within 24-48 business hours.  If you have access to your McMaster e-mail or other McMaster services that use your MacID to login, but not Avenue to Learn, try logging in to Avenue to Learn and that should begin the self registration process to enable your account in Avenue to Learn (accounts get automatically processed nightly).  If you get stuck, contact us directly at: Avenue support (available from Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM) at (905) 525-9140 ext. 23757 or email: support.avenue@cll.mcmaster.ca.
+Macid's are created and maintained by University Technology Services. For all macid questions, go here: [[https://www.mcmaster.ca/uts/macid/|https://www.mcmaster.ca/uts/macid/]] If you do not have a MacID, please contact UTS at [[uts@mcmaster.ca|uts@mcmaster.ca]] or by phone at 905-525-9140 x24357. Typically new accounts come over from UTS to Avenue to Learn within 24-48 business hours.  If you have access to your McMaster e-mail or other McMaster services that use your MacID to login, but not Avenue to Learn, try logging in to Avenue to Learn and that should begin the self registration process to enable your account in Avenue to Learn (accounts get automatically processed nightly).  If you get stuck, contact us directly at: Avenue support (available from Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM) at (905) 525-9140 ext. 23757 or by completing the intake form located at [[http://avenue.mcmaster.ca/support/|http://avenue.mcmaster.ca/support/]]
 . Login.
@@ Line 28: / Line 29: @@
-You should see a course in your **Personal Dashboard** and alternatively the **Classic Homepage** view.  Both views look similar to this:
+You should see a course in your Homepage view, shown below:
-{{:personal_dashboard.png?nolink&200 |}}
-{{ :classic_homepage.png?nolink&200 |}}
+{{ :classic_homepage.png?nolink&400 |}}
@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 ===== Content =====
-Watch this video for an overview of the Content tool:
+Watch these video's from our vendor, for a beginner's dive into the Content tool:
-{{youtube>GHWGnmtvLTE?large}}
+{{youtube>UN359cjiuWw?large}}
 <html><br /></html>
-. Create a course module.
+{{youtube>g-LtyszhAGI?large}}
-Avenue to Learn organizes all tools into an Organizer:Item pairing; in Content you will have a **Module** to organize the **Items** you want students to view. Items refers to the actual files that you want to share, whether those are Word documents, PowerPoint slides, PDFs, Excel spreadsheets or (almost) any file. The way you can organize your course is up to you - you could choose to organize your course by weeks, topics, subjects or whatever structure you think is appropriate. If you choose to organize your content by weeks, you would create a Week One module then a Week Two module and so on. Here's how to create a module: [[https://documentation.brightspace.com/EN/le/content/instructor/create_module.htm|https://documentation.brightspace.com/EN/le/content/instructor/create_module.htm]]. If you need to rearrange Modules in Content, you can simply drag and drop the module to the new location. Make sure to grab the module by the handle for your ease of use. Be aware that you can place Modules within Modules, so be careful when dragging and dropping Modules that you are dropping the Module where you want it to be located.
-. Adding a file from your computer to a Module in Content.
-{{youtube>6P2tjKCPeOA?large}}
 <html><br /></html>
+{{youtube>aAguK-DGqTE?large}}
-For more information on how to add Content to your course, visit: https://documentation.brightspace.com/EN/le/-/all/creating_course_content_intro_1.htm .
-If you are thinking about adding a video to your course, talk to your department about streaming servers to host your content. Alternately, use Vimeo, or YouTube to host your content externally and embed the video on a page in Content. Remember to respect copyright and accessiblity laws when you are using other's work as a part of your course. For more information about copyright at McMaster, please go to http://www.copyright.mcmaster.ca/ .  For more information about accessibility please go to http://accessibility.mcmaster.ca/teaching-accessibly . Below is a video demonstrating how to embed a video in D2L, which we call Avenue to Learn. The process for embedding a video from YouTube and almost any other video streaming site is the same.
-{{youtube>Js8LERuy6Yk?large}}
 <html><br /></html>
+The above are the basics that you should know.  For an expanded dive into the content tool, there is a content playlist from the vendor at:
+[[https://bit.ly/2H83KN5|https://bit.ly/2H83KN5]]
 ===== Mail =====
@@ Line 71: / Line 61: @@
 http://avenue.mcmaster.ca/help/docs/reply-to.pdf
-http://avenue.mcmaster.ca/help/docs/setting_up_notifications.pdf
@@ Line 78: / Line 67: @@
 The **Classlist** tool allows you to see your entire class roster, complete with MacID and student number. When you make a course request for a course shell, what you are doing is connecting the course on Avenue to the records of the Registrar's office. Enrollments are managed automatically, and often do not require you to intervene. However, there are times when the information from the Registrar's office and Mosaic lag and students do not see their courses in a timely manner. There are many reasons why a student may not be legitimately enrolled in the course, including payment of fees not being complete, scheduling conflicts that require manual intervention, and Ironically, if you want a spreadsheet list of your students, it's best to use the Grades tool, and export a spreadsheet with first, last, Org Defined ID (which is the student number) and Username (which is the user's MacID).
-In the video below, there is some useful information about the Classlilst tool. Starting at the 1:00 mark, the instructions about emailing your entire class begin.
+In the video below, there is some useful information about the Classlilst tool and how to contact your learners:
-{{youtube>pEMw-NPToUY?large}}
+{{youtube>jyliSQFFfmM?large}}
 <html><br /></html>
-To add a User to the Class: [[classlist|Classlist]]
+How to Add a Participant to Your Course:
-===== Pager =====
+{{youtube>mfIPs8gkSrg?large}}
-The **Pager** tool is a semi-synchronous tool that you can use to instant message students or other users on the system. At McMaster, it is not generally used.
+<html><br /></html>
+For more information on the classlist tool: [[classlist|Classlist]]
+[[:start|{{:avenuewiki:avenue.jpg?nolink&200x50}}]]
+===== Announcements =====
+This tool is one of the most effective in communicating with your students as it is the first thing they see once they access your course. You can provide announcements, course updates and important information through this tool.
+How to create an announcement item: [[https://documentation.brightspace.com/EN/le/announcements/instructor/create_announcements_item.htm|https://documentation.brightspace.com/EN/le/announcements/instructor/create_announcements_item.htm]]
+{{youtube>-sRyXi2bNp4?large}}
+<html><br /></html>
+===== Discussions =====
+Online discussions are a flexible instructional tool that can help you build a community in fully online courses, can provide peer support and peer marking, or simply can provide a place where students can discuss issues related to the class. As always, when you have a tool that can do many things, it can be overwhelming for both the instructor and the student or learner. When setting up Discussions in Avenue to Learn, you should be able to answer the following questions before starting:
+  * What are students going to do with this discussion area?
+  * What outcome do I hope to achieve with this discussion?
+  * How much is discussion going to be worth (if any grades are assigned at all)?
+  * Who is going to monitor the discussion board?
+  * Will I allow anonymous posting?
+For more information about designing discussions, please visit the following link:
+[[http://online.pitt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Best-Practices-for-Creating-Effective-Online-Discussion-Activities.pdf|University of Pittsburgh's Online Discussions Best Practices]]
+<html><br /></html>
+The Disucssions tool is located within your course, under the Communication menu (Communication > Discussions).
+<html><br /></html>
+<note tip>When using Discussions, you first have to create a forum and then a topic for students to discuss. Forums serve as organizers for the topics to be discussed, where threads (or posts) are the items students add to the topic.</note>
+==== Creating a Forum ====
+. To create a Forum, or organizer for the discussion, first go into the Discussions tool within the course you wish to create a new Forum. Then click the blue, **New** button, and select **New Forum**. The only required field in creating a Forum is the title, so enter a title. If you only are having one discussion Topic within this Forum, you can select the "Create a new topic in this forum with the same title" checkbox to save yourself a step. Underneath the description are three options that are worthy of consideration.
+Anonymous posting is truly anonymous. Even Administrators cannot see who has posted. While Instructors could cross reference information under **User Progress** (Edit Course > User Progress), to identify who was in the course at the time of the post, it does not provide a definitive, conclusive answer. Instructors who teach in topics that are personal, sensitive, or deal with issues that could be seen as difficult, you may want to consider making a discussion forum anonymous. The student has to opt-in to appearing as anonymous, and it goes without saying that if you are marking discussions, you may find it difficult to assess grades for anonymous posts.
+Moderator Approval holds all posts for someone with Moderator privileges (Instructor and TA1 roles) to approve the post. While this may work in mid sized classes to help manage overloading of posts, large scale classes with required discussions do not tend to be effective with this technique.
+The Users Must Start a Thread option requires the student to post first before they can see any of the other posts in the Topics underneath this Forum. Typically we suggest that you do not select this option here, as it is better to check it at the Topic level, which is where it would typically be applied.
+As we move further down the page, Availability refers to when the Forum will be available to be seen. If you are using one discussion Forum to hold multiple Topics, you should set the Availability to shortly after the course begins. That way, students will be able to post as soon as appropriate. You can also set Availability on Topics, so you can choose to open the Forum early and dole out Topics as they become needed.
+Locking refers to whether or not a person can post a thread to a Topic. Again, most people do not use locking as a mechanism as students are busy and don't tend to continue discussion beyond what is required in the course. However, there are times where you would like discussion to occur within a specific period of time, but still be available for review later. In a situation like that, you may want to apply locking. Either way, you are unlikely to want to lock an entire Forum, rather you would be better to consider locking or unlocking Topics.
+For more information about creating Forums, or to visually see the steps described, please watch the embedded video below.
+{{youtube>fEqSKm4dLKU?large}}
+<html><br /></html>
+. When finished, click Save and Add Topic.
+==== Creating a Topic ====
+. (OPTIONAL) If you have not clicked Save and Add Topic above in step 2, or wish to add a new Topic to an existing Forum, enter the Discussions tool in your course (Communication > Discussion). Click the blue New button, and then select New Topic. You will be required to situate the Topic in an existing Forum.
+.The options for creating a Topic are similar to that of the Forum, with one exception. Topics can be rated. Rating a Topic is done by students in a course, and can show approval, value or benefit of a post. Using the ratings options for a Topic can create a simple peer evaluation process, where students can add rankings or vote up valuable responses.
+For more information about creating Topics, or to visually see the steps described, please watch the embedded video below.
+{{youtube>lOQdYOVPuCE?large}}
+<html><br /></html>
+For more information about creating forums and topics, please see the following links:
+[[https://documentation.brightspace.com/EN/semester_start/-/instructor/faq_discussions.htm|Discussions FAQ]]
+<html><br /></html>
+==== Configuring Discussions ====
+There are two different ways to look at Discussions, Reading View, which is the default view, and Grid View. To enable Grid View, follow the steps described in the video below.
+{{youtube>JJy_ZYTQt2I?large}}
+<html><br /></html>
+=== Moderating and Assessing Discussions ===
+If you are using Discussions as an assessment method, you will need to consider how you are going to mark learners responses. Are you going to value frequency of posting, quality of posting, quantity of posting or use a rubric based on all of these ideas?
+[[https://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-onlinelearning-mastering-online-discussion-board-facilitation.pdf|Edutopia's Guide to Facilitating Online Discussions]]
+<html><br /></html>
+==Grade a Topic (not needed for the workshop, but good to know)==
+{{youtube>TtyHyfgu0gg?large}}
+<html><br /></html>
+<html><br /></html>
 ----
+//For questions or concerns, Avenue support is available from Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM at (905) 525-9140 ext. 23757 or by completing the intake form located at http://avenue.mcmaster.ca/support/ //
-//For questions or concerns, Avenue support is available from Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM at (905) 525-9140 ext. 22911 or email support.avenue@cll.mcmaster.ca.//

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