Level of Support: 1:1 Consultative Support

Highlights:

This project was one in which Rebekah Bennetch (College of Engineering), working with fellow faculty member Dr. Corey Owen and graduate student Zachary Keesey, was looking to create an open textbook to support learning in the course RCM 200: Effective Professional Communication. Creating an open textbook is often compared to the process of online course development, and this similarity was picked up by the authoring team, as they took lessons learned while teaching remotely and applied them to this technical communication textbook. This book examines communication through political, rhetorical, ethical, and interpersonal lenses, and demonstrates various applications useful to students as they pursue future careers. The book reinforces key concepts through the inclusion of many H5P interactive elements, quizzes, case studies, and other resources that enhance the reading experience. Following publication, it was recognized in the open publishing community amongst the Pressbooks Staff Favourites of 2022 as well as the Pressbooks Community Favourites of 2022.

How the GMCTL Helped:

• Met with Rebekah to learn about her goals for improving the learning experience in her course, recommend some edtech tools, and answer questions about Pressbooks and H5P.
• Generated a “starting shell” for the book, with a basic chapter structure to help the writers get underway.
• Provided a couple of webinar “coaching sessions” to orient Rebekah and her team to using Pressbooks and H5P, and share some ideas and inspiration for what kind of learning activities could be possible.
• Offered just-in-time support when questions emerged during the book development, and later on when tackling updates and revisions.

Educator quote:

“Our department has wanted to create a new textbook for our course for a long time, but it felt too daunting to begin. However, working with Julie at the GMCTL and utilizing readily available OER materials made writing our textbook much more straightforward and approachable. We’ve gotten great feedback from students about the book, and using OER offers them a customizable and affordable way to access our course materials.”

–Rebekah Bennetch

Check it out:

• Effective Professional Communication: A Rhetorical Approach (open textbook) by Rebekah Bennetch, Corey Owen, and Zachary Keesey.

Level of Support: Cohort Support

Highlights:

As the College of Education was preparing to launch a new fully-online Health Professions Education (HPE) program, which consisted of a Masters of Education (M.Ed) and two related graduate certificate programs, program administrators reached out looking for help from our team to create a “common look and feel” throughout the program, and assistance in creating a strategy for implementing longitudinal ePortfolios as an assesment strategy in the various courses.

How the GMCTL Helped:

• Developed a program-level Canvas course template and “development toolkit” which included:
  • Custom HPE images and branding, and several pages of program information (e.g., information on ePortfolio requirements that all courses would need to include);
  • Structured “module shells” for instructors to start building their actual course content;
  • Adaptable assessment elements (e.g., a rubric for grading Discussions).
• Assisted in developing a strategy for longitudinal ePortfolios which included:
  • Developing consistent requirements across all program courses, including student guidelines, a “roadmap”, and a mockup/exemplar ePortfolio that would ensure a cohesive and well-organized ePortfolio;
  • Alignment to program competencies.
• Consulted with new instructors for ongoing consistency of course design approaches.

Check it out:

• USask Health Professions Education (HPE) Template (or search “HPE Template” in Canvas Commons)

Level of Support: Collaborative Project Support

Highlights:

The College of Nursing approached us about developing the first online, asynchronous, pre-professional course delivered by the College of Nursing. With a tight (3 month) timeline, the ID team alongside a dedicated instructor developed a detailed course design plan, aligned module content/lectures, assessments, and supplementary interactive learning activities and review materials.  

How the GMCTL Helped:

• Met with the subject matter expert (SME) on a weekly basis to discuss progress, solve problems, and iterate on course content and assessments.
• Developed a project timeline and managed project to ensure timely delivery of course content.
• Collaborated to develop Course Design Plan, and revised instructor module content, including developing interactive activities for learners to apply module skills and knowledge, chunking content into digestible pieces.
• Collaborated on assessments.
• Built module content into Canvas.
• Provided Copyright support.
• Provided technical support once course was live.
• Offered support to college in navigating administrative processes around off campus class builds and delivery.

Check it out:

• Image Pair Activity
• Image Hotspot Activity
• Glossary Example
• 3D model (embedded in the course for student use)