Setting Up a Discussion Forum

Use forums to organize your discussion topics into categories. Your course can have multiple forums and topics, but you must create a forum before you can create a topic since all topics belong to forums.

1. On the navbar, click Communication and choose Discussions.
2. On the Discussions List page, from the New (1) button drop-down menu, click New Forum (2).
   
3. Enter a title (1) for your new forum.
4. Enter a description (2) for your new forum. The Description can be used to give any extra information you may have about this forum or the topics within.  You can include rules of conduct, how and if this forum will be assessed, or general information about the forum.
5. In the Options (3) section, select any of the following check boxes:

   Allow anonymous posts – Selecting this option allows users to post anonymously to topics created within this forum. Anonymous posts display with the author “Anonymous” in the thread.

   NOTE:  It may be a good idea to also include the option “A moderator must approve individual posts before they display in the forum” when using anonymous posts.

   A moderator must approve individual posts before they display in the forum – Selecting this option will require a moderator to approve posts to topics created within this forum before they display to users.

   Users must start a thread before they can read and reply to other threads in each topic – Selecting this option will require a user to start a new thread in a topic before viewing or replying to other threads in that topic in the forum. If this forum requires post approval, users will not be able to view or reply to other threads until their thread is approved. This option prevents students from being influenced by each other’s initial posts.  It also is a great way to spearhead engagement as it forces each student to initiate a thread rather than simply replying to other student’s initial posts.

   Display forum descriptions in topics – To provide instructors the option to display a discussion forum description within a discussion topic description.

6. Availability – Visibility – The options under visibility control if and when the student can view the forum and all the topics and threads below it.  Often instructors will allow a forum to always be visible and control access with the “Locking Options”.
7. Locking Options – Locking a forum will maintain the visibility of the forum, topics and threads, but remove access from the students to create new posts and replies.  This can be used to archive a past forum maintaining visibility, or to allow a preview of an upcoming forum.
8. Restrictions (Tab near the top of screen) – Here you can apply release conditions, or restrict the forum to a group when you are using the groups tool.  NOTE: You can create forums from the groups tool when you are setting up groups.
9. Click Save and Close.

Setup in LEARN:

Before you start to transfer your LEARN grades to Colleague first check to ensure your LEARN gradebook is setup correctly, that student grades make sense, and that you have transferred the final calculated grades to the Final Adjusted Grades column in LEARN. Click here for instructions to transfer final calculated grades to Final Adjusted Grades.

Note: Student grades do not have to be published to students to transfer them to Colleague.

Instructions:

1. Go to hub.rrc.ca and open the Class List Click Submit Grades under the course you want to transfer grades for. (Please note that Crosslisted courses for may require the child sections grades to be transferred via the original Webadvisor process. This is a temporary issue which won’t affect future deliveries.)
2. You should now see a list of students, their grade in the LEARN gradebook, and a suggested grade based on their LEARN grade. If the Suggested Grade already exists and has no drop-down option, this means that the grade has already been submitted to Colleague and can not be changed.
3. Select the checkbox beside the student’s name you wish to submit grades for, choose a grade from the drop-down list, or leave it as the default suggested value.If you select DNW or INC for a grade, you must set an expiry date for this temporary grade.To select all students in this section, check the box in the heading beside Student.
4. Once you have made all the changes you want, click Submit Grades. The number to the right of Submit Grades represents the number of students who will have grades submitted. Submitting grades can take some time.
5. Once your grades have been submitted, you should see a green success message and on closing the message, you will return to the previous screen. From here you can continue to submit grades as needed.

If changes need to be made to grades after submitting please contact your applicable Student Records Officer (SRO) through Enrolment Services.

If you encounter any issues with this process, please email LEARN support at learn@rrc.ca.

View grades and class progress

To view grades

Use the Grades tool to check your grades on assignments and tests. You can see your individual grades and comments, as well as class averages and feedback. You can also view your final grade and the grade formula used to evaluate you once your instructor releases your grades.

Grades

How do I know when my grades are available?

You can sign up to receive immediate text or email notifications when a grade item is released or updated.

Note: You must set up a contact method before subscribing to notifications.

1. From your personal menu on the minibar, click Notifications.
2. Select if you want to receive Email or SMS notifications for the option Grades – grade item released or Grades – grade item updated.
3. Click Save.

View your grades

Use the Grades tool on the navbar to check your grades on assignments and tests. You can see your individual grades, as well as the grade formula used to evaluate you. Depending on how your grades are set up, you might be able to view comments and overall class performance statistics as well.

Note: Bonus grade items are displayed without the grade formula because they are added to the final grade after other calculations and may not adhere to the established grade scheme. Therefore you can only view the numeric value and possibly the weight of a bonus grade.

Viewing Grade Item Exemptions

Learners can view the grade item exemptions in several locations in Brightspace Learning Environment. On the My Grades page, exemptions are listed in the Grade column. Points and weights that appear on the Grades page are controlled by instructors; however, the Grade column always shows exempted grade items.

How rubrics relate to your grade

Rubrics are used to assess your achievement on course activities (assignments, discussions, and quizzes), based on predefined achievement levels and assessment criteria. They help ensure that activities are evaluated fairly and consistently, and can enable you to view the grading criteria in advance of submitting activities.

Figure: Graded rubric feedback for an assignment

Rubrics are associated directly with activities, so you may have the option you to view the criteria used to assess your activity before you submit your work. However, in some cases, your instructor may choose to hide a rubric for an activity until it is graded and feedback is published. This may be done to prevent learners from using rubrics as answer keys for activities. For example, your instructor may describe assessment expectations in assignment instructions, hiding the associated preview rubric. Once the assignment is graded, your instructor releases the graded rubric as part of your assessment details.

The graded rubric for the activity includes achieved criteria, personalized feedback, and score. In some cases, the activity includes a link to the graded rubric. For example, a discussion shows instructor feedback, score, and a link to the graded rubric.

Figure: A discussion showing instructor feedback, score, and link to the graded rubric

When you are notified that your grade for an activity is released or updated, you can view the feedback from the respective tool. For example, to view assignment feedback, go to the Assignments tool.

Videos:

WebEx Requirements

1. A good quality webcam. For meetings between staff, a laptop webcam will be fine but not ideal.
2. A good quality headset that includes headphones and a microphone.
3. A decent internet connection. At least a 3G (2Mbps+) internet connection is required. The college network is ideal.
4. A quiet, well lit room.
5. Login to WebEx by going to http://redrivercollege.webex.com and using your RRC credentials. This will create your account.
6. Download the WebEx Desktop Client. Run the client to ensure that it works smoothly.
   Download the WebEx Desktop client for Windows.
   Download the WebEx Desktop Client for Mac.

In your LEARN course, click “Communication” then “WebEx”

This will take you to the LEARN WebEx integration where you can view and schedule classes.

Click “Schedule More Events”

To Schedule events in WebEx click on “Schedule more events” in the top right corner of the page.

Enter Event Details

Enter your class/event details including the name of the event, the time and duration of the event and the WebEx account you want to use. Most people will use the WebEx Meeting Center account.

Click “Schedule”

This will schedule your event so that students can see it upcoming.

Click “Host” to start your event

When the event time comes up, go to WebEx in your LEARN course and click “Host” to begin your meeting.

Students can now “Join” your event

Students can join your event/class by going to the WebEx page in their LEARN course and clicking “Join” next to the appropriate event.

Your WebEx Desktop Client will now open

You can see a list of class participants and begin your event as usual.

Close the window or click “End Meeting” when you want to end your class/event.

Viewing Recordings

Go to the WebEx link in your LEARN course and click “Event Recordings“. You can now view the recording of any past event by clicking on “View Recordings“.

The first link is the link to download the recording. The second link is the link to stream the recording online. Students have access to these recordings as well as the instructor.

1. Prepare

• Have a detailed lesson plan.
• Keep lessons short and on topic.
• Have all PowerPoints and files pre-loaded into WebEx.
  
• Load files into LEARN so students can prepare for the class.
• Prepare WebEx Poll questions and discussion topics.
• Ensure you follow the technical requirements.
• Do a practice online session with your students before a formal class.

2. Engage Your Audience

• Use your webcam to show your face.
  
• Choose when to allow students access to use their microphone or webcam and allow students to share their screens.
• Pay attention to when students “raise their hand”, say their name, and address them in chat or using a microphone.
• Use polling and interactive whiteboards.

3. Multitask

• Be aware of the chat and students raising their hands.
• Mute and un-mute students appropriately.

4. Have a Backup Plan

Let’s face it, sometimes technology fails. It’s safest to always have a backup plan for online classes.

• Record the session for students that may miss it for technical reasons.
• Post all materials, whiteboards, images, files, etc. in LEARN after the session.

For more detailed information on teaching online, click here to download the eLearning Guild’s Handbook on Synchronous Learning (PDF).

Ensuring Accessible Content

There are two ways to ensure your content is accessible: conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and involve people with disabilities in evaluating and testing your content.

Conforming to WCAG 2.0

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) are standards developed by the W3C to assist in the development of accessible digital content. There are a few ways to ensure conformance to WCAG including documentation, checklists, and testing tools.

WCAG 2.0 Documentation

The W3C provides documentation on how to conform to WCAG 2.0 but it is quite extensive and can be overwhelming for beginners.

WCAG 2.0 Checklist

WebAim provides a WCAG 2.0 checklist based on their interpretation of WCAG’s guidelines and success criteria that is easy to follow and a good place to start to learn about what is required to conform to the standard.

Machine Testing using Evaluation Tools

There are many tools that can provide automated accessibility evaluations or audits. These tools can verify conformance to WCAG 2.0 and the level of conformance (A-AAA). These tools are required to assist content developers and designers in identifying errors and providing suggestions for fixes, but they cannot tell you if your web content is actually accessible.

LEARN Accessibility Checker

LEARN has an accessibility checker built in to the HTML Editor that will identify some of the WCAG 2.0 guidelines.

How to use LEARN’s Accessibility Checker

WAVE: Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool

WebAIM’s WAVE is the easiest to use evaluation tool. WAVE is made available as a Chrome extension, a Firefox add-on or online. The online version can be used to evaluate web pages  and the browser plugins can be used to evaluate web pages and LEARN content.

Chrome Extensions

• Accessibility Developer Tools
• WCAG Accessibility Audit Developer UI
• Axe Accessibility
• Siteimprove Accessibility Checker

FireFox Add-ons

• Tota11y: Accessibility toolkit
• a11y.css

Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List

The W3C provides an extensive list of accessibility evaluation tools.

Human Testing

While WCAG conformance can go along way to assisting with making accessible content and evaluation tools can identify errors only humans can really determine whether web content is accessible. To ensure your content is accessible it is recommended that you enlist people with disabilities to test your content. People with disabilities bring their experiences and assistive technologies they use to navigate web content.

Recommended reading

Why accessibility testing with real users is so important

Tips For Conducting Usability Studies With Participants With Disabilities

For more information on scheduling meetings with WebEx, see the Getting Started with Cisco WebEx Meeting Centre Documentation.

Why Use WebEx for Meetings?

You can use WebEx to easily schedule online meetings between co-workers. WebEx runs on almost every device and can support text chat, video conferencing, screen sharing, and audio conferencing.

You can use WebEx to use a shared whiteboard, share files, and show your screen to others for troubleshooting and presentations.

With WebEx, you don’t have to travel for meetings and can conference with many people at once, saving time and money.

Create Meetings Quickly and Easily

With WebEx you have your own personal meeting room (http://redrivercollege.webex.com/meet/username) that you can start any time and can invite anyone to join. No more scheduling meetings and setting up meetings rooms, just start a meeting, invite using email, and go.

Share Your Screen

With WebEx you can share your screen with one click. Perfect for troubleshooting or sharing websites, software, and works in progress.

Share Files

Share files to participants and upload PowerPoint presentations to show within WebEx.

Easily Invite Participants

Invite participants via email or directly within Outlook with the WebEx productivity tools.

For more information on scheduling meetings with WebEx, see the Getting Started with Cisco WebEx Meeting Centre Documentation.

Inclusive Design

Inclusive Design is about putting people first. It’s about designing for the needs of people with permanent, temporary, situational, or changing disabilities — all of us really. In this webinar Henny Swan will introduce the 7 principles and how they can be used alongside standards and guidelines, to take products beyond compliance.

Presenter

Henny Swan is an Accessibility Specialist with over 12 years experience in inclusive design. She is a Senior Accessibility User Experience Specialist at The Paciello Group (TPG) and prior to that worked on cross device media player accessibility at the BBC as well as developing BBC Mobile Accessibility Standards and Guidelines.

The webinar

This webinar is relevant to anyone involved in the design and development of web content and digital environments — instructors, designers, developers, and policy makers responsible for Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA) activities.

TLTC and eTV are hosting this webinar on Wednesday, February 21 from 10:15-11:30 a.m. in eTV studio B. Register to attend this webinar.

If you are unable to attend this webinar at eTV or prefer to participate on your own you can register online.

For more information contact Jim Hounslow.