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The Badge Bandwagon: Will You Jump on Board?

By: Jennifer Rafferty
scout merit badges

You may have already unlocked your first badge here at Digital Pedagog if you read our last article, Gamification: Epic Win or Epic Fail?  Now you have the opportunity to take the next step and examine more closely one aspect of gamification that is receiving noticeable attention these days:  learning badges.
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Gamification in Education: Epic Win, or Epic Fail?

By: Kristen Bourgault


Have you ever felt that each move you made in life was part of a bigger game? These days it just may be, as a trend referred to as “gamification” has swept industries as diverse as marketing, travel, and even education. While turning everything into a game sure seems like fun, it’s not as easy as it sounds. This article will explore the trend towards gamification, as well as some of its criticism.
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Top 10 Educational Apps of 2011

By: Kristen Bourgault

The staff at Quinnipiac University Online have selected the top ten most interesting and useful educational apps for 2011. Do you have a favorite? Mention it in the comments – we’d love to hear from you!

Happy New Year from QU Online.
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Equal Access: Universal Design in Online Courses

By: Frances Rowe
asperger ribbon

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a well-known federal mandate that prohibits discrimination based on disability and helps ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to education. Making online courses accessible is part of that mandate. Today, institutions offering online courses must deal with accessibility issues when a student with a disability enrolls in a course, in other words, they have to provide accommodations. Read More »

Orientation Delivery for Remote Students: Finally a Mighty Solution

By: Dan Shpak
diagram of connectivity using polycom camera and adobe connect

The Interactive Communications (ICM) orientation was fast approaching and we needed to find an efficient and effective way to stream the orientation online for those students who were unable to attend in person.  Our original solution was to stream the orientation from a Sony Handycam through a USB video capture device into an Adobe Connect video pod. Read More »

MissOnlineLearning – How-to Videos in under 60 Seconds

By: Kim Palencia

Do you have something to say to the world?  Want to share your expertise of a subject matter with others? Have you ever considered starting your own YouTube channel?  In this article, Kim Palencia, Manager of Distance Learning Support, tells us about the inspiration behind her own YouTube channel, Miss Online Learning.

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Twitter 101: The Basics of Entering the Twittersphere

By: Jennifer Rafferty
Rocket with Twitter logo

While there are still significant research questions to be answered about the usefulness of Twitter for “tweaching”, there is no denying that the microblogging tool has come to the forefront in other arenas that are interwoven with academia. Read More »

Online School of Business Course Receives Quality Matters Seal of Approval

By: Chris Neidig
quality matters logo

Managing in a Global Economy, a course developed and taught online by Dr. Mohammad Elahee, Professor of International Business,with the support of Christopher Neidig, Instructional Designer for QU Online, recently received the Quality Matters seal of approval. This endorsement is an affirmation of excellence in online course design and novel use of pedagogies in teaching International Business.
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QU Online 10th Anniversary Celebration Goes Virtual!

By: Jennifer Rafferty

On Tuesday, October 4th, 2011, Quinnipiac University Online and the Collaborative celebrated ten years of online teaching and learning by hosting a poster showcase to highlight the innovative work of online faculty members.  QU community members and guests filled up the University Club on the York Hill campus to view fifteen posters on display and to talk more in depth with our diverse and talented online faculty.
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QU Online Celebrates 10 Years of Online Teaching & Learning

By: Jennifer Rafferty
birthdayquonline

On October 4th, 2011, QU Online and the Collaborative will sponsor an event to celebrate 10 years of online teaching and learning at Quinnipiac University.  Many of our diverse and talented faculty who teach online will come together to showcase some exciting technological and pedagogical innovations. Read More »

Faculty Innovations – Summer 2011

By: Jennifer Rafferty
fowler, pasqua, pylypiw

From left to right: Professors Susan Fowler, Ferdinand Pasqua and Harry Pylypiw

Written by the Instructional Design Team at QU Online

Another Summer Session at Quinnipiac University Online has come to a close, but there is much to report in the way of faculty innovations in summer courses this year! As a part of our annual faculty recognition at Digital Pedagog, we would like to highlight yet another set of  innovative  instructors who have implemented strategies that enhance student engagement and improve learning outcomes. Read More »

A Behind the Scenes Look at QU Online’s Latest Video Production

By: Dan Shpak
distressed student video

Almost immediately after starting full-time work for QU Online in May, I was handed the project of creating a video to assist faculty in recognizing and handling distressed students.  Tackling such a large project required planning…  A LOT of planning.

Coming Up With a Script

It was during my first week of work that I sat down with Carol Boucher, the Associate Vice President of Student Affairs, as well as a group of counselors, to explain the project and gain assistance with the content.  Read More »

QU Online Unveils “Distressed Students: What to Do” Video

By: Jennifer Rafferty
distressed student

QU Online is pleased to announce the release of a video which was produced in collaboration with Student Services and Quinnipiac Counseling Services. This thirteen minute video was developed for faculty to increase their awareness of the signs of a distressed student and to make faculty aware of the resources that are available for students struggling with stress or emotional issues.  Read More »

Play It Safe and Back Up Your Work!

By: Paul Pellegrino

We’ve all been there- that horrifying moment when something is terribly wrong with the computer. Our next thoughts are usually angry, moving towards, “Why did that happen?” and “Was that backed up?!”

It’s very important to back up your data because a hard drive crash or virus could happen to anyone, and any machine. A hard drive has a spinning disc inside of it. Heat and wear will take their toll eventually. Read More »

QU Online Welcomes New Staff Member, Dan Shpak

By: Jennifer Rafferty

Dan Shpak’s job at QU Online might be relatively new, but his presence here in our department is not.  Dan worked for QU Online as a student worker while he was completing his degree in Interactive Communications.  Fortunately for us, when he graduated in May 2011, he decided to stick around and join our team as a full-time staff member.  Dan’s interview below will fill you in on the details of his new role at QU Online.  Welcome aboard, Dan! Read More »

The Student-built Botánica:Creating Opportunities for Student Ownership of Learning in a Wiki

By: Jennifer Rafferty
makebelievecomix

Over the past year, I embarked on a journey with my students.  The journey consisted of making use of a wiki to allow students to become active learners and construct their own knowledge. 

While I did keep  Bloom’s Taxonomy and Dee Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning in mind while developing the objectives, Read More »

Authentic Assessment and the Online Student: Moving from Information Transmission to Learner Engagement

By: Brian Salerno

It is a pleasure for me to introduce our guest blogger for June 2011, Brian Salerno. 

Brian and I worked together on the instructional design team here at QU Online from 2008-2010.  Read More »

A Review of Web Conferencing Hardware

By: Krista Neuner
microphone and tripod


Considering the possibility of synchronous web conferencing for your online course?  Hardware is always a consideration when making the plunge into synchronous communication online. 

To help orient you with some hardware decisions, we have asked Distance Learning Support Specialist, Krista Neuner, to provide us with a summary of her recent hands-on experience with a few devices out there. Read More »

Mobile Apps

By: Kim Palencia

Today there are hundreds of mobile apps available at your finger tips. You use your mobile devices to chat, send e-mail, browse the web, play games, and  use mobile apps. Read More »

QU Online and the Learning Center Unveil Academic Integrity Videos for Quinnipiac University Community

By: Jennifer Rafferty
avoiding plagiarism


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Strategies for Managing Larger Online Courses

By: Frances Rowe
gummy fish

Have you found yourself with an online course of 30 students or more?Are your responses becoming delayed?
Do you notice redundancy in postings?
Do you and your students feel your voice is lost?

With the increase in the number of students who require flexible ways to take courses, more and more students are finding their way to the virtual classroom. The 2010 Sloan C Survey of Online Learning revealed that approximately 5.6 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2009, the most recent term for which national figures were available.

According to the Association for the Study of Higher Education (2006), Read More »

Presenting 7 Creative Ways to Use Adobe Presenter

By: Kristen Bourgault

Adobe Presenter is a powerful tool for delivering dynamic PowerPoint presentations via the web, allowing you to combine text, images, audio and even video! Sure it’s easy enough to use – take a PowerPoint presentation that you traditionally use in class, record your voice delivering the lecture, and Voila!, you have a presentation that can be viewed and reviewed by students wherever they are!

But traditional classroom lectures aren’t the only way to use this powerful tool. Think outside the box for a moment and dream of the vast possibilities of the types of content you want to deliver to your students. Read More »

Screen Capture in Your Online Course

By: Chris Neidig

Instructors are always looking for innovative ways to connect and teach their students. Whether the class is online or on-ground, Camtasia Studio is a perfect tool for making content more engaging. Finding a single tool that can help with lectures, grading, and incorporating videos is very difficult. So let’s take a look at Camtasia Studio and see if it can help you.

What exactly is Camtasia?

TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio is a screen capture and video production tool all in one. With Camtasia Studio you can record your screen activity as videos with narration and produce them into multiple file formats. You can choose to capture the entire screen or any section of the screen. Once you have a series of capture shots it’s just a click to start producing your final video!

Before we get into the functionality of Camtasia, let’s think about some of the reasons you might create your own screencast.  Read More »

A First Look at Web Conferencing

By: Kristen Bourgault

Continuing with our guest blogger series, Digital Pedagog proudly welcomes Kristina McElroy, Learning Technologies Designer from Lesley University. Kris is a guru when it comes to educational technology, using her education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Technology, Innovation and Education program to assist faculty with the integration of multimedia and communications tools into their on-ground and online teaching. Kris’s extensive background in visual design, photography, and video inspire confidence in even the most hesitant of faculty adopters.

What is web conferencing?
A web conference is a live online meeting. Each person sits at his or her own computer and interacts via a web application. Participants may communicate via audio, webcams, or text chat. Often there’s a whiteboard tool that allows the instructor to show PowerPoint-style slides and mark them up on the fly. Read More »

Winning Fafnir’s Gold: Teaching with Digital Game-based Fiction

By: Jennifer Rafferty

The Technology User Group at Quinnipiac University presents

Winning Fafnir’s Gold: Teaching with Digital Game-based Fiction

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Arnold Bernhard Library’s Cecilia Dalzell Stops by the Digital Pedagog!

By: Kim Palencia

Recently, I interviewed Cecilia Dalzell, the Instructional Design Librarian from the Arnold Bernhard Library, to get the latest scoop on their new live chat tool and beneficial information on the tools and resources, such as their new e-book service, ebrary, available for online faculty.

Kim : Your position at the library is a unique one, in that your position is called “Instructional Design Librarian”, may I ask what this position entails?

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5 Things You Should Add to Your Syllabus TODAY!

By: Kristen Bourgault

Most faculty know how to write a great syllabus and have been doing so for many years. But what about an online syllabus? What are the specific elements that will truly help propel your online syllabus into the realm of perfection? What are the guidelines, tips and procedures that students need to be aware of before embarking on your course? A syllabus is a blueprint to your online course; it is a contract that you make with your students outlining your expectations of their work and also their behavior. Years of teaching online has illuminated what students look for in an online syllabus. Read More »

Recap: TUG mLearning Presentation

By: Kristen Bourgault

On November 11, 2010, the Technology Users Group (TUG) and the Faculty Collaborative for Excellence in Learning and Teaching gave a presentation to faculty on mobile learning.

After a brief introduction to the concept of mobile technology in higher education, faculty, librarians, and instructional designers discussed ways in which mobile tools can be used to enhance teaching and learning. After the presentations, faculty were invited to explore the tools in hands-on breakout sessions which provided an opportunity to tray out the Flip Camera, iPads, and the iTouch. Read More »

Understanding Mashups

By: Kristen Bourgault
mashup

Photo Credit: Maurizio Storani

By Rebecca Petersen
In an effort to include a variety of voices on our blog, Digital Pedagog is happy to announce we will start having guest bloggers in 2011! We welcome our first blogger, Rebecca Petersen, Director of eLearning Resources & Professional Development for eLearning & Instructional Support at Lesley University. Rebecca is an avid adopter of innovative technology, which she uses extensively in her position assisting faculty in finding creative approaches to enhancing education through technology. She also teaches several courses in emerging technology both online and in person at various colleges around Boston. Read More »

Calling All QU Online Instructors: An Invitation to Use VoiceThread!

By: Jennifer Rafferty
voicethread logo

Last year when I was presented with the opportunity to develop an online Spanish course, I had before me the task of finding a tool that would allow my students to communicate asynchronously and record their voices for paired dialogues.  While I had researched a number of different possibilities, including learning management systems for language learners, I was not keen on the idea that my students would have to jump back and forth between two learning management systems to complete their weekly assignments.  Read More »

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