Hello everyone! Tim here.
Christian asked me to write the intro for this newsletter. So, here we go…
Is it just me, or are you also losing track of time? We are already approaching the one-year anniversary of moving to remote learning due to the pandemic.
I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating: THANK YOU for all you have done, and continue to do, for our students. Being an educator has never been more important than right now. Our collective perseverance is critical to our society. While I am optimistic the situation will improve in the coming months, I hope we can continue to encourage each other — personally and professionally.
I am so impressed with the work of the ADC and their collaborative work with departments across Mount Royal to not just survive, but thrive during these challenging times. I’ve looked at the resources offered and am pleased to see the programming ranges from on-demand video tutorials, Blackboard and technical support from the Sandbox, to individual consultations for curriculum, web design, academic media and eLearning. They’ve done a stellar job of helping to address faculty needs.
I look forward to learning more about the teaching innovations and experiments, and learning leaps that have taken place over this past year and beyond. We will gather virtually to honour those at the upcoming Celebrate! Teaching and Learning event. This celebration will take place May 5 – 7 and I hope to “see” many of you there.
In closing, I’m so impressed with all of your individual and collective efforts. Our goal is to provide students with an education that has academic merit and an experience focused on personal growth. That we are enabling these transformative opportunities — even during a pandemic — should make all of you very proud. Thank you all, stay well, and I hope to see you in the hallways of MRU very soon!
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Upcoming Event Announcement!
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Celebrate! Teaching & Learning at MRU:
Save the Date(s) & Call for Proposals
The Mount Royal University Celebration of Teaching and Learning will take place May 5 - 7, 2021. This year, we will host this grand celebration virtually.
We invite faculty, students, staff, and administrators to celebrate teaching
and learning at MRU by proposing a spark talk, roundtable, individual, or collaborative presentation.
Think about your best and worst moments in teaching and learning: what have
you learned, how have you expanded your horizons, and where were you able to take some risks? We welcome a diversity of presentation ideas that share the highlights and milestones of your teaching and learning journey – both inside and outside the classroom.
The deadline for proposals is March 25, 2021 at 4pm.
Click here for details and submission form.
For more information, please visit http://mru.ca/celebrate
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All ADC workshops in this semester are offered virtually. You will be provided with a Google Meet link and any other instructions needed for your session with your registration confirmation, or by email prior to the session start time. Please see the list of workshops below. You can always visit our current list of upcoming workshops. (See also: calendar view)
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ADC Series: The Higher Education Podcast Listening Experience
 Are you interested in an audio-based PD opportunity away from your screen? In this series, we will explore timely concepts and ideas in higher education through the latest teaching and learning podcast episodes. Join us for one, some, or all of this new ADC series, the higher education podcast listening experience! For each session in the series, participants will listen to a selected podcast episode, then discuss key concepts synchronously via audio in Google Meet.
March Episode: "Distracted", with James Lang
Facilitator: Erika Smith
Register for each session separately:
Fridays, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm:
March 12: Read more + Register
April 9: Read more + Register
May 14: Read more + Register
June 11: Read more + Register
Photo by Free To Use Sounds on Unsplash
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ADC Lunch and Learn:
Helping Students Connect Ideas Through Concept Mapping
 Research shows that concept mapping can help students to build deep connections between ideas. In this Lunch and Learn, participants will discuss evidence-based approaches to concept mapping as a formative or summative learning activity, and explore digital tools that can be used for concept maps.
Facilitator: Erika Smith
When: Tuesday, March 30, 12:00 – 1:00 pm
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Diving Deeper into UDL Series
 Join us for the final installment of a series designed to increase your comfort with Universal Design for Learning.
Upcoming session:
UDL for All Sorts of Assessment (March 30)
For many instructors attempting to implement UDL practices into their teaching, assessment is the biggest challenge. We’ll explore questions such as: How can we offer multiple means of assessment while maintaining integrity of the assignments? How do we design grading rubrics to accommodate different assignment types?
Facilitators: Janalee Morris (Accessibility Services)
and Andrea Phillipson (ADC)
When: Session 3: UDL for All sorts of Assessment
Tuesday, March 30, 10:00 - 11:00 am -- Read more & Register
Photo by Pexels from Pixabay
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Series: Winter Academic Writing Group
 Turn hump day into the “write” day to keep your scholarship on track! During each 3-hour writing session, the first 30 minutes will be dedicated to an online, synchronous peer discussion. In the remaining time, participants will write in a location of their choice, and will have the opportunity to book a consultation with a writing specialist.
Facilitator: Andrea Phillipson
When: Wednesdays, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm, January 20 - Apr 21
Join anytime until April 20
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Updates from the Mokakiiks Centre for SoTL
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Follow us on Twitter @MC_SoTL
New Journal
We are thrilled to announce the publication of our inaugural issue of Imagining SoTL: Selections from the Banff Symposium. Please help us by sharing with your networks.
This open access, peer-reviewed journal includes ten articles representing 26 authors, including seven undergraduate co-authors. These full papers (and one podcast) were developed from presentations given at the 2019 Banff Symposium for SoTL.
Call for Symposium Committee Members
We are now in the planning process for the 2021 Banff Symposium for SoTL in November, and are looking for some great minds and willing hands to contribute to the academic planning committee. Please email Michelle Yeo, myeo@mtroyal.ca if you are interested.
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Ethics 101 Workshop for Winter 2021
This session considers principles of “Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans” as required by the Canadian Tri-Council Policy Statement and assist researchers planning to apply for Ethics Clearance from Mount Royal’s Human Research Ethics Board (HREB).
Please contact the ADC if you have any questions about registration or
Priscilla Wamucii at hreb@mtroyal.ca if you have questions about the workshop.
Facilitator: HREB Chair
When: Monday, March 29, 1:00 - 2:00 pm -- Register
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Office of Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement
Spring 2021 Events
Facilitator: Yvonne Kjorlien, Grants and Research Facilitator, ORSCE
Find workshop details here: ORSCE Spring 2021 Events PDF
Planning your Scholarship Program
When: Monday, April 19, 12:00 – 2:00 pm -- Read more + Register
Overview of the Funding Landscape
When: Wednesday, April 21, 12:00 - 2:00 pm -- Read more + Register
Elements of Success: Grant Writing across Funding Agencies
When: Friday, April 23, 12:00 - 2:00 pm -- Read more + Register
Behind the Curtain of Federal Grants Adjudication Committees
SSHRC: Monday, April 26, 12:00 - 1:30 pm -- Read more + Register
NSERC: Monday, April 26, 2:00 - 3:30 pm -- Read more + Register
NFRF: Wednesday, April 28, 12:00 - 1:30 pm -- Read more + Register
EDI in a Research Environment
When: Tuesday, May 4, 12:00 - 2:00 pm -- Read more + Register
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Technical Issues & Solutions
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Are You Having 'Ask to Join' Issues in Google Meet?
Google is constantly introducing new improvements to Google Meet. Two of the newer changes to Meet are creating an issue for users at MRU: 'End Meeting for All' and 'Quick Access'. For those of you experiencing this issue we have provided a support video below.
The issue is, if you 'End Meeting for All' the Quick Access control automatically becomes turned off. This results in all attendees having to ask to join the Meet for the next meeting. To correct this, you will have to go into the meeting settings and under Host Controls enable Quick Access to allow MRU attendees to join the meeting automatically.
If you are the host and you receive an 'ask to join' button from Meet, you must go back to your MRU calendar to generate a new meeting link to be posted in Bb. This is outlined in the following video link: Fix needing to ask permission to join Google Meet problem
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Alt Text for PowerPoint Presentations
Alternative text (alt text), also known as an alt attribute, describes digital visuals such as images, diagrams, graphs, etc. This invisible text is read aloud by screen readers for users with visual impairments. Although alt text is generally used for web pages, you can add it to your PowerPoint presentations to improve accessibility and learners’ experience.
HOW TO WRITE ALT TEXT FOR POWERPOINT
- Describe the image in 1–2 concise sentences.
- Avoid words such as “image/picture of” for image files (.jpg, .png, etc.) since screen readers always declare images.
- Express the purpose, meaning or impression of the image in the context of your content.
- Check “Mark as decorative” for images that don’t present information (e.g. borders, images for visual interest, images with adjacent content/captions already describing them).
- Test your alt text by deleting the image from your slide and replacing it with your alt text. Does your content still make sense?
 EXAMPLE 1 — Context:
Setting goals and accomplishing them
Original alt text: A picture of a runner
Better alt text: An elated runner with open arms and thumbs up in victory after crossing the finish line of a race.
EXAMPLE 2 — Context:
Selecting flavours of ice cream to buy for a party
Original alt text: Chart showing preferred ice cream flavours
Better alt text: Bar chart showing what three flavours of ice cream people preferred. More people chose chocolate, then strawberry, and lastly vanilla.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Photo by RUN 4 FFWPU from Pexels
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Digitizing the Past with the Academic Media Group
How do you teach Anthropology remotely given that students often are working with physical artifacts and human remains in the classroom? This was the question lab instructor Milan Gillespie was asking himself while preparing online delivery for both ANTH2102 - Methods in Biological Anthropology and ANTH2104 - Methods in Archeology.
Students needed a three dimensional view of the structures and concepts of the artifacts they would normally be working with in the classroom, and so to help bring the artifacts to the students via digital means, Milan reached out to the Academic Media Group (AMG).
Work on digitizing the course content began in September 2020 when Milan delivered the first of the artifacts to be recorded. Over the course of the semester AMG had an assortment of unique artifacts in the recording studio ranging from Neanderthal skulls, chimpanzee bones, human remains, ancient pottery, stone tools and more.
Employing both photography and video recording, AMG created 139 videos that captured a variety of angles needed for students to remotely work with the artifacts for their studies. AMG used motion control devices that allowed repeatable movements of the artifacts that were useful in the creation of comparison videos, such as one example comparing Neanderthal and human skulls.
  A crucial learning point for students is their ability to identify the smallest details that could be found in broken pottery, such as if an artifact had been heat treated in a kiln. To capture distinctive characteristics like this, AMG utilized specialized macro lenses to magnify and film the patterns left centuries before when the artifacts were made.
Regarding his experience working with the AMG, Milan noted, “...AMG were responsive to timelines and were easy to approach and work with", and that students appreciated the quality and high resolution of the imagery.
The Academic Media Group is available to help all faculty with the creation of teaching & learning media content to enhance their curriculum. For more information, please contact adc-media@mtroyal.ca
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