Improving The Student Experience in ANGEL
QuickTricks for Improving The Student Experience in ANGEL
Compiled by the Instructional Design Team Monroe Community College - Instructional Design Team |1 Photo courtesy of David Maiolo
QuickTricks PROBLEM: Students (especially those that have not taken an online course before) can get lost in ANGEL.
ACCOUNTABILITY: STUDENT EXPECTATIONS
SOLUTION: Implement some (or all) of the following tips. Don’t “Greenslip” too late: Research and experience shows that students who start late in an online course are less likely to be successful. Accordingly, students cannot register for a fully online course during the typical drop/add period at MCC without the permission of the professor. Provide clear instructions for submitting homework: Math courses often require students to submit handwritten assignments electronically. Talk to the faculty who teach online courses, and see what mechanism works the best. Some ideas include : Submit assignments by scanning them and compiling into a PDF Take pictures of work with a tablet or phone, and submit as a JPG Use software on a tablet to annotate on a PDF, and submit the file Provide instructions for using the Equation Editor in ANGEL: If the Equation Editor is an integral part of the course, then provide clear instructions on how to use it. The official ANGEL manual has a link at: http://help.angellearning.com/800/docs/iref1/working_with_the_equation_editor.htm Clarify different venues for students to get help: There are multiple arenas for student support - aggregate them all into one page, and provide helpful descriptions and hyperlinks. The Student Technology HelpDesk can troubleshoot problems like logging on and various other tech support The Student Guide to Using ANGEL is an amazing resource for first time ANGEL users The Suny Learning Network HelpDesk provides phone and email support for ANGEL issues rd Students can contact 3 party support (like Pearson) for help with specific products. Furnish navigation directions: Leverage Announcements, Course Mail, and MCC e-mail to inform students where to start in ANGEL; some students may be taking an online course for the first time. Students will need to know where to find the course materials (Learning Modules tab), as well as how to ask questions. Be specific, and frame the instructions such that an inexperienced user could follow them. Also provide clear instructions for students to use any other software (Pearson, for instance), as well as clear login information. Stress the difference between the two (“ANGEL will be for notes, MyMathLab will be for homework”). See the section on ENTRANCE SURVEY for ideas of how to implement an online agreement for course responsibilities. Students generally prefer some handwriting: Not surprisingly, when posting answer keys or solutions, students prefer some element of human handwriting - it humanizes the course and breathes life into the sometimes sterile online experience. 2 | Monroe Community College - Instructional Design Team
Improving The Student Experience in ANGEL PROBLEM: It is difficult to get students to read (and acknowledge!) an agreement about expectations. SOLUTION: Develop an agreement for the students. This agreement is a gateway, and restricts access to the rest of the course.
Step 2: Decide which content is to be restricted. In this example, a student logging in for the first time will see only the agreement. They will have to agree to the conditions; after a successful submission, access to all the other content will be permitted. In this figure, all the content that is highlighted exists, but is only available to students on the “Acknowledged” team. The following step illustrates how to restrict access based on teams; make sure all content that should only be seen once the agreement is submitted is team-restricted.
STEP 1: Go to the MANAGE tab and choose “Teams”. Add a new team, and name it something obvious like “Acknowledged”. The intention is that after the acknowledgement has been submitted by the student, they will automatically be enrolled onto this team. Only students on this team will have access to the rest of the course. Do not enroll them manually, they will be enrolled automatically after they submit the acknowledgement. For help creating a Team, contact an instructional designer or the ANGEL User’s Guide.
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ACCOUNTABILITY: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
How To:
ACCOUNTABILITY: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (CONT’D)
QuickTricks
STEP 4: Develop the acknowledgement. In this example, the acknowledgement is really just an assessment with multiple choice questions - there is only one choice. The assessment is configured so that feedback is not given (although it could be). Furthermore, instructors might find value in having a “No” choice, too. This would provide valuable feedback about what components of an online course are not favorable. Configure the assessment to have multiple attempts (by default, there is only one attempt). Step 5 demonstrates how to enroll a student who submits (and scores a grade of 100) onto the “Acknowledged” team automatically, thus granting access to the rest of the course. Design the assessment such that the questions are customized to the unique problems students typically face in each course; the above example is fairly generic. STEP 5: Go to the “Automate” tab in the “Settings” of the assessment. Click on the “Action Editor”. STEP 3: To restrict content to a specific team, go to the “Settings” under the specific content, and click on the “Access” tab. If teams have already been created, choose “Team Access” and select the team “Acknowledged”. This restricts access to the content to only students enrolled in the team
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Improving The Student Experience in ANGEL STEP 8: Type in the team name in the “Team(s)” field - be sure to spell it correctly. Choose the method for the event to be triggered. In this case, the student will be enrolled on the “Acknowledged” team if they get a grade of 100. Other options include “SUBMIT”, which would enroll the student simply for submitting the assessment. Click on the “Save” button at the bottom (not pictured) to save the changes here.
STEP 7: Click on “Team Enroll”.
STEP 9: Click on the “Save” button at the top of the screen to save the action. If done properly, any student who earns a 100 on the assessment will automatically be enrolled in the “Acknowledged” team. Be sure to test this out (from the student view).
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ACCOUNTABILITY: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (CONT’D)
STEP 6: Click on “New”.
QuickTricks PROBLEM: It is easy for students to “slip through the cracks” (not logging in to ANGEL, not turning in assignments, etc.).
ACCOUNTABILITY: WhoDunIt REPORTS
SOLUTION: Use the WhoDunIt report to generate a list of who is not participating, and then send an email to both their Course Mail in ANGEL as well as their MCC email.
How To:
STEP 5: Click the “Send Mail” button.
Ghidiu, David (201320 TRS-094-183 Pre Algebra (Non-Credit)* - 183);
Bueller, Ferris; Falfa, Bob; George, Regina; McFly, Marty; Rizzo, Betty; Spicoli, Jeff; Standish, Claire; Stark, James
STEP 3: Once all fields have been selected, generate the report. Note that the “Table” view is much more revealing than the “Chart” view, and the “Drill Down” view is the most informational (although it is not an option for some report configurations). STEP 1: Go to the REPORT tab and use the dropdown under “Category” to choose “WhoDunIt”.
STEP 6: Type the message, and be sure to check the “Send a copy to each recipient’s Internet e-mail”. This ensures that the message will be sent to both the Course Mail in ANGEL and the associated MCC email address.
STEP 2: Under the “Report” field, choose the appropriate report to run. Note that options change, based on the context of this report (for example, choosing “Forum Posts” creates another field where the list of Discussion Forums is displayed). Ensure all proper fields have selections.
STEP 4: The generated list displays (in this case) how many days ago each student logged on to ANGEL. Where “No Data” appears, that indicates the student has not logged on to ANGEL yet.
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Improving The Student Experience in ANGEL PROBLEM: Statistics for content access is (by default) not kept. SOLUTION: Change “User Tracking” to “Everyone”.
tanderson@welton.edu fbueller@johnhugheshigh.edu ndynamite@mtv.edu bfalfa@dicefromthemirror.com rgeorge@payback.com whunting@mit.edu mmcfly@outtatime.com brizzo@carrace.com
STEP 2: To review a list of students who have accessed the content, click on “Reports”.
bsimpson@springfield.edu jspicoli@ridgemont.edu cstandish@johnhugheshigh.edu jstark@rebel.com wtepper@regishigh.edu
dghidiu@monroecc.edu fbueller@johnhugheshigh.edu ndynamite@mtv.edu bfalfa@dicefromthemirror.com
STEP 3: There are two different reports. The “Activity Summary” displays, per user, how many times they have each accessed the content.
dghidiu@monroecc.edu wtepper@regishigh.edu dghidiu@monroecc.edu dghidiu@monroecc.edu mmcfly@outtatime.com brizzo@carrace.com bsimpson@springfield.edu whunting@mit.edu jspicoli@ridgemont.edu
STEP 1: Go to the “Settings” of any content (folders, pages, Discussion Forums, etc.). On the “Access” tab, change the “User Tracking” from “Disabled” to “Everyone”. This will ensure that metrics are taken for all people on the roster. Note that if Tracking is enabled for a folder, it is possible to cascade that setting to all content in that folder (for instance, if the “Unit I” folder has tracking enabled, make sure that “Tracking” in the “Cascade Settings” field is checked, and all content in the “Unit I” folder will inherit the “Tracking” configuration.
Alternatively, the “Activity Detail” shows a chronological list of when the content was accessed, and by whom. Note that in this report, it is possible that a student will be listed several times. By clicking on “Login Name”, the list can be alphabetized.
rgeorge@payback.com tanderson@welton.edu bfalfa@dicefromthemirror.com cstandish@johnhugheshigh.edu jstark@rebel.com dghidiu@monroecc.edu dghidiu@monroecc.edu jspicoli@ridgemont.edu wtepper@regishigh.edu wtepper@regishigh.edu wtepper@regishigh.edu dghidiu@monroecc.edu
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ACCOUNTABILITY: TRACKING
How To:
QuickTricks PROBLEM: ANGEL displays grades alphabetically; it would be nice to have them sorted numerically.
ACCOUNTABILITY: SORT REPORT DATA
SOLUTION: Click on any column title to organize by that field.
How To: STEP 1: ANGEL has the ability to sort most reports and grades by multiple fields. By default, most reports are sorted alphabetically. However, by clicking on any column header, the data will be organized (in ascending order) by that field. Clicking on that same header again will reorganize the data (in descending order). This is true in the Gradebook view (as shown), but also in the Submission view, Report view, and most other views.
Anderson, Todd (tanders... Bueller, Ferris (fbueller@... Dynamite, Napolean (nd... Falfa, Bob (bfalfa@dicef...
tanderson@welton.edu
George, Regina (rgeorg... Hunting, William (whunt...
fbueller@johnhugheshigh.edu
McFly, Marty (mmcfly@...
bfalfa@dicefromthemirror.com
Rizzo, Betty (brizzo@ca...
rgeorge@payback.com
Simpson, Bart (bsimpso...
whunting@mit.edu
Spicola, Jeff (jspicola@...
mmcfly@outtatime.com
Standish, Claire (cstand... Stark, Jim (jstark@rebel...
brizzo@carrace.com
Tepper, William (wteppe...
ndynamite@mtv.edu
bsimpson@springfield.edu jspicoli@ridgemont.edu cstandish@johnhugheshigh.edu jstark@rebel.com wtepper@regishigh.edu
Anderson, Todd (tanderson@welton.edu) Bueller, Ferris (fbueller@johnhugheshigh.edu) Dynamite, Napolean (ndynamite@mtv.edu) Falfa, Bob (bfalfa@dicefromthemirror.com) George, Regina (rgeorge@payback.com) Hunting, William (whunting@mit.edu)
Hunting, William (whunt...
Rizzo, Betty (brizzo@carrace.com)
Standish, Claire (cstand...
Tepper, William (wtepper@regishigh.edu)
Tepper, William (wteppe...
Standish, Claire (cstandish@johnhugheshigh.edu) Anderson, Todd (tanderson@welton.edu) McFly, Marty (mmcfly@outtatime.com) Spicoli, Jeff (jspicoli@ridgemont.edu)
Falfa, Bob (bfalfa@dicef... Bueller, Ferris (fbueller@... George, Regina (rgeorg... Rizzo, Betty (brizzo@ca...
In the above example, the table is arranged alphabetically. By clicking on “Total Posts� twice, the table now lists students in descending order based on the number of posts.
McFly, Marty (mmcfly@... Dynamite, Napolean (nd... Simpson, Bart (bsimpso... Stark, Jim (jstark@rebel... Anderson, Todd (tanders... Spicola, Jeff (jspicola@...
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Improving The Student Experience in ANGEL PROBLEM: The default icons in ANGEL are very similar (and somewhat difficult to distinguish) SOLUTION: Change the icons to be more descriptive
How To:
STEP 3: Click on the “Icons” tab.
STEP 4: Click on “Large” icon.
STEP 5: Click on the “File” icon.
STEP 6: Choose the appropriate icon.
STEP 2: Click on the “Browse” button next to the “Icon URL field”.
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AESTHETICS: CHANGING ICONS
STEP 1: Identify the content that needs a new icon, and then select the “Settings” option. The above figure shows the icon before it has been changed, and then after it has been changed.
QuickTricks PROBLEM: The ANGEL interface does not have a built-in mechanism for adding white space or organizing information.
AESTHETICS: SECTION HEADER
SOLUTION: Implement “Section Headers”.
How To:
What the student sees.
STEP 1: Add new content, and select “Section Heading”. STEP 2: Edit the content as you would a page (or folder, or Assessment, etc.). In this example, there is a table with a graphic and links to other sites. It is possible to embed YouTube videos right here (or slideshows, or graphics, or Twitter feeds, or just plain text.
Note that this is the representation for a “Section Header”, although students will never see it. This just makes it possible for the instructor to see that there is a section header.
What the faculty sees.
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The intent of using a Section Header is to break apart the content in the screen (either by topic or content type). However, oftentimes the Section Header is also used to add content that instructors want to make available to the student (but the content may not warrant a dedicated page).
Improving The Student Experience in ANGEL PROBLEM: Sometimes content is too cluttered - it would be nice to have white space between pieces of content. SOLUTION: Implement the HTML <br> tag in the subtitle.
How To:
STEP 1: HTML is not a difficult language to learn, and there are some very simple commands that can be used without a deep understanding of the entire language. ANGEL will recognize HTML tags as long as they are placed within the typical HTML brackets (use the “<“ and “>“ brackets). Normally, ANGEL will only accept the brackets when in “source” mode. However, ANGEL will happily accept HTML tags in the “Title” and “Subtitle” fields for content.
Three <br> tags will insert this amount of space. Note that the tags directly follow the text.
By implementing line breaks in the “Subtitle” field, content can be broken apart easily. In this example, three line breaks have been inserted after Practice Test I [KEY] and Practice Test II [KEY]. This naturally breaks the content into logical groupings.
In this case, the tags are all that appear - there is no other text in the subtitle. This will just insert spaces.
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AESTHETICS: BLANK SPACES
Use the <br> tag to insert a space. The <br> tag simply means “line break”. So by using two or three of them in a row, ANGEL will show two or three line breaks. Note that the tags can follow regular text (as in the first example), or can be standalone.
QuickTricks PROBLEM: Not adopting organizational conventions, and failure to have a standardized hierarchical scheme can lead to student confusion. Unnecessary embellishments can add to student confusion, as well.
AESTHETICS: TIMBRE MATCHING
SOLUTION: Employ “timbre matching”. While timbre matching is a term typically reserved for true audiophiles (it refers to the desire to have all speakers in a surround-sound system tonally equivalent), a similar concept of having all modules adhering to the same organizational plan can add an inherently intuitive feel to the course. Don’t go overboard with formatting: Just because the technology exists does not mean it needs to be used. Adding unnecessary fonts, text decorations, colors, or clipart can be distracting. Use of a clean, simple, and intuitive structure will help prevent ambiguity and visual overload Don’t go overboard with custom icons: While it is possible to insert any graphic as an icon, use only universally recognized icons (and icons that logically describe the content). For instance, having a “Coca-Cola” icon for a folder - while neat to look at - is not descriptive of the content. Replacing the standard “Page” icon in ANGEL with a “PDF” icon to represent a PDF file adequately prepares the student to download (or view) a PDF. Decide which model of organization to adopt - and stay with it: There are a few popular modalities for organizing content:
TASK BASED Content is organized by tasks (class notes, assessments, assignments, etc.)
CHRONOLOGICAL Content is organized by week (or day). All relevant content is put into folders for each week.
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TOPICAL Content is organized by logical units (typically culminating with an assessment). In this model, oftentimes instructors will have further nesting in each folder. Each Unit folder will have a folder for notes, discussions, etc.
Improving The Student Experience in ANGEL Copy and paste a “skeleton” version: Once a content/folder scheme is established, make a generic nested folder “skeleton”. Keep it hidden. When it is time to add a new module, copy this model and then populate it with content.
This practice applies to punctuation, too. Ensure there is a common method for writing dates as well as punctuation. Due Nov. 8 Due December 6 th Due January 24 Due 2/9/2013 Look through the student lens: Instructors who design their course typically have a solid understanding of the content flow and organization. Once the course is designed, try to navigate through the course with a fresh eye; try to follow the flow of the course as a student. Have another faculty member (or friend) navigate through the course. Apply the Course Quality Review rubric to the course. Welcome student input once the course has started. Additionally, frequently look at the course using the “Student” profile to ensure it appears as it should. Link to content: Oftentimes, courses will have statements like, “Consult the course syllabus for details”. Instead of merely writing this, link to the content (see “Internal Links”, page 17). Use HTML code in subtitles, not titles: On page 11, HTML code is used to create blank spaces. There are other reasons to use HTML code, but don’t use it in the “Title” field on a piece of content. While it will render appropriately in most places in ANGEL, the “breadcrumb trail” will not parse the HTML code properly.
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AESTHETICS: BLANK SPACES
Use naming conventions: When naming files, content, folders, and other artifacts in ANGEL, use the same naming convention. For instance, the following names for each of the following modules (assume they are all units of study) are descriptive, but matching: UNIT I: Introduction Chapter 2: Derivatives Lesson 3: Applications of the Derivative Ch. #4: The Chain Rule Ch 05 Integrals #6 - Exponents and Logarithms
QuickTricks EASE OF USE: UNIQUE MESSAGE FORMATTING
PROBLEM: New ANGEL students may not know how to navigate through ANGEL. SOLUTION: Insert a link to the “Student Guide to Using ANGEL” into the course.
How To: STEP 3: All of the boxes default to being checked. If you have a compelling reason to uncheck them, then do so.
STEP 1: Navigate to the location where the Student Guide to Using ANGEL will be inserted. Click on “Add Content” from the menu at the top of the screen, and choose “Import from Learning Object Repository”.
STEP 4: Verify that they link has been installed in ANGEL. Note that it may not appear at the top or bottom of the existing content; the link may be anywhere on the page. Go to “REARRANGE” to change that.
STEP 2: Navigate to the location where the Student Guide to Using ANGEL will be inserted. Click on “Add Content” from the menu at the top of the screen, and choose “Import from Learning Object Repository”.
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Improving The Student Experience in ANGEL PROBLEM: Students enrolled in multiple courses that use ANGEL may have a hard time distinguishing which Announcements and Course Mail messages originate from which class.
How To:
STEP 2: When a student logs in to ANGEL and sees all the announcements aggregated in their main page Announcements Nugget, the custom formatted Announcement should be easily identifiable.
WELCOME! Welcome to EDU-208! I look forward to meeting you all on Monday, January 28th. For our first day of class, we will be reviewing the syllabus for the class, objectives for the semester, and we will start to get to know each other. For the first class, please plan on sharing one of your most treasured moments in education. It can be something you experienced, something you witnessed, something one of your friends went through, or something completely fabricated. Enjoy the rest of your break, and see you soon!
________________ Dave Ghidiu EDU-208 STEP 1: Create a boilerplate for every Announcement. Be creative and unique. In this example, the Announcement is actually a table (1 column by 1 row). The cell is filled in yellow, and the first word is a bigger type and in bold. The table has a rather thick border, and has some extra space at the end. There is a “signature” which clarifies precisely which course the Announcement was generated from, and also who the instructor is. The hope is that students will become accustomed to this template, and be able to distinguish it on sight. When creating the next Announcement, go into the editor and open up the Announcement that has already been customized. Select everything (by clicking and dragging with the mouse, and copy it. Leave this Announcement unchanged (it’s important to preserve the history!) and add a new Announcement. Paste in the contents, and alter as necessary. Consider copying the entire Announcement and pasting it into the body of a Course Mail. Send this to both the Course Mail (ANGEL) and MCC email addresses of students.
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EASE OF USE: UNIQUE MESSAGE FORMATTING
SOLUTION: Design a unique format, and implement it consistently. This can be used in Course Mail messages, too.
QuickTricks PROBLEM: Despite a well designed course, it may be inconvenient for a student to navigate to a centralized document that lists assignment due dates, a syllabus, or other important information..
ACCESSIBILITY: INTERNAL LINKS
SOLUTION: Add a link (perhaps even one that opens in another tab or window) to each folder description, so the student can see it from whichever folder they are in. In this scenario, if a student follows the path UNIT I: Review Chapter 1: Whole Numbers List of Homework Assignments and wants to see the “Homework Due Dates” page in the “Course Information” folder, they will have to do an awful lot of unnecessary navigation. To alleviate this, create a link in the “Settings” part of the folder where the homework assignments reside. This will allow the student to click on the link and open up another tab or window in their browser so that they can concurrently view the due dates and the assignments.
Clicking on the “here” link will pop open another window or tab with the Course Assignments page. Not only is this convenient for the student, but they also remain in their present location in the course.
Despite well design, students cannot easily navigate from a nested folder to another location in the course.
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Improving The Student Experience in ANGEL
How To:
STEP 6: Choose “New Window” so that when the link appears, it appears in a new window (as opposed to the window or tab where the student is when they click on the link).
STEP 4: Make sure the “Map” tab is selected, and navigate to the page where the link resides. Note that clicking a “+” sign will reveal nested layers. Clicking on the location in the screen above will create the link. STEP 2: Type the text into the “Page Text” box, and highlight the text that will become a link. If you cannot see the text editing toolbar, click on the small, black triangle under the words “Page Text”.
STEP 3: Click on the “Content Link” icon.
STEP 7: Test the link to make sure it functions properly.
STEP 5: Right click on the link, and choose “Edit Link”.
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ACCESSIBILITY: INTERNAL LINKS
STEP 1: Click on “Settings”.
QuickTricks ACCESSIBILITY: EMBEDDING VIDEOS
PROBLEM: There is a way to embed videos into ANGEL already (using the “Google Media Tool”, but sometimes videos can not be found on YouTube or there is a need to embed the video using HTML code. Some videos, such as Khan Academy videos, have a “wrapper” which makes the video interactive; embedding using the “Google Media Tool” just doesn’t capture that interactivity. SOLUTION: Most videos - Khan Academy for instance - have the HTML code already generated.
How To: STEP 1: Go to the text editor where the video should appear (most likely, this would be in a “Page”, but could easily be in a “Folder” or “Assessment” text box.
STEP 3: Engage the “HTML” (also known as “Source”). Paste the code into this editor, under the code for the body of the text. Note that the HTML code <p>&nbsp</p> means that there will be a space between the paragraph before it and any code that is inserted after it.
STEP 2: In another tab or window, browse to a video to embed (in this case, from Khan Academy). Find the “Share” button, and choose “Embed”. Highlight and copy the code; it will be pasted into ANGEL.
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Improving The Student Experience in ANGEL
STEP 5: From this view, it is possible to highlight the video to center and format it. Continue with more text underneath, if desired. Be sure to view the content through the perspective of a student to see if it renders appropriately.
Note that this step seems complicated, but it truly is not. The essence of this procedure is truly copying and pasting; nothing more.
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ACCESSIBILITY: EMBEDDING VIDEOS
STEP 4: Paste the code from the clipboard (obtained from the “Embed” feature in Step 2. By toggling the “HTML” (or “Source”) icon, the HTML code will be rendered into the actual appearance of the page. Note that the thumbnail for the embedded video may or may not appear in this view; depending on the settings, the video may appear as a large letter “f”.
QuickTricks QuickTricks
For help implementing these (and other) strategies, please contact an Instructional Designer in the Office of Online Learning. INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNERS Dave Ghidiu Mary Hallett-Brown Martha Kendall Erin Maney Monroe Community College, Rochester, NY
Compiled by the Instructional Design Team 20 | Monroe Community College - Instructional Design Team Photo courtesy of David Maiolo