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Assignments are those pieces of seminar work which are graded by me, Prof. Redpencil (Deutsch: Herr Prof. Dr. Rotstift; français: M. le professeur Crayonrouge)

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Tasks are learning tasks, all the stuff you do in a seminar that isn't graded, but which is at the core of your learning.

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Sept 8 - Dec 7, 2020 (with a Reading Week Oct 10-18)

Asynchronous online course with some synchronous elements

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Welcome to Padlet. This page is scrollable left and right, and each column is scrollable up and down as well. If you want to enlarge any of the posts (the separate tiles), simply double click or right click on them and select "expand post." When you do that you'll see arrows that will take you to the next post, but I advise against doing that - that feature seems to randomize the order. Better just to close that post and open the next post you want to read.

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This course explores the theory and practice of online teaching and its impact on student learning. Students will assess the efficacy of different approaches, analyze online courses currently on offer in higher education, and learn about the role of technology in content delivery and community building. They’ll develop their own approaches by designing their own online course in their discipline, and they’ll contribute to an open textbook being developed during the course.

Geared to online teaching in the humanities, social sciences, and languages, this seminar will be offered online asynchronously with additional synchronous elements as agreed upon by seminar participants.

The course is modular in nature; each module will correspond to a discrete topic from one of three categories: Online Course Design; Online Teaching; Online Learning.

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By the end of the seminar, students will be able to:

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By the end of the seminar, students will be able to:

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expound current thinking informing online teaching and learning

describe and assess the thornier issues in online teaching and learning

evaluate the contextual appropriateness of online teaching and learning strategies

apply fundamental online course design approaches and skills to courses in their discipline

incorporate new media and tools into their teaching practice

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use the chat function in MS Teams to contact the instructor (as opposed to email).

to book an appointment with the instructor, use the Book an Appointment feature in MS Teams (General Channel).

I don't respond to queries on the weekends, otherwise I try to get back to you as soon as I can.

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Readings and resources will all be online and free of charge. Check each module in MS Teams to find that module's readings.

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Though there is no grade for participation in this seminar, the instructor reserves the right to deduct points from the final grade (to a maximum of 10%) for lack of engagement with the learning tasks as set out in this syllabus.

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A+ = 90-100% = outstanding!
A   = 85--89% = jolly good!
A-  = 80-84% = well done!
B+ = 75-79% = you're getting there!
B   = 70-74% = hmmmmm

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Required Syllabus Statements, University of Waterloo

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Required Syllabus Statements, University of Waterloo

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Academic integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. [Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.]

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. [Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.] A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate associate dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline. For typical penalties, check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.

Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71, Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72, Student Appeals.

Note for students with disabilities: AccessAbility Services, located in Needles Hall, Room 1401, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.

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Students observe an online course in their discipline throughout the term and prepare a set of observations based on seminar topics.

20% of seminar grade

contributions due throughout term

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Students will contribute to an open access text being developed in parallel with the seminar. Students will research in detail one of the course topics, then, collaborating with the instructor, they will develop an interview/webinar on that topic that will be added to the textbook as supplemental material on the topic at hand.

30% of seminar grade

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Students design an online course in their field, including one complete module (instructor content; third-party readings/viewings; tasks/assignments). In addition to the course design, students will provide a short essay outlining their concept, design strategy, and theoretical underpinnings of the course.

50% of seminar grade

scaffolded assignment with different checkpoints during term

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My story.

I despise the self-serving, self-aggrandizing, humblebragging autobiographical sketches that have infested the internet like a nest of mice in an old stove. So I offer instead this heartwarming tale:

I grew up on the hardscrabble earth of the Canadian prairie. My parents raised me and my four elder siblings to be God-fearin', family-lovin' folk, and we wandered about the prairies as travelling threshers, stacking hay, feeding horses, and hauling water from nearby creeks for our monthly baths. After learning my three Rs by scouring abandoned seed catalogues, I was able to enter university when a foppish city youth was foolish enough to bet his admission papers in a game of dice at a rural speakeasy. At university I surprised myself with my interest in languages, and went on to learn 14 of them. Graduate school seemed like a pleasant route to go, and that took me to the U. S. of A. where I earned an undistinguished but beautifully framed doctorate at a distinguished university.

The return to my home and native land saw me teaching at universities in the eastern and central provinces. I now spend evenings on the front porch wondering if I will ever again hear the song of the Western Meadowlark and or see the shimmer of the northern lights.

My video.

Universities nowadays do all sorts of things to attract students. This includes making promotional videos like the one on this page, though you could argue that this one defeats the purpose.

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C'est qui, James M. Skidmore? - JAMES M. SKIDMORE

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I despise the self-serving, self-aggrandizing, humblebragging autobiographical sketches that have infested the internet like a nest of mice in an old stove. So I offer instead this heartwarming tale: I grew up on the hardscrabble earth of the Canadian prairie.

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You'll learn a ton doing the following:

reading course readings and viewing course viewings

attending the synchronous webinars as time allows

participating in course discussions (asynchronous) - students will be assigned topics for which they will set questions to be discussed by seminar participants, and summarize the discussion at the end

AMENDMENT (timestamp: 2020.09.05, 12noon): in order to reduce the workload for students a little bit, the instructor will set and moderate the discussion activities; individual students will only be responsible for doing a summation at the end of the discussion (and which they can then use in their portfolio - see below)

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So here’s the thing: I'm a big believer in reflective learning, i.e. that as part of the learning process we should devote time to reflecting on our learning. To that end you are being asked to develop a learning portfolio in which you capture and reflect on the key learning moments you experience in the seminar.

You'll put your portfolio together in either Padlet or Milanote and update it throughout the term.

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Our seminar will take place in Microsoft Teams. I've chosen Teams as opposed to a regular learning management system (LMS) like UW LEARN (Brightspace), Moodle, Canvas, etc, because I find those systems very limiting when it comes to collaboration. Teams is built for workplace collaboration, and since this is a graduate seminar, I think that emphasis makes Teams more useful for us.

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Учиться, учиться, учиться!
(Learn, learn, learn!)
- Vladimir Lenin

You'll be doing a couple of things:

as with any graduate seminar, you'll be reading, reading, reading

you'll be discussing what you read with seminar colleagues via chat

you'll also be

observing an online course in your field

preparing a seminar webinar in conjunction with me

designing an undergraduate course in  your field

preparing a portfolio of your learning for an end-of-term chat with me

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A bit of this and a bit of that:

participating in all of the discussions

publishing ProfBlog, a daily blog (60 posts in total, one for each day of instruction in the term), commenting on relevant topics as they come up during the seminar

developing an open textbook alongside the seminar

coordinaring webinars on seminar topics in conjunction with seminar participants

working with each student individually on their particular projects

napping on those afternoons when I have no teaching obligations

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In putting this seminar together, I've been confronted by the sheer amount of information that I'd like to impart. This is always the way with any course; there is much more to be taught than there is time to teach.

In trying to figure out how to put it all together, I've been looking at similar courses that exist out there. They're all very good and we'll be using some of their resources in this seminar. But they also share a particular structure and approach that strike me as very didactic. These courses are put together by professional educators, and it shows: very well organized, very comprehensive, and very dry.

What is lacking in these courses is the encouragement to explore. To explore the issues that have come up in the time of COVID as universities everywhere pivot to online teaching. To explore the contexts of teaching and learning that will always trump "best practices" when it comes to deciding how to approach a particular pedagogical problem. To explore course design. To explore authentic assessments. To explore how to engage learners in the online environment.

In this seminar, we'll be exploring these contexts and issues. Along the way we'll pick up some useful tools and strategies that will make all of us, including me, better online instructors.

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Is matrix the right word?

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One feature of this seminar might take some getting used to. We'll be conducting our work out in the open. By this I mean that all work that you produce in this course (both Tasks and Assignments) is visible to all seminar participants. There are a couple of reasons for setting up the seminar in this fashion:

we all benefit when teaching is a communal and collaborative activity

teaching is about learning, and to learn about teaching we need to learn from each other

teaching is never complete, it is always a work in progress, so we don't have to be concerned that our unpolished efforts are on display

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What will you find on this page?

The Idea for the seminar

The Contexts that are the backbone of the seminar's approach

The Features - seven in total - that highlight the seminar's character + supporting materials (examples of student work, ProfBlog posts, course evaluations, etc.)

The Setup of the seminar

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Grad Seminar in Online Teaching and Learning - JAMES M. SKIDMORE

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What will you find on this page? The Idea for the seminar The Contexts that are the backbone of the seminar's approach The Features - seven in total - that highlight the seminar's character + supporting materials (examples of student work, ProfBlog posts, course evaluations, etc.)

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This workshop is a professional development opportunity focused on applying new media and tools in smart, humane ways to the learning process. It will start in week 4 and last for about six weeks. It is being developed by me and Sara Ghaffarian and is based on a professional learning resource developed by eCampusOntario. The topics of the workshop complement very nicely the topics of our seminar.

The reason for making it a separate part of the course is because we're looking for your feedback on it as a standalone workshop opportunity for graduate students.

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After you've submitted all of your work, we'll arrange a one-on-one interview of about 20-30 minutes to review the term, get your feedback on it, and to provide you with feedback on your progress and ideas.

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You can follow me on Twitter (@jamesmskidmore). I'll use the hashtag #ger615 when I tweet something of interest to our seminar.