The University Libraries team is looking at updating their workflow process for streaming films for academic courses. Below are some important questions and answers to help understand the new process and upcoming changes.
Is DU CourseMedia going away?
No, not anytime soon. We have thousands of media galleries created by faculty members that are critical for teaching particular courses. DU CourseMedia is the management and delivery mechanism for various digital content, not just films, which are driving the current concern from a copyright perspective. Any future transition to another media sharing technology will include extensive research, several meetings and clear communication to all DU CourseMedia users.
Will the Libraries remove my current films from my DU CourseMedia gallery?
No, the Libraries will not be removing your current course content without first having a discussion with you to find possible alternatives. They are analyzing the approximately 8,300 films available and working with several vendors to find ways of delivering the content through licensing. Their goal is to provide you what you need with as little disruption to your teaching as possible.
Will I still be able to request new films to be digitized?
Yes, however, starting August 31st 2018 each new request will be reviewed by the Libraries to determine if the video is available through streaming services, either by licensing them to the campus, or individuals. They will only be able to digitize new films in very narrow circumstances in order to put the service on safer copyright footing. Unfortunately, in some cases, relying on analog technology (DVDs) may be the only option available.
What types of video streaming resources and services do the Libraries provide?
Please visit these two resources to learn more about using licensed and free video content for your course(s). The Libraries are actively planning expanding access to titles through many of these services, so expect them to grow in the coming months.
Please contact Jack Maness at jack.maness@du.edu if you would like to know more.
This video showcases Julie Anne Laser-Maira Ph.D from the Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) and her students involved with classroom activities centered on experiential learning. These types of learning activities require students to take an active learning hands-on approach to learning new content along with trust- building skills, critical for future social workers. Learn how to facilitate experiential learning from several tips that Julie Anne provides in the video.
Join us on Wednesday, October 25 from 12:00 PM-1:00 PM for a faculty showcase titled “Experiential Learning in the Classroom” to learn more from Julie about how she integrates this high-impact practice into her classroom.
27 Apr 2017
OneNewThing: Drumming out Stress
Feeling stressed out? Many professionals deal with stressful work environments. If the stress is ignored, it could lead to negative coping habits or burnout. In this video, Francis Agyakwa, MSW Adjunct Faculty at the Graduate School of Social Work demonstrates how he teaches his social work students to deal with work stress by drumming. This activity was supported and funded by the OTL OneNewThing Mini-Grant program.
What were you trying to change or solve? Identify the aspect of teaching and/or learning that you were attempting to improve or the challenge you were attempting to address by implementing your project.
This past Winter quarter (2017), I taught Health Disparities, a new course in the Counseling Psychology Department. The course is an elective, with only 50 minutes of class time per week. It was challenging to think of a framework that would take fullest advantage of every student’s talent and ability to contribute to addressing health disparities. I knew that student active participation in class would be key to their learning, but I struggled to see how to fit lecturing plus discussion of materials and hands-on activities in 50 minutes.
What did you do? Briefly explain your technique/strategy/idea/tool/activity. Include a description of what the students did differently (for example; how they interacted with you, each other, and/or the learning environment) and your role.
In consultation with OTL, we decided that a flipped classroom model was the best way to approach the course. Every week, students viewed short video lectures at home, before the class session, and in-class time was devoted to development of and participation in a quarter-long photo voice project. The video lectures were the key ingredient of the class. They were created with Zoom and posted on Canvas. Students could easily access them and complete follow-up associated quizzes (also on Canvas). During class sessions, I functioned as a coach or facilitator, encouraging students in individual inquiry and collaborative effort as the photo voice project unveiled. Progressively, students felt more empowered to run the class when we were in the classroom. Results of the photo voice were posted in a class-generated DU Portfolio at the end of the quarter.
How did it go, and what did you learn? Describe how the students responded, what learning improvements you see or can infer, the aspects of the method that were most difficult or surprising, and the potential challenges that others might face. What advice would you give to someone and/or what would you do differently next time?
Recording the lectures is somewhat time-consuming. Yet, the video lectures were surprisingly easy to create and upload, despite my initial anxiety. Students reported liking the online lectures, as they were brief but comprehensive and easily accessible for them. They also were excited to work collaboratively on the photo voice project and have space/time to share their photos every week. Therefore, I feel encouraged to continue recording some of my lectures in the future, to save class time for hands-on activities.
Roncoroni, Julia , Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Counseling Psychology Department
Morgridge College of Education
University of Denver
Have you ever wondered how best to increase student engagement and community participation in your classroom? If so, then this video is for you! Watch as DU professors Ronald DeLyser (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Matt Gordon (Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering) discuss how they are using “Team-Based Learning” (TBL) in a first-year engineering course. TBL is an engaging classroom activity designed to build healthy team competition for student groups. It’s an activity that also encourages students to socially interact with one another, which is a desire of most first-year students. In Professors DeLyser and Gordon’s TBL activity, students use scratch cards and a series of course related questions to measure if individuals and teams can correctly identify weekly learning objectives. At the end of each week, team cards are collected and tallied so that one team can be crowned the “Top Team” of the quarter.
If you are interested in utilizing either Team-Based Learning activities or the scratch cards highlighted in this video, please contact us for more information.
What were you trying to change or solve? Identify the aspect of teaching and/or learning that you were attempting to improve or the challenge you were attempting to address by implementing your project.
Because my Career Counseling course had been transitioned to an online course, I felt there were several things that were being missed that I needed to find a way to bring back. For example, I missed demonstrating career counseling techniques or interventions during class periods. Students had provided feedback that watching me show how to complete a career card sort or work through a career genogram were incredibly valuable. During class periods, I would also invite students to practice the interventions with their peers. While students could be practicing on their own time, I had no way to confirm that! Finally, students accompanied myself to a homeless shelter during their last class period where they would conduct a career counseling session with at least one technique or intervention that they learned in class. Their final papers were case conceptualizations based on these sessions. I perceived that these things would be difficult to include with the new online format, but I realized that variations of these things would still be possible with the support of the Office of Teaching and Learning.
What did you do? Briefly explain your technique/strategy/idea/tool/activity. Include a description of what the students did differently (for example; how they interacted with you, each other, and/or the learning environment) and your role.
Prior to the OTL OneNewThing mini grant, my lectures included no videos related to the techniques and interventions in career counseling (unless I was able to track one down on YouTube!). My proposal was to create a series of videos of myself demonstrating career counseling techniques and interventions for students to have a better understanding of the material. Specifically for the grant, I started with one video of a career counseling intervention – a card sort. Learning how easy it could be through completing the experience myself, I asked my students to record a part of their mock career counseling session that would demonstrate a technique or interventions so I would be able to better evaluate their understanding of the course content. These short clips were uploaded to DU VideoManager by the students.
How did it go, and what did you learn? Describe how the students responded, what learning improvements you see or can infer, the aspects of the method that were most difficult or surprising, and the potential challenges that others might face. What advice would you give to someone and/or what would you do differently next time?
As I mentioned, the card sort video was surprisingly easy to create (with the support of the Office of Teaching and Learning, of course!) so I was encouraged to ask the students to complete their own videos! I provided them with information from the Office of Teaching and Learning that had helped me create that video and instructed them where to upload their videos. Based on feedback from the students, they enjoyed my video on the career counseling intervention and they appreciated the feedback that I was able to provide on their short clips! I am really looking forward to adding more videos and continuing to assign the video clip of students’ career counseling interventions for their final assignment!
Jessica D. Bartley PsyD, LCSW, CC-AASP
Behavioral Health Consultant/Staff Psychologist
Health and Counseling Center
University of Denver
07 Feb 2017
What do you wish more professors would do?
As part of our Teaching and Learning Week event, we interviewed several DU students to hear what they had to say about their course learning experience. Almost all the students were very pleased with their experience as a student at DU, but they did provide some constructive feedback for faculty members to improve the learning experience in the classroom. Watch this video to listen to some comments from those interviews.
How can I provide meaningful feedback to my students? How do I create a positive classroom environment? What is the best way to organize group projects? How can I get students to take responsibility for their own learning? Student panelists from various disciplines will share their perspectives about these topics and others through an interactive dialogue with attendees. Each student will answer a series of questions related to their experiences as DU students and audience members will be invited to ask their own questions about what makes a great learning experience.
Student Panelists:
Kerry-Ann Lewis Pearcy, Research Methods and Statistics Program, 2nd Year Morgridge College of Education
Michael Moore, BSBA Marketing & Political Science, 1st Year MBA
Lauren Ruth, Graduate School of Social Work – 2nd Year MSW
Marie Spence, Psychology &Sociology – 2nd Year AHSS Undergraduate
Research on active learning points to the value of engaging students in in-class discussion, group problem-solving and application. A recently-published paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported on a meta-analysis of 225 studies comparing STEM classes taught through various active learning approaches with classes taught via lecture. Researchers found that across these studies “the average exam scores improved by about 6% in active learning sessions” and “students in classes with traditional lecturing were 1.5 times more likely to fail than were students in classes with active learning.”
Yet, what does active learning look like in the classroom? Dr. Barbekka Hurtt, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, incorporates active learning into her non-majors biology class to help students apply what they are learning and see its value in their own lives. Check out the video below to see Barbekka’s students engaging in active learning, and to hear Barbekka talk about why she likes to have her students learn this way, what the challenges are, and what she’s learned through the experience.
Yes, according to Roberta Waldbaum Ph.D., who teaches several Italian courses at DU including Tpcs: Cinematic Rome where students are exposed to Italian culture and language.
Professor Roberta Waldbaum
“In my years of language teaching, I’ve found that if the professor provides solid background information and then encourages student creativity, the results are often astonishing, demonstrating student learning outcomes in a whole new way. Now that we have access to DU CourseMedia and a large number of Italian films, students have easily incorporated them into their presentations.”
DU Italian students presenting their foreign cinema projects.
For this class activity, students conducted research on a specific topic in Italian literature and film, watched several classic and contemporary Italian films, analyzed the content, and then produced a group presentation in Italian. The high level of student engagement using multimedia content provided students with a rich learning experience.
Students improve their foreign language skills by researching classic Italian films using DU CourseMedia.
DU CourseMedia has several foreign films for DU instructors to use for their courses. Instructors can browse and select films for their students to watch on their own time. Contact the Office of Teaching and Learning or visit our Education Technology Knowledge Base if you would like to know more about DU CourseMedia.
