Take online learning outside with activities that draw connections between course material and their local environment.
You may think online learning requires staring at a screen, but it also affords the opportunity to send learners outside. With no constraint to be all in one location at a set time, online classes can encourage learners to encounter their different environments and use them as a springboard for further engagement with course material.
Here are a few types of activities we have seen done very well. We hope they will inspire you to send your learners outdoors!
Locate a site that has been minimally impacted by development near where you live, work, or spend your free time. Document the date, time, and weather before making a few sketches that show the overall composition of the site. What kinds of vegetation and plants do you see? Is there evidence of animal life? Complete your report and share your sketches with your group.
Take a walk around the downtown area nearest you. Find a building for which you can identify some of the materials used. Record a short video in which you show us the building and discuss what you can observe about the materials. What considerations would the construction team need to have considered when using those materials on that site? Post your video to the discussion board.
First, read the assigned poem by Wordsworth wherever you typically read for this class. Then, take your poetry reading with you and find a quiet place to sit near or in a garden (any size will do). Read the poem again. How is your understanding of the text different now? Write a short reflection on how the location in which you read the poem affects your interpretation of it.
Do you find that your grade plan and Canvas Gradebook aren’t on the same page? Join this Quick Hit for a live demonstration on how to fix this problem before grades are due. You will also learn how weighting graded assignments impacts this issue.
Facilitated by Axel Ruiz, Sr. Learning Tech. Specialist.
Register here for Quick Hit: Canvas Gradebook and Weighted Grades on June 8th .
Review our Summer 2023 Events Calendar to see what Online Instruction Development opportunities await!
We have a robust Summer lineup of topics and live training formats to support your use of Canvas and other e-learning tools. Topics cover demonstrations of using Kaltura, presentations on inclusive practices for online education, and workshops to get your Canvas site ready to teach!
All of our live training is recorded. Registrants will automatically receive a link to that day’s video after it has been processed.
Contact James Butler with any questions regarding these sessions.
Clemson Online – Where Tech and Teaching Meet
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