Post Conference

Desire2Learn is pleased to announce that this year's Post Conference will be two and a half days. The Post Conference will be held in the same location and begin immediately following the main conference on July 13 through July 15th.

The list of 2009 Post Conference sessions includes:

Workshop 1 (Novice): Creating Course Content

Description:

One crucial component of an online course is inevitably its content. In this session, you learn the most effective methods in creating content within the Content tool of Desire2Learn. You also learn helpful tips and valuable techniques that save you time and effort when working with the Content tool.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon Completion of this session, participants will be able to:
  1. Create and reoffer a new course
  2. Manage access properties of Modules and Topics using release conditions and dates,
  3. Effectively use quicklinks to provide a seamless learning experience
  4. Create and upload course material using Manage Files and WebDAV
  5. Populate a new course using Course Import and Copy Course Components

Workshop 2 (Novice): Assessing Students in D2L

Description:

Desire2Learn offers a wide range of tools to effectively assess learning in a variety of course settings and groups. This session helps you understand and best apply the appropriate assessment tools that include Quizzing, Self Assessments, Grades, Competencies and Rubrics.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon Completion of this session, participants will be able to:
  1. Create quizzes and surveys
  2. Understand the Question Library and its connection to both surveys and quizzes
  3. Create and insert various question types available in Desire2Learn into your quizzes and surveys
  4. Create Random sections
  5. Create branching survey questions
  6. Define special access, attempts, and restrictions for your quizzes and surveys
  7. Set up a Competency tree with Learning Objectives and Activities
  8. Effectively use Rubrics for qualitative assessment

Workshop 3 (Novice): Communication Tools

Description:

This session explores the various communication tools within the Desire2Learn environment. You learn how Discussions, Blogs, Email, News, and other tools are used and effectively employed inside courses to increase knowledge, information sharing, and collaboration.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon Completion of this session, participants will be able to:
  1. Set up and use D2L Internal Email
  2. Set up contacts and use the Pager
  3. Set up and use a personal Blog
  4. Create private and public Chat rooms
  5. Set up public and private Discussion forums and topics
  6. Use the Schedule tool to automatically keep students informed of upcoming quizzes, assignments and other events in the Updates widget

Workshop 4 (Novice): Learner Engagement

Description:

This session explores different strategies to generate interest and captivate student attention within Desire2Learn. This hands-on session looks at the use of exciting features within the Learning Environment, including release conditions and special access to spice up your courses.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon Completion of this session, participants will be able to:
  1. Use a personal blog to keep students engaged
  2. Use Groups to promote student collaboration
  3. Use Class Discussions to promote sharing of ideas
  4. Insert multimedia to enliven course material
  5. Share and collaborate with other DL users on strategies for engaging learners

Workshop 5 (Novice): Strategies for Creating a Successful eLearning Program

Description:

Rolling out a virtual school program can be overwhelming. You must consider technology, student success, administration, tracking, budgets, and policies. This "lessons learned" session will provide hands-on and real-world experience based on relationships with hundreds of secondary virtual schools nation-wide. In this session, we'll share strategies for getting your own virtual school off the ground and running quickly. With a ready-made solution and a willing administration team, your program is within reach.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon Completion of this session, participants will be able to:
  1. Review case studies to identify characteristics of successful elearning programs
  2. Facilitate program implementation and growth while adhering to needed policies
  3. Identify challenges and apply solutions to create successful online learning policies
  4. Use tools to streamline administrative tasks such as instructor evaluations

Workshop 6 (Intermediate): You're using ePortfolio now!

Description:

This session is comprised of a two-part interactive session where participants collaborate first on and design a virtual success path for a range of ePortfolio users. In the second section, participants will then be guided through an exercise to effectively apply relevant ePortfolio tools and concepts to their role and organization.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon Completion of this session, participants will be able to:
  1. Help themselves and others get past any initial hesitation to use ePortfolio
  2. Effectively understand and make use of all the tools within ePortfolio
  3. Inspire and train others to build their own ePortfolios
  4. Clearly understand how different users can successful use ePortfolio to overcome communication and collaboration challenges
  5. Creatively develop a dynamic portal to share information and ideas with a variety of groups and individuals
  6. Design an ePortfolio roll-out program for various groups within their organization

Workshop 7 (Intermediate): Harnessing Collaboration among faculty and beyond

Description:

This hands-on strategic brainstorming session explores practical tools within ePortfolio to enhance collaboration and interaction among faculty, student groups, committees, associations, and even institutions.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon Completion of this session, participants will be able to:
  1. Clearly understand how ePortfolio can be used effectively at all levels within the organization
  2. Use ePortfolio Presentations to boost collaboration and communication among individuals and groups
  3. Identify and put into practice new and efficient ways to collaborate within varied groups, committees, and associations
  4. Use a visioning exercise to define the best uses of ePortfolio in a range of organizational and institutional settings
  5. Creatively develop a dynamic portal to share information and ideas with a variety of groups and individuals
  6. Creatively incorporate ePortfolio into classes and curriculum to boost communication as well as buy-in

Workshop 8 (Intermediate): Competencies: Standards by Another Name

Description:

Every organization, institution, or school is accountable to some kind of metrics. In education success is judged against standards/outcomes/competencies from the individual student level to the accreditation of the organization. This session introduces the competency and associated rubric tools to align content against any number of standards for which your organization is accountable. We'll share ideas for planning the work around effectively using these tools to derive needed data for your program.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon Completion of this session, participants will be able to:
  1. Identify sources of competencies and or standards
  2. Understand the set-up of D2L tool and functions
  3. Apply method to import competencies into LE and LOR
  4. Create objectives and assessments to determine achievement by users
  5. Gain visibility into competency attainment by users through views and reports

Workshop 9 (Expert): Efficient Course Creation Process

Description:

By exploring different course creation processes and utilizing different tools within the Learning Environment, participants will learn different methods of creating courses and populating those courses with course components. This hands-on session will focus on efficient ways of getting your courses up and running by exploring best practices and useful tips for the course creation process.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon Completion of this session, participants will be able to:
  1. Describe the layout of a typical and custom organization structure
  2. Create and manage courses manually
  3. Create new courses using Batch Course Create
  4. Access and use Course Templates to store course components
  5. Plan a course archiving process
  6. Use the DOME to reorganize org units
  7. Incorporate the LOR for maximum efficiency

Workshop 10 (Expert): Maximizing the LOR potential for your organization

Description:

By taking participants through the full learning object life cycle, this session will focus on best practices and efficient ways of using the Learning Object Repository tool. This hands-on session will explore different methodology in order to maximize the LOR potential. From the LOR creation steps to archiving Learning Objects, participants will have a better understanding on how to use the LOR tool to fit their organization needs.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon Completion of this session, participants will be able to:
  1. Perform basic and advanced searches
  2. Perform searches on External Repositories
  3. Import Learning Objects from the Learning Repository
  4. Decide when to use Dynamic or Static links
  5. Publish Learning Objects and assets to the Learning Repository
  6. Create custom Metadata Views
  7. Use Metadata Templates to automatically populate metadata fields
  8. Create Taxon Schemas to allow browsing for Learning Objects by category
  9. Create and view reports in the Learning Repository
  10. Effectively manage Learning Object Repositories and their associated trusts

Workshop 11 (Expert): Advanced Administrative Tools

Description:

This session is for administrators that want to make people smile. You will learn best practices for an array of administrative tools that will help you manage your Desire2Learn system with ease and efficiency, while minimizing user frustration, unwieldy organizational structures and grumbling colleagues.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon Completion of this session, participants will be able to:
  1. Describe the key concepts and properties of Org Units
  2. Define an organization structure within the DOME
  3. Create and add a new org unit type to an existing org unit structure
  4. Modify form elements to capture org unit properties
  5. Configure Variables for a site
  6. Apply best practices for managing a D2L site


Click here to view the full Post Conference Schedule

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