Collections

Digital Futures for Learning by University of Edinburgh (various licenses).

During the Digital Futures for Learning course in 2017/18, participants created Open Educational Resources (OERs), taking the three course themes as a starting point. A selection of these OERs are available.

Courses

23 Things for Digital Knowledge by University of Edinburgh (CC BY).

An award-winning, open, and self-paced course for digital and online skills. 23 Things for Digital Knowledge provides a structured way for staff and students to set aside that time to build up skills and experiment with new digital tools.

Creating Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive Assessments in Online and Blended Learning by Sharon Lauricella, Allyson Eamer, Alison Mann, Tricia Dwyer-Kuntz, Robin Kay, and Christopher Craig (CC BY-SA).

This course provides useful approaches, frameworks, and practical strategies to introduce equitable, diverse, and inclusive (EDI) assessment strategies in the online or hybrid environment. Module 1 begins the course with an examination of the purpose of assessment so that users can consider what assignments they require, how such assignments connect to overall course goals, and how instructors can ensure that all such assessments meet student needs in the digital environment. Module 2 considers the important element of feedback and the various ways that feedback (and feedforward) can help meet EDI requirements for formative learning experiences in the digital environment. Module 3 gives particular attention to peer and self-assessment, and how instructors and students can engage in meaningful assessment with EDI top of mind. Module 4 contains a concise list of web-based tools in a variety of categories that can get users started with meaningful, inclusive, and equitable assessment that meets the needs of diverse student groups.

Indigenous Digital Literacies curated and designed by Robyn Grebliunas and Connie Strayer (CC BY).

This course explores eight Indigenous digital literacy competencies. They are taken from the B.C. Post-Secondary Digital Literacy Framework and the relevant Indigenous-specific literacies associated with each competency. This course focuses on decolonizing and Indigenizing the post-secondary institution online space, while providing instructor-focused professional development that addresses the Indigenous-specific digital literacies. –website

Textbooks

Active Learning Kit: Engaging Ideas for Live Online Instruction  by Cheryl Colan (CC BY).

Active learning ideas for synchronous online class meetings.

Arrival Activities by Fiona Rawle and co-designed by students, recent graduates, educational developers, librarians, instructors (CC-BY).

The Asynchronous Cookbook by Office of Digital Learning & Inquiry (DLINQ) staff contributors (CC BY-NC-SA).

Whether you’re teaching mostly in person but looking for some regular, asynchronous activities to add to your course, or teaching a fully online course, this resource is for you. The activities in this cookbook draw on research and good practice in online course design to provide recipes – concise and specific instructions and examples – for adding asynchronous activities to a course. Meaningful interaction between students and instructors is a key ingredient in all of these recipes. Reviews: Open Textbook Library

Beyond the Exam: An Alternative Online Assessment Toolkit a Collaboration between McMaster University, Collège Boréal, and Brock University (CC BY-NC-SA).

This resource was created to help reduce barriers educators experience in creating and adopting alternative assessment strategies. The toolkit contains a bank of exemplars, resources and instructions as well as a space for users to share back adapted or newly-designed assessment approaches that have proven successful for their learners and context.

Conferencing Tools for Teaching & Learning: Best Practices by Lisa Gedak and Chris Ryan (CC BY-NC-SA).

An open resource that explores best practices for using conferencing tools for teaching and learning. Adaptable strategies and activity “recipes” for using various conferencing tools, including, Zoom, BigBlueButton, and Microsoft Teams.

Course Design Companion Guide by Teaching and Innovation Team, Sarah Bouchard, and Kelly Brennan (CC BY-NC).

This resource has been designed to provide faculty members with a basic course design framework that can be applied to remote teaching courses, online courses, and even traditional face to face courses! Readers will be introduced to the backward design strategy and provided with tips for developing and planning their courses. We’ve also provided course design templates as well as interactive writing/note-taking prompts to facilitate the course design process.

Creating Online Learning Experiences: A Brief Guide to Online Courses, from Small and Private to Massive and Open by Matt Crosslin (CC BY-NC).

This book provides an updated look at issues that comprise the online learning experience creation process. As online learning evolves, the lines and distinctions between various classifications of courses has blurred and often vanished. Classic elements of instructional design remain relevant at the same time that newer concepts of learning experience are growing in importance. However, problematic issues new and old still have to be addressed. This handbook explores many of these topics for new and experienced designers alike, whether creating traditional online courses, open learning experiences, or anything in between.

Democratizing Online Learning in Postsecondary Education: Instructional Design Plans edited by Robert McGray (CC BY-NC-SA).

In the Winter of 2018, Nick Contant and Robert McGray had a discussion about their colleagues involved in teaching online or blended classes. At that time, Contant found that people were keen to talk about their approaches to teaching and possible variations that may have been successful for others. To this end, Contant and McGray organized a teaching fair to share and discuss strategies in the summer of 2018 – this volume documents some of those. These plans as reflect the experiences and scholarship of many passionate about online pedagogy. The instructional design plans in this volume were peer-reviewed through a double-blind process.

Designing and Developing High-Quality Student-Centred Online/Hybrid Learning Experiences by Seneca College, Humber College, Kenjgewin Teg, Trent University, and Nipissing University (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Topics covered: Structuring an online course; accessibility, inclusion, and universal design; assessment strategies in a virtual environment, and virtual classroom as learning community.

Ethical Use of Technology in Digital Learning Environments: Graduate Student Perspectives by Dr. Barbara Brown; Dr. Verena Roberts; Dr. Michele Jacobsen; Christie Hurrell; Kourtney Kerr; Heather van Streun; Nicole Jean Neutzling; Jeff Lowry; Simo Zarkovic; Jennifer Ansorger; Terri Marles; Emma Lockyer; and Dean Parthenis (CC BY).

This book is the result of a co-design project in a class in the Masters of Education program at the University of Calgary. The course, and the resulting book, focus primarily on the safe and ethical use of technology in digital learning environments. The course was organized according to four topics based on Farrow’s (2016) Framework for the Ethics of Open Education.

Fit for Online Learning: Your Handbook to Teaching Online by University of Lethbridge Teaching Centre (CC BY-NC-SA).

The Fit for Online Learning course is designed to be an initial stepping stone to building the comprehensive set of digital competencies required for creating and facilitating meaningful academic learning experiences for your online students.

Foundational Practices of Online Writing Instruction edited by Beth L. Hewett and Kevin Eric DePew (CC BY-NC-ND).

This book addresses the questions and decisions that administrators and instructors most need to consider when developing online writing programs and courses. The authors address issues of inclusive and accessible writing instruction (based upon physical and mental disability, linguistic ability, and socioeconomic challenges) in technology enhanced settings.

Guide to Blended Learning by Martha Cleveland-Innes and Dan Wilton (CC BY-SA).

This is an introduction using technology and distance education teaching strategies with traditional, face-to-face classroom activities. This Guide has been designed to assist teachers adopt blended learning strategies through a step-by-step approach taking constructivist and design-based approach and reflecting on decisions taken to provide authentic learning experience in their own contexts. This book is from the Commonwealth of Learning.

High Quality Online Courses: How to Improve Course Design & Delivery for your Post-Secondary Learners by University of Waterloo, Queen’s University, University of Toronto and Conestoga College (CC BY-NC-SA).

Topics include creating an online course blueprint, activities and assessments, structure and content, and facilitation and improvement.

Learning to Learn Online by Bailey Csabai, Bilal Sohail, Jykee Pavo, Kristen Swiatoschik, Maryam Odeh, and Nitin Ramesh (CC BY-SA).

Learning to Learn Online was created by students to help ease the shift from a traditional classroom setting to an online environment. You will explore a total of six unique chapters that will help you successfully prepare for online learning.

Learning to Learn Online by Learning Centres, Christina Page, and Adam Vincent (CC BY-SA).

Learning to Learn Online helps you prepare for online learning success by introducing you to the online learning environment and your role as a learner within it. As you come to understand yourself as a self-directed learner, you will also be introduced to effective learning strategies: time management for online learners, information management, professional communication, and reading strategies.  Reviews: eCampusOntario

Liberated Learners co-designed by Students, Faculty and Staff at Trent University, Brock University, Seneca College, University of Windsor, McMaster University, Cambrian College and Nipissing University (CC BY-NC).

Following in the footsteps of the Ontario Extend: Empowered Educator program is its predecessor, Ontario Extend: Liberated Learners. The original program worked to prepare educators to be better able to teach in a digital realm. The Liberated Learner seeks to do the same for the learners themselves. As such, the project has four modules: The Learner, The Navigator, The Collaborator, and The Technologist. Taken together, the modules aim to enable a well-rounded and ready-for-almost-anything post-secondary learner.

Online Course Design for Humans: A Workbook by Trent Online (CC BY-NC-SA).

A workbook to support online course planning in a way that keeps humans front and centre.

Remote Teaching: A Guide for Teaching Assistants  by Meredith Allen, Alisha Szozda, Jeremy Kerr and Alison Flynn (CC BY-NC-SA).

This guide is designed to help you effectively and confidently work as a teaching assistant in a virtual environment… Becoming an effective teaching assistant in a remote learning environment requires different approaches than doing so under “normal” circumstances. And defining TA roles in a remote learning environment is quite different than it would be for a lab or lecture course offered in person. If you’re wondering how to re-imagine TA roles and how to be a successful TA who makes a difference for students, this ebook is for you.

Remote Teaching: A Practical Guide with Tools, Tips, and Techniques by Alison Flynn and Jeremy Kerr (CC BY-NC-SA).

This resource is designed to help you convert your face-to-face class to a remote course as simply as possible. We walk you through the process, at each step giving a suggestion for a specific tool/technology—the uOttawa-supported one and our preferred tool if it is different. We also give an example and sources of additional information. We also created a template of a course in Brightspace, syllabus, and other resources that you can modify to suit your own course, if desired.

Rethinking Assessment Strategies for Online Learning by Seneca College, Durham College, Algonquin College, and University of Ottawa  (CC BY-NC-SA).

Short course for post-secondary educators. Topics include: Rethinking the assessment mindset, authentic assessments, and alternative online assessments. Comes with Exemplar Collection

Teaching with Rich Media: A Guide for Online Instructors by various (CC BY-SA).

Online instructors need a framework for “teaching beyond text” using rich media as instructional resources. This book defines rich media, its affordances, and its value in conveying information. The book offers a model for pedagogical strategies, a set of instructor competencies, and two models for assessment for use in professional development.

Technology, Media Literacy, and the Human Subject: A Posthuman Approach by Richard S. Lewis (CC BY).

We are immersed in a world mediated by information and communication technologies (ICTs). From hardware like smartphones, smartwatches, and home assistants to software like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat, our lives have become a complex, interconnected network of relations. Scholarship on media literacy has tended to focus on developing the skills to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media messages without considering or weighing the impact of the technological medium—how it enables and constrains both messages and media users. This book addresses these issues by providing a transdisciplinary method that allows for both practical and theoretical analyses of media investigations. Informed by post-phenomenology, media ecology, philosophical posthumanism, and complexity theory the author proposes both a framework and a pragmatic instrument for understanding the multiplicity of relations that all contribute to how we affect—and are affected by—our relations with media technology. The author argues persuasively that the increased awareness provided by this posthuman approach affords us a greater chance for reclaiming some of our agency and provides a sound foundation upon which we can then judge our media relations. This book will be an indispensable tool for educators in media literacy and media studies, as well as academics in philosophy of technology, media and communication studies, and the post-humanities.

Thriving Online: A Guide for Busy Educators:A Guide for Busy Educators    edited by Robin H. Kay and William J. Hunter (CC BY-NC-SA).

This book focuses on helping educators (secondary school and higher education level) succeed and thrive in blended and online learning settings. Grounded in evidence-based practices and principles, we share diverse and extensive insights on starting out, differentiated learning, learning activities, feedback and assessment, and useful tools. Each chapter includes a subject overview, guidelines, activities or tools, and general resources.

Using Game-Based Learning Online: A Cookbook of Recipes by Elaine Beaulieu, Mish Boutet, Lynne Bowker, Thomas Burelli, Jackie Carnegie, Alexandre Lillo, David MacDonald, Colin Montpetit, and Steven Ousko (CC BY-NC-SA).

Game-based learning is a teaching approach that uses different forms of games, and the strategies or mechanics associated with them, for educational purposes. It advocates a student-centred approach that allows learners to explore, fail and take up challenges in a safe environment. Game-based learning also supports students in autonomously exploring situations created by their professors. Additionally, games are likely to reinforce the students’ commitment to the learning process. In an educational context, these characteristics and qualities can greatly enhance student engagement, motivation and learning. This collection of recipes has been created to present game-based strategies to make online learning more stimulating and engaging for students. In this cookbook, an interdisciplinary panel of experts offers recipes for integrating different types of game-based learning activities in the context of remote teaching. An overview of game-based learning strategies will be provided, including trivia games, escape games, cooperative games, crossword puzzles, and more.

12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online by Dave Cormier and Ashlyne O’Neil (CC BY 4.0).

This book is meant to be a short course to help you prepare to move to teaching online. Do a chapter a day. Or just pick the ones you like.

Videos

Near Future Teaching by the University of Edinburgh (CC BY).

A collection of videos featuring students and staff talking about what changes they predict, or would like to see, in teaching over the coming decades, as technology, social trends, patterns of mobility, new methods and new media continue to shift.

Websites

Education and the Blockchain by Helen Murphy (CC BY-SA).

The blockchain is considered by some people to be The Next Big Thing in higher education. For example, it is claimed that it will “reinvent higher education” (Tapscott & Tapscott, 2017), that it might “hasten the dissolution of universities as institutions” (Matthews, 2017). In this OER, we’ll learn more about these claims, why they may or may not be justified, and how we might become better equipped to analyse potential blockchain projects in higher education from a critical perspective.

Radical Digital Literacy  by DFLED (CC BY).

This resource is based on the idea that current approaches to digital literacy in most Higher Education institutions are simplistic and fail to take into account that technology is not a neutral entity. This OER provides a number of resources to read and watch with the aim of providing a springboard to discuss and share ideas of how to integrate a more radical approach to digital literacy into an undergraduate curriculum.

Serendipity in a Digital World by Clare Thomson (CC BY).

This resource explores the concept of Serendipity in a Digital World. Looking at the rise of algorithms, control online and how this can affect experiences of serendipity and exploration, open and closed spaces online, and how to balance, maintain, and encourage connections. The resource has been created primarily for education professionals and Masters-level students working in fields such as digital education, learning technology, digital futures, and e-learning.