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Accomplishments

Transition to Desire2Learn

CETL was instrumental in moving UNB from Blackboard as a Learning Management System (LMS) to Desire2Learn. Working collaboratively with ITS, it collected extensive input from students, faculty and staff to determine present needs and to conduct an extensive search, bidding, and pilot testing process to select the LMS that best met the requirements. Finding the best system was a big part of the puzzle, but making the transition to the new system was a complex and large scale project of its own, involving the migration of thousands of existing Blackboard courses to the new Desire2Learn system (“D2L” for short) so that online course content would be available to all professors when they started using the new system. Also involved was extensive training and coaching, including development of online video training modules, and the inevitable troubleshooting of unexpected technical glitches, all of which involved significant and persistent effort by CETL’s system administrators. For more information, visit the Desire2Learn Resources.  

Development of Lecture Video Capture and Streaming Service

CETL developed the specs for video capture kits that include high definition cameras, bought the kits using UNB funding, and set up a videostreaming server on which recorded lecture videos are stored. This enables instructors to post their lectures in Desire2Learn without uploading the files to the LMS and all the extra cost and student access performance problems that would entail. Students just click the video link in D2L and watch streamed video instantly, regardless of whether they are on or off campus. For information about using this service, visit the Video@UNB site.  

Teaching Essentials workshop series

Dawn MacIsaac, TLS Coordinator filled an identified need on campus in supporting instructors in creating a high level of student engagement by developing a series of Teaching Essentials workshops and offering them on an ongoing basis. They focus on syllabus and course design, including the use of active learning instructional and assessment techniques. For more information, visit the Teaching Resources page.  

Let’s Talk Teaching

CETL created a booth advertising CETL services to faculty and students which it uses to connect with people on campus by taking it on monthly visits to different faculties. Key players from different CETL departments staff the booth to connect with students and instructors, collecting information from them and talking about their teaching and learning experiences and needs.

NSSE 2.0

NSSE 2.0
Through initiatives undertaken by David Kilfoil, CETL’s Educational Analyst, UNB was selected by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to participate in the pilot of the next version of both the student and faculty surveys, version 2.0 that builds on the success and experience of the previous decade of student engagement surveys. UNB was one of only 2 Canadian (out of 50 North American institutions) to do so. For more information visit the NSSE page.  

Evaluation Plan for new Master of Nursing Curriculum

With support from CETL, the UNB Faculty of Nursing has developed a new Master of Nursing Nurse Educator stream and moved the two previously existing ones, the Nurse Practitioner and Thesis and Report streams, to an outcomes-based format that stresses what students can do with the knowledge they master. Recently, CETL’s Teaching and Learning Services has assisted in developing and implementing an Evaluation Plan for the entire program that includes online student surveys and focus groups, faculty feedback sessions, and graduate and employer surveys. CETL provides outcomes-based curriculum redesign services to a number of UNB faculties and departments, including Kinesiology, Biology, and Engineering.

CETL Rising Star Winner

In 2010, Kevin Cormier was awarded a Rising Star Award in recognition of his work providing faculty training and troubleshooting for UNB’s Blackboard Learning Management System. He shows exceptional aptitude and problem-solving ability, detailed knowledge, excellent interpersonal interaction skills, and ability to explain and demonstrate things clearly. As part of this work, he produced instructional videos and created an online Blackboard resource site to supplement his training and troubleshooting duties, and goes well above and beyond the call of duty to help instructors use the LMS. CETL is proud of Kevin’s accomplishments and pleased that he was recognized in this way by the New Brunswick Knowledge Industry.

CNIE Award

In May 2008, UNB Civil Engineering and CETL won an Award of Merit for Interactive Media at the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education media festival held in Banff, Alberta. It was for a Flash-based guided problem simulation in Statics.

The rationale for creating the learning object was to help first-year Civil Engineering students master key Statics concepts more quickly and completely. The idea was to build computer-based guided problem simulations that would walk students step-by-step through complex problems in a highly visual way, setting them up to make the correct selections but providing guided feedback when they didn't.

By having the simulations available online, students can access the kind of coaching they would receive from instructors at their convenience, 24/7. Also, visually-oriented computer-based simulations are intended to appeal to computer-savvy "Millennial" students, broadening the range of learning styles accommodated. Accommodating as many learning styles as possible is an important recommendation from leading university educators everywhere.

The top few key concepts that students struggle with the most were identified as ones for which to build guided problem simulations. Mastering these core concepts will help students improve their course performance and thus their learning experience at UNB overall.

Dr. Allison Schriver (Mechanical Engineering) teamed up with staff from the Centre for Enhanced Teaching and Learning to design a set of interactive guided simulation exercises. The first of these learning objects was the most complex, centred around creating free body diagrams to identify forces acting on points and objects. Authentic problems involving objects would-be civil engineers are familiar with led to problems involving a backhoe. This was followed by a second simulation around the forces acting on a pair of pliers.

The interactive simulation exercise is designed to work for students who are active learners, who learn by doing, by applying principles preented in a classroom lecture or pointed out in the textbook. Students are able to solve the problem from the just-in-time, just-enough conceptual information provided, with contextual guidance as they work through toward the solution.

Learners who select the optimal responses progress quickly, with numerous step-specific hints and tips to guide all learners to success.

CETL Rising Star Winners

On Thursday, January 17th, both John Born - Instructional Technology Specialist and Joy Cummings-Dickinson - Media Production Manager were chosen as two of the ten Rising Stars winners. John and Joy were originally nominated by their coworkers and/or managers and were then chosen as part of the 25 province wide finalists. The Rising Stars event recognizes knowledge industry workers, in companies or organizations throughout New Brunswick, who have distinguished themselves with the quality of their work and for their positive impact in their community and the industry.

John and Joy have been awarded the coveted RISING STARS trophy and in addition to being recognized for their work, will be provided with a mentorship program for the year. The objective of the mentorship program is to prepare them to become our future leaders … and entrepreneurs.

John and Joy were joined by many of their co-workers at the Rising Stars Gala and celebration. Pictured below are Ken Reimer - CETL Director, Joy Cummings-Dickinson, John Young, Assistant Director and John Born.