Future Lunch and Learn Topics

We want to give everybody an opportunity to let us know what you would like to see for future Lunch and Learn topics. We have listed a few possible topics below–let us know (either by phone, email, or using the comment box) whether these topics interest you, or to suggest other topics.

Using digital tools for assessment and feedback

Grading and providing feedback is an important part of teaching, but can be time consuming and challenging. In this Lunch and Learn we will showcase a few UBC supported or freely available digital tools that can help make the assessment process easier and quicker for the instructors. These include: WebCT quiz/exam tools, assessment rubrics, Wimba voice tools, and e-portfolios.

Enhancing interaction and communication in your courses

Instructors are continually faced with trying to cover a considerable amount of topics in a short semester, while balancing this with providing students with opportunities for student-instructor and student-student interaction. This Lunch and Learn will showcase some electronic communication tools that can be used to enhance or facilitate classroom interaction. We will provide examples of how discussion forums, voice forums, weblog spaces, and chat tools are be used within the Faculty and in other UBC courses, with some discussion as to their pedagogical value.

Enhancing course content with multimedia

The arrival of digital multimedia to education has been both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it allows students to experience a different presentation of content that could not be conveyed as easily in a more traditional format. However, it has also resulted in the emergence of expensive reproductions that do little to enhance teaching or learning.

This Lunch and Learn will focus on showcasing simple and inexpensive multimedia tools that can achieve a high impact if used appropriately. We will introduce tools such as Flikr and podcasting, which are both easily accessible to both Faculty and students.

Social bookmarking tools for Faculty and students

As academic research publishing increasingly moves to digital formats, managing numerous downloaded articles, bookmarks/favorites, and citations can be challenging. This Lunch and Learn will introduce Faculty to web-based bookmarking tools such as Cite-U-Like, Delicious, and Furl, demonstrating how these tools can help you organize, find, manage, and pull academic research into a virtual space that can be accessed from everywhere, while also allow you to view what other people with similar interests are bookmarking.

*This Lunch and Learn will likely involve an expert from the UBC Office of Learning Technologies

Use the comment box after this post to let Jessica or myself know if there are any other topics that you would like to see in a Lunch and Learn, or if you would like to be involved in the planning of future Lunch and Learns. You can also contact Jessica for more information on hosting your own Lunch & Learn or to provide other topics of interest at 604.822.6746 or jmueller@interchange.ubc.ca.