Tech Solutions Guide

Technology can connect us like never before. But with infinite possibilities comes many challenges in making suitable and judicial decisions about best fit – what technologies will be the best solution for instructors, course contexts, and students? This guide maintains that:

• Less is more – stick to a limited number of tools and technologies 
• The Learning Management System (OnQ or other LMS offered by your Faculty) is the single best technical solution for course management in a remote teaching context.

Sections:

• How do I evaluate eLearning tools in deciding if they are best for me?
• I want low-tech solutions – what can I do?
• I want to go beyond the basics – what can I do?

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How do I evaluate eLearning tools to decide if they are best for me?

The Rubric for E-Learning Tool Evaluation offers educators a framework, with criteria and levels of achievement, to assess the suitability of an e-learning tool for their learners' needs and for their own learning outcomes and classroom context.

Use the Rubric for eLearning Tool Evaluation to evaluate any elearning tools you may be considering
 

You can use the rubric to evaluate any digital technology, mediated through the use of a computing device, deliberately selected to support teaching and student learning.

I want low-tech solutions – what can I do?

Our recommendation – use OnQ or your Faculty LMS platform. It’s got everything you’ll need in one place and there’s lots of support across campus.

• Work with educational and tech supports within your Faculty to get a course site started
• Use foundational tools such as Announcements, Content, and Assessments

I want to go beyond the basics – what can I do?

Our recommendation is to build on the foundations you’ve established within OnQ or other LMS and use a select number of technologies to creatively support. Here are some ideas:

• Course communications
  • Add media to course communications. Add videos to weekly announcements. Develop a graphic syllabus using Canva
  • See the Communications Start Here Guide for more information on communicating with students generally.
• Student engagement
  • add increased opportunities for active learning by using technologies that support collaboration, practice and rehearsal.
  • See the Student Engagement Start Here Guide for more information on active learning strategies
• Content delivery
  • ​​​​​​​Use technology to add polished, engaging features to your course content delivery. Edit recorded videos to add features like additional text and images. Add media to your OnQ content pages, such as graphics and images.
• Assessment
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Expand options for creative engagement in assessments.
  • See the Assessment Start Here Guide for a range of ideas.

The Transforming Teaching Toolkit by the Centre for Teaching & Learning, Queen’s University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.