Opportunities for Training:

Is it possible to disable the ability of students to copy the questions if we want to use the quiz questions as a final exam? 

You can disable ‘right click’ which is found as an option within the quiz. However, in reality students can still capture an image of the quiz question. If you are concerned about students ‘copying’ the question, we would recommend not using quiz questions on the final exam.

Could we set a timer as to when they must complete the exam and control it by having only one question appear at a time?

You can set a time limit for the entire exam but not for each question.

Can Avenue quizzes be organized so that they’re open to students over several days but within that period students only have 2-3 hours to complete the it?

Yes, instructors can set the start and end date to be wide open but set the duration of the text/exam to 180 minutes. This function can be found within the restrictions tab of the quiz under the heading “Timing”. You will want “Enforced Time Limit”, and to check the box labelled “Prevent the student from making further changes”. This will, for example, leave the text/exam open from April 5-8, but once a student begins, they only have 2 hours to complete it.

How can Avenue question banks be set up? 

If you’re looking for question banks, typically publishers can provide them to you. Ask them for instructions on how to import for Brightspace. Typically, you’ll receive a zip package. Login to Avenue –> go to your course –> Course Admin –> Import/Export/Copy components to import into the course.

Is the chat function private? E.g. if a student and prof are talking on chat, can anyone else see that conversation? 

If the chat is accessed from within a course, it is NOT private. Typically, there are only one or two people in the chat at the same time. However, if there’s a concurrent user who enters the chat, anything typed will be visible to everyone within the chat.

There is a chat in the e-mail function which is private. We would strongly suggest using Microsoft Teams, if possible, for this sort of communication.

Groups can mimic the behaviour of sections, so you can create groups of students, and, using the Assignments tool, assign each group a different version of the exam  

We recommend an asynchronous approach first. Recording lectures, posting content and discussion forum prompts in Avenue is a good start. If you determine that synchronous (live) lectures are best, please use WebEx Meetings or Microsoft Teams and record the lecture. Post the recording on your Avenue course shell so that students who are unable to make it are still able to access the recording.

If you are uncertain as to what web conferencing solution you should use, check out our “Web conferencing Comparison” Sheet.

The current policy is that students are not to come to campus which means that assignment submissions should be handled virtually. Assignments can be easily submitted by all students using the Avenue Assignments Tool.

Click here to begin: https://wiki.mcmaster.ca/avenue/dropbox

Reweighting is not possible in Avenue. Best to reweight individuals in Excel and indicate that Avenue will not display correct grades. 

However, exemption of a grade is possible (this treats the assignment/grade as if it didn’t exist) 

Click here for Grade Exemption steps

Yes, unless there is a provision to conduct defenses online. Contact Graduate Studies for more information: https://gs.mcmaster.ca/contacts/

As with proctored exams, assessments that require students to access specialized equipment should be modified to use equipment they already have access to, such as a phone or laptop for recording audio, etc. There is a great deal of uncertainty in terms of what services will remain available in the coming weeks for borrowing or renting equipment. Instructors should avoid relying on such services in the case that they are suddenly not available before the end of term. 

You can email your class list through the Faculty Centre on Mosaic. Sign into Mosaic using your MacID. Within the Faculty Centre, click on Class Roster and select the appropriate class. At the bottom of the page there is a “Notify All Students” button, which will populate all of the students’ emails in an email template that will be sent via Outlook.  

• Use breakout rooms in WebEx. Visit the WebEx support page for information on preparing for and conducting classes in breakout rooms: https://wiki.mcmaster.ca/webex/training_centre_support_resources 
• Use groups in Avenue (https://wiki.mcmaster.ca/avenue/groups) 
• Create discussion topics in Avenue that are dedicated to a one case study 
• Contact mi@mcmaster.ca for further support

Academic integrity is an important consideration for moving assessments online and should be considered on a case by case basis as you would with a traditional course. You’ll likely be able to spot a sudden and unexplained increase to an individual student’s performance even in the online environment. It’s important to consider that students’ access to resources, including their available time, may have changed significantly with the shift to online learning. Keep in mind that students may have less access to the internet, may be accessing course resources by their phone as their only connected device or may be scrambling to address concerns with their finances or living arrangements during this shift. 

Instructors may lose some of the assurance of academic integrity by moving tests and quizzes online and it’s important to balance this with accessibility and preventing undue hardship, through unnecessarily difficult assessments, on students as they complete the term. Rather than trying to set a “cheat-proof” test, instead deliberately design open-book, open-source or even collaborative exams. After graduation, students will almost never be told to produce work in total isolation. We can design assignments that mirror and prepare students for the “real world”, where they will have books, internet resources and colleagues for help.  

Other good ideas on academic integrity and online testing here: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/career/teaching-intelligence-how-take-your-classes-online#survey-answer 

Considerations for putting your course online, including considerations for assessments, can be found at the following blog post: https://anygoodthing.com/2020/03/12/please-do-a-bad-job-of-putting-your-courses-online/ 

Refer to the University of Newcastle’s Guide to Open Book Exams  
 

University Technology Services (UTS) has launched a Virtual Desktop service that allows users to access UTS Student Labs anywhere there is internet connectivity.

At this time, the Virtual Desktop service (VMware Horizon Client) has a capacity for 330 simultaneous users to access licensed software. This service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Please see the IT Continuity Tools and Services page for instructions on how to download. 

If you have any questions or challenges accessing this service, please contact: tuts@mcmaster.ca. 

We currently do not have an institutional tool to support remote, online proctoring for final exams. We strongly advocate consideration of other options for a final assessment (you can find these in our Alternative Assessments tab). Online proctoring presents many issues, including: student privacy (recording student private information, which can be quite sensitive depending on their circumstances); data privacy, as the servers for these remote proctoring services do not reside in Canada; technical roadblocks with access and robust internet connection; software requirements for students who may not have the appropriate device; and finally, evidence that it does very little to prevent cheating.

The Campus Store is committed to student success and has been actively reaching out to instructors to offer assistance in identifying digital resources for the spring & summer term.  The Campus Store has access to a cutting-edge digital distribution platform that contains dynamic content from a large number of Canadian Publishers.  OER content from eCampus Ontario, BC Campus OpenEd and copyright free classics are also loaded into this system and can be adopted by faculty for free distribution to students.  This platform also enables the store to publish and distribute materials digitally while ensuring DRM, copyright management, royalty management and secure transaction processing is in place.  Over the past few years we have worked in partnership with MPS to develop digital e-coursepacks that we distribute through this platform.  These are a great digital alternative to a printed coursepack.

The Campus Store Course Materials team is actively working with content providers to increase the number of digital assets that faculty have access to.  They encourage staff and faculty members reach out to our course materials team by email at d-bktext@mcmaster.ca.  They are here to help with locating a digital resource or finding a suitable digital alternative to print.

Campus Stores across Canada worked with Publishers to get students access to eBooks through April 30th.  The McMaster Campus Store has been using their website as well as their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook channels to spread the word.  Students just need to log in with their McMaster email address to access the free materials.  Keep in mind that these are flat file etextbooks, they do not have the interactive learning tools that many of the faculty members at McMaster Adopt. This work has been done in partnership with a company called Vital Source in the US.

McMaster’s copyright office has helpful information that will guide you through the considerations to keep in mind as you navigate the pedagogical and technical shift from in-person to online teaching.