DOLCE - December 11, 2020

This month we featured a faculty speaker, graduate student speaker, and a question and answer session about technology-supported remote instruction.

Our featured faculty speaker was Dr. Marc Tancredi Facciotti, Associate Professor with appointments in the Genome Center and Department of Biomedical Engineering. Our featured graduate student speaker was Larissa Saco, Doctoral Student in the Department of Sociology and Graduate Student Researcher for ATS. Dr. Andy Jones facilitated the question and answer session on instructional technology in the remote learning environment.

Dr. Marc Tancredi Facciotti is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Genome Center at UC Davis. He talked about a tool called NotaBene for online discussion “in context” (i.e., directly in the course content). With collaborators at MIT and Edinburgh and funding support from an NSF grant, the team studies the use of this type of forum, develops artificial intelligence to predict student engagement and sentiment, and builds tools for students and instructors to learn from the discussion. Dr. Facciotti discussed this tool and its implications for collaborative learning in the classes we teach.

A longtime graduate student researcher in instructional design for Academic Technology Services, Larissa Saco presented suggestions for making remote courses more accessible. Building upon accessibility topics Saco co-presented at the 2019 December DOLCE with Dr. Margaret Merrill of ATS and Joshua Hori of the Student Disability Center, Friday’s presentation will review accessibility concerns and opportunities in light of this year’s large-scale move to remote teaching. Topics to be covered will include an accessibility overview of Canvas sites, electronic documents, and instructional videos, as well as the application of accessibility principles when designing presentation slides, working with Zoom recordings, and editing Aggie Video captions. Saco presented at this, her last DOLCE on staff. To learn more about Saco’s background and work at ATS, check out her interview in The Wheel.