Vancouver’s yearly hot chocolate festival is underway, this year featuring work from our learning designer director, Natasha Boskic. Continue reading “Taste of Love: Edible Poetry by Natasha Boskic”
Taste of Love: Edible Poetry by Natasha Boskic
Preparing Your Library Online Course Reserves (LOCR)
What is LOCR?
Library Online Course Reserves (LOCR) is a system that allows you to easily add articles, books, web links, and media resources to an online resource list for your course. You can browse and add items from the UBC Library Catalog, or upload PDFs for copyright clearance
Every course in Canvas has a “Library Online Course Reserves” link, but they are two separate systems. LOCR can be accessed directly (by you or your students) at https://courses.library.ubc.ca. Students can access LOCR through the direct link two weeks before the start of term, even before the course is published in Canvas.
Preparing to use LOCR
Preparing your reserves is easy.
You can copy them forward from a previous course or upload your syllabus. Using your syllabus, library staff will add items to LOCR, obtain reading materials, secure licences where necessary, and upload the content on your behalf.
You can also use Self Service to add your own items.
We have prepared a handout you can share or keep for your reference.
Canvas: Getting Ready for Start of Term
Getting ready to teach with Canvas? We have some suggestions for you. These steps will ensure you are ready for the upcoming term.
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Setting up your course
Getting Started with Canvas
How can I change a Canvas course availability dates?
By default, your Canvas course will be closed for student access eight weeks after a term. You can check the Canvas access dates for each term.
You can extend the closing date manually by yourself. From the navigation bar on the left side of your Canvas course, click Settings > Course Details. Make sure under the Participation section, Course is selected. Then enter a new closing date. You can also give students early access to the course by entering an earlier start date than the term start. Note that the course will need to be published for students to be able to view it. Finally, click Update Course Details at the bottom of the page.
How can I give my students early/extended access in Canvas?
To give students early or extended access your Canvas course perform the following:
- Go to Settings on the left course navigation bar. If wanting to grant early access confirm that the course has been published by looking at the top right corner for green text stating ‘Course is Published’. If you’re unsure, the following link will show you how to publish your course. Note: The default access dates to Canvas are around the beginning of each school term and close for students eight weeks after the term ends. See the Canvas access dates here: Canvas access dates
- To allow your students to view the course earlier or later, go to Course Details under Settings. Make sure to select “Course” under the Participation category.
- Set an earlier start date/time or later end date/time.
- Click Update Course Details at the very bottom of the page. These boxes are checked by default.
To double check if students have been enrolled, click on People in the left navigation bar.

It’s just four easy steps to open your course early to students.
How to publish a Canvas course
Publishing your course in Canvas
You need to publish your course before your students can access it. You can do this by clicking the Publish button on your Canvas course Home Page.
When it shows like the screenshot below, it means your course is published.
Please note that this may not show your course right away. By default, courses are available between the Canvas Access Dates for the listed term. You can modify the dates to give students early access to Canvas (how-to link), or extend their access once the course is over (how-to link).
Publishing individual items in Canvas
You can publish individual items by clicking on buttons labelled ‘publish’ and coloured grey.
If you ever see a crossed out circle icon next to an item, that item is unpublished. To publish the item, click the crossed out circle icon and the item will publish.
TEC EXPO – 2019
TEC Expo 2019 was held on October 22nd 2019. View the Photo Gallery!
- View our TEC Expo 2019 Photo Gallery
- View our TEC Expo 2018 Photo Gallery
- View our TEC Expo 2017 Photo Gallery
- View our TEC Expo 2016 Photo Gallery
- View our TEC Expo 2015 Video
- View our TEC Expo 2015 Photo Gallery
- View our TEC Expo 2014 Photo Gallery
Event Description
On October 22nd this year, ETS hosted its sixth TEC Expo event in the Scarfe building foyer at 2125 Main Mall. The Technology Enhanced Classroom (TEC) Expo is an annual event designed to showcase and celebrate creative and innovative uses of technology in face-to-face, blended, and online classrooms within the Faculty of Education.
Need Help?
For more information, please contact the ETS office at ets.educ@ubc.ca or by phone at 604 822 6333.

Using CLAS to create asynchronous interactive group video seminars
Dr. Leah Macfadyen
I’ll demonstrate and discuss how I used a collaborative video annotation tool in place of live seminars in my online course. CLAS (for Collaborative Lecture Annotation System) was developed at UBC, and is actively in use to support learner engagement with video (as well as audio and now image) resources in a variety of ways: whole-class annotation of lecture videos, one to one instructor feedback on learner ‘performance’ of different kinds, asynchronous group ‘video seminars’ and more.

A Blended Learning Approach in a Community Field Centre
Johanna Sam
This presentation will share a blended learning model, that combines online practices and land-based pedagogy, used in a community-based Indigenous Teacher Education program. Blended learning positively influenced connectedness among Teacher Candidates in rural locations. Implications for blended learning can foster a sense of belonging, which may enhance learning experiences and engagement.

The educational possibilities of VR & AR
Emerging Media Lab
To support learning and research and to provide UBC with a leading edge among other top universities, the Emerging Media Lab provides a collaborative space for UBC faculty, students and staff to explore emerging technologies and develop innovative tools and solutions. We will be giving demos of virtual reality and discussing the immersive and transformative learning possibilities that virtual and augmented reality may provide for students of any background and level.

Learning Analytics
Fabian Froehlich, Craig Thompson
Learning Analytics can be a useful tool for understanding how students engage with, and learn from course materials. The three tools, MyLA, Threadz and OnTask, which will be demoed, can support student and teacher in an environment where learning-management-systems are on the rise. Using Learning Analytics to promote self-directed learning renders these tools valuable for education.

Create, Make, Innovate: hands-on interdisciplinary learning
Eric Lee, Scott Robertson
Drop by our MAKER table and try your hand at a design or coding challenge. The possibilities of design challenges are limited only by time, materials and the constraints you as a teacher apply. Chat with Scott Robertson, PHD student and Eric Lee, Cognitive Systems Undergrad who are working on a TLEF funded project with Lorrie Miller, Marina Milner-Bolotin & Yvonne Dawydiak. Visit the Scarfe Digital Sandbox for more information!


Interactive learning with H5P.org and Kaltura
Victoria Surtees, Masaru Yamamoto
Is your online content too “texty”? Looking to enhance interaction? In this demo, we share our experiences using H5P.org and Kaltura to build activities such as interactive images, slideshows, and videos as part of an online orientation workshop for international students. By integrating H5P’s game-like tools, we sought to embed interaction within the structure of the online module itself. The activities work across devices and facilitate rapid uptake with minimal instructor intervention.


Streaming the past and present, coding the future: Curio and Ozobots
Wendy Traas, Jennifer Abel
The Education Library will showcase Curio, an online collection of educational content from the CBC including documentaries, archival materials, and teachers guides. Also featured will be Ozobots, a resource to support coding literacy and computational thinking. An educational streaming video platform allows teachers to incorporate current and historic content in an engaging and supported way.



AR and VR resources for STEM teachers
Dr. Marina Milner-Bolotin, Jenny Zhu, Ryan Lin
In our presentation we will describe how we designed VR and AR resources for elementary and secondary STEM teachers and how these resources have been incorporated in STEM methods courses in teacher education, as well as during the Family Math and Science Day at UBC Faculty of Education.
Faeyza Mufti
Faeyza Mufti, MET
Manager, Learning Design
faeyza.mufti@ubc.ca | 604.822.3577
Main “Big Picture” Responsibilities at LDDI
I ensure that LDDI as a team is able to deliver top-class service to our faculty. We do our best to look ahead, explore and innovate to support the new and emerging needs of our instructors and faculty.
Specific Areas of Interest in the Field of Educational Technology
My interests include exploring new trends and models of technology-enabled learning in higher education. My work at LDDI allows me to stay in touch with the developments in this area. My interactions with faculty further provide insights into the effectiveness of different modes of online teaching.
Your Work Within the LDDI Office, and the Faculty of Education
The broad scope of my work and day-to-day responsibilities fall into all four of the major areas that LDDI is serving, namely: Learning Design, Teaching with Technology, Innovation, and Professional Development.
What kept you centered over the pandemic?
Love of the game!
What are your values and priorities in Education technology?
Let not tools dictate how you want to teach, rather use tools for how you want to teach.
What is a strength and challenge that comes from teaching online?
Online teaching opens avenues to try out new ideas and let go of old assumptions that have neither benefitted teachers nor the students.
Any advice you would give to someone who is new to teaching online?
Keep it simple and flexible.
Natasha Boškić
Natasha Boškić, PhD
Director, Learning Design
natasha.boskic@ubc.ca | 604.822.1831
Main “Big Picture” Responsibilities at LDDI
I think about the direction our Faculty may go in relation to innovation and good practices in teaching and learning approaches, in alignment with the strategic goals of the Faculty of Education and the University.
Specific Areas of Interest in the Field of Educational Technology
My specific interests are in responding to the needs of an increasingly wider and more varied audience, finding solutions to maintaining high quality standards of the learning environment design, while also meeting specific requirements of temporal, geographical and cultural diversity.
Your Work Within the ETS Office, and the Faculty of Education
I am connected with the BC, Canadian and international community, which helps me bring new ideas and solutions for technology integration and practice to our Faculty.
Interesting Tidbit
In addition to my background in education, I am also a writer and poet.
Publications
Boskic, N., Sork, T. J., Irwin, R., Nashon, S., Nicol, C., Meyer, K., & Hu, S. (2018). Using technology to provide higher education for refugees. In Jean-Francois, E. (Ed.), Transnational perspective on innovation in teaching and learning technologies (pp. 285-304). Leiden: Brill. Sense.