From the French Side: Choose the Perfect Holiday Gift for the College Teacher

The holidays are a time for giving and sharing. Here are some pretty nifty digital gift ideas for college teachers. These digital tools, culled from articles that have appeared in the French Edition of Profweb in the fall of 2019, will make next session easier and more enjoyable for all the teachers on your gift list.

For the teachers who like to travel

Ever dreamed of seeing the world? Would you like your students to see the world as you see it? Céline Nourcy, a teacher at Cégep Limoilou, talks about her experience of creating a pedagogical website for her geography course in the article Un site web pédagogique pour les étudiants d’un cours de géographie. She found it easy to use WordPress to create a customised website hosted on Profweb’s Web Space. She uploaded pictures, maps, videos, case studies as well as Internet links that the students could use to review at their own pace. It is worth mentioning that Profweb offers educational web hosting as well as support by the Profweb technical team free of charge.

The home page of Céline Nourcy’s pedagogical website for her geography course

For the teachers who like games

In the article Le jeu sérieux pour former les enseignants à l’évaluation, Camille Arpin a Profweb editor, presents a project that, when completed, will produce a board game to help train teachers in using innovative learning assessment. The didactics department of UQAM in collaboration with OPIEVA (Observatoire interuniversitaire sur les pratiques innovantes d’évaluation des apprentissages) saw their project granted funding under the Digital Action Plan. The researchers are exploring the potential of game-based learning and serious play to design a game that will spark a reflection on evaluation practices. Four to six players must create an innovative assessment to win the game. During the winter of 2020 the board game will be tested and eventually a digital version will be created.

Would you enjoy a different type of game, a pedagogical RPG or role-playing game? French teachers, Marilyne Gagnon, Pierre-Luc Pauzé and Mélanie Landry at the Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe are developing an interactive web platform thanks to a grant from the Digital Action Plan. With the ambition of motivating and encouraging their students in the preparation for college French course called Renforcement en français, langue d’enseignement, the teachers created “Projet B” a game similar to Classcraft but adapted to the college level. Their first scenario featured a zombie apocalypse that the students ate up (pardon the pun!). The teachers realise that a zombie apocalypse may not be every teacher’s cup of tea and so they are developing different themes. Read about this exciting adventure in Projet B: une plateforme interactive sur laquelle vous êtes maître de vos apprentissages!

Preliminary version of header for zombie theme on the Projet B platform

For the teachers who have everything

Provide the lucky teachers with a list of time hacks. With these awesome productivity hacks they will be able to take their marking to the next level.

Optimise your marking time while making your feedback efficient, Optimiser son temps de correction tout en rendant sa rétroaction efficace, is the title of Anne-Marie Lafortune’s text with tips to speed up feedback (Anne-Marie teaches at Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles):

• Use keyboard shortcuts to avoid having to copy the same comments on several students copies.
• Record audio commentary rather than write comments for oral presentations.
• Use a video to record while you mark a screencast of a student’s copy.
• Use voice dictation on your computer.
• Have students submit assignments in the cloud. They can have peers offer constructive comments and even consult the teacher’s comments before the next class.

For the teachers who want sweet dreams

Have you ever had a nightmare at the beginning of session about walking into the first class, to give a boring page-by-page reading of your course plan?

Eric Tremblay from Campus Notre-Dame-de-Foy says this delivery method is truly outdated. He explains how to present course plans in the digital age in Présentation de plans de cours à l’ère du numérique. Using a microsite to present your course plan is definitely engaging for the students, as they have to scroll through the page to follow the teacher’s presentation and have to answer occasional questions. The article includes a step-by-step procedure to successfully make your first (ICP) interactive course plan using Adobe Spark . Profweb’s editor added that Genially offers similar features to the previous digital tool, but comes in a free version. Create an ICP and make sure there are no more nightmares only sweet dreams.

Holiday wishes

Hopefully, you will be tempted to try some of the innovative ideas showcased in this session-end review. This is only a sample of the many captivating articles from the French side. If there are any of the articles summarized here that you would like to read in English please let us know.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy every minute of your well-deserved holidays.

Warmest wishes for Happy Holidays from the entire team at Profweb!