July 2020 – Math Course Hub Initiative

Meeting Agenda and Notes 7/30/20

Hallooo!
Timeline
- Trainings tentatively scheduled 8/12-8/14 and 8/19-8/21
  - What do we absolutely need in place by then?
  - Satish: let’s shoot to have stuff done by 8/12!!
  - Lin: shooting for August 5th (out from Aug 5-12). Draft of everything. When she returns, will go through one more time. (NOTE: Lin won’t be available next Thurs Aug 6th weekly mtg)
  - Ariane: shooting to have everything by Aug 11th (Definitely 1275, for 1275CO)
  - Jonas: needs to build out the “other” pages.
    - Pages by Sheila Miller that we might want to leverage:
      - https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/math1275videolibrary/how-you-might-use-this-page-students/
      - https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/math1275videolibrary/notes-for-students/
Status updates
- How is everyone doing?
- MAT 1275 Course Hub– Ariane
  - “Table of contents” at top – design? (Can we get COMD to help?)
  - section headings? maybe numbered to match TOC
  - Request for review of language/editing
  - working with Holly – all videos on YouTube
- MAT 1372 Course Hub – Marianna
- MAT 1375 Course Hub – Jonas
- MAT 1475 Course Hub – Lin
  - 7 lessons complete – workflow in place, etc.
  - comments: add equation for line when tangent line is introduced (or link to review material on another course hub)
  - red color might not be enough contrast
  - Learning outcomes – contrast?
- MAT 1575 Course Hub – Kate
- MAT 2680 Course Hub – Satish
  - Summer school finishes next Thursday – expects to do a big push after that.
  - Collected content for about 20 lessons (NOTE: a few optional section – ommitted)
  - SIMIODE – will use some links from here (math modeling perspective) – Sheila Miller has some content here
  - Will do first OpenLab lesson this weekend.
  - Heads up: using Canvas – it’s great, works well with LaTeX
Lesson structure discussion
- Common elements for all lessons?
  - Title
  - photo element? (use as background for title? or drop?)
  - Resources:
    - Learning Outcomes – ??
    - Textbook section
    - WeBWorK assignment
    - Notes (lecture notes) – if available
    - Videos vs Additional Video Resources – vary a bit by course
- Some review notes
TO DO:
- Change “Syllabus” to “Course Outline” – in menu & on page (ALL COURSE HUBS) – validate with other Model Course folks first!!
- JONAS: Reach out to COMD folks about “Table of contents” (Ariane’s lessons) – formatting? Look at Lesson 16.

Meeting Agenda and Notes 7/23/20

Hellooooo!
Status update
- How is everyone doing?
- Acknowledgements: on about page
- 1475: Lin is using Ariane’s video resource guide – will verify it fits.
  - Ariane will make Lin admin on the VRG
- 1372: Marianna – Collecting video resources. Working with Suman – will make him an admin on the 1372 course hub.
- Organization of Lessons: Are we numbering them? Or name by topic? Should numbering skip exams?
Inviting course coordinators to join our meetings? (Henry, Holly, ??Ezra/Thomas)
- Pass along links to course coordinators
- Would be great to have their input but not being paid
- Lin: Henry modified course outline for 1475. Will reach out to Henry (cc Jonas) – will use his new course outline, will keep track of any changes.
- Invite to a meeting in August
Accessibility issues – making content accessible
- Some basics to keep in mind:
  - People using screen readers (translate the text on the page to speech).
  - Download links (include explanatory text, avoid opening in new tabs, use text rather than URL in link.
    - Question: linking to external resources that you might want to access without losing your place on the OpenLab? (e.g.: include text “link opens in new tab” or “to open link in new tab, right click…etc”)
    - Ariane – attended webinar by AMS – accesibility expert in UK. Especially critical in math! (pdf is the worst format for screen readers)
  - Color contrast – text on colored backgrounds
  - subtitles for videos – (waiting to hear back – maybe Youtube is preferred?)
  - Alt tags for images
- ASSIGNMENT: Read through these two posts on accessibility on the OpenLab:
  - Making your work accessible
  - Reading ease and accessibility
- WAVE – tool for checking all contrast on a page at once
- On Dashboard/Plugins:
  - WP Link Checker plugin – check for broken links
  - TablePress plugin – for making nice tables
Design:
- Similar enough so folks recognize “course hub”
- Distinct enough by course so folks make connections between course resources (course hub, model courses, Video Resource Guides)
- Existing resource design – each course has a color:
  - https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/projects/?search=video%20resources
- Could consider a pic/graphic theme –
  - Pexels has free photos – https://www.pexels.com/search/math/
  - or take pictures ourselves – notebooks, textbooks, blackboards, etc
- IDEA: Use color scheme for each course, e.g. 1475 is blue, but different visual elements for each different site (e.g. different elements).
QUESTIONS:
- Ariane: embedding video from Dropbox?
  - JONAS: reach out about embedding video – why is it small sometimes? Compare MAT 1275 lesson 14 vs lesson 16? (sometimes is converts video block to HTML block?!)
- Lin: how to duplicate a lesson?
  - “clone” option appears in bulk edit dropdown but not in mouseover menu (?)
- for Ariane: OG summer salary/webwork dev?
  - Focus on 1275, then clone and update for 1275CO
  - Focus on Course Hubs now – worked on WeBWorK in June, and will in August, also build resource page for 1575 (?). Will coordinate with Kate (and use videos recommended by Samar)
    - Will look into existing VRG – ask for cloning assistance if needed.
- Menus & Sidebars:
  - As you create lessons, add them to the “Lessons” Menu
  - For now, don’t worry about the menu in the sidebar (Jonas is going to do some work on this).
- Spoke to Sandie a few days ago re: online training in August
  - Sandie: in the module that we’re building, use 1275/1275CO as an example/model.
  - NOTE: for fall, looking like we have many more 1275 sections than 1275CO sections (new placement criteria?)
  - NOTE: Lin is also involved in SStF. Sandie says we have have funding going forward (next year) – RT. (last year: Andrew, Ariane, Lin – not sure about this year, also probably no Developmental work in this program this year??)

Weekly Working Thread

Hi everybody! As discussed in our meeting, let’s use this post to communicate between meetings – in particular:

leave a comment below every day or two – let us know what lessons you’ve completed
if you run into OpenLab problems, put them here – I’ll follow up and see what I can find (include a link where possible)

Thanks, everyone! We’ll talk again next Thursday 7/23, 4pm-5:30pm as usual.

-Jonas

Meeting agenda and notes 7/16/20

Hello and welcome!
Updates
- Rollout to department (meeting with Sandie tomorrow to coordinate various prof. dev. – Ariane, Samar, Bruce. But Sandie not sure if there will be funding available. BUT Ariane Too many commitments already this summer! Separate from 1275CO training, more general. Had put Ariane down to talk about OpenLab but not sure it’s the right fit/enough time. Marianna available to help in live sessions if that’s useful. Satish is available in a pinch (is also busy!)).
- Email to course coordinators sent Wed evening
Lessons
- What does a lesson look like? (cont’d) – Share initial lessons, discuss
  - Satish: sample lesson – in LaTeX, about 3 pages. On OL page: brief description, embedded video (recorded), link to lecture. NOTE: Not all lessons will require this level of content development – this particular topic (Bernoulli eq’s) is presented in a nonstandard fashion
  - Lin:
    - link to video resource page: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/groups-mat-1475-student-video-resources-/syllabus-with-links-to-videos/
    - (Ariane currently workin on Calc II)
    - Marianna: no video resource guide. Will pick & choose for now, revise in Fall as teaches class
- Structure for peer review?
- Timeline for lesson development?
  - Let’s draft as much content as we can in the next two weeks!
  - Everyone commit to commenting updates on their wrk (what lessons you’ve created, etc) on “WEEKLY WORKING THREAD” post – Jonas will post this today or tomorrow.
  - Can leave OpenLab questions there too (include a link)
Other resources
- About page: initial draft completed – needs feedback
- Video Resources: What’s our strategy for integrating existing video resource guides? Just put a link here, for now?
  - Discussion: let’s keep the VRGs (Video Resource Guides) as separate site, include links to appropriate pages on VRG within the lessons
- WeBWorK, Video Resources, Tutoring, Review pages – JONAS will work on drafting these
- Faculty Resources – need some help on what to put here
  - Course Coordination: what goes here? ideas?
  - WeBWorK – Faculty Resources: Mostly this will contain links to existing content on the WeBWorK OpenLab project
  - Training & Support:
QUESTIONS FOR OL TEAM:
- links don’t open in new tab, even when “open link in new tab” is selected (look at “Textbook” page on Lin’s site for example)
- Embedded video doesn’t display screen shot of video (Lin’s Lesson page) – only shows gray box (but in Preview)
- Upload stick photo to Ariane’s site

Meeting Agenda and Notes 7/9/20

Welcome and Hello!
- 3D meeting app (spatial.io)?
- Marianna: updates – LibreText
- Meeting time 4pm Thursday OK
Roll-out to department (Charlie will join for this part)
- Course Hubs, model courses
- Jonas will be preparing model courses and training in using them
- Does there need to be specific training for faculty about each course hub?
  - Satish: just need to educate faculty about course hubs – intro to department.
  - Can we invite faculty to reach out to participants about each course hub (Y)
  - Lin: About page – could act as a “manual” – details about what is included on Course Hub & how to find it. (In lieu of training!). Make distinction between section and course information.
    - JONAS will draft this & share for input & feedback
    - Include links to “all responsible parties” regarding a course!
  - Should include link to person responsible for course hub (and we should continue to update these in realtime, as we go)
  - 1275CO faculty go through training – can we build in the model course training in some way?
    - (at most 20/year in the past – but may have more this year!!). Ariane guesses there will be no-one new teaching 1275CO (lots of folks have been through training already, fewer sections overall)
    - The group agrees, 30-50 estimate overall (all courses)
  - JONAS: Check in with Sandie about 1275CO training and any other training
  - Math Dept OpenLab site! Let’s use this as much as possible (morning link back to it for central information)
Course Hubs
- How is everyone doing?
  - Administrative stuff
    - Able to log in?
    - Make changes? Updating “MAT 1375” everywhere
  - Content-building stuff
    - Create page
    - Managing menus
    - What other stuff?
      - using LaTeX, embed images & videos, importing material from Word
      - Format for “Question/Solution”?
  - Updating “MAT 1375” everywhere
What does a lesson look like?
- Link from Maura – fair use of copyrighted materials: https://guides.cuny.edu/cunyfairuse/faculty
- How much detail to include?
- Things to be included in each lesson?
- What will a typical lesson look like in each course?
  - MAT 1275
  - MAT 1372: A lot of hands-on, working in excel, getting them to work in excel, etc.
  - MAT 1375: Some text, definitions, examples, some images from text, video/screencasts showing examples worked out,
  - MAT 1475:
  - MAT 1575
  - MAT 2680:

Course Hubs have been created!

Hi everyone!

I just finished cloning the course hub to create versions for each of your courses (list below). I invited all of you to join all of the course hubs – please accept these invitations (through the OpenLab).

I also created a Google Doc for us to discuss “What does an online lesson look like?” – please take a look and ADD YOUR THOUGHTS!

Some notes about course hubs:

At this point the course hubs all look exactly the same, except for the name (which appears in the main header image). BEWARE: there are lots of places on the site that make reference to “MAT 1375” or “MAT 1375 Precalculus”, and part of your job will be to update these to the correct course. Some will be easy, some trickier – let me know if you run into trouble.
You should feel free to play around with the course hub – making changes or trying things out. If you do something you don’t like, we’re happy to help get things back to how they were!
I included a sample lesson from MAT 1375, based on my work last semester – BUT I plan to do some additional work on this (maybe driven by our “what does a lesson look like” discussion).

List of Course Hubs:

Assignments 🙂

Our next meeting is this Wednesday at 1pm. By then, please try to do the following:

Join all the of the course hubs above (and let me know, so I can grant you administrative access to the one you are working on)
Add your thoughts about lessons to the Google Doc.
If you have time, play around with creating a lesson (feel free to just edit the existing lesson if you like) – we’ll talk more about this on Wednesday.

Thanks, everybody!

Jonas

Month: July 2020