Explore highlights from the Digital Education and Innovation team’s impactful past projects.
Pandemic Pivot
In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Digital Education and Innovation team played a critical role in helping instructors rapidly adapt to shifting work and educational environments. Our efforts demonstrated how online technologies could be leveraged to minimize disruption and support the continuation of most course activities. This included preparing instructors to use platforms such as Canvas, Zoom, Google tools, and more. Although the materials developed at the time were designed for a swift and comprehensive transition to online teaching, they continue to serve as valuable resources—especially when instructors need to move a course online quickly due to unexpected absences or limited preparation time.
Moodle to Canvas Learning Management System Transition
In 2018, the University of Minnesota transitioned from the Moodle to Canvas learning management system (LMS) system to host course sites. This large-scale change posed significant technical, logistical, and change-management challenges. Over a two-year transition period, our team liaised with all CEHD departments to provide technical assistance to transfer 1418 course sites from Moodle into Canvas. We also provided individualized and group professional development support, along with resources and reference guides to assist instructors to become familiar with Canvas features. The transition was also an opportunity to revisit and reconsider online course design practices to leverage the features of Canvas in service of student-centered learning environments.
COIL Initiative
Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is a teaching model that builds intercultural competence by connecting students and instructors across cultures through shared online learning environments. COIL courses are co-created and co-taught by international partners, emphasizing experiential, project-based, and student-centered learning. At CEHD, cohorts of instructors collaborated with the Digital Education and Innovation team to design several international courses. Although the formal project has concluded, the materials developed continue to be valuable resources (PDF) for instructors exploring co-creation, co-teaching, and the multicultural dimensions of their students' learning experiences.