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Instructor's Guide for GX Live & GX Prime

This guide will give you an overview of the course, how it is delivered, and the role of the instructor in GX courses.  Please also review the course content in Moodle. All assignments and learning activities for each unit are explained in detail online, and this guide is meant to supplement the information found in the Moodle course. 

Before you begin, read through the Course Introduction in Moodle, including the course description, learning outcomes, and assessment overview.

GX Course Delivery

This course is offered in two modalities: GX Live & GX Prime. 

GX Live (Facilitated):

  • Course Content: In this modality, students work through the course material in Moodle according to the course schedule, submitting assignments by assigned due dates. 

  • Live sessions: Students attend weekly Learning Labs led by a facilitator.  In the labs, students engage in various learning activities, discussions, and assignment preparation.  The labs are 2 hours each week, and students must attend 75% of the labs.  

  • Instructor role: The role of the instructor is to give feedback to students on assignments and answer questions from facilitators and students. Note some instructors choose to be present for some labs (see examples in the Facilitation Orientation website here{target="_blank"}).

  • Key Resources for GX Live:

GX Prime (Online Asynchronous):

  • Course Content: In this modality, students work through the course in Moodle at their own pace.  They have 6 months to submit the three required assignments.

  • Online Community: Students will be encouraged to engage with the online community through Discourse{target="_blank"}, as well as optional Live sessions.  See the section below on the Online Learning Hub.

  • Instructor role: The instructor is responsible for giving feedback and assigning a grade for the three assignments. Instructors and/or facilitators are also encouraged to send out reminder emails or announcements to keep students on track. These motivational messages may re-engage students that may have decided not to complete the course assignments.

Online Learning Hub (Asynchronous Resources & Synchronous Sessions)

  • All GX students (Live & Prime) will have the support of the Online Learning Hub, which will include “Just In Time” support from facilitators, online resources, and regular live sessions.  

  • The live sessions will be optional and will cover general topics for online learning, such as writing support, study skills, and community building. The purpose is for students to connect with their peers and facilitators and have a robust support system.

Instructor To-Do List

There are a few things you should do before the semester starts to ensure that your students have a smooth transition to studying with you.

✔️ Receive confirmation of course code and Moodle access info.

✔️ Import content from your previous cohort. If yours is a new course, the Online team can add you to the Master course shell so you can import from there to your new section. If importing from a previous course, delete items that you no longer need. See here for instructions.

✔️ Add a syllabus: You will need to change the dates in the syllabus, make sure it is a pdf version, get approval from the department chair, and upload it to Moodle on the Course Introduction tab.

✔️ Add a welcome message: Add an Announcement forum at the bottom of the Course Introduction page. To welcome your new students, tell them about yourself and how to reach you (e.g. email), and perhaps share an encouraging Bible verse or what interests you about this course. This could be the first connection point with your learners to welcome them to Trinity's online learning community. Consider adding a personal welcome video, or photo of yourself! It may go a long way to ease students' anxieties and motivate them to succeed in your course.

✔️ Edit the Schedule tab in Moodle. Although you may have a detailed schedule in your syllabus, you may want to use this editable page that details key information for each week, including:

  • key resources students need to read/watch;
  • important ungraded learning activities that will help them complete an assignment;
  • information on which activities to complete before/after a Learning Lab session.

Note: For GX Prime, students have 6 months to complete the course. We still suggest a schedule for them if they would like to complete the course in 6 weeks, but there are no due dates.

✔️ Check the course materials: You may notice that this fully developed online course has a lot of material, including videos, unit writing, and external links. If possible, please check for broken links and send a message to our online team (elearning@twu.ca) so we can help you fix any errors.

✔️ Check the Assignment details and due dates: Due dates should be found in your course syllabus, but they may also be in your Discussion Forums and/or Assignment dropboxes. Please check that those dates are correct. Also add or edit the Assignment dropboxes (if they are missing). Confirm all assessment details and that the dropboxes are open for students to submit assignments.

✔️ Check the Gradebook: Please double check that all assessment details are correct, including the percentages in the course Gradebook.

✔️ Course Visibility: Your course is visible to you as the instructor, but it is hidden from students. When you are ready, follow these instructions to make your course visible to students. Your course will move from the 'Future' tab on your dashboard to the 'In progress' tab on the date indicated in the 'Start date' field of the course settings.

For GX Live Only: ✔️ Prepare for Synchronous sessions: If you have synchronous Zoom Meetings in your course, you will need to become familiar with the following:

  • Scheduling class meetings
  • Recording Zoom Meetings
  • Adding the recorded session to Microsoft Stream
  • Embedding videos into Moodle See the following guide for details: Managing Videos | TWU Learning Environment Help Pages

✔️ Use Announcements for Weekly encouragement and review.

Online Support

TWU Online is here to support you and your learners! Please see the following resources to support you as you prepare for your course, as well as resources you can share with your students.

Moodle Support

The Support Services at TWU have built an extensive Knowledge base, with instructions on serveral issues, including:

If you need support, please email elearning@twu.ca{target="_blank"}.

Editing the Course Materials

For GX courses, the Course Book (Units) is edited by the online team. This allows for version control and course fidelity across your program. For edits to the course units, please email elearning@twu.ca or click on the following link to Send a Bug report{target="_blank"} to our team.

All other tabs in Moodle are editable by instructors (Course Home, Schedule, Assessment, Community). Please email elearning@twu.ca if you have troubles editing these sections.

Online Learning Resources for Students

On the Course Home page, there is a section to let students where they can access support. Please point these out to students during the Learning Lab.

You may also want to share the following links: