D2L Checklists

The latest version of the D2L Community Newsletter included an article about D2L Checklists by Barb Brown of the Calgary Catholic Schools. While reading the article it occurred to me that our faculty have largely eschewed this tool in D2L. Many of the points mentioned in the article are geared toward a K-12 environment, but I'm wondering if we shouldn't take another look at the usefulness of this tool.

In the article she mentions using dynamic (not static) checklists for a) organizing content, b) differentiating instruction within a course, and c) differentiating courses from one another. A couple of quotes:
  • Teachers releasing dynamic checklists, customized and sensitive to the needs of the student, have noted an increase in student engagement in their courses.
  • As courses become saturated with content files, it becomes difficult for students to locate the correct files needed for particular assignments. Teachers use the checklist to organize the learning activities and due dates, to simplify navigation for the student and to provide a means of tracking completion of items.
  • The Checklist tool can be used to divide course work into smaller components for the student that becomes overwhelmed by seeing too many activities or content at once.
Good article. Check it out.

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