Resources: Teaching with Lumen Courseware
- Webinars: Learn how to get started with Lumen courseware, set up your course, and apply best practices
- Lumen Learning FAQs: Learn more by viewing some of our most frequently answered questions
If you’re looking for technical support, visit our support site, send a message to support@lumenlearning.com or schedule an Office Hours appointment for live virtual support.
Webinars
Watch: Getting Started with Waymaker Courseware
How easy is it REALLY to get started with Lumen course materials? This recorded webinar puts our CEO, Kim Thanos, to the test!
Preview and learn how to get started with Waymaker, Lumen’s personalized learning courseware. Waymaker courses are available for a variety of subjects including the Social Sciences, Humanities, Business, Biology, and Statistics.
Watch: Getting Started with Lumen OHM Courseware
Learn about Lumen Online Homework Manager (OHM), our course-building and online homework platform for STEM subjects including Math and Chemistry.
During this webinar recording you will get an overview of OHM and see the easy steps you can take to get started.
Watch on Demand: Building Community in Online Courses
This recording, from a webinar jointly hosted by NOSS (National Organization for Student Success) and Lumen Learning, share tools and approaches you can use to build a strong sense of community in online courses.
The featured presenter is Dr. Steven Greenlaw, Economics Professor at the University of Mary Washington.
Video Series: Getting Started with Lumen Courseware
Created by the Lumen Team, these short videos provide how-to guidance and recommendations for supporting effective teaching and learning using Lumen digital courseware. Lumen course materials are designed to support the success of at-risk learners, and they work well in online, hybrid, or face-to-face modalities.
Quick Course Set-up with Lumen Waymaker
See the fast, simple steps to set up your course in your LMS and get ready to teach online using Lumen Waymaker courseware.
Quick Course Set-up with Lumen OHM
See the fast, simple steps to set up your math course and get ready to teach online using Lumen OHM (Online Homework Manager).
Practice and Immediate Targeted Feedback in Lumen Waymaker
Research has taught us that learning by doing is 6 times more effective than reading alone. See how we are incorporating practice and immediate targeted feedback into Waymaker.
Connecting and Building Relationships with Students Using Lumen Waymaker
The internet is an incredibly powerful communication medium, and Waymaker can help you leverage that power to communicate frequently, effectively, and authentically with your students.
These videos share the voices and experiences of college and university faculty members using Lumen course materials to strengthen their students’ success through evidence-based teaching and learning practices across a variety of disciplines.
Spotlight:
Central Piedmont CC
Course Focus: Biology
Learn how Waymaker has helped Alison von Briesen, a biology instructor at Central Piedmont Community College, strengthen relationships with her students.
Spotlight:
Odessa College
Course Focus: Math
Learn how OHM has helped William Vanderzyden from Odessa College
motivate his students and increase engagement.
Spotlight:
Cuyahoga CC (Tri-C)
Course Focus: Psychology
Learn how Waymaker has made Stacey Souther’s life easier, a psychology instructor from Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) and also helped her build community and communication in her online classroom.
Spotlight:
SEMO & FSCJ
Course Focus: Math
Hear from two faculty teams about their experiences seeking affordable alternatives for math courseware and making the transition to open educational resources (OER) with Lumen OHM. Presenters include Dan Daly and Ann Schnurbusch from Southeast Missouri State University and Matthew Simmons and Peter Shapiro from Florida State College at Jacksonville.
Professional Development Opportunities
Lumen Circles:
Community-focused Professional Development
Lumen Circles connect faculty members through virtual peer communities focused on strengthening effective teaching practices and supporting student success.
- Select areas you want to expand your teaching capabilities
- Virtual training combined with applied teaching experiences
- Build on the strengths of your own teaching practice
- Reflect, learn, and share with a virtual peer community
- Skilled facilitation, mentoring, and support
Lumen Learning FAQs
Does Lumen have any additional resources for moving my class online?
The Lumen Team is expert in many things, including effective teaching and learning using open educational resources. Yet as institutions, faculty and students face tremendous uncertainty around the impact of COVID-19, it’s worthwhile to seek advice from experts from across the educational community to help with the challenges and transitions ahead.
In response to many of the general questions we’re getting about best practices for setting up courses and teaching online, we’ve prepared a curated list to share information and recommendations from some of our favorite sources.
How does your courseware work when a course is already in progress?
Lumen courseware is fully customizable. Once a course file is delivered into your Learning Management System (LMS) – specifically Canvas, Blackboard, D2L BrightSpace, or Moodle – you can customize any of the content. This means you can remove what you have already covered, adjust the remaining content to match your syllabus, and/or add any content you would like to incorporate.
Do you have courses that cover different term lengths?
Lumen courseware can work with virtually any term length because you can easily adjust the content to fit your course outcomes and duration. Faculty routinely use our course materials with 4-, 6-, 8-, 12-, 14- and 16-week terms.
Are Lumen course materials accessible?
Yes. Lumen courseware aims to adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) Level AA Success Criteria, a standard that meets or surpasses requirements for Section 508 compliance. Standard design features include text readability via screen readers; alt-text for every image; quality captioning and transcripts for every video or multimedia piece; and text alternatives for interactives and simulations. Read our Accessibility Statement and download our Waymaker and OHM VPATS.
Does Lumen courseware work on mobile devices?
Yes, Lumen courseware works on any iOS or Android mobile device without having to install any apps or additional software. Simply use any common mobile web browser like Safari, Chrome, or Firefox.
How much do Lumen course materials cost?
Lumen’s standard pricing is $35/student per course. This low-cost support fee covers services that make it easier to use, teach, and learn with OER, such as LMS integration, editing capabilities, online homework, personalized learning tools, technical and faculty support. Special pricing and payment terms may apply to some institutions, including making Lumen course materials available at no cost to students.
Why are Lumen course materials so affordable?
Lumen courses are designed using open educational resources (OER)–learning materials that reside in the public domain or are licensed to allow them to be freely used and repurposed by others. Because our content doesn’t rely on the traditional (expensive) textbook model, we can offer very cost-effective course materials to faculty and students. We can also make quick, timely updates without waiting for multi-year publishing cycles.
Do Lumen courses work with my LMS?
Lumen supports simple, seamless integration with Blackboard, Canvas, D2L Brightspace, and Moodle. Students and faculty can access Lumen course materials through your institution’s learning management system. Waymaker and OHM courses also offer automatic grade return for built-in quizzes and graded assessments.
What courses is Lumen courseware available for?
Lumen provides great course materials designed using OER for 50+ subjects across multiple disciplines. We focus on introductory courses, general education, and developmental education.
Does Lumen courseware use a lot of data?
Data usage for Lumen courseware varies based on a number of factors:
- Type and amount of content, associated with the length of the course and the number of videos, images, practice activities and interactives (in addition to text)
- Required methods of student interaction
- Needs of Learning Management System (LMS) Canvas, Blackboard, D2L BrightSpace, Moodle
Most mobile and wifi data plans accommodate for streaming music and video. Even though data usage varies, the overall footprint of Lumen courseware* should not have a noticeable impact on a typical mobile user’s data plan usage.
To illustrate typical usage statistics:
- Completing a four-section Waymaker module by reading all content and completing all learning activities requires 515 MB.
- Completing and submitting a 17-question Waymaker quiz requires 9.6 MB.
*Please note that Lumen courseware contains streaming videos. These videos use a similar amount of data/bandwidth to any video streaming service and are not included in the usage example above.
If you’re concerned about bandwidth limitations for students, this article about low-bandwidth teaching may be helpful, from Daniel Stanford, Director of Faculty Development and Technology Innovation at DePaul University’s Center for Teaching and Learning: Videoconferencing Alternatives: How Low-Bandwidth Teaching Will Save Us All.
I just submitted the Try It form. Now what?
Someone from Lumen will be in contact shortly to help you with the following steps:
- Set up LMS integration – If we already work with your institution, this is already taken care of. If not, it’s a quick process we handle with your LMS admin.
- Provide Lumen Course File – We provide a course file and instructions for you (or your LMS admin) to import the course materials into your LMS.
- Virtual Orientation – Often we set up a brief call to walk through the courseware and how it works once it’s in your LMS. We review the tools you can use to customize and prepare to teach with Lumen materials.
- Confirm payment option – Once the decision is made to use Lumen courseware, we work out payment details. Our standard Lumen Courseware pricing is $35. We also offer several options including flat annual pricing paid by the institution or “pay as you go” pricing paid by the institution or directly by students.
If you have not heard from someone in 24 hours and/or have urgent questions, please reach out to info@lumenlearning.com