CTC Ed Tech News Jan. 26, 2015

Hello,

Hope you're staying warm… I don't remember weather this cold in the past year or so, but I am managing. 

Here are my offerings:

Cool Workshop for You

Beyond the Bullet List with Collaborate – a session for CTC and COE co-facilitated by Katie Walker and Lee Henrikson. Learn first hand how you can create active and engaged learning in Collaborate. Wednesday, February 11, 4:30- 5:30 in Collaborate. More details to come.

Improve your Online CoursesCourses

Quality Matters (QM) provides several ways for instructors to improve online and hybrid courses. . Learn more about QM on Feb. 4 at noon. Register for this one-hour Collaborate meeting. If you are interested in joining the session with me in my office, let me know. We can eat lunch and chat about QM. Learn more about UAA's QM initiative.

Connect with Others

Microsoft Lync is a collaboration tool available to all UAA faculty and staff. It can be used for IM, online meetings, and video chats. You can even host meetings with students and others not on Lync. For instance, CERC used Lync for online student advising.  One instructor uses Lync to connect military student on TDY to the class. I have connected my phone number to Lync so that I now receive all my work calls to my computer or the Lync app on my iPhone. Learn more about Lync.

Tests in Blackboard

Here are some suggested directions for students taking a test in Blackboard. In this example, the test is open book, open note.

1. Please use the Chrome web browser to take the test.  
2. Do not open any other windows or tabs in Chrome while you are taking the test.  
3. Do not use the back button for the browser.
4. Once in the test, do not leave that page.
5. I repeat, do not open any other windows or tabs in Chrome.
6. Your answers autosave by default. You don't need to save them. If they don't save, try to manually save your answers. If the answers still won't save, contact your instructor and the Call Center immediately.
7. Open Firefox if you need to use Internet resources, your notes, or items in Blackboard. Yes, it is acceptable to be logged into Blackboard from two different browsers.
8. Do not open the test in Firefox unless it locks up in Chrome. Please talk to your instructor before doing this.

Video Feedback

This article from Wired Campus describes using video to give feedback on student work rather than writing on papers.  If you want to experiment, Jing is a free online tool with a 5-minute limit. We have Screencast-o-Matic available at UAA as well.

CTC Ed Tech News

Hello all and Happy New Year!

I'm back with my fortnightly (I love that word!) emails. Here are my offerings for this week:

Writing learning objectives

The first part of any course design is to decide what you want the students to learn.  The Course Content Guide provides some guidance, and sometimes they are not enough. This great resource from University of Connecticut explains how to write clear, measurable learning objectives. 

Workshops from Academic Innovations

Spring Bootcamp  is on Jan 7–9, 2015. All sessions will happen.  If you don't register the day before, you can drop in to the classroom sessions.  If you have a last minute interest in a Collaborate session, email or call (907) 786-4496.  And go to the Blackboard login page to download the Collaborate Launcher. Topics include: Blackboard, Blackboard Collaborate, Presentation Techniques, Screencasting and Google Apps.

How to be efficient

Last fall, I discovered the blog Barking Up the Wrong Tree and find the advice and wisdom there to be invaluable. Here're some suggestions on how to be more efficient from that blog. There are some pretty common sense ideas.  The devil is in following through.

Blackboard course copy

You can copy materials from a Blackboard shell of a course you've taught before to the current course. Follow these directions to copy materials from a course from a prior semester to this one

If you want to learn more about Blackboard:

• Go to the Instructors Getting Started page
• Check out the Instructor Resources area in your new Blackboard shell.

Collaborate launcher

The Collaborate launcher has been updated.  The quickest way to get it is to click on the link on the Blackboard login page BEFORE you log in to Blackboard

1. Directions for installing the Launcher on Windows.
   1. You will install the launcher.
   2. The launcher is installed in Control Panel > Programs and Features
2. Directions for installing the Launcher on MacOS.
   1. You will unzip the launcher.
   2. By default, it sits in your Downloads folder. If you prefer, move it to the Applications folder.aaa

Warm Regards,

Lee

Lee Maria Henrikson

Instructional Designer

Community and Technical College

University of Alaska Anchorage

http://ak-lee.blogspot.com

907-786-4903