CTC Ed Tech News Dec. 13, 2014

Hi all,

Here are my final suggestions for the fall.  

Finishing the Fall

Finals are about done. Maybe you have grading to finish, maybe you are done.  Here are a few reminders about finishing the semester well:

1. Reflect. What went well and what would you do different next time? Write it down! One way to improve our teaching is to go through a reflection/action process. Even it's a small thing that you want to change, it sets a precedent of continuous improvement to make the change. From what I know about teaching,  striving to improve keeps the material fresh and alive for me.
2. Enter grades in UAOnline by 11:59 pm on Wed. December 17.
3. Make your Blackboard shell unavailable to students – when appropriate for your course- go to Control Panel > Customization> Properties > Item 3.

Getting Ready for Spring

Some people are prepping now, some work over break, some take a brain break and dive in in January.  Here are a couple items to ease the process:

1. AIE consulting and workshops. Schedule a one-on-one meeting with an AIE Instructional Designer on Dec 17–19, 2014 or Jan 5–16, 2015. Spring Bootcamp  is on Jan 7–9, 2015. Topics include: Blackboard, Blackboard Collaborate, Presentation Techniques, Screencasting and Google Apps.
2. If you want to learn more about Blackboard on your own, go to the Instructor Resources area in your new Blackboard shell.
3. Set up your Blackboard course
   1. Course copy materials from the Blackboard shell from a prior semester
   2. Learn more on the Instructors Getting Started page

Email Virus Update

Beginning on Monday December 8, University of Alaska Anchorage personnel were inundated with virus-infected spam emails, in many cases from colleagues with already infected computers. These spam messages had a .zip file attachment. Those individuals who opened the .zip file soon found out that they had unknowingly installed a virus on their computers.

In the cases this week, the usual anti-virus and anti-malware software remained one step behind these infections. IT professionals across campus worked many, many hours to repair the damage. Infected computers were re-imaged – which meant those persons were without their primary computer for some time.

Some .zip files are very dangerous and IT Services depends on each of us to be cautious with emails containing .zip attachments. What can you do?

1. Keep your anti-virus and anti-malware software up-to-date. Ask the Call Center for detail on anti-virus and anti-malware software at the university.
2. Pause and be suspicious before clicking on any link- especially .zip files- in an email message – including ones from me! Just because you know the sender, doesn't mean the email is safe.
3. Make sure your data is backed up.
4. Immediately call the Call Center or your IT person (if your department has one) if you suspect your computer has been compromised.

Happy Holidays, 

Lee

Lee Maria Henrikson

Instructional Designer

Community and Technical College

University of Alaska Anchorage

http://ak-lee.blogspot.com

907-786-4903

 

CTC Ed Tech News December 1, 2014

The semester is winding down, there's finally snow on the ground, and here are my offerings for today:

Join the Game! 

UAS Instructional Designers are hosting a 10-day online workshop on gamefication in learning called the "10 Day Faculty Challenge." You can still sign up if you want to see what it's all about- just click on the link for the form on the UAS Learning Spaces blog. 

This is a great way to explore the ideas of games and gamefication in learning. Skeptics are welcome along with the game believers. Me, I'm some of both. 

If you do join the game, let me know so I can get a badge for recruiting.

IDEA Survey

The IDEA survey is now open for students. Its open dates are November 25 - December 17. Students can access the survey via the Course Evaluation link in Blackboard. Please encourage your students to take the survey and then look at the data next semester to see if you want to make changes in the course based on the student feedback.  If you have fewer than 11 students, you will need to request the survey.

Finals are Next Week

December 8-13.  Remember, the finals time counts toward the contact hours for your class.  Here is the finals schedule. This Find My Final Exam form is probably more for students.

Sometimes Low Tech is Best

Here are two articles on low vs. high tech. The first, on reading books vs. eBooks, finds that readers comprehend more when they read actual, rather than ebooks. The sensory input of holding a book gives one a sense of progression through the book.  It's easier to flip between pages, too, in a real book. The second, Don't let e-mail become e-fail, addresses one of my pet peeves: using electronic communication when a phone call or short chat would be more effective. One of my rules is that if the email gets too complicated, it's better to have a conversation.

My next newsletter will be on Dec.12.

CTC Ed Tech News September 4 2014

Thoughts for you this week: 

Add/Drop Deadline 5 pm Friday September 5

Tomorrow is the deadline for adding and dropping all full semester courses. The registrar offers the following options for manual processing by students:

·         Students may submit forms at the University Center between 8-5 p.m.
·         Students may also utilize the kiosk on the top floor of the Student Union between 9-4. 

Instructors can also choose to drop students who have not showed up for class. Use the online form to withdraw him/her from the class. If you do it before 5 pm Friday September 5, the student will receive a tuition refund. 

A Faculty Initiated Withdrawal of the students during the first two weeks of the semester will give them a 100% tuition refund. This not only saves students money but also saves headaches for Student Services when the student comes back asking for refunds for a course they didn't know they were signed up for. You could choose to do nothing and then give the students a grade of NB or F at the end of the semester and that would be okay too, as students are adults who have signed up for the course and if it costs them their tuition (and likely late fees, etc), then so be it (From Paula Martin at KPC).

Sometimes, no technology is best

I love technology; I use it all the time… A colleague introduced me to the new student worker in our suite as the one who never takes notes on paper… my laptop goes to most meetings with me (I do turn email off during the meetings). Technology is a tool, though, to help us meet our goals. I found a couple interesting article about instructors opting to not use technology for thoughtful, pedagogical reasons:

Why I'm asking you not to use laptops - a professor explains her no laptop policy for her classes. She has sound reasons that she tells the students. Two of the reasons are: 

·      It's easy to be distracted and read email or go to Facebook and multitasking is a fallacy

·      It distracts the students around the laptop user and lessens their learning

She has a couple other reasons mentioned in the article, too. And, if a student feels really compelled to use a laptop, he/she can talk with the professor and get permission.

The comments after the article have some interesting points, too. In particular, some students who experience disabilities (for instance, dysgraphia) need to type rather than write. How does a professor make sure that they don't feel singled out?

Don't Email Me – a professor bans email from students except to schedule an appointment with her. "Its purpose was twofold: teaching students to be more self-reliant by making them read assignments and the syllabus more closely, and freeing up time for conversations in the classroom and during office hours." (from the article)

Thank you, Kelly Donnelly for sharing this with me. 

One idea from both these articles is to make sure that the technology serves the learning, rather than distracts from it. In a distance class, if I went for a no email policy, I'd probably provide a discussion board that students can post questions to.

Always Learning

We have a great resource for quick tutorials on lots of topics: Atomic Learning. You have to login with your UAA username and password, and then a world of 1-3 minute video tutorials is at your fingertips.

Bookmark the UAA Atomic Learning page or Google the words uaa atomic learning to find it. My challenge to you is go to the Blackboard instructor tutorials and learn something new about the Grade Center. We are using Blackboard Learn 9.1, SP (Service Pack) 13, but the grade center tutorials are generic for Learn 9.1. Let me know what you find out!

I was asked about PowerPoint Master Slides at the CTC Inservice a few weeks ago. Had I not known an answer, I could have said, login to Atomic Learning and search for PowerPoint Master Slide.  I did this later. In the list that came up, I selected my version of PowerPoint and there was a whole section of 11 short videos on slide masters. Nice. Let me know what you find on Atomic Learning.