Instructional Technology @ PhilaU provides faculty with news, information,
resources,
and tips for using technology and integrating it into their curricula.
Instructional Technology @ PhilaU is published monthly by the Paul J.
Gutman Library.
Greetings! I hope you all enjoyed your Spring Break.
While the calendar says that spring is almost here, Mother Nature isn't quite sure. The snow outside my windows seems to be struggling with the green underneath for dominance and I'm hoping that the green wins out soon.
This month's Guide explores a few new features in ERes and chronicles the latest stats for Blackboard. In Sites of Interest we explore some interesting websites for other institutions of learning, libraries and museums.In addition, there is information about an upcoming TLTR workshop exploring best practices with Blackboard from four of your colleagues. I hope to see many of you there.
Kristopher Wiemer
Instructional Technology Specialist
Table of Contents
Blackboard and ERes News
Blackboard By the Numbers
Blackboard use continues to be strong. This semester there are over 227 course sites covering 267 course sections (28.5% of all offered sections), offered by over 150 faculty. If you are not currently using Blackboard and would like to incorporate it into your course(s), please contact me to set up an orientation session or sign up for a workshop.
Here is a break down of the numbers by school:
School or Program |
Number of Course Sections |
Number of Faculty Using Bb |
School of Architecture |
32 |
25 |
| School of Business Administration | 66 |
26 |
| School of Design & Media | 28 |
22 |
| School of Engineering & Textiles | 24 |
12 |
| School of Liberal Arts | 62 |
33 |
| School of Science & Health | 47 |
25 |
| Continuing & Professional Studies | 6 |
7 |
| Other (Non-Credit Co-op, Co-op 2) |
2 |
3 |
New ERes Features
At the end of February, Docutek released an update to ERes which was installed on our server. This update included a wide range of system improvements. While several of them involved back-end management improvements and updates to modules we do not license, there were a few new/improved features that warrant mention.
- Users now have the ability to change the name of files uploaded to the ERes system. This includes documents from DocuFax as well as files uploaded from your computer. When a user goes to attach a file to a document from either the Personal or DocuFax Staging Areas, a new icon can be seen to the left of the file name titled Rename. Click on this icon and enter the new file name. You can also do this to any file already attached to your documents.
- For those of you who have attached multiple images to one document, Docutek has added a slide show view to facilitate an easier image review.
- Several new videos have been added to the Help Menu.
- A normal browser window has been added to all document pop-up windows to facilitate the printing process.
If you have any questions about these improvements or need assistance in implementing them, please feel free to contact me.
March Workshops
Following is a list of workshops that are being offered during the months of February and March. Descriptions can be found at http://www.philau.edu/ITS/workshops.htm.
| Blackboard: Online Assessment | March 17, 4:00p - 5:00p |
| Blackboard: Gradebook | March 24, 4:00p - 5:00p |
| ERes Basics | March 31, 4:00p - 5:00p |
To register for any of these workshops, go to http://www.philau.edu/ITS/register.htm.
TLTR Presents Real World Blackboard: How It's
Helping Me
and My Students
Tuesday March 29, 2004 11:00am - 12:45pm, Downs Auditorium
Blackboard has been in use on campus for five years. Each upgrade has brought new tools and applications to the classroom. Faculty have been integrating Blackboard in innovative ways to enhance their students' learning and to make classroom management issues more manageable.
You are invited to join your colleagues to hear from four faculty who use Blackboard in their courses. Some have been using Blackboard for a quite some time, while others are relative newbies. Each will share their successes, failures and display their course sites.
Presenters:
- Julie Kimmel, Assistant Professor, School of Liberal Arts
- Mikhail Kouliavtsev, Assistant Professor, School of Business Administration
- Brad Thompson, Assistant Professor, School of Science and Health
- Harry Woodcock, Professor, School of Science and Health
This workshop includes Lunch. To register, please contact Merium Sanders (sandersm@philau.edu or x2843)
Tip of the Month
Using Durable Links in the Library Databases
Several of the electronic databases to which the Library subscribes have durable links. Durable links are URLs to articles in these databases that do not change over time. These links can be added to your Blackboard site, ERes course reserves page, or web page, so that your students can access specific articles without having to look them up.
Since these databases are subscription-based, there must be some way to indicate to the database companies that those people accessing the documents are legitimate. When accessing from on-campus this is done automatically through our proxy server. However, when you or your students try to access these documents from off-campus, they will be denied access without first be authorized. This is done by adding the EZProxy prefix to the durable link. The EZProxy prefix is https://ezproxy.philau.edu/login?url=. This prefix should be added in front of the http:// of the durable link. When you or a student clicks on a link with the EZProxy prefix from off-campus, you will be prompted to login to your PhilaU Network account. Once this has been confirmed you will be redirected to the appropriate article from the database. Access from on-campus by-passes this process.
For more information about finding durable links and adding them to Blackboard, ERes, or your web site go to http://www.philau.edu/ITS/workshop/lesspaper.htm. You can also contact me or one of the librarians at the Gutman Library.
Web Sites of Interest - Libraries & Museums
This month we take a look at other institutions of learning: libraries and museums. The links below represent some of the interesting and innovative ways that these institutions are reaching out to their constituents.
Interactive Boolean Search Tutorial (http://library.nyu.edu/research/tutorials/boolean/tutorial.html)
This website created by the staff at New York University Library instructs users how to create and use boolean searches. This interactive tutorial takes users through a search based on a sample research project and includes Flash animated explanations of three main boolean operators (and, or, not). A very good tutorial for the novice searcher.
National Palace Museum (http://www.npm.gov.tw/main/hmain_en.htm/)
Located in Taipei, this museum focuses on presenting to the public exhibits that preserve the long history of China, as well as from various other civilizations from around the world. This award winning website acts as not only a companion to the exhibits on display in the Museum itself, but also presents virtual exhibits and lesson plans for using the items in its collection to teach about Chinese culture and history. (Site submitted by Michael Krasulski, Paul J. Gutman Library)
American Folklife Center (http://www.loc.gov/folklife/)
A division of the Library of Congress, the American Folklife Center collects and catalogs stories, music, books, and other artifacts related to the folk culture of the United States and its territories. This website contains virtual examples of this collection as well as updates on the various projects past and present.
Museum of Science (http://www.mos.org/doc/1016)
Franklin Institute (http://www.fi.edu/learnF.html)
These two links are examples of what science museums around the country are doing to make their museum specialities and exhibits available to people outside of their area. Some virtual exhibits act as companion pieces to existing exhibits (e.g., Theater of Electricity at the Museum of Science); some recreate portions of the actual exhibit so that those who can't come in person can experience it (e.g., The Heart at the Franklin Institute); while others are created to harness knowledge that isn't currently on exhibit at the museums (e.g., The Computer Revolution at the Museum of Science).
Request for Information
What are you doing in your classes? Do you have a technology strategy/tool that has worked well for you and your students? Are you doing something innovative with Blackboard? Do you have a tip or trick for making Blackboard easier to use? Is there a topic you’d like to see investigated in this newsletter?
Send your ideas, questions, comments, concerns, best practices, etc.
to wiemerk@philau.edu.
Contact Information
Kristopher Wiemer, Instructional Technology Specialist
Paul J. Gutman Library, Room 111
(215)951-6332
wiemerk@philau.edu
http://www.philau.edu/ITS (click on IT@PhilaU for archives)
http://staff.philau.edu/wiemerk