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!
The academic year is winding down and the call of the great outdoors can be heard loud and clear as summer approaches.
This issue includes some end of the year reminders for Blackboard and ERes users and some interesting web sites for you to explore during the lull between spring and fall semesters.
Enjoy your summer break and look for more Instructional Technology @ PhilaU in the fall.
Kristopher Wiemer
Instructional Technology Specialist
Table of Contents
Blackboard and ERes News
Blackboard Courses for Summer
We are now accepting requests for Summer 2005 Blackboard Course Sites. If you plan to use Blackboard during the Summer 2005 semester, please complete the Blackboard Course Request Form located at http://www.philau.edu/ITS/bbreq.htm. Please note when entering the Course Section Number, please also include the extension (05SM - Summer Long, 05SM1- Summer Session 1, 05SM2 - Summer Session 2).
Please note these special instructions for those who would like to re-use previous material or create one Blackboard site for multiple sections.
- Reusing Material from a Previous Semester
Faculty who wish to reuse material from a previous semester are asked to indicate the Course Name, Semester, and, if known, the Course ID in the Course Import section. Course material that is more than 1 year old is not stored on the Blackboard server and therefore, the faculty member will be asked to submit an archived copy of their course prior to course creation. - Using One Blackboard Course Page for Multiple Sections
If you are teaching more than one section of a course, but would only like one Blackboard site, please indicate this in the Special Instructions/Requests section.
If you have any questions regarding this process, please review the Blackboard Policies and Procedures (http://www.philau.edu/ITS/bb/bbpolicy.htm) or contact me via phone (215-951-6332), e-mail (wiemerk@philau.edu) or stop by my office in the Gutman Library (Room 111).
End of Semester Reminders
As the semester draws to a close there are a few suggested steps you should take to preserve your Blackboard site for the future. Step-by-step text and video instructions for these steps can be found at http://www.philau.edu/ITS/bb/endsem.htm.
- Export your gradebook and print a hardcopy.
- Save the Discussion Board forums.
- Archive your course.
NOTE: Be sure to Archive your course and NOT Export your course. Archiving creates a complete snapshot of your course including students and grades (useful if there is a grade dispute down the line).
We will be making all Spring 2005 courses unavailable to students on May 20. These courses will remain available to you until six weeks into the Spring 2006 semester when they will be removed from the server. If you have students who need access to your Spring 2005 course site to finish an incomplete, you may make your course available to them. It will be your responsibility to make the course unavailable once all work is completed.
Blackboard Courses for Fall 2005
We will begin accepting requests for Fall 2005 Blackboard Course Sites on Tuesday May 17. If you plan to use Blackboard during the Fall 2005 semester, please complete the Blackboard Course Request Form located at http://www.philau.edu/ITS/bbreq.htm.
Please note these special instructions for those who would like to re-use previous material or create one Blackboard site for multiple sections.
- Reusing Material from a Previous Semester
Faculty who wish to reuse material from a previous semester are asked to indicate the Course Name, Semester, and, if known, the Course ID in the Course Import section. Course material that is more than 1 year old is not stored on the Blackboard server and therefore, the faculty member will be asked to submit an archived copy of their course prior to course creation. - Using One Blackboard Course Page for Multiple Sections
If you are teaching more than one section of a course, but would only like one Blackboard site, please indicate this in the Special Instructions/Requests section.
If you have any questions regarding this process, please review the Blackboard Policies and Procedures (http://www.philau.edu/ITS/bb/bbpolicy.htm) or contact me via phone (215-951-6332), e-mail (wiemerk@philau.edu) or stop by my office in the Gutman Library (Room 111).
New Features Coming to Blackboard
This summer Blackboard will be releasing Application Pack 3. This series of updates and enhancements will include some new features and tools that you may find very useful. The exact date that these new features will be available is not known at this time, but we expect them to be installed, tested and ready for your use by the fall. Following is a brief summary of these new features
- Multi-Language Support - In addition to English, we will be able to offer courses in one additional language. Current options include Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, and Portuguese.
- Syllabus Builder - A step-by-step guide to help you create a syllabus without having to know HTML.
- Advanced Assessment Questions - This upgrade will make available to you 10 new question types: calculated questions, numeric response questions, file response questions, hot spot questions, multiple fill-in the blank questions, jumbled sentence questions, opinion scale questions, short response questions, either/or questions, and quiz bowl questions.
- Gradebook Null Option - Currently when grades are entered into the gradebook, the final weighted average is incorrect, assuming that all missing entries are 0's. This option will allow you to set the gradebook to ignore missing assignments or untaken assessment and keep an accurate running total and weighted average.
- Assessment Question Complete Status - In question-by-question assessment students will be able to see which questions they have not answered and make it easier to jump directly to those questions.
- Randomize Multiple Choice Answers - This option allows you to enter multiple choice answers in any order and the computer will randomly place them when revealing the question to your students. Each person will see a different order for their answers.
- Advanced Course Menu - You will now have three options for displaying your menu: as buttons or a menu (as currently available) and now as a detail view where you can collapse or expand different sections to see exactly what is in them and click to jump directly to a particular item. Also common tools are separated from the rest of the menu to reduce clutter.
Look for information on training sessions for these new tools in August and September.
ERes Clean-up Project
ERes is a very important tool to the campus community and the Gutman Library is proud to be able to provide this resource. In order to continue to provide you with a quality and efficient experience, we began conducting a clean-up of the ERes system on April 18. E-mails were sent to each faculty member with an ERes account indicating what course reserves pages they had under their account, if any, and asking them to review the contents of their account.
If you have not already responded to this e-mail, please take a few moments to review the e-mail and your account. If there is anything you want deleted, please contact me and let me know.
We appreciate your assistance as we undertake this process. If you have any questions, please contact Kristopher Wiemer, Instructional Technology Specialist (wiemerk@philau.edu, 215-951-6332).
May TLTR Workshops
The TLTR will once again be presenting a series of workshops during the week of May 9 (the week between Final Exams and Graduation). Topics for this week include Blackboard, Blogs, Wikis, RSS Feeds, Introduction to Microsoft Windows XP and Office 2003, and more. For workshop descriptions, scheduling and registration information, please visit http://www.philau.edu/ITS/may05.htm.
Tip of the Month
Instructional Technology @ PhilaU Archives
The school year can be very busy, leaving you with very little time to explore instructional technology opportunities. While the summer is filled with vacations and relaxation, there is usually more time for exploring those topics that get pushed aside by the hecticness of the semester. You can find all the past issues of Instructional Technology @ PhilaU online for your review. Print them off and take them with you or read them directly from the computer screen so you can go the web sites listed. You can find the archives at http://www.philau.edu/ITS/itatphilau.htm.
If you come across any interesting tidbits that you'd like to share with colleagues over the summer, pass them along for inclusion in one of the fall issues.
Web Sites of Interest
BbMatters (http://www.bbmatters.net/)
BbMatters is an online journal that explore the best practices and feature related issues of Blackboard. Submissions are written by actual Blackboard users in the field. Registration is required, but is free.
Maricopa Learning Exchange (http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/mlx/index.php)
This is a collection of learning objects collected and maintained by the faculty and staff at the Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona. All learning objects are protected by a Creative Commons license (see below) that allows you to use them as long as you give proper credit. There are some very interesting useful items here searchable by subject matter, topic, key word, and special collections.
Creative Commons (http://www.creativecommons.org)
Creative Commons is an alternative to copyright for protecting your intellectual property. Based on the open source software idea, Creative Commons licensing allows you to publish work that can be re-used by others in ways that you choose. For example, you can allow others to use and reproduce your material, but they can not profit from it or change it. There are various levels of protection and each level as well as information on finding other material in the Creative Commons domain at this site.
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