The Instructional Design, Engagement and Support (IDEAS) team is thrilled to introduce the new group of 12 fellows for the 2023-2024 Instructional Innovation Fellowship (IIF). These fellows are all about innovation in teaching with technology, and we’re excited to kick off this journey with them. Our 12 fellows come from across UMass. They’ll meet monthly…
Advancing technology and changing pedagogy have flipped our classrooms, changed the way we lecture, and put lectures, homework and assignments online. Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology David Gross has embraced these changes and uses his tablet as the lynch-pin to hold it all together. Here’s a look at how he’s integrated a ton of…
What is Screencasting? Screencasting is using a piece of software to record on-screen activities, frequently with narration, that can then be shared with an audience. Techsmith’s Camtasia is one popular tool for screencasting on which Academic Computing provides workshops, but there are a range of programs out there. When talking about screencasting, people usually differentiate…
Last month Astronomy Professor Steve Schneider presented on his experience with using the Personal Response System with a particular focus on his strategies for writing good PRS questions. Professor Schenider says he’s been using PRS systems in various incarnations for 10 years, primarily with his large lecture course Astronomy 101. Here are some lessons he shared with the group…
Last month I had the opportunity to attended a Center for Teaching session on “Designing Hybrid Courses” given by Pamela Trafford, Senior Lecturer in the School of Management, and seasoned veteran of online teaching. In this session, she provided advice on best practices for teaching hybrid courses; courses that meet face-to-face, but also make use…
The tools for capturing video keep getting cheaper and cheaper. The Flip video camera is a new cell phone sized device that allows you to capture up to an hour of decent-quality digital video. The camera can then be directly plugged into a computer for uploading and editing video clips. The are several models of Flip cameras…
A few weeks back I had the pleasure of attending a Center for Teaching workshop in which Linda Enghagen, Professor in the Hospitality and Tourism Management department, presented “In Pursuit of Intellectual Honesty via a Hybrid Course Model.” People use the term “hybrid course” to refer to a variety of things classes that meet partially online and partially face-to-face. Hybrid…
Aline Gubrium and Tom Schiff were two of the first people we know to use Digital Storytelling at UMass. A rather long time ago we had a chance to sit down and chat with Tom Schiff about his experience using Digital Storytelling in his teaching, here is the recording of our conversation. Our apologies to Tom…
I had the opportunity to attend the Center for Teaching Event “Working Well with TAs” last week. It was the first in a series of workshops on teaching large classes. Linguistics professor John McCarthy and his teaching assistants Wendell Kimper and Kathryn Pruitt discussed the strategies they use in Linguistics 101, a large lecture, general education…
For our last SPARK Community of Practice Lunch this semester, Mark Leckie from Geosciences and Heath Hatch from Physics joined us to discuss their uses of SPARK for managing their large lecture courses.
StudyMate™ is a Windows-based product that allows instructors to create Flash-based learning activities and games based on the material for your course. Using Studymate you can build flash cards, multiple choice quizzes, matching, and even crossword style activities. Instructors who use SPARK may be particularly interested in StudyMate as a tool to build study materials…
For our second Emerging Technology and Pie event of the semester Florence Sullivan, professor in the School of Education, joined us to talk about her explorations of virtual worlds. Popularized by Second Life, virtual worlds are three-dimensional(3D) spaces in which people can communicate, explore environments, and construct their own virtual objects and spaces. When you…