TeachOIT: a Blog for People Who Teach with Technology

In Fall 2011 the UMass Amherst campus is switching from using eInstruction’s PRS clickers to i>clicker. Instructors will be pre-ordering i>clicker remotes through the Textbook Annex.

To stay up to date with announcements and information about the new i>clicker system please visit our new Audience Response System blog.

This August we will be offering introductory trainings to prepare folks for a smooth jump into the Fall 2011 semester. Join us for a hands-on workshop on setting up and using the i>clicker Audience Response System to pose questions and collect responses from your students

• Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
• Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
• Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

To register for a workshop, go to:
https://etna.oit.umass.edu/public/workshops/

The UMass Amherst campus is only supporting the i>clicker model 2, which has an LCD panel.
The cost for a new i>clicker2 remote will be $45.50 at the Textbook Annex. During the 2011/2012 academic year, UMass students who currently own an eInstruction PRS remote are eligible for a $10 rebate.

The Textbook Annex will not be buying back eInstruction PRS remotes.
We are setting-up a donation program for the old PRS devices (for those students who would like to give to a community cause), and will have donation boxes placed in locations around campus this fall.

Visit http://iclicker.com/dnn/Ordering/UMassAmherstRebate/tabid/257/Default.aspx to obtain your rebate.

The campus may be quiet during July… but our planning and preparations for the Fall 2012 Moodle Pilot continue to move forward.

If you are part of our Fall 2011 Moodle pilot, make sure to check out our upcoming Moodle workshops in August. In addition to startup and conversion workshops, we have sessions on setting up student groups, Moodle’s grade book, and it’s communication tools.

Registration for the Fall Moodle Pilot closed on June 27th. There has been more demand for access to the pilot than we can currently accommodate, so we are not able to add any more new classes for the Fall. Moodle will be fully open for business in Spring 2012, so you will be able request your Spring 2012 Moodle course in mid-fall when the official Moodle Spring Request Form is available.

This February, Academic Computing is offering workshops on a range of instructional technology topics, including:

• Designing Effective Presentations
• PowerPoint Basics for Mac and Windows
• Keynote Basics
• Managing Citations with Zotero
• Using GoogleDocs for Collaboration
• Turnitin in SPARK: Originality Reports on Student Papers
• Grade Book Management in SPARK
• Basic Digital Storytelling with iMovie and GarageBand
• Advanced Digital Storytelling with Final Cut Express

Most sessions are only 50 or 75 minutes long!

To view the full schedule and register online, please visit: https://etna.oit.umass.edu/public/workshops

Interested in training, but none of the scheduled times work for you? Contact the Instructional Media Lab (545-2823) to set up a one-on-one consultation.

CIO John Dubach has made the formal announcement about our new LMS system to replace the current Blackboard Vista system we call SPARK:

To the Amherst campus faculty:

I am writing today with information concerning an important change the campus will be making in its instructional technology over the next two years. As outlined in previous emails, the Blackboard company will
cease support for the current system behind SPARK, Blackboard Vista, in January 2013. Over the past seven months, a committee of faculty and staff has been evaluating options for the next learning management system (LMS) on campus. Based on their evaluations and further discussion in Academic Affairs and OIT, the Provost and I have decided that UMass Amherst will move to Moodle, an open-source LMS, over the next two years.

While recognizing that the transition to Moodle will be more complicated than moving to the alternative Blackboard product for both the faculty and the support staff, I believe Moodle better positions the campus for the longer timeframe. We did well in WebCT and its derivatives for approximately fifteen years, but the direction Blackboard has taken does not, in my opinion, offer a strong positive future relative to the needs of the campus. Moodle offers us opportunities for more local control and innovation. To use a geographic analogy, I see moving to the Blackboard product as moving deeper into a “box canyon”; going to Moodle may require some effort to get out of the canyon now, but will place us on a more expansive fertile plain for future benefit.

SPARK currently supports more than 1,100 instructors working in over 2,100 classes involving more than 23,000 students (each of whom likely is taking several SPARK classes). Converting to an open-source product such as Moodle will be a lengthy and complex project, requiring some reorganization within Academic Computing and elsewhere in OIT as well as the establishment of new oversight and advisory procedures. We are in the process of developing a transition plan and hope to be able to put out at least the first steps in such a plan to the campus over the next few weeks. Fred Zinn and Bo Mack of OIT will be leading the transition with Fred focusing on the application and Bo on the technical underpinnings.

Blackboard Vista will remain in service until the end of Fall 2012. In Spring 2011, OIT will operate a very limited pilot in Moodle to assess its features and determine what needs to be adjusted in order for it to match, and in some cases surpass, the features of the current Blackboard Vista system. Faculty interested in participating in the pilot and evaluations should contact Fred Zinn via email at futurelms@oit.umass.edu. Updates on the pilot and the development process will be posted on the Future LMS blog
(http://blogs.umass.edu/futurelms).

I recognize the continuing concern over possible divergence of direction between the campus and UMassOnline (UMOL) regarding choice of LMS platforms. Unfortunately, we felt the urgency to make a decision for the campus did not allow us to await completion of UMOL’s review. I am confident that UMOL understands the dilemma of faculty who wish to teach in both systems so that, whatever direction UMOL takes regarding a LMS, they will work closely with us to make the transition between those worlds as seamless as possible.

Finally, I want to take this opportunity on behalf of the Provost and myself to thank the Future LMS Committee for their efforts in our review of LMS possibilities. We recognize the magnitude of the effort and also feel that the level of review was appropriate and highly informative.

John Dubach
Chief Information Officer

In support of this national initiative, OIT is sponsoring a number of activities designed to help the UMass Amherst community stay safe online. Each week in October will have its own cyber security theme.

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This August, Academic Computing is offering several workshops on a range of instructional technologies to help you gear up for the start of the semester.

August Workshop topics include:

• PowerPoint Basics for Windows and Mac
• Designing Effective PowerPoint Presentations
• Basics of Using Keynote, Apple’s presentation tool
• Screencasting with Camtasia for Windows and Mac
• Getting Started with the Personal Response System (PRS)
• Getting Started with SPARK
• Customizing Your SPARK Course
• Getting Started with UMass Blogs
• Using Second Life for Teaching
• Mac Tips & Tricks

To view the full schedule and to register online, please visit: https://etna.oit.umass.edu/public/workshops

Are you interested in training, but none of the scheduled times work for you? Contact the Instructional Media Lab (545-2823) to set up a one-on-one consultation.

Starting this summer, UMass Amherst faculty and staff can obtain licenses for popular Microsoft software and desktop operating systems for University–owned computers at no additional cost. Licenses will be available through the Microsoft Campus Agreement (MCA) for:

• Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus and Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise for Windows (includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, and more)
• Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh (includes Word, Powerpoint, Excel and more)
• Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows XP
• Client Access Licenses (CALs) for Windows Server, Exchange, and SharePoint

Instructors should consult with their department’s IT staff before installing software on work computers.  While this software is currently only available for University-owned computers, a home use option is expected in Fall 2010.

For more information about the Microsoft Campus Agreement, please visit this Web page:

http://www.oit.umass.edu/news/mca_live.html

Academic Computing’s Instructional Media Lab has moved down the hall to a new space in LGRC A205.

Our new space features more faculty consulting space, windows, and a quiet room for audio recording.  

More photos on our Flickr feed at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/teachoit

This May and June, Academic Computing is offering instructional technology workshops for faculty and instructors. Topics include building course websites with SPARK, exploring new and emerging technologies such as wikis and social media, and producing audio and video content on Mac OS and Windows. Many are hands-on sessions where you can learn new technologies while working with content from your own courses.

For the workshop schedule, descriptions, and online registration, please follow the “Summer 2010 Workshops” link at:
https://etna.oit.umass.edu/public/workshops

Workshop topics include:

 We can also present any of our workshops specifically for your department. Call us at 413-545-2823 for details. Questions? Contact the Instructional Media Lab at 413-545-2823 | instruct@oit.umass.edu

Please join the 2009-2010 Gen Ed Fellows on Tuesday, April 27th from 2:30pm to 4:30pm for a round-table discussion on Writing with Technology in the General Education Classroom.

Two of our 2009-2010 General Education Fellows will present what they have learned from their year-long fellowship and highlight key accomplishments in integrating writing assignments into their courses. Participants will then select one of four concurrent Writing with Technology round-tables. These round-tables, facilitated by current General Education Fellows from across schools and disciplines, will allow faculty to exchange lessons learned and concrete strategies for improving writing in the general education experience through instructional technology.

Challenges and Opportunities: Writing in Gen Ed courses

* Why do students need to write in Gen Ed courses?
    Lynnette Sievert, Anthropology

* Wikis for group work
    Ken Kitchell, Classics

Writing with Technology Roundtables

* Managing student writing in large lectures with SPARK
    Wilmore Webley, Microbiology
    John Burand, Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences
    Chris Couch, Comparative Literatures

* Responding to student writing and rubric development 
    Anne Herrington, English 
    Brenda Bushouse, Political Science
    Lynnette Sievert, Anthropology

* Collaboration in writing using Blog and Wikis
    John Kingston, Linguistics
    Ken Kitchell, Classics                        

* Lecture capturing  with Camtasia 
    Todd Crosset, Sport Management

This Round-table is sponsored by the Center for Teaching and the Provost’s Office.  Refreshments will be served. To register, please call 545-1225 or email us at cfteach@acad.umass.edu by April 22nd, 2010.

Due to recent legislation that requires the University to make textbook and course material available to students during registration (HEOA Textbook Provision(PDF)),  a new Class Overview page has been added in SPIRE to allow instructors to publish course information (in the Schedule of Classes).

The page includes an option to link to an online syllabus. Though not required, it’s a great idea to post a syllabus for each class you teach. You can choose to post a full or abbreviated version. Posting even an outline syllabus may result in fewer inquiries from students about next semester’s classes during the enrollment period, and reduced add/drop activity after classes start.

The Easiest Way: Link to your Syllabus on UDrive

To link to your syllabus from SPIRE, you first need to upload your syllabus to a public location on the Web. One quick and easy option is to upload syllabus files into a public folder on your UDrive.

What’s UDrive? UDrive provides members of the UMass community free online storage space.  By default, only you can access the files on your UDrive, but you can also share individual files or folders, with particular members of the UMass community or the entire public.

Here’s how… (more…)

Academic Computing’s Instructional Media Lab is constantly in pursuit of the best ways to help serve our faculty, instructors, and teaching assistants to best utilize technology in (and outside) the classroom. For this reason we are announcing a new way of requesting help for all of your Instructional Media needs, instant messaging!

Chat Clients  /  Username

Google Talk /  instruct@oit.umass.edu
AIM /  instructoit
Yahoo! /  instructoit
Skype /  instructoit

The Instructional Media Lab is open Monday through Friday from 10am-4pm on all days that the University is Open.

You can also contact us at 413-545-2823 for assistance or an appointment

This February and March, Academic Computing is offering workshops on a range of instructional technology topics, including:

• Working with Digital Images
• Copyright Issues for Faculty
• Designing Effective Presentations
• PowerPoint and Keynote for building presentations
• iMovie and MovieMaker for working with Digital Video
• Tips and Tricks for Mac Users
• Where the @&#$ are My Pictures? An Introduction to Digital Asset Management

Most sessions are only 50 or 75 minutes long!

To view the full schedule and register online, please visit: https://etna.oit.umass.edu/public/workshops

Interested in training, but none of the scheduled times work for you? Contact the Instructional Media Lab (545-2823) to set up a one-on-one consultation.

As a regular service of Academic Computing, we can visit your class for a demonstration or workshop on a wide range of technology topics. Recent topics include building PowerPoint presentations, creating Podcasts, getting set up with Blogs, and working with Digital Images.

Recently, we have had an increase in the number of requests for this service. In order to streamline the process and insure that these events meet your instructional goals, we have formalized our process (see below).

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This January and February, Academic Computing is offering workshops on  a range of instructional technologies, including building course websites in SPARK, using Excel for grading, and setting up blogs with the Blogs at UMass Amherst system.

Most sessions are only 50 or 75 minutes long!

To view the full schedule and register online, please visit:
https://etna.oit.umass.edu/public/workshops

Interested in training, but none of the scheduled times work for you?  
Contact the Instructional Media Lab (545-2823) to set up a one-on-one consultation.

Happy start of semester,

-Tony Sindelar