News
Instructional Technology Stats
| FACULTY AT THE COLLEGE | FA18 | SP19 |
| % of faculty using Blackboard | 79% | 76% |
| % of faculty using Tegrity | 40% | 36% |
NOTE: Course usage of Blackboard was identified by courses with five additional Grade Center columns.
| FA18 Bb Tools | Announcements | Grade
Book Columns |
Wikis | Blogs & Journals | Assignments | Rubrics | Disc Posts | Tests & Quizzes |
| Average | 13 | 25.99 | 7.26 | 10.71 | 9.21 | 4.54 | 120.02 | 7.72 |
| Median | 8 | 21 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 69 | 7 |
| N | 192 | 258 | 16 | 22 | 113 | 33 | 41 | 55 |
NOTE: “N (number of courses)” indicates courses using the tool one time or more.
| SP19 Bb Tools | Announcements | Grade
Book Columns |
Wikis | Blogs & Journals | Assignments | Rubrics | Disc
Posts |
Tests & Quizzes |
| Average | 11 | 23.77 | 5.9 | 10.6 | 8.4 | 5.48 | 116.16 | 9.88 |
| Median | 6 | 20 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 76.5 | 6.5 |
| N | 191 | 249 | 25 | 30 | 135 | 41 | 44 | 54 |
NOTE: “N (number of courses)” indicates courses using the tool one time or more.
Learning Space Enhancements through IT
SM200, SM206, SM222, SM317, and SM327 have transitioned from analog to digital. What does this mean? A push button control panel has been added to the top of the instructor’s desk. The document camera is now high definition (HD) and software based. The document camera activates using the Hovercam Flex 11 icon on the computer’s desktop. Laptop / tablet computers can be captured as a recorded source but all Tegrity recordings will take place from the desktop PC in these classrooms, just like the SLC classrooms. Playing back DVDs will require using the computer and VLC player in these rooms. VCRs (video cassette recorder) have been taken out of Winona campus classrooms.
Tegrity Update
I continue to encourage the use of Tegrity in your courses. Students greatly appreciate it too! I would like to thank you for taking the time to fill out the survey on Tegrity use. There was a 60% response rate from College faculty and a significant response rate from staff and students too. The comments and experiences shared are very helpful in moving to the next stage of the process. A request for proposal (RFP) will be going out to leading vendors in the market. More information on the next steps will be coming forward after the RFP review has taken place.
Activate Your Blackboard Course
Activate your Blackboard Course
Are your Blackboard course sites ready to go? Don’t forget to activate each course allowing students to access them! Here are the steps:
Step 1: In your Bb course, find the “Customization” area under Control Panel area
Step 2: Select “Properties”
Step 3: Set availability to “Yes”
Step 4: Click “Submit” to apply the changes to your course
- Too many old courses filling up your My SMUMN home page in Blackboard? Here are the instructions on how to hide courses (and bring them back again when needed) in Blackboard.
- Here is a start of the semester checklist for your courses.
- This document can help students find assignment feedback through My Grades
- Discussion board posting basics are covered in these two documents. Creating a primary post in a discussion board and reading and replying to a post in a discussion board.
- If your PDF files are only reading as a single image file, that can be trouble. Sending the PDF documents through Snapverter to apply optical character recognition (OCR) is easy to do! These Snapverter instructions are helpful with getting started.
Improving Writing Assignments with Chris Anson
We will also be serving a Mexican Fiesta lunch with gluten-free and vegetarian options. Because it’s lunchtime and we wouldn’t want you to go hungry!
Chris Anson is Distinguished University Professor, Alumni Association Distinguished Graduate Professor, and Director of the Campus Writing and Speaking Program at North Carolina State University, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in language, composition, and literacy and works with faculty across disciplines to enhance writing and speaking instruction. He has published 19 books and 130 articles and book chapters relating to writing and has spoken widely across the US and in 31 other countries. He is Past Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication and Past President of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. His full c.v. is at www.ansonica.net.
Powerful Teachers
The October edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education provided a wonderful article, by Professor Rob Jenkins, and a video on the 4 traits of a powerful college teacher. See how these traits compare to your own powerful ways of teaching.
Watch the 2½ minute video, or read Rob Jenkin’s (2105) brief article,“4 Properties of Powerful Teachers.”
2018 Teaching & Learning Series
“Facilitating Effective Online Learning”. Join us for the kick-off plenary session on Saturday, April 14 from 9:00 to noon in the Event Center. All attending faculty will receive a free copy of Jump Start Your Online Classroom. Learn more by checking out our Spring 2018 CELT Schedule of Events.