e-Learning News for the New Semester
Welcome back, everyone!
The beginning of the new semester brings about many changes and here, in no particular order, are a number of items from e-Learning Services that may be of interest to faculty (and perhaps others) at the College.
Faculty Workstation:
We’ll begin with a reminder that our “faculty workstation” is available in i205 (The Centre for Teaching, Learning & Research) for your use. This computer includes software and hardware that may not be available at your own workstation, and is suited to video capture (from tape or digital file), movie production with Premiere, quick and easy PDF creation from original paper documents, OCR and optical scanning, screen capture recordings with Camtasia, mind mapping with MindManager, quiz publishing with Respondus, and Lightscribe DVD recording, as well as other applications.
Turnitin:
If your course(s) require students to develop and write paper assignments and you’re looking for a way to verify originality (or you’re looking for a tool that will teach students to be better writers and citers!) the Turnitin anti-plagiarism service may be the answer. Visit http://turnitin.mohawkcollege.ca for more information or contact Andrew Connery for an account.
L.M.S. News:
Over the summer, we upgraded the core FirstClass application to Version 9, and following that released a new Mohawk-specific Version 9 Client. Version 9 includes a number of improvements, fixes, and features, and we encourage ALL our users (all 10,000!) to upgrade: please visit http://fred.mohawkcollege.ca and visit the Clients page.
For all our LMS users: a reminder to all those who count on us to keep your course registrant lists current. You need to stay in touch with the e-Learning Help Desk (Amy Cook) even after your course has begun, and notify us of any add/drops. This is the ONLY way that we can guarantee the integrity of your class lists.
On the experimental front, we are still running our test installation of Moodle, the open-source learning management system that is at the same time interesting, robust, and powerful. Moodle accounts are available to anyone who wants to play.
Blogs for Teaching and Learning:
If your teaching/learning needs include blogs and blogging, we have a couple of solutions for you. We host a WordPress platform for any faculty needing a blog for their teaching; get in touch with us if you’d like an account. If you need your students to blog within the context of your courses, a FirstClass blog is likely the best solution and we’ll help get you started. (Don’t forget that with any FirstClass (FRED) account comes the potential to very quickly and simply build and host websites, blogs, and podcasts. Give us a call if you want to know more.)
Bookable Classroom Technologies:
Although most of our efforts in e-Learning Services are in support of on-line teaching and learning, we have a number of great classroom technologies that you can book from us, including a TeamBoard, graphics tablets, and the C.P.S.
Portable TeamBoard: If you’ve experienced the electronic whiteboards in various rooms in iWing and wished that technology was available for your classroom, please note that we now have a portable 44″ unit available for sign-out.
Wacom Tablets: We’ve recently acquired two wireless graphics tablets for sign-out. These, working with the Bluetooth adapters, allow you to control your mouse and, more importantly, use a digital stylus to draw on the screen, all from a distance. If you want to combine the flexibility and immediacy of chalk with the power and legibility of digital projection, this might be the answer: contact us for more information.
Classroom Performance System: We have three C.P.S. units available (each with 32 ‘clickers’) including a notebook computer if required. This is the audience polling system that you’ve seen in use at Connections and other workshops. The C.P.S. software is available in most if not all projector labs, and is available free to download. To book the system(s) or for more information contact Amy Cook.
News for current C.P.S. users: there has been a change to the software in the classrooms, and you will need to install the C.P.S. receiver each time you use the system. This can be a tricky process, and we encourage all our C.P.S. users to contact us for more detailed instructions.
Tablet Computing Project:
We are looking for a volunteer to participate in a pilot project involving mobile tablet computing. The project involves the use of specialized notebook computers that have touchscreen and digitizing tablet technology, allowing you to interact with it through a stylus or digital pen. Our project involves learning how these may be used to support teaching and learning at Mohawk College.
Student Drop-in Sessions:
If you’re using WebCT or FirstClass (FRED) in your classes and want to provide some e-Learning support to your students (What’s my userID and password? Where can I find my course? How do I submit my assignment? How can I do this from home? etc.), please encourage your students to visit the e-Learning Help Desk’s Student Drop-In Sessions in i204 on the following days: Oct. 2, 12:30 - 2:30
Oct. 5, 11:00 - 1:00
Keep in touch!
In e-Learning Services, we are lucky to be supporting two very stable and robust systems, FirstClass and WebCT. However, if you or your students notice any irregularities, please let us know. Finally, the best way to keep informed of personnel, services, news, and activities in e-Learning Services is to visit http://e-Learning.mohawkcollege.ca. For more information on any of these items, or to request or book e-Learning workshops, contact Pat Anderchek or Andrew Connery.
Add comment September 19th, 2007