Archive for March, 2010
CAETL Grad Student Workshop — April 8th, 2010
Posted by admin in CAETL, Events, Talking About Teaching on March 23rd, 2010
Date: April 8th, 2010
Time: 2:00 – 4:00 PM
Location: AH 100
Be sure to join your fellow graduate students for this last session of the 2009 -2010 Grad TA Workshop Series. In conjunction with the Graduate Students Association, our last session for the term will be an informal opportunity to meet with fellow graduate students and share some of your ideas about the graduate student experience here at U of L.
Please remember that attendance at this session will count toward your certificate of participation in the CAETL Graduate Student TA Workshop Series.
Skype Part 1: Consumer tool, Professional use
Posted by Tyler Heaton in 21st Century Teaching and Learning, Skype, videoconferencing FAQ on March 17th, 2010
While my tendency with learning technologies is to explore an approach rather than a specific technology, I have to break with tradition on this one. The approach in question is video communication. The application is Skype. This is part one of a look at an often underrated tool.
Many of you may already be familiar with Skype. Some may use it every day to keep in touch with family and friends. It is a simple (and free) application that allows voice, video and text communication in real time. You can run it on practically any computer with a webcam and a microphone. And now days most laptops and even a few monitors or all-in-one computers (notably the iMac) have built in webcams and microphones. Combine that with a free Skype account for you and your friends and you are good to go.
Great for home use, but where does that fit in at a University? Lately we have been seeing an increase in the need for face-to-face meetings over long distances. When these meetings require multiple different locations to connect to the same meeting, traditional hardware based videoconferencing is needed. But when there is only one party at the other end, that is where Skype steps in. And it does the job well. On many connections the audio and video quality are excellent. Good enough to have one user comment that it was better than the $80,000 videoconference suite he had used previously.
In other situations the remote party may not have access to expensive videoconferencing hardware or the networks required to have a good quality conference. Skype requires only that your computer has an internet connection and is designed to work over varying network conditions.
At the CRDC, we have been using it since the beginning of the year for everything from Faculty meetings, to classes bringing in instructors from across the country, to job interviews around the globe. Once you look at what it can do, Skype quickly becomes elevated to a professional tool, capable of taking on the tasks needed in an ever evolving post-secondary learning environment.
To sum up, Skype is free, accessible and most importantly it works! In my eyes that is a winning combination for a video communication tool.
March 19 – CAETL Talking About Teaching
Posted by admin in CAETL, Events, Talking About Teaching on March 15th, 2010
Thank you to all who attended the last Talking About Teaching. We tried a new format and had great success with it.
Our next event is taking place:
March 19th
2:30 to 4:30 pm (drop in any time)
Andy’s Place (AH100).
Topic: “Challenges and Successes of Teaching a Course with a Lab Component”
Refreshments will be served. Drop in anytime. Graduate students are also encouraged to attend.
We hope to see you there.
CAETL Graduate Student Workshop — Classroom Management Skills for Teaching Assistants
Date: March 10th, 2010
Time: 2:00 – 4:00 PM
Location: L 1170 A
Presenters:
Dr. Jan Newberry and Dr. Dayna Daniels
The session will focus on a discussion of issues related to classroom management skills for TAs in the classroom, lab, or tutorial. Some suggestions, tips, tricks, and techniques for establishing and maintaining a positive and productive classroom environment will be presented. Participants are encouraged to come and share their concerns, challenges and ideas on this important topic. Be sure to plan to attend this important session and engage with your colleagues in this conversation
Exporting assessments to another class in Blackboard
Posted by admin in Assessments, Blackboard, FAQ, Instructors on March 8th, 2010
An assessment can be exported from one class to another to avoid having to build the exam from scratch.
In order to do this, the exam must first be exported.
Exporting
Choose the build tab to ensure you have a builders role. Choose Assessments from the Course Tools menu. Choose the drop down menu beside the assessment you wish to export, and choose Export from the menu items. Choose Class Files in the browsing window and navigate to the course you which to export the assessment to. Once you have chosen the destination of the assessment, type in a file name in the Save as: field. Then click OK.
The exam has now been exported to the course of your choice. However, the process is not complete. The exam must then be imported via the course you just exported to.
Importing
Choose the build tab to ensure you have a builders role. Choose Manage Course from the Designers Tools menu on the left of the screen. Choose Import. A dialogue box appears, similar to the export dialogue box. Navigate to the assessment in the list of files. It is listed alphabetically; however, you can list the files by type by clicking Type at the top of the file list. The assessment will be listed according to the name you gave it and will be a ZIP file.
Once you have located the file, click the radio button beside it and click okay. A report will be generated on screen letting you know if the import was successful. Upon successful import you should click Return. To view the imported data click on Assessments and Go to Question Database. The imported assessment actually imports as individual questions to the question database. They will be in the category named the same as the ZIP file you exported.
To add these questions to an assessment follow these instructions.
http://www.uleth.ca/crdc/?p=1086
My files are not actually uploading when I choose “Add File” in the Course Content area.
Posted by admin in Blackboard, Content Management, FAQ, Instructors on March 8th, 2010
If you are trying to upload files for your course and they appear to be loading, but upon navigating to your course content area they are missing, follow the troubleshooting techniques below.
1. Are you uploading more than one file?
If you are uploading more than one file, keep in mind that you have a limit of ten files even though you can upload more than one. To resolve this, try adding the file again. When the dialogue window with the My Computer icon pops up, click on my computer. Notice a browsing window pops up that allows you to search for files. Close this window, and instead choose to upload files individually. This choice is a blue text link beside the My Computer icon. You will have to choose each file individually and upload in this manner. Often times this problem arises with Macintosh users due to a browser or Java compatibility issue, but can also arise on Windows as well.
2. I am uploading one file but it still won’t upload.
Try also using the instructions above.
March 5th – Talking About Teaching
Posted by admin in CAETL, Events, Talking About Teaching on March 2nd, 2010
Presented by CAETL
When: 3-5pm, March 5th, 2010
Where: Andy’s Place (AH100)
Talking About Teaching is an event that allows instructors throughout the University to come and discuss teaching and learning as it relates to them.
This particular event will be a “soap box” discussion about “Innovative and interesting course endeavours”. Attendees will be able hear from their colleagues as well as participate by sharing their teaching endeavours.
Some topics being discussed by our invited guests will be: speaking about the creation of a new Liberal Education course, integrating audience response systems as well as group blogs.
We encourage you to join us for some great discussion.
For more information about CAETL, please visit www.uleth.ca/caetl
Do you have UofL branded PowerPoint Templates?
Click on any of the templates below to have them download to your computer.
Is there forums or support pages for specific Presenter issues?
Yes, you can view the resource pages from adobe here: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Presenter/7.0/index.html
OR
You can also participate and view the forums at connectusers.com