Technology on Your Own Terms Fall 2010

13 08 2010

Faculty members interested in learning more about emerging technologies might be interested in Technology on Your Own Terms, a training series offered each semester by the Weinberg Memorial Library and the Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence (CTLE).  The series introduces University faculty and staff to emerging technologies in a hands-on environment, in order to encourage innovation in the workplace and in the classroom.  The Fall 2010 series is themed “Get to Know Google” and features workshops on four different Google services.  All faculty are welcome, but seats are limited, so please register for sessions you plan to attend at www.scranton.edu/ctleregistration (select Special Event).

Just Google It!
Tuesday, September 14 from 12pm – 1pm

One billion results in 0.27 seconds! When you need information, chances are you use Google™ to find it.  In this workshop, you will learn how Google’s Web search engine works.  You will also learn some tips to help you improve your search experience as well as some of Google’s special features, such as Google Books and Google Scholar. (Taught by Bonnie Oldham, Weinberg Memorial Library)

Google Docs: An Excellent Way to Create, Collaborate on, and Securely Store Documents
Friday, October 1 from 12pm – 1pm

This workshop will introduce you to Google Docs, a service that allows you to create documents that parallel Microsoft Office:  Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. It also allows for the creation of online surveys and the storage of any type of document in a very secure environment. Google Docs offers excellent collaborative opportunities for working on any supported document type with both peers and students, meaning that the tool can be used for course paper submissions, faculty feedback, collaborative student projects, club, or research purposes. (Taught by Dr. Tim Cannon, Psychology/Neuroscience)

Get Where You’re Going with Google Maps
Tuesday, October 12 from 12pm – 1pm

Many people know that you can use Google Maps to get driving directions from one place to another. But did you know that you can also use Maps to scope out a vacation destination, find the closest Italian restaurant, or make a custom map for a friend or a project?  In this workshop, you’ll explore specialized features and tools available in Google Maps to help you get where you want to go.  (Taught by Kristen Yarmey, Weinberg Memorial Library)

Does Google Give You A Voice?
Thursday, November 4 from 12pm – 1pm

In this workshop, we will explore Google Voice, a recently-made-public service of the search giant.  Google Voice offers one central phone number, which can be setup to call your other phones based on caller, time of day, etc.  Other features of the service include visual voicemail, personalized greetings, voicemail transcription, international calling, and a lot more.  It is easy to set up… Learn how! (Taught by Eugeniu Grigorescu, CTLE)





Angel Upgrade scheduled for June 1-2

18 05 2010

IT Development and Applications just shared this announcement that ANGEL will be down on June 1 and 2 for the upgrade to v. 7.4:

The ANGEL Learning Management System will be unavailable between Tuesday, June 1 at 7:00am and Wednesday, June 2 at 4:30pm. The downtime is necessary to install a new version of ANGEL – 7.4. *Please note that all existing course content (including content rolled over from previous courses) will be automatically migrated to ANGEL 7.4. *

In version 7.4, creating and evaluating assessments have been improved with the addition of Grading Rubrics and an enhanced Gradebook. The Learning Object Repositories (LORs) have been enhanced; there is now support for rich media content in discussion forums, pages, and assessments.

*Grading rubrics* provide instructors and other assessment evaluators with an efficient method of consistently grading subjective learner submissions for drop boxes and manually-graded assessment questions. Grading rubrics can be created individually for ANGEL courses, or copied or linked into ANGEL courses from Learning Object Repositories (LORs). Students also benefit from the use of grading rubrics in that they can see, in advance, the criteria against which their assignment will be evaluated.

The *Gradebook* has a more intuitive and user-friendly interface. Among the new features available are: Grade Reports, Grade Entry Grid, Submissions Manager, and an Ungraded Items nugget.

  • The *Grade Reports* allows you to generate grade reports based on various parameters such as categories and dates. Each report can be saved and accessed from the Reports nugget in the gradebook.
  • The *Grade Entry Grid *makes it easier to enter and edit grades by directly typing them into the Grade Entry Grid.
  • The* Submissions Manager* provides an interface in which you can enter a grade for each assignment directly from the gradebook.  Additionally, instructors can view assignments that have ungraded submissions associated with them.
  • The *Ungraded Items nugget* conditionally displays assignments that require manual grading.

The *Learning Object Repositories* (LORs) incorporates the ability to aggregate user data from several courses. For example, an assessment can be deployed across multiple sections of the same course with combined submission information stored in the LOR.

The HTML editor in discussions, pages, and assessments provides tools to integrate web-based *rich media support* such as YouTube videos, Picasa images, and other Web 2.0 content.

The Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence will offer an ANGEL 7.4 Enhancements workshop on Tuesday, June 8, 2010 from 10:00am-12:00pm to highlight the new features. Please register online at: http://www.scranton.edu/ctleregistration