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Instructional Support Abstracts
A Casual Teaching Tool for Large Size Computer Laboratories and Small Size Seminar Classes
Teaching tools for computer laboratories, which send images on the teacher’s display to displays of all students, are popular and effective. However, most of them need an expensive server. Servers usually bother the manager of the computer laboratories.
Many of teachers want use the same teaching tool with their computer
laboratories’, for their own small and ad hoc seminar class with
laptop PCs of members of the seminar. However it is hard to have the teacher’s
own server for the teaching tool. Teachers also do not like to be bothered
about managing the server.
We are developing “SOLAR-CATS”, a teaching tool for large
size computer laboratories and small size seminar classes. The SOLAR-CATS
does not need a server because it uses a P2P technology. The SOLAR-CATS
includes the following functions.
- Remote operation of an application program, which is equipped with the SOLAR-CATS, of every PC in the class from one PC in the class.
- Sending an image of one display in the class to all other class members’ display in a short time. Annotation is also possible.
- Mutual exclusion of remote operation. This realizes interactive class.
- Recording and replaying operations on the SOLAR-CATS.
We have been using the SOLAR-CATS for an elementary computer literacy class and a network security class in computer laboratories several years. The number of students was 30 to 50. Each Student of the class could see small size letters and pictures on the display in front of him/her. When we did not use the SOLAR-CATS, some students asked as to use the SOLAR-CATS. We did not bother the laboratory’s manager for using the SOLAR-CATS. The program of the SOLAR-CATS was distributed by us using USB memories. We also have used the SOLAR-CATS for a seminar class. The number of students was three to eight. Students and the teacher of the class could have a nice time while they dealt with a subject by interacting with the class members.
Adobe Presenter, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Blackboard Vista: Tools that Work Together for Creating and Presenting Online Instructional Content
Adobe Presenter is a tool that works with Microsoft PowerPoint to create online content presentations and SCORM modules. It was originally developed for use with Adobe Connect web conferencing software. It allows you to publish a PowerPoint presentation with narration, embedded Flash files, and interactive quiz questions as a Flash movie or as a PDF file that can be viewed with Adobe Reader version 9. At West Virginia University, we have already established Wimba Classroom as our web conference solution but we’re always looking for additional ways for faculty members to optimally present recorded lectures for their online courses. Native PowerPoint files with recorded narration can be quite large. Blackboard Vista, our course management system, requires a lot of disk space for its database so we also look for ways to reduce disk space needs for individual courses. Faculty members could alternatively choose to upload the resulting Flash or PDF file to their own web servers instead of into our course management system. This paper will describe our experiences and results as we learn to master a new tool to create online media-rich lectures and interactive SCORM quizzes from PowerPoint presentations and incorporate them into Blackboard Vista course sections.
After the Class: Informal Training Support Through the Penn State Technology Training Community
One of the biggest challenges Penn State’s Information Technology Services training unit faces is providing ongoing training support to participants after they attend a training session. Experience shows that extended learning happens after the class through informal discussions and on-the-job application of the skills learned in class. In exploring better ways to facilitate these informal discussions, as well as to assist in meeting the ongoing training needs of users at all Penn State locations, we have developed an online, collaborative learning community. This resource allows users to participate in online conversations, view tips and tricks, and locate other informational resources in order to learn more about the many technology topics that affect their job roles at the University.
This presentation will focus on the process used to design and develop this online learning community, the challenges faced, the lessons learned, the positive impact on training support, and the future goals for this project.
Analyzing Usage in a Large Coursecasting Service: Issues and Strategies
Coursecasting, the video and audio recording of lectures and events for live or on-demand playback, has become a significant IT service at many institutions of higher education. By making available on the internet collections of full-length digitized recordings, college and university information technology groups find themselves supporting large and varied distributed audiences – from local students to faraway e-learners. Managing the up-to-date production and on-demand delivery of this kind of open content requires a technical infrastructure for capturing, publishing, and archiving that can adapt quickly to changing workload demands. Adapting quickly, moreover, requires special attention to understanding usage of the time-based content: the different kinds of users, where and how they access content, and shifting patterns of media access. Those who carry out usage analytics for open educational resource services involving internet-based video and audio face special challenges. This paper explores approaches to monitoring and analyzing audio and video content usage across many dimensions in one higher education setting involving a large scale, open content coursecasting service.
Automated Lecture Recording System with AVCHD Camcorder and Microserver
Although streaming lecture videos like iTunes U or OCW is becoming popular, large-scale lecture recording is still a difficult task for many universities. Auto lecture recording system with robotic tripod or smart sensors is too expensive to be equipped in many classrooms. A simple solution of human-operated recording also suffers from the cost of hiring, training and managing operators. A possible solution for the problem is the combination of recording with fixed high-definition camcorder and post-processing of camerawork generation that traces regions of interest. However, automatic recording system for high-definition camcorder is still uncommon and expensive.
In this paper, we describe the automatic lecture recording system we developed with AVCHD camcorder and micro Linux server. We could make the system small and cost effective since it does not use powerful components for capturing high-definition video stream. AVCHD camcorder records videos as files on its file system; capturing now becomes an easy task of copying files from USB storage to the server. With a simple auxiliary circuit, the server can control recording and capturing videos through only USB interface. Finally, recorded videos are automatically processed with a camerawork engine we have developed to generate NTSC resolution videos.
In our system, recording schedule is easily managed by iCalendar applications. After we register schedule data on them, the data is periodically sent to each camera control server. We can also collaborate to manage recording schedule with a calendar server.
Classrooms in the Cloud: Adobe Connect Pro in the Penn State Learning Community
Penn State is using Adobe Connect Pro to help redefine the classroom
of the 21st century. With our diverse and wide spread student body, reaching
all segments of the University’s learning community in a timely,
direct manner is essential to our mission. Through research and development,
Information Technology Services has developed several strategies for using
Adobe Connect Pro to assist faculty in providing students with resources
to enrich their educational experience. By using both the synchronous
and asynchronous aspects of Adobe Connect Pro, we can provide just-in-time
instruction or time-shifted learning to a diverse and non-traditional
audience.
Our workshops and seminars help improve the productivity of faculty, staff
and students in using Adobe Connect Pro. From training in the essentials
of using the tool, to scenarios for classroom use, we are helping faculty
to improve the way in which education is delivered, and students in how
their learning takes place.
In this presentation, we will examine the Penn State approach to deploying
the tool and providing training on its use; look at the essential elements
of Adobe Connect Pro and how they are being used in the classroom; review
some examples of how it has been successfully used; and look ahead to
what potential the tool may hold for further development and deployment
in enhancing the teaching/learning process.
Distribution to multiple platforms based on one video lecture archive
Already today there is a plethora of tele-lecture portals with special attributes and focuses. The effort to find and commit to the best portal is pretty ineffective because the internet scenery consistently changes and grows. It should be more important to try to achieve the furthest possible syndication of the content and the quick and simple adaptation to current technical possibilities and formats.
The tele-TASK archive achieved more than 2.500 video records of over 600 different lectures all over the duration of more than a 4 month permanently-streaming video lecture content.
This is an adequate base for researching in different fields and representative evaluation sets. Beside the possibility to stream the content in RealMedia format, the lecture recording system tele-TASK use also the formats FlashVideo and MP4 for more than 2 years. Therefore our approach is to build workflows which allow to automatically tend to different video portals with our content. At this stage you can find tele-TASK lectures beside on www.tele-task.de also on the portals iTunes U by Apple, Youtube and Yovisto. Connections to more portals and new content distribution formats are under construction already. This paper describes our concepts and experiences with the distribution of video lecture content to the named portals. Furthermore it delivers insight into the results of the evaluations which we performed. It shows the methods based on the evaluation results which we used to implement new features in our workflows. Our approach will increase the number of potential video learners and enhance the Tele-Teaching process.
Implementation of Integrated and Scalable Syllabus System
The role of syllabus system varies widely. Syllabus system is mainly used for an agreement between the professor and the students taking the course. Syllabus system is also useful when students take elective courses. Most universities and colleges provide syllabi online. The merits of the online syllabus system are to be able to announce information promptly, to create links to other related resources, and to allow not only the students in schools but also students in other schools or departments, high school students and the public at large to get course information.
Our university has 12 undergraduate schools and 17 graduate schools.
While our university requires all of our schools to describe minimum items
in a syllabus, our university allows them to have their own syllabus system
because of their own curriculum policy. Consequently, each school or department
adopted its own syllabus system, and there are about 30syllabus systems
in our university.
As far as students only take course in their own school or department,
there is no problem. However our university allows students to take courses
in other schools or departments, and has courses in the liberal arts all
students can take. In that case, a unique syllabus system should be better
than separate systems. Moreover many universities begin to disclose course
information as university accountability and publish course materials
including syllabus as OpenCourseWare.
For these reason we implemented a new syllabus system. In this paper, we describe the feature of our system and future plan.
Instructional Technology Outreach and Metrics: Building a Bridge
At Williams College, self selected faculty take full advantage of instructional technology training and services while other faculty members remain under informed and underserved. The instructional technology group at Williams has agreed that outreach is an essential tool to help instructional technology specialists reach faculty who may be underutilizing technology in their teaching and research. However, there is no standard method for collecting metrics on outreach for instructional technology staff supporting faculty in their teaching. How then can outreach to faculty be measured so that we can gage its effectiveness and strive for improvement?
One approach attempted at Williams is to create a custom Microsoft Access database to log outreach to faculty. Some key fields would include date, outreach context, faculty member name and department, and software or hardware package. Then custom queries can be created that can recall all outreach to particular departments, or all references to particular software packages. Reports can be constructed that map out contact with faculty by the time of year, or which departments or faculty members are underserved.
Entering data on outreach every day is time intensive, but the data can be used to justify or improve services to faculty. Is having data on instructional technology support to faculty worth the efforts expended in the data collection? This paper and presentation will argue that the effort is justified.
Seven Steps to Better Deskside Manner
The Valparaiso University School of Law (VUSL) created a staff position within their Information Technology unit to accommodate the increasing number of faculty and their information technology needs for classroom support and academic pursuits. The biggest challenge this position faced was the inability to hold workshops for faculty due to their schedules. This leads to the curious case of working with each faculty on a one-to-one basis. Strategies needed to be created and executed to ensure that this position could reach out to any of the faculty on a moment’s notice.
Some of the success stories as well as some of the failures will be shared. These failures have to changes in some of the approaches. The strategies used as a foundation to meet the academic needs of faculty will be shared and explored in more detail.
Seven Steps
- Understand the difference between tangible and intangible
- Switching things up
- Management By Walking Around (MBWA) - be active, show up
- Stop dwelling on the past regardless of whether or not it was good or bad - leads to continuous improvement
- Find balance between standardization and personalization (tailoring)
- Observe
- Do Something Extra
Teaching with Information - and Communication Technologies - Results of a Large Scale Survey
On behalf of the Ministry of Education in Luxembourg (Europe), 821 teachers - from primary school to higher education - were questioned in an online survey at the beginning of 2009 about their use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education. In this paper, we briefly present the context of the questionnaire and will then focus on its outcomes. The preliminary analysis of the results will mainly focus on the closed questions of the survey and try to answer several fundamental questions related to the availability, as well as to the current and the future usage of ICT in schools. Most of the teachers use ICT in some way in education, but printed documents remain the most popular source of information during class. The main argument listed to use ICT is the increase of students' motivation, while the major concern is the technical hardware dependency or unavailability. Also, an important number of teachers is concerned about the increased preparation time that is in most cases not rewarded. Finally, a vast majority of the teachers is willing to take part in an e-learning training program, probably because they feel unqualified or do not (yet) see the advantage of ICT for their classes.
The Care and Feeding of a Moodle Campus
The old adage of “If you build it, they will come” is not necessarily true when it comes to a Learning Management System. These systems require a little more care and support to encourage faculty to adopt and utilize them as a tool for their classrooms. In order to avoid the pitfalls of neglect and indifference that was exhibited towards our previous learning management system, the Client Services department at Lewis & Clark College had to embark on a mission of evangelism to excite the faculty about using Moodle. This paper will discuss the choice to move to Moodle, and the process to move faculty and students towards accepting Moodle as a part of not only the campus learning environment, but the campus community as a whole. It will also explore data from a student and faculty survey as to where Moodle currently stands on campus.
The Many Benefits of Cultivating Community Among IT Staff in Decentralized Environments
In decentralized environments it is more difficult to realize economies of scale, both in terms of development opportunities for IT staff and in terms of knowledge-sharing between IT units and staff. At Penn State, we are a distributed environment with multiple campuses and colleges - each with their own IT staff. We are essentially a collection of separate small-to-medium sized organizations. Today, budgets are increasingly tight, and the need for technical training is increasingly vital. While there are common problems and needs, the decentralized nature of the environment makes it difficult to address them with the strength or efficiency of a large institution.
At Penn State, we have established an organic community of IT staff that exists apart from organizational boundaries and requires very little management overhead. This community is supported by a multi-faceted set of community-driven services, designed to include geographically-dispersed audiences. Processes, functions, and offerings regularly leverage the collective knowledge of IT staff, who frequently view sharing their work and knowledge as opportunities for personal growth and professional development. Advances in collaborative tools have made assessment, communication, and planning much easier, which has resulted in significant reduction in staff training expenses by aggregating needs and bringing vendors on site. In some cases, we are able to provide training for the community using in house knowledge. Looking forward, with federation services, it is it is entirely possible that we could see such communities like this being established between universities and enterprises.
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