Welcome to the incoming class of ‘12. Here are the things we will try to cover in the various Orientation sessions on Wednesday and Friday.
Getting Logged In
Blackboard
IT wishes all the students, faculty and staff of the Pac-Rim program the best and safest of travel as they leave today for their ten month odyssey in Asia.
We have been working with Pac-Rim faculty and students to set up online sites to help them to chronicle their experience and stay connected during their journey.
One of the technologies we are experimenting with is Ning, the “make-your-own-social-network” site. For security reasons during the trip, the Ning site is private to the participants and invited guests. It allows the group to collect and upload photos, videos, make blog posts, have forum discussions, make maps, read RSS feeds, and share information with each other as they travel.
Welcome new faculty. This page contains answers to some of the basic questions asked by incoming faculty about the services that Instructional Technology provides.
Course Management Software
Blackboard is our current Course Management Software. It will still be use in for the 2008-2009 academic year. See the iTech Blackboard page for more information.
In the Spring of 2008, UPS made the decision to adopt Moodle as our new course management system. The planning and implementation of this will take place over the next two years. See The Move to Moodle page for current information.
Gradebook Software
UPS does not have a standard for Gradebook software. You are free to use what you wish. Both Blackboard and Moodle have gradebooks built into them. Check with your Department to see if it uses or has purchased gradebook software for its faculty. Grades are submitted using the course pages in Cascade.
Web Pages: The UPS Web Site
The official UPS web site is managed with a Content Management System (CMS). (more…)
What tools might be useful for faculty “Virtual Office Hours” to make themselves available after regular hours to students?
First and simplest choice would be traditional text based Chat tools. But you may want to use audio and video for a better experience.
Read about two professors’ ideas about Virtual Office Hours - “IM here” Reflections on Virtual Office Hours
See the new Video Chat page for a listing of video chat tools.
Prof. Douglas Edwards made the front page of this morning’s News Tribune, in an article about his work using videoconferencing to participate in this Summer’s archeological digs in Khirbet Cana, in Israel. Due to his illness, he was unable to be on site, but used video tools to connect daily with staff on site.
Puget Sound hosts the complete collection of images from the digs in its Digital Image Collections. The advantage of having all the information online is:
…the new technology allows interested parties to receive bits of information as on-site teams update an online database, rather than waiting five to 10 years for a comprehensive paper to be published.
IT Staff member Gordon Gilbert and Mark Young, Director of Network Server and Services Group at UPS, have worked closely with Doug on the technology to make the data collections from the digs available to students, faculty, scholars and the public.