Archive for the 'Instructional Support' Category
October 28th, 2009 by Steve Franklin
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UCI Replay
UCI Replay is a new service provided by the Office of Information Technology to facilitate the recording and sharing of classes, seminar presentations, short tutorial segments, and any other material which can be displayed on a computer screen with accompanying audio.
Increasingly, instructors are recognizing digital lecture capture as a way to offer new educational opportunities. Students can download recorded lectures to review class material or to help understand concepts they find difficult. They can stop and start presentations, clarifying their notes as the lesson unfolds (accommodating different learning styles and speeds.)
Seminars, special speaker presentations, and conference sessions can also be captured and shared. Other ways of taking advantage of this service include screen and audio capture of virtually anything that can be displayed on a computer screen together with whatever voice-over matches the visual presentation.
There is no charge to host recordings. The recording software is free to use and the choice is yours as to whether recordings should be public or UCI-only. All you need is an inexpensive USB microphone to capture the audio portion. Alternatively, a notebook computer (Mac or PC) with a built-in microphone may also be used for recording. SmartClassrooms are already equipped for the use of UCI Replay. A portable version can be run directly from a USB thumbdrive, requiring no software installation on the computer being used.
Use of UCI Replay automatically transfers your materials to a system which packages it in a format suitable for viewing and listening using a web browser such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. You are notified by e-mail when your materials are available.
Detailed information about UCI Replay can be found online.
October 28th, 2009 by Kelsey Layos
On Wednesday, July 15th, the EEE Web Team launched the new Class Announcements tab on MyEEE.
Class Announcements allows instructors and TAs to post short class announcements on their students’ MyEEE pages. Rather than adding more to students’ already cluttered email inboxes, instructors and TAs can grab their students’ attention with updates posted right on MyEEE.
EEE makes sure students see new announcements by loading the Class Announcements tab first, right after a student logs in, if there have been any new posts since the student last visited.
Visit Class Announcements (login required) / Learn more
May 22nd, 2009 by John Remy
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DUE
The mission of the DUE-IT Application and Database Development Team within NACS is to build and support applications and databases for the Division of Undergraduate Education. One such program is Student Academic Advancement Services (SAAS). SAAS works to increase the academic success of key student populations and receives funding from the US Department of Education (USED). Accordingly, it has considerable data collection and reporting requirements.
NACS has helped SAAS staff to consolidate nearly a decade’s worth of program data by building a new Microsoft ASP.NET application to collect and track how students utilize SAAS services, by recruiting a student reporting specialist, and by providing extensive support in its annual reporting efforts. The Director of SAAS, Joe Maestas, had this to say about NACS’s assistance with last year’s federal reporting efforts:
I was extemely pleased with the ease and professionalism that the folks at NACS handled a very difficult and complex task. Our reporting requirement to the USED is a monstrous task which has always caused us problems due to the size and complexity of the database and report requirements. After John and Kenny’s help I no longer worry about getting it done. We now get this baby put to bed early, and we are notified that there is no need for corrections. Makes us look good with the USED folks.
The new ASP.NET-based Student Tracking system supplanted a less cohesive array of Microsoft Access, Excel, and paper-based data-collection tools, eliminated duplication of effort in data collection, and improved the quality of collected data by adding a layer of data validation that did not exist beforehand.
April 24th, 2009 by Kelsey Layos
The Electronic Educational Environment (EEE) web team has revised the SignupSheet tool, which now supports automatically-generated timeslots. Rather than manually entering each timeslot, instructors and assistants can generate a set of timeslots by entering the following information:
- Label
- Time range
- Date (or day of the week)
- Number of timeslots (or length of each timeslot, which will then determine the number of timeslots offered)
- Gap between each timeslot
- Number of signups to allow per timeslot
SignupSheet will automatically create each of the signup items based on the entered parameters.
The new timeslot option makes it easier for instructors and assistants to schedule appointments during office hours, presentations, review sessions, or exam times.
More information can be found on the SignupSheet Help web page.
April 24th, 2009 by Max Garrick
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Distance Learning Center
NACS and UCI Extension have teamed up to enable UCI Extension courses to use the Moodle course management system, available at http://learn.uci.edu/ .
This new capability was made possible through “single sign-on,” a technology that allows students to move seamlessly among websites which, by sharing login and other information, eliminate the need to sign-in multiple times.
Extension students use their Extension login to register and pay for classes. They can then move into the Moodle online learning environment hosted at NACS. Once classes begin, students see their classes immediately and can start participating in online discussions and view media-rich course materials. All authentication and student enrollment information are exchanged in real-time behind the scenes.
Jill James, Director of University Extension Information Systems praised the partnership’s success. “NACS’s project management help, technical expertise, and support are fantastic and ensured a very successful launch. As the Distance Learning Center expands, the new automation helps streamline the process of creating courses and linking students.”
The partnership between NACS and UnEx’s Distance Learning Center has served as a model for on-campus IT “in-sourcing” since 2002. NACS provides the IT expertise, infrastructure, and on-call emergency response necessary to host a Moodle site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This allows the Distance Learning Center to focus attention on their unique contribution on campus: top-notch distance learning education.
February 23rd, 2009 by Kelsey Layos
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MessageBoard
The Electronic Educational Environment (EEE) web team has launched the new MessageBoard tool, which allows instructors and TAs to create online forums for discussion with students outside of the classroom. MessageBoard includes a number of new features based on feedback from users of the earlier NoteBoard tool, which it replaces.
New features include:
- Subscription: Receive email updates when new posts are made
- Uploading: Post a file for others to download
- Rich text: Easily format text and add links without HTML
- Advanced controls: Restrict a forum to instructors and TAs, board admins, or specific people identified by UCInetID
- Custom web addresses: Choose a friendly URL for your message board
You can visit the MessageBoard tool here. The EEE Web site has extensive documentation on MessageBoard, including tips on how to use MessageBoard in instruction.
