What Works Well? Phil Cary Shares his Experience Using Touchscreens in his Classroom

Incorporating screencasts to convey content is one way to add variety to the instructional materials provided in your course and can be a powerful way to promote learner engagement. A screencast is typically defined as a method of recording a computer screen often supplemented with webcam video and audio narration. Microsoft has recently introduced an add-on called Office Mix that integrates screencast functionality inside of PowerPoint. Although Office Mix is integrated specifically into PowerPoint, this free extension provides a very robust feature set. In addition to enhancing PowerPoint slides, Office Mix can be used for creating screencasts that include webcam video, audio narration, digital inking, polling, quizzes, and more!

Microsoft has made the process relatively easy for installing Office Mix, so users can quickly get started creating Office Mix enhanced recordings. Check out the Office Mix dedicated website for complete information and video tutorials for getting started using Office Mix. Unfortunately for Apple/Mac users, Office Mix is currently available only on Windows PCs that have either Office 365 or PowerPoint 2013 or later versions installed.

Using Office Mix for generating a screencast provides several unique advantages:

PowerPoint slides provide a natural storyboard making it easy to stay on task during the recording process.
PowerPoint users have the advantage of using Office Mix to enhance existing presentations and slide content without having to generate new content from scratch.
Microsoft integrates simple hosting of recorded “mixes” while providing embed code that can be used to easily insert videos directly into your CSC Online Sakai course!
The Microsoft hosting platform provides accessibility options for uploading a transcript and controlling other aspects of the recorded video.
In addition, detailed analytics are available that can provide insight on how your mixes are being utilized.

If Office Mix sounds intriguing and you would like to learn more, be sure to sign up to participate in the TLC Workshop scheduled for March, Geared to Engage Students in Learning: A Simple Way to Add Interactive Content to Your Course. If you have additional questions please don’t hesitate to contact the Teaching and Learning Center (tlctech@csc.edu).

Increasingly, the TLC will focus its efforts on reporting emerging technologies that enhance teaching and learning. As we review technologies within the TLC, we will hold informational seminars and invite faculty to participate in a testing and review process. Please stop in for a visit or contact the TLC’s IT Analyst, Jereme Patterson (jpatterson@csc.edu or 308.432.6234).

What Works Well for Phil Cary?

Nov 10

by Alex Graham

In: Pedagogy, Technology

These are exciting times for Chadron State College with various advancements in educational technologies available to use in the classroom, both face-to-face and online. CSC instructors are developing courses that provide a variety of ways for students to interact with each other, with their instructors, and with the content of courses. Teaching and learning can be enhanced with technologies such as the web conferencing system of the Sakai Meetings Tool, a GoPro camera for facilitating a flipped classroom approach, and interactive large format touchscreens on campus.

This is the first in a series of articles that will share educational technologies or teaching and learning strategies that are working well (and in some cases, not so well) for CSC instructors in the classroom or online courses. Whether you are a senior faculty member or a new one, the TLC invites you to share your experiences with your colleagues. Please contact me, agraham@csc.edu, with a story to share regarding what works well (or not so well) in your teaching and learning efforts.

What Works Well? Phil Cary Shares his Experience Using Touchscreens in his Classroom

I recently asked Phil Cary to share his perspective on using the new large interactive touchscreens for teaching his math classes. Following are his responses regarding how these technologies are transforming his classroom teaching as well as how they may be useful for teaching and learning in other disciplines.

How are you using this technology to enhance your teaching?

I prepare digital notes ahead of class, using a digital tablet (the Sympodium from Smart products). Then during class discussion, I show the prepared notes on the touch screen, but also write on the touch surface to record additions and modifications to the notes during discussion. After class, I convert the completed notes reflecting class discussion into pdf files that I then post for the students (both on and off campus). I can also use a web-based graphing calculator (Desmos) that is so useful in discussing concepts with students in my class. I can annotate the graphs we produce and capture the graphs into my notes for the day.

Are you using the screen with or without the computer?

I am currently using the screen with the desktop PC in the classroom, which is running the Smart Notebook software.

Do you use the whiteboard technology and save files for each class session?

Yes, every class period, as described above. I can work additional math problems and answer questions by writing on the touch screen.

Do you see other departments using this technology?

Absolutely! The ability to create notes, as well as write directly on web pages and other documents, then save the modifications digitally, would be very useful in all classes.

Have you run into any problems?

So far, I am very pleased with the touch screen as a useful classroom tool. Just this morning a student told me that he could see the touch screen better and more clearly than the previously used projected image from the projector located in the ceiling. The only issue (that is a temporary one) is that it takes a while to get used to the sensitivity of the touch screen, so it is not quite as simple as writing on a whiteboard. However, I am confident this issue can be overcome with practice and experience.

Do you have any plans for using this technology differently from how you are currently using it?

Yes, one of my top priorities is to learn how to use the screen with a webcam to conference with others using Vidyo. Since many of our math students (in the math major) are located at a distance from campus, this could be very useful in communicating with groups or individuals off campus.

Technology Highlight: Qomo Journey

Nov 10

The Teaching and Learning Center staff has been actively following trends in large format touchscreens in education. These interactive touchscreen monitors are becoming more affordable and increasingly popular in classrooms.

Over the last couple years, several departments at Chadron State College have implemented models from InFocus and Qomo. The most notable installation is the display of three, side by side, 65” InFocus touchscreens in the faculty multiuse room located in Old Admin 030. These touchscreens offer digital note-taking capabilities as well as the ability to operate a 3-screen computer system simply by touching the screen with a stylus or a finger.

Qomo has built on the touchscreen trend by incorporating an Android operating system into their Qomo Journey model. The integrated Android operating system enables screen use without a separate computer connection to view and annotate documents and images; to browse the web; to take notes digitally on the whiteboard; and even to participate in basic web conferencing (with the addition of a camera).

The touchscreens are appealing in the classroom for several reasons:

an interactive touchscreen provides new ways to engage students
use of interactive touchscreens streamlines classroom technology by eliminating the need for a separate projector, whiteboard, screen, and/or a dedicated classroom computer system
interactive flat screens have a significantly longer lifespan than a projector
newer model versions of interactive flat screen monitors are not prone to creating shadows and glare.

Interested in finding out more about using this technology from the perspective of a fellow faculty member? Read What Works Well for Phil Cary to see how he uses touchscreens to enhance teaching in his classes.

Increasingly, the TLC will focus its efforts on reporting emerging technologies that enhance teaching and learning. As we review technologies within the TLC, we will hold informational seminars and invite faculty to participate in a testing and review process. To discuss and/or suggest “new arrival” gadgets, please stop in for a visit or contact the TLC’s IT Analyst, Jereme Patterson (jpatterson@csc.edu or 309.432.6234).

CSC Online Course Sites Available for Spring 2017 Terms

Oct 27

Support articles for several frequently asked questions are provided below:

Please refer to the Sakai 10 Instructor Guide for additional support. The guide is also accessible from the Help menu item, or by clicking the blue help icon (?) in the top-right of any Sakai tool.

The Teaching and Learning Possibilities of LTI Integrations

Oct 10

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Many CSC Online-Sakai instructors are familiar with the pre-configured External Tools available to all online courses such as TurnItIn and the EBSCO Reading List. However, a vast array of educational applications are available which offer integration capabilities with CSC’s learning management system (LMS). The Teaching & Learning Center encourages the exploration and trial of new technology in teaching, and past experience has shown that integration with CSC Online can be the key to successfully launching a new learning tool. This article will discuss the background of Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) integration and how to get started using it with External Tools in CSC Online.

What Are External (LTI) Tools?

External Tools utilize the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard, which allows for simple and secure integration with external applications. The LTI protocol provides a method for the LMS to securely send user names, email addresses, user roles, and other course information to the external application.

Educational applications may use LTI integration in a wide variety of ways. Some apps may only use LTI to send the student’s name and role to the application to avoid requiring the student to log in. Other applications may directly integrate with the CSC Online Gradebook, allowing instructors to score student activities in an external application.

Using External Tools in a CSC Online Course

All course instructors have the ability to add External Tools to CSC Online courses. While an External Tool may be added and configured for any individual site by an instructor (without admin approval), some commonly used tools have been made available system-wide and may be added without additional configuration (ie. TurnItIn).

However, often times an instructor may want to test and use an external app in a course utilizing LTI integration. Fortunately, all instructors have the ability to add an External Tool without requiring the LMS administrator to make it available for all CSC Online courses. External Tools are added in Site Info > Edit Tools > External Tools. Once the tool is added, follow these instructions to configure the tool with the launch URL, secret and key provided by the publisher.

Example Applications With LTI Support

Many existing educational applications and tools contain an LTI integration component. Below are three examples to try out:

Office Mix is a free PowerPoint plug-in that provides tools for narrating, annotating, and creating interactive content such as polls within a presentation. Content created with Office Mix (referred to as Mixes) may be uploaded and shared within the Office Mix web application. While Office Mix may be used independently of the LMS, it offers an LTI integration to allow instructors to easily share Mixes in a course and track student participation. Interested in learning more about this application? Sign up for the TLC workshop offered in March 2017, Geared to Engage Students in Learning: A Simple Way to Add Interactive Content to Your Course.

Piazza is a wiki-style Q&A platform that may be used to foster strong peer (student-to-student) learning in an online class. It works by allowing students to ask and answer questions in real-time. Instructors may join in, or simply guide the conversation with endorsements and other feedback tools. Piazza can be used successfully without integrating with CSC Online. However, to avoid manually adding and requiring students to log in, the application offers a complete LTI integration (instructions here for a sample Sakai integration).

OneNote Class Notebook provides an easy way to launch a OneNote notebook for all participants of a course. A class notebook can provide a flexible space for organizing notes, collaborating on assignments, or providing real-time feedback on student work. The LTI integration will automatically add students to the notebook and provide access from within an online course.

Discovering More LTI Apps

These examples provide only a brief introduction to the variety of applications that are utilizing LTI to integrate with online learning systems. To discover more apps, browse through the IMS LTI Product Directory and the EduAppCenter collection of LTI apps.

Please contact the Teaching & Learning Center (tlctech@csc.edu) for more information about LTI, External Tools, and to discuss piloting a new application integration in your courses.

Technology Highlight: iPads now available for checkout at the TLC!

Sep 29

The Teaching and Learning Center recently received a charging cart containing iPad 2 and iPad 4 tablets from CSC’s Department of Education. Apple iPad tablets are widely used in education and we are excited to make them available for checkout to all Academic Affairs departments. The iPad tablets have the latest Apple iOS updates and have been inventoried in the TLC Equipment Library for faculty checkout. Currently we have 15 iPad2 models and 6 iPad4 models and can typically customize the tablets with specialized apps upon request.

I encourage campus faculty to research and consider how iPads might benefit students in their classroom learning experience. Recently Dr. Kimberly Cox used iPads in class to provide access to a very detailed virtual reality (VR) tour of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. Apps are available that can be used to enhance almost any curriculum providing interactive and engaging experiences for students. Check out the links on the IPads in Higher Education website for specific resources regarding using iPads in higher education.

Increasingly, the TLC is focused on reporting emerging technologies and identifying professional development opportunities that enhance teaching and learning on our campus. As the TLC staff reviews technologies, we will hold informational seminars and invite faculty to participate in a testing and review process. To discuss training opportunities and/or suggest “new arrival” gadgets, please stop in for a visit or contact the TLC’s IT Analyst, Jereme Patterson (jpatterson@csc.edu or 308.432.6234).

Facilitating voice conversations and providing warm feedback in Sakai

Aug 26

In this digital age of inbox-filling emails and pocket-buzzing instant messages, the human voice is often silent behind walls of text displayed on a screen. In an online course, a student’s individual contribution may be weighed more in terms of paragraphs typed rather than the depth of ideas discussed. As an instructor assesses student work, finding the best balance between number of words typed versus concepts the student absorbs can become a challenge. In these cases, encouraging asynchronous voice conversations through audio feedback may provide an element of warmth, sometimes missing in online course interactions. Fortunately, an easy-to-use tool for these tasks is ready to use in CSC Online-Sakai.

The Record Audio Clip function is found in the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), or rich text editor anywhere the option to type text is available in course sites. A microphone button is nestled in the text editor toolbar. Hover over the button to reveal a tool-tip displaying “Record Audio Clip.”

The first time you use the Record Audio Clip function, your browser may prompt for permission to use the computer’s microphone. This access must be allowed before you will be able to use the Record Audio feature. Below is an example of this permission alert in the Chrome browser.

Once permission is granted, click the Start Recording button to begin recording your audio message. When finished, click Stop Recording. Once your audio is recorded the Preview Recording and Post Recording options are displayed. A posted recording appears as a large placeholder in the WYSIWYG editor and as a small audio player in the published text. Continue editing your post by typing text around the recording and previewing to see how the audio clip will appear to others. Listen to an audio clip recorded by another user by clicking the Play button in the audio player displayed.

All members of a CSC Online-Sakai site, including students, have the ability to quickly record and post audio. This convenience makes audio recording a useful teaching tool in all areas of an online or blended class. Course forum discussions can become asynchronous voice conversations, allowing students to explain ideas, demonstrate their learning, and share thoughts in a more nuanced manner than typed posts may convey. Students may also benefit from the warm audio feedback from their instructors on graded assignments, test answers, and/or forum conversations.

Once the Record Audio function has been mastered, take a look at the Meetings tool, a class-contained option for face-to-face communication.

For more assistance with CSC Online-Sakai or any of the technologies highlighted in this article, contact the Teaching & Learning Center staff at tlctech@csc.edu.

Technology Highlight: A brief overview of summer campus projects

Aug 25

The Teaching and Learning Center continues to be involved with several technology updates and upgrades across campus. The summer months have provided an opportunity to upgrade and improve instructional technologies both in classrooms and online. The CSC Online-Sakai Meetings tool, Vidyo, “Stick” PCs, and JTouch touchscreens are a few of the technologies recently introduced and/or updated around campus.

CSC Online-Sakai Meetings tool

The CSC Online-Sakai Meetings tool provides a rich multimedia component that can be activated inside CSC Online-Sakai courses. Improvements to the Meetings tool continue to be implemented to expand the tool’s capabilities and reliability. This fall the Teaching and Learning Center will conduct a Meetings Tool workshop to introduce and explore features and functionality of the tool.

Vidyo Platform

The Vidyo Platform has been providing enterprise-grade desktop, mobile, classroom, and conference room videoconferencing capabilities including lecture-capture and streaming functionality to campus since 2011. This summer the Vidyo platform has been fully “virtualized” providing an avenue for continued improvement of multi-function videoconferencing services and additional integration opportunities.

Touchscreens and Micro-sized Computers

Touchscreens and “stick” or micro-sized computers are being piloted in several classroom and collaborative spaces around campus. Modern 65” touchscreens provide an updated experience to Smart Board and similar Interactive White Board (IWB) instructional technologies. Stick PC’s and other Internet of Things (IoT) platforms integrate economical full-featured computer capabilities discreetly into displays and projectors.

I strongly encourage all faculty and staff to examine and experiment with classroom and collaborative technologies updated in various areas across campus. Addressing technology questions, support issues, and familiarizing yourself with equipment before classes begin will make your fall semester classes more successful!

CSC Online-Sakai: Migrating from Modules to Lessons

May 04