Each professor has slightly different needs, however all centered around the desire for students in a group to give feedback on their group members.  Some are interested in qualitative feedback.  Others want a more quantitative method, which would allow group members to divide up the “percentage of effort” among the team.  We are looking forward to more discussions on this latter topic, especially as we role out a new method later this summer.  But in the meantime, because WPI is project-based and their are 12 days of classes left in the term (12 DAYS?!?!), we thought that this “work around” for group feedback in myWPI might be useful.

The myWPI Self and Peer Assessment tool is designed for students to give feedback on other individuals’ work.  So let me please be clear that the methods described below to use the tool merely for comment gathering is very much gaming the system.  However, we think it works!

Using myWPI’s Self and Peer Assessment Tool to Gather Feedback on Group Collaboration

Step 1:  If you haven’t done so already, use the Users and Groups tool to create a Group Set, then enroll all of your students in their correct groups.  This will save a lot of time later.

Step 2:  Navigate to the Content Area in which you would like to deploy the Assessment.  Click Assessments –> Self and Peer Assessment.

Step 3:  Fill out the relevant information about the Assessment.  In the Instructions text box, we suggest that you ask students to write their own name.

Your students will be required to take action during the Submission Date range, so maybe give them a day or two on that calendar.  However, most of the work will take place during the Evaluation Date range, which can only begin after the Submission Date range is complete.

The next settings are completely up to you.  If you want to know who said what, do not allow anonymous evaluation.  If you do not need the student to evaluate him/herself, you can also disable Allow Self Evaluation.  Finally, you can choose whether to display the comments to the students.

In the Number of Submissions to Evaluate, be sure you list the number of students in the group.  When in doubt, go with the highest number.

Choose the availability settings and you’re ready for Step 4!

Step 4:  Create a Question.

In the Question Information section, instruct the students to write their full name.  You do not need to enter a Model Response.

Click Submit.

Mouse over Question 1, click the action link for the drop down menu, and click Criteria.

Click Create Criteria.

Enter instructions to the students who will be evaluating and choose the settings that are important to you.  For example, you may not be interested in numeric feedback.  If that’s the case, you can set the Points Possible to 0.  However, if you want the students to comment verbally, be sure to enable the Allow Feedback to User option.  Whether the student being evaluated can see these comments is actually a setting you chose in Step 3 above.

Step 5.  Make copies of the Assessment – each group will need one.  Click the Action link on the Assessment title –> Copy.

Once you have enough copies of the Self and Peer Assessment for each group, you can change the settings for each copy. Click the Action link on the Assessment title –> Adaptive Release (Advanced).

Click Create Rule

The Rule name will default to Rule 1 – you can leave that and click Submit.  On the next screen, click Create Criteria –> Membership.

Move one Group (remember in Step 1 when you create Groups?) from the left column to the right.

Repeat this for all copies of the Assessment – each Group will need their own copy.  This ensures that students are only evaluating their own group members.

Step 6:  Let your students know that you are ready to go!

During the Submission Date Range, each student will need to go in and submit their name.

During the Evaluation Date Range, the students can go in to the same course item and evaluate their group members.

As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.  We’d also love to hear how it goes if you give this method a try!

With the first set of Google’s shiny new specs being sent out to the handful of lucky applicants, it’s only a matter of time before students and instructors end up with a pair over their eyes in a class.  And while it’s tempting to label the lenses as just another distraction akin to smartphones, there might be some real use out there for these things, as well as some real risks.  Let’s brainstorm!

• First-person lecture-capturing is the first thing that comes to my mind.  An instructor could show students an experience first-hand—imagine watching a pre-lab instructional video from the point of view of an expert, or the feeling of being right in the middle of an intense discussion.  Of course, there’s always the risk of students using Glass to record lectures when they shouldn’t, but at least they’ll have to announce their intentions via voice-command to do so!
• Speaking of labs, why not strap on a  ”Safety Glass” for easy recording?  Students using wearable computers could easily record and share data and reactions.  The best part, however?  Being able to record without pressing a button or holding up a camera!
• For those of us with poor memory, Glass has the potential to bring up notes while maintaining eye contact.  Some may find it distracting to have text hovering at the corner of your vision—other instructors could see some real use in having notes delegated to the corner of their eye rather than having Powerpoint or written notes.
•  Glass can add a new element to distance learning—much like the lecture capture concept above, Glass’s live video chat feature allows an instructor to give a lecture from anywhere.  Need to write out something?  Just grab a piece of paper!

I think it goes without saying that the technology isn’t a boon for every instructor and student, and I shudder to think of the effects of a Glass video on someone with motion sickness.  However, it’s certainly not something to ignore.  What creative things can you imagine doing with a computerized pair of glasses?

Learn about Google Glass here: http://www.google.com/glass/start/

1.  Our amazing Interactive Media and Game Development courses.  I wish I knew more about what you do, but everything I see is beautiful!

2.  Writing in Class

The process of working through a problem or equation cannot be demonstrated by static text on a PowerPoint slide.  Many folks like to use the chalk board.  For years here at WPI, we have also had SMART Podiums (formerly Sympodiums) in our electronic classrooms. These nifty tools allow you to make your monitor an electronic whiteboard.  In fact today, a faculty member was describing to me the way his students shifted forward in their seats when he used a red line to make a connection between two numbers.  So simple to engage!  We are now in the process of introducing Wacoms into the newer e-Classrooms, which function a bit differently.

• They don’t have the handy pen selection buttons on the top, so my talented colleague Jim Monaco has programmed a pen menu into the button.  Hit that rocker on the pen and you should see it appear.
• Wacoms do not have the “SMART overlay”, which means you can only use the pen tools that are built into specific programs.  Microsoft has assisted by building them into all of their products.  We also have a GREAT program for annotating PDF’s (or just writing on blank PDFs) called PDF Annotator.  I’d recommend you use it instead of Adobe Acrobat because the pen tools are so much better.

We have also noticed the use of more personal tablets in the classroom!  Be you iPad, Windows, or Android, there are always options.  If you have an adapter, you can project by plugging your tablet into the VGA or HDMI cable in your classroom.  (Please note, on the iPad 1, only selected apps will display.)  What are some of our faculty’s favorite apps for writing in class?

• Airsketch:  Air Sketch provides the user with a wireless remote white board. The possibilities are endless; use it to mark up PDF files, solve out equations, or hand to students to have them diagram a process!  You can open an HTML-5-enabled browser on the classroom machine and project the URL for your whiteboard into the classroom.
• UPad and UPad Lite:  Use your finger or stylus to write as you would on the old-fashioned kind. Export to a pdf to share with your students, or archive for future use.
• Bamboo Paper:  Available for iOS and Android, this relatively new app has a great writing interface.  Which isn’t surprising, given the manufacturer.

3.  Grading work

If you have a tablet at your disposal, you may be interested in using that digital pen to mark up your students’ work.  If you are able to connect to a PC, I recommend PDF Annotator (See Above).  If you are working on an iPad, I am in love with iAnnotate PDF.   It is worth the cost for one feature alone – you can flip pages without saving the annotations on each page.  At least one faculty member (you know who you are) mentions the importance of that feature to me on a regular basis.

Are you doing interesting things with Pen Based Technology?  If so, I have two suggestions.

1.  Comment below!  We’d love to hear about it!

2.  Consider getting involved with the Workshop on the Impact of Pen & Touch Technology in Education (aka “WIPTE”).  They produce a monograph after every annual conference which is most definitely worth checking out.

One option is to set up a “Space”, which is essentially a tiny social organization with very basic features.  Anyone can create a space if they have a Blackboard account—it doesn’t matter if you’re a faculty member, a staff member, or even a student.   You can even create or join groups that contain students and faculty from both WPI and other schools!  All it takes is a bit of exploring—click on your name in the upper-right hand side of any page in Bb, and click on the lumpy molecule icon at the bottom.

If you haven’t joined or created anything, you’ll see an empty screen informing that you haven’t joined any spaces yet.  Let’s create one to fix that!

Here, I’ve clicked the “Create Space” button and clicked on the “More Options” button that appeared.  I’ve begun to fill in information about my solar system-themed space.  It’s worth mentioning the Privacy Options on the right, which show you just who can join your space and how, and the Invite People to Space input, where you can find users and invite them to your space.

If you clicked “Submit,” you’ll be brought right to your space.  From here, there are a few basic things you and members can do.  The main purpose of spaces is to leave comments—it’s very bare-boned, but you can leave comments, reply to them, and delete them (provided that you created the group, of course).

You can also elect to leave the space, or report it.  If it’s your space, you can delete the contents permanently.

After reading all of this, you may be thinking about how you can use this tool.  It doesn’t seem to affect any other areas of Blackboard, and it has very limited functionality—the only visible options are posting comments and changing the Space’s featured picture.  Students may find more use of this feature than instructors do–they can create project groups on their own to discuss assignments.  Unfortunately, without the ability to share files or photos, or post announcements or other items, other options may be more useful.

The most unique usage I can imagine would be to create spaces that are available to all Blackboard users, regardless of which school or Blackboard instance is being run.  Students from across the world could create groups for Physics topics and discussions, for example, or instructors could compare notes on teaching styles.

What’s your take on this new feature?  Have you started using it already?  Let us know!

It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3!

In order to update your Social Profile in Blackboard, you will want to click on:

1. Your name in the upper Right hand corner of the screen
2. From the Drop Down Menu, click on the empty avatar image
3. Click on Edit my Blackboard Profile
   

Follow the onscreen directions to update your photo as well as your self description and you are all done!

At the beginning of this past Fall, Professor Jill Rulfs incorporated a pilot media management system designed by Boston College into her freshman seminar class. The course is designed as an interdisciplinary study of the 1854 outbreak of cholera in London. Students in this course study a bit of history, science, engineering, politics, and economy and the role that each of these elements played in that epidemic, as well as in similar recent epidemics (such as in Haiti, in 2010).

Professor Rulf’s comments are below:

Using MediaKron in my freshman course in global health and allowing the students to design and post content to the site resulted in something very different than I had envisioned but also had benefits I had not predicted. The students had read Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map about the cholera epidemic in London in the 1850s. I envisioned their building a site with material about the political and governmental structure, the cultural and literary events of the day, the scientific advancements of the era. You get the idea. Perhaps it was my “fault” for not defining more closely what I had in mind to them. Also perhaps my off hand remark about developing a “marauder’s map” (a la JK Rowling) for Broad Street on the days around the outbreak lead them down alternate paths from the one I originally had in mind. They were much less historically and academically inclined but much more creative in their submissions. Among the projects, we have a claymation video of the path of cholera through the body and an electronic board game involving pump sites around London. However, the benefits of allowing this type of creativity were significant.

Engagement

Students worked in teams of 4 or 5 and with rare exception (7 out of 60 students) all team members reported engagement of all of the members of the team in the brainstorming, design and development of their topic. The level of energy and enthusiasm grew from open skepticism when I announced the assignment to requests to continue into a second term by the end of the project. Their engagement was perhaps less academic, but much more imaginative than I had predicted and all of their topics deepened their understanding of some aspect of the epidemic- just not the ones I had originally listed under topics. Theirs was a level of engagement I could not have fostered using my original plan.

Ownership

The pride most of them took in their final product was evident. Several asked me if it was ok to show it to their friends and family over break. And the quality of what they produced in a scant 7 week term (yes, at WPI our courses last seven weeks!) was astounding to me. That leads me to the next topic in this blog…

Accessing Resources

There was not, to my knowledge, more than one team who did not seek help from campus resource people outside of the classroom. Jim Monaco, our MediaKron liaison, is also a media wizard, and the students asked for Jim’s help and advice throughout, not only for MediaKron technical issues, but for media and presentation options as well. Jim is part of our Academic Technology Center and a member of the Technology for Teaching and Learning team. Having found the ATC and met Jim will facilitate work on many other class and university required projects as these students move through their 4 years at WPI.

Likewise, they talked to our “embedded” librarian, Rebecca Ziino. Rebecca did an in-class session on copyrights and the possibility of making their MediaKron site public drove them to really investigate copyright information for material they wanted to use. One team is still working on the right to use a plush “Giant Microbe” in their video production! In a role perhaps more traditionally assigned to a research librarian, they also went to Rebecca for help in identifying and finding sources for their research. One team, investigating the history of the miasma theory, found a libarary in Europe to be the only ILL source for a book they really wanted to read. Rebecca showed them how to find reviews of the book that might be helpful and did offer to initiate an inter-library loan request, although for reasons of time they all agreed it probably didn’t make sense. Again, these interactions are things we say we want to foster in the freshman seminars, but I have never had this level of success. Of course the people, Jim and Rebecca, are part of the reason but I think it also goes back to the engagement, ownership and personal pride issues described above.

Conclusions and Assessment

Students are putting the finishing touches on their projects and will move on to a very different kind of project next term. I will be interested to see if they use their newly acquired skills and resources in the next project without having to overcome the original skepticism barrier. I will use the survey BC has designed as well as some questions more tailored to my individual project to gather some data on how MediaKron contributed to the course goals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFtb3EtjEic

On Monday, we were able to meet with the new faculty on campus, and compiled a list of our most frequently asked questions, which I thought I’d share here.  Let us know if you want to add to the list!

What if I want to learn more about myWPI?

The ATC- Technology for Teaching and Learning group offers workshops on myWPI, our branded instance of Blackboard 9.1, on a weekly basis.  If you would like to sign up for a session, please see http://www.wpi.edu/Regi/ATC.  If you cannot find a session that works for you, please let us know by emailing act-ttl@wpi.edu and we can schedule a one-on-one meeting!

How do I get a course site?

The course request process has been changed a bit for this upcoming academic year!  In an effort to make this process a little bit easier we moved to automatic course site creation.  This means that all AY12-13 courses automatically have a shell in myWPI that instructors can choose to use (or not use!).

Course sites created through this process will be generated using a blank shell in Blackboard 9.1 and will include Banner student enrollments.  You can request to re-use content from a past course offering, the merger of multiple sections into one master course site, and/or the addition of course support staff to your site by filling out the Blackboard Course Modification Request form at http://www.wpi.edu/+myhelp/content_migration.html.

Does my room have a tablet monitor in it, and how do I use it?

To check the equipment in the classroom you are teaching, visit http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/ATC/Facilities/eclassrooms.html.  For an introduction to the Sympodium, see http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/ATC/Collaboratory/HowTo/Sympodium/.  If you are interested a quick tour, please email atc-ttl@wpi.edu and we will set up a time to review the equipment (both hardware and software) with you.

How can I use clickers in my courses, and what is the procedure here at WPI for obtaining them?

For some great resources on peer-instruction and other teaching strategies for implementing clickers, see this page:  http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/clickers.htm (It’s not ours, but it’s still fantastic!).  If you are interested in using clickers in your classes, please contact Erin DeSilva (edesilva@wpi.edu) to set up a time to review the procedures and software.  We typically ask as much notice as you can give, so you if you’re planning for B, C, or even D term, let us know.

I do not really use multimedia in lecture right now…

One other possibility to consider is giving students a project to work on involving multimedia. There are some great opportunities for students to familiarize themselves with certain concepts, tools, or techniques by creating an explanation or demonstration themselves. The ATC can provide training workshops to give students the technical skills for using multimedia creation tools (video editing, image editing, web creation, etc).

What tools would students have to buy to make a video?

None at all! The ATC main office provides equipment for loan (2-day loans) including video cameras, tripods, and microphones. Every computer lab on campus has Camtasia Studio installed, which is a very easy to use screen recording and video editing program. The Multimedia Lab downstairs in the Library also has Adobe Premiere Professional and Adobe After Effects installed for full-featured moviemaking capabilities.

I am interested in recording my lectures in the classroom.  Is this an option at WPI?

This summer, the ATC  expanded the number of classrooms equipped with the Echo360 lecture capturing hardware to include three more rooms, bringing the grand total to 16!  With the acquisition of a site license at the start of last academic year for desktop capturing software, faculty have even more options for recording course content, including lectures.  To learn more about the use of lecture capturing at WPI, visit this webpage.

Can I use Web Conferencing to hold virtual office hours or lecture if I will be away from campus?

Yes!   Wimba Classroom, WPI’s web conferencing tool, allows you to present content, including: files, your desktop, webcam video, and an interactive whiteboard, synchronously to a group of participants.  You can manage Wimba Classroom sessions within your myWPI/Blackboard course site from the “Course Tools” area.      You can also set up Wimba rooms for student teams to use to collaborate on class assignments or projects.  To learn more, visit: http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/ATC/Facilities/Wimba/

How else might I use Wimba Classroom?

In addition to using the tool to deliver lecture content while on travel, many WPI faculty are using Wimba to host virtual office hours sessions; bring in guest speakers that are not able to travel to campus; or collaborate with colleagues, project sponsors, or guests outside of the WPI community.  If you’d like to explore a possible use for web conferencing, please contact atc-ttl@wpi.edu and we would be happy to discuss your ideas with you!

I have been getting more familiar with WebEx in my blended lectures for the B-School and I want to share a very simple idea about interacting with the class participants when they are presenting final project reports and the like.
During the first WebEx session where the students were presenting, I was interrupting them by speaking my questions and waiting for a response. This requires the student to first recognize what was asked or said and then formulate a response; both of these processes cause gaps in the presentation and makes the WebEx session longer than it needs to be.
So, during the last night of the course I used the chat feature to type out my questions while they were presenting and when the student who is presenting saw the question they could respond at a time that fits into their presentation thus avoid pausing while speaking to the class.
One of the valuable learning tools we can use during presentations is to get the student to answer questions that may not have been addressed in the project. This checks their thought process, allows them to think and respond in real time to potentially challenging questions and demonstrates the students overall mastery of the material in front of the class.
All of this is terrific stuff, but can it be annoying if I am interjecting and causing a subsequent catch-up from the students.
So, the live chat feature, which is viewed by the whole class, has not only my interrogatories for the presenters, but anecdotal comments that bear on the case or connect current events without having to stop the process flow.
The chat feature worked well for me and a side benefit is that the other students also responded to the chat window with their own comments, none of which stopped the presentation.
See you around!
Wally

I work with faculty and their students to integrate media components into the learning experience. I’d like to share a few unique experiences that I have had with offering media instruction on campus, and hear some of yours as well!

This week, I wanted to talk about a neat example I ran into while developing ideas for an interactive simulation with a Biochemistry professor.

Example: Media as a process for shaping curriculum

Little Enzymes eagerly await their proteins

A few years ago, I worked with a professor to plan an interactive media component to help students with the concepts of a chemistry lab that spanned several weeks and several experiments. The professor found that students were having a hard time figuring out which data to use in what way when they reached the final experiment.

When we broke down the components of the lab into an interactive presentation, we began by outlining the problem. We illustrated the final experiment in the series, and explained how some of its resulting data came in the form of color measurements from a spectrophotometer. This highlighted the need for a set of correlation data that would tie specific spectrophotometer readings with specific quantities of an enzyme. With this understanding in place, we explained experiments that would provide each of the needed correlations to properly evaluate the main experiment.

Color correlating to percentage of enzymes present

Along the way, we came to an interesting realization: the steps for the lab did not align with the steps that we felt most clearly explained the design of the experiments. The lab procedure had the students perform the correlation experiments first to prevent bias, followed by the main experiment. But this left students without a concrete understanding of how their first 3 weeks of data would be useful until the final week of the lab. Ultimately, the professor changed the actual order of procedure in the lab to match the descriptive format of the review materials.

Now, I’m not going to suggest that revising course structure to suit a media narrative is always the best solution, but in this case, it was a neat find, and the concepts for the lab no longer seem to be a problem for students. Has anyone else had similar results?

I will be sharing additional examples over the next month or so–stay tuned!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5UktFLzlyg

Sir Daniels predicts three trends to watch

1.  The growth of private, for-profit institutions.  He suggests that the for-profit sector does online learning “better” because they treat education as a business.  Economy of scale is necessary for this team-based approach to distance education.  It is difficult for traditional higher-education institutions to adopt this model because it requires a significant investment, both up-front and on-going, by faculty, staff, and administration.  This brings to mind the question of quality.  Sir Daniels suggests that the systems approach used by for-profits carries with it an assurance of quality, but do you agree?  Is a lone ranger faculty member, developing and delivering his or her own online course, at a disadvantage?

2.  Open Educational Resources.  Horizon mentioned this in the 2010 report.  From MERLOT  and OER Commons to MIT, there are a wealth of free learning materials available for use, and the databases are growing.  Who are your go-to content providers?  Do you find yourself wondering what the intersection of OER’s with traditional, degree-granting institutions will look like?  Will all schools develop an “x” like MITx?

3.  Mobile Technology.  2010 Horizon mentioned this, and Jes wrote about it a while back as well (check out her post for a STELLAR video).  In fact, I feel like every paper, blog, and resource I read these days is focusing on mobile.  Jim just told me that the latest Dreamweaver has a “What will this look like on my phone?” button. Maybe that’s not what it’s called, but it should be!  Should we stay device-agnostic or go ahead and write all our books in iAuthor?  Does mobility allow for a greater sense of community?  How do we take advantage of that in a learning environment?