Yesterday I had one of what we call our “great meetings”. I met with two faculty (don’t worry, they shall not be named here) who identified some of their teaching challenges. We spent our time discussing the following topics: 1. Grading multiple choice exams. How can we cut down on grading time while also gathering…Continue Reading That’s What We Are Here For!
Conducting an Online Survey? Qualtrics is the tool for you.
What is it? Qualtrics’ Research Suite is an online survey software solution for WPI Students, Faculty, and Staff that allows users to collect, analyze and act on relevant data. Who is eligible to create surveys? All WPI Community Members with an @wpi.edu email address! How do I get there? https://wpi.qualtrics.com Where can I learn more?…Continue Reading Conducting an Online Survey? Qualtrics is the tool for you.
Collaborative Writing: Tools and Techniques: Workshop on June 6th
Google Docs or Dropbox? SharePoint or myWPI? Researcher or Editor? Project Manager or Writer? WPI Project teams make a host of decisions behind-the-scenes of their actual project work, deciding how to organize roles within their group, and which tools will be best for their needs. Should we have a calendar to keep track of our…Continue Reading Collaborative Writing: Tools and Techniques: Workshop on June 6th
Echo360 Acquires ThinkBinder, an online collaboration tool for student project teams
Echo360, the company that powers WPI’s lecture capturing technologies, published a press release late yesterday announcing their acquisition of ThinkBinder, an online collaboration tool intended for student project teams. ThinkBinder allows teams to have private, group-only discussion boards, file repositories, whiteboard space, and video chats – all hosted in the cloud – for managing project-related work. This news is hot…Continue Reading Echo360 Acquires ThinkBinder, an online collaboration tool for student project teams
Self and Peer Assessment: Feedback on Group Work
I’m not kidding when I say that three faculty members have approached us very recently with a similar teaching challenge: How can I use technology to help with team assessment? And here in the TTL group, we LOVE a challenge. Each professor has slightly different needs, however all centered around the desire for students in…Continue Reading Self and Peer Assessment: Feedback on Group Work
Pen Technology in Education
The use of pen-based technology at WPI breaks into three categories, as far as I can tell. I am open to argument about this, though! 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…Continue Reading Pen Technology in Education
Why can’t I right-click to copy and paste in myWPI anymore?
The January 4th update to myWPI/Blackboard brought us some new features, including the new visual text-box editor (VTBE). We’re very excited about the new VTBE as it introduces many improvements, including the ability to resize the text-box editor space (drag the hashmarks in the lower right-hand corner to resize your typing space) and also the…Continue Reading Why can’t I right-click to copy and paste in myWPI anymore?
Are we ditching finals? (weep) Alternative Assessment Ideas
My own undergraduate experience, which was so long ago that we didn’t even know the word “blog”, was full of midterm and final exams. But of all of these tests, I remember only one: my Introduction to Biology final. I remember it because it was multiple choice questions from the exams we had taken over…Continue Reading Are we ditching finals? (weep) Alternative Assessment Ideas
Apple Computers and Projectors on Campus
Editors Note: This week we welcome guest Blogger Michael Grossfeld. Michael is an avid Mac OS X user and has been giving the ATC lots of great advice for troubleshooting Mac laptop connections in our eClassrooms. We invited Michael to post the instructions that he gave us to our blog and hope that they are just as helpful to WPI’s growing…Continue Reading Apple Computers and Projectors on Campus
A Media in the Classroom Case Study: MediaKron
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)….Continue Reading A Media in the Classroom Case Study: MediaKron