Online Exams Through Testing Center

A reminder that all faculty, DE included, who want the UVU Testing Center (CTC) to administer proctored online exams must fill out the CTC exam form through UVLink. I had assumed that if we set up a proctored exam through the DE Service Center that they would notify the CTC. This is not the case, though the Service Center does advise faculty of the need to set up CTC exams.

To clarify this, the Service Center is going to add CTC info to their new instructor brochure, Development is going to add information on scheduling CTC exams to the DE web site, and Development will change the wording of the Exam Proctoring section of the syllabus template, commenting out CTC information. Instructional designers should further be aware of this and advise instructors accordingly.

Working Remotely Dec - Jan

As construction makes working in the Development offices more problematic, IDS Development staff will be allowed to work remotely until conditions improve.

You may work at any locations where you can commit full concentration to work, and have a reliable high speed internet connection. I recommend the new library, but home or other remote locations is acceptable if it does not interfere with your productivity or professionalism.

Guidelines

Staff are expected to:
1. Communicate changes in work location to all DE staff, and to any faculty you work with.

2. Have current schedule of work hours posted in Google Docs.

3. Work during the normal hours of 8am - 5pm, or as arranged with your supervisor.

4. Be "online" through instant messaging and e-mail during scheduled work hours.

5. Be available by telephone, and in an environment suitable for professional conversation.

6. Ensure that they have suitable hardware, software, and internet connections for work use. Monty will make Macbooks available for checkout, running both Windows XP and Mac OSX. Jared maintains the software library.

7. Meet collectively on-campus in the new library (room TBD) once a week, and to work several hours before or after the meeting in the same room.

If your supervisor or co-workers note significant problems arising from working remotely, these directions or guidelines may be modified.

DE Video Files on desource.uvu.edu

From here on out we'll be storing all new video files, whether those are streaming QT video or iPod-ready MP4s, on the server desource.uvu.edu. Shawn just set this up and should be sending me a general use FTP account soon.

The download.php (and, for streaming, refmovie.php) file that we use to force the download of an MP4 is available on this server as Dave Walker mentions.

Eventually we will need to move all existing TV courses to this server and change the URLs in all our uvsc.edu/disted/videos hyperlinks and RSS feeds.

We will also need the _dev_resources txt files on the G drive updated to reference desource.uvu.edu

All video files should be put in a dept/1010/in/last(6)first(2)/media/ folder, e.g.

desource.uvu.edu/dgm/2120/in/steinja/media/dgm2120-04.mp4

P.S. As a note for streaming video usage vs. iPod-ready download: use iPod-ready downloads for most video files. Use streaming only if copyright is an issue, or our audience is unable to download large files with no other alternative media.

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: Janel, Dorothy, JR, Ken, Tyrel, RJ, Jared

IDS Announcements/Decisions

IDS brainstorm mtg required only for first-time instructors; optional otherwise

Donate $ to Karen for Rick, Santa

Card for John at 11

Vista x-list: these will happen just before the semester starts

Moodle upgrades to 1.9.3 for Spring

Mahara demo next Thursday

Streaming vs Download of Videos - Most videos "iPod ready MP4s for download" unless copyright or accessibility of download

Bb Vista rollovers failing? e-mail Monty and Vista list* WikiLearn - tell faculty about it. How can we use it?

Working Remotely in Spring
At least 3 weeks in January--maybe more
Set your schedule and get them on Google Docs
Core FT hours 10 - 4
Always on IM
Phone near you
Meet each week with work hour padding
(schedule study room in library)
laptop for JR and Dorothy

JPNS 1010
Ken to research digital ink for writing assignments

TTIX
backend smoothing - Tyrel to set up mtg
6+ proposals are in and waiting to be rated

Ken: keep trying to roll dred (recreate if necessary)

New CSS Rules for APA Added to Template

The following new CSS rules were added to the template .css file today. These are useful for APA-style oredered or unordered references or bibliographies:

/*APA Bibliography*/
.apa_bib {
list-style: none;
margin: .75em 0;
padding: 0;
}
.apa_bib li { margin: .5em 0; padding: 0 0 0 3em; text-indent: -3em; }
.apa_bib article { font-style: normal; }
.apa_bib journal { font-style: italic; }
.apa_bib book { text-transform: underline; font-style: normal; }

Note that it's debatable whether italic or underline is better online for book titles.

At any rate, the XHTML should look something like this:

<ul class="apa_bib">
<li>Harrison, P. A., & Asche, S. E. (1999). <cite class="article">Comparison of Substance Abuse Treatment Outcomes for Inpatients and Outpatients</cite>. <cite class="journal">Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment</cite>, 17, 207-220.</li>
<li>Sayre, S. L., Schmitz, J. M., Stotts, A. L., Averill, P. M., Rhoades, H. M., & Grabowski, J. J. (2002). <cite class="article">Determining predictors in attrition in an outpatient substance abuse program</cite>. <cite class="journal">American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse</cite>, 28(1), 55-72.</li>
<li>Weisner, C., Matzger, H., Tam, T., & Schmidt, L. (2002). <cite class="article">Who goes to alcohol and drug treatment? Understanding utilization within the context of insurance</cite>. <cite class="journal">Journal of Studies on Alcohol</cite>, 63, 673-682.</li>
</ul>

Studio Production Reminders

Janel e-mailed out this list after discussion with Design Center staff re. recent studio filming:

What we re-learned in the Studio - Post Studio Discussion

GRAPHICS
Title safe graphics / ppts
Final graphics / bullet list script submitted 1 week ahead
Hard copy bullet list script and graphics for Crew and Instructor

TALENT
Prep students ahead of taping day.
Students act interested and engaged.
Pay students real money
Have pre-studio meeting on our dime.

STUDIO
Technical Director
Floor Director
Teleprompter w/ bullet list script & graphics with operator
Cameras as per crew set up Left to Right 1-3

CREW/TALENT CALL
Crew call 1 hour before
Instructor call 30 minutes before
Talent call on the hour
Director/Camera Crew Meeting (ensure speak same language)

STUDIO TRAINING for Instructor/Students
* Studio Protocols (attire/behavior)
* Title safe graphics / limited infor per slide
* Tally Lights
* Talent marks for lighting
* Change cameras with natural breaks
* How to stand w/o looking awkward
* Clean edit points (hold position)
* Prop Positions

Directors Mtg Area Report

I'll post up my quick notes for each week's DE Directors Meeting held Monday mornings. Here's the first:

1. Need dP on new server


2. Need logo for wikilearn


3. Faculty training


4. TTIX updates


5. OER published


6. Hammond ITR


7. dP tasks


8. Report ideas on openconference


9. Openspource

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: Jared, Marc, Janel, Ken, Dorothy


In the future, will combine this meeting with Directors' Meeting, Monday mornings at 9:00 (both meetings covered duplicate material)

Ken

• Japanese - Some underline problems; may be font related. Ken to investigate.

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: Jared, Marc, Janel, Travis, Ken, Dorothy

Jared

Financial Responsibility Letter (Val Peterson)

Jared discussed specifics of Val's letter:

• All purchases or approved finding to be analyzed, deemed necessary
• Destruction of assets unacceptable
• Properly execute and record transactions
• Make notes of P-Card items purchased
• Be prepared to explain all P-Card purchases
• All transactions should be reasonable
• Ethical behavior
• Expendable resources not to be used for employees' personal use or on personal time
• Questions about expenditures? Talk to Jared

ENGL 2020

Met with Kirk Rasmussen on ENGL 2020 IN - structural changes helpful; implement this semester

TTIX

• Call for proposals 9-08-08 - View at TTIX.org. Click on rate proposal; see summary of all proposals; click on title to see entire proposal, can make comments
• Ken - in presenter submission, include instructions to choose K-12, Higher Ed, both, or other
• Conference Theme? - Contact Jared if you have a good theme idea
• Lends air of variety
  
• Should not be exclusionary
  
• Should be really great, or do not have a theme
• Need generic business cards to give to sponsors and attendees
• Small and postcard sizes
• Travis - draft some ideas, submit to Jared
• June 3-5 (Wed - Fri) scheduled by Janel

Course Proposal Signatures

• Click, get printable sheet, deliver signatures to Jared when they meet
• Jared to talk to John (printed version more compact, but still complete)
  
• Copy to Janel, Vicki first?
  

No new TV courses - Instead, video-enhanced courses, Online courses with video segments

ANTH 1010 - David Knowlton may be interested in online course- find out his track record in online courses

Marc

Need to contact all instructors (has only met with Shawn Peppers)

• Set up a couple of days for this instruction

Moving to library, possibly this Friday (this is sad news...)

Janel

Fine tuning new courses

• TECH 3850 - Leonard Pavia
• 7 videos, Oct 7
• Need planning meeting with Janel, Will, Travis & Len Pavia. New video segments planned for class filming, but Jared suggested we do it in-studio for a better quality product.
• MGMT 3600 - Harry Taute
• Needs guiding content for class
• Build text-based lectures
• Use Camtasia to narrate PowerPoints
• Travis pulling publisher's content to streaming video (Scott)
  

ITR

• Not ready for ITR reviews - Need to review courses to given instructors input
• Meeting Monday with instructors who want to increase ITR levels
• CLSS 2100 - Rick Mossholder, Marsha Haynes
• DGM 1010, 2010 - Carolyne Kuehne

Ken

• Working mostly on Japanese - Moodle issues
• RJ to work on OpenMod (Open courseware - a modification of UCLA program)
• Work with RJ Tuesday morning at 9:15
• Developers meetings Thursday mornings at 10:00

Travis

• Working on videos for Janel - meeting with Walker about videos
• Jared reminded Travis to take care of the staff management issue


• keep all on schedule with projects

Bb Vista and Relative Resource Manager

Because it's database-driven, Blackboard Vista doesn't use real paths like WebCT Campus Edition did. Instead, it uses a "relative resource manager" to refer to the current Vista course section's root folder. Use the following URL to refer to the root of a particular course section:

/webct/RelativeResourceManager/Template/

Custom Links in the Course Tools Menu

If you need the entire URL (e.g. for custom links in the Course Tools menu [Manage Course > Add Custom Link]) simply add the server URL before the relative resource manager:

https://online.uen.org/webct/RelativeResourceManager/Template/

...and append your filename:

https://online.uen.org/webct/RelativeResourceManager/
Template/myfile.html

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: Jared, Marc, Janel, Travis, Dorothy


Travis
Banners

• Travis finishing banners - some classes not clearly named
• Nutrition needs banner
• Travis to get titles from Jared

Video segments for courses

• Tuesday, Wednesday filming Steve Fullmer, ENGL 2300 (Spring delivery)
  
• Janel needs video links for CA 1310, TECH 3000
• No dialogue for CA 1310
• Dave Walker working on videos - Scott to help, Adam also help when he is free
• MGMT 3430 - Video segment is ripped onto computer - Problems when streaming starts. Working on first one, should be completed today
• Send audio of all videos to Cheri for accessibility services ( She will send to Dorothy for transcription)
  

Janel

• Content sent to developers
  
• BESC 4705 - finish
• TECH 3000 - JR programing (helping Janel on all courses)
  
• ESMG 310G - May need two sections, two instructors. Just comes through Banner

Marc

• New faculty need training
• Janel and Jared to send list of new faculty for training (4 from each)
• Marc to set up two sessions for group training, contact instructors and let them choose preferred session to attend

Jared
Dotprojects

• Several projects duplicated on dotprojects
• Figure out way to consolidate without losing information

Updates

• Updates: Shaline doing most, Ken doing 4, Tryel doing some.
  
• Distribute updates evenly so new projects can be distributed evenly

UVU Wiki

• UVU Wiki has been set up for accademic departments
• Wikilearn.edu.edu
• Type address and put in department prefix - takes to academic department wiki homepage
• Listed by topics instead of by courses
• Can be edited, linked to learning modules, topics

JR off Friday

Fall IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

• Mondays 1:15 - 3:30
  

MediaWiki Fall Pilot: wikilearn.uvu.edu

After JR, RJ, and Tyrel investigated possible wiki platforms, Paul Nuffer has helped us set up a MediaWiki installation for UVU educational content.

Mediawiki is one of the top oss wiki platforms, and allows us to LDAP students into the system with directory-specific editing privileges. This means (hopefully) that Banner will send student accounts straight into wikilearn.uvu.edu, and students will login using standard UVID/password.

The URL is wikilearn.uvu.edu, though currently we are piloting it for fall with only subdirectories. I'll work on scripting an index page in the future.

Subdirectories will be added on a departmental level, so Computer Science will have wikilearn.uvu.edu/cs open for editing for their faculty and enrolled students. At this point our objective is to disallow anonymous editing and user account creation--the only wiki editors will be faculty and students (and possibly staff).

We can include wiki content pages into Bb Vista or Moodle courses in place of or in addition to regular content web pages. Similar to the Shadow Files system, the beauty here is that multiple courses can use the same content source. The source content in the wiki will be as current as faculty or students want it to be, and can be the base for a lot of cool collaborative student and faculty authoring projects.

For fall we are going to allow CS and DGM access to wikilearn.uvu.edu. Kirk Love and Nate Snapp will be using it for content in their CS courses, and I'm going to start transitioning some of my DGM stuff to it as well.

The library has asked for access for Spring, and hopefully we will be able to add more departments and courses as well. Spread the word.

Public RSS Feeds of dotProject Tasks

IDS staff can now subscribe to RSS feed(s) of their dotProject tasks.

Simply login to our dotProject server and click "RSS Feed of Your Tasks" near the top right.

You can choose to add this RSS feed to your iGoogle homepage, or your favorite RSS reader.

I've only just finished coding this RSS generator, so if you have any problems or suggestions re. the feeds, let me know!

Using Logs in dotProject

As you work on or complete tasks listed in our IDS dotProject pilot, be sure to use the Log feature to update progress and make notes about your work. Here's how it's done in 3 easy steps:

1. Choose the task in your Tasks list


2. Click New Log in the bottom right
   
   


3. Enter in at least a Description and a Progress %. Also consider adding the Date and Hours Worked. You can Email Log to Task Assignees or Project Contacts if you wish.
   
   

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: John, Jared, Marc, Travis, Janel, Ken, Dorothy



Discussed moving to Advancement Building by Spring 2009

Ken

• CSSE - Talked to Marsha; she will begin testing. There are some bugs, but nothing major

Travis

• Videos made for IPod didn't work. Will find out problem and report. (Maybe download from flash?)
• This week will shoot video for Art Department, Parry Stewart instructor. This is proof of concept: Tangible demonstration that we can do a quality job. If successful, will translate to other departments; instead of only using local people, we can video masters in their field and archive videos for use in courses
• Travis to arrange for Crowther to meet with Jared

Janel

• CLSS 2100 ITR - Marsha and Rick do not have it yet. Jared will check so they can be paid. Will be at least Level 2, possibly Level 3.
• Rick is interested in Portfolio in Vista (He wants students to have record of all their papers, etc.) Is there an Open Source portfolio? John said to use Google Docs. He will demonstrate how index of certain Google Docs can be made available to the public.
• TECH 3950 - We have enough content to do course for fall. Janel will check with instructor to see if he has enough load for fall course

Marc

• Art 1400 - Contacted instructor. Connie has sent only PowerPoints and some quizzes, minimal content. No developer has been assigned
  

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: John, Jared, Marc, Janel, Ken, Dorothy

New projects

• Two part-time employees added to list of Clark's old projects
  
• Ken: TTIX, Dist Ed Website, Drivers Ed
• RJ: Online Course Proposal form, assessing, updating courses, Webpage templates
• Tyrell: CTC course management, ITR tool
• Ken -- make sure task list has name by assigned course

Discussed time frame for receiving content from negligent instructors (sometimes no content from instructor, enrollment set at zero, but students are enrolled anyway)

Ideas discussed for getting content in on time:

• Setting June 1 for fall content deadline, July 1 absolutely last time for content
  
• Possibly docking compensation or offer course the following semester (Development Compensation Form says we can penalize by withholding compensation, but we have never done this)
• Give date for receiving full content, then say we will do courses that meet deadline first, and others may be pushed back to another semester
• If instructional designer does not have confidence in course, pull course (not sure we can recommend to do this or tell them we will do this)
• Could we tie instructional compensation with quality of teaching? No, we cannot
• We do not have ability to ensure quality of online courses
• Our only leverage is that we do development. Many instructors rely on Dist Ed only to service courses
  

Accepted ideas for getting content in on time:

• What matters most is students (not our ease, not instructor)
• Instead of penalty, lower base compensation and give bonus for getting content in on time
• In initial meeting, explain base compensation (reduced by half) -- if content in by April 1, get full bonus; if content in by June 1, get partial bonus
• Send Jared wording about compensation and bonus (emphasize bonus)

ESMG 3100 -- Shawn Peppers needs to talk to Vickie about compensations, ITR level (without much detail about compensation)

CA 1150 -- Packer has some content, not complete. Have e-mailed advisor and others, still no content. Course was set at zero until we received content; department enrolled 19 students anyway. Still have to provide course

TECH 3850

• Have full content for spring delivery
• Janel, if comfortable for fall delivery, talk to Lynn Pavia and department head - if it can be ready for fall, go ahead

CSSE -- Ken to demo next week

• Minimal or no maintenance
• If random people filling up form becomes problem, may do some sort of Captcjha to prevent spambots (See TTIX site)

Japanese

• Ken working on Game garden with RJ -- view flash game tomorrow
  
• Has made UVU-themed flashcards
• Get XML format from John to upload respondus quiz file
• RJ to redesign Webpage
• Language changing to Arabic -- Default on flashcards changes, doesn't let characters flow together -- need to be able to change to fonts that work
• May not be feasible in everyone's browser -- canvas not stretchable (will work with size of Chinami's image
• Need to visit how stored -- if we can save out jpeg, jpeg can be saved to Moodle; if not jpeg, cannot be used outside of database. Save as jpeg, do not maintain database for course

MGMT 2350 (Business Statistics) -- Need to assign instructional designer. Not sure if spring or summer; waiting for proposal to assign

Marc has not heard from Karen Mizel

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: Jared, Marc, Janel, Travis, Ken, Dorothy


To claim empty course development space in shell, name through administrative tab. Marc needs ten new development shells

Course Reviews:

TECH 3000 -- 15 week course

• Travis, have Walker get video streaming digitized for "The Secret" and other videos. Need address for streaming
• Decide how to format questions
• Discussed synchronous vs asynchronous discussions and activities through WIMBA. Better for students to be asynchronous in online course. John MacLean wants synchronous for creative brainstorming. We will build course and then try to convince him to use asynchronous
• Could we set up tutorial to help students with synchronous WIMBA? Flag synchronous activities with "live" to alert students that they need to meet timetable
• Are instructors committed to complexity of class? John ok, Richard may not be because of his time constraints
• We need a section in template that explains about Discussions- Jared had one and will put in template

BESC 4705 -- 15 week course

• Use built in "Course Goals." Any assignment can be associated with specific goal. Once built, it is a great feature, but is not being used
• Electronic portfolio: best way is to set up del.icio.us account and put in first lesson. Richard could check bookmarks each week- need to clarify electronic portfolio in Syllabus
• Has length of time listed to do each assignment- may be underestimated
• Change "L6 - Assignment" to "Discussions 6," etc. Combine continued discussions for ease of reference and so students can see all posts; will also help in instructor management
  
• In table of contents, change to "Assignment-Webquest" and "Quiz-Webquest" to clarify
  

TECH 3000 -- 15 week course

• Needs better description of table of contents
• Course looks ok

CA 1310

• Course has "in person" group activities. Need to figure out how to implement. Also, need to teach instructor group feature
  
• Could set up Discussions that is simply a student-led forum--could be ambiguous as to how much instructor looks at discussion
  
• Jared: No assessment of most objectives, so how are they measured? Objectives with "explain" or "describe" need essay questions, written paper, or discussion. Objective with "know" or "understand" can use multiple choice questions. Make objective and tasks compatible: either align activities to objectives or add new objectives for tasks.
  
• Discussed if instructor is committed to time involved in managing class

CLSS 2100

• Ready for review for ITR- looks great

Conference

• John has asked what conferences we plan to attend in coming year. (Can attend one conference for professional development, additional conferences if presenting) Fill out conference proposal form, which is turned in to Jared or Travis, then on to John for approval

NACE Pyramid -- Looks great; kudos to Ken (woof)

• Some text hard to read- perhaps need lighter font (not so blocky and bold)
  
• Too big to embed into page. Could have screen shot that is clickable

Japanese Flashcards

• Flashcards to be available online -- can import content into them
• Ken, talk to Gordon: generic is ready to go. Ken will try unicode. Generic English is good
• Iman wants to use template for Arabic
• Embed bottom of page with" "Flashcard tool courtesy of Utah Valley University Distance Education"
• Show flashcards at next meeting -- Website: John's Playstation Game Garden site?
• John to set up integration feature to add content, questions to file. If it works, will take multiple choice questions and turn into two-sided flash card with questions and answer
  

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: Jared, Marc, Janel, Travis, Dorothy

Discussed move from current offices. There will be a meeting this week to decide where Dist Ed will be relocated. Move probably by July 1. Possible new office location in Foundation Building or Advancement Building (Some confusion about which buildings these are- maybe old warehouse building or a building across freeway?) There may be more available space, but that may not include classroom space. Basement space may be difficult because of water problems.

Reviewed status of fall courses
Janel:

• BESC 4705 (JR) Resorting content. Course is partially programmed; will be ready for JR next week
• BIOL 1010 (Ken) If Heather used Camtasia, could probably produce content quickly (Carolyn used Camtasia successfully)
• ESMG 3100 (310G) E-mails sent to John Pepper. Handed off new content, 14 lessons. Work with latest submission. Not yet assigned to programmer.
  
• TECH 3000 (RJ) We have content; RJ programming.
• CA 1310 (JR) Full content in; JR will finish programming next week. Janel asked if all four videos are in (2 Harmons, 2 Val Brown) She needs them by July 1. Travis said all are done. He will tell Walker to put them together in time line- he can start editing interviews even without the graphics.
  
• TECH 3000- Just waiting for 5 videos to come back. Raw footage is in. Cheryl is waiting for content based on final videos. Travis said we are only waiting for support materials. We need to communicate deadlines clearly.
• Travis: give all raw audio files of video interviews to Dorothy for transcription

Marc

• CA 1150 - Some material sent but we need more
• PHIL 3450 (Karen Mizel) this course won't fly
• TECH3010 - Receiving constant material. Plans to use WIMBA. RJ is programming initial lesson.
• Note: All TECH Management should be use same format in VISTA

Jared

• Nutrition 1020 - E Pack course- Jared will take this one if it comes. Janel has course content (CD) for Jared to review to use for fall. Cost probably based on per student usage.
  
• BESC 481R - Will have complete content soon. Needs some prototyping
  
• ENGL 4210 and ESMG- Have not looked at yet
• Nutrition, PSY- no content
• SSY/SW - Not for summer (has disappeared)

Janel wondered about banners for all classes. Travis will check Google Docs for banners for fall courses- he is waiting for Monte to give G-drive. He will ask Shawn to link Janel to Travis' computer so she can check. Travis: check the look of all 084 courses (Spring, in yellow in Google Docs)

Janel wants archive for all Spring courses

TTIX

• TTIX Website has general survey for all participants- they have been spammed to complete survey.
• Janel wants to have a staff meeting to talk about successes and suggestions for '08 TTIX- possibly next week?

Changing from Blackboard? Luke Fernandez wants statewide LMS to be Moodle or SAKAI. Probably premature to go down that path- the State would have to be pushed to change because there has been so much time and money invested in Blackboard. When new version of Vista comes down, that would be the time to make a change, instead of renewing contract. If we have to have another LMS, be sure it is what we want- may not be Blackboard.

Still discussion new part-time web developer

Discussed Online Learning Book (95 new ideas) Jared pared information to 31 best ideas (others not so good.) Summary is posted on Jared's Blog. Janel is to review book, then pass on to Marc for his review.

Moodle Conference: UCLA has developed Open Courseware modification. We will likely scrap much of ours and use the best of theirs. We still need approval on Open Courseware procedure.

Restating Some DE/IDS Policies

After getting updated info from HR I thought it wise to take a moment to clarify or restate DE/IDS policies that you're probably already aware of. I'm summarizing what is stated in greater detail/more sophisticated parlance on the HR Web site. However, I don't want everyone to fret; just consider whether any of these apply to you, and alter your behavior if necessary:

1. Personal leave time must be requested and approved of your direct supervisor; sick leave requires notification of a responding human being at the time of leave. See IDS Out of Office Policy and IDS Leave Policy for more details.


2. For FT employees, all leave time must be entered in Banner through UVLink during the pay period in which it was taken.


3. For "exempt" employees there is neither overtime nor comp time; "non-exempt" employees must have any overtime or comp time pre-approved in writing.


4. Office/work hours may only be spent on DE projects. FT exempt and non-exempt employees get paid breaks, but lunch hours are on your own.


5. No use of College equipment for personal or side projects.


6. Each team member's work areas should be clean, organized, and professional looking especially so if it is visible to our clients or stakeholders.

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you have any questions!

Task Protocol: Reply on Completion

Just a few reminders/requests:

Everyone:

1. If an ID e-mails a task or a request directly to you please e-mail (reply all) when that task is completed. If it is a significant task you should ALSO add it to your Google Docs Task List.



2. It would also be helpful if you e-mail the responsible party upon completion of tasks in your Google Docs Task List in addition to marking them as "done" with the due date.



3. If you receive a request directly from an instructor or another DE unit (e.g. Design Center or Service Center) please CC the ID/staff member who is responsible for that course or project (Janel, Marc, Ken or myself).

IDs:

When an instructor request is completed don't forget to reply to the instructor directly.

1. I also recommend that when we reply to confirm completion of requests that come in from another DE unit (e.g. Design Center or Service Center) we CC the instructor to ensure they get the information.



2. Finally, when a developer has completed a task successfully, please verify this on their Google Docs Task List by cutting/pasting it to the Completed Tasks sheet.



3. If you have other ideas/alterations to help us keep instructors in-the-loop, please Comment here.

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: John, Jared, Marc, Janel, Dorothy

Video Production Meetings

• Travis should organize video production meetings and invite development people to the meetings

Library Learning Objective Process

• Janel said the library will contact us about making library tutorials for use throughout the country
• After the library receives funding, they will contact us

LSAC Certificate

• Janel had questions about needing an extension for grant for LSAC Certificate if all classes are not offered fall semester (The grant says course must be offered by December)
• Jared said if the classes are offered by December (for spring semester) , that will be soon enough--we don't need to worry about an extension

Farewell Lunch for Clark, Rebecca and Clayton

• Have the lunch by the end of May
• Need a date, time and place and let everyone know
  

Practice: Backing Up Last Semester's Courses

We are implementing a new maintenance procedure for all IDS Developers:

1. Access all of your maintenance courses for the previous semester


2. Make a backup of the course through it's LMS


3. Create a "_backup" folder within the first level of the specific semester/course folder on our network drive (e.g. courses\clss\2100\IN\083_haynes_mosholder\backup)


4. Download the backup to the "_backup" folder (in Bb Vista you must "Save as file" before downloading)


5. Delete all old backup files


6. Export the gradebook to the "_backup" folder

This should be done the 2nd week of each semester on the previous semester's courses

News Re. Moodle, Summer 2008

1. Starting immediately, the domain is http://open.uvu.edu i.e. UVSC --> UVU


2. http://open.uvsc.edu will remain live indefinitely, and your old user/passwords will still work there. No new courses will be built on open.uvsc.edu, though.


3. We have moved to Moodle 1.9 on a new server, and have installed all modules/plugins from the old server. No new plug-in requests will be processed, however, until we are confident in 1.9's stability.


4. Monty and Paul have successfully integrated with Banner LMB, meaning ALL USERS will use their regular UVLink username and password to login. Any password update in Banner will be propagated to Moodle automatically.


5. Course enrollment updates will also be propagated to Moodle automatically.


6. Using the My Moodle plugin, students and instructors will login and see only their own classes, as opposed to the full list of semesters and classes seen on older versions.

Blackboard Vista 4 Course Design Guidelines

A few Vista course construction protocols in addition to notes posted during our Blackboard Vista migration:

• Use banner.jpg on the homepage, not the front.jpg--that's too big with our current design.


• Lessons in Learning Modules should be complete: they need to be linear, and include any quizzes, discussions, or assignments attached to a given lesson.


• HIDING most Tool links in the Course Tools menu may reduce student confusion and encourage them to access activities in the proper order. This is done by going to Manage Course > Course Menu and HIDE on Assessments, Assignments, Discussions, Learning Modules--this is important because
  
  
  
  1. we don't want students to wander aimlessly--the lesson is the core of the course;
  
  
  2. the labels for these areas do not always match the instuctors' labels, adding more confusion
  
  
  3. these general areas often put items in "alphabetical order", also known as "arbitrary order". We manually structure learning modules for a reason.
  
  


• If lessons have titles or subtitles, put them in the Description field of the learning modules.


• Make sure the CSS files are referenced by course pages. This problem is evident if the font is a serif, rather than sans-serif, font.


• When making quizzes follow these guidlines unless specifically instructed not to:
  
  
  
  • Midnight should be interpreted as 11:55pm/11:59pm not 12:00am
  
  
  • Release the score once the quiz has been submitted and all the questions have been graded.
  
  
  • Do NOT 'Show the correct answer for each question.'
  
  
  • Randomize answer choices in multiple choice quizzes
  
  
  • Add questions to a quiz using a question set to randomize question order
  
  

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting
Attending: John, Jared, Marc, Travis, Janel, Ken, Dorothy

Travis- will purchase SoftChalk following this meeting

Discussed USHA Grant for Course Development (May give grant for Ed Tech not specifically related to course development

• Budget includes all but travel
• Funding: $4,000 to $5,000, possibly $10,000 - if it serves more than one class, more money could be given
• Travis's idea: Art Department video of different artist

Discussed different "looks" for classes, departments

• Preferred concept: three different looks developed for each department; Department Chair approves one look (trying for department consistency)
• This has been protocol, but John and Jared have not met with department chairs about looks
  
• Most departments already have their look; some classes may need updated look
• Are we switching the look of skinny banners? (i.e. Vista) Should probably discuss what banner should be
• Look and department approval needed for following departments:
  
• Tech Management
• Japanese
  
• CLSS

Developers assigned for new classes:

• CLSS 1000 - Janel
• MGMT 3600 - Janel
• TECH 3010 - RJ

Discussed LSAC BESC 4705

• Mystery developer has programmed some files on g-drive prior to editing (Who is GP??) (How did he/she get access to g-drive??)
• Files programmed March 2008 - very mysterious
  

Courses pushed through to spring to ease load of fall courses

• MGMT 3600
• CLSS 1000

Philosophy department concerns

• PHIL 3450 (Philosophy of Childhood) has had no follow up so far
• Elaine Englehardt had a bad experience teaching live interactive Ethic and Values class (She felt there was a lack of attention from students)
• Chris Weigel said concurrent enrollment only applies on campus- this is unclear, needs clarification

Big Mobile (AT&T competition)
Jared's idea: Mobile Moodle (discussed with developers in earlier meeting)
Janel's idea: Find a way to extract flash cards out of a class that would prompt you with questions (a study aid)

• Links through SMS sensor
• You could reply to answer, i.e. multiple choice question, or possibly text an answer( almost impossible to grade)
• Questions could come as flashcard, then answer come at specific interval (10 seconds, 30 seconds, etc.)
• Program so many questions per day at a certain frequency
• A WebCt quiz is basically a set of flashcards
• Think through this idea and present to developers for further discussion
  

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting
Attending: John, Jared, Travis, Janel, Ken, Dorothy (Marc attending Web Advisory Meeting)

• Travis - His department is planning Distance Ed retreat on Friday July 18, 8 am to 3 pm. Secret agenda will be submitted to John when completed

• Janel - CLSS class proposal to be launched spring semester.
• As instructor initially wanted fall semester, was sent to Elizabeth
• 24 spring sections, 36 fall sections
• Dual approach: Online coverage and Navajo cultural orientation (geared toward Navajo culture; culturally sensitive. Some questions as to what this entails)
• Travis wondered if any studies about how to make this culturally sensitive have been done; John thought that studies have already been completed
• Jared says we need to determine if the class is to be a) culturally specific (Navajo culture) or b) cross cultural (any culture)

• Ken - Internship training (Marsha Haynes)
• Students fill out form including coordinator, who they are working for, sponsor
• Automatically goes to Moodle
• Students take quizzes, orientation, get certified
• Coordinators are able to check on students, make change
• Time frame to complete:
• One day to get running, one day to style
• Needs to find out what they want for pdf certificate
• Will e-mail Marsha directly for list

• John
  
• Interested in tutorial on logins. Advantage is you don't have to manage logins; it shares it out of database
• Discussed future of Distance Education server
• Interaction with account management system; a new version of old contract management system that works
• Web Advisory Committee support- Ken (?) wanted Blackboard; ended up looking at Wikis, Blogs
• Would like an institutional Blog for staff, students
• Would be easier to implement, more successful for faculty, students

• Jared - WordPress Blog
• Open source Blogging software
• Has a couple of versions, great features, good content management systems
• Would like this for Dist Ed because you can create pages and also give permission to someone make new pages and edit pages
  

IDS Meeting Notes

Attending: Marc, Janel, Jared, Ken

1. Ken demo'ed Softchalk, a tool for adding JS-based course materials enhancement. We've planned to purchase 2 or more versions of Softchalk for use in online course dev. Ken will look into how it might work with templates.


2. Jared has a couple useful ed tech books, will blog & pass around.


3. Janel showed CLSS prototype. IDS gave some ideas for syllabus, restructuring to be more streamlined and usable.


4. Marc and Jared showed cheatability rubric, but the submit did not work.


5. Course progress report by all IDs. Will revisit next week.


6. Dorothy will be asked to make notes at IDS mtgs and post to blog.

Desire2Blog: Desire2Pod Cast 18 - East Texas Law School Lecture

Desire2Blog: Desire2Pod Cast 18 - East Texas Law School Lecture

Blackboard Patents Rejected in "Non-final" Determination

Development Objectives & Measures - Spring 2008

At our end-of-semester planning meeting, IDS discussed the following objectives for Spring semester 2008:

Objective 1

Complete 1 course redesigns per ID.

Measure(s):

• Redesigned courses have superior usability over CEversions


• Significant new features of Vista are properly utilized


• Faculty guidance, input, and feedback is implemented


• Instructional Designers' all review redesigned courses

Objective 2

Publish Online Faculty Orientation Modules on the Web.

Measure(s):

• Relevant DE orientation content available via the Web


• Some number of assessments or interactions to gauge effectiveness


• Integrate Web content into DE Faculty Orientation process

Objective 3

Active engagement in opencourseware/open education movements

Primary measure:

• Ongoing


• Open licensing process in place


• Open Mod for Moodle 1.9 working


• Open Mod proposed for core Moodle

Secondary measure:

• Official OCWC membership status for UVSC


• OCW server running public


• 10 OCW courses on server


• Faculty buy-in

Objective 4

Create a Distance Education Intranet system for all units.

Measures:

• Increased access to departmental information.


• Better facilitation of departmental communication.


• Staff/area usage statistics and general feedback.

Objective 5

TBD

Development's End-of-Semester Planning Meeting (End of Fall 2007)

Current Org Chart

Having merged IDS with Media Design Services, our new org chart looks like this:

For the near future, IDS will still have semesterly staff meetings with Development + Instructional Technology, and Media Design Services separately to accommodate the large number of staff.

Fall 2008 Accomplishments

We related our semester accomplishments to the
IDS unit's primary responsibilities as an arm of UVSC Distance Education:

1. JR - Worked on putting ACCT quizzes into Moodle


2. JR - Set up Mimio on the whiteboard


3. Tylel - Authored initiation and review docs for usability testing


4. RJ - Set up DOS batch file to conduct weekly backups of network drive


5. Shaline - Retemplatized Building Codes course


6. Clark - TTIX Web site enhanced, including proposal rating system


7. Clark - Completed online facilitator page for Monty


8. Ken - Assisted in completing JPNS 1010; continuing to fix up the course using Flash skills


9. Ken - Planned and began CSSE Web-based sign-up and Moodle-testing system


10. Janel - Upgraded Karen Poole's ECFS online assignments


11. Janel - Revivifying LSAC prior to Fall grant delivery date.


12. Becky - Editing and revised 18 chapters for MGMT 3320 online


13. Becky - Researched opencourseware initiative and drafted a open licensing proposal workflow


14. Cheri - Completed closed captioning of SOC 1010


15. Cheri - Laid out plans for expanding accessibility duties to the Web with Jared


16. Dorothy - Expanded skillset to include HTML, Respondus, etc.


17. Jared - New course development: MGMT 3320 Hybrid, JPNS 1010 IN, POLS 420R IN, and DGM 2120 complete redesign.


18. Jared - Presented a number of proposals and presentations: low-cost degree program to Board of Higher Ed, open licensing proposal to UVSC, Teaching with Technology series for FCTE, and OCW Merit Grant report.

Fall Objectives

We also examined how well we met our Fall objectives.

• Objective 1 was modified to read 1 course redesign per semester per instructional designer. I would like all IDs to be fully accountable to this for Summer 08.
• Objective 2 is considered on-going, though we are optimistic that two big advancements will be completed before summer: the Open Mod for Moodle 1.9, and open licensing of faculty-authored content.
• Objective 4 was the most well-accomplished on the list, and I think TTIX 08 has a chance at being the biggest and best yet.
• Objectives not accomplished were held over for Spring 08. Objective 3 and 5 are terminal for Spring and will not be held over again.

Blackboard Wins Patent Lawsuit vs. Desire2Learn

Out of the Office Policy

John e-mailed out a memo to the DE Directors this afternoon indicating that all absences should be

1. approved by your supervisor
2. reported to those who work under you

This is not much different from the existing IDS Leave Policy, but John does reiterate that team members should notify their staff of any unscheduled absence out of common courtesy.

Even if you don't have staff who report directly to you, the IDS Leave Policy asks that you inform "all team members who may be affected by your absence" if you're not going to be in as scheduled.

For my own part, I want to remind all IDS & DC team members that my weekly schedule, which does include frequent meetings and events both on- and off-campus, is nearly always up-to-date and shared with all of you in the Groupwise calendar. While it is not feasible for me to notify everyone each time I leave the office, you can discover my whereabouts by looking at my Groupwise appointments if you need me. If my Groupwise calendar is not accessible to you, or you don't know how to view my schedule in Groupwise, please let me know.

Additionally, you can count on me letting Travis and Janel know if I ever close up for the day unexpectedly.

Jared and Marc Submit Conference Proposal on Cheatability

As a complement to John Krutsch's How to Cheat Online presentation, Marc and I have planned out a cheatability rubric, which attempts to measure the cheatability of an online course based on it's assessments and other factors. Here's the proposal:

Nobody wants students cheating in their online class, yet an estimated 75% of students have admitted to cheating during their college career, and according to some studies online assessment makes cheating easier. What is your course's "cheatability factor"? Presenters will discuss their rubric for determining cheatability in an online course with special attention to Blackboard Vista 4. Their rubric considers technical, philosophical, and environmental factors that may increase or decrease the cheatability of online courses from design to delivery. Participants will weigh in on the relative value of "direct assault" vs. "hearts and minds" pedagogical approaches to prevent cheating.

Presentation Objectives

1. Inform participants of the extent to which cheating-related problems exist in online education
2. Present a rubric used to measure the "cheatability" of online course
3. Discuss practices and strategies to avoid or minimize the impact of cheating

We've just submitted this to the Southwest Vista User's Group, which is coming this Spring right here in Utah, and I've thought of sending this on to Distance Teaching & Learning in Madison, Wisconsin before the Jan 15th deadline.

XO Laptops Are In

We received a few XO Laptops today as part of the Give One, Get One initiative through the One Laptop Per Child organization. Marc, Ken, and I popped them open and began fiddling around with the capabilities. Our first impression was that these are clearly made to limit adult usage (tiny keyboard, tiny screen), and to inhibit market value. But the UI is very straight-forward, and after twenty minutes I think we were all literate in the basic menus and functionalities.

I'm sure I'll add more later, but wanted to make a quick, enthusiastic, thumbs-up and provide a handful of photos of the XOs on flickr.