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