Instructional Design Services at UVU

Relocated to on.uvu.edu

2009-10-28T16:02:00.002-06:00

I've relocated this blog to http://deids.on.uvu.edu

Directors Mtg Notes: June 22, 2009

2009-06-22T09:38:00.002-06:00

Here's what I reported on at this week's directors mtg:

- New summer schedule
- Conference notes passing on
- Fall courses
- Budget stuff?

Network drive
* Backups moved
* Network drive evaluated

? Proposed stipends for annual reviews
? Mo - blogging workshop - faculty blogging?
? who will be doing cross-listing, enrollments

Notes on eLearning DevCon 2009

2009-06-22T09:09:00.003-06:00

I attended the 3-day eLearning DevCon 2009 in Salt Lake City this past week, and have compiled some brief notes based on the experience. I summarize the conference as having an enticing depth and knowledge of topics, good "presence" and information from most of the presenters, primarily for corporate e-learning developers (which was a refreshing change), not at all a bargain, and awkwardly spread out across Fort Douglas, though I must admit it was a joy to walk outside in late spring weather.

Instructional Design & Development

ADDIE, Dick & Cary, and other ID models useful to revisit and reflect upon, especially for planning of critical stages of course design. Models do not necessarily inhibit rapid prototyping. UVU IDS might rethink how its course design process fits into such models (instead of immediate prototyping do we first analyze needs, course objectives, then outline content in design? Prototyping should be mid to late design phase).

Build instructional design models into project mgmt software as template. We in UVU IDS do something like this with dotProject, but could more explicitly label phases to provide data documentation and data.

Log instructional patterns (e.g. activities, interactions, assessments) and create "templates".

Brainstorming ideas: aim for quantity not quality (no negations), stock conference room with treats and toys, limit to 1 hr/break & flow, focus everyone on the task, use online shared docs.

In design phase, instead of lists of info, make visual representations like wireframes & site maps. Let it be basic, ugly.

Tame your use of media to reduce cognitive load (read Clark's Efficiency in Design again).

Avoid novelty for novelty's sake (bad example: wave runner game with multiple choice questions, our Frogger game).

Try rapid e-learning dev tools like Captivate, Articulate, and Rapid Intake, but beware of outputs that aren't accessible, web standards format.

More often than not Flash is just flashy.

PowerPoint continues to be abused by presenters from around the world, resulting in mind-numbing, soul-sucking internments. Folks talk about PPT design in terms of how many bullets, words, fonts per slide, with nearly no mention of "Presentation Zen".

Also, a PPT designed for a (classroom) presentation is not elearning, even if you convert that PPT to Flash with Captivate. @BrianDusablon says #1 problem in e-learning is PPT. (#2 is systems that put obstacles between learner and learning.)

However, you can use PPT as an effective e-learning prototyping platform, if not a complete and robust authoring platform.

Surprise! Corporate training wants demonstrable outcomes, not rubrics that assert generalized ideals of quality based on theory. How well do our distance learning "quality" rubrics (QM, Chico) measure the actual effectiveness of learning experiences at helping students meet learning objectives? Isn't that more important than, say, the 7 principles?

Though the session was canceled, it appears possible to use Google Spreadsheets as a data source for live e-learning content generation (think flashcards, quizzes)

UVU IDS should create all lesson discussions, assignments, and assessments as plain text files WITHIN the lessons folder, until Common Cartridge XML becomes useful on Moodle and Bb Vista.

URLs from augmented reality games session: http://argology.org, http://argn.com, http://unfiction.com

Questions

Does UVU IDS have enough accurate dotProject data yet to estimate the hour-cost of a new online course?

Non-linear ID is still popular, but is it effective? Have we passed the point at which hypertext inhibits learning and focus?

Where are communities that share DTDs and schemas, esp for e-learning? Does our XML DTD match any other known e-learning DTDs? (Really only Common Cartridge)

Reading List

Goal-based learning design a la Robert Schank

Humanizing education articles

Videogames and Education: Humanistic Approaches to an Emergent Art Form by Harry J. Brown

Chico State's latest vers. of ROI

Survey of Instructional Development Models by Kent L. Gustafson, Robert Maribe Branch

Any empirical research on linear vs. non-linear (hypertextual) learning outcomes

Software Demo List

Articulate (rapid e-learning development)

Captivate (rapid e-learning development)

ProForm / Unison (rapid e-learning development)

Jing (screen capture)

Agilix BrainHoney (LMS/learning system)

Syllabus Quiz Master Doc

2009-04-29T09:42:00.003-06:00

Last year I had a developer compile a master document of syllabus quiz questions. That's since been lost, so I've started a new Google Doc that we can collaborate through to create and maintain a good list of standard syllabus quiz questions.

I've begun with just a handful of questions; be sure to go in and add your own!

I've also shared this doc with the general public as a web page:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dczd9vkv_109d3d6m7m6

Bb Vista: DE Dev New Course Template

2009-04-14T16:16:00.000-06:00

I went throug the motions of creating the structure for a new Bb Vista course again today, and realized that we're probably wasting a lot of time in this step.

To expedite the process in the future, I made a new DE Dev course shell that is premade will all the standard DE online course tools, and Learning Modules for Course Orientation and Lessons 1-15.

The course shell also contains blank template pages for the Course Orientation section, so you can just upload those files and go.

Everything else in Lessons will have to be created and added in as files, and the Lessons themselves may need to be renamed, but this should still shave at least half an hour off the new course development process.

To use this, simply elect to copy content into your new shell from the "DE Dev New Course Template" course.

If you have suggestions or necessary additions to this, let me know and we'll work them in.

IDS mtg notes 4/7/09

2009-04-07T10:21:00.003-06:00

* = To Do
! = Alert
? = Question
- = Ongoing

RJ
Inline quiz on the gamegarden
Tech 3010

JR
- Course backups - almost finished

Ken
Marsha Haynes - Career Services Orientation
ITR mtg
! Tyrel "T-Bone" is in charge of ITR web page

T-Bone
- MGMT 3430 Pulled apart epack and made Web links in Vista

Dorothy
CLSS 1010 finished, sending to JR

Janel
- Len Pugh content reviewed
- John McLean content reviewed, discussed

Kevin
Finished SWF learner
! Will be working on dotProject
! Japanese

Shaline
* SOC 1010 powerpoints
- TECH 3400 course with Marc
* ART

Travis
* DENT look, will send to Jared and Janel
* YouTube EDU - make dP Project and Tasks;
John can get the YouTube EDU account through Ray?

Adam
TECH 3010 video done; get with John to approve the video
Need Political Conversations from Jared

Jared
* Political Conversations blurb
ITR reviewed
Proposed DE instructional bonus system
! Giving presentation today on online cheating
Course content coming in for DENT, MGMT
- Chou's epack

IDS mtg notes - 3/31/09

2009-03-31T10:53:00.001-06:00

I'm going to get back in the habit of posting our IDS meeting notes here on the unit's blog.

* = To Do
! = Alert
? = Question
- = Ongoing

Tyrel
Moodle selective release
-Course backups
!WebDav needs to work on backup computer
*Janel will send Hwang's UVID to Tyrel
*Tyrel try to hunt down the PHP/mysql XML metadata system
*Move RSS onto desource.uvu.edu

JR
-Course backups

Ken
Learned about SVN; svn.uvu.edu; WebDevServices uses it
*Set up SVN for us with UVIDs
dotProject hosted by UVU
*Working with WDS to consolidate our dP servers
Flex is the AWESOMEST!

Jared
!Order software
*ITRs
Course content in
-Prototyping
TTIX tentative schedule is up
*Remind Marc of course ID
!Meeting with Lori and Mike today

Shaline
-Course backups
Ready to work on SOC etc

Janel
Content from Len Pugh in
!May have to revise CLSS course
Waiting for stuff from George for internship
-Advanced tech online class
-Copyright class
*Janel will identify important course criteria

Travis
DENT looks ready for internal review
*Jared will come down to T's office to review them
Helped SC with pens, Wendi with faculty training conference
iTunes U - structure and metadata docs delivered. Apple servers have 500gb to the institute; our own server, just provide them the RSS
!Ray Walker has access to iTunes U. He can give access to DE to a section or portion
*Write justification email and send it to John to send it to Ray

Adam
-Finishing Political Conversations DVDs

Dave W.
-Telephone services video; rough cut ready
1310 video; adding b-roll to enliven
-Ensure that video size is consistent
-Investigating Flash streaming

RJ
*Buy CS4
-Online degree proposal form

Directors Mtg Notes, Feb 9, 2009

2009-02-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

Reminded Vicki to find out about my open ed grant $?
Plan to put in a Summer U proposal re. WikiLearn
John says let's also do Cheatability Rubric
Waiting on feedback for Dev Comp Proposal from John
Preparing a WCET Web 2.0 online presentation Scott L
Travis - Video Project Form? He'll get on it soon

Directors Mtg Notes: Feb 2nd, 2009

2009-02-02T12:30:00.002-07:00

Here's what I reported in today's Directors Mtg:

TTIX proposals are in
- SLC next year
Finished dev compensation research review
- recommendation this week
OER mtg with Nancy on Tues
- Cc
Portfolio server testing
Jared out on Friday

No important announcements for IDS except painting is NOT going to happen in our temp offices and we can plan on being here till June.

Temporary Move to Admin Bldg

2009-01-30T12:08:00.001-07:00

We have new temporary space in the Admin building, BA 205. There is room for everyone, so come by and plan to bring your computer over from LC.

I would like all developers to be "moved in" to this area by the end of next week (Feb 6), and back on a normal in-office working schedule. Coordinate with me or Janel or Ken if you need help moving equipment.

We'll be in this space as short as through mid-March or as late as summer, so bring enough equipment to complete your work, but not so much that it will be a pain to move again!

PS The rooms will be painted in the upcoming weeks, but I will try to communicate that down ahead of time so you can plan to work remotely those days.

Online Exams Through Testing Center

2008-12-11T15:26:00.002-07:00

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

2008-12-11T09:27:00.001-07:00

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

2008-12-10T20:21:00.003-07:00

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

2008-12-04T10:54:00.003-07:00

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

2008-10-30T12:25:00.006-06:00

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

2008-10-09T11:07:00.003-06:00

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

2008-09-29T09:46:00.002-06:00

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

Need dP on new server

Need logo for wikilearn

Faculty training

TTIX updates

OER published

Hammond ITR

dP tasks

Report ideas on openconference

Openspource

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

2008-09-18T10:47:00.002-06:00

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

2008-09-08T14:54:00.003-06:00

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

2008-09-03T11:30:00.004-06:00

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

2008-08-25T13:16:00.002-06:00

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

2008-08-21T10:00:00.003-06:00

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

2008-07-23T14:52:00.003-06:00

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

2008-07-21T14:27:00.005-06:00

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:

Choose the task in your Tasks list

Click New Log in the bottom right

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

2008-07-07T13:26:00.002-06:00

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

2008-07-01T12:56:00.003-06:00

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

2008-06-23T15:01:00.003-06:00

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

2008-06-17T10:22:00.004-06:00

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

2008-05-20T14:58:00.000-06:00

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:

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.

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

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

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.

No use of College equipment for personal or side projects.

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

2008-05-20T11:33:00.002-06:00

Just a few reminders/requests:

Everyone:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

2008-05-19T14:16:00.002-06:00

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

2008-05-15T12:31:00.002-06:00

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

Access all of your maintenance courses for the previous semester

Make a backup of the course through it's LMS

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)

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

Delete all old backup files

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

2008-04-28T18:27:00.000-06:00

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

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.

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.

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.

Course enrollment updates will also be propagated to Moodle automatically.

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

2008-04-28T18:06:00.005-06:00

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

2008-04-21T14:31:00.002-06:00

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

2008-04-14T15:29:00.004-06:00

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

2008-04-14T09:50:00.001-06:00

Attending: Marc, Janel, Jared, Ken

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Desire2Blog: Desire2Pod Cast 18 - East Texas Law School Lecture

2008-04-02T15:52:00.000-06:00

Desire2Blog: Desire2Pod Cast 18 - East Texas Law School Lecture

Blackboard Patents Rejected in "Non-final" Determination

2008-04-01T16:32:00.001-06:00

Development Objectives & Measures - Spring 2008

2008-03-10T13:21:00.003-06:00

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)

2008-03-10T12:14:00.007-06:00

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:

JR - Worked on putting ACCT quizzes into Moodle

JR - Set up Mimio on the whiteboard

Tylel - Authored initiation and review docs for usability testing

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

Shaline - Retemplatized Building Codes course

Clark - TTIX Web site enhanced, including proposal rating system

Clark - Completed online facilitator page for Monty

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

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

Janel - Upgraded Karen Poole's ECFS online assignments

Janel - Revivifying LSAC prior to Fall grant delivery date.

Becky - Editing and revised 18 chapters for MGMT 3320 online

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

Cheri - Completed closed captioning of SOC 1010

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

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

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

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

2008-02-25T11:17:00.001-07:00

Out of the Office Policy

2008-01-23T16:04:00.002-07:00

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

approved by your supervisor
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

2008-01-11T15:52:00.001-07:00

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

2008-01-08T10:18:00.002-07:00

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.

Staff Dedication and Appreciation

2007-11-14T18:40:00.001-07:00

I looked at the calendarized version of JPNS 1010 and we have gone from being a week and a half behind schedule to being less than 2 days behind schedule. This makes me very excited, particularly since it reminds me that we are quite close to finishing off this new and innovative fully online course. Sure, there will be some revisions--we know to expect those, and in fact already have some in the queue--but nothing like what we've had to accomplish already. Our developers Clark Nielsen, Ken Woodward, Clayton Lantz, and especially Eric Liu have all put up with a lot of stress and pressure, but have shown more dedication that I could have expected, so, fellas, accept my thanks!

Opencourseware at UVSC - Moving Forward?

2007-11-13T11:25:00.001-07:00

Today I met with the UVSC IP Office to go over our proposed process to allow for the open licensing of UVSC-owned, faculty authored materials. This is necessary because UVSC has ownership over most faculty-authored materials as provided in UVSC Policy 136: Intellectual Property.

So the process I proposed sets up an "open licensing request form" that a faculty or department submits to IP, IP passes to a review committee, and the review committee makes a recommendation to IP. Signatures happen, and the materials are released under a Creative Commons license.

The IP Office seemed very receptive and supportive of opencourseware, and we concurred that opencourseware is a suitable activity for a university. Now we just have to wait for legal counsel to weigh in, and we hope for a complete implementation by March 2008!

Rapid Prototyping and Instructional Design

2007-11-05T18:44:00.002-07:00

Disclaimer: most of my previous posts have been fairly rudimentary and objective; this probably qualifies as my first "real" 'blog entry as it tries to fuse my opinion with some of our recent experiences in IDS.

I and several folks on our team are currently in what Janel would rightly call "crisis mode" for a certain online course we're producing. We have been for the past 10 weeks. It's not a comfortable place to be, and much of the additional stress is my responsibility--in part through miscalculating the length of the project's development cycles, and in part by acquiescing to the instructors' wishes for an "on-time" delivery. However, now I'm beginning to reflect on the course of this project, and in fielding a number of complaints throughout the process I have returned to an article I read some years ago on rapid prototyping in instructional design:

Tripp, S. D., & Bichelmeyer, B. (1990). Rapid protoyping: An alternative instructional design strategy. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 38(1), 31-44.
(You can read a summary of the Tripp Bichelmeyer article here.)

The number-one complaint I've heard from folks on the team (myself included!) is that the scope of the project is not clear, and both the instructor and the instructional designer (me) are asking for changes to the tools and the learning media "mid-stream"--that is, as the students progress. But when I analyze those complaints, they lose a lot of their legitimacy.

Unlike other types of design, instructional design has as its highest priority the effectiveness and usability of the learning media for the outcome of learning. What instructional designers deliver to learners is not a product, but an experience. Unlike other media, effective learning media does not entertain, it engages. Technology-facilitated learning media has the potential of providing maximum return for minimal effort. And yet it is still a fairly a new “art”. Though there are principles and best practices, and though instructional designers likely know more about learning and cognition than ever before, there are no easy formulas for designing instruction, and no instructional design will “fit” all instructors, let alone all learners.

Instructional designers design and produce learning media with the assistance of skilled human resources, such as programmers, graphic designers, videographers, etc. In order to provide the optimum learning experience, instructional designers must evaluate the learning media for usability and effectiveness continually, and as early as possible, with the option of immediately revising, rewriting, recreating, or adding to the learning media in a cyclic pattern. As one cycle proves effective and usable, the next cycle begins, based upon the best-practices of the previous, and so on.

Even as the learning media goes into production, instructors should receive formative feedback from learners in each lesson. Formative feedback provides instructors with information as to whether or the not the students are learning, how efficient that learning is, and whether or not the tools that facilitate the learning are frustrating and over-encumbering. When a learner is over-encumbered by extraneous tasks, such as manipulating the technology, learning is inhibited, if not impossible. Such encumbrances must be eliminated as they are discovered.

Scope, therefore, is something that is only recognizably accurate in hindsight for an instructional designer. Scope is a forecast, not a definition.

This idea of instructional design through rapid prototyping may be most necessary when the learning outcomes are skills-based. If you remove the severe time constraints that we’ve been on, this online course is a perfect example of effective instructional design through rapid prototyping. It is also a perfect example of how it is nearly impossible to define scope all at once; the learners have four skills that they must develop, and each skill is dramatically different in how it’s learned and how it’s practiced. Not only that, but as the learners progress through the course, the learning outcomes change, their needs change, and the tools that will best facilitate their skills must also change.

Is there a point at which an instructional design is complete? Not necessarily. Sometimes we finish a project when we’ve shown that we’ve met our learning objectives, sometimes the conclusion is based on more arbitrary factors. Budget, time, personality conflicts—all of these are capable of providing sufficient justification for the conclusion of any given project. But the point is that we are open, we are zen in the way we accept change, we are focused on the learners their experiences, and we base our success on effectiveness more than efficiency.

And though we in Distance Education pride ourselves in outwitting the limitations of time and space, efficiency must still be a principle concern to any director and any project manager. At the same time the process of rapid prototyping and a focus on the learner's experience will help us take learning media from bad to better to best. I don't think the two are necessarily at odds; by practicing the process we can only learn from experience, and our results can surely become better, faster and more efficient. The pay-off is clear; it's merely the mind-sets that are muddled.

--Jared M. Stein

Report on IDS's End-of-Semester Planning Meeting (End of Summer 2007)

2007-09-14T10:01:00.001-06:00

Summer 2007 Accomplishments

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

Janel - Comm 2300; as online instructor and instructional designer this course has been redesigned/enhanced. (IDS responsibility 1)
Dorothy - Contributed to course maintenance and redesign, particularly BIT courses. (IDS responsibility 1)
Clark - Contributed to course maintenance and redesign, especially BIT courses. (IDS responsibility 1)
Eric - Contributed to course maintenance in Vista. (IDS responsibility 1)
Golf - Contributed to course maintenance in Vista. (IDS responsibility 1)
Ken - Contributed to course maintenance in Vista. (IDS responsibility 1)
Jared - Designed and managed production of JPNS 1010 online (IDS responsibility 1, 3, 4, 6)
Eric - Developing JPNS 1010 (IDS responsibility 1)
Eric - Began learning Flash. Of particular use in new JPNS 1010. (IDS responsibility 4, 1)
Ken - Began learning Flash. Of particular use in new JPNS 1010. (IDS responsibility 4, 1)
Clark - Developed PHP and MySQL functionalities for Flash-based tools in JPNS 1010 on Moodle. This constitutes a major contribution to innovation for language learning and Moodle. (IDS responsibility 1, 3, 4, 5, possibly 7)
Marc - Faculty training! (IDS responsibility 5).
Jared - Faculty training for JPNS 1010, ENGL 2200, BIOL 1010, etc. (IDS responsibility 5)
Janel - Encouraged faculty use of Vista tools. (IDS responsibility 5)
Jared - Conducted 3 departmental cross-training sessions (Openlearning, Moodle, PowerPoint). (IDS responsibility 9)
Marc - Transcoded user authentication credentials in Vista (IDS responsibility 9)
Clark - Developed and maintained Driver's Ed online functionality. (IDS responsibility 7)
Jared - Coordinated, managed, and assisted on China video production for COMM 3320. (IDS responsibility 1)
Cheri - Completed captioning of SOC 1010 TV. (IDS responsibility 1, 2)
Cheri - Improved approaches to captioning with technology (IDS responsibility 3)
Dorothy - Transcribed video lectures for captioning (IDS responsibility 1, 2)
Janel - Coordinated TTIX planning meetings and staff assignments. (IDS responsibility 8)
Jared - With DE Admin directed and planned TTIX 2007. (IDS responsibility 8)
All - Assisted in execution of TTIX 2007. (IDS responsibility 8)
Jared - Presented information and training sessions at TTIX 2007 (IDS responsibilities 7, 8)
Golf, Eric, Clark - Maintained and updated TTIX, DE, and other web site pages and functions (IDS responsibilities 7, 8, 9)
Jared - Designed and managed new projects and processes for the unit and the department, e.g. Google Docs & Spreadsheets, planning of Intranet site, DE web site, etc. (IDS responsibility 4, 9)
Golf - Installed, upgraded, and maintained unit hardware and software. (IDS responsibility 9)
Golf - Discovered an effective web-cam monitoring system. (IDS responsibility 9)
Golf and Jared - Set up a G: drive backup system (IDS responsibilities 1, 9)
Clark - Programmed DE web site interfaces and systems. (IDS responsibility 9)
Jared - Planned and coordinated opencourseware efforts with UVSC administration and Utah State University. (IDS responsibility 6)

Summer's Objectives

We also examined how well we met our Summer objectives. In general, the conclusive answer was, "Not very well."

Objective 4 was removed in liu of full participation in DE departmental cross-trainings. Be aware that some of you may be called upon to teach one or more cross-training sessions to satisfy my intents for ongoing teaching and learning in our unit. Cross-trainings should be broad enough to appeal to the entire department, but specialized enough to make them attractive and interesting.
Objective 6 Was removed from the list. The unit agreed that our pilot of Google Docs & Spreadsheets for project, task and time sheet management is satisfactory.
Objectives not accomplished were held over for Fall 2007.

IDS Objectives & Measures - Fall 2007

2007-09-13T17:05:00.000-06:00

At our end-of-semester planning meeting, IDS discussed the following objectives for Summer semester 2007:

Objective 1

Complete 3 course redesigns (one 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

Active engagement in opencourseware/open education movements

Measure(s):

Official OCWC membership status for UVSC
OCW server running public
10 OCW courses on server
Faculty buy-in

Objective 3

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 4

Improve Preparations for TTIX 2008.

Measure(s):

Early and expanded advertising
Enhanced proposal submission
Enhanced conference registration
Online proposal ratings

Objective 5

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.

Leave Policy

2007-07-12T12:16:00.001-06:00

Here's the skinny on what IDS employees must do in order to have approval for any leave time:

All leave must be approved by your direct supervisor before the date/time of absence. This means you must telephone or e-mail and receive acknowledgment before taking leave. If your direct supervisor is not available, go to the next supervisor in line.
Once leave has been approved by your supervisor, you must notify all team members who may be affected by your absence. In particular, this refers to other developers or instructional designers who may be depending on you as a teammember on any given project.

Finally, I expect everyone to adhere to their scheduled hours. As you know, you have great liberty to determine your own work schedule; I just ask that you stick to it. The more you stick to your schedule in general, the more flexibility we will allow for exceptions.

Leave Immediately Prior to New Semester

No time-off requests will be accepted 7 days prior to or following the first day of any new semester, except for special circumstances or emergencies.

The first day of Fall 2007 semester is August 22

IDS Staff Profiles

2007-07-07T22:29:00.000-06:00

I've collected brief profiles of most of our staff as a snapshot of our current team:

John Krutsch
Sr. Director, Distance Education
* Oversees the operation of the many varied programs in Distance Education
* Created the PowerTools for WebCT
* Openly shares his technical and academic innovations with the world
* Enjoys birding, camping, and all things sci-fi

Jared M. Stein
Director of Instructional Design Services
* Oversees DE course & technology development
* Created the TETC
* Teaches Web design for MCT
* Likes literature, writing, film, card games, and tea

Janel Mitchell
Instructional Designer
* UVSC Distance Education
* Assists Faculty in designing courses for distance delivery
* Project Manager for DE course production
* Created processes for DE course development
* Likes structure and organization
* Enjoys exercise, gardening and going to lunch with friends

Eric Liu
Web Developer
* Creating Japanese 1010 online course
* Helps manage course developer projects
* Assistant supervisor on WebCT CE to Vista migration
* Maintains a number of DE course web sites
* Likes martial arts, tennis, cooking, food of any kind, drawing, coffee and tea

Clark Nielsen
Web Developer
* Working on LI Registration web site
* Developing Moodle integration of Flash language tools for JPNS 1010
* Created a custom quiz lock for Driver's Ed Moodle course
* Interested in writing, video games, snowboarding, traveling, and animation

Michelle H. Erickson
Specialist / Editor
* Edits courses for delivery via DE mediums
* Involved with closed captioning initiative
* Transcribes courses
* Likes writing, photography, "flipping" houses (joint hobby with hubby)

Natthaphon "Golf" Pipatchotikul
Web Developer
* Maintains online courses
* Researches latest technologies
* Develops online exams
* Likes movies, driving, learning new things, playing basketball, and Thai food.

Yoshihito Endo
Course Developer
*Learning CSS/XHTML/XML
* Working on Web CT CE to VISTA migration
* Helping coordinate the development of the new DE Intranet site.
* Enjoys learning and using new equipment and applications, such as Mimio, for use in IDS.
* Likes to go camping with his family, playing Golf by himself, and messing around with computers (This is a lot of FUN!!).

New Course Proposal Signature & Review Process

2007-07-02T22:40:00.002-06:00

A couple of things were clarified this morning in our weekly DE Directors' Meeting regarding new course proposals:

Dept Chair/Dean signature. We are going to proceed with seeking dept. chair/dean signatures at the course proposal step, not at the development compensation step. John K. has agreed that electronic signatures will be sufficient. We will need to build these into the online proposal submission and review system.

IDS has been charged with previewing all new course proposals in our weekly IDS meeting and making a recommendation for the IDS Director to communicate to the Senior Director. Senior Director will cover any final approval at the deans/VP level. We will need to make this process as streamlined as possible in the online system.

Job Description: Course Developer

2007-06-27T16:09:00.001-06:00

This description outlines the responsibilities of IDS's Course Developer position. Currently this is a student part-time position filled by Nattaphon "Golf" Pipatchotikul, Ken Woodward, and Yoshito Endo.

Duties & Responsibilities

Format, edit, and prepare learning content and materials as directed by Instructional Design Services project leads and instructional designers

Create and maintain online learning materials for Distance Education courses using XHTML, Flash, and CSS

Construct & complete hybrids and fully online courses within major Learning Management Systems such as WebCT and Moodle

Collaborate with peers and project leads on the development of Web-based applications, systems, and projects

Work with the Design Center as directed to create, maintain, and improve the visual design of e-learning materials and objects

Research current and emerging e-learning technologies such as: wikis, blogs, collaborative or social networking tools, etc.

Assist instructional designers in the assessment and evaluation of the usability and effectiveness of Web sites, educational materials, and learning objects.

Contribute to idea generation for DE courses and related IDS projects.

Other duties as assigned

Job Description: Web Developer

2007-06-27T16:07:00.000-06:00

This description outlines the responsibilities of IDS's Web Developer position. Currently this is a regular part-time position filled by Eric Liu and Clark Nielsen.

Duties & Responsibilities

Collaborate with Distance Education directors and Instructional Design Services project leads to create Web-based systems and applications using JavaScript, PHP MySQL, PERL, and other client and server side Web technologies

Create innovative online learning materials for Distance Education courses using XHTML, Javascript, Flash, and CSS

Assist instructional designers and project leads in the organization and supervision of IDS course developers

Design, develop, and maintain Distance Education Web sites, intranet sites, and education-related resource sites under the direction of DE Administration and the Director of IDS.

Construct complete hybrid and fully online courses within major Learning Management Systems such as WebCT, Blackboard, and Moodle.

Research current and emerging e-learning technologies and applications such as: Moodle, SCORM, Flash, AJAX, Common Cartridge, streaming media, etc

Contribute to idea generation for DE courses and related IDS projects.

Assist instructional designers in the assessment and evaluation of the usability and effectiveness of Web sites, educational materials, and learning objects.

Other duties as assigned

Developer Task Lists and Work Log Policy

2007-06-14T11:56:00.000-06:00

Task Lists

This is a reminder that everyone in IDS should stay on top of their Task Lists in Google Docs, and keep it current with ongoing projects, assignments, and tasks.

Two more requests re. task lists:

1. Make sure that your tasks have been cleared with your supervisor _before_ you mark them as a"completed"

2. Always move completed tasks to the "completed" sheet of your task list. This will allow quicker scanning of your current tasks.

Time Card/Work Log

You also should keep your Time Card/Work Log current on Google Docs. This is critical for all PT and hourly employees, and highly recommended for FT employees.

Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange 2007

2007-06-06T14:02:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow we kick-off this year's Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange. We have some extremely stimulating presentations scheduled for June 7th and 8th, and invite you all to attend.

Darren Draper of the Jordan School District will be giving this year's keynote presentation.

TTIX is and always will be an open conference with no admission fee, though pre-registration (at the TTIX web site) is required.

If you need info on parking or location, check out our custom Google Map of the UVSC campus.

Vista 4 to Vista 4 Course Migration Process

2007-04-20T00:44:00.000-06:00

I've written a new tutorial detailing how to migrate an existing course from one Blackboard Vista 4 server to another Blackboard Vista 4 server--much like we have to do to 100+ courses before the semester begins in two weeks! This tutorial ain't pretty, but it should do the job.

How to Manually Move a Blackboard Vista 4 Course from One Server to Another

This tutorial is especially relevant if your new Vista 4 server has automated or semi-automated course/section/enrollment management like ours does.

LI Courses for Summer 07 Vista Migration

2007-04-19T23:19:00.000-06:00

Because LI courses are not offered in the Summer, make a Vista backup and save it to the "G" drive in the course's 073 folder for storage until Fall.

Current Moodle LMS Usage Policy

2007-04-17T11:51:00.000-06:00

UVSC's new open educational resources efforts will be officially published through the Moodle learning management system using the Moodle Open MetaMod. In order to justify maintenance of the Moodle server on campus, we will be asking all instructors who wish to use Moodle to make some or all of their content available as opencourseware under a Creative Commons license.

Instructional Design Services' Primary Responsibilities

2007-04-09T19:46:00.000-06:00

These have been condensed or expanded from the previous draft of IDS' Role Statement. Note that Setup and maintenance of DE Web and Intranet servers will be moving to Monty's Operations unit:

Design, develop, and maintain Distance Education courses and technology-enhanced learning media

Ensure the accessibility of all Distance Education learning materials

Investigate, research, test-pilot, and report on new distance education technologies and practices to DE faculty and staff

Innovate in the fields of instructional design and educational technology

Encourage faculty to engage in effective teaching practices through the use of technology

Foster openness of educational resources through OCW participation

Present to and collaborate with peer institutions and organizations to foster research, innovation, and best practices

Spearhead the TTIX conference

Support Distance Education units in the accomplishment of their objectives by developing and maintaining Internet-based workflow solutions such as Web sites and Intranet sites

And, of course...

Outwit the limitations of time and space

Notes on Blackboard Vista 4 (AP1) Rebuilds

2007-04-04T12:50:00.000-06:00

Based on our collaborative construction of ENGL 2010 IN on Blackboard Vista 4 with App Pack 1 last Tuesday, here are some more guidelines and standards for future rebuilds of courses in Vista:

Quizzes should be exported from CE and imported into Vista at the first Vista screen.

Course Content Map setting should be set as follows: Manage Course > Course Menu > General Settings > Course Content Map: Display as drop-down

All HTML content pages must have appropriate but simplified titles, e.g. "Lesson 1 Objectives and Tasks" rather than "ENGL 2010 - Intermediate Writing - Objectives and Tasks", certainly not "[course_#]: [course_title] - page name"

Remove all WebCT CE hack hyperlinks to activities, e.g. <a href="#" onclick="discussion('Topic 01: Introductions',190023569)">Topic 01: Introductions</a>

Begin putting all upfront materilas in a Learning Module on the home page called "Course Orientation"

Learning Modules (lessons) should also be linked directly from the home page in most cases (use a "Lessons" folder if that makes more organizational sense)

Learning Module's should have, for example, "Lesson X" for title and "Introduction to Z" for description

Discussion links should be labeled with a "Discussion:" prefix, e.g. "Discussion: Practice Paraphrase"

Assignment links should be labeled with an "Assignment x:" prefix, e.g. "Assignment 07: Learning to Paraphrase"

Create and apply Goals to Learning Modules based on stated objectives. Try to identify objectives in collaboration with instructor if necessary.

Go through each and every page, assignment, and assessment and create and associate Goals as part of a full revision process. This should be done collaboratively with the instructor.

Create and use Grading Forms collaboratively with the instructor. This can be sold by demonstrating the efficacy of grading with such forms.

I will eventually compile these into a master document with previous notes and guidelines.

IDS Objectives and Measures for Summer 2007

2007-04-04T11:59:00.000-06:00

At our end-of-semester planning meeting, IDS discussed the following objectives for Summer semester 2007:

Objective 1
Complete 3 course redesigns in Blackboard Vista.
Measure(s):

Redesigned courses have superior usability over CE versions
Significant new features of Vista are properly utilized
Faculty guidance, input, and feedback is implemented
Instructional Designers' all review redesigned courses

Objective 2
Active engagement in opencourseware/open education movements
Measure(s):

Official OCWC membership status for UVSC
OCW server running public
10 OCW courses on server
Faculty buy-in

Objective 3
by Janel M
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 4
Ensure ongoing quality learning experiences for all IDS staff.
Measure(s):

Monthly 2-3 hour training/dev experience on topic of interest or use to all IDS staff
Each staff member to host 1 (breakfast?) training per year.
Schedule:

April - Rick C.
May - Golf P.
June - Eric L.
July - Janel M.
Aug - Cheri D.
Sept - Jared S.
Oct - Marc H.

Objective 5
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 6
Begin creation of online task/project/error tracking system, (bugzilla).
Measure(s):

Project assigned and planned.

Google or Yahoo Home Pages

2006-12-21T12:43:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in our staff meeting, all IDS staff members should set their Web browser's home page to a customized Google or Yahoo! home page with relevant RSS feeds. Here are some ideas for home page features:

Google Docs and Spreadsheets feeds for IDS docs
The IDS 'blog feed
A del.icio.us tab with feeds of your recent sites and the sites of other developers in the unit.
dictionary.com, babelfish, and wikipedia search widget
Feeds from various instructional design, ed tech, Web design, and usability lists or Web sites.

Our Weekly Challenge showed off some great examples; talk to Jared, Rick, or Richard for help on setting up your Google or Yahoo home page with some of these useful widgets.

A new widget we plan to add in the coming weeks is a course task/course nitpick widget.

--Jared Stein

WebCT Into Vista Transitional Login

2006-12-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

Because we are in the first semester of a 3-semester transition from WebCT CE 4.1 to Blackbloard Vista 4, only part of our DE faculty will be using Vista in the Spring. We need to work out a script that will securely forward and authenticate users--both instructors and students--securely from each course's CE 4.1 home page into the correct Vista 4 course.

The forwarding/authentication process looks like this for most users:

UVLink Portal --> WebCT CE Course --> Blackboard Vista Course

We need this script in place by Jan 1. In the meantime, instructors will access courses by going directly to http://utahelearning.uen.org

--Jared Stein

Instructor Affidavits of Original Work and Release

2006-12-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

We'll be requiring all faculty developing a new Distance Education course to sign an affidavit of original work and release, verifying that all content submitted for use in said course is original and that the faculty owns the rights to reproduce and distribute the content for educational purposes.

Janel will maintain these forms.

--Jared Stein

IDS Objectives and Measures for Spring 2007

2006-12-18T10:55:00.001-07:00

Based on internal conversations and our discussion board postings, IDS plans to focus on achieving the following objectives during Spring semester 2007:

Objective 1
by Rick C
Complete migration of all UVSC DE courses from WebCT CE to Blackboard Vista.
Measure(s):

Tracking via Google Spreadsheets.
Faculty feedback.
Instructional Designers' review.

Objective 2
by Janel M
Improve tracking and accountability of internal projects and tasks.
Measure(s):

Review work orders for completion records.
Instructional Designer satisfaction.
Developer satisfaction.
Faculty satisfaction.

Objective 3
by Bryson T
Reduce # of unfinished projects and resist accepting new projects (for one semester only).
Measure(s):

Shorter Projects list due to completions.
Manageable developer load.
Ability to begin training units and staff on finished projects.

Objective 4
by Jared S
Increase DE departmental communication, access to information, and work efficiency by creating a highly usable Distance Education Intranet system for all units.
Measures:

Staff/area usage statistics and general feedback.

Objective 5
by Richard S
Ensure ongoing quality learning experiences for all IDS staff.
Measure(s):

Weekly trainings.
Completion of "new skills" projects.

--Jared Stein

Weekly IDS Meeting Agendas on Google Docs

2006-12-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

In addition to all project tracking, we'll be posting weekly IDS meeting agendas to Google Docs. Be sure you have access to this, and feel free to add agenda items or discussion points as needed, while respecting the time limitations of the meeting.

--Jared Stein

IDS Vista Migrants on Google Docs

2006-12-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

We'll keep track of our migration from WebCT CE 4.1 to Blackboard Vista on Google Docs. If you don't already have access to this tracking sheet, ask Richard Snapp to add you as a collaborator.

--Jared Stein

IDS Project Sheet on Google Docs

2006-12-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

We'll keep our current projects defined and tracked on Google Docs. If you don't already have access to this tracking sheet, ask Rick C or myself to add you as a collaborator.

--Jared Stein

Blackboard Vista Migration Hand-Off Notes

2006-12-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

Just some friendly reminders/clarifications/articulations about the Vista migration process:

IDS developers:

- When you complete a Vista migration you need to review it with Janel or myself.

- You must verify the functionality of each tool before we meet.

- Any Web page or content problems or nitpicks discovered during a migration review must be logged by the developer in the DE omni/nitpick system, assigned to the appropriate developer.

- Once all revisions or fixes have been made, you must e-mail Janel and let her know that the migration is complete.

- Upon receipt of e-mail verifying migration completion, Janel will e-mail Marc to let him know that faculty X's course(s) is ready and training can commence.

- Marc and I have agreed that since DE faculty are responsible for updating their assignment and quiz due dates, this task will be addressed in the faculty's Vista training. If IDS has time after all migrations are complete, we will try to go back and update some due dates, however.

We are discovering new issues and tricks all the time, so be sure to ask if you're not certain about any part of the migration process.

Thanks folks.

--Jared Stein

Standard Format for Blackboard Vista Lessons Folders

2006-12-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

When creating and working with lessons in Vista, remember the following:

The "Lessons" folder should be 1 column, no icons (for now).

Each learning module's properties should be set to show the table of contents on the left, and start on the first page unless the design of the course dictates otherwise.

Each folder should have the folder script in the header to provide the CSS "look" for the page, as supplied by Rick Chaides. This script is slightly different from the front page script.

--Jared Stein

Using Org Pages/Folders in Blackboard Vista

2006-12-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

When a course in Vista has several linked items of a similar category, e.g. Practice Exams or Study Guides, one has a couple design choices:

1. One might put individual links to each of these docs inside a Vista Org Page/Folder

2. One might create an XHTML page that links locally to each of these docs

I recommend using the second choice, simply because this allows us to better maintain a whole structure independent of Vista.

So, as you migrate and review your courses, if you see WebCT Org Pages/Folders that could be replaced with XHTML pages that simply link to those files, please make that a nitpick to change.

The exception would be instances where it's clear that the instructor is doing the edits and updates to the site--in these cases we should leave them as WebCT Folders because that's easier for faculty to edit.

--Jared Stein

Purpose of the 'Blog

2006-12-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

I hate 'blogs, but I'm happy to have a place to record and post the internal process and procedure decisions of Distance Education's Instructional Design Services unit at Utah Valley State College.

Though the postings to this 'blog are primarily for the staff of Distance Education at UVSC, I've consciously chosen to make this 'blog public so as to share our own trials, successes, and failures as we work day-to-day in the field of distance learning and technology-enhanced teaching.

So expect boring and sometimes redundant postings on how to name files for an online course, when to use PDF vs HTML, how to tweak the look of Blackboard Vista, and how to handle problems with instructors or designers.

--Jared M. Stein
Director, Instructional Design Services
Distance Education, Utah Valley State College