Working Remotely Dec - Jan

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

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

Guidelines

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DE Video Files on desource.uvu.edu

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

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

IDS Announcements/Decisions

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

Donate $ to Karen for Rick, Santa

Card for John at 11

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

Moodle upgrades to 1.9.3 for Spring

Mahara demo next Thursday

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

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

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

JPNS 1010
Ken to research digital ink for writing assignments

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

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

Practice: Backing Up Last Semester's Courses

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

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


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


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


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


5. Delete all old backup files


6. Export the gradebook to the "_backup" folder

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

Development Objectives & Measures - Spring 2008

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

Objective 1

Complete 1 course redesigns per ID.

Measure(s):

• Redesigned courses have superior usability over CEversions


• Significant new features of Vista are properly utilized


• Faculty guidance, input, and feedback is implemented


• Instructional Designers' all review redesigned courses

Objective 2

Publish Online Faculty Orientation Modules on the Web.

Measure(s):

• Relevant DE orientation content available via the Web


• Some number of assessments or interactions to gauge effectiveness


• Integrate Web content into DE Faculty Orientation process

Objective 3

Active engagement in opencourseware/open education movements

Primary measure:

• Ongoing


• Open licensing process in place


• Open Mod for Moodle 1.9 working


• Open Mod proposed for core Moodle

Secondary measure:

• Official OCWC membership status for UVSC


• OCW server running public


• 10 OCW courses on server


• Faculty buy-in

Objective 4

Create a Distance Education Intranet system for all units.

Measures:

• Increased access to departmental information.


• Better facilitation of departmental communication.


• Staff/area usage statistics and general feedback.

Objective 5

TBD