Self-Paced Online and Blended Teaching Institute (OBTI)

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The UW-Whitewater Learning Technology Center (LTC) is pleased to announce registration is now available for a self-paced asynchronous version of our Online and Blended Teaching Institute (OBTI) for Spring 2023…or for the ambitious, you can still enroll and complete the Fall 2022 iteration!

OBTI aligns quality Canvas course design with best practices for teaching in a variety of modalities.  Upon completion of OBTI, faculty and instructors will be well-prepared to design and develop their own courses, prepared with tips to continue the iterative process for future academic terms.

Online and Blended Teaching Institute
Online and Blended Teaching Institute now available in a self-paced format.

The Online and Blended Teaching Institute offers an independent, online, self-paced experience combined with full support and contact with the Learning Technology Center.  It showcases the work of Whitewater instructors and staff, allowing participants an opportunity to explore what has worked for their colleagues.   After an initial consultation, participants will complete a series of short online assignments, be provided a sandbox to design content, and develop objectives and activities to serve as an exemplar module for future courses.  This course will take an estimated 30 hours to complete during the fall semester.

This Winterim, we’ll again offer our traditional cohort model OBTI with online synchronous workshops that include a live student panel and peer review. Moving forward we anticipate offering both synchronous and asynchronous options on a regular basis.

For more information or to enroll in this exciting training, contact Ted Witt at wittt@uww.edu. 

Welcome to a new semester!

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Prepare for the new semester with help from the Learning Technology Center (LTC).

Take your Canvas course to the next level.

Whether new to Canvas or ready to take your material to the next level, the Learning Technology Center will support you in developing your online or in-person courses. We offer workshops, training sessions, and consultations for all your Canvas needs.

On Tuesday, August 30th, visit the Canvas booth at Technology Open House. It is one of the many booths that can help with information on Canvas course design, digital textbook resources, instructional technology, and media production.

Increase access to software using Citrix Virtual Apps.

Through Citrix Virtual Apps, members of the UW-W community can access dozens of academic software packages offered in the General Access Labs from anywhere and on any device with an internet connection! We’ll cover the basics, including tips and tricks to avoid issues. Learn how to use this service and how to help your students get the most from it.

Access new employee resources.

UW-Whitewater photo/Craig Schreiner

Receive personalized support with one-on-one or department consultations.

In addition to scheduled workshops and presentations, the LTC team meets with individuals, office units, or academic departments on any topic within our portfolio of services. A consultation provides a productive opportunity to work with one of our experts on your specific needs or requirements. Request a meeting with our consultation request form to get started!

Record video lectures in the LTC Recording Studio!

On-demand video lectures are the perfect way to deliver lecture content for web-based courses or provide supplementary material for in-person classes. The LTC can help you record new content!

The Learning Technology Center (LTC) offers video recording and media production services. Record video and audio in our professional studio or on location at campus venues. Equipped with a podium, a Windows computer, and the ability to connect to your laptop or Mac, the LTC Media Production Studio provides the space and equipment for your recording! For scripted presentations, we have a teleprompter available. Our expert student media technicians will guide you through every step. Please allow one week after your scheduled recording for video processing.

Prefer to record on your own? Check out our short video to learn about four different methods that allow you to create on-demand lectures from your computer. Use our step-by-step guides in our Recording Options for On-Demand Delivery article for further assistance.

 

Honoring Campus Innovators

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On May 18, the campus community gathered at the Celebrating Teaching and Learning Conference to celebrate innovative teaching and learning initiatives at UW-Whitewater. The Learning Technology Center, LEARN Center, and Office of Academic Assessment proudly hosted this engaging professional development opportunity. Many thanks to those wo were able to attend and to those who worked behind the scenes!

Two of the afternoon sessions showcased the technological innovations by Steven Girard, associate professor of chemistry and Lama Bergstrand Othman, associate professor of special education, finalists for the 2022 Cisco/Presidio Teaching with Technology Innovator Honorarium.

Steven Girard’s presentation “Technologies to Improve Student Accessibility” described assembling/coauthoring free and fully open-source educational resource (OER) textbooks for use in his chemistry courses, and designing an augmented reality (AR) app with his colleague Fred Leighton, assistant professor of media arts and game development.

Lama Bergstrand Othman outlined how the SAMR and TPACK frameworks inform her teaching, how she models them for future teachers, and how she encourages students to employ them in their work in her presentation “Future Teachers and Digital Classrooms.”

The conference concluded with the announcement of this year’s Cisco/Presidio “Teaching with Technology Innovator” honorarium, awarded to Steven Girard.

The Cisco/Presidio Teaching with Technology Innovator Honorarium recognizes an instructor who displays an outstanding commitment to leveraging learning technologies to solve common teaching challenges related to creating rich learning experiences to increase student success. This award is sponsored by Presidio and Cisco Systems in conjunction with ICIT and the LTC. Presidio and Cisco are proud of their work with institutions of higher education to inspire learning and connect campuses to enhance student outcomes. ICIT and the LTC are dedicated to working with instructors to understand teaching challenges, explore solutions, implement strategies, and evaluate their effectiveness.

Congratulations to each of this year’s finalists, your innovative approaches in the classroom are much to be celebrated!

Streaming.uww.edu (Vbrick Rev) Service Update (5/19)

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On Thursday, May 19th the streaming.uww.edu (VBrick Rev) service was updated to the latest version of the software. This date was chosen to limit disruption to instruction during the spring semester and to be completed prior to the start of the summer term.

In this latest update, the following fixes and enhancements will be included:

  • Basic Settings and Advanced Settings have now been combined under a new “Details” button to combine video settings into a single area.
  • Rev Teams have been renamed to Channels. Channels function in the same way as Rev Teams, and can be used to restrict video to only individuals registered for your current semester course.
  • Additional options are available for linked and embedded videos.
    • Embedded videos may be displayed as an in-line video (current behavior) or display an image which will open a new window with the video when clicked.
    • Linked videos may display a full video page (current behavior) or display the video only.
  • Video Editor has a more intuitive layout and improved tools.
    • New Scale and Position controls replace the zoom function.
    • The playback bar now has a more precise time stamp reading and the ability to directly type in a timestamp for quick locating.
    • Edited videos now have the option to be saved as a new video.
  • Enhanced Video Analytics Reports
    • Date range filters.
    • Sorting and filtering ability.
    • Ability to export by date range.
  • The Video Pulse Tab offers a new interactive video experience. Subtitle files are required to use this feature.
    • Shows tagged users in a filmstrip view.
    • Ability to search through the video subtitles for key words.
  • SRT and VTT now be added as Subtitle formats for closed captioning.
  • Flash has reached its End of Life. Rev will no longer provide Flash playback URLs.

If you have any questions or concerns about this update, please contact the Learning Technology Center.

Streaming.uww.edu (Vbrick Rev) Planned Outage – May 19th

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Screenshot of Rev video

On Thursday, May 19th 2022 between 7 AM and 5 PM VBrick Rev (http://streaming.uww.edu) will be unavailable for scheduled maintenance. During this outage, we will be deploying the latest version of VBrick Rev.

Videos hosted on Rev will be unavailable during this outage. Please plan accordingly.

If you have any questions or concerns about this outage, please contact the Learning Technology Center.

Registration Open! Celebrating Teaching and Learning Conference May 18

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The Learning Technology Center, LEARN Center and Office of Academic Assessment invite you to register for the Celebrating Teaching and Learning Conference on Wednesday, May 18, in the University Center.

The conference features a great keynote speaker and showcases 16 concurrent sessions full of interesting teaching and learning initiatives that are active at UW-Whitewater.

The event is FREE, and includes breakfast, lunch and snacks.

Don’t delay, register today! Registration ends May 10.

LTDC 2022 Virtual Showcase Call for Proposals is Extended to Noon on Monday, May 9!

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The Learning Technology Development Council’s call for proposals for the 2022 Virtual Showcase has been extended until 12:00pm on Monday, May 9th! This year’s theme “On Resourcefulness and Resiliency” focuses on reflecting on our journey, sharing our experiences, learning from them, and taking the knowledge gained into our next experiences is key to personal and professional growth. Please consider submitting a proposal for a presentation session and/or a TechTalk. Find more information and the Call for Proposal link on the LTDC 2022 Virtual Showcase website.  

The 2022 Virtual Showcase will be held on on June 21 & 22, 2022. The Showcase includes panels, presentations, and TechTalk virtual sessions in polysynchronous format (i.e., some presentations are pre-recorded while others are “live”). Registration is free.

Submit Your Proposal Today!

Recording Options for On-Demand Delivery

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On-demand video lectures are the perfect way to deliver lecture content for web-based courses, or to provide supplementary material for in-person courses. Check out this short video to learn about four different methods that allow you to create on-demand lectures right from your computer.

Step-by-step guides are also available in our Recording Options for On-Demand Delivery Knowledge Base article.

If you have any questions please contact the Learning Technology Center.

Canvas Update (04/16/2022)

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On Saturday April 16, Instructure will deploy the latest release to the Canvas Environment. The highlights of this release are listed below. The full release notes are also available.

  • Gradebook – Apply Score to Ungraded Assignments: This change allows instructors to apply scores to ungraded submissions en masse from an assignment group and Total column menus in the Gradebook.
  • New Quizzes – This Course Item Bank Filter: In New Quizzes item banks, the “this course” filter has been added to the filter options.
  • Submission Comments – Emojis in Submission Comments: When adding submission comments, instructor and students can add emojis using Emoji Picker.
  • Course Settings – Assignment Default Due Time Field: The Assignment Default Due time can be modified at the course level to allow assignments to have the default Due time be for any hour. 
  • Gradebook – Enhanced Gradebook Filters: When the Enhanced Gradebook Filters feature preview is enabled for a course, instructors can create filters that can be saved or used one time. Setting on this feature were adjusted for greater instructor flexibility. 

If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, or even just curious about how they can help you, please contact UW-W Canvas Support.