“The Flipped Classroom” – Call for Proposals and Save the Date

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While not an entirely a new concept, there has been increased interest in what’s called the “Flipped Classroom.”  Typically, “flipping” is considered to be the practice of using video segments to disseminate content-rich lessons outside of the classroom, thereby allowing classroom time to be used for interaction and hands-on activities.  However, the flipped classroom model can take many forms and may also involve a wide variety of technologies and methodologies.  Join your UW-Whitewater colleagues as we consider what it means (and does not mean) to “flip” a classroom and discuss the potential benefits and pitfalls of this practice.  Particular emphasis will be on exploring methods for using “flipping” techniques to enhance student learning and engagement.

If you have used “flipping” techniques in your own teaching, please share your experiences and ideas with your colleagues – even if you have just experimented! We welcome presentation proposals that include best practices (based upon successes or failures), lesson samples, demonstrations, techniques, lesson evaluations, and/or Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research results.

This event is sponsored by the Learning Technology Center (LTC), the LEARN Center, and the College of Education and Professional Studies.  Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

If you are interested in registering for this workshop as a presenter, please contact Renee Pfeifer-Luckett, Director, Learning Technology Center to discuss your proposal topic (pfeiferr@uww.edu).  Full details on the Call For Proposals can be accessed from the following link: http://geturl.uww.edu/1i3

Google Sites

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Google Sites is for staff, faculty and students to create their own website where multiple people can collaborate and share files.  Anyone in the UW-Whitewater community with proper ID credentials has been granted owner access to this service.  Google Sites is not intended to replace UWW Faculty/Staff Web sites but serves as a supplemental option for creating Web sites that may be used by faculty, staff and students at UW-Whitewater.

With Google Sites, people can work together on a Site to add file attachments, including information from other Google applications like Google Docs, Google Calendar, YouTube and Picasa.  Creating a site together is as easy as editing a document, and you always control who has access, whether it’s just yourself, your team, or your whole organization. You can even publish Sites to the world.

Everything is available to get you started.  Features include creating a page with single-click (no HTML knowledge necessary), personalizing the content or used a predefined template, plus the ability to upload files and attach documents.  Site creators, or anyone granted owner access to a site, can add collaborators or change their site sharing settings.

The tutorial is available at: Google: Docs and Sites or sign up for training at http://signup.uww.edu.

If you have any additional questions regarding this, please contact the Learning Technology Center.

Desire2Learn Service Update (November 2012)

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While we were all enjoying the Thanksgiving vacation, Desire2Learn (D2L) was hard at work deploying Service Pack 5 (SP5).  This update brings some important bug fixes to our D2L system!

Most importantly, some of the annoying bugs users were experiencing with dropbox submissions running through TurnItIn. All dropbox submissions since January 2012 will be reviewed and automatically processed if they are still in queue for TurnItIn.

In addition, some other important changes to note are:

  • Gradebook: Logging now tracks who creates, deletes, and restores grade items.  Instructors can restore, review and recover all deleted items and student grades from the Event Log, accessible through “Manage Grades.”  Also, a confirmation dialog box now displayed when a user clicks “Clear” from the Grade Item page to avoid accidental clearing and saving of grades.
  • TurnItIn Submissions: Two bugs that have prevented some Dropbox submissions from processing through TurnItIn appear to be fixed in SP5. Some submissions not processing because of a third error are still being investigated by Desire2Learn support.

Winterim Instructors:  D2L is scheduled to be unavailable on the first day of Winterim classes beginning at 9:30pm on Wednesday, January 2nd 2013 until 10:30am on Thursday, January 3rd 2013 for file server storage migration.  Please plan your work accordingly.  There will be more information and a formal campus announcement are in the works for the coming weeks.

Course Request Application:  We have overhauled the course request application and a number of new features are available.  For more information see: D2L Course Request Enhancements Now Available.

Winterim & Spring 2013 course requests are now available.  To request for your courses, go to: D2L Course Request Application.

Streaming Video Updates:  We have updated the underlying code that powers the streaming videos produced by the Learning Technology Center to now support playback on iOS devices.  For more information see: Streaming Video Support for iOS.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

Weekly Email Updates Available

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The Learning Technology Center (LTC) now has a new weekly email digest powered by MailChimp! With this feature you can now receive a summary of new workshops, teaching tools and software right in your inbox! Get connected with us and Sign Up today!  Emails are sent every Monday morning.

Subscribe to the Email updates.

If you have any questions regarding this, or suggestions on how you would like to receive information updates, please contact the Learning Technology Center.

Snackable Series: Promoting In-Class Interactivity (Part 2)

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The Learning Technology Center (LTC) is pleased to invite faculty and instructional staff to attend the next free session in the Snackable Series “Solving Teaching Challenges One Byte at a Time.” In the “Snackable Series” sessions, a specific learning technology is spotlighted.  The next session will be held November 28 and 29, 2012 and focuses on promoting in-class interactivity.

In this series learn how a variety of technology tools can be used to increase course content retention.  Tools showcased include student response system (i.e., “clickers”), PowerPoint activities such as Jeopardy, and StudyMate learning activities and games.  This session focuses on strategies for leveraging these technologies to promote interaction in your class and increase engagement.

The dates, times, and location for this Snackable are as follows:

Wednesday, November 28, 2012:  Noon – 1 p.m.
Thursday, November 29, 2012:  11 a.m. to Noon
Location: iCIT Training Center, McGraw 112

Register online today for this “Snackable Series” session – seating is limited: http://signup.uww.edu

Call for Proposals: OPID 2013 Spring Conference

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UW System Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID) seeks proposals from UW System faculty, instructional academic staff, and students with faculty/staff sponsorship for presentations to be given at their 2013 Spring Conference titled “The Value of Inquiry into Student Learning in the 21st Century.” The conference will be held April 18-19, 2013 at the Madison Concourse Hotel. Presentation formats will include papers, panels, workshops, and poster sessions.  UW-Whitewater faculty and staff are invited to join more than 200 UW System faculty and staff specializing in a wide variety of disciplines will gather together to share “their experience, knowledge, practice, and scholarship with colleagues.”

New this year to the conference is the session track “Leveraging Technology in Teaching and Learning.”  The conference includes the following five session tracks/topics:

  • Scholarly Inquiry into student learning: perspectives, practices, and results
  • Inclusive pedagogy
  • Innovative practices in Online Teaching
  • Leveraging technology in teaching and learning
  • High Impact Practices: Research that links the effectiveness of student learning and high impact practices.

Presentation proposals are due by November 29, 2012 and should be submitted online via the online proposal submission system. Confirmations for accepted proposals will be sent in mid-December 2012. Questions regarding proposals or the conference may be directed to OPID via e-mail.

Streaming Video Support for iOS

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Over the past years, the Learning Technology Center (LTC) has streamed and produced a large amount of video for courses.  We have relied on the Adobe Flash technology to playback the videos that have been produced in Desire2Learn and other various websites.  Effective immediately, the underlying code that powers these pages now supports playback on iOS devices!

What does this mean?  It means that all videos produced or processed by the LTC in the last 2 – 3 years can be viewed on iPhones, iPods and iPads.  The videos continue to work as they always have on computers and other devices supporting Adobe Flash.

Do I have to do anything?  No!  We have designed it in such a way that the change was retroactive to all of the video pages sent out by the LTC.  Your videos should now work on iOS devices.

What if my video does not load on iOS?  Please contact UW-W D2L Support and include the specific course, module and topic link where the video is located.  If the video is in an older format we may need to convert it to a H.264 (mp4) format before it will work on iOS devices.

How does it work? (Warning: Technical Response)  We have updated our underlying code that generates the flowplayer page to utilize Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) which was implemented by Adobe in their Flash Media Server.  Using HLS, we are able to deliver the same quality of video, at multiple bitrates for varying internet connection speeds to iOS devices.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please contact UW-W D2L Support.