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Educational Technology News at UTSCweb
1. From: CTL's Educational Technology Team edtech@utsc.utoronto.ca
Subject: Educational Technology News at UTSC
Date: January 29, 2015 at 10:45 AM
To: admin-staff@utsc.utoronto.ca
View this email in your browser January 2015
CTL's Ed Tech team supports teaching and learning with technology at UTSC including
Blackboard support, WebOption Lecturecasting, Test Scanning Services, Presentation
Skills, iClickers, and more. This occasional newsletter features news, events and
information related to those programs and services, and highlights interesting emerging
educational technologies.
New Blackboard Features
THE NEW, IMPROVED CALENDAR!
Blackboard has implemented a powerful new calendar feature, allowing you to add events,
drag & drop to change due dates, input course reminders, and even export to external
calendars (such as Outlook or Google). For more information, contact us at
portal@utsc.utoronto.ca or have an in depth look at all the new calendar features here.
NEW TEST RESULTS AND FEEDBACK OPTIONS!
The test feedback has been vastly improved. It is now possible to have a high level of
control over what feedback is shown to the students. This now allows granular control of
how answer choices feedback is provided. For instance, correct answers can be set to
reveal only after the due or availability end date. If you’re interested in learning more,
contact us at portal@utsc.utoronto.ca or check out the Tests and Surveys options here.
Blackboard "Need to Know"
GRADE CENTRE SET-UP
Blackboard offers a powerful and secure way to tabulate your courses’ grade data.
2. Generally we recommend coming to one of our workshops if you are new to this feature.
Register now for our February 10th workshop or for more information please contact us at
portal@utsc.utoronto.ca and refer to this helpful guide.
BACK-UP OLD COURSES
Your Blackboard content is always backed-up in a secure location. However, it is very good
practice to keep your own local copies for quick access. Instructions on archiving a course
can be found here, and remember to download your grade centre data separately with
these instructions. If you are wondering about your course lifecycle and when it will be
removed from the system, please refer to this guide.
Winter 2015
Educational Technology Workshops
February
Using the Blackboard Grade Centre
Tuesday, February 10th, 1:30 - 2:30pm
AC221
The Blackboard grade centre is a sophisticated assessment tool which allows you to group
assignments by type, weight a group, drop the lowest mark, or weight a whole set of
grades. You can sort assessment results by grade, surname, or filter by tutorial. The Grade
Centre is also integrated with participation and assessment tools such as electronic
submission, quizzing and surveys.
In this lab based session we'll examine these functions with a view to you getting the most
out of this useful tool.
Assignments using Blogs, Journals and Discussion
Boards
Tuesday, February 17th, 10 - 11am
AC221
Blackboard is a powerful system for elearning, with many interactive course tools for time
shifted communication. In this session we'll examine assignments which incorporate these
publishing and commenting features including blogs, journals and discussion boards.
March
Active Learning Strategies for Large Classes
Thursday, March 5th, 11am - 12pm
AC221
Register for this event.
Register for this event.
3. In this session we will review iClicker and other active learning systems used in large
classes. Participants are encouraged to bring an anecdote for an effective strategy,
technology mediated or otherwise. We'll also look at some new technologies for helping
large classes engage with learning and each other.
Formerly known as Nutrition for Educators, these workshops range in topics from mental
health and teaching with technology to scaffolded learning techniques and promoting deep
learning. This upcoming event showcases technologies that some instructors are currently
using.
Using Technology to Support and Assess Learning in
Large Classes
Wednesday, February 4th, 11am - 1pm
IC318
Technology based teaching solutions have the ability to engage, channel and amplify
teaching and learning. They can be used with large groups of students at one time, or in a
time shifted way as individual students engage their studies. In this session we'll look at
strategies for reviewing and refining core course concepts with the aid of collaborative web
applications. Confirmed technologies include Quizzical, a web based, multiple-choice
question writing assignment and learning assessment tool; the homework system
Webwork, and Crowdmark, an online collaborative grading platform. A light lunch will be
served.
Presenters:
Dr. Dan Riggs, Associate Professor, Biological Sciences
Dr. Sohee Kang, Lecturer, Teaching and Learning and Statistics
Dr. Nirusha Thavarajah, Instructor, Chemistry
Dr. Jim Colliander, Dept of Math, UT
Have a look at our Winter 2015 Educator Exchange workshop lineup.
Register for this event.
Register for this event.
4. The Turnitin tool is now available directly
in Blackboard, found under Assessments
–> Turnitin Direct Assignment. It is a
powerful tool for plagiarism detection.
When a student submits an assignment,
Turnitin will check for similar text matches
across the open Internet, including
published journal articles and prior written
work completed by students.
Please note: If you are using this tool in your class, you must include a disclaimer in your
syllabus, and accommodate a student if they desire to opt-out of the electronic submission
through Turnitin. These details are found on the Instructions for Faculty page link below.
Overview to Turnitin, Conditions of Use:
http://www.teaching.utoronto.ca/teaching/academicintegrity/turnitin.htm
Instructions for Faculty:
http://www.portalinfo.utoronto.ca/content/create-turnitin-assignment
Instructions for Students:
http://www.turnitin.com/en_us/training/student-training/submitting-a-paper
If you have any questions about best practices in setting-up this tool for your course, or if
you would like to discuss the educational benefits of this technology and get advice on
interpreting the originality reports, please contact Adon Irani, airani@utsc.utoronto.ca, 416-
208-4732.
Check Out Our New Websites!!
CTL and all of its units (Writing Centre,
English Language Development, Math
Centre, and others) have launched new
websites with the revised campus look.
Our sites are now more visually pleasing,
but more importantly it should be easier
for you (and your students) to find
information about our programs, services,
events and staff support. The main CTL
site will continue to evolve as we add new
features and information; please let us
know if you have comments or questions
about this.
Check out the new CTL site: http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/ctl/
**40+ courses offered in the
Winter 2015 semester**
5. WebOption Partners with Faculty of Arts and
Science
Instructors and students have enjoyed the WebOption service at UTSC for many years.
Now the Faculty of Arts and Science at the St. George campus has adopted our popular
online lecture recording service for their Winter 2015 semester. Seven St. George courses
are now being recorded and made available to the enrolled students. We are very proud to
be able to help our colleagues implement this service, developed and grown here at
UTSC, and we hope that many more users find great value in this additional learning
resource.
Here is a listing of all the courses offering WebOption past and present.
Visit our website to learn more about incorporating WebOption into your classroom or
contact Mark McKee at 416-208-4895, or send an email to mmckee@utsc.utoronto.ca.
Test Scanning Services
The Centre for Teaching and Learning provides free test scanning services to all UTSC
instructors. We request that you book your Test Scanning job a full 5 business days in
advance -- this allows us to ensure we have sufficient staff resources to maintain our
service guarantee of a 2 business day turn-around even during busy times.
For more details and resources please
visit the Test Scanning Website.
For help interpreting the reports you
receive from Scan Services, please refer
to the following document.
If you require additional support, or have questions about the Scan Services process,
please contact Adon Irani, airani@utsc.utoronto.ca, 416-208-4732
This Saturday, January 31st, 2015, marks
the third annual event and is sure to be a
great success. Previous events have
trended nationally on Twitter
@TEDxUTSC, and this year, with your
help, the organization is hoping the event
