Instructional Services - Information Technology Services at The University of Iowa

ITS-Instructional Services

Webconferencing: Elluminate Live! Moderator Training

As part of our recently-expanded Elluminate Live! licensing, online virtual training is being provided by Elluminate staff in the upcoming days and weeks. Feel free to attend or view the recordings of the training sessions to get an idea of how Elluminate Live! works, both technically and from a teaching perspective. The sessions are aimed at people who moderate meetings, such as instructors. They are four parts that build on one another, not repetitions of the same session.

Training dates and links to recordings of training already held are available on the University of Iowa Elluminate Live! support page.

Posted: Sat, 23 Jan 2010 (Story link)

Other ITS-IS news and events

‘Clickers’ add another dimension to the classroom experience

Information Technology Services (ITS) is offering faculty a new way to increase student engagement in the classroom.

Clickers – also referred to as student response systems, audience response systems, or personal response systems – allow students to answer an instructor’s questions via a small wireless device that records responses using a radio frequency receiver. Instructors create content with built-in response indicators and ask students to use their clickers to respond at the appropriate times during a lecture. Instructors can create questions in PowerPoint with TurningPoint 2008, or they can use TurningPoint AnyWhere with any application.

For more information about student response systems, visit the clickers website.

The campus standard for clickers at the UI is provided by Turning Technologies. The University has adopted a bookstore model for purchasing the devices. Faculty should contact the bookstore and let store personnel know if they plan to use clickers for a particular course. Faculty should be prepared to tell the bookstore an approximate number of clickers to order for students. Students enrolled in courses using the devices will need to purchase a clicker for $37.35. Students can use the same clicker for multiple classes, and they will register their clicker through ICON starting in the fall 2009 semester.

ITS-Instructional Services is offering faculty several basic and advanced clicker training sessions. To register for two-hour sessions on Aug. 12 or Aug. 13 click here. Check out the “Upcoming Training Events” section on the front page of the ITS Training website for more information about fall training sessions.

ITS also is hosting a Clickers Conference on Sept. 18 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Visit the clickers website for more details.

Faculty who plan on using clickers in the classroom for the fall 2009 semester should contact ITS-Instructional Services right away for help in getting started:

Primary Contact – Lora McKee-Anderson, 335-5543 or lora-mckee-anderson@uiowa.edu
Secondary Contact – Annette Beck, 335-6043 or annette-beck@uiowa.edu
Turning Technologies Graduate Student Intern – Amanda Kirchner, 384-2726 or amanda-kirchner@uiowa.edu
Technical support e-mail – clicker-support@uiowa.edu

General Assignment Classrooms are equipped with the Turning Technologies software. Contact Lora McKee Anderson directly for a receiver.

Posted: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 (Story link)

SITA law wiki grabs Chronicle headline

UI Law professor Lea VanderVelde had a problem. She wanted students to dig into a topic not covered in standard law textbooks. A SITA team by Leighton Christiansen pulled together a vast amount of case law and worked with Prof. VanderVelde to create a wiki her students could really sink their teeth into. Read about it in the Wired Campus Newsletter from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Posted: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 (Story link)

UI Faculty Working with Wonder of Wikis

The latest issue of fyi features an article about the work of the Student Instructional Technology Assistants (SITAs). The SITA group is part of the Campus Technology Services department in ITS. Student Instructional Technology Assistants are innovative problem solvers who help faculty use technology to enhance the student learning experience.

Click here to read the fyi article.

The story in fyi focuses on wikis, which are easily editable collaborative web spaces. The article points out the many pedagogical uses of wikis, as well as projects ITS has undertaken to deploy them in UI courses. The piece focuses on how wikis can fit in with other social networking strategies in instruction. ITS launched its wiki service about a year ago.

Check out the UI wiki service to learn more. In addition, the SITAs have developed – what else? – a wiki space with information on how this technology can be used. The SITA program also provides one-on-one training and support to instructors who would like to develop a wiki for course use. More information on the SITA Program is available at http://its.uiowa.edu/sita.

Posted: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 (Story link)

New service offers option for electronic portfolios

In response to a Center for Teaching-sponsored workshop on portfolio-based assessment held in January 2007, ITS-Instructional Services partnered with a number of departments to weigh the viability of commercial electronic portfolio options. The commercial products did not meet the functionality needs of the various end users, so Instructional Services developed a modular electronic portfolio system, branded as ifolio, that can be easily customized to UI colleges and departments.

The ifolio service provides educators with a solution to four commonly asked questions:

How do I encourage student reflection?
How do I fulfill my department’s programmatic goals?
How do I shape students’ academic paths?
How do I prepare students for their future?

With the ifolio service:

Students can post artifacts in any digital form (written, audio, video) to highlight their academic work
Students reflect on each artifact to demonstrate their awareness of learning objectives and ensure their success within the discipline
Academic advisors can use ifolio’s academic planning tool to guide students through their learning endeavors
Students are able to showcase their portfolios for future employment, education or other pursuits
Each ifolio is dedicated to a department’s programmatic goals, such as benchmarks, outcomes or standards
Portfolios are ongoing learning records of students’ academic progress

The first application of the ifolio service was piloted in the School of Art and Art History in fall 2008 and received positive feedback. A second pilot was conducted in International Programs in spring 2009, and other departments are considering adopting this system as a tool for assessment, learning, effective academic advising and career planning. ITS-Instructional Services is currently working with the Carver College of Medicine to design an ifolio pilot project for fall 2009. The ifolio service allows students to collaborate electronically by linking carefully chosen academic coursework to prescribed academic unit outcomes or standards, and it allows students to play an active part in seeking, constructing, organizing and synthesizing their learning. For more information – or to inquire about an ifolio demo – please contact Annette Beck in ITS-Instructional Services (annette-beck@uiowa.edu or 319-335-6043).

Posted: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 (Story link)

Second annual 4CAST conference asked ‘Who Owns Knowledge?’

As technology continues to make sharing information easier, faculty and teaching staff gathered at this year’s 4CAST conference to discuss “Who Owns Knowledge?”

“The Open Academy: Who Owns Knowledge?” was the theme of the second annual 4CAST conference, sponsored jointly by ITS Instructional Services, the Center for Teaching, and the UI Libraries. The Jan. 16 event was well attended by faculty and teaching staff from across campus.
4CAST offers instructors a forum in which to pose questions and share experiences concerning technology with peers, as well as learn about new and emerging technologies on the UI campus. During the day’s proceedings, the UI Libraries demonstrated a new online service called Iowa Research Online that helps organize, centralize and share scholarly output from the University of Iowa. Participants also had an opportunity to learn about the online collaboration environment Elluminate Live! and 3-D virtual world Second Life, along with several other topics.

A wide assortment of information from this year’s event – including notes from the discussion sessions, handouts given to participants and more – is archived at the 4CAST conference website.

Posted: Mon, 09 Feb 2009 (Story link)

Mazur lectures now available online

In early September 2008, Eric Mazur, Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University, was at the University of Iowa as part of the Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professorships Program.

The videos of three of Professor Mazur’s lectures are now available online.

After teaching optical physics and astronomy at Harvard for a decade, Eric Mazur “came to the agonizing conclusion” that his students were simply memorizing material he presented, rather than learning to understand. The videos show Mazur describing and demonstrating how he now teaches introductory, large-enrollment classes interactively. His entertaining and engaging presentations draw on his personal experience as a renowned educator, as well as his research on teaching and learning, particularly verifiable ways to improve science education.

Professor Mazur’s visit was sponsored by the Center for Teaching, the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and ITS Instructional Services. Please contact any of the three sponsoring organizations if you have questions or comments.

Posted: Tue, 09 Dec 2008 (Story link)

ITS Instructional Services staff has a wide range of experience and education and are available for one-on-one and small group consultation. We are more than happy to help you learn how to use ICON (Course Management System), use digital media tools, or simply help you with pedagogy and incorporating technology in the classroom.

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ITS-Instructional Services

Webconferencing: Elluminate Live! Moderator Training

Other ITS-IS news and events

‘Clickers’ add another dimension to the classroom experience

SITA law wiki grabs Chronicle headline

UI Faculty Working with Wonder of Wikis

New service offers option for electronic portfolios

Second annual 4CAST conference asked ‘Who Owns Knowledge?’

Mazur lectures now available online

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