The Instructional Development Center (IDC) is a division of Teaching & Learning Technologies (ITaP)
Upcoming Help Sessions
Walk-in Help Sessions: |
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| JNSN B012 | |
| Thurs., Dec. 18, 10-11am | WTHR 212 |
| Mon., Dec. 22, 10-11am | SC 283 |
| Tues., Dec. 23, 3-4pm | LILY G431 |
This Month's Links
Adobe Connect Pro: Best Practices Tutorials and Tips
ELI 7 Things You Should Know About...
Step-by-Step Guides: Pushing Final Grades to Banner from Blackboard
Archiving Student Data from Blackboard
Last Call for Grant Proposals
A last reminder: the deadline for the 2009-2010 Call for Proposals for a TLT Digital Content Development Grant is January 19th, 2009.
Those faculty who are interested in submitting proposals to get funding for innovative technology projects should contact tlt-grants@purdue.edu to set up a consultation for their proposal before January 16th, 2009. For more information, and to submit your grant application online, see the Digital Content Development Grants web site.
Final Grades What you should know Here is some important information and resources for instructors who will submit final grades at the end of the semester.
Online Resources Guides for Pushing Grades to Banner from Blackboard Student Systems/Banner Information (see grade entry information)Recording of presentation: Submitting grades with Banner or Blackboard (0:36:43)
Do you want to archive your Blackboard grade book? When you're ready, you can easily export your grades in just a few moments. Do you need to archive any other student data from your class? There is a way to quickly archive nearly all forms of student data, including discussion postings, students answers in assessments, and submitted assignments (along with your comments to the assignments). View a quick guide to archiving Blackboard data, or contact the Instructional Development Center for more information. Do you want to delete your Fall 2008 class? TLT never deletes Blackboard classes unless an instructor requests it, but if you don't need to keep a copy of your class, send your deletion request to itap@purdue.edu. Be sure to include the exact title of your class. Spring 2009 Information Blackboard classes for Spring 2009 have been created and now appear on the My Blackboard page. If your Spring 2009 class does not appear on My Blackboard, please check with your departmental scheduling deputy to make sure you have been designated in Banner as the course's instructor of record. As with the Fall 2008 semester, by default, students will not see Spring 2009 Blackboard classes until the first day of the spring semester. Spring 2009 information is now loaded into TLT's online applications, so you may now use them to cross-list or add other instructors/TAs/designers to your Blackboard classes. Important: please be sure to cross-list your Blackboard classes as needed before copying content from a previously-used class. |
Professor Takes on Second Life
Purdue University pilots island for faculty projects
OLS 274 Professor Scott Homan can be found in two places at the same time these days: working in his office, and at the same time working in the immersive, 3D virtual world known as Second Life - on a new 'island' recently purchased for Purdue University by Teaching & Learning Technologies (TLT), Purdue Libraries, and Professional Writing program. Prof. Homan is exploring use of Second Life as a tool for teaching and research.
An estimated 300 universities around the world currently use Second Life as a platform for education and research. Next semester, Professor Homan's 600 OLS 274 students will develop a case study for a client wanting to start a business in Second Life. The students will use Purdue's island to explore and learn about Second Life, then develop and design a business plan for a Second Life-based business.
Second Life also offers exciting opportunities for research, according to Professor Homan. He is working on developing a simulation of a ropes challenge course in Second Life. "OLS as a department promotes the use of teams in our courses, and ropes challenge courses are often used in business as team-building exercises," says Professor Homan. Second Life would enable participants from different geographic locations to participate in team-building exercises, and would provide a training ground for graduate students learning to assess team-building skills.
Instructors who want to visit can get guest access to Purdue Island. Our Purdue Guest group has open enrollment and it allows access to the Purdue island. After creating an account in Second Life and selecting your avatar, you can join the Purdue group. After logged in to Second Life, follow the steps below: • Click the Search button. |
Professor Homan sees distinct advantages to using virtual world technology over other technologies, such as instant messaging or email. "An individual can embed their own personality into the avatar they design, which enables you to get to know the people you are with on a personal level. This is lacking in other technologies." Second Life also facilitates the creation of personal relationships in a way other technogies do not, according to Professor Homan. "If you watch people interact in Second Life, you begin to see that community begins to evolve...your team could create a village together, and in the process, you begin to take on other human characteristics individually and as a group."
TLT is looking for other faculty who may be interested in conducting instructionally innovative class projects in Second Life on our Purdue island. If you have questions or would like to request your own plot of land on Purdue's island, please contact the Instructional Development Center .
Upgrade to Adobe Acrobat Connect 7.1
New version brings new features
In late November 2008, TLT upgraded Purdue's Adobe Acrobat Connect server to version 7.1. The upgrade solved a 
compatibility problem with Flash 10, and also introduces new features for Connect users:
Breakout Rooms
With Connect 7.1, meeting hosts can now create up to five "breakout rooms" on the fly during a meeting, distributing participants among the rooms for smaller group work and discussion. During breakout sessions, the meeting hosts can make announcements to all groups, visit each room if they wish, and bring content from any of the breakout rooms back into the main meeting room.
Changes to Recordings
One enhancement eagerly-awaited by users is the ability to download Connect meeting recordings. With Connect 6, recordings were stored in individual user accounts on the Connect server, and when the user left the university, their account and recordings were deleted. Connect 7.1 allows users to download their recordings from the server into an .flv format file, playable by a media player such as Adobe's free Media Player.
Connect 7.1 also allows hosts to do simple edits to remove sections, such as long pauses at the beginning or end of recordings.
Access and participant rights management
Meeting hosts can now block incoming attendees or guest access until they are ready for a meeting to begin. Attendees receive a customizable message and are then admitted automatically when the host allows.
In addition, hosts can select individual attendees and grant them rights to use specific tools, such as audio, the Share pod, and many more. Participants can also raise their hands, and when the host or presenter approves, they are given the microphone to broadcast audio.
More information about Connect 7.1's new features can be found in the Instructional Development Center (IDC) manual, Adobe Acrobat Connect: Conducting Live Meetings on the Web.
Hosted Survey No Longer Supported
Users should move to Qualtrics now
Any Purdue University users of Hosted Survey should make arrangements to move their surveys to Qualtrics survey, Purdue's officially-supported survey tool, as soon as possible.
On the last day of the semester, May 9, 2009 at 5pm, Hosted Survey will be 'turned off' for Purdue users, and they will no longer be able to access surveys or data created in Hosted Survey. Hosted Survey users should contact tlt-consulting@purdue.edu for assistance in downloading their data and moving their surveys to Qualtrics.
Blackboard Course Content Template Available
If you are creating a new course or redesigning an old course for an upcoming semester in Blackboard, a new IDC Course Content Template is an excellent option to consider.
When you use the Course Content Template, you don’t have to start your course development from a blank course space anymore. Served as a course content container, it is built with basic course elements for your course content, including syllabus, content pages for learning modules, an introductory activity, and more.
If you are interested in learning more about the template, please contact IDC Senior Educational Technologist Pil-Won On, at pon@purdue.edu.
TLT Conference 2009
TLT is soliciting proposals for presentations, workshops, and poster sessions from higher education faculty, K-12 teachers, and IT professionals. This two-day 
conference, will be held on April 21-22, 2009, on the Purdue West Lafayette campus.
The theme for this annual educational technology conference is “Changing the Learning Landscape.” The conference keynote speaker, Sarah Robbins of intellagirl.com, is a researcher, writer, and speaker, who studies and reports on Second Life, virtual worlds, and Web 2.0 and other emerging technologies. Her latest book is Second Life for Dummies.
Proposals must be submitted electronically on or before January 19, 2009. Proposal acceptance notices will be emailed in February. For more information about submitting a proposal or the conference in general, see the TLT Conference webpage, or contact TLT at tlt-conference@purdue.edu.
TLT Toolbox: Respondus
Any instructor who wants to create quizzes or exams has a powerful, no-cost option with Respondus. With Respondus's exam wizard, you can quickly enrich your quiz questions and answers: easily embed or link to multimedia, add tables, lists and other formatting, insert mathematical and scientific symbols, and much more. You can also import questions to 
Respondus from Microsoft Word, or from rich-text and tab/comma delimited formats.
Respondus has many options for previewing, publishing and printing. If you like, you can print your quiz directly from Respondus or save to MS Word or rich-text format. You can create quiz question pools and re-use the questions in multiple assessments, and you can develop quizzes with randomized questions. Respondus links directly to Blackboard, and instructors can upload (and download) questions and assessments to Blackboard classes. Respondus can also retrieve your students' scores and create custom reports from student data.
Purdue's license covers use of Respondus by all faculty and staff.
To download your copy of Respondus, go to the ITaP training web site, and under Instructional Design and Tools, select Respondus, then Respondus Installation Files. You'll be asked to log in with your Purdue Career Account. Save the file to your desktop and unzip it to find the installation (.exe) file and a PDF file containing support information and the license number you'll need during installation.
7 Things You Should Know About... series
Educause Learning Initiative spotlights emerging technologies
(from the ELI web site)
Any time you need to explore a new learning technology or practice quickly and clearly, look for a 7 Things You Should Know About... brief from ELI.
An excellent resource for instructors, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's (ELI's) 7 Things You Should Know About... series provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices. Each brief focuses on a single technology or practice and describes:
- What it is
- How it works
- Where it is going
- Why it matters to teaching and learning
7 Things You Should Know About...pieces provide quick, no-jargon overviews of emerging technologies and related practices that have demonstrated or may demonstrate positive learning impacts. Examples of recent technologies that have been covered in the 7 Things... series include (click each link below to view each 7 Things... publication):
For more information, contact IDC at tlt-consulting@purdue.edu