In attendance: Mohammed Abuhannoud, Georgianna Anderson, Rod Christian, Anna Cruz, Vince DiFranco, Bob Klassen, Janell Pierce, Terry Ponder, Terri Martinez, Annapurna Ganesch, Peggy Johnson, Jeff Anderson, and Melanie Kroening.

MELANIE'S PRESENTATION

Melanie discussed lesser known tools available in WebCT 6.0. The document she provided is shown below.

Lesser Known Tools in WebCT CE6

Goals Tool

• What is it?  The Goals tool is a tool that allows you to list the objectives and goals in your course and to categorize them if desired.  If you turn on and use the Goals tool, every time you create a new Assignment, Assessment, Discussion, File, you can link the content or activity to one of the Goals or objectives. 
• What can it be used for?  The goals tool can be used to display course objectives and to demonstrate that the course objectives are being met by linking all content and activities within the course to the objectives.  This may help the instructor outline their course to ensure that all objectives are being met.
• Pros and Cons

+ The Goals tool is one way to list course objectives to students and to show that the objectives are all being met in the course. 

- It can be confusing to add an additional method of navigation if the Objectives and Goals in the course are not sequentially organized.

- The Goals tool may be buggy, the objectives cannot be organized into the correct order at times.  Not many instructors utilize this tool.

Notes Tool

• What is it?  “With the Notes tool, you can create general or learning module notes to use as a reminder or study aid.” Each note has a subject and content.
• What can it be used for?  It can be used to create notes, reminders, etc.  Students cannot see instructor notes and Instructors cannot see student notes.
• Pros and Cons

+ Notes are specific to the course the student is logged into so it’s easy to access from within.

– Typically there may be better methods to create notes and reminders. 

Journal (Discussions) Tool

• What is it?  The Discussions tool allows you to create a Journal topic type.  This Journal gives a separate space to each student to post in.  The journals can be made private and can be used by each student for cumulative reflections throughout the semester.
• What can it be used for?  It can be as a journal / reflection tool for a course.
• Pros and Cons

+ Journals are private between instructor and student, can be easily reviewed by the instructor, can be linked to the gradebook.

– Visually, it's not as nice as some of the blog tools freely available on the internet.

Melanie also the migration to the new student services system:

WebCT Instructor Reminders for NSS

The New Student Information System (NSS) is scheduled to go live in mid February.  There will be some impact on instructors that use WebCT as outlined below.  Let us know if you have questions as this time approaches and we will do our best to help you during this transition.  This is the second reminder of this information.  One more reminder will go out before go-live.

Currently the implementation schedule is that beginning on February 14th and ending on February 19th, access to SIS information will be limited.  As WebCT instructors, during this week long migration, the following may impact you.

        * No new WebCT courses can be created

        * No WebCT courses can be deleted

        * No WebCT courses can be extended

* Students will be unable to create new MyMCC portal accounts

        * Students will be unable to reset their MyMCC passwords

        * No students will be added or dropped from WebCT

NSS is scheduled to go live on Tuesday February 19th.  After the migration, you may notice the following changes as you use the portal and WebCT.

* Section numbers will be 5 digits after the migration to NSS

* The semester code will change to a 4 digit number after the migration to NSS (ex. Spring 2008 = 4082, Fall 2008 = 4086)

* The e-mail address you use to send e-mail messages to your class (usually in the format of 3333.20082@mail.mc.maricopa.edu) will change to reflect the new 5 digit section number and the new 4 digit semester code for your class.

Are You Ready for NSS?

Adjunct and Faculty should complete the FERPA tutorial and have their Enterprise ID created in order to login and use NSS to enter grades or withdrawal students.

FERPA TUTORIAL: http://www.maricopa.edu/legal/ferpa/ferpa_tutorial/ferpatutorial.htm

FERPA Open Labs in the CTL (use the computers in the CTL, go through the self-paced tutorial, print out completion form) -

Friday, February 8th from 10am - 3pm.

Tuesday, February 19th from 9am - 3pm.

JEFF'S PRESENTATION

Jeff discussed embedding videos within WebCT and the many issues that are involved in this process. His powerpoint is summarized below. It includes some very helpful Web links for finding further information on this topic.

1
1 Video and WebCT – Best Practices
WUG Feb 5, 2008
2 Video Challenges
• Make interesting
• Finding
• Access
• File size too large
• Visuals
• Copyright
• Audio
3 Video Goals
• Good Learning Experience
– Low Production Cost (Time)
– High Quality
– Sound Pedagogy
4 WebCT Video Don’ts
• Video Files are generally Large
– Usually not a good idea to store inside the File Manager
• Make Sure of Fair Use
– No copyrighted works to be used without permission or fair-use discrimination
– http://tlt.its.psu.edu/dmd/teachact/TeachActPresentation/
– http://www.washburn.edu/copyright/faculty/teachact.html
5 WebCT Video Do’s
• Provide Rich Learning Content
– Make it Usable (don’t frustrate your students)
• Whenever Possible, locate video files off of WebCT to keep course size
reasonable
• Engage in Fair Use Scrutiny in desired presentations
6 Technologies
• QuickTime (Apple)
• Windows Media (Microsoft)
• Proprietary 3rd Party Solutions (VX30 – Java)
• RealMedia (RealNetworks)
• Flash (Adobe)
7 Resource Guide
• CTLPedia
– Streaming Media Server and WebCT Guide
– http://ctl.mc.maricopa.edu/wiki/index.php/Streaming_Media_Server_and_WebCT_Guide
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– Flash Video Responses
– http://ctl.mc.maricopa.edu/wiki/index.php/Embedding_Flash_Video_Response_Question
s_Inside_WebCT
8 IUPIU Study
• http://www.iupui.edu/~nmstream/
– Probably the most comprehensive usability / student experience on streaming media on
the web for Academia
9 Demonstrations
• Proprietary VX30
• RealMedia
• Flash
• YouTube
• TeacherTube
10 Conclusion