News and Notes from TLT – Spring 2019

As the Spring ‘19 semester winds down, it is time for another TLT update…  

Canvas Course Uploads 

Summer ‘19 Courses- Your Summer ‘19 courses were added into Canvas this week.  Now that your courses are loaded, you are able to import your content from a previous semester or from your Master Class. For more information on building and maintaining Master Classes, view the guide and short videos.  

Fall ‘19 Courses– Your Fall ‘19 courses will be loaded into Canvas 10 weeks prior to the start of the semester. You do not need to wait for the upload to build your courses. Simply create a Master Class now and you will be ready to import your course content!  

TLT-led Workshops 

New dates and times, PLUS a new session on utilizing classroom technology! Sign Up Here       

(Hint: Here is the full LIS Event Calendar– Bookmark This Page!)

*Spring ‘19 Breakfast Series*  How Can I Engage My Students in Canvas and Beyond?

Come join TLT for a light fare breakfast during this three-part series to increase student engagement in your Canvas courses. Sign up to attend any or all of these workshops, in any order you wish.

a. Engagement: Student Teamwork

Collaborations, Groups/ group assignments, Wiki pages, Flipgrid 

b. Engagement: Constructive Feedback  

SpeedGrader, Audio and Video, Journaling, PollEverywhere 

c. Engagement: Rubrics and Grades  

Experiencing Rubrics, Turnitin (new Plagiarism Framework)New Gradebook 

Making the Canvas Commons Work for You 

Did you know you can share instructional resources (rubrics, quizzes, pages, etc.) with your colleagues within Canvas? 

“Commons is a learning object repository that enables educators to find, import, and share resources.” In this session, you will explore the free content available to you and learn how to create and utilize a shared resource center for your faculty groups. 

*New*  Getting Comfortable with Your Classroom Technology 

Do you know… 

     How to black out projection without turning off the classroom projector?       How to take advantage of the dozens of Zoom ready rooms?                                   How to incorporate screen sharing from students? 

Topics covered:

  • Classroom controls 
  • Zoom 
  • PrideShare 
  • Tips and tricks 
Training feedback from your colleagues… 

“Real time polling can be an effective pedagogical tool to gauge what students know or don’t know before you begin a subject, and to assess what they’ve learned after you’ve covered something. I had been using Kahoot! but found it to be a little goofy for college level classes and a little difficult to integrate into power point presentations. PollEverywhere offers a more professional presentation and is much easier to utilize in presentations. Following the TLT training I was able to convert my polls from Kahoot! to PollEverywhere, and given the ease of PollEverywhere, am working to add more polls to my presentations.” 

~Stu Eimer, Associate Professor, Sociology 

“My attendance to a workshop on Canvas’ different capabilities regarding Student Teamwork was excellent. I used it almost immediately as I was trying to schedule my field work with students. We went right to “Collaborations” and were able to create a shared document, just like a google doc, that met our needs perfectly. So easy and convenient. And I would never have known that capability was there without our Teaching and Learning Technologies team.” 

~Nadine McHenry, Professor, Education 

“I highly recommend the Canvas training sessions!  I thought I had my Canvas courses working pretty well, but Jessica taught me how to use groups much more effectively- uncovering functionality I never knew existed.” 

~Mark Paterson, Clinical Assistant Professor, Physical Therapy 

Highlights of Asset Management 2018

ITS replaced hundreds of computers across the three Widener campuses during our annual asset refresh project.

ITS staff are happy to close the books on a successful asset management cycle.  (Asset management is the fancy term we use for “computer equipment replacement.”) We’re even happier to note that we improved your satisfaction rating while replacing more than twice as many computers as last year.

In May and June, we installed 458 new systems, compared with 197 last year.  Despite the greater volume of work, recipients of new computers gave us higher average satisfaction scores on post-installation surveys (4.73 vs. 4.34 out of 5).

New computers in room 102 of the Quick Center on the Widener University Chester Campus.
Quick 102 was upgraded during asset management this year.

Over the past year, we spent a lot of time thinking about how we could streamline and improve the process this year. We’re pleased that the changes we made could enable us to improve our efficiency while improving the experience for our clientele.

While ITS monitors this project year-round, the most visible component of the process involves the replacement of computers at the end of the Spring semester.

Lab and classroom updates

In addition to faculty and staff computers, we also upgrade lab and classroom equipment at this time each year. Lab spaces in the following rooms were updated during this cycle:

  • Quick Center  102
  • Founders  107
  • Bruce Hall  8
  • Kirkbride  346
  • Freedom  303 & 322

We also upgraded instructor stations in four Academic Center North (ACN) classrooms, plus Kapelski 225A, Kirkbride 447, and Bruce 10.

Going forward

We will schedule remaining deployments over the summer for clients that were not available during the deployment window.

Please contact Client Success if you would like to share your thoughts and ideas about how our asset management process can continue to improve.

Dozen More Learning Spaces Get Digital Upgrades

We’re happy to report that over fall and winter breaks, we refreshed a dozen more classrooms with new all-digital AV equipment. Here are the rooms that were upgraded:

Kapelski 136b & 225a

Kirkbride 203, 213, 237, 229, 232, 236, 313, 336, 411

Wolfgram Library 106

These upgrades are on top of the 34 classrooms and meeting spaces the Teaching and Learning Technologies (TLT) upgraded in Summer 2017.

Widener continues to make aggressive investments in teaching and learning technologies (in both physical and virtual learning spaces). We plan to make several more upgrades before the end of the year.

Please contact the Teaching & Learning Technologies team at TLToffice@widener.edu to share your thoughts and ideas about how our learning space infrastructure can continue to be improved.