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As the semester comes to an end we would like to remind you of the end-of-semester processes for managing Bb courses. 1. Grade submission tool in the Bb Grade Center will transfer Final (and Midterm) grades directly to Banner during the date and time ranges stat-ed in TAMU-CC’s Academic Calen-dar. Use the Submit Grades Using Bb tutorial. 2. Extending Bb Course availability to students. Your Bb course will re-main available to students 17 days after the last day of class listed in SAIL. You can extend the course availability to individual stu-dents if need-ed. 3. Preparing your Bb course for the next semester. You can re-use the content of your current Bb course for another semester - follow the Course Copy tutorial. 4. IT Help desk hours of operation and contact information are available at http://it.tamucc.edu/ and inside each Bb course > Start Here link.

IT will soon deploy a new set of com-munication tools for campus-wide use. Cisco Jabber will standardize the use of instant messaging on cam-pus. Using the Cisco Jabber client, you will be able to engage in one-on-one chats and group chats right from your computer. If you also have a Cis-co IP Phone and Voice Mail, you will be able to make and receive calls us-ing your Jabber client as a softphone and receive an interactive list of your voice messages in the client, for a truly unified communications experi-ence. IT plans to offer a training ses-sion at Employee Development Day on May 17th. For more information, contact Kevin Krank at kev-in.krank@tamucc.edu.

The Mary and Jeff Bell library web-site contains numerous database portals where you can find full text journal articles and even educational films for streaming. These resources are fully accessible by distance stu-dents due to a unique code added to the URL. This code is a “prefix” and allows students to log in to and browse these databases free of charge. Our campus prefix is https://manowar.tamucc.edu/login?url=”.

The prefix ends with an “=” which is then followed by the standard link. Here is how it looks in a link to a jour-nal article: “https://manowar.tamucc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/204980327?accountid=7084” If you are linking to online journal articles or other media provided by the library, please check the link for the “manowar” prefix. If it is not there, you can add the prefix to the link before you paste it into Black-board. Without the prefix, students will not be able to authenticate themselves as students of TAMU-CC and thus will not be able to see all the content you want to share with them. For further assistance with ensuring your distance students can access these linked materials, please call the Mary and Jeff Bell Library at (361) 825-4509.

IT will be rolling out a new system in

late April that provides the ability to

sync files into the cloud. Syncplicity

allows users to

store and ac-

cess files from

multiple devic-

es as well as

share files with others. For more in-

formation contact Ben Soto at 825-

2494 or ben.soto@tamucc.edu.

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can

Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

nd of Semester Checklist ew Communication Tools Available in Mid-May

ccessing Library Databases Off-Campus

Spring, 2017

Information Technology 361-825-2692 (Local)

866-353-2491 (Toll Free) ithelp@tamucc.edu http://it.tamucc.edu/

Distance Education and Learning Technologies

361-825-2122 odelt@tamucc.edu

https://iol.tamucc.edu/

Distance Education & Learning Technologies Information Technology

yncplicity Syncs Files to the Cloud

t’s Almost Hurricane Season. Be Ready to Teach online: See iTeach_Online, iol.tamucc.edu, and p.2

2

2 Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

ertificate Workshops Schedule for May 2017

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can

ODELT supports instructors as they integrate technologies in their courses to improve instruction and provide students

with highly engaging learning experiences as well as flexible scheduling. Our series consists of 21 workshops. Instructors can take one, some, or all of these workshops according to their time and interests. We offer these workshops in May, sometimes in August , December, and January, as well as across the Fall and Spring semesters. The Certificate in Online Course Development, Teaching, and Review workshops, which are required for all new faculty, will be offered May 15-18, 2017 from 8:00 am until 5:00 pm. Please register at https://tamucc.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_e2lIyBalI36yRpP to receive updates and meals. More information is on ODELT’s page https://iol.tamucc.edu/certificates.html.

Date Time Session

May 15

Best Practices for Course Design

8:00–8:30 Breakfast provided by the Office of Distance Education and Learning Technologies

8:30–9:15 Introductions and expectations

9:15–9:30 Preparing your computer for Blackboard

9:30–11:00 Blackboard Learn: Using Blackboard interface

11:00–12:00 Writing and using objectives in eLearning

12pm–1pm Lunch – provided by the ODELT

1:00–2:00 Mapping a course for online delivery

2:00–3:30 Creating your “presence” in the course

3:30–5:00 Blackboard Learn: Building content – advanced tools

May 16

Engaging Learners While Complying with

Regulations

8:00–8:30 Breakfast provided by the ODELT

8:30–9:30 Providing accessibility for online courses

9:30–10:30 Copyright for online courses

10:30–12:00 Promoting interaction, announcements, e-mail, messages, journals, blogs, wikis, groups, discussions, Google docs

12pm - 1pm Lunch – provided by the ODELT

1:00–2:00 Problem, case, and project-based course design

2:00–3:00 Student-centered teaching strategies

3:00–4:00 The learner perspective: Online learning and self-direction strategies

4:00–5:00 Course critiques: Making the best better

May 17

Tools for Active Learn-ing

8:00– 8:30 Breakfast provided by the ODELT

8:30–9:30 Beyond Blackboard: Web tools & Learning Objects for engaging students

9:30–10:30 Managing online instructor workload

10:30–11:30 BYOD (bring your own device) for active learning classrooms

11:30-12:00 Creating eLearning communities online

12pm - 1pm Lunch – provided by the ODELT

1:00–2:00 Social media for learning

2:00–2:30 WebEx: Webinars, lecture capture, online seminars, office hours, guest lectures

2:30–3:00 Blackboard Learn: Portfolios

3:00–4:00 Methods for video production: Office Mix for PowerPoint (PC)/Camtasia (MAC)

4:00–4:30 Media services in classrooms

May 18

Assignments, Assess-ments, Grades

8:00–8:30 Breakfast provided by the ODELT

8:30–9:30 Blackboard Learn: Assignments and feedback

9:30–11:00 Blackboard Learn: Assessments

11:00–12:00 Blackboard Learn: Grade center

12pm - 1pm Lunch – provided by the ODELT

1:00–2:00 Strategies for moving toward academic integrity

2:00–3:00 Blackboard Learn: Course management

3:00–4:00 Workshop evaluations, course review process, final comments and questions

Information Technology

Distance Education & Learning Technologies

3

3 Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

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Information Technology

Distance Education & Learning Technologies

Light refreshments and $150 stipend will be provided to all faculty who register and attend

POC: Jocelyn.Gutierrez@tamucc.edu

May 11, 2017 9:00am-12:00pm

To register go to https://tamuccprojectgrad.wufoo.com/forms/

m8bxhpe18uoxoq/

Dr. Jennifer Epley

(Liberal Arts)

Dr. Marilyn Spencer (Business)

Dr. Jason Saladiner Ms. Catherine Harrel

Ms. Leigh Shaver (Nursing & Health

Sciences)

Project GRAD and the Office of Distance Education and Learning Technologies

invite all faculty to a seminar

4

Information Technology

Distance Education & Learning Technologies

4 Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

hat We Each Do for You at ODELT

ision

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can

Dr. Lauren Cifuentes hires and directs office staff to meet the mission; stays informed of trends and responds to needs of instructors, students, administrators, and staff; facilitates adoption of learning technologies; helps design, develop, implement, and evaluate online education; and represents distance education at TAMU-CC to the TAMU-S.

Ms. Jan Brott specializes in student support and instruc-tor adoption of lecture capture, Camtasia, Office Mix, and narrating with PPT and facilitates state authoriza-tion for course delivery to students in states other than Texas. Jan will serve as president of the Texas Distance Learning Association in 2019.

Ms. Alexandra Janney specializes in instructor support and leads our course review team; serves as our web-master; develops graphic arts for events, announce-ments, and newsletters; serves on the University Tech-nology Council; and serves on the TAMU-S Quality As-surance for Online Learning Task Force.

Dr. Rinki Suryavanshi promotes adoption of Bb’s Goal-Performance Alignment tool, Portfolio tool, Communities tool, and Analytics for Learn; manages our instructor data-base; facilitates office research for reporting; reviews courses; facilitates CBE; and serves on the TAMU-S Quali-ty Assurance for Online Learning Task Force.

Ms. Lauran Guerra specializes in accessibility and copy-right compliance in online programming; promotes YouTube, PPT, Office Mix, and Camtasia for video cap-ture; facilitates adoption of WebEx and Qualtrics; video-records faculty and student “ChangeCASTs;” helps in-structors; and explores innovations in hardware and software.

Ms. Mayra Orozco administers correspondence and communications, documents office activities, coordi-nates special events, prepares agendas and minutes for meetings, researches and assists with annual budgets, arranges travel, and works professionally with others across campus.

Mr. Brandon Long (Flynn) maintains the Open Educa-tional Resources Repository and helps build https://iol.tamucc.edu/repositories.html; keeps track of sup-plies; assists with workshops, meetings, and events; as-sists with website design and development; conducts research on special topics; and prepares spreadsheets for data-analysis.

We want you to know who to call for your specific needs. Perhaps the descriptions below will help. Each of us specializes, but we are flexible and each of us is happy to respond to your requests.

TAMU-CC adopts e-learning technologies and processes to positively transform teaching methods so that students are fully engaged in learning and do not drop out of courses. In ad-dition, space constraints are relieved by the use of online experiences for students outside of classrooms. Online degree and certificate pro-grams are offered that meet the needs of citi-zens. And, in the event of a disaster, faculty and students are able to continue the educa-tion by using online technologies.

The Office of Distance Education and Learning Technologies provides leadership, coordina-tion, management, and support to the e-learning activities of TAMU-CC. The office works collaboratively to provide educational opportunities throughout Texas and beyond, provide open learning environments so that learning can occur anytime and anyplace, and distribute faculty knowledge and expertise to benefit society and the economic vitality of the Coastal Bend.

Given our mission, we have adopted a “servant leadership” approach. Our task is to build a shared vision and high level of trust among all stakeholders, administrators, in-structors, students, and staff. We make every effort to empower participants to pursue that shared vision, support that pursuit, and pro-vide professional development and other resources when needed. Elements of our cul-ture include empowerment, inclusion, con-sensus building, collaboration, systems thinking, trust, and transparency.

5

The TAMU-CC Research Computing

Task Force (RCTF) is an interdepart-

mental group of researchers and IT

professionals who meet monthly to

discuss university-wide research

computing challenges, opportuni-

ties, and cyberinfrastructure strate-

gies for long-term benefit to the

community.

The RCTF, led by the Associate Vice

President for Information Technolo-

gy and Chief Information Officer, Ed

Evans, reports directly to the Execu-

tive Vice President for Finance & Ad-

ministration, Terry Tatum. For more

information on RCTF, contact Joshua

Gonzalez at josh-

ua.gonzalez@tamucc.edu or x2576.

Members of RCTF include: • Dr. Ahmed Mahdy (Assoc. Vice

President for Research Commer-cialization and Outreach),

• Dr. Catherine Rudowsky (Ex-Officio Member, Library Direc-tor),

• Joshua Gonzalez (Ex-Officio Member, Director of IT Infra-structure & Research Compu-ting),

• Felimon Gayanilo (Systems Ar-chitect, Harte Research Insti-tute),

• Dr. Philippe Tissot (Assoc. Re-search Professor, Department of Physical & Environmental Sci-ences),

• Dr. Chuntao Liu (Asst. Prof. of Atmospheric Science, Depart-ment of Physical & Environmen-tal Sciences),

• Dr. Long-Zhuang Li (Assoc. Prof, Department of Computer Sci-ence),

• Dr. Christopher Bird (Asst Prof. of Biology, Department of Life Sciences),

• Dr. Lea-Der Chen (Assoc. Dean for Research; Director, School of Engineering and Computing Sci-ences),

• Dr. Dulal Kar (Assoc. Prof. of Computer Science, College of Sciences and Engineering), and

• Dr. Jian Sheng (Assoc. Professor, Department of Engineering).

Employee Development Day is May

17th. The IT department will present a

session on Cisco Jabber, a new com-

munication tool for campus use. For

details, contact Robert Wilson at 825

-2692 or via email at rob-

ert.wilson@tamucc.edu. ODELT will

offer a Social Media for Professional

& Personal Learning Networks

(PLNs). Contact Jan Brott at 825-

2131 or jan.brott@tamucc.edu for

more information.

The Analytics for Learn module is

designed to help administrators, in-

structional designers, and faculty to

identify students at risk and optimize

university learning environments for

greater rates of student success. In-

structors will have a better, faster

way to get the information they

need to help their students and keep

them on track. Course dashboards

and other reports from A4L will be

available to instructors in their Bb

Learn courses. Students will have

the ability to monitor their perfor-

mance in courses and compare it to

the average course performance.

Embedded student dashboards from

A4L can be accessed by students di-

rectly from within Bb Learn. More

information and workshops will be

available soon.

TAMU-CC Information Technology (IT) began a Windows 10 pilot pro-gram in Fall of 2016 to test compati-bility between standard lab and classroom software and Windows 10. Migrating all lab and classroom computers to Windows 10 will begin at the end of spring 2017 and will be complete before Fall 2017 begins. In addition, IT will be making Mi-crosoft Office 2016 required software on all University owned Windows computers on May 20, 2017. This change will standardize the version of Microsoft Office and allow users to take advantage of the enhanced fea-tures of the newest version. The in-stallation will shut down any open versions of Office during installation, so please save all work before the installation deadline.

Information Technology

Distance Education & Learning Technologies

5

For information:

http://it.tamucc.edu/

services/

Research.html

Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

ask Force Encourages Col-laborative Problem-Solving

in Research Computing

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T and ODELT to Present Employee Development Day

Sessions

Sign up to receive timely updates

about upcoming IT work or service

interruptions, recently reported scams,

phishing attempts and more.

Subscribe at: https://

listserv.tamucc.edu/mailman/listinfo/it

indows 10 and MS Office 2016

lackboard Analytics for Learn (A4L)

6

Brandon Baker rep-resents undergrad-uate students on the Instructional Technology Dis-tance Education Committee (ITDEC). A soph-

more who double majors in mathe-matics and computer science, Bran-don also serves as treasurer on Math club and is a member of iCore. Brandon expressed concern to the ITDEC that with all the different ways of calculating grades students don’t know where they stand in their classes and are unnecessarily stressed by not understanding how they are doing. Some students think they are failing when they are actual-ly doing well, as was his experience, while others think they are doing well when they are not. Brandon says instructors’ current, diverse grading systems “create pseudo confidence or unnecessary doubt in students. The formatting of the gradebook is unique with each professor. Students would greatly benefit from a more uniform stand-ard for inputting grades.

Grades should be posted regularly so that students can evaluate their pro-gress in a course and respond by im-proving what they do the rest of the semester.“ To solve the problem, Brandon rec-ommends that- • Instructors follow a more uni-

form process for continuously updating student progress in a class through the gradebook in a way that students can under-stand.

• Course syllabi show the break-down of grade in rubrics so that students can see how they are doing according to specified cri-teria.

What ODELT will do: Starting in the Fall of 2017 ODELT will offer multiple workshops in using the Bb gradebook to encourage providing students with consistent, accurate, and easily interpretable feedback.

We have all had the experience of

getting a suspicious email. You

know the kind that may look legiti-

mate, but on closer inspection, you

notice things like misspelled words

or improper grammar. These email

messages are “phishing” attempts

because hackers want to reel you

into taking action, like clicking on a

link so they can access your comput-

er and potentially download mali-

cious software.

Recently, a new type of cyber-attack

called “spearphishing” has made its

way into our inboxes. Hackers search

for organization specific information

such as names of administrators and

support offices. Spearphishing tar-

gets users by disguising email mes-

sages to look as if they have come

from someone within the organiza-

tion. To spot a spearphishing at-

tempt, look for messages that con-

vey a sense of urgency, requests for

sensitive data or personal infor-

mation. Like phishing, spearphish-

ing message may also contain re-

quests to click links or open attach-

ments. If you suspect an email may

be phishing or spearphishing, con-

tact the Help Desk at ext. 2692.

Information Technology

Distance Education & Learning Technologies

6 Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

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hishing Vs. Spear Phishing: What You Should Know

Hilton, J. (2016). Open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions. Educational Technology Research and Development, 64(4), 573-590. Increasing textbook prices, coupled with general rising costs of higher education have led some instructors to experiment with substituting open educational resources (OER) for commercial textbooks as their primary class curriculum. This arti-cle synthesizes the results of 16 studies that examine either (1) the influence of OER on student learning outcomes in higher education settings or (2) the perceptions of college students and instructors of OER. Results across multiple stud-ies indicate that students generally achieve the same learning outcomes when OER are utilized and simultaneously save significant amounts of money. Studies across a variety of settings indicate that both students and faculty are generally positive regarding OER.

tudents Seek Improved Feed-back through Consistent Bb

Gradebook Use