ITC Showcases Advantages of New Office 365 in ‘30 Days’ Blog Series

Students migrated to the new Microsoft Office 365 email system in May 2014 with faculty and staff accounts beginning the transition in October. Tom Grissom, Director of the Instructional Technology Center (ITC), wanted to help instructors adapt to the high-impact move and also help them realize it can be so much more than an email system. To do so, he created a blog series called “30 Days with Office 365 for Educators.”

Grissom received a test account two weeks prior to the transition and realized he was going to get a lot of questions regarding Office 365, so he created the blog series to help the whole EIU community.

If you visit the ITC website (eiu.edu/itc), you will see, on the left-hand menu, a link called “ITC Chronicles Blog.” By visiting the link, you can get an overview of the “30 Days with Office 365 for Educators” postings. If you click on a specific entry, the article expands so you can read more in-depth about that particular topic. For example, day one’s entry gives a rundown of the new Panthermail system.

“Office 365 is the office suite in the Cloud. It is like a main frame,” says Grissom. “Think of the Cloud as these massive parallel-computing clusters on the Internet.”

The new system provides faculty and students access to the four major Office applications including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. You can use them locally by downloading the applications to your computer, or you can use a browser to access them online in the Cloud. Connecting to these applications online gives you the ability to share documents in real time, have co-authors, use survey tools and much more.

OneDrive, a cloud-based file storage system, is the foundation of Office 365. Instead of carrying a USB drive everywhere you go, you can store documents in the Cloud and access them from any computer by logging into your account.

“OneNote is one of the most underrated tools in education,” states Grissom. “It is like a digital 3-ring binder, with different tabs and pages that can be used on different platforms.” Day 23 in the blog series goes into more detail about the application.

“These tools have opened up a whole other world; imagine the possibilities,” Grissom says. “Office 365 is very user friendly, very powerful, very collaborative and it offers us world-class capabilities. We can do so much more now. The tools are here, but it is up to us to use them.”

For more information visit the ITC website, eiu.edu/itc, or contact Dr. Grissom via email: gtgrissom@eiu.edu.

Real-Time Polls & Collaborative Research Technologies; By Clinton Brown

This past September I presented on a conference panel focusing on increasing student engagement through media and technology. While there are many technologies well suited for these goals, two platforms have received little attention within higher education, but have tremendous possibilities to enhance instructional practices and engage students. PollEverywhere and SearchTeam are two web-based technologies that are institutive, easy to use, and have countless applications inside and outside of the classroom. The best part, they’re free! A detailed explanation follows below.

Poll Everywhere – Overview (www.polleverywhere.com)

On the surface, Poll Everywhere is a simple application that works well for live audiences using mobile devices like smartphones. People participate by visiting a fast mobile-friendly web page for your event, sending text messages, or using Twitter. Instructions are displayed on-screen. The poll that is embedded within the presentation or web page will update in real time. Advanced uses include texting comments to a presentation, texting questions to a presenter, web voting, and SMS interactivity in print, radio, and TV.

Participants may vote by following the instructions shown on the poll when it is displayed. The poll does not need to be displayed to actively receive votes, but it does need to be "started" by the presenter on the edit poll page. In the US, you send a text message to the number 22333 that contains a voting keyword, like 1234, or blue.

Additionally, individuals may also vote via your poll's web page on Poll Everywhere, via an embeddable voting widget, on a phone's web browser using PollEv.com, or via Twitter.

In short, Poll Everywhere is a useful tool to provide real-time feedback and also facilitates interactive presentations. It is well suited for small classrooms or large lecture halls.

SearchTeam – Overview (www.searchteam.com)

SearchTeam is a collaborative search engine. However, this platform offers many more advantages over traditional search engines for individuals and groups.

To start with, you can use SearchTeam to efficiently research the Web for information. You start your research by creating a SearchSpace on a topic of interest. From within a SearchSpace, you can search the Web, videos, images, books and more. You can find and save only what you want while you are searching and throw away what you don't want or find irrelevant. You can automatically organize what you save into folders of your choosing. Everything is automatically saved into your personal account and you can return to your searches any time and continue from where you were previously.

What makes SearchTeam unique and valuable is that you can do your searches collaboratively with others you trust, such as friends, colleagues and family members. You can invite any set of people you trust to search with you from within a SearchSpace. An invitation is sent via email to those people you invite to join your search. When they enter your SearchSpace, they see exactly what you've found and saved so far. They can comment on or like your findings. They can chat with you from within the SearchSpace, and do further searches relevant to that topic and save more results into the SearchSpace. All changes made by any collaborator are relayed to all other collaborators in real-time, so everyone is instantly in sync with what others are doing.

In addition to finding and saving search results, SearchTeam goes further to enable you to enrich your SearchSpace with knowledge that may come from other sources. You can upload documents to a SearchSpace to share your relevant reports / presentations, etc. You can also add links to Web resources that you may have received from others via email or social networks. You can even

create new posts to share your knowledge on the topic directly inside the SearchSpace.

Together, as a team, you can leverage the collective effort to find good quality information, and benefit from the collective knowledge on any topic efficiently.

In effect, SearchTeam is traditional Web searching + Wiki-like editing and saving capabilities + integration with your trusted circle of people through social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter + real-time collaboration with people you trust. What this delivers to you is a new and more effective way of using the Web to find, save, organize, share and leverage collective knowledge

through people you trust.

For more information contact Clinton Brown via email: clbrown3@eiu.edu.

CATS Digital & Multimedia Team: Update on Kaltura

Kaltura is a media delivery system that has been used by CATS Digital and Multimedia Services for the past two years. Last year, the team beta tested the system; this year, they’ve been implementing it at EIU. Faculty members who teach D2L-oriented courses now have a Kaltura widget available for use.

A recent trend amongst instructors is adding media to their online environment and Kaltura can help with this. For example, if a lecture is taking place, teachers can use the media delivery system to show something in class. “I’m noticing this trend because we are getting more requests to make sure these things are captioned as well for hearing-impaired students,” says Pete Grant, Director of Digital and Multimedia Services.

The process begins with filling out a project request form (eiu.edu/cats/home/media_project_request_form.php). The CATS educational media graduate assistant, along with Grant and a captioning graduate assistant, then meet with the faculty member. Next, Chad Elliott, Director of the Gregg Technology Center, will establish a new Kaltura account. This account is linked to their EIU account. The faculty members provide media to the captioning graduate assistant and, once it’s uploaded, the faculty member is shown how to upload media themselves.

If faculty members want to upload any media independently, the Digital and Multimedia teams asks that the faculty member come to them first. “A generic account will be generated, which is hard for us if we need to search for media or upload more later on,” Grant said. “But we also want to make sure their Panther account is associated with their Kaltura account.”

Screenshot of Kaltura in D2L

Using the Kaltura widget within D2L seems to be the easiest way to use the system. “I don’t recommended using media for the sake of media or technology for the sake of technology,” Grant said. “What is happening is change and, if they need to incorporate media, the online environment is a great place, especially since many classes are going online.”

Most people are watching media on their phones and Kaltura does support playback on mobile devices. EIU and its faculty need to be aware of the trend; this generation of students almost exclusively uses laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. “You have to look at the trend of students. You have to adapt the technology with the generation you are working with,” said Grant.

So far, Kaltura has been flexible and open to changes. It is also getting ready to release a lecture capture tool. Currently, we are using Panapto, which is great, but Lecture Capture will be better because it will be a one-stop shop. Grant is hoping EIU can become a beta tester for the Lecture Capture tool as well.

For more information contact Pete Grant via email: pagrant@eiu.edu.

Art Department Utilizes Desire2Learn for New Masters Program

When prospective students consider studying art, they generally consider in-class coursework that deal with two- or three-dimensional projects, as well as in-class with critiques. However, the art department has recently developed an online graduate program that brings a whole new meaning to art education.

Dr. Patricia Belleville, an art education professor and the department’s graduate program director, has spent the last two years working to develop the Master of Arts in Art with Art Education and Community Art options program. This program is offered online -- with a few hybrid courses -- and relies on the Desire2Learn (D2L) online environment for completion of a majority of the coursework.

Screenshot of Pinterest art collection

Some projects students have completed include the creation of a map of their art education history and posting images of contemporary art practices. Each of these projects is shared on the discussion board in D2L, which allows other students to comment. “The discussion forums are not just about writing, but also more of a creative outlet for the students,” Belleville stated. The students have even been developing and curating an art collection on the Pinterest social media site.

“One of the students collected drawings from her son, providing information about how old he was and the time when his artwork was created. Another student used work from non-professional art learners in grades 11 and 12 that he had taught,” added Belleville.

The online format makes the program accessible to anyone. One student is currently enrolled while living and working as an art teacher in Thailand. He found out about the program via social media and decided it would be a good way to earn his master’s degree while teaching abroad.

Because its students are enrolled in two courses each semester, this graduate program is not like any other program on campus. One course is during the first 8-week session and the second course is during the second 8-week session. This allows students to focus on one course at a time. It also allows students to begin the program during the middle of a semester if they wish to do so.

Vineyard map of Art
Education History

As previously mentioned, hybrid courses are also offered. This means students come to campus for one week in the studio and complete the remaining three weeks at home. If students begin and go straight through the program, it is possible for them to complete the program in two years.

“How can we help these teachers get an advance in their pay grade and have it so that they can work their schedules around it?,” Belleville questioned. “This program is for certified art teachers and allows for them to be in different parts of the country and share their difference experiences with each other.”

For more information contact Dr. Patricia Belleville via email: pkbelleville@eiu.edu.

Center for Online Learning Hires Instructional Design Specialist

Christine Stricker

The Center for Online Learning at CATS provides training, support and services for faculty, staff and students that are involved in technology-enhanced courses. The Center for Online Learning’s new Instructional Design Specialist for Online Learning, Christine Stricker, is doing just that by assisting faculty and staff with their online courses.

Stricker explains: “I look at their course, see where improvements need to be made and then I train them on how to implement those changes.” Offering a good quality online course is a great way to attract more students to Eastern Illinois University, and that’s what the Center for Online Learning is here to help ensure. Online courses are beneficial to a variety of groups, whether it’s student athletes or the non-traditional adult students.

“If a class is able to be offered online, then we want to provide that to students and make it more accessible,” she stresses.

Aside from reviewing online courses, Stricker is also working on providing helpful materials for COL. Currently, she is creating a series of ‘tips and tricks’ that will be posted on COL’s website, eiu.edu/col, where instructors can pick up little bits of information to add to their courses.

Stricker is also working on designing course templates in Desire2Learn, which will help to make the setup of online classes less painful. “They can drag and drop the template into another course and fill in their information so they don’t have to start from scratch,” explains Stricker. She is very keen on stressing the importance of faculty to alter their courses from face-to-face to online. “Instructors may already have a structure they go by, but there are more elements they need for online courses that they may not have in their face-to-face ones,” she stated.

Since it is sometimes difficult for faculty members to change their organizational system to fit the online structure, Stricker does the organizing, which allows them to focus more on the content of their course. Stricker hopes to make all of these new features available online so faculty and staff can access the information whenever they need it. “So much work is done after hours, and I want them to be able to do it easily,” she added.

Faculty and staff can visit the Center for Online Learning offices in 1125 McAfee to receive assistance with their online courses; however, an appointment is recommended and can be made via the website (eiu.edu/col/solution_center.php).

For more information contact Christine Stricker via email: clstricker@eiu.edu.

General Chemistry Gets More Interactive with Tablet and Mastering Chemistry

“Blackboards are hard to see, PowerPoint doesn’t interest the students enough, and SMART boards are too sensitive,” says Dr. Hongshan He, an assistant professor and general chemistry instructor. General education courses are pretty large, ranging from 45-60 students per class; so how does he get students involved? Dr. He has found several new ways to make his course more interactive.

Dr. He writing on tablet

Dr. He was able to obtain a Redden grant, which he used to purchase a Microsoft Surface Pro 3. He writes directly on this tablet during lectures with an electronic pen, which goes straight onto the projector screen so his class can see. Students can also practice problems on the Surface Pro 3 and others can see their work. Dr. He says: “Calculations and drawings are hard to type out and draw on PowerPoint, but the tablet makes it much easier because you can write it all out.” He has received positive feedback from students and other teachers who have sat in on lectures.

“Our students come from all different backgrounds. A lot of them work and can’t always make it to class,” stated He. If they miss a lecture, it is hard for them to do well on upcoming homework and exams, but what if they could view the lectures on their own time? During Dr. He’s lectures, PowerPoint automatically records anything he writes on the slides. So besides posting the lecture notes on D2L, Dr. He can upload the problem solving processes he went through -- as well as the lecture itself -- by using video software called Camtasia. Students can access the videos on their laptops or even cell phones once they log into their D2L account. Students can’t always come back to school in the evenings for review sessions, so instead of hosting them, He can post a video of how to solve a particular problem. The videos also provide more opportunities for extra help outside of class.

The chemistry department uses an online homework assignment system called Mastering Chemistry. This system is through Pearson, the company that provides the textbooks. Using Mastering Chemistry is nothing new, but a tool called Learning Catalytics is. Students can login to Mastering Chemistry to access Learning Catalytics and answer in-class practice questions on their smartphones. Students are always trying to use their cellphones in class; instead of preventing it, Dr. He decided to let them use it for class purposes. He can also record attendance by asking his students to answer a question through this new tool. The responses automatically sync to Mastering Chemistry and the students can earn bonus points by attending the lecture. This helps with minimizing the distractions during class so students can concentrate.

Dr. He is trying out all these new technologies in his general chemistry courses, but hopes to expand them into others once he knows how well they are working. These technologies make the learning process more personal, convenient, and efficient for both teachers and students. Dr. He is hoping that in the future the university can provide funds for all faculty members to get their own tablets to use in different departments, such as math and

biology.

For more information contact Dr. Hongshan He via email: hhe@eiu.edu.

Communications Studies Graduate Student and CATS Employee Receives Award

The L.E. Norton Higher Education Student Award is named in recognition of Dr. Norton, who was a professor of communication studies at Bradley University and a founder of Bradley’s speech and debate team for collegiate competition. Clinton Brown, graduate research assistant for CATS and a communication studies major, was the recipient of this year’s award.

The L.E. Norton Higher Education Student Award is given to students who demonstrate commitment to their discipline and commitment to their university through service. A student has to be nominated by a faculty or staff member and is then chosen by a panel in order to receive the award. Any student within communication arts discipline in higher education in Illinois was eligible for nomination of the award.

Dr. Richard Jones, assistant professor, nominated Brown towards the end of the spring semester. Brown then had to provide his vitae, supporting documentation, and letters of support to be reviewed by the panel. Brown found out in July that he was the recipient of the award and was asked to give an acceptance speech at the Illinois Communication and Theatre Association (ICTA) conference in Naperville, Ill. in September.

Brown also noted that one of the individuals who is a member of the organization and is on the executive board of the panel was Brown’s high school English teacher and speech coach. He stated, “She was part of my past, Dr. Jones is my present, and this award is me making my own future.”

Dr. Richard Jones presenting award
to Clinton Brown

Clinton stated that his experiences, not only throughout school, but also at his current job have helped him to achieve greatness. “I was in the department honors program, which gave me opportunities to go to conferences and present that I may not have had otherwise,” Brown said, “and to be able to do my own research through my position at CATS has just enhanced it.”

Brown’s job at CATS also enables him to be able to provide service, such as working one-on-one with faculty on their projects and initiatives. “It has allowed me to create a great deal of contacts,” stated Brown. His graduate studies also indirectly involve his experiences at work by completing assessments for different departments and running statistics and compiling the information for them.

Outside of his studies and work, Brown also tries to reach out to students and the community by completing service projects. Brown recently organized a trip for students to go and complete the march for marriage equality. “To do service, you have to see there is an opportunity to do something and you have to take that initiative,” added Brown.

“There were many students who were equally deserving and I just happened to have received this award, and I am very thankful for it,” he said. “But I wanted to communicate to them … there’s no way I could have imagined that 20 years later I would be standing here recalling the ICTA conference, and accepting the L.E. Norton Higher Education Student Award. However, my own story, I believe, raises an important question. That is, what if we strive to ensure that every student has such positive experiences within the communication arts?”

For more information contact Clinton Brown via email: clbrown3@eiu.edu.

Web Office Finding New SiteImprove Tool Quite Useful

A new tool is helping the CATS Web Office greatly enhance the user experience of Eastern Illinois University’s website by dramatically reducing instances of broken links and typos/misspellings across the site.

Late in the Fall 2014 semester, the office began using SiteImprove, a web-based web governance software that periodically scans each page of the university’s website. From each scan, a database is compiled with the location of each non-working link on each page of the site along with misspelled – or potentially misspelled – words.

Additionally, administrators of EIU’s SiteImprove account can enter specific words or terms it would like the software to flag down; for example, the software can find all instances of the word “dorm” and allows users to quickly locate them and change them to “residence hall”.

Certain “top level” pages on Eastern’s site that have proven to draw the most user traffic can also be designated so that a quick check of the software’s web interface can verify that none of these pages contains any major problems.

Screenshot of SiteImprove

“Since we first began working with the SiteImprove software in mid-October, we’ve been able to cut the dead links on Eastern’s website by over 80 percent,” said Dustin White, the web specialist doing a bulk of the work with the new software. “In addition, we’ve found and fixed nearly half of the misspelled words on the site.”

White says there are well over 8,000 pages on Eastern’s site, so tracking down and fixing such a huge percentage of these errors in such a short period of time would have been more or less impossible without SiteImprove.

“We’re continuing to work toward shrinking that number even more, although you’re always going to have a handful of dead links,” added White. “That’s just the nature of having such a massive site. The important thing is now we have a good way to find and fix them in a timely manner.”

In the future, individual offices and departments should be able to begin receiving reports on just their own websites. With this, they can either be assured of the quality of their site’s content or be aware of pages that need immediate attention.

“This tool has proven to be quite valuable,” said Web Office Director Ryan Gibson. “It creates a better experience for users and saves our office a tremendous amount of time tracking down dead links.”

For more information contact Ryan Gibson via email: rwgibson@eiu.edu.

CATS Multimedia and Tempestas Team Up for IPA Grant Project

Over the summer, Mark Johnson, Assistant to the Dean for Academic Technology for the College of Sciences, was approached by an Illinois high school to produce films on some chemistry experiments. Little did he know this would lead to an extensive first-time grant project opportunity for CATS.

The high school was thankful and ecstatic about the work produced. Around the time of its completion the Illinois Principals Association (IPA) was seeking a university to assist with producing a series of videos for core curriculums new model math and English Language Arts (ELA). The chemistry group that Johnson worked with earlier in the year referred the CATS Digital and Multimedia team to the IPA and in return, the IPA contacted Johnson about interest in the grant project.

Johnson collaborated with Pete Grant, Director of Digital and Multimedia Services, and Cameron Craig, Geographer and Professor in the Department of Geology/Geography, to write up the ultimately accepted proposal. Craig serves as the project lead, Grant is the administrative lead, Johnson takes photos of the events, and Rhonda Brotherton, Administrative Aide for CATS, is the budget administrator. Johnson, Grant and Craig then selected a group of Tempestas et Caelum (Craig’s film company) students and Digital and Multimedia graduate assistants and students to create an IPA project team.

The team began filming in September and has visited about 10 Illinois locations. During filming, Craig is teaching students how to shoot properly as Johnson photographs the event. The students film class lectures, pre- and post-interviews with instructors, interviews with principals, and interviews with students about their teachers and how they are dealing with model math.

Once filming is finished, footage is brought back for Grant to make available for review by IPA members. Then the students, who are each assigned a video, will begin editing the 2-3 hours of footage down to 10-minute pieces. Each school will have its own 10-minute segment. The whole project will wrap up around April 2015.

This project provides the students with great real world experience on how things get done on a project. It has also allowed the team to purchase some new equipment to assist them with the project. “We have had some great collaboration and team building with traveling and staying at hotels with the students learning about each other,” Grant added.

After the grant project is completed, they are hoping to continue more grant work by turning it into a documentary. If they are able to complete big projects in the fall and spring, they can hopefully use it to finance the expedition projects.

“This is all about integrative and applied learning for the students”, Grant added. “Ultimately, Mark, Cameron, and myself wouldn’t do this if there was no benefit for the students.”

For more information contact Pete Grant via email: pagrant@eiu.edu. 

MOOCs – The Changing Face of Higher Education; By Thelca White

Over the past decade, higher education has experienced significant changes that have been spurred on by advancement in technology, particularly the Internet. These changes are hard to miss for anyone who is involved in academia in any capacity.

Undoubtedly, one of the most radical changes education has experienced in the last several years has been the introduction of Massive Open Online Courses, popularly referred to as MOOCs. MOOCs, at their core, are geared towards providing equal opportunities, and access to individuals irrespective of prerequisites, economic background, and physical location. However, while MOOCs have undoubtedly represented veritable options for students to pursue particular academic interests, they have advantages and disadvantages.

In terms of advantages, many will consider not having to pay money to access courses from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as significant. MOOCs are designed to be extremely interactive. It uses all the interactive media available on the Internet to engage students. The various tools used are blogs, videos, podcasts and forums that are embedded into the programs seamlessly. Although students study independently in these courses, they, at the same time, collaborate with their peers from different parts of the world.

Notwithstanding the fact that MOOCs offer many advantages, there are some challenges which they also face. MOOC designers face extremely high non-completion or drop out rates. This may be as a result of lack of structure that MOOCs engender. Another drawback of MOOCs stems from the fact that they simply have little practicality in the real world, except for personal edification. Since many courses offered by MOOCs are not accredited, they have little impact in helping to supplement other academic qualifications, particularly as it relates to career advancement.

Despite the disadvantages, MOOCs are an excellent alternative model for online learning and serve as great value within higher education.

For more information contact Thelca White via email: tpwhite2@eiu.edu.

CATS Alumni Feature – Will Barrett; By Will Barrett

Will Barrett

My name is Will Barrett. I am 26 years old, from Waukegan, Ill., and I had the pleasure and honor of working for the Center for Academic Technology and Support from 2012-2014. I received both my Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies – Communication Theory Practice and my Master of Sciences – Training & Development from Eastern Illinois University.

I began working at CATS as a student worker doing transcription for various CATS multimedia projects as well as numerous WEIU productions. I eventually earned a graduate assistant position for the Campus-Wide Media Events section of the department. It was my responsibility to document and record a wide array of events that would take place on campus. Additionally, I was responsible for editing, publishing and uploading these videos to various social media sites such as YouTube and Facebook, along with the Eastern Illinois University website.

Since graduating in May 2014, I have relocated to Houston, Texas where I am currently working as an Executive Team Leader of Human Resources in the Greater Houston metropolitan area for the Target Corporation. As a Human Resources Manager some of my core roles are to control and monitor staffing needs, screen and conduct applicant interviews, manage employee payroll and benefits, and ensure that Target is in compliance with various state and federal labor laws.

The position I held at CATS adequately prepared me for my role as a young professional and gave me the necessary tools to be successful in starting my career. The responsibilities I had while working for CATS, such as conducting and leading meetings with faculty members as well as my colleagues, interviewing interested applicants, managing multiple student workers, and completing projects to meet specific deadlines are no different than what I am currently doing now professionally. I also gained a wealth of knowledge from Pete Grant, my supervisor and mentor, who helped to mold me and impart important knowledge and advice that has helped me greatly to make that transition to my current position.

My advice for any current or prospective graduate assistant and/or student is to take full advantage of the opportunities and resources around you. Envision where you want to be months from now, and make the necessary moves to ensure that they happen. Get in contact with individuals that are currently in positions you desire to be in, and take notes on how they obtained their roles. Do not fall in the mindset that after graduation you will enter the so-called “real world”. The world that you are currently in is very much as real as life after college, as long as you prepare yourself and approach it as such. Lastly, I encourage you to set short term and long-term goals for yourself and keep track of your progress. This will help your transition from student to professional an even more enjoyable experience.