Academic Technology Support

The CTL provides multiple layers of support for faculty who are interested in infusing technology into their teaching:

  • Individual faculty consultations on how, why, and when to use instructional technologies.
  • The CTL is accessible to all full-time JU faculty, during normal Library hours, by using their JU ID card as a swipe key or checking out the swipe card available from the library's circulation desk. Available in the CTL are three Windows computers two printers- one color, and two scanners- one is for slides.

 

Support for Online Teaching

The CTL offers both individual and group training for faculty to help them design online and hybrid courses.

 

Blackboard Support

Blackboard, the JU online Course Management System, is physically hosted on Blackboard's server but is co-maintained by IT and Academic Technology Support (ATS- a program within CTL). It is currently responsible for answering student questions through the IT Help Desk.

 

Blackboard Training

 

Blackboard Innovative Teaching Series

 

A faculty focused webinar events that promotes both educator efficiency and improved learning outcomes in an online or blended delivery.

 

Faculty Blackboard Workshops
 
The following list represents some of our more popular workshops. Please talk to us about your requirements.

The following list represent some of the workshops available for all JU faculty by the CTL. If you are a JU faculty member and are interested in any of these or perhaps another topic please contact us about your needs and requirements

Introduction to Blackboard Learn 9.1
 This workshop introduces the interface and tool sets. Users will then learn the key skills necessary to begin designing a course. Through hands-on activities, users will customize their courses by adding and editing headers, creating and adding simple components, and customizing the look of their courses.

Presenting Content
This workshop introduces planning, organizing, and presenting content in the Blackboard Learn™ environment. First, participants look at how content is organized and presented as we progress through a course as a student. Then they view content in Learning Modules sequentially and non-sequentially, as well as view terminology in the Glossary. Next, turning to the instructor perspective, participants learn the skills necessary to integrate content and activities in online courses. The key concepts covered in this workshop include the following: identifying course goals and objectives, analyzing the audience and evaluating existing materials for online use, using storyboards to depict the logical organization of a course, creating usable and accessible Web page designs and relating pedagogical and practical issues to creating an online course that meets the needs of a broad and diverse audience.

Working with Assignments
The Assignments tool enables instructors to create, manage, and distribute activities that assess students in meaningful ways beyond traditional objective tests. The Grade Center's organization and management functionalities are incorporated into Assignments, allowing teachers to provide feedback and grades to students efficiently. In this workshop, participants will experience the entire assignment process and discover tips for creating successful online assignments.

Assessments Part 1
This workshop provides a hands-on introduction to the assessment function of Blackboard Learn™, with a focus on creating and grading tests. There are five major stages in the assessment lifecycle; create, deploy, take, grade and review. The workbook looks at each of the stages in detail as it progresses through the workshop.

Assessments Part 2
In this workshop, participants are introduced to the advanced features and functions of assessments. First, they learn how to create advanced question types and add metadata to questions. Then, they explore the Pool Manager and learn how to create a database of questions for reuse in multiple assessments. Finally, students become familiar with the key differences between creating tests and surveys, and learn how to create a survey and view survey results.

Discussions
The first section of this workshop presents the Discussion Board from the student point of view. The next section takes on the instructor role as participants learn how to use the tool throughout the lifecycle of discussions—from creating forums and threads to moderating, managing, and grading.

Communicating with Students
 In this workshop, particpants learn how to use the Syllabus, Announcements, Calendar, and Tasks tools to provide students with critical course information. Instructors can share information about themselves using the Contacts page. They also learn to use the Email and Messages tools to send messages to course members. For times when real-time communication is required, such as a brainstorming session, participants learn to use the Chat tool.

Collaborating with Groups
This workshop provides a hands-on introduction to the Groups tool and the communication and collaboration tools used to promote interaction among students. Participants learn to facilitate collaboration among students by setting up Groups. In Blackboard Learn™, Groups can have their own Discussion Board, Blog, Journals, Wikis, and live chats. Group members can exchange documents, submit Group Assignments, send email to other Group members, and distribute tasks to keep the Group on track.

Grade Center
 This workshop provides a comprehensive, hands-on introduction to the Grade Center tool. The Blackboard Learn™ Grade Center is more than just a way to record students' grades; it is a dynamic and interactive tool. The Grade Center can record data, monitor student progress, communicate information to students, parents, administrators, and other stakeholders. The Grade Center is a valuable tool to help understand student progress and make informed decisions on how to improve educational performance.

Keeping Students on Track
This workshop provides a hands-on introduction for the tools that help you to keep students on track. Participants will learn to customize the release of content, monitor student progress, and view course statistics.

Advanced Communication
This workshop provides a hands-on introduction to the advanced communication tools used for self-reflection, collaboration, and communication with the instructor and classmates. Journals, Blogs, and Wikis give students the opportunity to share and construct knowledge. Students can benefit from comments from peers and the instructor as they interact, collaborate, and share information, resources, opinions, and ideas.

Self and Peer Assessment
The Self and Peer Assessment tool enables students to review and evaluate work submitted by themselves or their peers. Using criteria specified by the instructor and optional sample responses, students can assign points and provide feedback on submitted assignments. Self and Peer Assessments can help distribute the workload and ensure that students receive feedback from several individuals. Students also benefit from the analytical experience of evaluating submissions against defined criteria. The evaluation process itself often deepens their comprehension of the subject and can provide valuable insights into their own efforts.

 

Bb Ambassadors: The Bb Ambassadors serve as "advanced experts" to their colleagues. The 2011-12 Bb Ambassadors are: 

Anne Acker aacker@ju.edu Angie Mattia amattia@ju.edu
Cari Coble ccoble@ju.edu Ed McCourt emccour@ju.edu
Mary DeFalco mdefalc@ju.edu Jim Mirabella jmirabe@ju.edu
Mary Gipson mgipson@ju.edu Dick Murphy rmurphy4@ju.edu
George Gresham ggresha1@ju.edu Therese O'Connell toconne@ju.edu
Leigh Hart lhart@ju.edu Chris Robertson
Jack Huang jhuang@ju.edu Cristina Valentino cvalent@ju.edu
Brian Lane wlane@ju.edu Colleen Wilson cwilson@ju.edu

 

Instructional Technologies

CTL also provides instructional technologies that are available for use by any full-time JU faculty member.  See listing at bottom of page. 

These technologies are available for full-time JU faculty to check out for a limited time.  Please fill out the attached Equipment Loan Form: FORM_Tech_Equip_Loan.docx

             

Turner Technologies Audience Response System

 

 

NEW - Two Turning Technologies Audience Response Systems (Clickers) - Each set contains 25 clickers. 

 

 Two eInstruction CPS System (Clickers)- Each set contains 32 clickers.

NEW - Apple iPad 3​

 

 Two Dell Latitude XT Tablet PC's

NEW - A Sony HDR-CX160 HD Flash Memory Camcorder​

 

 A Canon ZR 95 Mini Digital Video Camcorder

 

A WebCam

 

 Two Microphones

  

eInstruction Interwrite Pad