|
WebCT CE 6 Service
Pack 3 The EdTech Center
is preparing to test the new WebCT patch that is supposed to fix
many of the remaining bugs. Jonathan will soon be sending out an
email asking for volunteers to test the upgrade. It would be helpful
if we could get as many people involved in the testing as possible
so that we have
a good simulation of the production environment. I know many of you
are tired of 'beta-testing' this product; so am I. But if service
pack 3 lives up to its promise we'll have a CMS that is stable and
operating well. We can then turn our attention back to teaching--and
suggesting additional or new features rather than pulling out our
hair over system exception errors.
It is important to note that, if the testing produces any
abnormal behaviors, we will NOT proceed with the upgrade. The
DLCC, in coordination with ATAC, discussed the pros and cons of
installing an upgrade mid-semester. Since SP3 will fix most of the
current issues of CE 6, we decided it would be beneficial to get
those fixed, since it would also create favorable conditions for
preparing for the spring semester. But if the testing produces any
results that would adversely affect the current semester, the
upgrade will be delayed until December.
Anti-Plagiarism software RFP
The DLCC, in coordination with ATAC, agreed to start the biding
process to acquire anti-plagiarism software. There are a few
products out there that we'd like your feedback on. They not only
differ in price, but also--perhaps more importantly--how they check
for plagiarism. As many of you may know, there are some legal and
copyright concerns over products like TurnItIn. Some products don't
copy and store materials in a database, as does TurnItIn, but are
less effective at detecting plagiarism as a result. There is a good
website that lists all the anti-plagiarism software and describes
their features, and provides articles on some of the concerns being
raised over such software. You can find it at
http://www.web-miner.com/plagiarism#articles.
You can send your comments / preferences to me or Alan Swartz. We
will compile the information and present it to the DLCC and ATAC for
final consideration before writing up the RFP.
SoftChalk
Many of you may have seen any one
of the several demonstrations of SoftChalk over the past year. JCCC
has acquired a site license for the product and we hope to have it
available in October so that faculty can start using it as they
prepare for their spring classes.
Essentially, SoftChalk is a program
that will format documents--such as Word or WordPerfect--into HTML
files for use in WebCT. It doesn't require any knowledge of html
editing. SoftChalk has many neat tools and features that are fully
automated, such as creating a Table of Contents with bookmarks for
the bold or bulleted section headings in your original document.
There are also several attractive style templates to choose from so
that your web page looks as if it were professionally created.
SoftChalk allows you to easily create a glossary with definitions,
side-bar boxes, and review quizzes so that you web page is dynamic
and has the look and feel of the newer editions of textbooks.
SoftChalk also produces a clean
html document from the original document's source code. This is very
important because some of the problems faculty designers are
encountering in WebCT are the result of Word documents saved as
filtered html but still filled with Microsoft programming language.
Also if you created an html document years ago using Hot Dog or
earlier versions of FrontPage, some of the leftover code is
unreadable by the WebCT HTML editor and causes system failures.
SoftChalk should help eliminate these problems. |
|
Online Course Evaluation
Many of you have asked "What
happened to that online course evaluation pilot we did a couple
years ago?" After the pilot survey data was collected, Ralph Juhnke
sifted through it to make sure the instrument both valid and
consistent. The result were positive on both accounts. The
evaluation then went to the Faculty Evaluation Committee, the FA and
CADD for a final approval. That occurred last fall semester. The
Evaluation Committee in the spring decided to give the survey to the
EdTech center to create a secure delivery system through WebCT.
However, due to the WebCT 6.0 debacle, Jonathan wasn't able to
devote any time to the project. After attending the WebCT user
conference I suggested a third-party vendor that hosts online
evaluation. At the last Faculty Evaluation Meeting Ralph volunteered
to import the survey into IR's software and see if they can get it
up and running. That's where we are now. In the next week the DLCC
will preview the delivery system set up by IR. If all goes well we
hope to have the online course evaluation available for use this
fall. Once implemented, the online course evaluation will be the
official instrument for student evaluation of faculty teaching
online courses, paralleling IDEA for seat time classes.
WebCeTera
Due to technical difficulties, the
first section of WebCeTera was cancelled. However, we're combining
both sections into the second fall semester course. Jonathan will be
sending out information soon.
WebCeTera is a 5-week course that
introduces the instructor to Blackboard Campus Edition
6.1--both as designer and as a student. WebCeTera includes tutorial movies, directed online
discussions, optional live chat sessions, a Horizon Wimba Live
Classroom demo, specific learning activities (assignments), and quizzes. WebCeTera is not a self-paced
course but rather an interactive class that gives faculty a chance
to experience being an online student. You'll use all the major
Blackboard / WebCT tools and receive a free textbook 147 Practical Tips
for Teaching Online Groups, plus a WebCeTera t-shirt after
successful completion of the course. For more information and
registration instructions go to
http://web.jccc.net/edtech/training/Schedule.htm.
A reminder for those graduates of
4.1 or 6.0 WebCeTera, or those who have gone
through 6.0 transition training and need refreshers, that all the training materials and Captivate videos are available
online at
TechNotes on the
WebCT
Resources page (Ed Tech Center). You can use the search engine
to find information about a specific tool, or click on the WebCeTera
link under Channels to display an alphabetical list of all WebCT
training documents and videos.
Online Course Information
Guide
Spring 2007 classes are now available on the
college web site. Please review your
information on the
Online Course Information Guide and send any additions or
corrections to me at
michaelr@jccc.edu.
If you are teaching a new online course, please send me your new
page ASAP. Simply cut-and-paste any of your current pages into
FrontPage or Word and use as a template to edit in the new course
information.
Online
Student CD
The online student CD is located at
http://students.jccc.edu/dlorientation. You might want to add
this URL to your Web Links tool. You can also direct students to the
hands-on exercises to help them gain familiarity with WebCT before
the semester begins. To gain access to the
Z - Dev
Courses - DL Orientation shell, type in
OCB30401 to
99 as the User name on the WebCT
login page, and 123456 as the Password.
|