|
|||||||
Tools to Enhance Your Course
OIT provides or supports various software and hardware tools that you can use to enhance the learning experience for your students. Included in the list are myCourses, Campus Pipeline, Video Streaming, Multimedia Development, Hardware Components and Interactive Videoconferencing.
myCourses
(Web Course Tools) is a course management system which facilitates the
creation of sophisticated Web-based environments.
myCourses (Blackboard) features include:
| Design Interface | Allows for easy design of course presentation, such as color schemes, layout, graphics, etc. and the inclusion of commonly included components such as syllabus, pre-class notes, learning modules, and study aides. |
| Educational tools | A variety of tools promotes learning, student involvement, communication, and collaboration. |
| Administrative tools | The management tools in myCourses allow the instructor maximize flexibility in administering student assessment, providing information to students, monitoring student progress, and meeting individual student needs. |
| Integration Component | myCourses is now integrated with two other major campus systems, SCT and mySFA. This allows all instructors to utilize myCourses for course enhancement or Web-based delivery; allows students to be populated automatically into or dropped from the myCourses class; and allows grade information to transfer from myCourses to SCT (option enabled by instructor). |
mySFA is a campus portal software that is unfolding in stages at SFA. Currently, mySFA allows students to log in with their registration username and password and have access to their myCourses courses. Eventually, the integration of mySFA with SCT will allow students to have 24-hour access to their personal information, registration, fee assessments, financial aid, the steen library, and more without further authentication. Rather than having to remember half a dozen username and PIN combinations, students will only need to remember one combination in order to gain access to the host of campus services deemed essential by SACS and other governing bodies.
Another goal of Campus Pipeline is to create a unified learning community among SFA students where news and information relative to the individual are available upon logging into mySFA. Chat and discussion boards provide tools for 24-hour communication, a feature that is becoming more and more essential in today's information-based society.
Video streaming is the process of providing video content via a web page. It allows for essential visual effects in an online course. When the depiction of movement is essential, video streaming may be utilized effectively in short clips to emphasize a learning objective. When streaming video is used, attention should be given to the provision of text transcripts for the benefit of visually impaired. The Americans for Disabilities Act (ADA) requires all components of a Web-based course to be accessible to students, regardless of their impairment. So, utilization of streaming video should be monitored by the instructor and viewed as a means of demonstrating only those points that require visualization (i.e., a physics principles, kinesthetic movement of the body, motion of the solar system, examples of "connected learning moments" between instructor and students, etc.)
Podcasting is the distribution of audio broadcasts via the Internet to digital playback devices. It may entail content that is delivered via an RSS feed and presents a downloadable file (often mp3). This format provides a quick and easy way for professors to record and post a lecture or exam review online. Please contact Randy Watson (rwatson@sfasu.edu) for additional information, materials, and training.
Multimedia development is available through the Office of Instructional Technology. If you want to provide information to your students on CDs, OIT can assist you in multiple CD duplication. OIT also provides you training and assistance, by appointment, in video editing, VHS duplication, 35mm slide scanning, document and graphics scanning on a flatbed scanner.
Hardware
components are available, through the acquisition of several grants,
that allow OIT to provide: Interactive videoconferencing is similar to
a video telephone call. Cameras and microphones in a classroom or conference
room capture both video and audio and communicate instructioin and information to people at a distant location. The technology facilitates collaboration between the instructor and all participants, regardless of location.
If you are interested in exploring connectivity and using this mode of
delivery, please choose the form below which best suits your needs. We
have several online forms, geared to collect specific information that's
needed to test a videoconference to the desired location(s). If you have
questions or would like to learn more about videoconferncing, please contact
Randy Watson for a complete orientation
workshop.
