Department of Information Technology
Professor Goedert

Faculty Resources for Teaching with Technology

 

Teaching continues utilizing the latest classroom technology. A classroom directory has been created, complete with an inventory of available technology, floorplans, and photos of classrooms. The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center has helpful tips on leveraging simple technologies to keep your class on schedule.

A catalog of workshops is available to help faculty prepare for their courses and utilize different technologies to enhance learning. To register for a workshop, visit the university event calendar.

All course materials, assignments and assessments are housed in Blackboard. The live synchronous sessions can also be facilitated in Microsoft Teams or Blackboard Collaborate Ultra. Both a Blackboard course shell and a Team is created for every course session offered at the University. 

 

Communicate

Conduct class in real-time with Microsoft Teams or Blackboard Collaborate and use Blackboard to send emails or announcements.

Create Materials

Record a lecture with Echo360, hold online exams with Honorlock, and create documents with Microsoft 365.

Post Materials

Post documents, videos, assignments and more to Blackboard. Create discussion boards, tests, and quizzes.

Advising

Instructions for accessing student PIN information and ARC tutoring support information.

Library

Remotely access library resources, e-books, and subject guides or speak with a librarian for your research needs.

Workshops

Workshops are available to help faculty utilize different technologies to enhance their courses.

 

Communicate with your Students

Microsoft Teams

Create an interactive online classroom with Microsoft Teams. Teams supports group conversations, video conferencing (up to 49 screens), virtual breakout rooms and the ability to chat and share files. A team is automatically created for all courses. The instructor will need to manually enable the feature in the teams section in the app. A short video is available to explain the activation process.

In a Teams classroom, instructors may start the class session from the Microsoft Teams panel in the room. Those in the room immediately see and hear students joining remotely. Both faculty and students can share their screen remotely, minimizing the need for handling any cables to connect to classroom technology.
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In a Standard classroom, the instructor may schedule the recurring meeting in Teams. In the room, there is no Microsoft Teams computer panel, the instructor may join the Teams class on her/his laptop and shares the material to all remote participants screens simultaneously. In order to display in the physical room, the instructor connects to the projector/screen using Airmedia/Solstice (if available) or with an HDMI cable. Students are also able to share their screens/content with the entire class via Teams.
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The Microsoft Teams software may be accessed via the web, desktop versions for Windows and Apple Macintosh platforms, as well as Apple and Android mobile devices.

Blackboard Collaborate

An alternative to Microsoft Teams, Blackboard Collaborate, a Blackboard tool where students and instructors can meet synchronously, or instructors can record lectures. Like Teams, presenters (both faculty and students if given the role) can share files, chat, poll, annotate, and record. Recorded lectures are available in Blackboard shortly after.

This tool provides instructors with the opportunity to demonstrate difficult material and break down content for students. Collaborate helps you create virtual classrooms, breakout sessions, and meeting spaces that foster exciting new learning opportunities while also increasing student engagement. Collaborate allows you to poll your participants, work together on an interactive white board, chat with participants, allow participants to virtually raise their hands for questions, import PowerPoint slides, share your computer screen or a particular window, share the microphone, use a webcam, and more. Events also can be recorded for later viewing.

Learn more about Blackboard Collaborate
Preparing for your first Blackboard Collaborate Session (PDF)
Microsoft Teams and Blackboard Collaborate Comparison (PDF)

Blackboard Announcements

Once you’ve created and/or posted your materials, you can email your class or use the Blackboard “Announcements” feature to notify your students that new course content has been posted. You can link to your materials from inside this announcement, regardless of whether the materials were uploaded to the Blackboard site or if they are an external recording.

Learn more about sending a Blackboard announcement.

Create your Materials

In some cases, posting accessible text-based documents via Microsoft Word or PowerPoint presentations may suffice to give students some material to cover on their own time. However, you may want to record a narration for your materials to simulate the lecture you would have delivered.

In this event, first consider your comfort level with technologies. Select a technology that you have used before. Echo360 is a screen recording software that integrates with your course and with Blackboard. Real-time web conferencing is also available with Microsoft Teams. Echo360 allows you to capture a quick lecture video in a pinch on your own time, on your own device!

Echo360 Recording Software

Lecture capture allows instructors to record instructional content on their own laptop/desktop or in their classroom. Students are then able to view the recording from within Blackboard. This provides students with a powerful tool to review content, access supplemental material or receive instruction that is web-based. Echo360 videos feature integrated closed captioning abilities and greatly expand the accessibility of your educational content.

Create and Manage Online Exams

Honorlock

Honorlock is a browser-based online exam proctoring tool that integrates with Blackboard. The platform is easy to use and hosts a number of built-in features to prevent cheating, such as search and destroy, mobile device prevention, and browser guard.

You create your exam in Blackboard like you usually would, and Honorlock collects the information needed to set up the test. When you’re ready, you turn on proctoring and decide which features you’d like to use.

Once your students have taken the test, certified test proctors review the exam session and notify you of guideline violations. All of this means that you can spend more time teaching and less time focused on proctoring exams.

Additional Tools

SPSS

Students and faculty are eligible to receive a license of SPSS under the university campus site license for instructional, academic, and non-commercial academic research.

How to request SPSS:

SPSS Tutorials

Mathematica

Mathematica offers an interactive classroom experience that helps students explore and grasp concepts, plus gives faculty the tools they need to easily create supporting course materials, assignments, and presentations.

Request Mathematica

Mathematica Tutorials

Qualtrics

Qualtrics, accessible via PirateNet, allows you to collect and filter large amounts of data. Data can be analyzed for myriad reasons, providing instructors will insight and individualized feedback. Specific rules can be used per question to look for intended information. Unlike Microsoft Forms, Qualtrics is a more advanced survey tool with much stronger capabilities. It is best used to survey a medium to large audience. For more information on Qualtrics, please visit the Qualtrics help page or speak with your instructional designer.

Microsoft Forms

Microsoft Forms, accessible via PirateNet, is simple to use, works on any web browser, and comes with themes and question branching. Microsoft Forms collects responses in real time and automatically provides charts to visualize your data. Best of all, exporting to Excel lets you use the full power of Excel for customized, in-depth analysis. For more information, visit the Microsoft Forms help page or speak with your instructional designer.

Which survey tool is right for you? (PDF)

Post your Materials

Posting to Blackboard

After creating your materials, log in to Blackboard, access your course, and upload the materials into the course. Next, you can create a Page or an Announcement and link to the files you have uploaded, along with some contextual material.

Posting Videos

You can link videos from LinkedIn Learning, YouTube, Vimeo, or other publicly-accessible video sharing sites to your course. Once you’ve uploaded a video or selected a pre-existing video that can serve as learning material for your lesson, copy the video’s URL and share it with your students inside your Blackboard course.

If you have used Echo360 to capture your lecture, then you can copy the link to the recording and post it inside Blackboard to direct students to that recording.

New Default Course Template and Instructions

A new default course template was developed in Blackboard that will be used to create all courses. This template can be used as a starting place for rapid course design. Working with the LMS Review Committee comprised of members from the Faculty Senate and the IT Committee a new standard course template was created with pre-populated with University wide content. It is completely customizable to meet your learners needs. The template provides you with the foundation to build upon.

A detailed preview of the new template and instructions on how to apply other course templates is available in our how-to guide.

Discussion Board

To promote active learning in an asynchronous environment, you may wish to use the Discussion feature in Blackboard to engage students and invite their participation. Simply post a prompt(s) and invite the students to lend their input, and/or respond to other student’s posts. Using Discussion, combined with clear instructions (due dates, netiquette expectations, etc.), can pique student’s interest in a topic and make them feel a sense of ownership in the material under discussion.

Learn more about setting up discussion forums.

Additional Resources

Advising Information

Students may need help in selecting courses, so we are asking our faculty advisors to be flexible and exercise care to respond to students with their questions about courses. If there are specific times when they can meet via Microsoft Teams or via a phone consultation, please give them guidance on how to contact you. An advisor toolkit is also available. This toolkit provides advisors with easy to find information about campus resources.

Compass

Instructions are available for faculty and advisors to create online office hours and online advising availability in Compass. Advisors can also record their advising notes in Compass. Questions should be directed to the Academic Resource Center at [email protected].

Instructions for Accessing PIN Information

  • Log in to PirateNet and click on the “Student Profiles for Advisors” app. This can be accessed by all advisors on and off campus.
  • Advisors can look up a student by name or Student ID Number for a term. To obtain registration PINs for the upcoming semester, Fall 2020 should be selected as the term.
  • Once a term and student have been entered, ‘View Profile’.
  • Student PINs are stored under Registration Notices located on the far right side of the screen

Some students have not engaged previously in online coursework. When you transition to the online format, please be very clear to students about how to access the course information and assignments. We have been getting questions about whether the classes are “meeting” at the same time as they would on campus. Be clear about when assignments need to be completed because some students may be in a different time zone.

Library Resources

Remotely access library resources, e-books, and subject guides or speak with a librarian for your research needs. Visit the Library Resources page to learn more.

Register for Workshops

If you are unable to attend a workshop, session recordings are available in the Teaching with Technology Microsoft Teams channel.

There are currently no upcoming events.

Looking for more Assistance?

The Teaching, Learning and Technology Center (TLTC) provides a number of resources available to faculty to enhance teaching and learning. If there is a tool or a resource that you would like to review further or would like to implement in your courses, please contact the Instructional Designer assigned to your department. If you experience technical issues and require assistance, please contact the Technology Service Desk at [email protected] or (973) 275-2222.

The Instructional Designers serve as a primary point of contact for all faculty technology projects. Each Instructional Designer is assigned to specific departments, Schools and Colleges within the University.

Contact Liaisons

 

Video and Webcam Tips

  1. Lighting your face more brightly than the background makes it easier to see you.
  2. Computer mics pick up lots of ambient noise, so keep your mic muted until you're ready to speak.
  3. Do not sit or stand close to a wall. There should be some separation between yourself and your background.
  4. If recording video, shoot in landscape orientation.
  5. Use a tripod or prop your phone/tablet on a table. It will be best if the phone is secure during shooting.
  6. Use the rear facing camera, not the selfie camera. The rear facing camera produces higher quality video.
  7. Do not use the digital zoom on your phone. Digital zoom crops the image, resulting in a loss in quality. Physically move the camera closer for the best results.

Additional Pedagogical Resources