Author Archives: joanat

Sessions to Prepare for Fall 2020

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The Center for Teaching Excellence and Instructional Technology are teaming up to offer resources to support you in developing your courses for the fall. We want to ensure that we offer resources that are beneficial to you, so we have created a Google form to collect information on types of resources that would be most helpful. We will use this material to finalize programming for the rest of the summer; we will share plans here early next week.

Past Summer Sessions:

Designing Your Course for Ease of Use – (Session Slides) (Session Recording Password: 6N@=2L5O)
Tuesday, June 23 at 3:30 pm via Zoom
Description: Tired of answering questions about where to find things in Canvas? How can you set up your Canvas course shell to maximize student ease of use?

This session will give you a tour of the generic course template used in many online courses and programs at St. Edward’s and explain how it is designed to benefit students through simpler navigation, use of modules, and other features.

Designing Classes for Flexibility – (Session Slides) (Session Recording)
Wednesday, June 10th at 2:00 pm via Zoom – https://stedwards.zoom.us/j/94882787752
This event will be recorded and a link will be made available here.
RSVP
Description: Feeling overwhelmed by fall prep? Concerned about developing your class for multiple modalities (face-to-face, hybrid, online)?

Let’s work together to:

  • streamline your process
  • consider key goals you have for students
  • think about adaptable, flexible course design that helps you adapt to different contexts, as needed

Join Jennifer Jefferson and Rebecca Davis as we discuss designing your courses for flexibility. We’ll address key principles of backward design and learning outcomes as we offer approaches to rethinking classes. Our goal with this session is to provide all participants with a framework that can pivot to multiple modalities, in the hopes of reducing workload in these uncertain times.

Using G Suite

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Welcome back, faculty! As you get started with the new semester we wanted to keep you informed about a few new features you will see within your St. Edward’s Google account.

G Suite Apps

Some of the new features, you may or may not have seen, include:

Gmail has a new interface:

Wait, there is more! You now have access to most of what G Suite has to offer including:

  • Google Drive – Store class documents in a class folder or share folders with students
  • Google Docs, Sheets, Presentations – Create class documents, presentations, collaborate with students and colleagues
  • Google Keep and Tasks – Take daily notes and track things to do
  • Google Forms – Create basic surveys
  • And More

All to help you with your productivity as you work on your classes or collaborate with your students and colleagues. For more information about G Suite, visit support.stedwards.edu and search for G Suite or Google. Happy start of the semester!

Creating and Editing your Faculty Profile on www.stedwards.edu

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Faculty, have you created or updated your faculty profile?

The faculty profiles on www.stedwards.edu are intended to be flexible and allow for you to accurately showcase your professional academic career and highlight unique achievements. This profile framework was developed in conjunction with St. Edward’s University faculty (full time and adjunct) in late 2014 and early 2015.

As faculty, you are responsible for the accuracy of your own information and maintenance of your profile. You may access your profile at anytime. You may also access the faculty profile guide with instructions on how to update your profile. Note: It is important to get an official St. Edward’s University photo taken by Marketing for your faculty profile. Please contact marketing to see when the next photo session will take place.

Website Goals

The current version of the St. Edward’s University website was launched to the public in July 2015. In Fall of 2014, the following goals were established as the guiding principles for the web presence. It is critical to keep these goals in mind as new content is added.

  • Goal 1. Increase awareness of the St. Edward’s brand and enhance the reputation of St. Edward’s as an intellectual and scholarly center.
  • Goal 2. Increase quality and number of students in all academic programs.
  • Goal 3. Establish a website that provides a consistent user experience for internal and external stakeholders to gather information and execute tasks quickly and efficiently.

How Often Should I Update Content?

Any outdated or incorrect content can and should be updated regularly. However, it is recommended that your profile be refreshed every 6 to 12 months.

For Help

Please contact:

 

Canvas Tips and Tricks to start off your Semester

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Publish your Course

Faculty have you Published your course in Canvas? Now that you have worked on your Canvas course, you need to publish it. The only way Publish students can view your course materials in Canvas is to publish your course. To publish your Canvas course click on your Home button on the top left and then click on Publish under Course status on the top right of your canvas course window. The grey publish cloud will turn to a green Published button and the cloud will have a checkbox.

canvaspublished

Favorite your Courses to View from the Courses Menu

You also have the option to favorite your frequently viewed courses you use over the course of the semester. To favorite your course click on the Courses drop own menu and select “View all and Customize” View all and CustomizeThen you will see a list of all your courses listed. Click on the grey star to turn it yellow and that course will be a favorite. Once the stars next to the courses are selected, you will see those from the Courses drop down menu. Favorite a Course

Rename Your Course to add the Semester

By default all courses in Canvas are named with the convention of Course Code-CourseNumber-Section.  For example, CISC-1301-01.  Canvas associates each class with a Term (Fall 2015) but does not display that term as part of the name.  If you teach the same course several semesters you may find it difficult to distinguish between courses when sending messages to your students or combining class sections.

To append the term to a course

  • Click on “Settings” in your course menu.
  • The first field in Settings is “Course Name.”  We suggest adding the term to your course name, for example, CISC-1301-01-FA2015, to make it easy to distinguish your current course in a list.
  • Click on “Update Course Details” to save.

Have your Students Set up their Personal Notifications

At the start of the semester, we recommend that you remind your students to set their personal notification settings in Canvas. This will allow them to choose what types of notifications they receive from their courses. For example, they could choose to add their cell phone number to be able to be notified via text message. They will just need to go to Settings and then click on “Add a Contact Method” to be able to add their cell phone number. Next, the students may click on Notifications on the left and then set their notifications they want to receive, such as announcements, grades, etc.

To learn more about Canvas visit our Canvas Training Center.

Migrating Courses from Blackboard to Canvas

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Do you want to move course materials from Blackboard to Canvas? In making the transition from Blackboard to Canvas, it is important to complete the following three steps:

Migrating from Blackboard

  1. Export your Blackboard Courses
  2. Upload and save your Exported Blackboard courses Zip files into Box
  3. Import your course files from Blackboard into Canvas

We highly recommend that you Export all your Blackboard courses and then upload the Zip files into to your Box account. The Export file is used to import content into Canvas, such as all your course files. We recommend NOT importing your grade center columns and assignments. It is best to create these within Canvas.

We have detailed instructions on how to Export copies of your course to Box, and also how to Import your course files from Blackboard into Canvas.

Blackboard and Canvas Logos

For more questions about Canvas and Training visit our Canvas Training Center for faculty. We are here to help you get your courses started in Canvas.

Mapworks: Make Academic Achievement Possible for Students

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What is Mapworks?

Map (Making Achievement Possible) works is an online tool for faculty, staff, and advisors to assist students in achieving their academic goals and persist toward graduation. Faculty may access Mapworks from the Faculty/Advisor tab in myHilltop.stedwards.edu. Faculty and students have already been receiving correspondence from Nicole Guerrero Trevino, the Associate Vice President for Student Academic Support Services, in how to participate and access Mapworks.

When should Faculty use it? mapworks

Faculty, including full time and adjunct faculty including faculty advisors, should use Mapworks throughout the semester to support and inform their students on the students’ academic success.

  • Anytime – Submit a Referral – used by faculty or advisors to bring attention to a specific area of concern to other faculty/staff that are connected to that student.
  • Week 4 of the Semester – Attendance Reports – used by faculty to report the attendance of their students.
  • Mid Semester – Mid-Term Grade Reports – used by faculty to report the progress of the students in their courses.
  • Mid Semester – Athlete Progress Reports – used by faculty to report the progress of the student athletes in their courses.

When should students use it?

Students should use Mapworks as needed to check their progress in their courses. Faculty, advisors and staff will correspond with students using Mapworks updating them on their academic progress and success.

Learn more about the use of Mapworks at St. Edward’s University:

Who should I contact for further questions?

Contact Nicole Guerrero Trevino, Associate Vice President for Student Academic Support Services, at 512-428-1037 or by email at nicoleg@stedwards.edu.

Using Box for Collaborative Cloud Storage in Your Courses

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Box is a cloud storage and collaboration solution available to St. Edward’s University students, faculty, and staff. With Box, you can create, store, collaborate, and access files and information securely from anywhere, on a multitude of devices. Faculty, you have 50 GB of storage space on Box. Use it today to save files for your courses and share folders and files with your students or colleagues to collaborate.

Box Logo How do I Access Box?

To access your new Box account, visit https://stedwards.app.box.com and click continue. You will be routed to the myHilltop login screen, and after successfully entering your St. Edward’s username and password, you will be routed to your Box dashboard.

Once logged in, you can check out the “Welcome to Box” resources folder provided for you. Please review the Box SEU FAQ document. There is also helpful documentation and videos, to help you get the most out of the great Box benefits now available to you, including:

How are Faculty using Box Today?Box Interface

Faculty, staff, and students are currently using Box for their work and courses. Here are a few faculty stories of how Box is used for their courses:

Kim Garza, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, uses Box in her course and shared her story:

“I wanted to share what happened in my class yesterday with Box. At the beginning of the semester, I created a class folder by posting the collaboration link in Bb/Canvas (super easy). We’ve been adding files to it along the way. But yesterday, I asked them to edit a Box note in class. They were so jazzed by the colored boxes with their initials moving all over the place. It was a bit performative in nature. I enjoyed watching them delight in collaborating in the cloud synchronously. Now, I will say that their task wasn’t really profound — an over-glorified sign-up sheet — but the engagement and geek-out factor was off the charts.”

Other faculty, including the Capstone Faculty, such as Todd Onderdonk, Associate Professor Of University Studies, are encouraging their students to use Box as a great option for the students to store the electronic parts of their research files in Box folders, and to help them with their research processes.

Jump In or Get Help

Box is fully available to all faculty, staff, and students of St. Edward’s University.  Feel free to start using it whenever you are ready. If you would like support, however, in using box, the Office of Information Technology can help.

Did you miss the Experiments in Teaching Showcase on Oct. 24th?

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If you missed the Faculty Innovation Showcase “Experiments in Teaching” on Friday, October 24th. Here is a full recap on what the attendees learned from the faculty 2 minute “lightning” presentations:

Tech Snack – Fostering Student Research

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Faculty, join your colleagues and Instructional Technology staff at the Tech Snack on Fostering Student Research on Wednesday, October 1st from 3:30pm -4:30pm in the Faculty Resource Center (Premont Hall 110).  Please stop by and share how you are fostering student research in your courses. Learn how students can become reflective practitioners and contributors to their discipline by exploring best practices for fostering student research in your classroom and beyond.McNair 2014 Cohort

  • Dr. Molly Minus, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs; Director of McNair Scholars Program, and Sonia Briseno, Assistant Director of the McNair Scholarship Program will present about the McNair Summer Research Program and the role and training that research directors receive when working with scholars.
  • Dr. Sarah Henseler, Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, will share how her students use Qualtrics Questionnaires to conduct their independent research projects. These are mainly correlational studies. Both Dr. Henseler and Dr. Minus teach courses in Research Methods.
  • Dr. Richard Kopec, Professor of School of Natural Sciences, will share how he is facilitating undergraduate research in STEM.
  • Jason Rosenblum, Assistant Professor of School of Management and Business, will share how he taught an “all-digital Capstone” course,  incorporating digital strategies to help students manage the process to find research materials, store bookmarks and maintain a digital research file. All students were then required to turn in their digital research file at the end of the term.

How are you fostering student research? Share in the comments or please drop by the FRC (Premont 110) on Wednesday, Oct. 1st 3:30pm-4:30pm and enjoy some drinks and snacks. Sign-up today.

Apps and Appetizers Mixer

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word cloud of appsWelcome back to campus faculty and staff! Join your colleagues, Innovation Fellows, and Instructional Technology staff at the Apps and Appetizers Fall semester mixer on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 from 3:30pm-4:30pm in the Faculty Resource Center (FRC), Premont Hall 110. Lets start off the semester by sharing mobile Apps,  appetizers, and Apple cider. Bring your iPad, iPhone, Android phone or other mobile device and share which apps help you manage your work and life. Discover apps for productivity, education and fun! At last year’s mixer, Evernote was voted the favorite app.  What will it be this year?

Please sign up today: http://bit.ly/SEUITTraining so we can bring enough snacks.

Mobile Apps at St. Edward’s University

Mobile device ownership is on the rise at St. Edward’s University. 34% of this year’s freshman are bringing tablets including iPads and Android tablets and 97% have smart phones. There are more than 115 university-owned iPads on campus used by faculty, staff, and students.  How are these devices getting used? Here’s just a few uses we know about:

  • St. Edward’s Mobile App: brings all the campus information you need to the palm of your hand.
  • Productivity: Digital workflow apps help us go #100percentdigital and include, Evernote a digital note taking tool, Box and Google Drive, which are cloud collaboration and file organization tools, and Diigo an online social bookmarking and annotation tool. We are offering Computer Training Workshops to learn more about these tools. Sign up today: http://bit.ly/SEUITTraining
  • Judy Leavell, School of Education – use of free Children’s literature iPad apps for Student Teacher’s to increase iPad usage in K-12 schools.
  • Todd Onderdonk, University Programs, Cory Lyle, Professor of Spanish, and Grant Simpson, dean of the School of Education – use of iPad apps to create Digital Autobiographies of young students while studying abroad in Chile.
  • Kim Garza, Professor of Graphic Design – had students design apps for the iPad and used iPad apps for group work.
  • Michael Wassermam, Professor of Environmental Science & Policy, and Roberta Sue Engel, Visiting Assistant Professor of Entomology – using mobile apps to collect mobile data in field work.

Know of other app uses?  Have a favorite app to share?  Share it in the comments or drop by the FRC (Premont 110) on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 from 3:30pm-4:30pm.