We congratulate the 9 faculty named as Innovation Fellows and the 7 faculty named as Global Innovation Fellows for the 2014-2015 academic year. Each fellow will develop, redesign, or modify a course or major course component for the 2014-2015 academic year that does one or more of the following: leverages existing and emerging technologies, includes interdisciplinary approaches, or includes significant pedagogical experimentation. These courses will serve as models for pedagogical experimentation at St. Edward’s University. Beginning Monday, May 19, the fellows will participate in a two week Innovation Institute to begin planning their courses. See the call for proposals for more details and start thinking of your innovation project for the next round of fellowships. Your innovation fellows are: Continue reading
Tag Archives: faculty
Faculty and Advisors using myHilltop and Self-Service Banner
Now is the time to start using myHilltop and Self-Service Banner (SSB) for Summer and Fall 2014 registration and courses. All contracted and adjunct faculty are automatically granted limited access to basic information in SSB including Class Rosters, the Course Catalog, Alpha Course Listing, Directory Information, Faculty Schedules, and Grade Entry. Advisors may also see a list of their advisees.
How do I get Help and get Trained?
There are online training resources available through the Registrar’s office site that will help Faculty and Advisors on learning how to use myHilltop and SSB.
Visit: http://think.stedwards.edu/registrar/faculty-and-staff-training-materials to view PDFs and short video tutorials.
Faculty and advisors will learn:
- How to login to myHilltop an access SSB
- Enter a term selection, student ID, and view student information
- View academic transcripts
- Advisors may view their advisee listing and issue an Alternate PIN
- View the course catalog
- Enter a Course Reference Number (CRN), final grades, and view a summary class list
- Enter in office hours and syllabus information for each course
What’s New?
There are a few new changes that faculty and advisors must know about in order to work with SSB and help students and view course content.
- ID numbers in Banner must be a total of 9 digits. For Example, a Current ID Number is 841289. For Banner to accept this as a valid login you will need to add three zeroes before the number to equal 000841289. If the Current ID Number is only 5 numbers, such as: 82978. You would need to add four zeroes before the number to equal 000082978.
- Course Reference Numbers (CRNs) are numbers assigned to courses in Banner when a course section is created. CRNs are a five-digit code unique to every section and will change each registration term. Faculty will be assigned a new CRN for each course they teach each semester.
- Final grades may be entered and saved and changed, if needed, before the final date to submit grades.
- Faculty may also now enter office hours and basic syllabus information for students to view when registering for courses.
For questions about specific registrar’s content, please contact the Office of the Registrar: http://think.stedwards.edu/registrar/. For training questions, please contact training@stedwards.edu or visit: http://think.stedwards.edu/instructionaltechnology/training
Improve Students’ Ability to Function as a Team
Students need to know how to work in a team if they want to succeed in any organization. Unfortunately, students are often left to their own devices when it comes to actually working together as a team. Faculty share several important concerns when evaluating team performance. One is how to equitably reward the individual team members when only few students did the work. Another issue is how do students learn to be better team members when they only receive feedback at the end of the course, too late to make any changes in their behavior. Students also need to understand the importance of using a methodology when working on team projects.
Dr. Mark Poulos, Professor of Business Administration, and Dr. Angel Tazzer, Faculty Support Manager, have developed a proven methodology using a wiki to improve students’ ability to function as a team while completing course assignments. The methodology is easy to implement and adapt to your specific classroom needs and can be implemented using the native wiki tool in Blackboard or in any other wiki.
Consider this methodology if you want to:
- Reflect and share the reasons for using team assignments in the classroom including the benefits, issues, and best practices for their implementation.
- Learn a methodology that can be used in your classroom to improve the ability of students to function as a team.
- Establish a feedback and accountability process in which the students may learn and modify their behavior in future assignments.
Feel free to contact Mark Poulos (markp@stedwards.edu) or Angel Tazzer (angelt@stedwards.edu) for more information and wiki templates.
Credits
Working Together Teamwork Puzzle Concept. [Digital Image]. Retrieved from
www.flickr.com/photos/lumaxart/2137737248/
Faculty Must-Have iPad Apps #1: Evernote
Evernote is a multi-purpose app. First, it’s a simple tool for taking notes in a meeting or conference presentation. Second, it’s a way to “clip” web pages, documents and images in much the same way as one would clip interesting articles from paper-based newspapers and magazines.
The above features are not necessarily unique. However, Evernote is downloadable to each of your devices, from phones to iPads to desktops and laptops and synchronizes across all of them, which IS unique! Essentially, this functionality allows you to create notes on one device that, when synchronized (automatically once an internet connection is detected), becomes available across all of your devices that have Evernote. In many instances, this can eliminate the need to email documents and other information to yourself.
Students, Faculty, and Staff Discounts on Microsoft Office 365 and 2013. What are your options?
St. Edward’s University students, faculty, and staff have the option to use VarsityBuys.com to purchase and download software products for personal use. Some of these products include Office 365 University for students, faculty, and staff, and Office Professional Plus 2013 for faculty and staff.
When it comes to deciding what software best meets your needs, you need to do the research, but we have already done that for you. It is up to you whether you want to subscribe (rent), purchase a license (own), or use an online free version of Microsoft Office. Shown below are the personal use options available for faculty, staff, and students:
Steps to Purchase Office 365 University for Students or Microsoft Office Professional Plus for Faculty and Staff
Visit VarsityBuys.com and select the Institution Type: College/University and then select the Country and State/Province as Texas and click on Go and select Saint Edwards University. There, you may purchase and download the available software products for Students and Faculty/Staff.
Steps to Create a Microsoft Account and use and Download SkyDrive
First, visit https://signup.live.com to create a Microsoft account, and then visit outlook.com to sign-in using your Microsoft account and view email or select SkyDrive. To download SkyDrive to sync your files visithttp://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/skydrive/download.
Now that you know the various Microsoft Office options to choose from, you just have to decide which type works best for you. For more information and other references visit:
Ecycling is Available on Campus
Don’t produce electronic waste (e-Waste or e-Scrap). e-Waste can be defined as loosely, discarded, surplus, obsolete, or broken electrical or electronic devices, according to Round2 a national electronics recycling company that provides integrated and customizable electronics recycling services.
St. Edward’s University is working with Round2 to provide eCycling on campus to all students, faculty, and staff.
Students
Students can now eCycle in each resident hall. There are collection bins available in each residence hall where you may drop off the following:
- toner cartridges
- ink cartridges
- and batteries
Faculty and Staff
Faculty and Staff may drop off any toner cartridges or ink cartridges at the Copy Center. There is a collection bin available.
More information about sustainability initiatives on campus could be found on the St. Edward’s University Office of Sustainability.
Also, I.T. Training offers a Green I.T. workshop that covers tips on making environmentally responsible purchases of technology equipment at both the personal level and institutional level.
Course Availability in Blackboard
As a new semester begins I wanted to remind students and faculty about the availability of Blackboard classes. All classes from the official course catalog are automatically loaded into Blackboard with a status of unavailable. Those courses are immediately available to faculty; however, students will not see those courses in Blackboard until faculty make their courses available.
Steps for faculty to use to make a course available to students:
- Go to the Control Panel for the Class
- Click on Customization
- Click on Properties
- Select Yes in the Set Availability section
- Click on Submit
You will receive an onscreen receipt confirmation. Now your course is accessible to your students.
Note that classes in Blackboard will automatically be made unavailable to students on the 12th class day of the next semester.