Preparing your ANGEL Courses for the Fall Semester

As you start to think about your fall courses, we wanted to share with you the following important information that will help you prepare your course site in ANGEL.

Please review the “Preparing your ANGEL Course for a New Semester” checklist for directions on getting your course site set up for a new semester.

If you have any questions, please contact us at angel@northshore.edu.

August and September Instructional Technology Workshops

In August and September, Instructional Technology and Design will be offering several workshops for faculty on a variety of topics around integrating technology into the teaching and learning environment. Please reserve your slot at any of these sessions by emailing itd@northshore.edu.
  

Video Anywhere

Video Anywhere is a tool in ANGEL (also in Blackboard) that allows faculty to easily record a video from a webcam and embed that video directly into any of the text box editors throughout ANGEL (for example, Announcements, Pages, Discussion Forums, Drop Boxes, etc.).

• Thursday, August 21st from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. in Danvers DB 202

Google Documents for Collaboration and Communication

Looking for a way to promote student collaboration on a project? Need a simple way for students to share documents or give presentations? Want to collect information from your students quickly? Then Google Documents is for you. This workshop will present the benefits of using NSCC’s Google Documents application in the classroom to easily create, edit, and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

• Thursday, August 21st from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Danvers DB 202

New to ANGEL

The New to ANGEL workshop is designed to familiarize faculty with ANGEL and introduce basic course building functionality. In this workshop, participants will learn to: navigate around the course site, add different types of content, organize content in folders, and enable the course for student access. While the college migrates to Blackboard, ANGEL will be available for faculty to use during the 2014-2015 academic year.

• Thursday, August 21st from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Danvers DB 202
• Wednesday, August 27th from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in Danvers DB 202
• Tuesday, September 2nd from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Lynn LW 305

Blackboard Learn Sneak Peek

Over the 2014-2015 academic year, the college will be migrating to a new learning management system, Blackboard Learn. This session will provide participants with an opportunity to get a sneak peek at some of the features and functionality of Blackboard Learn as well as learn more about the implementation timeframe and the course migration process from ANGEL.

• Wednesday, August 27th from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Danvers DB202

Open Educational Resources

This session will provide an overview of what open educational resources are, how faculty can find and evaluate them, ideas for using them in classes, and their role in the community college to help make textbooks more affordable to students.

• Wednesday, August 27th from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Danvers DB 202

Smart Classrooms

Come and find out all of the little ins and outs of using a Smart Classroom here at North Shore Community College. We will also share with you best practices when using one of these rooms. You will have the opportunity to try out the technology for yourself.

• Friday, August 29th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in Danvers HPSS 226
• Tuesday, September 2nd from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Lynn LW 323
• Monday, September 8th from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in Danvers HPSS 226
• Friday, September 9th from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in Lynn LW 323

We hope to see you at the workshops!  If you are unable to attend or are interested in learning more about other instructional technologies, please email us at itd@northshore.edu. We are happy to schedule a one-on-one session.

Let’s Be Open: Answering the Big 5 Questions About Open Content for Your Classroom

The average community college student spends over $1200 annually on classroom textbooks. That means that students who complete their learning in two years will have spent close to a single-semester’s worth of their money on textbooks.  Nearly two-thirds of students at some point have not bought a textbook because of the cost (and that too has taken a toll on most of their performances within those courses). Though many of us are not aware of the specific numbers, we implicitly know and witness the result of expensive textbooks in our classes. 

For many instructors, textbooks (and their often steep prices) are a necessary evil.  Some will find ways of lessening the burden put on students by having copies available in the library for in-library use or allowing students to purchase earlier (and therefore, cheaper) editions.  But in a given course section, we’re still likely generating hundreds if not thousands of dollars profit for publishers at our students’ expense. 

But does it have to be this way?  What if the course resources and materials can be made entirely free or significantly cheap enough so that no student is making a choice between books and life expenses?  This possibility is not the future.  It is now and it’s time we take advantage of it. 

Image of OER logo
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OER_Logo.svg

What are Open Educational Resources?

Open Education Resources (OER) are media-rich online repositories with content that faculty can use for free for their courses.  This includes but is not limited to:  textbooks, short-reads, videos, sound recordings, assignment guidelines, course notes, and even entire course packages.  The purpose of these repositories is to make materials available for all students and faculty on all subjects so that we spend less time on “reinventing the wheel” of course content and more time on engaging with our students around the course content.  Many of them are in the public domain or have what is called a Creative Commons license. Here are few examples.

• Open Education Resources Commons
• Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources
• Archive.org - Open Educational Resources

 

What about access?

An immediate question of access arises with OER as they are internet based, and not all students have access to a computer (though in a 2012 NSCC technology study did show that 86% of students have laptops--to say nothing of any other devices). But let’s look at the logistics of this concern.

If a student does not have the $120 for the textbook, there is a good chance that he/she gets zero access.  In that scenario, if the argument is that one can put the book on reserve at the library for the student to use--the same argument holds true for access for OER.  Since our libraries have public-use computers, OER in this comparison is more accessible, because the student can access the online material from both campus libraries or any library that allows computer access (which is many, if not all, on the North Shore).

But if it is important to have the physical copy, many places offering free textbooks online, such as OpenStax, provide the student an opportunity to purchase a cheap print-copy of the book for $30.  For many textbooks in the math and sciences that can mean over $100 savings.

Finally, there is no delay in access with OER.  Students can access all of the content as soon as the course starts.  Instructors no longer need worry about issues of financial aid delays, late shipping by the publishers, or other issues that regularly interfere with the course lift-off. 

What about stability?

The belief that the internet is more unstable than the textbook industry might need some reconsidering.  Firstly, it should be acknowledged that textbook publishing has its own instabilities including the ability to cease publishing the book being used or to publish newer editions that may be inferior, pricier, or change things up enough to have to revise the course layout.

Secondly, even if the textbook arrives in the bookstore, many students may still have to leap through hoops to get their financial aid to cover the books (or even not have enough to cover it).  The instability of those first few weeks leaves many faculty skipping or delaying the use of course content.

Thirdly, OER content is often capable of being downloaded, edited, and inserted directly into a course shell.  This means that their stability is much more assured than the textbook.  If this is a significant concern, then one should make sure to make flexibility to download a criteria for selecting OER materials.  Though in truth, this isn’t really much of a concern any more since content available in one OER repository is often duplicated into another--that is, there are back-ups of back-ups across the Internet.

Finally, again, the content is present and ready to go from the start of the semester.  Many of us have been caught in the situation where we don’t find out until too late that the textbook we want wasn’t ordered or not enough were ordered and are left scrambling to cobble together the rest of the semester.  OER materials are available at the start and throughout the semester.

Image CC:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/6554315179/

What about quality?

Some perceive OER as lower quality because they are free.  Of course, psychological studies have shown that price influences perception.  That $200 biology textbook must be awesome whereas that free biology textbook must be a poor comparison.  Saying that there are a lot of poor selections in the OER somehow implies that this isn’t the case with textbooks, but of course, we know that’s not true.  We can look to James Loewen’s famous book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong and other similar research as a reminder of that.

Will there be poor OER material out there?  Absolutely.  However, there will also be really great content.  By using and promoting OER material, instructors will play an important role in helping colleagues sift out the good from the bad--just like they do already with textbooks.

However, OER also has the potential to deliver better content in three capacities.

• Updating content:  Updating content in OER materials is much easier than in a textbook and the beauty is that updated content will not require another new (and costly) edition.
• Customizing content:  Add, edit, or delete the OER resource so that it fits exactly how you want to use the material.
• Shifting content:  Why stick with just one OER object?  Instructors can weave together the perfect course materials from numerous sources, rather than a one-size fits all source.

 

What about time?

Converting to using OER materials will take time.  There’s no question about it.  But it is time well spent, not only for your students, but for the college and academia in general.  Also, it doesn’t mean, however, that one must reinvent all of one’s courses in a single semester, but develop a strategy for how to do so in the long run.  Start with replacing one item in one course and slowly grow from there.  Faculty can also work with Instructional Technology and Design as well as the library who support such projects and will be releasing a LibGuide shortly on OER for faculty.  It will take time, but so do these things:

Finding new texts for a course (because the book went out of print).

• Dealing with new editions of the same textbook you’re using and updating course references to the textbook.
• Delays in teaching and learning because students don’t have access to the textbook.  
• Answering questions about whether different versions of the textbook are acceptable.

Moreover, these things happen time and again, year after year.

Making students pay for any content beyond the course itself is the college’s means of externalizing costs at the expense of our students, and we do so for the profit of book publishers.   The final analysis is that using open educational resources not only empowers you as the instructor, it provides better access and fewer challenges to our students.  OER also fulfills the community college’s vision for civic responsibility by using, sharing, and even developing open educational resources for the public’s benefit.

This article was originally published in The EdTech Edge.  Please check it out to see other great articles about instructional technology at North Shore Community College.

NSCC's Next Learning Management System

In early May, NSCC concluded the search for a new LMS with the decision to award the bid to Blackboard, Inc. This decision was reached in agreement through the Distance Education Committee and the extended LMS Task Force, as well as input received from the vendor presentations, reactions to the sandbox environments, and comments from many of faculty and staff. 

The implementation of the latest version of Blackboard Learn and the migration away from ANGEL will begin during summer 2014.  The process will take approximately a year to complete and will occur in several phases.  The working timeline is as follows:

• Summer 2014 – System set up and customization.  Academic Technology and Information Systems training and system familiarization.  Course migration process tested.  Preparation for fall pilot.  ANGEL will be operational during this time and all summer 2014 courses will be delivered in ANGEL.  
• Fall 2014 – Pilot of courses in Blackboard Learn by 10-15 faculty.  Training and course migration will occur in August.  ANGEL will be operational during this time and all fall 2014 courses will be delivered in ANGEL. 
• Spring 2015 – All online and hybrid courses will be delivered in Blackboard Learn for the spring 2015 semester.  Training and course migration will occur during the fall semester.  More information will be sent out to faculty teaching online in late summer.  ANGEL will be operational during this time and all spring 2015 face-to-face courses will be delivered in ANGEL. 
• Summer 2015 – All summer courses will be delivered in Blackboard Learn for the summer 2015 semester.  Training and course migration will occur during the spring semester.  ANGEL will be taken offline during this time and will not be used to deliver any courses.
• Fall 2015 – All fall courses will be delivered in Blackboard Learn for the fall 2015 semester.  Training and course migration will occur during the spring and summer semesters.  ANGEL will be offline and will not be used to deliver any courses.

Many thanks to all who contributed to this decision and we look forward to working with everyone through the coming year.  We will continue to update the campus community about the implementation through the Bulletin, email, Facebook, and this blog.

Please feel free to contact us at itd@northshore.edu with any questions or concerns.

Upcoming ANGEL Archive

As outlined in the NSCC ANGEL Course Archive Policy, Academic Technology is in the process of archiving older ANGEL course sites and removing them from the ANGEL server.  We will also be deleting some old course sites from the archive.  We wanted to provide you with advanced notice before any course sites are deleted from the ANGEL server and also from the archive.  Below is an outline of the our timeline for deleting courses from the ANGEL server as well as from the archive.

• Course sites from Spring 2013 - Will be removed from the ANGEL server and placed in archive on June 1, 2014. Spring 2013 courses are scheduled to be permanently deleted from archive on October 1, 2017.
• Course sites from Fall 2009 - Will be permanently deleted from the archive on June 1, 2014.

If you would like to retain these course sites for a longer period of time, you have the option of generating your own archive and there are several available options for storage, including:

• Your P: Drive network folder (only accessible on campus)
• Your Google Drive, accessible through the your  NSCC email account
• A personal storage medium, i.e. USB drive, portable hard disk, computer, CD
• External cloud storage solutions, available at little to no cost (such as Dropbox or SkyDrive)

Directions for generating your own course archive (content and student data) are available at: http://goo.gl/jpO5R.  Staff members from Instructional Technology and Design will be available to assist you in archiving your ANGEL course sites.  If you need assistance, please email the ANGEL Helpdesk at angel@northshore.edu.

Preparing your ANGEL Courses for the Summer Semester

As you start to think about your summer courses, we wanted to share with you the following important information that will help you prepare your course site in ANGEL.

Please review the “Preparing your ANGEL Course for a New Semester” checklist for directions on getting your course site set up for a new semester.

If you have any questions, please contact us at angel@northshore.edu.

Academic Technology: Any (Virtual) Place, Any (Face) Time!

The Face of Academic Technology at North Shore Community College

  

The role of Academic Technology at North Shore Community College is to integrate current and emerging technologies into the teaching process, the learning environment, and the curriculum-at-large.  Academic Technology staff assist faculty in these endeavors to ensure a positive impact on student learning through multi-modal approaches and extended learning opportunities.

Academic Technology is comprised of two working teams: Instructional Technology and Design (ITD) and Instructional Media Services (IMS).  The combined capabilities of these two teams provide the following services to the college community:

• Classroom technology planning, design and support
• Management of online courses, distance learning and related resources
• Instructional design services for all forms of technology-enhanced learning
• Media production services, including digital media development and event support

If you are interested in exploring instructional technology or instructional media further or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at itd@northshore.edu or media@northshore.edu.  We are happy to help!

Innovations in Academic Technology at North Shore Community College

The Technology Across the Curriculum (TAC) newsletter, Mousetales, has been reinvented as the EdTech Edge and is now available on North Shore Community College’s public site at: http://www.northshore.edu/faculty_staff/resources/tac.html.

The TAC program at NSCC "promotes academic excellence by stimulating and nurturing innovative ideas by faculty and professional staff that employ technology in support of teaching and learning".  The TAC program supports creative uses of instructional technology inside and outside of the classroom as well as the development of new online and hybrid courses.

Check out this year's issue to learn more about the innovations of NSCC faculty, staff, and administration in the area academic technology.

The current issue of EdTech Edge includes:

• Comments from TAC faculty on their projects
• An article by Michael Badolato, Dean of Academic Technology, on the college's new active learning classroom prototypes
• An article by Lance Eaton, Coordinator of Instructional Design, Academic Technology,
  on the increasing use of open educational resources including open textbooks
• An article by Andrea Milligan, Director of Instructional Technology and Design, Academic
  Technology, on several new instructional technology resources and services
• A list of free, scholarly electronic databases and resources compiled by Andrea Milligan and Terri Whitney, Professor (Department of English) and Coordinator of Technology Across the Curriculum

The LMS Transition: Demos & Sandboxes

The college has recently begun a search for a new Learning Management System, with implementation scheduled to begin in summer 2014.  This process is moving forward with the selection of three vendors who have been scheduled for on-campus presentations in early March.  Each vendor will come to campus to make a presentation to the campus community about the features and functionalities of their product.  The vendor presentation will take place in Danvers and will be video-conferenced over to Lynn.  The schedule of presentations is:

• Canvas:  Monday, March 3rd from 2:30pm to 4:00pm in DS119 and LW325 
• Blackboard:  Wednesday, March 12th from 2:30pm to 4:00pm in DS119 and LW225
• Desire2Learn:  Thursday, March 13th from 2:30pm to 4:00pm in DS119 and LW325

We look forward to seeing you at these sessions so that you can provide us feedback on the products.  Even if you are not able to attend all three presentations, please attend the ones that you can to provide us input.

Each company's product will also be available for members of the college community to experience and evaluate after the presentations.  ITD will be hosting several opportunities in March and April for faculty and staff to stop in, test out the different systems, and provide us with feedback.  Access to the sandbox environment will also be available virtually and more information will be available soon.  Please save these dates:

• Wednesday, March 19th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB201 (during spring break)
• Thursday, March 20th from 9:00am-3:00pm in LW306 (during spring break)
• Wednesday, March 26th from 8:00am-9:30am in LW306
• Wednesday, March 26th from 4:00pm-6:00pm in LW306
• Thursday, March 27th from 8:00am-9:30am in LW303
• Thursday, March 27th from 2:00pm-5:00pm in LW305
• Wednesday, April 2nd from 8:00am-10:30am in DB201
• Wednesday, April 2nd from 2:00pm-6:00pm in DB201
• Thursday, April 3rd from 8:00am-10:30am in DB239 (Library Preview Area)
• Thursday, April 3rd from 2:00pm-6:00pm in DB201

In the meantime, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns at itd@northshore.edu.

Snow Days Got You Down? Level Technology to Make Up Missed Classes

Have your courses been impacted by the snow days?  Looking for a way to continue student learning even when classes are cancelled due to weather?

North Shore Community College’s learning management system, ANGEL, is a great instructional technology tool that can aid you in maintaining the continuity of your course.  All courses automatically have an ANGEL shell that provides faculty with a “private classroom” area for you and your students.  In ANGEL, faculty can post announcements about the status of class with instructions on how to proceed through related learning activities; upload various types of content such as assignments, readings, lecture notes, or PowerPoint slides; link to related online resources such as YouTube videos or web sites; set up drop boxes where students can submit homework; and facilitate discussions for students to engage with the course e materials. 

To aid faculty in using ANGEL, Instructional Technology and Design is offering the following services and resources.

One-on-one Consultation and Training

Staff members from Instructional Technology and Design are available during the day and in the early evening to schedule one-on-one ANGEL consultations and trainings.  These can be done in person, over the phone or virtually.  Please email itd@northshore.edu if you would be interested in scheduling a session.

ANGEL Overview Sessions

Instructional Technology and Design will be offering several ANGEL Overview sessions in the evening on both the Danvers and Lynn campuses.  These sessions will demonstrate how to post an announcement, upload a document, create a discussion forum, and make the course site available to students.  The sessions will be offered:

• Monday, March 10th from 5:30pm-6:00pm in DB304
• Tuesday, March 11th from 5:30pm-6:00pm in DB304
• Wednesday, March 12th from 5:30pm-6:00pm in LW323
• Thursday, March 13th from 5:30pm-6:00pm in LW329

If you are interested in attending one of these sessions, please RSVP to itd@northshore.edu.

How-To Videos

Instructional Technology and Design has developed a resource guide that provides links to various how-to videos on using ANGEL.  These quick videos will walk you through the various components of ANGEL so you can learn them on wherever and whenever it is convenient for you. 

Access the videos here: http://goo.gl/MweuaQ

If you have any questions about using ANGEL, please do not hesitate to contact Instructional Technology and Design at itd@northshore.edu.