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Faculty
Feature
Ken MacLeod
Department of
Marketing & Supply Chain
Management
College
of Business macleodk@ecu.edu
I
started at ECU in 1989. I came late to
teaching on-line, beginning three years ago when the MBA
was made fully available on-line. My teaching is
primarily case-based, meaning I require each student to
apply a series of spreadsheet-based models to business
problems and write-up their results in short reports, as
well as taking part in a group presentation of one of
the cases.
I teach the same course face-to-face and on-line,
so the biggest challenge is ensuring the different
formats provide the same information to the students
while making the same requirements of
them.
Areas
of Specialization: Multi-Criteria Decision
Making, Optimization Models, Heuristics, and Project
Management
Courses Currently
Teaching:
OMGT
6613 (2 on-line sections, 1 face-to-face
section)
Using
Technology to Teach in DE Courses: Besides
Blackboard, I have a class web site that contains
lecture notes, sample quizzes, sample cases, and sample
spreadsheets.
The web site is available to all students
(face-to-face and on-line), which keeps the material
available to the students consistent. I also make
extensive use of Centra, the VOIP (Voice Over the
Internet Protocol) program that allows me to talk to my
students as if they were in the same room. Centra sessions
can be recorded and published to a web site (within
Centra or independently) for later review by students
that could not log in when the session was given. This maintains
the asynchronous (students are not required to attend
class at a stated time) nature of the on-line
course. I
hold some Centra session concurrently with my
face-to-face section, ensuring that the on-line students
hear the same information as the face-to-face
students.
An unexpected consequence of that is my
face-to-face students ask me to make the recorded
session available to them, for their later review.
I also use Centra
sessions for the two “consultations” that each
presenting group gets to have with me. During these
consultations, I can review their spreadsheets, read
documents that they display, or view PowerPoint slides
that they have created (actually, any application that
can run on your computer can be shared via Centra). Since I also use
a tablet computer (think of a PDA blown up into a laptop
computer), I can write my comments on the computer
screen, much as you would write on a blackboard during a
face-to-face section, allowing me to edit their work
(this is also how I mark rough drafts of the reports and
grade the final drafts) again as if they were in the
room with me.
Finally, I use Centra sessions for the actual
presentation of the on-line students, where they project
the PowerPoint slides and, just as with a face-to-face
section, they present the material by voice and through
the use of pointers and highlighters. At the end, the
students can ask questions of the presenters, who
respond immediately.
Ken'sTechnology
Tip: Don’t
get frustrated with the technology when something goes
wrong.
Think of it as a badly timed fire drill, and find
a way around it.
In a computer system, there is almost always more
than one way to do the same thing. If you can’t
find a way, then ask someone else – the technology
consultants are a great resource (and remember to thank
them – they don’t hear that
enough). |
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Centra
Connect, Chat, Share -
Make it
Possible!
Have
a Centra Sizzlin Summer!
Vacations,
wacky schedules, and time zone
challenges – oh my! It is time you
considered using Centra web conferencing software for
your online classes. With Centra you
can have voice and video communication to do the
following:
- Office
Hours
- Meetings
- Individualized
Group Sessions
- Feedback
to a Group of Students or One-on-One
- Present
Student Projects/Presentations
- Hold
Classes with Flexible Hours- Meet the Needs of Your
Students
Centra
is a user friendly distance learning program for use by
ECU faculty and students for online/hybrid
learning. It has audio, video, file sharing and
collaboration capabilities.
The Centra
staff in Academic Outreach will set up the classes, hold
training sessions (online or face-to-face), enter your
first sessions for assistance, and support you
throughout the entire process. Join the ECU
Centra family of current Centra users! For those that
used Centra in the past, we are ready to schedule your
summer sessions.
Please go to: http://ecu.centra.com or
contact Sharon Collins (collinss@ecu.edu) or John
Southworth (southworthj@ecu.edu) to find
out more about Centra or to schedule your
classes.
Learn
what Centra is all about and have a flexible, enjoyable
summer! |
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ThinkLink-2007
Online
Discussion Forum
The first
UNC System-wide ThinkLink was a great
success!! ECU hosted a two-day asynchronous
Discussion Forum regarding Quality in Online/DE
Instruction. The goal of the Thinklink was to give
participants a voice in shaping system-wide quality
standards in Online/DE Courses. Discussion topics
included:
1. Support needed to teach quality Online/DE
courses
2. Ingredients necessary
for quality courses
3. Assessment of quality in Online/DE
courses
The
following Universities participated in the
discussion:
| Appalachian State
University |
UNC
at Chapel Hill |
| East Carolina
University |
UNC at
Charlotte |
| Elizabeth City State
University |
UNC at
Greensboro |
| Fayetteville State
University |
UNC at
Pembroke |
| NC
A&T State University |
UNC at
Wilmington |
| NC
Central University |
Western Carolina
University |
| NC
State University |
Winston-Salem State
University |
| UNC
at Ashville |
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Participants
benefited from some very insightful conversations and
many innovative ideas emerged. We will be compiling a
summary of the overall discussion and will follow up on
some of those good ideas.
Thanks to all for making the first ThinkLink a
success!
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Course Management
System
At Academic Outreach, one
of our major commitments is to provide a feature rich
and user friendly course management system (CMS) to
support teaching and learning for both on-campus and
distance education at ECU.
We
have been using Blackboard since 1999. Our current
Blackboard platform is version 6 and Blackboard has
recently released version 7. While we have certainly
thrived with Blackboard, we must now take a look at
other possibilities, just as we did when we made the
decision to upgrade to version 6 in May 2004
The
objective of this CMS Platform project is to conduct a
formal analysis of three different CMS platforms:
Blackboard, Moodle, and Sakai. In order to have a
complete CMS evaluation, the project needs input from
all stakeholders, including faculty, staff,
Instructional Technologists, ITCS, and
students. Participants in this important project
will serve an active and contributing role in improving
the learning platform for ECU.
Currently we have more than 30 faculty
participating in this project, and we still have seats
available.Participants
will be involved in the following
tasks:
· Faculty
will use 3 CMS platforms, teaching one course a
semester on a different CMS
· Faculty
will compare/contrast each CMS platform
· Focus
groups will study specific aspects of CMS platforms
Participants
will teach courses in Blackboard throughout the
project. In addition, teaching at least one course
in Moodle and another course in Sakai is
required. The timeline for this project
is:
· If
you teach a course in summer 07, use
Moodle
· In
Fall 07, teach a course either in Moodle or
Sakai
· In
Spring 08, teach a course either in Moodle or
Sakai
It's
not too late to join the project team! If you are
interested in joining us to help make a decision
toward our next learning platform, please contact Biwu
Yang at yangb@ecu.edu.
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Continuity of
Instruction
The ECU Continuity of
Instruction document includes a number of practical
suggestions for faculty in the event that it becomes
necessary for student learning to continue without the
availability of face-to-face instruction. The ECU Continuity of Instruction
document provides the following two sets of
recommendations as guidelines to encourage the
continuation of instruction within East Carolina
University during a pandemic or other catastrophic
event.
The first set of recommendations assumes
faculty and students will have Internet and/or computer
access and presents a Just-In-Time scenario,
Scenario 1. The second set of recommendations assumes
that access to the Internet and/or a computer will not
be available and presents a Just-In-Case
scenario, Scenario 2. Plans should anticipate the use of
alternate methods for delivery of course materials, for
student-faculty communication and include the actions
and timeline necessary to carry out such a plan.
The amount of effort and time required to
develop a plan will vary from course to course. Visit the Continuity of
Instruction webpage to download the entire document: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/academicoutreach/continuity.cfm. |
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April 2007
In This Issue
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1. Faculty
Feature
2.
Centra
3.
ThinkLink
4. Course
Mangement
System
5. Continuity
of Instruction
6.
Blackboard
7. Academic
Integrity for
DE Courses
8. Contingency
Plan
9.
Think-In 2007
10. University
Multimedia
Center |
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Blackboard
Discussion
Grader
The Discussion Grader is a feature on Blackboard
that simplifies the process of evaluating and grading a
student’s participation in discussion board
forums. With the Discussion Grader, you have
access to a single page with every message that a
student has posted to a particular forum, number of
words per message, and number of original messages
and
replies. After reviewing the student’s information on
the forums, you can enter a grade for the student. The
grade for the student will then be stored in the
Blackboard Gradebook for the course.
http://ecu.supportcenteronline.
com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=557&task=
knowledge&questionID=1135
The Messaging
Tool
The Blackboard Messaging Tool
allows you to
send
internal messages to another
user in your course, via Blackboard. These messages
are
not
associated with your email
accounts.
This Blackboard tool is used to send,
retrieve and store messages within a course. Messages
can only be sent to other users within a Blackboard
course.
http://ecu.supportcenteronline.com/ics/
support/default.asp?deptID=557&task=
knowledge&questionID=1149
For more information contact Matt
Long
longm@ecu.edu . |
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Academic Integrity for Distance
Education Courses
Distance Education courses, whether they are
fully online or blended, pose new challenges in the area
of Academic Integrity, for faculty and students alike.
Combine student high technology implementation with the
widening availability of new technology, and this often
equates to new and unique ways to diminish integrity.
Presenting students with guidelines or discussions
concerning integrity early in each course will go a long
way in securing decisions which will help develop
ethical behavior and improve Academic Integrity.
An Academic Integrity web site for Distance Education is
now available to help you with your Summer/Fall
2007courses. This web site contains information
and strategies that will help foster Academic Integrity
within online and blended courses, as well as items you
can personalize and copy/paste into your course
materials. You can find this site at: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/academicoutreach/Integrity/.
Please direct questions or
comments to Ginny Sconiers at s coniersg@ecu.edu or
Sherion Jackson at jacksonsh@ecu.edu.
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Contingency Plan for
DE
Courses
As with any technology, Blackboard
and other Internet based course delivery systems have
the potential for technical problems. To prepare for
potential problems and/or downtime, we strongly advise
all instructors using Blackboard or other Internet based
course delivery systems to have a contingency plan when
the technology is not available. A contingency plan
involves anticipating and planning for an alternate
delivery of course material and communication when a
service interruption occurs. Your
contingency plan should appear on
your course syllabus so that students know their
responsibilities and what to expect in a
downtime situation. You can
find suggestions to help develop your contingency
plan at: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/learningplatforms/contingency.cfm Please direct
questions to Ginny Sconiers at sconiersg@ecu.edu. |
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ECU
Think-In 2007
We are already thinking about the Think-In and
hope you are too!
This Fall Academic Outreach will host the third
annual Think-In. So be “think-in” about your
proposal and expect to see the Call for Proposals in
September 2007.
We
hope you can join us as fellow ECU faculty share their
expertise using technology in both face-to-face and
distance education
courses.
For more information about the Think-In and
to see a sampling of prior presentations visit the 2006
site: http://www.ecu.edu/academicoutreach/
think-in2006.cfm.
The
University Multimedia Center
The University Multimedia Center
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/umc/index.cfm
designs and develops multimedia
projects for interactive course content. Our team works
with faculty to create intuitive, engaging environments
for learning. Projects range from animation and web
design to interactive CD/DVD titles. To propose a
project: http://www.ecu.edu/umc/proposalform.cfm
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