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Second Life Conference ~ A 3D Virtual
World
Academic Outreach and theSecond Life Academy will be
hosting the first ever “Real Education in a Virtual
World: Using Online Virtual Environments for Teaching
and Learning” Conference in Second Life! The conference
will be held from November 10-11, 2008 entirely in
Second Life on the ECU virtual campus (http://slurl.com/secondlife/ECU%20II/112/107/26).
Registration is free but participation is limited to
registered attendees. Examples of presentation
topics are:
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Reports of
research conducted on the use of virtual worlds for
instructional purposes
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Educational
simulations conducted in-world
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Building
and design projects conducted
in-world
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Social
functions held in-world to promote or support
educational activity
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Contests
or competitions promoting problem-based learning held
in-world
All proposal
must be submitted on or before September 11,
2008.
If you
would like to receive training on Second Life or
additional information, please contact collinss@ecu.edu.
For more
information please go to: http://hawk.aos.ecu.edu/secondlife/
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DE Coaches Program
~ A Success!!
Special
thanks to summer DE Coaches: Erich Connell, Annette
Greer, Jane Lang and Karen Vail-Smith. We had a
special opportunity for these experienced DE
faculty. They assisted several colleagues in
implementing innovative teaching strategies,
technologies and effective practices for online course
development and delivery. Throughout the program
DE Coaches led workshops and individual consultations on
a variety of topics including: Blackboard chats, Centra,
Camtasia, Skype, course organization, syllabus
construction, exploring ways to present material and
facilitate communication online, and virtual methods for
communication and experiential learning.
Participants ranged from faculty members teaching DE for
the first time, to faculty members with experience in DE
that wanted to brainstorm for new teaching
strategies. Here’s what participants are saying
about their DE coaches…”made me more aware of ways to do
online lessons and gave me several suggestions for the
future.” “I liked that is was hands-on with
personal help.” “I could ask specific questions
about the way I teach." Thanks to all that
participated in the
program! |
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Think-In 2008 ~
November 12, 2008
Mark
your calendars for the fourth annual Think-In!
Academic Outreach would like to invite you to Think-In
2008: A Teaching with Technology Showcase. This is
a great opportunity for you to see the latest and
greatest teaching with technology
techniques.
Think-In
2008 will be held in the Great Rooms at the Mendenhall
Student Center at East Carolina University on November
12th, 2008, from 10:00 am-2:00 pm. The event will
showcase faculty and how they utilize technology to
educate students in the classroom - in both face-to-face
and distance education courses. Presentations will
be made via "laptop" poster sessions and will include
course demonstrations.
This
year we anticipate seeing even more new and exciting
demonstrations from our ECU community, as well as from
the North Carolina Eastern Region Community
Colleges. Please mark your calendars now so you
can join us and see what the new buzz in technology is
all about in 2008.
Watch
for the call for proposals that will be coming
soon.
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/academicoutreach/think-in.cfm |
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Global Academic Initiatives
In
2002, facing the reality that we were becoming a
global community and the majority of the students
could not afford to go abroad to learn the skills
needed to function and become leaders in such a community,
Dr. Rosina Chia, a cross-cultural psychologist and Dr.
Elmer Poe, a computer technology expert, worked together on
a project to think outside the box of traditional study
abroad and use state of the art technology to develop
innovative, cost effective ways to bring global
experiences to our students. They
decided on using primarily video conference technology,
paired with other audio and chat formats, to create a
course where students can sit in the same classroom in
real time and learn about and from each other.
A pilot
Global Understanding (GU) course (INTL 1000) was offered
in summer, 2003 with one Chinese partner. The format of
delivery was very successful and students loved the
course, but we felt the students might easily take the
one country experience and generalize it to all
foreigners, thus we decided to add student’s exposure to
more countries.
Students are partnered one on one and the
partners have to work on a joint paper at the end of the
5 week session. Students are learning the “living”
culture of the other country directly from their
peers. In
addition to this GU course, ECU’s global academic
initiatives has expanded to include lecture exchanges,
joint courses, and collaborative research, all using
video conference technology with global
partners.
After 4
years of overwhelming success with 21 partners in 16
countries, we started to plan a conference to invite all
partners to come to ECU where we could share with each
other the future direction of this Global Partnership in
Education (GPE). We hope to find solutions to our common
challenges, criteria for admitting more partners without
compromising the quality of this project, and foster a
sense of comradeship among all partners.
May 19-22
the first GPE Conference was held successfully, with
President Bowles giving the opening speech. Twenty three
delegates from 12 countries (Algeria,
China, India, Malaysia, Moldova, Peru, Russia, Venezuela
and USA were present in person, Pakistan, Mexico, and
Taiwan participated virtually; Czech Republic, The
Gambia, Morocco, Turkey and two other institutions from
Russia could not be present). Over three days
we accomplished the following:
-
The
official Global Partners in Education was formed
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ECU was
elected President for 2008-09; and Secretariat for a
five year term; the next
Annual Conference (2009) will be at China Agricultural University in Beijing
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Three
committees were set up: Pedagogy;
Technology; and Administrative (including
funding and research). Each committee
has set up goals, and action plans. Results are to be
reported to the entire membership at the next
meeting.
At ECU,
we offered a three day summer workshop where we
trained 2 faculty from each college to learn how to use
video conference in order to add an international
component to existing or new courses. The teaching
team will continue to work with these faculty so by
Spring, 2009, there will be at least two courses in
every college that are jointly taught with a foreign
partner and many lecture/module exchanges between our
professors and professors at foreign institutions.
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Technology
Advancement Center Is on the
Move~
The good news
is that the Technology Advancement Center (TAC) has moved
from 1807 Charles
Blvd to Suite
100A of the Self
Help
Building in
Downtown Greenville. Alliance
Partners and other friends are invited to stop by and
visit us at our new location. The Self
Help Building began as the historic Proctor Hotel, a
Greenville landmark built in 1912 - - that’s the year
when Zane
Grey published Riders of the Purple
Sage and the "unsinkable"
ocean liner Titanic sunk on its maiden voyage after
colliding with an iceberg in the Atlantic.
Relocation
of the TAC to the Self
Help
Building was
planned for some time, placing the Center closer to its
primary reporting unit, the Office of Academic
Outreach.
In its new location the TAC will continue to
serve as the place where technology addressing needs
critical to distance, mobile, and hybrid e-learning is
discovered, tested, and
applied.
One
of the primary goals of the Center is to
conduct research and test new
communication, computer and information technology
in pilot projects, and then apply these
technologies in innovative ways that enhance the quality
and excitement of learning. Many times these
projects have impact beyond the University and
Eastern North
Carolina
and are carried into distant lands and places.
Often these projects are directed toward the
improvement of organizational effectiveness or quality
of life of students, staff, and faculty. If you are
interested in collaborating on a pilot project advancing
new opportunities for teaching and learning with the TAC
please call us at 737-1265 or 1264. For more
information see:
www.tac.ecu.edu
First
in the Nation with AI-Based Online Virtual
Advisors
Research
Associates in the Technology Advancement Center and
collaborative partners in three Colleges and
Departments at ECU have developed six Online Virtual
Advisors.
An Online
Virtual Advisor is a product that assesses what
courses may have been completed by a prospective
student, weighs these against specific program
requirements, and then generates a prescription for
learning (Digital form indicating what will be accepted
and what is yet to be completed). Online Virtual
Advisors are used as “pre-advisors,” prior to scheduling
an appointment with an on-campus advisor. The
collaborating College or Department provides guiding
questions and content, while the TAC writes the program
and applies the AI software putting it all
together.
Online Virtual Advisors have helped advisors
become more efficient in their program advising
process.
Details on these products are shown
below:
*System: GOAL (Graduate
Online Advisory Liaison)
URL: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-bus/busgoal.cfm
*System: SOAR (Student
Online Advising Review)
URL: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-bus/bussoar.cfm
*System: MAP (My Advisory
Plan)
URL:
http://rocket.tac.ecu.edu:8080/dhep_project/he&p_project/ehp_form/ehp_form.htm
*System: BSIT AAS Completion
Program (Virtual Online Advisor)
*System: MSIT (Master of
Science in Industrial Technology); six concentrations
and three
certificates
For further
information on how you can partner with the TAC to
develop your own Online Virtual Advisors contact: Dr. Barry DuVall,
Director, ( duvallj@ecu.edu)
or Matt Powell, Assistant Director, (p
owellma@ecu.edu). See: www.tac.ecu.edu.
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September 2008
In This
Issue |
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1. Second Life- A 3D Virtual
World
2. DE
Coaches
Program
3. Out and
About ~
Training
4. Global
Academic
Initiatives
5. Technology
Advancement
Center
6. Moodle
7.
Centra
8. Academic
Integrity
9. DE
Orientation Website
10. Contingency Plan
-DE Courses
11. Think-In
2008
12. D-ECU
News
13.
Blog/Wiki
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AO ~ Out & About
September 15-Oct 03,
2008
Greetings ECU Faculty ~Academic Outreach will
host its Fourth Annual Out and About training
sessions scheduled for September 15-Oct 03,
2008. What is Out and About? AO staff will
schedule appointments and visit your office for
one-on-one personalized training along with
offering group training. We have found this is
the best way to learn our new tools and ask any
questions you might have. Academic
Outreach will be sending out an email in the
next week on how you can reserve a time slot
with one of our experts. The following platforms
will be available for training:
Blackboard,
Moodle,Sakai, Centra,
Second Life, and Camtasia
For more information please go to: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/academicoutreach/outabout.cfm
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Moodle @ ECU
Academic
Outreach is continuing its support and use of
Moodle, the Open Source Content Management
System. Moodle assists educators in
creating effective online learning communities
with its open interface and options. You
can create a very interactive learning
environment that will stimulate your student’s
learning and imagination. If you would
like to place your course in Moodle, please
contact Sharon Collins (collinss@ecu.edu)
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Centra~
7.6
Brings New Features &
Vista
Saba Centra is an online learning
environment that delivers the classroom
environment to your students combining a highly
interactive virtual classroom learning,
e-meeting, and web seminar platform.
Centra is being used throughout almost every
college at ECU to create a more social
environment for
students.
Recently the
Centra environment was upgraded to a new version
– 7.6. This version brings several new
features including: *Enhanced Browser and OS Support –
Support for Firefox 2.0 for the Mac and
Microsoft Windows Vista.
*Centra Recording
Studio – Provides a method to quickly create,
manage and publish professional-quality, rich
media content in various formats and also
extends editing features of your class
recordings.
The Centra team
will be providing training beginning in
September through our Out and About series and
also through departmental training
session. Please look for additional
announcements or continue to check our
website. You may also contact Sharon
Collins collinss@ecu.edu and John Southworthsouthworthj@ecu.edu for additional
information.
We would like to welcome Brittany
Styers and Clayton Wilson to the Centra
Team. They will both be working to enhance
our support and training
team.
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Academic Integrity for
DE
Courses
Distance Education courses, whether they
are fully online or blended, pose new challenges
in the area of Academic
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
at http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/
academicoutreach/Integrity/.
This website contains information
and strategies that will
help foster Academic Integrity within online and
blended courses.
Please direct questions or
comments to Ginny
Sconiers at sconiersg@ecu.edu
or
Sherion Jackson at jacksonsh@ecu.edu.
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Distance Education Orientation
Website - For
Students
The DE Orientation will take you
step-by-step through the process of how to get
started taking classes online. As you work
through the orientation, you will discover
answers to questions you may have such as:
What is distance education? Who is my
advisor, and how do I contact him/her? How do I
access course material? How do I get an email
account and DE
student card?
http://author.ecu.edu/cs-acad/DE
Orientation/index.cfm
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Contingency Plan
- 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 or other course documents
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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