Center for Online Learning Newsletter

The Center for Online Learning and the Emerging Technology Center are pleased to bring the 2009 Advanced Digital Campus Leadership Institute to campus!  The “ADCLI” focuses on concepts designed to help all leaders iDream, envisioning ways to use innovation and enhance the learning experience.

The focus, “Beyond Plain Vanilla Education… in Today’s Digital World” will take us beyond “rebroadcasting lectures” using innovative ways to enhance the learning experience.

The online broadcast will take place on April 14-15, 2009 in the College of Education.  An agenda and full description can be found on our website - Online Faculty Development.

We’ve now added some of our student tutorials for GaVIEW onto iTunesU.  iTunesU contains custom GSU content for iPod and other portable media players.  Check it out today: Launch iTunes U!

As a part of our commitment to develop quality online courses, the Center for Online Learning will be hosting several upcoming online faculty development opportunities.  Read more below:

“The USG Office of Faculty Affairs, in conjunction with the Digital
Innovation Group and Advanced Learning Technologies, is pleased to announce
the first in a series of faculty development sessions to be delivered
online.  Our goal with these sessions is to present topics of timely
information pertinent to faculty and their teaching responsibilities.  While
the sessions will be delivered online via wimba, the content will also be
useful in the face-to-face classroom.”

The first session will be hosted on Thursday, February 26th at 3pm.  For more details, read our the new Faculty Development page on our website.

GeorgiaVIEW - the next version of WebCT/Vista has been officially launched for faculty/staff to begin building and migrating courses.  The new version boasts an improved interface, new features, and a new experience for students.  It familiar environment, easy to navigate interface, and simple function will mean it is easier than ever to learn and use effectively.  For more information visit the COL website:  http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/col/gaview/  or login at My.GeorgiaSouthern to take it for a spin.

There have been reports of some intermittent periods of slowness with the system.  We are actively working internally and with technical leads and administration at OIIT to monitor the performance and investigate any causes associated with these issues.  Thank you for all your feedback and patience as we strive to provide the best possible environment for teaching and learning.

Wimba Classroom, which allows faculty, staff ,and students to have live and interactive audio/video conferences on their computer,  got a small upgrade this past weekend.  The changes are minute, but powerful.  The ability to resize areas of the screen and to promote students to presenters on the fly are a few of the notable new features.  Enhancements to the administrative console and reporting tool are also present.   The software integrates with WebCT/Vista, allowing virtual classrooms and meetings to take place within the context of courses and non-academic settings.  For more information, visit our website’s Wimba Classroom section:  http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/col/services/liveclassroom.php

We are pleased to continue to bring the campus Wimba Classroom.  This technology combines powerpoint, audio, video, and interactive components into one single meeting place for courses.  Accessible through the WebCT Vista interface or as a standalone environment, Wimba Classroom can be used for meetings, demonstrations, online lectures, conferences, tutoring sessions, group presentations, or just to chat with someone across the world.  For more information on using this technology, visit our website for Wimba Classroom.

A technical report from a University of Houston Department of Health and Human Performance researcher finds that students in a hybrid class that incorporated instructional technology with in-class lectures scored a letter grade higher on average than their counterparts who took the same class in a more traditional format.

Read more on this article at the following link.

http://www.campustechnology.com/articles/60481/

The work of the COL staff has paid off and the new website is officially live.  With resources for faculty, staff, and students, the site provides a launching place for any online course activity.  For faculty, it included best practices on how to teach online effectively, as well as tutorials and tips for using online course software like WebCT Vista, Wimba Live Classroom, and much more.  For students, it provides resources for troubleshooting problems with the aforementioned software, as well as 24×7 support for it.  Finally, it offers the entire campus resources for incorporating online technology into their educational endeavors.  Check it out today by clicking on the blog roll link on the right.

The Center for Online Learning is now a reality on the campus of Georgia Southern University. A merge of technical, functional, and instructional expertise, this new team looks to take online learning to new heights. The Center looks to begin making changes to the quality and quantity of online courses and degree programs immediately. In addition to a deep sense of improving the effectiveness of online course delivery, the Center also manages the technical aspect of the environment the courses are taught in, and seeks to begin offering additional services to faculty and students on the campus.