As usual, Information Services has used the Summer break to make upgrades to Moodle. The upgrade to version 2.8 brings several new features that can be of use in your courses. The biggest changes that you’ll notice are in the gradebook. Moodle has a new default aggregation method called “Natural”. Natural aggregation is a replacement…
We’re Back!
Actually, we’ve been here all summer long but we’re back posting on the blog. Here’s a preview of exciting things to come this semester. Stay tuned for more detailed blog posts over the coming weeks! Some changes to Moodle Expanded, updated and instructionally robust online library research subject guides Connecticut College’s first ever online library…
Blogging Vacation!
We are taking the month of July off! While we will still be in the office, our time will be focused on projects and planning for the upcoming academic year. We had a great year, thank you for keeping up with us. Since we started the blog in July 2013, we’ve published 129 posts in…
“Eye Want Change”: Video for learning, immersion and transformation
Recently faculty have been clamoring to effectively incorporate video and other multimedia assignments into their courses. This, in addition to the huge number of classes that require video for content delivery, has made video a hot topic on campus. Ariella Rotramel, Visiting Assistant Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, sent me this NPR story about…
How to Best Access and Work with Documentary Footage & Testimonials
One of the advantages of teaching at a small liberal arts college is that you enjoy more freedom to offer a wide range of courses on topics outside your area of research expertise. Over the years, I have been able to develop and offer courses on Mexico and Cuba, environmental history and social movements, the…
Easing the Time Demand of PCard Accounting
Higher education is rapidly transitioning to purchasing card programs as a means of streamlining the process by which services and goods are procured by employees. With recent growth of the credit payment industry, colleges and universities are embracing purchasing cards, or “pcards”. Pcards are meant to reduce transaction costs, allow access to supplier discounts, eliminate delay…
Collaborating with Students & Shared Google Folders
This semester, students in my course ARC 231: Interiors of Connecticut College, were tasked with working collaboratively and to find ways to effectively and efficiently share their progress with one another. From my initial course planning and development, I knew that this would be a challenge, especially considering that for the first two projects in the course, the class…
What happened at Tempel Summer Institute?
We hosted the 16th annual Tempel Summer Institute last week. It was a great week devoted to solving pedagogical problems through technology and exploring new technologies to improve student engagement and learning. We had some great discussions, experienced many ah-ha moments, ate lots of dessert, experimented with new technologies, revised existing courses and worked on…
On the Road! What we learned at the Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts conference
Last week 7 faculty and staff from Connecticut College took a road trip to Bryn Mawr for the Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts conference to present the Technology Fellows Program (TFP). During the two day conference, we learned a lot listening to the presentations, talking to each other and to colleagues at other institutions. Here are…
Social Media in Academia: Connecting with Local and Global Communities
For better or worse, social media is entrenched in the routine lives of our students, our colleagues, and the communities in which we participate. With over 70% of American Internet users engaging its pages, Facebook still dominates as the most popular social media site. Close behind, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest fall somewhere in the…