SYSTEM ALERT: Spring Break – Most Smith IT services will be down for maintenance on Monday March 17th, 7am – 5pm EST

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2 days
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To: Smith Community
From: Office of Smith IT

This is a notice to advise you of the upcoming Server Maintenance Outage that will occur at 7am EST Monday, March 17th and last until 5pm Monday, March 17th. During this outage the Smith server room will be offline and powered down for essential work to the infrastructure.

Please note: Email as provided by the Smoogle platform will be available as it is hosted offsite. You will be able to send and receive email during the outage.

The following services will be affected during the outage:

Active Directory File Server (K and O Drive)
Server-based printing
Smith Website
Smith Apps
EMS / Scheduling
Conference Room computers
Classroom and Lab Computers (in College Park, DC, and Baltimore)
UNet
MBA Networth
Application Databases that run from Lotus Notes
Caserooms
WordPress Blogs
DOIT Servers for course work BMGT402, BUDT704, BMGT406, BMGT407
Gartner
WebHelpdesk ticketing system (i.e. helpme@rhsmith.umd.edu)

The following services will NOT be affected during the outage:

Smoogle Smith email
Other Smoogle services such as Calendar, Drive, Sites
WEPA printing
Research platform
Salesforce

Please direct any questions to the Office of Smith IT Help Desk at helpme@rhsmith.umd.edu or 301-405-2269.

We apologize for any inconvenience that the outage may cause.

Office of Smith IT

Canvas updates – What’s happening?

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3 days
by in Announcements, Canvas

Instructure makes small changes and improvements to ELMS every three weeks. Some of these changes may have gone by without you really noticing! In this webinar, our instructional support team will point out a few recent changes made since the beginning of the year that you may want to pay attention to, including some changes to the Gradebook, Insert Content into Page file selection, New (beta) Conversations tool, and course Import tool.

Click here to join the Adobe Connect session: http://webmeeting.umd.edu/ltwebinars

Event Date:
Tuesday, March 25, 2014 – 12:30pm to 1:00pm
Event Location:

Online in Adobe Connect

Using Data to Inform Teaching and Personalize Learning

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4 days
by in Announcements
From: Ben Bederson <bederson@cs.umd.edu>

Subject: Tim McKay visit Thursday, Apr 10

Tim McKay from the University of Michigan will be visiting Thursday, April 10th to give a talk on the work he has been doing on learning analytics.  Please RSVP here so we can estimate attendance (and to let us know if you are interested in joining a meal w/ Tim.)

Title: “Learning Analytics – Using Data to Inform Teaching and Personalize Learning”

Tim McKay, University of Michigan

Thursday, April 10

11am

1310 Marie Mount Hall

Abstract: The activities of teaching and learning at the University of Michigan generate a stream of data which are increasingly rich and becoming more accessible. Learning analytics aims to explore this data, using it to better understand the student experience at Michigan, to quantify the impact of teaching reforms, and to provide personalized real-time student support. In this talk, I will describe some early results of learning analytics efforts at  Michigan, including some work on predictive modeling of student performance, personalized electronic coaching in introductory statistics courses, and an effort to calculate a substitute for GPA which accounts for variations in grading patterns among courses.

Bio: Tim McKay is an Arthur Thurnau Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Michigan. He is also the Director of the Honors Program in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and the Chair of the Provost’s Learning Analytics Task Force. His primary research is in big data cosmology, using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Dark Energy Survey to statistically characterize the growth of structure in the universe. In recent years he has enjoyed turning his data science skills from finding galaxy clusters to predicting student performance and supporting their success.

 Please forward as you see fit – the talk is open.
Prof. Ben Bederson
Special Advisor to the Provost on Technology and Educational Transformation
Human-Computer Interaction Lab   –   Computer Science Department
www.cs.umd.edu/~bederson           –   (301) 405-3394

 

 

 

New PCs in classrooms

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2 weeks
by in Alerts, Announcements

The computer upgrades in VMH classrooms are now complete.  They should improve performance and speed of many applications that were not functioning well enough.  You will log in the same way.   We’ve built the software image based on current requests, but if we missed anything, please let us know right away by emailing helpme@rhsmith.umd.edu.

Baltimore classrooms will be upgraded with the same equipment in the very near future as well.

Faculty panel discussion on flipping and blending

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2 weeks
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Flip or blend classroom experiences shared - February 27, noon-1:30 McKeldin Library, 6137

Co-sponsored by the Academy for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and the Center for Teaching Excellence

Campus faculty discuss what “flipping and blending” is all about, how some are using it in their classrooms, and who can help you “flip or blend” your classes.

New teaching and learning tools are constantly being developed and tested. The latest trend is flipped or blended classrooms. To flip or blend – the acrobatics of teaching with technology is a beginning of a conversation with campus faculty who have flipped and/or blended their courses, and who will share their experience and insights into the dos and don’ts of flipping and blending.

  • Presenters: Dr. Marcio Oliveira, School of Public Health
  • Dr. Mel Scullen, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
  • Dr. Sarah Balcom, Department of Animal and Avian Sciences
  • Cinthya Ippoliti, Libraries

Where: 6137 McKeldin Library

When: Thursday, February 27th

Time: 12-1:30

Please R.S.V.P. at cte.umd.edu/teaching/AETL/flipblend.html

Co-sponsored by the Academy for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and the Center for Teaching Excellence

Tips for success in online meetings or classes

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3 weeks
by in Pedagogy, Tips

Great tips for presenting at digital meetings, videoconferences and online classes:

Tech Manager Primer: Room Etiquette.

SYSTEM ALERT: Monthly Server Maintenance Outage – Friday February 14th 2AM – 7AM EST

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3 weeks
by in Alerts, Maintenance
This is a notice to advise you of the upcoming Server Maintenance Outage that will occur at 2am EST Friday, February 14th and last until 7am Friday, February 14th. During this outage many of the Smith servers will be getting patched with the latest Security and Critical Updates that Microsoft and various vendors have released.  Many Smith School services will be affected due to reboots that are required when the patches are installed. The Active Directory File Server, all Lotus servers and Smith Apps/Citrix servers will also be restarted.

The following services will be affected during the outage:
Smith Apps
Lab and Classroom PCs
Active Directory File Server (K and O Drive)
UNet
MBA Networth
Application Databases that run from Lotus Notes

Please direct any questions to the Office of Smith IT Help Desk at helpme@rhsmith.umd.edu or 301-405-2269.

We apologize for any inconvenience that the outage may cause.

Office of Smith IT Helpdesk

Course Design Spring Workshops

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4 weeks
by in Announcements
Are you contemplating a change from the brick and mortar environment in which you traditionally teach? The Division of Information Technology’s Learning Technologies Institute spring workshop series on planning for course transformation is available to help.
Workshops will explore Planning for a Blended Course, Planning to Flip Your Course, Adapting Your Syllabus for Online Teaching, or Facilitating Student Engagement in Large Enrollment Course Spaces and will be offered on Fridays throughout February, March and April.  These FREE workshops are open to the university instructional community. Register at the Training@Maryland site:
Deborah Mateik
LTI Coordinator

Sloan Consortium courses -register by 2/6

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1 month
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The Sloan Consortium is an institutional and professional leadership organization dedicated to integrating online education into the mainstream of higher education, and helping institutions and individual educators improve the quality, scale, and breadth of online education.  The Division of Information Technology sponsors the university’s membership in the Sloan Consortium, which provides faculty, staff, and graduate students access to online workshops.  The workshops for February are now open for registration.

 

* Designing Effective Assessment Strategies (registration deadline extended until 2/6)

* Developing Effective Presentations

* Developing Rubrics

* Developing an Interactive Syllabus (registration deadline extended until 2/6)

* Finding and Using Open Educational Resources

* Introduction to Mobile Apps and Tablets (registration deadline extended until 2/6)

* Introduction to the Quality Scorecard

* New to Online: The Essentials

* New to Online: Effective Feedback Strategies (registration deadline extended until 2/6)

* New to Online: Introduction to Audio and Video Tools

* New to Online: Supporting New Online Learners (registration deadline extended until 2/6)

* Online Science Labs: Tools and Techniques (registration deadline extended until 2/6)

 

To register for these free workshops, please go to www.training.umd.edu and click on “Sloan-C Online Workshops” in the Course Catalog.

 

For more information, please contact Deb Mateik at um-training@umd.edu.

Webinars, Teatimes and Brownbags for February

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1 month
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The Division of Information Technology is pleased to announce the following February events.
“How Do I” Q&A Weekly Webinar Series
• ResponseWare: Poll Your Students with Mobile Technology
(Tuesday, February 11, 2014 at 12:30 p.m.)
• Adobe Connect: Tips & Tricks You Don’t Want to Miss! 
(Tuesday, February 25, 2014 at 12:30 p.m.)
Tea Time Tech Talk
• How Do You Make Teaching “Real” in a Virtual Classroom?
(Tuesday, February 18, 2014 at 3 p.m.)
Faculty Brown Bag Discussion
• Synchronous Learning in an Asynchronous World
(Friday, February 28, 2014 at noon)
*See below for detailed information about these events.*
ResponseWare: Poll Your Students with Mobile Technology
When:  Tuesday, February 11, 2014 from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: Online Using Adobe Connect Pro
This webinar will provide an overview on using ResponseWare, the mobile device option for use with TurningPoint Polling software.
Adobe Connect: Tips & Tricks You Don’t Want to Miss!
When:  Tuesday, February 25, 2014 from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: Online Using Adobe Connect Pro
Do you want to run your Adobe Connect meetings more efficiently? In this webinar, you will learn some of our best tips to help make your virtual meeting a true success. Participants should have a basic understanding of Adobe Connect to attend this webinar.
How Do You Make Teaching “Real” in a Virtual Classroom?
When: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: Room 2109 (Terrapin Learning Commons), McKeldin Library
Online classrooms have the advantage of making learning opportunities available to students 24/7, in many cases. The environment is, by its nature, student-centered. However, how do instructors making their presence “real” to students despite their physical separation? Come share your online teaching best practices and concerns.
Synchronous Learning in an Asynchronous World
When: Friday, February 28, 2014 from noon to 1 p.m. Where: Room 0120, Patuxent Building
Online learning environments are quickly becoming integrated into many departments’ offerings. Dr. Julia Felton and Dr. Aditi Vijay from the Department of Psychology will discuss strategies, tips, tricks, and lessons learned from creating an entirely online Master’s program using Adobe Connect. Drs. Felton and Vijay will argue for the importance of including synchronous learning experiences in online education and talk about best practices for incorporating these tools effectively.
This is a great opportunity for instructors to bring their ideas and questions to an open forum where we can discuss and learn from each other.
These events are open for all faculty and staff who enjoy participating in lively discussions and acquiring new skills and ideas. No registration is required for any of the events. Light refreshments will be provided for Tea Time Tech Talks and Faculty Brown Bag Discussions.
Login Instructions for Webinars: 
• To join the meeting, please visit:
• For the current webinar schedule, please visit:
• All webinar archives are located at

 

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