Is your Blackboard course available?
Every quarter, instructors must make their Blackboard courses available in order for students to access the content. 
1) Navigate to your Bb course Control Panel and click on Customization.2) Click on Properties. 3) On the Properties page, scroll down to Section 3 Set Availability and click the Yes button to make your course available. 4) Click Submit. |
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We're Moving!
This summer, the CTL will be relocating to the first floor of Aspen Hall. We will host our faculty technology lab and other support services at that new location during the 18-month renovation of Penrose Library.
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Adobe Success Story
The University of Denver was recently featured in an Adobe Success Story for the CTL's innovative use of the Adobe Flash Platform to create rich Internet applications that are used by faculty and students across campus.
This article highlights how DU has created many different applications, including DU CourseMedia, DU Porfolio, and the GSSW Internship Database to allow DU communities to work more efficiently and collaboratively, while allowing students to gain critical 21st century skills.
Read the article
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Meet our Adobe Community Professional!
Congratulations to the Center for Teaching and Learning's very own Joseph Labrecque, who was named an Adobe Community Professional for 2011!
Find out more about this prestigious honor.
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Laptops in the classroom:
Friend or foe?
The CTL hosted a lively session in January about the presence of laptops and other mobile devices in the classroom. Those in attendance generally agreed that the abundance of mobile devices in society at large has created the need for a new set of manners surrounding technology use.
Panelist Christof Demont-Heinrich from Media, Film and Journalism Studies shared his extensive use of in-class technology, including an international discussion board between his students at DU and students in Slovenia and Australia, the use of twitter to find news resources, a student generated YouTube channel, and A/V materials interspersed with discussion in class. He embraces technology as a powerful teaching tool, however is still frustrated with the use of mobile devices in his classroom.
Panelist David Thomson from the SturmCollege of Law argued against an outright ban of laptops in the classroom, saying "we have to have the conversation about how to use these tools effectively, and if we ban them, we cut off that conversation." He also argued against the impression of students as digital natives. He feels students may know how to text, but technology is "not something they know how to use in their learning. We already have a million responsibilities, but we have another one, to teach our students how to use these things effectively, including how to turn them off."
During the brainstorming session, Sandy Johnson from the Korbel School of International Studies offered one of the more popular ideas. She's asked students to create a social contract at the beginning of class to set ground rules for the use of technology in the classroom, and has found students will police each other based on these collaboratively created norms.
Find more strategies through the resources below:
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Introducing DU Adobe Connect 
The University of Denver recently purchased a license for Adobe Connect 8 - a web conferencing application used for conducting online meetings and course lectures. Adobe Connect will replace Wimba Classroom software, which will be phased out over the next academic year.
Adobe Connect allows faculty to simultaneously present existing content, like a PowerPoint, and have real-time engaging collaboration with participants by using features such as webcams, text chat, and digital whiteboards. Meetings can also be recorded for viewing at a later time.
DU instructors use Adobe Connect 8 in a variety of ways, including:
- web-based individual or small group instruction
- hosting guest speakers
- conducting online office hours
- connecting remotely with colleagues
Adobe Connect's features include a digital whiteboard, audio and video broadcasting, text chat, polling, and application, screen, and document sharing. No special software is needed to participate in a session beyond a Web browser with Flash Player (almost all computers have this already) and a broadband Internet connection.
For more information, please visit the Adobe Connect Portfolio: http://portfolio.du.edu/connect |
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Online Learning at DU 
T he CTL was overwhelmed with the response for our Fall Call for Proposals
to Create Online Classes. Nearly 30 faculty members from almost every unit on campus were awarded funding to participate in a professional development process and develop and teach an online course. In addition, Bruce Uhrmacher and the Morgridge College of Education were awarded a CTL 20K Grant this fall, MCEconnect, to pursue its own development of online education and support of a cultural shift in faculty technological literacy, starting with a hybrid graduate program in Curriculum and Instruction to begin this summer. This February and April, the CTL's Teaching Online Workshop is at capacity, providing over 40 faculty members the opportunity to take a 3-week online course about teaching online. The workshops will end with participating faculty showcasing their courses to each other and providing peer feedback and the sharing of ideas.
Let's be clear, DU is not turning into an online institution! But online courses are being explored as a means to offer classes to our undergraduate students in the summer, to reach a broader audience of graduate students, and to allow faculty members to explore new learning technologies and teaching methods. Faculty members who have recently been through this online teaching process found they enjoyed this renewed thinking about teaching and brought many of the technologies and strategies developed into their face-to-face classes.
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CTL Winter Workshop
 Fostering Critical Thinking in Online Discussions Friday, February 18, 2:00-3:30pm
CTL Classroom, Nagel Hall 102 Online discussions are an integral part of online classes and an increasingly popular option for blended and on-campus classes. Discussions are ideal settings for developing critical thinking, reflection, and application skills. However, effectively facilitating online discussions requires the purposeful use of specific facilitation strategies and skills. In this workshop, participants will explore and practice practical strategies for creating and fostering deeper levels of critical thinking in online discussions. Register here.Facilitators: Bridget Arend, Center for Teaching and Learning Kim Hosler, University of Northern Colorado |
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Blackboard Tips
 Adding Original Videos Each term, increasing numbers of instructors are choosing to upload original video content to Blackboard. Although Blackboard will accept many different file types, including large, uncompressed video files, this is not always the best way to deliver content to your students. Uploading and downloading these files through Blackboard can be a cumbersome process, which can take up a lot of time and cause much confusion. This can also have a negative effect on Blackboard's overall performance by taking up valuable and limited disk space. Beginning in Winter 2011, Blackboard will limit the size of individual file uploads to 60MB per file. This will prevent the direct upload of large video files, but instructors will still be able to share video content with their students through other methods. The University of Denver has several solutions for instructors to deliver streaming video to their students that can be tailored to individual faculty needs or pedagogical goals. Please contact Alex Karklins or Alex Martinez at the Center for Teaching and Learning if you wish to share original video content through Blackboard. You can read more about this issue on DU's EdTech blog here. For more Blackboard tips, view our training guides and video tutorials. |
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Want hands-on help managing your video content?
Sign up for our Spring CTL Workshop!
Hands-on Workshop: Integrating Original Video Content into your Classes
Friday, March 25, 2:00-3:30pm
Penrose Library Research Instruction Lab
It is easier than ever to record, edit, and share original video content online. Inexpensive digital video cameras and websites such as YouTube and Vimeo make it possible for instructors and students to quickly share their own original content. In this hands-on workshop, pedagogical implications of these developments in technology and the proper workflow for sharing original video content on Blackboard will be explored. We will also discuss issues of student privacy and assessment as well as introducing the various streaming media resources available at DU. Register here.
Facilitator:
Alex Karklins, Center for Teaching and Learning
Stay tuned for another CTL Spring Workshop: Social Media for Teaching |
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