Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center

The TLTC website has moved.  Come visit us at http://drupalsites.purchase.edu/tltc.

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This interview discusses the history, governance and future of Moodle, our favorite learning management system.  Especially interesting are Martin’s comments about the improvements in Moodle 2.0, and the future of personal education as it impacts thinking about Moodle 3.0 (or Moodle-X).

The SUNY Center for Professional Development invites you to:

Grant Writing Techniques @ SUNY CPD

Learn, from the beginning, the fundamental techniques for preparing a grant proposal

Participant Benefits: During this two-day workshop, we will cover:

• What a grant proposal looks like,
• Types of funding and where to locate funding,
• How to conduct your grant/project activities,
• Budgeting,
• How to avoid mistakes,
• And much, much  more!

Target Audience/Prerequisites: Anyone interested in or needing to secure funding for a needs-based or research project would benefit by attending this workshop. No prior grant writing experience is required.

Where and When is the workshop?

• SUNY Center for Professional Development, State Route 298, Suite 102, East Syracuse, NY
• November 4-5, 2010

What is the cost per person?

• $180 – CPD Members – Use your CPD Training Points to pay for this event!
• $225 – Non-CPD Members

A continental breakfast and lunch will be provided each day.

Who will present the workshop?

Daniel McCormack, Ph.D., Binghamton University, has been successfully writing grants for over 30 years. He currently teaches graduate courses in grant writing at Binghamton University and presents grant writing seminars and workshops on and off campus. He has written grants for the New York State Education Department, for colleges, universities, school districts, local governments, and various human services agencies.

Details and Registration

For complete details, including an agenda, instructor’s bio, and Registration go to:

http://guest.cvent.com/d/2dqvcs

Questions?

Email Judy Marshall at jmarshall@cpd.suny.edu or phone 315-233-3052 x-112.

SUNY Center for Professional Development
6333 State Route 293
Suite 102
East Syracuse, NY 13057

http://cpd.suny.edu

315.233.3052

The Q&A forum type in Moodle is a good option for reading reflections or other activities where you want students to individually demonstrate their understanding of some material but also follow that up with class discussion.  Topic threads within a Q&A forum are set up as separate questions.  Anyone in the class can respond to any or all of the questions, but what makes this forum type unique is that students can’t see what other students have posted for answers to a question UNTIL they have posted their answer to the question.  That way, everyone has a clean slate for each of the questions, and their answers aren’t influenced by what other students have posted to the questions.  Each student has to ‘pay to play’; when they provide their answer it allows them into the conversation.

Unfortunately, the default setup for the Q&A forum is for anyone in the class to be able to start new discussion threads, including students.  I often work with faculty on Q&A forums where a student in their class will read question #1, for example, and instead of posting their answer as a follow-up to the question, will post it as a new topic thread.  This has two problems.  Since the student still hasn’t posted an answer to question #1 (by replying to that topic), Moodle doesn’t know to allow them to review other students’ answers to question #1 and allow them to reply.  Also, since their answer to question #1 is posted as a new topic, all students can view that answer before they have posted an answer to question #1.  A more reasonable configuration for Q&A forums would be to not allow students to start new topic threads.  You can do that by setting up a permission override for the Q&A forum where you want to prevent students from starting new topics.

Here are the steps:

• When you are editing the settings for the Q&A forum, either during the initial setup or later updates, click on the ‘Override permissions’ tab instead of the default ‘Settings’ tab.
• Click on the ‘Student’ role.
• Find the ‘Start new discussions’ permission.
• The default permission for students is ‘Allow’; click on the ‘Prevent’ radio button (third one from the left).
• Click the ‘Save changes’ button.

You will see on the Override permissions page for that forum that the Student role now has one override.

To view your Moodle course the way students see it, click on the “Switch role to…” pull-down menu at the upper right side of your Moodle course page and select “Student” from list.
(view screen cap image)

This is useful if you decide to set up resources and activities ahead of time that you’d like to hide and then make available later on in the semester. By switching your role to Student, you will be viewing the course from a student’s perspective but still logged in as the instructor of the course. You will not see any hidden resources or activities when you’re viewing the course as a student.

Simply click on the “Return to my normal role” button to view the course as the instructor.
(view screen cap image)

Marie Sciangula

Dear Colleagues,

The SUNY Center for Professional Development, in partnership with Pacific Crest, invites you to:

An Orientation to Process Education

Process Education  is a performance-based philosophy of education which integrates many different educational theories, processes, and tools in emphasizing the continuous development of learning skills through the use of assessment principles in order to produce learner self-development.

Through this one-day workshop participants will enhance their awareness, understanding, and appreciation for this educational philosophy. The workshop serves as a catalyst for change at institutions seeking to provide faculty development opportunities for improving teaching, learning, curriculum design, and assessment processes.

Who will benefit by attending? Any faculty, staff or administrator who has interest in improving teaching and learning.

Where and When are the workshops? Five regional workshops will be held across NYS during the week of October 25, 2010. Dates and locations are as follows:
·       Monday, October 25 – University at Buffalo
·       Tuesday, October 26 – Binghamton University
·       Wednesday, October 27 – SUNY Center for Professional Development, East Syracuse
·       Thursday, October 28 – Empire State College, Saratoga Springs
·       Friday, October 29 – Stony Brook University

Time?   8:30 am – 4:30 pm

What is the cost?
·       $150 – CPD Members – Use your CPD Training Points to pay for this event!
·       $200 – Non-CPD Members

BONUS! The workshop materials include a copy of the Faculty Guidebook: A comprehensive tool for improving faculty performance (4th edition), valued at $100. Get more information about the FGB.
A continental breakfast and lunch are provided.

Who will present the workshops?

Dr. Daniel K. Apple, founder and President of Pacific Crest, will be the instructor for these workshops. Accompanying Dr. Apple  at each location will be a SUNY faculty member who will share their personal successes, challenges, techniques, and tools as they relate to this philosophy of education.

Details and Registration

For complete details, including an agenda/outcomes, instructor’s bio, list of facilitators, and Registration go to:

http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=9660cc43-e436-4e55-bb58-4329e55b6cfd

Questions?

Email Lisa M. Raposo at lmraposo@cpd.suny.edu or Judy Marshall at jmarshall@cpd.suny.edu or phone the CPD at 315-233-3052.

The TLTC and Library are hosting several workshops this week before the start of classes, to help you with final preparations for the new term.

Rebecca Oling will offer a session on Integrating Library Resources into your classes.  This session will be held in Library 1004D on Thursday, 26 August, from 10:30 to 12:00.

• WHO:  All teaching faculty
• WHAT:  Open Library Studio Time (you can drop in and get the help you need to ensure that your students have the maximum support and you have the minimum of stress!)
• WHERE:  1004D in the Library
• WHY:  Maybe you need help finding an article in our databases or just linking to one.  Perhaps you would like to explore the myriad e-reference works (or physical ones) we can offer.  Maybe you’d like to integrate multimedia resources in a way that doesn’t eat up a lot of class face-to-face time.  Whatever the need, we are here to help you.
• WHEN: This time is for you!  From 10:30-12 on Thursday August 26th

Marie Sciangula will offer 4 sessions on Getting Started with Moodle / Moodle Studio.  Although called “getting started” these sessions aren’t just for people who have never used Moodle before.  If you’d like a refresher on how to set up resources and activities for your Moodle courses, want to pick up some ideas about new things you can do with Moodle, or would just like to get some help/advice on setting up your courses for this semester, we’d love to have you attend.  There will be morning (9:30 to 12:00) and afternoon (1:00 to 3:30) sessions both Thursday, 26 August and Friday, 27 August, all scheduled for L1004C (the middle computer lab on the main floor of the Library).  Specific topics covered will depend on the interests of the workshop participants.

I will offer 3 sessions of Moodle Gradebook.  The sessions will cover some common approaches to using the gradebook to provide feedback to your students.  If you’ve never used the gradebook before and would like to see how it works, or if you’d like to get feedback on how you’ve set up the gradebook in your Moodle classes this fall, please stop in.

If you know you’d like to attend any of these sessions, please email TLTC@purchase.edu to let us know that you’re coming.  But if you find you have a chance to drop in at the last minute, that’s OK too.  We’d like to be busy in these workshops.

http://tinyurl.com/TLTC-facebook

SUNY Center for Professional Development is pleased to announce the following webinars as part of the SUNY TLT Cooperative:
The TLT Cooperative, by SUNY for SUNY, helping you think strategically about teaching and learning with technology.

Grassroots Professional Development: Faculty Learning Communities

Date: September 15, 2010
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Location: Online Webinar
Cost: FREE

A faculty learning community (FLC) is a group of faculty and professionals from various disciplines who meet over a defined period of time. The specific purpose of every FLC varies, but they all are based on the premise that the opportunity to work together in a supportive and collaborative environment contributes to successful faculty development.  For more information and to register click: (More info…)

Cooperative Contributor:
Christopher Price is the Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching and Instructor for the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the College at Brockport, State University of New York. He received his PhD in political science from the University at Albany in 2004. He conducts workshops on course design, discussion-based teaching, communicating effectively with students, facilitating faculty learning communities, and using critical reflection to improve teaching and learning. His current research looks at how the power-balanced classroom can serve as a means of citizen education.

Wikis and Blogs and Facebook…OH MY!

Date: October 13, 2010
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Location: Online Webinar
Cost: FREE

Are you intimidated in department meetings when colleagues go on and on about the wikis and blogs they use in their classrooms? What is a wiki? What is a blog? They sound like characters out of a Star Wars movie. And, Facebook in the classroom…NEVER! What’s happening to education today?  For more information and to register click: (More info…)

Cooperative Contributor:
Nancy Wozniak joined the TLT in Fall 2008 to become Stony Brook’s first Learning Architect in The Faculty Center where she consults with faculty on the planning and design of courses and effective course management methods.   She received her Masters of Arts in Education, specializing in Instructional Technology from the University of Akron.  She holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Hiram College and studied television production and communication at Lorain County Community College.

TO REGISTER:  http://www.cpd.suny.edu

Directions regarding the Moodle Import function to re-use content from Moodle courses from previous semesters.

Note: If you need access to your previous semester’s Moodle course, please email TLTC@purchase.edu.

Watch the screencast tutorial

To move content (resources and activities) from your previous Moodle courses into your FA10 Moodle shells, you can use the Import link located within the Administration block of the course to which you’d like to add content:

1. Navigate to the FA10 version of your course; which you can find in your ‘My Courses’ block on the Moodle main page or on your Moodle profile (click on your name at the upper right side of Moodle)
2. Click on ‘Import’, located in the Administration block, usually on the left side of the page
3. Under “Import activities from another course,” locate your previously taught course in the pull-down menu and click the “Use this course” button
4. On the next screen, choose the activities and resources you’d like to import into the new version of the course. If you’d like all of the content, leave all boxes checked and click ‘Continue’
5. On the next screen, review the items being imported, and click ‘Continue’ at the bottom of the page
6. Moodle will copy the activities and resources you’ve chosen, export that content, and import it into the new course once you click ‘Continue’ > Import Course Data, click ‘Continue’ again > Continue again > Import Complete! Continue to your course

You can now make your edits and updates to the FA10 version of your course using the content you’ve imported into the new shell.

Marie Sciangula