Camtasia Relay… Now with YouTubey Goodness!
Published March 5, 2012 | 
We recently installed the latest version of Camtasia Relay which added several new features including the ability to publish your recordings directly to YouTube. Many faculty have told us they like using YouTube because it provides them with a backup plan if ASU’s systems experience trouble. Before you publish your videos to YouTube though, there are a couple of things you’ll need to do to make sure the service is enabled.
The first step is to make sure you have a YouTube account, if you don’t have one simply follow YouTube’s instructions for creating one. Once your YouTube account is created, you’ll have to tell the Camtasia Relay server about your account so it can connect to YouTube and publish your presentation. Download this instruction sheet to learn how to set up your Camtasia account so that it can publish to YouTube.
Before you start creating presenations that will be published on YouTube, there are a couple of things to remember. First, your presentations are limited to fifteen minutes in length until you verify your YouTube Account. Verifying your YouTube account is fairly simple and you only have to do it once. Follow thse instructions to verify your account.
Second, by default your video will be public which means that it will show up in YouTube’s search results. If you don’t care about that, then move on with your day. If you don’t want to be exposed globally so to speak, then login to your YouTube account and make your video unlisted. Unlisted videos are available to anybody who has the link but they don’t show up in YouTube’s search results or appear in any of YouTube’s public spaces. Don’t forget that you’ll have to do this for each video you post. To set your video to unlisted:
- Sign into your YouTube Account
- Click on your account name located in the top right of any page.
- Click on My Videos from the expanded menu.
- Choose the video you want to edit and click the Edit button below the video thumbnail.
- Scroll down to the Broadcasting and Sharing Options and find the Privacy section.
- You’ll see the option to make the video Public, Unlisted, or Private.
- Select Unlisted. Make sure to click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page
If you don’t have a Camtasia Relay account and want to know how you can use it to engage your students, contact Online Academic Services at wpc.oas@asu.edu.
Quality Matters
Published November 15, 2011 | As the growth of online learning continues to impact institutions at all levels, concerns about tools and procedures to help insure quality and consistency in online and hybrid courses continue to be discussed. Once such standard that is being broadly adopted is the Quality Matters Program administered by MarylandOnline. Quality Matters (QM) began its life as a FIPSE grant and has grown into “a faculty-centered, peer review process that is designed to certify the quality of online and blended courses”. QM works to establish quality and consistency in online and hybrid courses through the QM Rubric, which is based on research and best practice in the academic community. The standards within the rubric are classified as essential, very important and important and courses being reviewed have to meet all essential standards and score a total of 81 out of 95 possible points to pass a QM review. While the Quality Matters Rubric is an excellent tool for maintaining and improving quality it does have a few limitations.
Perhaps the most significant limitation is the rubric’s focus on the individual course. While this approach can work well in the undergraduate environment, it becomes problematic in online programs because of the way different responsibilities like Students Services, Technical Support and Academic Support are managed in the context of the program. Last week, I detailed these issues and the way we’re attempting to manage them at the W. P. Carey School of Business in a presentation at the 3rd Annual Quality Matters Conference in Baltimore. You can watch an edited version of the presentation below.
Celebrate National Distance Learning Week (NDLW)
Published November 8, 2011 | This week is National Distance Learning Week, Nov. 7-11, 2011! (I’m not sensing your enthusiasm as you read this announcement.)
While I recognize that it may not mean a lot to many of you, collectively it has become a landmark for those of us who work with all forms of distance education – online, hybrid, blended to training and building applications. It is an opportunity to recognize how the world of learning has changed as well as the type of training and credentials needed by individuals who support these efforts. It also acknowledges the efforts of faculty and administrators who have made the ‘leap of faith’ to embrace and recognize that the world moves faster than it used to and our students/clients have needs to be met.
Distance education has come a long way from correspondence courses, when secured envelopes were delivered to locations carrying content for students. It now expands the breath of learning from K-12 to higher education; training and educational programs are offered in the corporate, Telehealth and military fields. It now supports a wide variety of jobs for those who create hardware and software, support technological advances, create and support online curriculum, and who constantly strive to find new applications that make things run smoother and with more excitement.
Many people didn’t start out working in this field; it fell upon their lap or someone volunteered them to handle a project which turned into a career. Many of us have attended programs to study the theory and application of distance education, often learning about it as it unfolded before our eyes. We’ve watched it move globally, connecting classrooms and students; companies and workers; and family communications from across the world.
If you want to learn more about distance education, visit the USDLA (United States Distance Learning Association) website at www.usdla.org or any of the other resources listed in the OAS website. You’ll see examples of the depth of topics that distance learning connects together.
To host our own celebration, OAS will offer a workshop to help faculty & staff prepare for the holidays! Stop by this Wednesday, Nov. 9th between 11:30 a.m. & 4:30 p.m., BAC 664 to learn more about using iMovie, YouTube and creating a video Christmas letter and refreshments!
So, join us and celebrate NDLW. While you may have to search long and hard for a card at Hallmark , know that NDLW exists and we at OAS celebrate all that is distance learning. Who knows, you might even want to reach out with an e-card, just for the special event!
Pearson’s announcement regarding OpenClass LMS
Published October 25, 2011 | Many have asked about the recent announcement by Pearson regarding their free, open LMS system OpenClass. Here is a brief overview regarding the product and its current status.
I’m sure some of you have heard of the recent announcement by Pearson Publishing for OpenClass, a free LMS system through a partnership with Google. And, I’m sure the first questions that are coming to mind are:
1) Should we move to this new system?
2) Is it better than Blackboard (yes, you know the thought crossed your mind)
3) How is it different?
The answer is – time will tell. The announcement coincided with the Fall Educause conference, www.educause.edu, where all higher ed technology gurus tend to congregate at this time of year. The fact of the matter is, the announcement is preliminary in its scope and depth; on many of the list servs, there is a noticeable absence of Pearson answering more in-depth questions from those who use LMS products daily. OpenClass was announced as being ”free” and “open” through a partnership agreement with Google but we don’t know to what depth that statement implies and what tools, if any, will be available. The announcement has left numerous questions unanswered regarding security, sharing, coordination with SIS and other database systems as well as long-term planning and usage conditions.
To add to the confusion, Google has now announced that it has not formed a “partnership” with Pearson – they are happy to produce an app and serve as a projection point of the information but have not agreed to be a part of the overall project. Pearson also changed the project focus slightly; while it is not clear if the initial misunderstanding was with the media or if it is a result to the initial feedback remains to be seen as well. First touted as an individual product that faculty could instantly access and use, it is now being packaged as an LMS system that should be committed to by an entire institution.
Pearson has a long history of turning out successful products and is always seeking better ways to branch out. They will continue to strive to be the best at what they produce and maintain; if the OpenClass product will be able to change how we manage online education it will be something to watch over time and analyze the impact to our particular usage. You can visit Pearson’s website to see more about their product; visiting Educause, The Chronicle of Higher Education or Campus Technology will also give you perspective on the updates from all sides as more information is presented.
At OAS, we’re always interested in new products and analyze how we can better serve our students and faculty (this is one of the highlights of our jobs); but, we’re also careful to not spread our efforts too thin or to introduce products that can cause a host of issues in the online environment. We’re intrigued and will continue to monitor this product – if you have questions or see something additional about this product, please let us know.
Death of an Icon
Published October 6, 2011 | Everyone on the OAS staff was saddened yesterday when the news that Steve Jobs had died reached us. Whether you own an Apple device or not his vision has transformed the way we work and play and will continue to have a deep and lasting impact, particularly on education.
Since returning to Apple in the late 1990’s, Jobs has been called everything from a showman to a tyrant as he exercised the single-minded pursuit of excellence. For me he was more than anything else an amazing editor. He had an innate and zen like ability to filter out everything that was confusing, complicated or extraneous and give us simplicity and elegance. The paradox that set him apart though — that elevated him above the others in his sphere was his ability to deliver simplicity with power. Within the framework of simplicity and elegance he managed to deliver unprecedented tools that were extraordinarily powerful.
I can think of no better eulogy for Jobs than Apple’s Think Different commercial — for me, it represents the essence of the man.
The Value of Doodling
Published September 28, 2011 | I know it’s gnawing at you. That student in the back of class who’s doodling, they’re not paying attention to your lecture. They’re just sitting there… drawing. Those other students, the ones on Facebook — at least they’ll try to convince you they’re engaged in business education. But the doodler in the back corner of the room, they’ll never solve any large-scale problems confronting the accounting, finance or supply chain disciplines will they?
Well actually… maybe they will.
Introduction to SafeAssign
Published September 13, 2011 | SafeAssign is a plagarism detection tool built into the Blackboard Learn environment. It can be used in a variety of ways and can help with academic integrity and educate students about the proper attribution of their research materials. Using SafeAssign is easy and you can get a better overview of the process by watching the video below:
Welcome to Making Flippy Floppy
Published September 13, 2011 | Making Flippy Floppy? I don’t get it, what’s up with the name of this blog? Making Flippy Floppy was the title of one of the songs featured in the groundbreaking 1984 Talking Heads film “Stop Making Sense”. Directed by Jonathan Demme, the film featured several innovations and it didn’t fit into the typical model of concert films. Stop Making Sense was the first concert film mastered entirely with digital audio instead of conventional analog tapes; David Byrne, the leader of the band also insisted that no colored lights be used and that the stage be set with a minimum of distractions. Water bottles are visible nowhere on stage and the logos normally present on the keyboards used in the performance were blacked out. The single most notable feature of the film was an oversize suit Byrne wore during the performance of the song “Once in a Lifetime”. Byrne found inspiration for the suit in Japanese Noh theater, and it has been that suit more than anything else that has served as the iconic symbol of change and innovation that the film stood for.
Driven by changes in technology and the explosive growth of social media, online learning is in the midst of a big suit moment in which we’re making flippy floppy. In the discourse of the moment, it’s more popularly called “flipping the classroom”. Flipping the classroom focuses on leveraging digital technologies to shift dialog to discussion — in short by moving facets of what currently takes place in the classroom such as lectures, to the online environment. This shift allows faculty to utilize classroom time more effectively because students arrived better prepared and more focused on the subject being discussed. While moving the lecture portion of your class online is only a small piece of the flipping classroom phenomena it’s often the best place to start since it is the most accessible.
Certainly, all the normal caveats will apply and that’s why Online Academic Services was created — to help the W. P. Carey School of Business investigate, reseach and navigate through the changes talking place in technology, teaching an learning. In short, we’re here to help you Make Flippy Floppy.