Go Green with Blackboard!
Use of Blackboard offers faculty and students
more than the opportunities to save time and communicate more
effectively. Leveraging certain Blackboard features and tools
can help to make your course a Green course. "Going Green" is
an effort to lessen one's impact on the environment, by
recycling, re-using and reducing. Tools included in Blackboard,
such as Online Assignments, SafeAssignments,
Exams/Quizzes/Surveys and Discussion Forums can reduce and
possibly eliminate the use of paper in a course. Production of
one ton of paper requires about 10,000 kWh of electricity –
enough to power a typical North American home for about a year.
Every ream of paper used represents just a little less than a
day's worth of energy for that typical home.
If the statistics above have captured your
attention, you may be wondering 'how do I begin?' Our advice
is 'start small.' Instead of having students print and turn
in next term's research paper, consider using an
online assignment,
or better yet, allow online submissions and add plagiarism
detection to the assignment with
SafeAssign. Papers
are uploaded by students, downloaded individually (or in a
batch), reviewed and graded by instructors and returned to
students all without printing a single page. The skills
required are little more than those needed to attach a file
to an e-mail and should you encounter any challenges,
support staff at the
IT Helpdesk as well as the
LMS Support Team in ProfEd are ready to help.
Library Orientation
for MSA Classes Now Available Online
Monica Craig, our Off-Campus Library Services librarian
at the Troy Center, has used Wimba to prepare a library
orientation tutorial for MSA students. This tutorial was
created in response to requests from MSA faculty that an
online session similar to that presented in the classroom be
available for students who may have missed the in-person
presentation or to take the place of the in-class
presentation when the compressed format doesn't allow the
instructor to devote time to a librarian visit. The new
tutorial is shorter in length than the in-class presentation
(it clocks in at under ten minutes), but addresses such
essential topics as locating books and journals, finding
sample MSA projects, finding information for a feasibility
study, contacting a librarian for assistance, and ordering
articles for delivery. We think that this new tutorial,
which is available to any student at any time, provides a
good introduction to OCLS.
To see the new tutorial go to
http://libguides.ocls.cmich.edu/content.php?pid=30542
and click on Introduction to MSA Resources (be sure
to check out our other tutorials while you're there).
Year End – Expense
Reminder
Please note that all faculty travel expense
reimbursement forms for the 20083, 20084 and 20091 terms
need to be submitted to Kay Fox, Accounts Payable, before
June 19, 2009 to meet the year-end deadline. If you have
questions, please contact Kay at 800-950-1144, ext. 6944.
ProfEd Vehicle
Reservations and Reminders
-
To
request the use of a ProfEd vehicle please e-mail
ocpcars@cmich.edu
as far in advance as possible to ensure availability.
We currently have 8 vehicles in our fleet with Thursdays
and Fridays being in the most demand. OCPCARS
is listed in your Microsoft Outlook Address Book.
-
Everyone who
uses a ProfEd vehicle is responsible for completing the
vehicle log book and returning the vehicle with a
full gas tank and no trash left behind.
-
IT-Facilities are responsible for the maintenance and
upkeep on all the vehicles. If you report problems to
the front desk this information will be passed on to
IT-Facilities.
If you have questions please contact Amy
Courter at 800-950-1144, ext. 3865 or press "0" for the
operator.
Library Adds
Database of Statistical Information
The CMU Libraries recently acquired a new research online
tool called TableBase, a database that specializes in
tabular data dealing with companies, products, industries,
and demographics. The information is gathered from trade and
business publications, investment research, trade
associations, statistical annuals, primary research,
international organizations, and government sources and
includes data on company and brand rankings, industry
outlooks, market share, production and consumption,
healthcare, and demographic trends. Your students will find
TableBase helpful when they need statistical data to bolster
their research.
You can find TableBase on our
Find Articles page under the Databases by Name list
or you can link to it
here.
