ProfEd Faculty News & Notes - September 2008
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New Assistant Director
of Academic Programs
Greetings! My name is Stephanie Bechtel and I am
the new Assistant Director of Academic Programs for ProfEd.
Prior to joining the Academic Programs team, I had the pleasure
of working with ProfEd's international programs in Canada and
Mexico. I know the committed instructors in these programs are
representative of our entire group of faculty – one of our
points of pride that led me to this current position.
In addition to working closely with our
in-house program directors, Al Zainea and Jennifer Cochran,
I will be here as a resource to you – along with our
wonderful Faculty Resource Center staff. Your dedication to
quality education makes all the difference in our students'
lives and we are committed to supporting your efforts. To
see how your work pays off in a myriad of ways, I encourage
you to visit the "Why CMU" Web site at
www.cel.cmich.edu/why-cmu. The student success
stories and career outcomes are a direct result of what you
do for students in and out of your courses.
Throughout the next few months, I'll be
reviewing our faculty development efforts, course feedback
instruments and communication channels. I'll keep you
updated along the way, in addition to requesting your input
and assistance every so often. In the meantime, you are
welcome to contact me with your questions and/or thoughts on
your CMU experience. I can be reached at (800) 950-1144,
ext. 6489 or
stephanie.bechtel@cmich.edu.
University Annual
Campaign
As the leaves begin to turn color and a brief
chill is in the air, it reminds us all that the University
Annual Campaign can not be too far off. This year Off-Campus
Programs goal is to increase participation and total funds
raised by 15%. Because the President's Office matches employee
donations with a 50% match, every dollar you give adds $1.50 to
Off-Campus Programs's scholarship program. If every faculty and
staff member gave just $25.00 to this year's campaign, our
students would have significantly more scholarship funds
available to them for the 2009-2010 school year. Please plan to
participate in the upcoming University Annual Campaign. If you
have questions you can contact Dave Nicholson, Manager, Alumni
Relations at
nicho2dl@cmich.edu or (248) 526-2630.
New Librarian Joins OCLS
Brian Ryckman became the newest librarian in the
Off-Campus Library Services department when he began working in
the Mount Pleasant office on September 15, 2008. Brian comes to
CMU after two years as an Assistant Librarian at Grand Valley
State University and two years as Reference Librarian at Baker
College in Owosso. Brian brings a good deal of library
experience to OCLS, especially in the areas of providing
Reference service and library usage instruction to students.
Brian will participate in the shared duties within OCLS and will
travel to classroom sites in the Western United States, Ohio,
and Canada to provide face-to-face instruction in the use of
library resources and services. Please welcome Brian to the
ProfEd family when you have the chance.
Blackboard Upgraded to
Version 8.0
In mid-May Blackboard was upgraded to version
8.0. The new version of Blackboard includes a completely
redesigned grading area called the Grade Center, a self and peer
assessment tool, and a social bookmarking service (Blackboard
Scholar).
Returning faculty will notice the most dramatic
changes within the new Grade Center which offers a number of
improvements over the previous Gradebook:
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An Excel-like
interface with in-line editing.
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"Freezable" columns
(i.e. student name, ID) eliminate scrolling back and forth
between the grade column and name column while inputting
scores.
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New tools (Action
Bar/Action Links) provide access to multiple functions via
contextual pop-up menus.
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Customize,
organize, filter and sort grade data in a variety of ways.
Change layouts or column order by dragging and dropping into
place.
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Create new grade
center smart views based on group membership, benchmarks or
grade performance criteria.
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Create new
calculated columns to display average, maximum, minimum,
total or weighted grades.
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Send e-mails to
students directly from the Grade Center.
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Grade History
tracks all grade assignments and changes that occur within a
course – an especially useful feature for courses with
multiple instructors.
While it offers greatly increased functionality,
the Grade Center is not without its imperfections. For example,
early users frequently experienced loading delays. Patches
applied to the Blackboard system following the upgrade helped
decrease the average load-time of Grade Center pages
significantly. IT staff, in cooperation with Blackboard support,
continue to investigate new ways to improve performance.
A complete collection of print tutorials, Flash
videos and known issues regarding the Grade Center are available
in the Faculty Tutorials area of the
Bb@CMU Web site,
www.cmich.edu/blackboard.
The IT Helpdesk is your first point of contact
for questions, reporting issues and requesting assistance. The
current hours are Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to midnight;
Friday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 6 p.m.; and Sunday,
noon to midnight (Eastern Standard Time). Contact the Helpdesk
by phone, on campus at extension 3662, local off-campus at
989-774-3662, or off-campus long-distance toll-free at
800-950-1144, extension 3662.
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Reminders...
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Part-Time Temporary
Instructors Needed
If you have a colleague interested in becoming a
part-time, temporary off-campus instructor for CMU please have
them check the
Web site
for Acquisition Management as well as Reading and
Literacy course needs where local candidates are preferred and
all qualified candidates will be considered.
If you are interested in further information
concerning these opportunities at CMU and how to apply please
visit our Web site at
www.cel.cmich.edu/faculty/opportunities/application.html.
To view CMU's Off-Campus job postings please visit CMU's Web
site at
www.cel.cmich.edu/faculty/recruitment/job-postings.html.
For additional information, contact Amy Courter at 800-950-1144
or court1al@cmich.edu.
If you respond by e-mail please attach your curriculum vitae.
CMU, an AA/EO institution, strongly and actively
strives to increase diversity within its community (see
www.cmich.edu/aaeo).
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Technology Corner...
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Teaching Online Workshop
Sessions for the 2008 and
2009 "Teaching Online Workshop" offered by the Center for
Instructional Design
are open for registration. Please check out
session dates to sign up. Seating is limited.
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Faculty News and Notes is a
monthly electronic publication distributed to all instructors in
our faculty pool who have taught off-campus in the last two
years. This publication was created to help you feel more
connected to CMU and to provide you with news and updates to our
off-campus policies and procedures. If you have any
questions or comments, please contact us at
frc@cmich.edu.
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