Center for Teaching & Learning with Technology
|
 Welcome to the Virtual News Service (VNS). This new offering includes imbedded VCS video, links, and easy to use style sheets and art work. It can be a web page on the SOP site or a hyper-link email with imbedded video. Please take a look around and share with us what you think. Notice the VCS article below. More faculty members are taking advantage of this new system. Instructor Robyn Abbruscato is doing some outstanding video work in the studio for her Spanish elective class in the Fall, as well as Dr. Cox who is featured at the bottom of the page.  I just completed two trips, one to Lubbock for two days and a second to Dallas for the same time period. The purpose of this travel was to spend one-on-one time with faculty discussing VCS, and on-line course design. Each instructor received two CD's, one on course design and another on the Virtual Classroom System. The discussions were candid and informative for me. I enjoyed getting to know members of the faculty I had not met and making contact with those I had worked with before. I spent time with both regional Dean's discussing their needs as to instructional technology and its projected uses. While in Dallas I interviewed an individual for the CTLT position there and someone should be in place by mid June. I will also be hiring an individual after the first of the year for Abilene. If you have any thoughts or questions on VNS please contact me at patrick.king@ttuhsc.edu or .ext 263. We can help you design a logo, font, or style sheet, as well as produce your video, insert text, and post your VNS to the web site or for use in email. dr. k |  WebRaider Try the HSC WebRaider portal: https://webraider.ttuhsc.edu. WebRaider is a secure resource site you can personalize to fit your needs. This site is now the official way to access WebCT.  Click on the help tab once you've signed in to the portal to learn how to add the WebCT channel and other custom features (or contact CTLT staff for assistance).Announcement System If you haven't already done so, visit the Announcements & Events page for a view of the new TTUHSC announcement system: https://www.ttuhsc.edu/Announce. Contact CTLT if you would like to add an administrative representative for your department. TTUHSC has also posted a new forum application to the web for all schools to use: https://www.ttuhsc.edu/Forum. SOP Forum Upgrade The School of Pharmacy forum has been upgraded with the latest software version and is ready for participants. Messages from the old forum were not migrated to the new site giving us a fresh start for this fall. We plan to remove the old forum before the next semester starts. Please let us know if this strategy will not work for you. The new forum site is: http://ganglia.ttuhsc.edu/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl and will be linked on the SOP home page.  |   Virtual Classroom System: Sequential Learning Some courses in our curriculum lend themselves well to an open-reference teaching style; others fit a more structured model. A component allowing teaching segments to be accessed sequentially is currently in the design phase for VCS. In this model, segments are logically sequenced to make certain that content of preceding topics prepares students for following topics. The component includes statistics reflecting student progress and will be integrated with WebCT. Target release is for appropriate fall courses. Clerkships Database Our Pendragon Forms license has been updated so work can continue on the Community Pharmacy Clerkship patient database. A Microsoft Access table has been created to support the project. Look for further status on this project in a future newsletter. Student Services Virtual Tour A new recruiting site is under development for SOP Student Services. The site includes an indexed floor plan of the Amarillo facility with 360° pan views of all key areas. The site will be released to the web as soon as it has been approved.  |
 | ||||||
| In development for the last year, VCS is fully functional with high-quality video and stereo sound. The system uses open-source code from Microsoft. Basically, the design incorporates a series of independently functioning web pages within a web page. This allows features including video, slides (or other presentation media) and chat to be simultaneously controlled in a single context. The code footprint is remarkably small (less | than 50 lines), and while developed in-house, it has none of the pitfalls of such software. The code is standard HTML and JavaScript and includes a reference to Microsoft's Media Player 10. The picture below shows a sample of a short course designed by Dr. Cox. This cutting edge system has many uses such as the video seen in this newsletter, and is available now. The Amarillo and Lubbock | studios are functional, and the equipment for Dallas has been shipped. In the next month, we will be testing a cost effective teleprompter system attached to the camera so that individuals can look into the camera lens and have their text projected on glass for them to read. Please contact me for help in planning course work using this system. dr. k. | ||||
 |
| |||||