Click here to learn more about what is available and to sign up for workshops.
Instructor Julia Meritt collaborated with Instructional Technologies Support (ITS) to create a second grade classroom in Second Life where her real-life students could practice classroom management in the virtual world. Meritt worked with Emin Saglamer in ITS who was the technical lead on the project. Salwa Khan, also in ITS, assisted with conceptualizing the project.
Meritt says the experience was a new one for her students who found both advantages and disadvantages as they played their parts in the virtual classroom.
Can moving a large lecture course from a face-to-face format to an online format result in a better learning situation for students? Texas State University Lecturer Sherwood Bishop believes that is possible although it takes a lot of work to make the transformation.
To see Sherwood Bishop's presentation, click here.
ITS Faculty Showcases are one-hour events that provide an opportunity for faculty to network and to learn about teaching methods and strategies from other faculty.
To facilitate cross discipline collaboration, and prepare their students for a real-life work situation, Assistant Professor Grayson Lawrence from the School of Art & Design and Associate Professor Dr. Dan Tamir from the Department of Computer Science at Texas State University partnered a graduate-level course. At a recent faculty showcase titled "Peanut Butter, Meet Chocolate: An Exploration of Interdisciplinary Projects with Art & Design and Computer Science", the two professors shared their experiences running the interdisciplinary course.
To view the presentation about the Interdisciplinary project, click here.
Using Clickers in the ClassroomFor Dr. Debra Feakes, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, a student response system, commonly called clickers, is a way to quickly gauge student understanding of course material. Feakes explains that with large classes, clickers provide all students a way to participate, while giving her a read on how well students are making sense of her lectures. The clicker system currently in use at Texas State University is called Turning Point and is produced by Turning Technologies. Students buy the response units, and the software that faculty use to manage use of the system is available through Instructional Technologies Support. Here, Dr. Feakes shows the process of using the system in conjunction with PowerPoint. | ETC Support now offers Open LabsNew for faculty are Tracs and Gato Open Lab hours. Stop by the lab and ask any questions you may have. These are not full-length workshops and are operated on a come-an-go basis. Registration is required.
Workshops & Training
Professional Audio/Visual Consultations |
The Media Production team recently collaborated with the Aquarena Center to document the historic removal of the Submarine Theaters. The video, which has been very well received, uses a blend of time-lapse photography, graphics, and audio to tell the story of the submarine theater removal.
To see more work by the Media Production team please visit https://vimeo.com/album/1983597
To inquire about video services Media Production offers please call 512.245.2398.
A first time teacher and criminal justice doctoral student is Texas State University’s latest winner of the Teaching With Sakai Innovation Award (TWSIA). Jaclyn Schildkraut, from the School of Criminal Justice, submitted her spring 2012 course, Crime Theory and Victimization for the international award. She says she didn’t expect much to come of it, and was very surprised when she was notified she had won the Higher Education Face-to-Face category of the award for 2012.
Schildkraut was in Atlanta, Georgia this week to accept her award at the Jasig-Sakai conference there.
Schildkraut’s course is an undergraduate criminal justice course, and had an enrollment of 35 students, mostly juniors and seniors with a few sophomores and freshmen. In an interview, Schildkraut talks about her teaching philosophy and its effect on the construction of her winning course.
This is the third year in a row that a faculty member from Texas State University has won the award. Last year Niem Huynh from the Geography department won, and in 2010, Scott Bowman, also from Criminal Justice, was the winner. The Teaching With Sakai Innovation Award honors faculty members for innovative teaching practices and excellence in technology-supported teaching and in student engagement. It is sponsored by rSmart and John Wiley & Sons. TRACS is Texas State University’s version of the Sakai learning environment.
For information about winners of this year's awards: http://www.sakaiproject.org/news/2012-teaching-sakai-innovation-award-winners
For more about past Texas State winner's entries, go to:
http://tracsfacts.its.txstate.edu/Faculty-and-Staff/twisa/twsia_huynh2011.html
http://tracsfacts.its.txstate.edu/Faculty-and-Staff/twisa/twisa_bowman2010.html
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