CTAAR Newsletter
Online SIRS Begins Nov. 18
The online version of the Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS) is set to start on November 18 at 12:01 A.M., for most courses. Students will have until December 10th to complete the survey and will receive up to 4 email reminders.
Faculty and instructors who have not received an email notification from us concerning an online survey will still conduct their surveys using the paper forms. Currently all of FAS Newark, the Rutgers Business School, College of Nursing, Mario College of Pharmacy, and School of Engineering are using the online system, as well as courses in departments in New Brunswick and Camden that have made earlier arrangements with us.
For more information, refer to our frequently asked questions about the online SIRS and the procedures for the online survey.
Dec 4 - DCEO eCollege Conference on Online and Hybrid courses
The Division of Continuous Education and Outreach (DCEO) is sponsoring a conference on courses that are fully online or "hybrid" (mixed between online and in-person coursework).
From the DCEO announcement:
The conference will be held on Friday, December 4, 2009 and will take place on the Rutgers New Brunswick campus at the Douglass Campus Center, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The conference will focus on Best Practices and Creative Design for Effective Teaching and Engaged Learning in Hybrid and Fully Online Courses.
We have a terrific program planned, beginning with a keynote address by nationally recognized e-learning expert, Jeff Borden, and a wide variety of concurrent workshops.
There is no fee but registration is required. Lunch is provided and space is limited.
To review the details for the conference and to register, please visit:
http://ecollegeconference.rutgers.edu
Any questions about the conference should be directed to Richard Novak, Associate Vice President for Continuous Education and Distance Learning, 732-932-0613 rnovak@brokenemail.rutgers.edu please replace "brokenemail" with rutgers.edu
New Faculty Resources
Instructional Technology Resources at Rutgers
REGIS (Rosters and Electronic Grading Information System): The most important site for new faculty and instructors. REGIS allows you to view your roster, send academic warning notices, and submit final grades. Access to rosters in REGIS is also the key to using other web tools such as Sakai and RAMS. Your department chair or administrative assistant can provide you with access to REGIS. See the REGIS documentation for more information. https://sims.rutgers.edu/rosters/Course Management Systems
The following systems provide an encompassing set of features to facilitate communication and coursework, while requiring very little technical knowledge. Features include:
- Online quizzes and assignments
- Gradebook for reporting individual assignment grades
- Announcements and mailing lists
- Document sharing for course materials
- Discussion board and chat room
- Automatic roster integration (requires access to REGIS)
Sakai: Available to all faculty on all campuses, Sakai is a highly flexible service that is useful for course web sites as well as committee work and other projects. Sakai has numerous options for enabling group work, including a built in "wiki" (collaborative writing space). Sakai is created and maintained by a consortium of universities and colleges. http://sakai.rutgers.edu/
eCollege: Available to all faculty on all campuses, eCollege is supported by the Office of Continuous Education and Outreach. eCollege has a much more structured approach to course sites than Sakai does, and is well suited for courses that are fully online. http://ecollege.rutgers.edu
Blackboard: Only available to faculty teaching on the Rutgers Newark campus, Blackboard is the most prevalent course management system in the United States. http://blackboard.rutgers.edu/
Single Purpose Tools
For faculty who do not need or want a full course site, the following provide specific services for communicating with students, or for supplementing existing course sites.
SAS Gradebook: An easy-to-use, simple site for recording assignment grades and feedback for students. Students who log in to the site can only see their own grades. The use of SAS Gradebook or a similar feature in one of the course management systems is the only acceptable method of posting course grades on the web or other public space. http://gradebook.rutgers.edu
RAMS (Rutgers Automated Mailing System): RAMS will create a mailing list of your students (based on roster access in REGIS), allowing faculty to send email to a single address that reaches all of their students. Faculty do not need to collect or maintain student addresses, RAMS automatically uses any address that the student lists in the Rutgers Directory. http://rams.rutgers.edu/
Refworks: a web-based bibliographic management tool, integrated with the Rutgers Library system so that searches in the catalog or indices can be saved and organized, with proper references and often links to the full text of articles. Refworks allows sharing of bibliographies; an instructor can create a bibliography for students to use, or use Refworks to review bibliographies created by students. Refworks includes a tool for use when writing papers that formats references and bibliographies appropriately according to several style guides. http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/refworks/refworks.shtml
iTunes U: Audio and video materials can be distributed to students by using iTunes U, a service that allows students to review the material on their computers or by automatically loading the material onto their iPods or other devices. Faculty can restrict the material to the students in their course, or optionally make anything on iTunes U available to the public at large, accessible to anyone who uses iTunes. http://itunes.rutgers.edu/ Rutgers also has a Youtube channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/Rutgers
Academic Integrity Conference
This year the NB Faculty Council Teaching Conference is co-sponsored by the University Senate. It will kick off the University-wide discussion of the Draft Academic Integrity Policy. Speakers will include Martha Cotter, Chair of the Academic Integrity committee, guests from Penn State and University of Maryland will present academic integrity policies and procedures from their academic institutions, followed by an open discussion of the draft policy led by a panel of faculty, students, and staff from all Rutgers campuses. All faculty, students and staff are invited.
October 2, 2009
To Register click: http://ctaar.rutgers.edu/council/
SIRS Summer Session Results
The Student Instructional Rating Survey results for Summer 2009 are complete and have been distributed to all instructors, faculty and departments.
All summer session surveys were conducted using the new online survey system. Results were emailed to faculty and instructors on August 20th. Departments can find a copy of all the results for their department in a Sakai dropbox. Please refer to the instructions on how to retrieve the survey files.
If you have not received your survey results or there are any issues you would like to address, please contact us at info@brokenemail.rutgers.edu please replace "brokenemail" with ctaar.rutgers.edu.
Spring 2009 SIRS results available now
The full set of results for the Spring 2009 Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS) are available now at http://sirs.rutgers.edu/.
Published results include all courses that had surveys in both the paper and online survey systems, for all courses taught by faculty and part-time lecturers. Please be advised that the University Counsel has determined that posting Student Instructional Rating Survey information for Teaching Assistants must cease as of Fall 2004 because of the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99).
For surveys conducted on paper, the results and original forms were returned to the department contact person after the forms were scanned in June or July. Instructors who have not received their results or comments should contact their department administrator.
Results for surveys conducted online were returned to instructors by email on May 19. If you did not receive your results, please contact us at info@broken-email.rutgers.edu please replace "broken-email" with ctaar.rutgers.edu.
Summer Courses using online Surveys
For Summer 2009, we are using the online system for Student Instructional Rating Surveys in all courses on all campuses.
The surveys for a summer course should run in the final week of the course. Instructors will receive a notification of the survey date prior to the start of the survey, with an opportunity to make any necessary corrections. We ask that you read the information carefully; running the survey on the wrong dates or with the wrong instructor's name can impact the results.
Please refer to the Online Student Instructional Rating Survey for more information.
Power Outages affecting web site and phones
Due to rewiring work on College Avenue that is expected to last throughout the summer, the Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research (as well as other buildings on the north end of College Avenue) may periodically lose power or telephones. Our web site will not be available during any power outages.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
Online SIRS Spring 2009 Preliminary Results Available
The results of the Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS) that were conducted online are available to faculty and now. Surveys conducted on paper still need to be collated and scanned; those results will be returned later in the summer.
Faculty and instructors should have received an email message earlier this week with the results of their survey and the student comments. If you did not receive an email, please contact us with the course number and your correct email address.
Department administrators will find the full collection of survey results in their Sakai dropbox. Please read the instructions for accessing the dropbox and contact us if you have any questions.
Since these are partial results, only accounting for the online survey, these results are not available to students yet. The full collection of SIRS results including the results of the paper-based surveys will be published to the SIRS Results web page after the paper surveys have been scanned and returned to the faculty.
May 4 - online SIRS ended
The online version of the Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS) ended on Monday, May 4 (with a few exceptions for courses not running on the standard scehdule). Students who did not respond by that date can no longer participate in the survey for this semester.
CTAAR will hold the results of the survey until after the university-wide grading period ends. Once grading is complete (after May 18), we will send the summary report and anonymous comments directly to faculty and instructors via email, and send a copy to departments using a Sakai drop box. All distribution of the results for the online survey should be complete before June 1. Results will be posted to the web shortly afterwards, at http://sirs.rutgers.edu/.
Paper SIRS forms are still being collected and collated. Scanning and processing will begin after the end of the semester, and results distributed later this Summer.
More information on the online SIRS process.
More information on the paper SIRS process.
April 16 - Online Rating Surveys Begin
The online Student Instructional Rating Surveys will begin at 12:01 A.M. on Thursday, April 16 for the majority of courses that are using the online system (some courses made previous arrangements to run their surveys over a different period). Students will receive an email message notifying them that the survey is available with a link directly to their survey. They may also see all their course surveys at once by logging in to Sakai https://sakai.rutgers.edu/portal and clicking "All Surveys". The survey period ends on May 4 at 11:59 PM.
Currently about 75% of the university courses are still using the paper system. Students who do not see their surveys listed in Sakai will take the survey on paper during class.
Any department that wants to move their surveys into the online system should contact us at 932-7466. Moving to the online survey provides quicker access to the survey results and less work for your department in distributing survey forms and results to faculty.
April 15 - Detecting Plagiarism and Cheating
Detecting Plagiarism and Cheating
April 15, 2009
11:30 am to 1:00 pm, Luncheon and Discussion
Busch Student Center
Meeting Room 117
Topics include:
Overview of the Rutgers Interim Policy on Academic Integrity
Detection of certain types of plagiarism
Tools to prevent and detect plagiarism and cheating
Use of the Internet to gather proof of a violation
Turnitin as a prevention and detection
Effective ways to communicate the importance of Academic Integrity
Ways to mitigate cheating
Please register by email to: info@brokenemail.rutgers.edu please replace "brokenemail" with ctaar.rutgers.edu
Space is limited, please RSVP
New CTAAR Workshops Wiki
The CTAAR Workshops Wiki has been totally redesigned and updated.
Check it out!
http://ctaar.rutgers.edu/groups/workshops/
“ONLINE SIRS” Fall 2008 Results are Available
The results of the online version of the Student Instructional Rating Survey for Fall 2008 are completed and have been distributed to departments. Individual instructors will have received an email message with their own results, and each department has instructions on how to retrieve all of the results.
The available results are only for the surveys that were conducted online. Surveys that were done on paper forms are currently being scanned and processed, and the results will be returned to departments according to the usual schedule.
After all of the results, both online and paper, are complete the summary reports will be posted for student access at http://sirs.rutgers.edu/.
IBM "Teaching With Sakai Innovation Award"
IBM is sponsoring a "Teaching With Sakai Innovation Award". The deadline for application is midnight, February 27, 2009. More information about applying for the award and previous winners can be found on the OpenEd Practices web site, http://openedpractices.org/twsia.
You can also find a rubric (PDF) for evaluating your Sakai-based course for the award.
Dec 3 - Best Practices in Assessment (slides)
The slides for Gary Gigliotti's December 3rd presentation on "Best Practices in Assessment" are now available.
DCEO - Hybrid and Online Course Development
The Division of Continuous Education and Outreach (DCEO) is holding a workshop in Hybrid and Online courses, specifically in how to use the eCollege/eCompanion system. For those not familiar with eCompanion, it is a tool similar to Sakai but uses a more structured approach that is particularly well suited to fully-online courses.
Here is the invitation to the workshop from Richard Novak:
Dear Colleagues,In response to the increasing interest by faculty and departments in online and hybrid course development, the Division of Continuous Education and Outreach (DCEO) has scheduled additional workshop presentations on "An Introduction to Hybrid and Online Course Development". We will present an overview of issues related to hybrid and online courses, using the eCollege course management system, including course design and development, and online teaching strategies. Examples from some very successful existing courses will be demonstrated.
On the New Brunswick campus, there will be two sessions on Tuesday, December 16. The first will take place from 10 a.m. to 12:00 noon. The same session will be repeated again at 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Both sessions will take place in the Public Safety Building, Room 205B, at the Corner of George Street and Commercial Avenue, with parking in the adjacent deck (http://maps.rutgers.edu/building.aspx?id=1083).
The sessions are free. Lunch is provided at noon – stay after the morning session or come early for the afternoon session.
Reservations are required. Please send an email to elearning@brokenmail.rutgers.edu please replace "brokenmail" with dceo.rutgers.edu to sign up for one of these two sessions. Please feel free to contact me directly with questions.
-Richard Novak
--
Dr. Richard J. Novak
Associate Vice President for Continuous Education & Distance Learning
Rutgers University Continuous Education and Outreach
85 Somerset St Rm 300 (Geology Hall) New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1281
voice>(732)932.0613; FAX>(732)932.2588; (Rnovak@brokenmail.rutgers.edu please replace "brokenmail" witth rutgers.edu)
http://ce1766.rutgers.edu
Online SIRS, Nov 19 through Dec 10
The Fall 2008 SIRS process is underway. Most courses will continue to receive packets in campus mail with the scannable survey forms. However, some courses will use our new online SIRS system. All School of Engineering courses are using the online surveys, as are a small number of sections in Psychology, Life Sciences, and the Writing Program.
The online version of SIRS will begin at 12:01 a.m. on November 19 and end at 11:59 p.m. on December 10.
Please see our Online SIRS page for more information about how the new system works. For general information, refer to our Student Instructional Rating Survey pages.
Visit of Dr. Richard Keeling, Nov 17
Register for the Keeling talk.
We are fortunate to have the opportunity for Richard Keeling to visit us in New Brunswick. Here is a link for a short bio.
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~scientia/keelingbio.htm
On November 17, 2008, from 11 am to 1 pm in Meeting Room B of the Douglass Campus Center, Dr. Keeling will make a presentation on Assessment Reconsidered: Institutional Effectiveness for Student Success, the title of his new book. Lunch will be served in Meeting Room C afterwards.
Here is a short blurb on Dr. Keeling's new book:
Assessment Reconsidered: Institutional Effectiveness for Student Success
Richard Keeling, Andrew Wall, Ric Underhile & Gwen Dungy
Assessment Reconsidered: Institutional Effectiveness for Student Success promotes the shared ownership of assessment planning among faculty, student affairs educators, administrators, and students. As a project of the International Center for Student Success & Institutional Accountability (ICSSIA), Assessment Reconsidered focuses on the collaborative use of all campus resources in promoting student success. This illuminating work helps both student affairs professionals and faculty members address internal and public questions about the functioning of postsecondary institutions by reconsidering assessment policies, patterns, and practices in colleges and universities.
RU Bookstore Administrative Change
Beginning with Spring 2009, the Rutgers Bookstores in New Brunswick will be run by Barnes and Noble instead of Follett.
Faculty should be aware of the change, particularly during the current transition period. The following information regarding the change appeared in the University Human Relations Digest:
Over the next seven weeks, Follett will be transitioning out of New Brunswick campus bookstores and will be replaced by Barnes & Noble. Textbooks for this fall semester will be returned starting October 1. Most nontext related course materials (trade or general reading books) will be returned by the end of September. Follett will not be fulfilling special order requests during this period. Starting October 1, all sales will be final. For more information, call Wayne Beach or ask to speak to a manager at 732-246-8448.
[Updated Nov 2008] Information about the bookstore transition has recently been posted for faculty and students.
New Academic Integrity Policy
The university has published a new, interim academic integrity policy that has some significant differences from the old policy. All faculty, lecturers, and teaching assistants should immediately familiarize themselves with the new policy, and include links to the policy in course syllabi or web sites.
Academic Integrity Policy
http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/integrity.shtml
New Media 2008 Summer Conference, Princeton University
The New Media Consortium of educational institutions, museums, and technology companies held its annual summer conference this year at Princeton University from June 11-14.
Please visit our wikis for conference programs, streaming video and audio keynote addresses, notes, session information, and other great links:
Joe's conference wiki
Marcie's conference wiki
May 19, Sakai Unavailable
If you are trying to connect to Sakai today, you will be unable to do so.
In addition to numerous bug fixes, the new version of Sakai will have many enhancements to existing features. The Sakai Project has an overview of the changes on their web site.
New Media Conference, Princeton, June, 2008
The New Media Consortium of educational institutions, museums, and technology companies held its annual summer conference this year at Princeton University from June 11-14.
Please visit our wikis for conference programs, streaming video and audio keynote addresses, notes, session information, and other great links:
Joe's conference wiki
Marcie's conference wiki
New Media Conference, Princeton, June, 2008
The New Media Consortium of educational institutions, museums, and technology companies held its annual summer conference this year at Princeton University from June 11-14.
Please visit our wikis for conference programs, streaming video and audio keynote addresses, notes, session information, and other great links:
Joe's conference wiki
Marcie's conference wiki
Fall 2007 SIRS Data Available
The Student Instructional Ratings Survey data for the Fall 2007 semester is complete, and the reports are now available to students at our SIRS web site:
Log in with your NetID.
Because of privacy laws governing student records, we do not publish the SIRS results for Teaching Assistants on the web site. Full reports, inculding the TA results, were distributed directly to department chairs. Teaching Assistants who have not received their own reports through their department can contact our office at info@brokenaddress.rutgers.edu please replace "brokenaddress" with ctaar.rutgers.edu.
NEW Office 2007 Workshops
CTAAR is now offering workshops in Office 2007 for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. (Access 2007 will follow) New Office 2007 features will be demonstrated, including the new "ribbon" interface. Additionally, we will discuss the new file formats and compatibility with prior versions. These workshops will be held at the new Davidson Hall PC Lab on Busch Campus, room 172-A. Please visit the CTAAR workshop calendar to register and view detailed workshop descriptions.
Kansas State Video - Communicating with Students Today
Students in a Kansas State University anthropology course put together a video essay that highlights how students communicate, how that impacts their studies, and the challenges that the 21st century brings.
The video illustrates some interesting points about how to communicate with students; it also serves as an example of what is possible using collaborative tools like Google Documents or Sakai.
You may also view a higher quality Quicktime version (97 Mb).
The video was created by Michael Wesch and 200 students in his Intro to Cultural Anthropology course. More information is available on the Digital Ethnography blog.