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.

Converting Files from Students - Zamzar

When you accept papers from students via digital upload, email, or other electronic means instead of paper, you will inevitably come across a student file that you cannot open. The problem is that some students do not use Microsoft Word and have no knowledge of how to save in a Word-compatible or PDF format.

Ideally you would send the file back to the student with instructions on how to convert the file (it's a simple as clicking "File --> Save as..." then choosing from the list of options in the "format" section). Once the student knows how to do it, the probably goes away until the next student comes along.

But for expediency, Zamzar.com offers a free service that will convert files into useful formats. You give it a ".wps" or ".wpd" file, and it sends you back a Word ".doc" file - you don't even need to know what the original file is, Zamzar will figure it out for you. It works with word processing, spreadsheet, video, audio and other types of files.

There are some limits to the service, but for a monthly fee you can upgrade to their more extensive offerings.

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

Sakai secret "stealth" tools

Sakai has some hidden features that for one reason or another have been put into "stealth" mode. When a Sakai tool is in stealth mode, it does not appear in the list of tools that you can add to a site, however it remains available for use provided you get an administrator to add it to your site. Sometimes these are "beta" tools that still need some testing or minor bug fixes. Other times these tools duplicate existing features. Often, they may be useful to people who are trying to do something new in Sakai, or who do not like the way an existing tool works.

Some of the stealth tools that are worth looking at, if you want to try something different, are:

Forums: An alternative to the "Discussion and Private Messages" tool, this is a discussion tool that allows you to structure the conversation into forums, topics and threads. People who used Sakai three years ago may recognize it as the original discussion tool that "Discussion and Private Messages" replaced. Back then it was not well liked, but it has seen major improvements since then and is worth a second look. It may be a more suitable tool if you intend to grade class participation based on student contributions to the discussion board.
Messages: An alternative to the "Mailtool" for sending individual or group emails. However "Messages" works more like a traditional web mail system, where you can read messages within Sakai and choose whether messages you send go to the students' Sakai account or their external email address.
Tasks, Tests & Surveys: An alternative to the "Tests & Quizzes" tool that was under consideration (and ultimately rejected) as a possible replacement. It is somewhat easier to use, however the original "Tests & Quizzes" tool has more features and flexibility, and has solved most of the problems that it had in the past. This tool may disappear from future versions of Sakai, but is still available for use in the time-being.
Glossary: intended for use in the portfolio system that co-exists within Sakai, this tool has practical uses for course and project sites as well. It allows the construction of a glossary of terms and definitions.
Presentations: a rudimentary tool for synchronized slideshows - you upload images, and can control which ones the students see in real time in remote locations. This has been part of Sakai from the start, but was "stealthed" because it was somewhat misleading and confusing to use.

To use any of the above tools, write to sakai@brokenmail.rutgers.edu please replace "brokenmail.rutgers.edu" with "rutgers.edu with the name of your Sakai site.

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.

July 16: Obama to Speak [UPDATE - venue change]

President Obama will not speak at the Rutgers campus. The location was changed to the PNC Arts Center due to the number of people asking for tickets.

Information is available at Corzine's campaign web site.

Information about the Republican candidate appearance schedule is available on the Christie campaign web site.

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