New Staff Members Provide Valuable Faculty Services

ATUS has the pleasure of introducing four new staff members in the area of multimedia services and the Help Desk. Justin Hagel is our new Help Desk Coordinator. Justin is a former Western student who also served for the last five months as an interim Help Desk Consultant. As both a former WWU student and employee of ATUS, Justin is already familiar with campus and ready to respond to faculty needs. In addition to his role in coordinating the day-to-day work of student Help Desk consultants, Justin is assigned to be the main point-of-contact for faculty/staff problems addressed to the Help Desk. Feel free to call Justin directly at 650-7701.

Our multimedia services for faculty have been significantly enhanced by the recent addition of three experienced staff members. Marie Raney joined us in mid-August as our new Manager of Web Services. She has many years of experience in the commercial software industry, as well as previous university experience at the University of Oregon. While Marie's main duties center around the complex task of managing Western's web environment, she also has substantial responsibility for working with faculty on Blackboard, website development, and related issues. For example, she and her staff are currently working on projects to make various digital objects (e.g. video, audio, slides) available to faculty on the web. You can contact Marie directly at 650-6355.

Robert Clark joined us in early September as our permanent Manager of Video Services. He joins us from Western Oregon University, where he did very similar work supporting the digital video needs of a university faculty. Robert will hit the ground running by beginning work almost immediately in support of the Communications Sciences and Disorders video clip program, the Huxley Planning program's video acquisition program, and other curricular projects. Robert will also play a key role in assisting the Student Tech Center with supporting faculty and student use of digital video for instruction. Robert's telephone contact is 650-6193.

Although not so new to campus, we'd also like to re-introduce Rochelle Parry as our Graphic and Web Designer (650-2998). Rochelle joined us last winter after a stint working at Microsoft. Rochelle is equally proficient at traditional graphic design activities (e.g. posters for conferences, illustration for research, etc) and at the complexities of modern web design. Whether you want your instructional and research presentations to look more professional or if you'd like to improve the look of your web sites, Rochelle can be a valuable resource.

Shared P:drives United
Linc Nesheim

Have you ever had difficulty figuring out whether a so-called 'shared folder' was on Share 1, Share 2, or Share 3? We have, so we recently worked with the Technical Services staff to consolidate the various locations to a single, easily identifiable drive. That means that all departmental shared folders now live on the same 'FacShare' P: storage drive.

The intent of this process was to simplify the mechanism required for departments to share data with another department. Previously, you had to know if a particular department had placed the files it wanted to share on Share1, Share2, or Share3. Now that we've moved all the data, such knowledge is no longer necessary - everyone's P: drive on the network now points to the same location.

Access to shared data is still controlled by the originating department. If you need access to data from a different department, the Director or Dean of that College or Division can authorize ITS staff to make the necessary permission changes to allow access.

Please contact your technical support staff or the ATUS Help Desk, 650-3333, if you experience problems accessing the P: drive, if you want to share files on the P: drive, or if you just have questions about sharing files or folders on the network.

Access Your Network Files from Anywhere
Linc Nesheim

As much as some of us hate to admit it, there are times we may need access to work-related documents from home or on the road. Such remote access is not a problem, as the WWU network is designed to enable access to most network resources from anywhere in the world.

You can access your WWU Novell network drives two different ways. The easiest way is through any standard web browser; this way works best for grabbing single files for remote use and then uploading that file back once you're done making edits. You can access your network files easily by going to myfiles.wwu.edu, clicking on the faculty/staff link, and logging in with your Universal Login. Complete instructions for using this browser-based method are found at http://west.wwu.edu/atus/helpdesk/myfiles/.

If you need to transfer or work on multiple files at one time, or if you prefer the 'drag-and-drop' file methods you use for files at work, you may prefer to set up Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning, (webDAV) connection, sometimes called Web Folders. This process takes a little more effort to establish, but the process is still not difficult. Directions for setting up and using this type of remote connection to your files can be found at http://west.wwu.edu/atus/helpdesk/webdav/.

Remember that remote access to your files will only work if your files are stored on the WWU network. For most users that means your files should be stored on the network U: drive, not the local C: drive of your computer. If your files are not already on the network U: drive or another WWU network drive, follow the directions found in the Personal Data Backup article elsewhere in this newsletter to move your "My Documents" folder from your C: drive to your U: drive.

Using one of the two remote access methods above, you can access your My Documents folder on the WWU network from any internet-connected computer anywhere.

Image Projection into the Future
Rochelle Parry

In May 2005, ATUS conducted a research forum to compare images projected digitally from a classroom computer with those projected from slides on a traditional slide projector. The goal was to determine what differences, if any, exist between the two projection methods. At the forum, images were displayed from a variety of sources such as slides produced from a copy-stand, slides from digital images, digital images from slides, digital images from flatbed scans, digital images from a digital camera, and digital images from the web. A survey was used to have participants in the forum rank the images according to quality, and to determine whether or not the quality of the image was instructionally acceptable.

The most noticeable result was that while the slide-projected images were not as bright as the digital images, they were perceived to be closer to their original representation. For most participants, digital images were an acceptable medium to present in the classroom. Additionally, the data shows a slight preference for the quality of digital web downloads and other digital production methods (scan, paper, camera), as well as a slight preference for digital imagery where analog slide originals where of lower than average quality.

While the differences were slight, it is safe to say that the overall quality of digital projection shows no significant difference from slide projection. The results do show that care must be taken to adjust the brightness of the image to match the projection type (such as making some slides lighter and some digital images darker). As one reviewer commented, care must be taken with acquiring images with either method to ensure quality. "Neither method seems to have a distinct advantage over the other."

For a more in-depth look at the results, go to http://west.wwu.edu/atus/graphics/results_start.asp.

Student Tech Center Responsive and Growing
John Farquhar

We are pleased to announce that, following a recommendation from the Associated Students Board, Western's Board of Trustees approved continued funding of the Student Technology Center. The Board did so by approving a $2 per quarter increase in the STF fee paid by students, allowing operation of the Student Tech Center for at least another four years. This news topped off a very successful pilot year for the Center, wherein utilization skyrocketed and our services were recognized by two campus awards.

During the 2005 spring term, the Center received 2,450 visits, which is more than a 4-fold increase over spring of 2004. In addition, we offered daily workshops during the spring, resulting in 271 additional attendees. Another measure of our success comes from the Western Educational Longitudinal Study (WELS), where respondents indicated that 43% of Western's sophomores had used the Student Tech Center at least once during its pilot year.

The Center's services, while clearly popular with students, are intended to fill student educational needs as identified by faculty. Therefore, the Center needs your help in shaping the best use of our services. In order to ensure that we are meeting faculty needs with Center services, we have prepared an Instructional Service Request form for use by faculty who want their students to receive special attention or custom services from the Center. This form can be found at the Tech Center website under Faculty Resources(www.wwu.edu/techcenter). This form should be used to request more specialized services, such as large-format printing and custom workshops that are provided only upon instructor request. To best assist your students, we ask for some basic information regarding the assignments that you give your students. In order to make the process as easy as possible for faculty, we'll keep your support request on file for future quarters. Our standard services such as tutoring, workshops, and color printing will always be available for all students, without specific requests from faculty members required.

The STC Service Request form is only one way to ask for our assistance or guide us in our mission. Please give us a call or stop by Haggard Hall 121 to provide other input. We are always interested in how we can better support class activities. Your input can be as simple as advising us on the scheduling and frequency of our workshops. For example, if the students in your course would benefit from a workshop in Microsoft Excel, please let us know the best time and place to offer it. Or, if you would like a brief introduction to campus technologies delivered to your class, just let us know when to stop by.

The staff of the Student Tech Center is looking forward to working with you this year. Only with your input can we continue our success in meeting faculty and student technology support needs.

All General University Labs will have new 'print release' stations beginning this fall. With this new system for printing in labs, the student still chooses "print" at their lab workstation, but when they get up to go to the printer they first stop at a print release station attached to each printer and select their individual job(s) for printing. The primary purpose of this approach is to conserve paper by eliminating waste in computer lab printing. By implementing this print release system on a small scale last spring, the Libraries found reductions in printing of up to 20%.

Previously when a student selected "print" at their computer lab workstation, their job went into a print 'queue' along with all other print jobs in the lab, to be printed in the order received. Sometimes a student's print job lands behind a big print job in the queue and when they don't see it coming out, they return to their workstation and choose "print" again, generating an additional print job. Where there is more than one printer in a lab, the student doesn't know which printer their job will come out on and, not finding it, will print again. We've all experienced remembering just that one more thing we're going to fix in our document, after we've just clicked "print." Often when printing web pages, someone thinks they printed just what was on the screen, but the printout goes on and on and on. When one of the above problems occurs, or when a student has to rush off to class and doesn't have time to wait for a job to print, the printing often ends up in a recycle barrel. In the heavily used General University Labs Associated Students Recycling formerly emptied approximately two complete barrels of rejected or abandoned pages per lab twice each week - an enormous amount of wasted paper!

When a student stops at a new print release station, they have far greater control over their printing. They can select just the jobs they intend to print, listed by their username. If a print job appears more than once, or they decide to not print a particular document, the student can easily delete previous print requests. In labs where there is more than one printer, all print jobs will show up at every print release station, so students no longer have to wonder which printer will print their document. And finally, if they don't have time to pick up their printout right away, it will remain available for 24 hours before it is removed from the print release queue, so the student can come back later in the day (or night) and release it for printing.

We are confident the amount of wasted paper will decrease significantly with the new system. Testing in the Library and the Student Technology Center has shown this process to be easy for students to understand and navigate. Response from students has been very favorable, with students appreciating both the added convenience and the reduction in waste.

Blackboard Upgraded
Additional teaching and learning benefits for you and your students
Patricia LeClaire

Over the summer, ATUS has upgraded BlackBoard to the latest version. This enhanced version (6.3) improves technical reliability plus introduces significant teaching and learning benefits. Faculty will find enhanced ability to customize content availability, perform assessment and track student progress. Students will enjoy greater choice in how they navigate around your courses.

If you are new to BlackBoard, you can register for a comprehensive hands-on QuickStart workshop) at the Training web site.

If you are an experienced BlackBoard user, and would like to review just the new options, three 60-minute workshops on that topic will be scheduled during September. Watch for the dates at same training site noted above.

New or Enhanced Blackboard Features

• Adaptive Release - this option enables you to release BlackBoard content to individual students, or to groups, based on a combination of requirements which you define: successful completion of an assignment, passing grade on a test, or review of required content. For those instructors wanting to increase their options for "mastery learning", this will be a very helpful function.
• Review Status - this option allows you to require confirmation that a student has completed a specific activity. Used in combination with Adaptive Release, it provides significant control - for example, students might be unable to access course materials until they have specifically reviewed your Syllabus, or read Western's policies on Academic Honesty or Copyright.
• Syllabus Builder - provides a wizard for building a comprehensive Syllabus
• Performance Dashboard - a course tool that allows instructors to see key information and outcomes for every student individually
• Advanced Assessment Questions - 10 new question types have been added. Examples include Calculated Questions, which allow the insertion of variables and Hot Spot questions, which allow students to click on a graphic for their response
• Gradebook Null Option - an option to exclude untaken or ungraded items when calculating the Total and Weighted Total
• Download Assessment Attempts that Include All Questions - instructors can download Survey or Test attempts as a .CSV file and use the data to perform statistical analysis in a spreadsheet application, such as Microsoft Excel
• Assessment Question Completion Status - students may skip questions that they may wish to come back to in a question-by-question assessment
• Randomize Multiple Choice Answers - instructors have the option to randomize the answers in multiple choice questions. The answers are randomized for each assessment attempt, which helps prevent student cheating
• Assessment Creation Metadata Options - when creating an Assessment, instructors have additional Creation Settings to set up metadata for questions
• Advanced Course Menu and New Course Map - students can toggle between a Quick View and a Detail View of the Course Menu

More information is available from Patricia LeClaire, ATUS Instructional Designer (x2557) and on the ATUS BlackBoard Support Web site.