Academic Technology Services Training
Illinois Compass 2g Training Series
Moving from Illinois Compass to Illinois Compass Second Generation
llinois Compass 2g: Managing your Moved Course Content
This workshop is for instructors who have chosen to have their course content moved from their Illinois Compass site to Illinois Compass 2g. Workshop facilitators will help you locate your assignments, discussion boards, weblinks, and other course materials, and configure them to function in the new Illinois Compass 2g environment.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Transitions Boot Camp
This is a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-do-it “boot camp” designed to help you say goodbye to Illinois Compass, and hello to Illinois Compass 2g. Two half-day sessions will cover everything from managing your copied course content, to teaching with the newest tools and features in Compass 2g.
- Duration: 2 one-half days
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Illinois Compass 2g: Question & Answer Walk-in Clinics
Struggling with the Grade Center? Not sure if your assessment idea will work? Forgot how to set up groups in Illinois Compass 2g? At these informal walk-in clinics, CITES Academic Technologies consultants will be on hand to assist you with all your questions on a first-come first-serve serve basis.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Walk-In Clinic
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Getting Started with Illinois Compass 2g
Illinois Compass 2g: How to Request a Course Space
During this 30-minute training workshop, CITES Academic Technology Services staff will walk through the new Space Request application for Illinois Compass 2g, and address individual questions about the course site request process. This workshop will help you to:
- Be sure that lab or discussion sections appear properly in the Grade Center.
- Be sure that cross-listed courses have all sections included.
- Be sure that the proper number of sites are requested for instructors teaching multiple courses.
- Find the right site configuration for courses with multiple instructors or TAs.
- Duration: 30 minutess
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Illinois Compass 2g: The Essentials
In this hands-on workshop participants will practice building and organizing content within the Illinois Compass 2g environment. Special emphasis will be given to teaching tools including Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, and the Grade Center. The workshop facilitator will also provide examples of best practices drawn from research on teaching and learning in both online and face-to-face settings.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Key Features for Teaching Assistants, Graders and Staff
This one hour Illinois Compass 2g workshop is designed to provide Teaching Assistants, Graders and Staff with a basic familiarity of the commonly used features associated with their roles. Topics covered in this workshop will be emailing students from within Illinois Compass 2g, adding users to the course, creating assignments and grading in the Grade Center.
- Duration: 1 hour
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Communication and Collaboration Tools
Illinois Compass 2g: Discussions and other Interactive Tools
In this hands-on workshop participants will learn how to create, manage, and grade a variety of discussion forums within the Illinois Compass 2g environment. The workshop facilitator will also provide examples of best practices drawn from research on discussion-based activities in online and face-to-face settings.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Illinois Compass 2g: Facilitating Online Discussion
In both blended and fully online courses the discussion forum is the most widely used tool in a course management system, but encouraging students to converse online in a meaningful way continues to be a challenge. The answer is to become a more effective facilitator of online discussion activities. This workshop features a variety of small group activities and draws upon recent research to present useful tools and suggestions for managing online discussions in Illinois Compass 2g.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Illinois Compass 2g: Building Online Group Activities
Learn to use the groups feature in Compass 2g to create online discussion groups, group projects, and group assignments. This hands-on workshop will also discuss effective practices for supporting and grading online group activities.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Strongly recommended: the "Illinois Compass 2g: The Essentials" workshop and/or experience with using Illinois Compass 2g as an Instructor, Teaching Assistant and/or Course Builder
see also Teaching and Learning with Technology
Assessment and Evaluation Tools
Illinois Compass 2g: Assessing Student Performance with Assignments
In this hands-on workshop participants will learn how to use the Assignments tool to assess student performance. Participants will practice creating assignments, viewing and grading student submissions, providing feedback to students, and publishing submissions to the class. The workshop will also cover the "Assignments" and "Needs Grading" areas of the Grade Center, and discuss best practices drawn from research on teaching and learning with web-based assignments.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Illinois Compass 2g: Assessing Student Performance with Tests and Surveys
Did you know that Illinois Compass 2g offers more than fifteen (15) question types? In this hands-on workshop, participants will practice creating online tests and surveys to assess student performance and seek student input. Special emphasis will be given to experiencing a test from the student perspective. This workshop will also cover the "Tests" and "Needs Grading" areas of the Grade Center, and best practices for teaching and learning with web-based assessments.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Illinois Compass 2g: Curbing Plagiarism with SafeAssign
SafeAssign is an anti-plagiarism tool available within Illinois Compass 2g. SafeAssign compares submitted papers to multiple online databases to determine whether the papers contain material that matches content previously published. In this workshop, we will teach you how to create a SafeAssignment within your Illinois Compass 2g course, how to enable students to submit their writing for evaluation, and how to evaluate the reports generated by SafeAssign.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Strongly recommended: the Illinois Compass Essentials workshop and/or experience with using Illinois Compass as an Instructor and/or Designer
Illinois Compass 2g: Improving Student Performance with the Early Warning System
In this hands-on workshop participants will learn how to evaluate student progress in their course using a variety of compass 2g tools. This workshop will demonstrate how to use reports to track user activity and how to create custom early warning indicators to warn students who may be falling behind. Participants will also be introduced to the Performance Dashboard, Review Status, Statistics Tracking and configurable Grade Center options that allow you to create custom views of student's progress.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Illinois Compass 2g: Using Respondus to Author and Manage Tests and Survey
Hands-on workshop covers how-to use Respondus to create and manage online tests. Learn how to create new questions and format word documents to import questions into Respondus and upload and deploy them into your Illinois Compass 2g course. This workshop will also teach you how to move online tests from Illinois Compass into your new Compass 2g space. Respondus is Windows-only software available to University of Illinois faculty, staff and students at no charge through the University Webstore at http://webstore.illinois.edu.
- Duration: 1.5 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Illinois Compass 2g: Using Grading Rubrics to Support Student Learning
In this hands-on workshop participants will learn how to create and implement grading rubrics within Illinois Compass 2g. We'll analyze existing rubrics and discuss how to write criteria that will allow your students to monitor and assess their progress as they work towards the assignment goals. We'll also explore how well-constructed rubrics can reduce grading time and ensure consistency across sections and courses. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to build their own grading rubric for use within their Illinois Compass 2g course.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Managing the Grade Center
Illinois Compass 2g: Setting up and Managing Your Grade Center
In this hands-on workshop participants will learn to use the Grade Center to manage grading in their Illinois Compass 2g sites. Participants will learn how to grade assignments, upload scores, manually enter scores, develop calculations to determine student averages, and determine final grades.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Illinois Compass 2g: Grade Center Walk-in Clinic
This clinic is for existing users of the Illinois Compass 2g Grade Center. We'll tackle all of your questions about calculating final grades, creating and managing grade columns, importing final exam grades, posting final grades, and other Illinois Compass 2g Grade Center issues on a first-come first-serve serve basis.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Walk-In Clinic
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Teaching and Learning with Technology
Communication and Collaboration Tools
Wikis and more: Collaborative tools for faculty research, service, and teaching
Want to collaborate with colleagues on campus or in Cleveland or Cairo, facilitate your students' group projects, or serve on committees with fewer meetings? CITES Academic Technology Services is here to help. The campus wiki makes it easy to create documents and collaborate online. U of I Box gives you space to collaborate with peers; store, move, and distribute files. PIE (publish.illinois.edu) and Illinois Compass 2g can host your webpages online. These tools are available everywhere the Internet reaches. Within an hour, we'll have you ready to get started, and you can follow up with consultation on your specific projects.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Using Clicker Technology to Enhance Student Learning
The i>clicker, invented here at the University of Illinois, is a student response system developed to increase student engagement, promote discussion, provide feedback, and improve learning in class. Over 200 faculty in a variety of disciplines on our campus have adopted this teaching/learning tool. In this workshop, we will discuss best practices, types of i>clicker questions, and how to get started using i>clicker in your course.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) & CITES Academic Technology Services
Managing Collaborative Writing with Technology
Technology can help managing the details of collaborative writing, among your students and with your colleagues. Some general principles include
sharing documents (without anyone erasing anybody else's work!)
inserting comments
discussing drafts
making sure everyone is looking at the right version of the document
managing permissions
The principles we'll cover can be applied to a number of different technologies: Microsoft Word and other editors, Illinois Compass 2g, the Campus Wiki, U of I Box, Google Docs, and more.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE
Digital Media
How-to Series: Getting Started with Multimedia
Original multimedia can be very useful for presenting course material but its not always easy to get started. CITES Academic Technology Services will take the mystery out of some of the most common types of media you can produce yourself and present to your students. We will demonstrate creating a basic podcast, recording a movie of your computer screen with voice over narration, as well as video recording, editing, and generating a movie from a camera. In addition to demonstrating the basics of creating these forms of micro lecture, we will show you how you can post each of them online and link them to your Illinois Compass 2g or Illinois Compass course so your students can hear and see them.
- Duration: 1.5 hours
- Event type: Presentation
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Making Screencast Microlectures
This hands-on workshop will help you make a basic screencast microlecture for your face-to-face, blended, or online format class. We'll cover best practices for the use of microlectures in teaching, and the variety of tools available for making them. By the end of the session you'll create a simple microlecture, and learn some practical tips for planning future projects. All workshop materials provided. You are welcome to bring your own laptop, or a thumb drive with content to use.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Presentation
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Web 2.0 How-To Series
How-to Series: Teaching with Google Maps
This hands-on workshop will have you tripping down memory lane as you create a Google map of your own home town. Learn how to highlight specific features, add facts and information, and share your maps with others. Suggestions for pedagogical activities and concerns for privacy will be addressed.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Requirements: Participants need to establish a Google account before coming to class
How-to Series: Teaching with RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) makes it easier and faster to keep up with news and other changing information on your favorite websites. Rather than visiting websites individually, you can get new content sent directly to you. RSS feeds can help you stay on top of new developments in your discipline. There are also many possibilities for instructors to use RSS for student learning projects, reflections, discussion, and continuing education. In this workshop, you will learn how to subscribe to RSS feeds for various types of websites using Google Reader and explore its functions as a social and collaborative resource.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
How-to Series: Teaching with Twitter
More and more educators are using Twitter to share information, express pedagogical ideas, carry on discussions, search for content, etc. While the sheer volume of "tweets" may seem overwhelming, there are several tools and strategies that can make it a very manageable resource. In this workshop you will learn how to tweet messages, organize the way you view and receive other people's tweets, use hashtags to search for content, and use Twitter for live discussion and note-taking. Participants are strongly encouraged to create a free account at twitter.com beforehand in order to have more time during the workshop to explore Twitter's vast potential as a professional resource.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Recommended: Participants are strongly encouraged to create a free account at twitter.com before class
Course Development and Design
Blended Course Design Series
Blended Learning: Meeting the Challenge of Blended Learning
Do students need to meet in a physical class for three hours a week to learn the most from a course? Recent research suggests that replacing some physical classroom hours with virtual activities can actually increase student performance. Across the disciplines, instructors are exploring various blended formats to offer the best of both worlds but shifting traditional instruction to an online format requires careful restructuring of course content. This session features a variety of small group activities highlighting the pedagogical and technological challenges of blended learning. Come prepared to discuss creative solutions for replacing some portions of your course with online activities in any learning management system.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) & CITES Academic Technology Services
Blended Learning: Instructional Design for Blended and Online Courses
Instructional design is an organized approach to planning course content and activities. Drawing from research on course development models and rubrics, we will work in small groups to redesign parts of your online or blended course. Along the way we'll also talk about learning styles, learning objectives, useful web tools, and other media to enhance your instructional design. Whether you are creating a new course or redesigning an old one, this hands-on workshop will give you a framework for rethinking your course design while sharing insights and suggestions with colleagues.
- Duration: 2 hours
- Event type: Workshop
- Event sponsor(s): CITES Academic Technology Services
Faculty Development Events
Teaching with Technology Brown Bag Series
The CITES Academic Technology Services "Teaching with Technology" Brown Bag Series features award-winning Illinois faculty discussing how they successfully integrated web-based technologies into their teaching. This forum includes presentations on expanding and developing teaching strategies through using emergent technologies and online resources in a variety of disciplines.
The Brown Bag series runs through the Fall and Spring semesters. All events are held in 23 Illini Hall from 12 until 1pm.
Faculty Summer Institute
The Faculty Summer Institute (FSI) is a 3-day conference for higher education instructors and other professionals. Participants for this annual event come from Illinois state universities, community colleges, private institutions, and out-of-state universities. Join us for the Faculty Summer Institute in 2013, or view archived recordings of previous institutes.
View our training calendar to register for any upcoming event.