Webpage Syllabus

Contributed by Jane Nguyen, Instructional Designer I (CSE)

In my last article, I encouraged professors to convert their syllabi from long, text-based PDF or Word documents to more interactive web pages. Doing so increases the chances of students reading it in full at the beginning of the semester and subsequently revisiting it. I would like to continue the discussion this week, expounding on yet more approaches and considerations.

First, the concept of an interactive syllabus takes a constructivist approach, meaning students build knowledge through task completion and active experiences as opposed to passively receiving information. Though an interactive syllabus typically does not function as a feedback-giving diagnostic, nor is it adjustable to learners’ knowledge, it is a learner-manipulated environment in which concepts are presented in different ways and at different times. This results in multiple and adaptive interpretations necessary for knowledge acquisition.

This past week, in exploring where to start in creating an interactive syllabus, it occurred to me that interactivity has different levels. A maximally interactive syllabus may have students frequently doing something, such as dragging & dropping items, mouse-hovering over image links, entering text responses to questions, etc. Faculty should not feel they have to leap up to this high level of interactivity. (Too much of it could be distracting anyway).

Professors may want to, for now, simply upgrade their current PDF or Word document syllabus to a webpage in which there is more visual appeal, embedded videos, and clickable menu items. This is still a better experience for students, as chunked, digestible information is livelier and addresses different learning styles. This is because a webpage can have embedded audio and video files for auditory learners, and colorful graphs, charts, maps, etc., for visual learners.

Other items frequently found on course syllabi are course-related links provided by the instructor. These might be web pages related to course content; articles, podcasts, & videos related to the field; or Amazon.com links of recommended books. On a Word or PDF syllabus, they are often long "gibberish" URLs or links with simple text descriptions that may appear plain and uninteresting. On a webpage, links and resources can be made more dynamic with color, image links, and embedded videos.

Even with a webpage syllabus that is not highly interactive, it is still important to keep different levels of internet connectivity in mind. If an instructor provides a resource that requires a plugin or a computer with a lot of strength, a simpler, low-bandwidth option should be provided for students that do not have fast, strong Internet or powerful computers.

While a webpage syllabus may not be functionally interactive, it is still possible to create an interactive and constructivist experience (wherein students construct meaning in order to learn) by having them navigate the webpage and complete a syllabus assignment as they do so. They may be asked to reflect on the learning objectives, evaluate the fairness (or not) of the late work policy, write a short response to the introduction video, etc.

If you are interested in upgrading your syllabus and would like help getting started, feel free to reach out to an instructional designer. We are happy to help.

Zoom Feature Spotlight: Live Transcript

Contributed by Jenn Ray, Learning Technology Administrator I

Recently, Zoom implemented a feature that allows live auto-captioning during a meeting when using the mobile app or desktop client. Although the real-time transcription feature has some limitations, it is still an excellent tool to make your Zoom sessions more accessible. Before we outline how to use the Live Transcript feature in your Zoom meeting, let’s go over some of those limitations:

• The only language currently supported is English.
• While the accuracy in our testing was surprising, it is dependent upon several variables such as:
• The volume and clarity of the speaker,
• The amount of background noise,
• Regional/community lexicons and dialects
• The speaker’s proficiency with English

Because of these limitations, the Live Transcript feature may not be adequate support for any speech-to-text requirements you might have, however in our experience, it can be a helpful tool where more accurate captions aren’t required.

To turn on Live Transcript in a Zoom meeting, click the “Live Transcript” button in your meeting controls at the bottom of the Zoom client.

On the resulting pop-up, click Enable Auto-Transcription. You can also check or uncheck the option at the very bottom to allow your participants to request Live Transcription.

Once you’ve clicked the button above, you’ll notice a message near the bottom of your Zoom screen letting you know the feature is activated. At that time, you can start speaking, and the live transcription will appear near the bottom of your Zoom screen.

Note: Currently, UHCL does not have an external auto-captioning service integrated with Zoom; however, if the Live Transcript feature isn’t appropriate for your needs, you can also assign a participant to type captions while you speak from the same “Live Transcript” pop-up menu.

For more information about this feature and Zoom’s manual captioning ability, please see the Zoom Help Center page linked below:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/207279736-Managing-closed-captioning-and-live-transcription

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Support Center (SupportCenter@uhcl.edu) with any questions you may have for us!

EDUCAUSE Feature: Podcast - Techniques for Student Engagement

Contributed by Jenni Willis-Opalenik, PhD, Director, OIT Technology Learning Services

For this week's pedagogical/andragogical offering, the IDT team invites you to set aside 11 minutes for an EDUCAUSE podcast, Techniques for Student Engagement. As an alternative, you can opt to display and read the transcript of the podcast instead of listening.

In this recording from March 31, 2021, several panelists offer their thoughts and suggestions in response to the question, "What are some of the techniques and tools being used to engage students?"

Panelists:

• Tom Cavanagh, Vice Provost for Digital Learning @ University of Central Florida
• Shannon Dunn, Assistant Director, UFIT Center for Instructional Technology and Training @ University of Florida
• Lisa Forbes, Assistant Clinical Professor in the Counseling Program and in the School of Education @ University of Colorado, Denver
• Kathe Pelletier, Director, Teaching and Learning Program @ EDUCAUSE
• Renee Pfeifer-Luckett, Director, Learning Technology Development @ University of Wisconsin System Administration
• David Thomas, Executive Director for Online Programs @ University of Denver

How Is Virtual Reality Being Used at Other Universities?

Contributed by Izaak Diefenbach, Instructional Designer I (COE)

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about the new Extended Reality (XR) Lab that the Neumann library is building as part of its current renovation project. In that article, I discussed the three main types of technology that fall under the term Extended Reality: Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR). In this article, I will focus on Virtual Reality and its use at other universities.

During the pandemic, Penn State University Landscape Architecture Professor Travis Flohr found that teaching a studio course over Zoom made it difficult for his students to communicate and collaborate as they had in face-to-face courses. Flohr worked with colleagues Tim Johnson and Ken Tamminga to create an online VR studio that replicates the on-campus studio space. The VR space is a 360-degree reproduction that allows students to explore the area and includes people, furnishings, and even sounds the students would experience in the actual studio. The VR studio also consists of four workspaces, including desks, pin-up spaces, a lecture hall, and a lounge.

At the University of Maryland, Dr. Rashawn Ray is working with Google to develop a VR police training program. The program aims to train police to deescalate situations by interacting with a VR person programmed using an algorithm designed to replicate human behavior. Dr. Ray hopes to reduce the rate of fatal police shootings, particularly for Black Americans.

Stanford University has recently introduced a course that will be taught entirely online. The Communications course, called “Virtual People,” uses software called ENGAGE that allows instructors and students to interact and build their own virtual environments. Professor Jeremy Bailenson and teaching assistant Cyan DeVeaux have students engage in such activities as visiting a guided meditation in space, building imaginary scenes, and even creating performances using virtual avatars. Bailenson and DeVeaux are using the course to collect data to help develop the use of VR environments in education.

These are just a few examples of the ways universities are using VR to create new educational opportunities. In future articles, I plan to look at how Augmented and Mixed Reality are being used as well.

References

Burton, R. (2021, November 30). University of Maryland researchers, Google to offer virtual reality police training. WJLA.

Dietrich, K. (2021, November 4). Stuckeman School professor uses virtual reality to expand studio environment. Penn State News.

Kornfein, A. (2021, December 2). Stanford launches first class taught completely in virtual reality. The Stanford Daily.

Drop In Support Reminder

The Instructional Design and Technology team continues to host four live drop-in support hours for faculty and staff each week in Zoom. Stop by to get your questions answered or to get quick help getting ready for the next term. The link to the recurring Zoom meeting is https://uhcl.zoom.us/j/91324561229. No reservations or appointments are required for drop-in support.

• Monday, 10 - 11 a.m.
• Tuesday, 1 - 2 p.m.
• Wednesday, 6 - 7 p.m.
• Thursday, 10 - 11 a.m.

Tech Tip: Adobe Flash End of Life (EOL)

For those of you who have previously included Flash-based materials in your Blackboard courses (e.g., SWF files, Flashpaper animations), please be advised that Adobe and all major web browsers recently discontinued support for all Flash-related tools and contents. Flash-based contents will no longer display in Blackboard and there is no workaround to make them do so. This is not a Blackboard issue, but rather a decision by the vendor/owner of the Flash technology, Adobe. NOTE: This end-of-life only impacts Flash -- NOT any of Adobe's other software products (e.g., Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Photoshop).

Recorded Webinar (ACUE): Establishing Your Teaching Presence Online

The beginning of the new semester is a perfect time to establish a prominent presence in your online and partially online classes. For those of you looking for more information about this critical activity, our team recommends the recorded webinar, Showing Empathy and Communicating in Survival Mode: Managing Your Online Presence While Teaching During Coronavirus. This one-hour session is presented by the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE).

Name/Email Changes in Blackboard

Our team and our colleagues in the Support Center receive frequent inquiries about changing someone's name or email address in Blackboard. As much as we would love to assist in these matters, there is nothing that we can do in Blackboard regarding these requests. User data in Blackboard, including names, usernames, and email addresses are automatically populated from UHCL's Profiles application, which gets its data from E-Services/PeopleSoft. As a result, even if we manually change a name or email in Blackboard, when the next data update runs from Profiles to Blackboard, our change would be undone. For assistance with incorrect user data coming from PeopleSoft/E-Services, please contact UHCL's Student Enrollment Center.

Why are All of My Enrolled Students Not in My Blackboard Course?

At the start of every semester, there may be cases in which your roster of students in E-Services doesn't match the roster in your Blackboard course. The following information may help explain those discrepancies. As students add, drop, and change courses just before and just after the start of a new term, there can be a 2-3 day delay between when they submit a schedule change and when that change is reflected in Blackboard.  For example, students who add a course on Friday may not yet have access to the Blackboard shell for that class on Sunday, but they will likely see the course appear on Monday. Without getting too technical, schedule changes in PeopleSoft have to be processed locally and then each day's changes are updated overnight with UH Central/Main. Only after that update completes will the job be executed that eventually adds the student to or removes them from specific Blackboard classes.

"Crash Course" Video Library

In late 2021, the IDT began developing and posting a series of new, short video tutorials on various topics and tools. We will continue to update this page with new video links as we create new tutorials.

Last Updated: January 18, 2023

Blackboard and Blackboard Tools

• Accessing Echo360 in Bb [8:18]​
• Accessing SafeAssign Submissions [1:51]
• Archiving a Blackboard Course [4:56]
• Course Structures/Teaching Styles [8:03]
• Creating and Using Categories in the Grade Center [9:27]
• Embedding Echo360 Videos in Blackboard Content Items [3:08]
• Export/Deletion Notifications [3:13]
• Grade Categories [9:27]
• Importing Existing Zoom Meetings to Bb [2:38]
• Instructors and Groups [4:20]
• Linking from Contents in O365 OneDrive to Blackboard [7:58]
• Navigating the Blackboard Courses Page [2:08]
• Open Hyperlink in a New Window [2:15]
• Pasting Text into Blackboard Contents [5:38]
• Providing Audio and Video Feedback to Students [1:46]
• Respondus Exam - Manual Question Export/Import [5:49]
• Restoring a Hidden Course Menu [1:31]
• Sending Assignment Due Reminder to Students [3:02]
• Simple Echo360 Video to Blackboard Demo [3:10]
• Student Messages and Notifications [2:28]
• Test Availability Exceptions [3:03]
• Understanding Adaptive Release [6:49]
• Using the Course Copy Tool [5:09]
• Using the Date Management Tool [5:41]
• Using Zoom in Blackboard [3:13]
• Zoom in Blackboard - FA22 [4:00]

Zoom

• Activating Automatic Transcripts for Zoom Recordings [2:20]
• Adding an Alternative Host to Your Zoom Meeting [3:37]
• Downloading Zoom Recordings [5:00]
• Getting Zoom Videos into Echo360 [7:29]
• Importing Existing Zoom Meetings to Bb [2:38]
• Setting Zoom to Work with Echo360 [2:55]
• Using Zoom in Blackboard [3:13]
• Zoom in Blackboard - FA22 [4:00]
• Zoom Recordings Deletion Notifications [3:14]

Echo360

• NEW! Downloading/Installing Echo360 Universal Capture [4:29]
• About Echo360 Collections [3:29]
• Accessing Echo360 in Bb [8:18]
• Automatic Transcripts and Closed Captions in Echo360 [4:29]
• Basic Upload to Echo360 [3:59]
• Copying Collaborate Recordings to Echo360 [9:42]
• Downloading Echo360 Videos [2:02]
• Echo 360 Basics [13:31]
• Echo360 Media Analytics [4:06]
• Editing Transcripts and Converting to Captioning [4:23]
• Editing Videos in Echo360 [7:15]
• Embedded Questions in Videos [6:03]
• Embedding Echo360 Videos in Blackboard Content Items [3:08]
• Getting Started with Echo360 [2:59]
• Getting Zoom Videos into Echo360 [7:29]
• Moving Uploaded Videos from Blackboard to Echo360 [10:25]
• Reusing Echo360 Contents [7:54]
• Setting Zoom to Work with Echo360 [2:55]
• Sharing an Echo360 Video [3:36]
• Simple Echo360 Video to Blackboard Demo [3:10]
• Student Perspective of Echo360 [6:49]

Rally/PTZ Cameras

• Rally/PTZ Cameras and Zoom: A Brief Tutorial [2:24]
• Rally/PTZ Classroom Cameras Overview [4:26]

Miscellaneous/Other

• GoUHCL Preview [3:56]
• Microsoft Sway Preview [9:07]
• Qualtrics Introduction [5:02]
• Respondus Exam - Manual Question Export/Import [5:49]
• Using a Countdown Timer in a Class PowerPoint Presentation [3:03]

Preparing Your Blackboard Grade Center

The Grade Center in Blackboard can seem like one of its most daunting tools. However, by planning ahead and getting the Grade Center configured early in the semester, you can make the end of the term a bit less stressful for yourself. It's important to ensure that, if you plan for students to track their course grades within Blackboard and/or you want to use the Calculated column option to compute students' final course grades, you have a Grade Center that is aligned with the grading information in your syllabus. Upon request, a member of our team can meet with you online to go over your syllabus information and graded activities/assignments in Blackboard, and help you make sure that all is well in your Grade Center. Some of the issues with which they can provide guidance are: cleaning up outdated/extraneous Grade Center columns; resolving problems mixing grading based on cumulative points with those based on percentages; ensuring that a grade column exists for all assignments/activities in your syllabus and schedule; and organizing Grade Center columns and hiding Grade Center rows for students who have dropped your course. To request Grade Center assistance, please contact the Support Center to have a help ticket created that will then be assigned to the most appropriate member of our team. It's best to get your Grade Center properly adjusted no later than the halfway point of each semester.

About Publisher and Related Integrations

Especially in the last year, we have seen considerable growth in the number of faculty and courses that use a 3rd party or publisher-based system that is integrated with Blackboard. Examples of these include McGraw-Hill Connect, Pearson MyLab, Cengage MindLinks, Wiley+, and Perusall. All of these are currently available on UHCL's Blackboard system. Although these 3rd party systems can be of tremendous value to students and faculty alike, all users should be aware that our staff is unable to provide technical support for these products. These systems are entirely hosted by the vendor or publisher that owns them and we have no access to those systems. Students and faculty are reminded that, for technical issues regarding these tools, they will need to contact the specific product's technical support resources. Our team maintains a partial list of external support resources on our blog post, 3rd Party/Publisher Support Resources.

Resources/Recommendations for Teaching Online Learners

This topic was from a faculty member who responded to our team's previous invitations to suggest topics for newsletter articles and the team's new "Crash Course" videos. We appreciate your input and hope to hear from other instructors in the future! In this particular case, the instructor had requested more information about "teaching adult learners online" and "best online teaching practices." There are MANY resources available online and off, so I'll attempt to keep our recommendations brief with the following bulleted items:

• Teaching adult learners online - I highly recommend the book, The Online Teaching Survival Guide by Boettcher and Conrad (2016), which was used as the foundation for a recent Center for Faculty Development learning community. It's available online through the UHCL Library.
• Best online teaching practices (synchronous and asynchronous) - again, there are a plethora of resources available; however, as a quick starter, I recommend the ACUE Online Teaching Toolkit website. In addition, our team is currently developing an online course for faculty on Beyond Blackboard - Effective Techniques for Online and Hybrid Teaching. We expect to launch that new course in SP or SU22.

You can always schedule a consult with one of our team's instructional designers. In addition to their technical expertise with Blackboard and related applications, our IDs hold, or are completing, graduate degrees in instructional design and can provide additional resources and recommendations that are customized to your instructional needs and preferences.

Transcripts and Captioning for Your Instructional Videos

Our team has worked with representatives from both Zoom and Echo360 to enable features within those applications that will provide automatic transcript creation for new recordings in both systems and for new uploads in Echo360. In addition, Echo360 now includes the capability for faculty to click a single button to have the transcript also available as closed captions.

More information about these features is provided in two of our team's "Crash Course" videos:

• Crash Course: Automatic Transcripts and Closed Captions in Echo360 [4:29]
• Crash Course: Activating Automatic Transcripts for Zoom Recordings [2:20]

Faculty may also be interested in the Zoom support page, Audio transcription for cloud recordings, and Echo360's support site, Editing a Transcript Using the Transcript Editor. As a reminder, including transcripts and closed captions benefits a wide range of learners, including those who do and do not self-report having one or more disabilities. For an interesting look at the benefits of closed captions for all learners, we recommend Dello Stritto and Linder's (2017) EDUCAUSE article, A rising tide: How closed captions can benefit all students.

Zoom Marketplace App Requests/Properly Ending Zoom Meetings

Zoom Marketplace Apps: Like any new components that are added to the university's systems, requests from faculty, staff, and students to enable any of the many Zoom Marketplace tools and integrations to UHCL's Zoom installation require careful review and consideration before our team will be authorized to activate the added component. These reviews, designed to protect the university and faculty, staff, and student users, include the following: 

• IDT Team: receives the request, obtains the requestor's rationale/purpose/business case, and determines whether UHCL applications already exist that meet the requestor's need; 
• UH System Information Security Office (ISO): reviews the application for signs of any potential threats to user, institutional, or system data security; and 
• Procurement: UHCL and the UH System have established terms and conditions, as well as a privacy policy, that apply to all levels of licensing including free versions and applications. Since no employee can agree on behalf of the university to the terms of a contract, any of the typical end-user "check here to accept this agreement" requests must be vetted by Procurement to ensure compliance with all campus and system requirements.

Please End Zoom Sessions, Rather Than Simply Closing the Window/Tab: The IDT team has begun receiving frequent emails from Zoom about Zoom meetings/sessions that have been running for more than eight (8) hours. If you have a specific reason for needing to keep a session open/live for that long, please contact us to discuss caveats of doing so, as well as other options that may suit your needs. Otherwise, when we receive these notices, we will end the session to avoid overtaxing the system for other users. Automatic Transcripts for Zoom Recordings: As announced in last week's newsletter, our Zoom system now includes the ability to have transcripts automatically generated for Zoom session recordings. Please refer to the following resources for more information: 

• Crash Course Video: Activating Automatic Transcripts for Zoom Recordings [2:20] 
• Zoom Support Page: Audio Transcription for Cloud Recordings

Crash Course: Echo 360 Getting Started/Basics

We've heard from an increasing number of faculty who are interested in creating their own video lectures and demonstrations to share with students. Although there are many tools available for video creation, our team currently supports Echo 360.

We have created a new "crash course" video that covers (1) activating your Echo 360 account, (2) downloading and installing Echo 360's Universal Capture: Personal application, (3) creating a video lecture in Universal Capture, and (4) making your video available to students in Blackboard. Please feel free to use the resources below to learn more about these basic (and easy!) processes:

• Crash Course Video: Echo 360 Basics [13:31]
• Handout: Adding Echo360 to a Course/Activating Your Echo360 Account
• Handout: Download and Install Universal Capture: Personal
• Handout: Basic Video Deployment with Echo360

As always, please feel free to contact your designated Instructional Designer, or the Support Center, if you have any questions about Echo 360 and/or Universal Capture: Personal.

Understanding Adaptive Release Vs. Test Availability Exceptions

Do you ever need to make an online test or exam available to a student for an extended amount of time, or on a different date/time than the rest of your students? If so, make sure that you use a Test Availability Exception, instead of Blackboard's Adaptive Release feature, which can be confusing and somewhat problematic for faculty and students. For that reason, before using Adaptive Release, we recommend that you schedule a virtual appointment with your designated Instructional Designer to ensure that it is the best option to suit your specific instructional needs.

Helping Students Get Online Proctoring Assistance

Both of the proctoring services used at UHCL, ProctorU and Respondus LockDown Browser with Monitor, require some planning and familiarization by students in order to have a frustration-free virtual exam session. Faculty who administer tests with these services are encouraged to share the following resources with students 5-7 days before each exam: 

• UHCL Webpage: Online ProctoringResources – Under the Student Information menu, our team has posted critical "getting started" information, video tours, and other resources for both Respondus and ProctorU. Students should review the information for the proctoring service you require well in advance of exam day. 
• Respondus Technical Support Webpage - From this page, students can search the Knowledgebase for answers to common issues or they can use the Submit a Ticket link to submit questions to Respondus technical support. 
• ProctorU Support - From this page, students can submit a help request. In addition, if students log into their ProctorU account, they can access ProctorU's live chat to discuss their questions and technical issues. Although UHCL's support staff does not have access to either vendor's system, these resources have enabled most students to quickly resolve their proctoring issues. 

What's the Buzz About HyFlex Instruction?

HyFlex instruction is a concept that has received a lot of attention during the last year, especially given the pivot to online teaching and learning. What is HyFlex? EDUCAUSE (2020) describes HyFlex as, "an instructional approach that combines face-to-face (F2F) and online learning. Each class session and learning activity is offered in-person, synchronously online, and asynchronously online. Students can decide—for each class or activity—how to participate." What sets HyFlex apart from similar, hybrid/blended instructional models is the provision of student choice in how they engage with the course each week, session, etc. Although not ideal for all courses, programs, instructors, or students, the HyFlex model has proven effective in a number of institutions and specific programs throughout the country.

Resources - To learn more about HyFlex, please consider reviewing the following resources:

• Chicca, J. (2021). Designing Courses Using the HyFlex Model. Nurse Educator, Publish Ahead of Print. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNE.0000000000000991 [available from the UHCL Library] EDUCAUSE (2020).
• 7 Things You Should Know About the HyFlex Course Model. https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2020/7/eli7173.pdf Miller, A., Sellnow, D., & Strawser, M. (2021).
• Pandemic pedagogy challenges and opportunities: instruction communication in remote, HyFlex, and BlendFlex courses. Communication Education, 70(2), 202–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2020.1857418 [available from the UHCL Library]

Student Video Submissions from Echo360 to Blackboard

Although we've written a great deal in our newsletters and blog posts about faculty use of Echo360, your students can also upload their own video projects into Echo360 and then submit a hyperlink to their video in an assignment dropbox, discussion, or other Blackboard tools for review and grading. Even if you don't use Echo360 in which to create and store videos, you may still enable students to access Echo360 in your course for these types of activities. Simply add an Echo360 link to your Course Menu and let them know that it's there for them to use for video submissions. A "how-to" document for students has been created, so feel free to share this with your students. For more information regarding anything related to Echo360, please contact your designated instructional designer or the Support Center.

Understanding and Using Blackboard Wikis

Among Blackboard's available interactive tools, the least used is the Wiki. However, the Wiki feature can be an excellent tool when you want to promote collaborative work across your whole class or within groups. As described on Blackboard's Wiki help page, "Wikis allow course members to contribute and modify one or more pages of course-related materials and provide a means of sharing and collaboration. Course members can create and edit pages quickly, and track changes and additions, which allows for effective collaboration between multiple writers." Activities and assignments that might benefit from using Wikis include: 

• Collaborative writing projects or presentations; 
• Class-created glossary or knowledge base about key concepts, vocabulary, etc. in the course.
• Group or whole-class collaborations to solve complex problems. 

Feel free to review the resources below for more information about Wikis to determine whether they are a good fit for your instructional needs. 

Resources 

• Blackboard (2021, February 11). How to create and manage wikis [video].
• Blackboard (2021). Wikis.
• Northern Illinois University (2021). Blackboard wikis quick guide.

Increased Faculty Interest in Echo360 - Training and Support Options

Our team has been excited by the growing interest from faculty regarding the Echo360 video creation, storage, and deployment services. First offered to UHCL instructors for the start of the Fall 2020 term, there have been nearly 250 faculty/staff who have used Echo360 to some degree, resulting in a current inventory (as of December 2021) of nearly 6000 videos in the system. For those not already familiar with Echo360's features, it is a cloud-based service that "combines video management with lecture capture and active learning to increase student success." 

Among Echo360's many features, the following are primary options for its current use at UHCL: 

Echo360 Universal Capture - used to create instructor-generated lecture and demonstration videos and to stream classes (from UHCL classrooms or remotely) 

• Zoom Integration - enables faculty to have recorded Zoom sessions also saved directly in their Echo360 Library for long-term storage 
• Video storage for videos created outside of Echo360
• Video deployment into Blackboard courses (including student videos to be submitted as part of discussions, assignments, etc.) 

Training and Support Resources - Beginning in Summer 2020, our team has offered or hosted a number of virtual training and informational sessions about Echo360. The following recordings of some of those sessions are a great place to start if you want to learn more about this system:

• Echo360 - First Steps: Class Sessions and Blackboard Integration
• Echo360 - Creating Lecture Videos with Universal Capture (Personal)
• Echo360 - Managing Your Existing Videos 
• Adding and Using Embedded Questions in Videos (Echo360)
• Locating and Using Analytics in Echo360 

If you have additional questions about using Echo360, please contact the Support Center at supportcenter@uhcl.edu to have a help ticket created. Our team will then have someone get back to you to provide additional support

What Our Team is Reading

With all that has been going on since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020, finding time for professional reading has been scarce. However, our Instructional Design and Technology team continues the pursuit of lifelong professional learning. Most recently, we have turned our attention to the following titles, all available online or from UHCL's Alfred R. Neumann Library. We recommend these as a good starting point for instructors who are interested in improving their online and hybrid classes for future use:

• Darby, F., & Lang, J. (2019). Small teaching online: applying learning science in online classes. Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Brand. 
• Nilson, L., & Goodson, L. (2017). Online teaching at its best (1st ed.). Jossey-Bass. 
• Ross C. Alexander. (2017). Best practices in online teaching and learning across academic disciplines. George Mason University. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv103xf06

What Do Instructional Designers Actually Do?

An interesting recent blog post by Dr. Luke Hobson provided an excellent section on "Explaining What An Instructional Designer Does." Described some years ago by a faculty member as "the people who load your syllabus into Blackboard," UHCL's team of instructional designers (IDs) are actually educated and trained in a variety of areas and they apply that expertise in assisting faculty on a number of instructional fronts. Adapting from Dr. Hobson's blog post and accompanying video, I would describe what our team's instructional designers (IDs) do as follows:

• They understand how people, especially adults, learn. Although the IDs most often assist with online instruction, their understanding of adult learning crosses all modes of instructional delivery (100% online, hybrid/blended, face-to-face).
• The IDs work with faculty members to gather their instructional needs, information about their students and classes, teaching preferences, and subject-related expertise, and they then advise and assist with using that information to create effective learning experiences for students.

These efforts involve the design and development of learning outcomes, course materials, activities, and assessments, as well as guidance and support for the use of appropriate instructional technologies. The instructional designers serve as advisers and consultants to any faculty who would like assistance creating, updating, or fine-tuning their instructional planning and delivery. There are certainly other aspects to the daily tasks for our ID staff. They develop and deliver training and professional development, assist with planning for emerging online programs, evaluate and report on potential new instructional technologies, and review new online courses for approval and instructional use. If you haven't had an opportunity to meet our instructional design team, I encourage you to do so. Feel free to use the contact information provided in our blog post, Instructional Design and Technology Team - Contact Information, and make an appointment to visit a member of our team virtually or in person at the Center for Engagement, Teaching, and Learning (CETL)...safely distanced and masked, of course.

Instructional Design 101 - Why Learning Objectives?

As instructional designers, our team frequently faces a common question from faculty developing fully online courses - "Why do I need to provide students with learning objectives for every week, module, or unit?" Although instructors typically understand the need for course objectives and for ensuring alignment between those and the various assessments within a course, the confusion often centers around the value of overtly sharing objectives with learners. 

There are many resources to which we could refer our readers that would explain in excruciating detail a number of justifications for the use of learning objectives in course design, development, and delivery. However, for this short article, we'd like to share some thoughts from the University of Michigan's Center for Academic Innovation. In their online reference, Learning Objectives and Outcomes, that office describes objectives for students as analogous to effectively planning a trip. Specifically, they assert that objectives make it "much easier for your students to engage with your course if they know where they are headed." 

The authors also describe the challenges of developing and teaching online for many university faculty who have completed their studies via mostly traditional, face- to-face instruction. Based on those experiences, faculty may unintentionally lean toward a content-focused approach to online course design, which often relegates learning objectives to a secondary or tertiary concern. 

To learn more about the "whys" and "whats" of student-level learning objectives, the University of Michigan post is well worth a quick read. For those who need help developing learning objectives of your own, the article recommends two online objective-building tools that you can use to walk you through the process of crafting your course outcomes: 

• Arizona State University's Learning Objectives Builder 
• University of Central Florida's Objective Builder Tool 

Of course, our staff of instructional designers will be standing by to offer personalized guidance and assistance, upon request. Even though many of you may be off-contract and away from campus for the summer, we'll still be here to answer any instructional design and instructional technology questions that you may have.