H1N1: Sustaining Your Classroom with Blackboard 9

To assist you with supporting your classroom during a mild Pandemic Flu outbreak, Instructional Technology is offering an advanced Blackboard workshop entitled H1N1: Sustaining the Classroom with Blackboard 9. This one-hour workshop focuses on using the features in Blackboard that help faculty create an interactive and collaborative online experience for students. This workshop will cover creating tests and quizzes, using the Collaboration tools (e.g. Discussion Boards, Virtual Classroom, Chat, Blogs and Journals), managing Groups, iTunes U, and lecture capture with Echo 360. While this hands on workshop is designed to prepare you to extend your classroom beyond its physical space, the skills you will learn are also effective in a traditional teaching environment.

The H1N1: Sustaining the Classroom with Blackboard 9 workshops will be offered on:

• September 15 (T) from 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
• September 17 (R) from 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
• September 22 (T) from 10:00 am - 11:00 am
• September 23 (W) from 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

All workshops are held in the Beck Instructional Lab. Please feel free to bring your personal notebook computers or USB flash drive to the workshop.

To register for one of these sessions, visit http://oit.washcoll.edu/trainingandtutorials.php. If you have questions about these workshops, please contact Nancy Cross, Nick Smerker or Sharon Sledge.

Faculty: Blackboard 9 Overview Hands-on Workshops

Instructional Technology is holding four Blackboard 9 Overview hands-on workshops on Thursday, 9/10 at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm, Wednesday, 9/16 at 11:30 am and Thursday, 9/17 at 10:00 am in the Beck Instructional Lab. Come to one of these 60 or 90 minute sessions to discover all that Blackboard 9 has to offer. During the workshop, you will learn how to upload and manage course materials, work with the Blackboard 9 homepage and course modules, create, collect and grade assignments and learn about Blackboard's collaboration tools. The last 15-30 minutes of each session is reserved for one-on-one project assistance and questions. Please feel free to bring your personal notebook computers or USB flash drive to the workshop.

To register for a Blackboard 9 Overview session, visit:

http://oit.washcoll.edu/trainingandtutorials.php

If you have questions about these workshops, please contact Nick Smerker or Nancy Cross.

Zimbra Calendar Training for Departments & Groups

In addition to email, the Zimbra collaboration suite provides a robust calendar application. Like Meeting Maker, the Zimbra calendar allows users to schedule meetings with staff, faculty and students alike. If you are a current Meeting Maker user, it’s important to get familiar with the new calendar before Meeting Maker is discontinued at the end of October.

To help with the transition, OIT is offering the opportunity to schedule “1-hour” hands-on training sessions for departments and groups that want to start using Zimbra's calendar now. These sessions will cover the basics of using the calendar including advanced topics like calendar sharing and managing roles and setting calendar specific preferences. Until Meeting Maker is discontinued, OIT encourages departments to attend calendar training together if possible. Doing so will make it easier to schedule interdepartmental meetings if everyone is using Zimbra calendar instead of a combination of Zimbra and Meeting Maker.

For your convenience we set aside the days and locations for training, as listed below:

• Monday, August 24 - Wednesday August 26 from 8:30 - 4:30 in Goldstein 202
• Monday, August 31 - Friday, September 4 from 9:00 - 1:00 in the Beck Instructional Lab (located on the Lower Level in Miller Library)

To schedule your department or group for a Zimbra Calendar workshop, please visit:

http://oit.washcoll.edu/trainingandtutorials.php

If you have questions about the training, please contact the HelpDesk (ext. 7777), Gene Sheehan (ext. 7168), Nick Smerker (ext. 7421), or Sharon Sledge (ext. 7450).

Hopefully, we’ll see you in a workshop real soon.