Instructional Technology  

  

UAS Online

UAS has incorporated a number of strategies related to use of technology in the UAS Strategic Plan:

• Provide technology and services which support and enhance learning
• Expand access to written and electronic information resources
• Provide coordinated instructional design and delivery resources for faculty and program development.
• Assist faculty in integrating technology into instruction that leads to enhanced learning.
• Provide coordinated information technology instruction based on computing resources used for UA administrative and academic support.
• Assist and encourage all staff to integrate technology improvement into campus best business practices.

To achieve these strategies, UAS has created UAS Online -- Web course management, ePortfolio, and social networking technologies.

The overall UAS Online strategy is based on several regional policies recommended by the UAS Teaching Learning & Technology Roundtable and approved by the UAS Faculty Senate in 1999.  The UAS Provost's Council reaffirmed these policies in 2006.

1. An active course homesite will be created for every UAS course section;
2. While access to some content and activities may be restricted to class participants, the UAS course sites will be visible to the public.
3. Course sites are retained indefinitely.
4. Design of the system should maximize student interactivity and program and faculty control.

Electronic Portfolios

In conjunction with course management, UAS provides a Web portfolio system. An ePortfolio is automatically created for every faculty member and student. As a part of this portfolio, a unique "page" is created for every class an individual takes or teaches. Faculty and students are encouraged to use this resource to support both summative and formative evaluation of learning outcomes, and to create a community of scholars through Weblogs, podcasts and other social networking strategies.

Course Provisioning

1. Course sections are created for every UAS course section across multiple terms.
2. Course sites are created as soon as the Registrar's office releases the term.
3. Course sites are updated each morning at 5:30am until 2 weeks past their official ending date.
4. Prior course sites are maintained indefinitely for institutional users, accrediting bodies and the general public.
5. Faculty may choose to link multiple class sections together for ease of management or to create a single larger cohort for student collaboration. Linked courses retain their unique titles and Web addresses, but share a single pool of resources and activities and can be managed from a single class site.
6. In addition to Banner courses, a non-Banner course site can be created by Helpdesk staff.  Non-Banner classes can reside in a Banner term (Spring-2005), or in a non-Banner "term" (e.g. Training, Test, etc.).

Course Access

7. All course sites are visible to the general Internet.
8. Faculty may restrict course resources and activities.  These restrictions may be highly specific.  Each specific resource may be limited to:
             a. Individuals with an active UAS computer account
             b. The class roster
             c. The roster and "additional participants" (designated guests, TAs, etc.)
9. Faculty may add individuals to the UAS Online class roster/gradebook.
10. The official UAS student course rating system is entirely online and is integrated into UAS Online.  Only officially registered students may submit course rating forms.
11. Management access to a course site is provided to individuals who are either listed as "offering" the course (their picture and other information appears on the course site) or "supporting" the course (their role is not displayed on the site).
12. All faculty designated in Banner as "instructors of record" are automatically added to the "offered by" list.  Faculty or academic programs may add additional users to either "offered" or "supported" lists.
13. UAS does not enforce storage limits on course homesites or ePortfolios.
14. Faculty may import resources from other course sites and across terms, provided the faculty has management access to the course materials.  When this access does not already exist, faculty may request access from the original faculty member or from the academic department.

User Profiles

15. A "profile" is automatically created for every UAS Online user.  This profile contains a variety of directory information along with other information provided at the discretion of the user (e.g. photograph, biography).
16. Display of profile information is limited by the privacy indicator in Banner
      Example:

Directory Information Withheld

Confidential Record This individual has instructed the UAS Registrar to withhold his or her directory information.

Social Networking Technologies

Weblogs (one-to-many / many-to-many)

Primarily a one-to-many communication tool.   An "author" posts messages regularly and these are automatically organized by date with the most recent displaying first.  Visitors may be able to post comments and thus engage in ongoing discussion. The UAS system allows visitors to "subscribe" and receive Weblog posts via email.

Email lists (one-to-many / many-to-many)

Email lists (or listservs) have declined in popularity in recent years due to the proliferation of spam and the advent of Weblogs.  In its simplest form, an email list is simply a mail list of addresses, often with an opt-in or opt-out feature. As indicated above, every UAS Weblog supports an email list.

RSS Newsfeeds (one-to-many)

A newsfeed provides a way for individuals to track activity on many Websites at once.  Recipients use an "aggregator" to collect content items and display them in a format similar to email. RSS feeds are often used with Weblogs or news sites to keep readers up-to-date on new content. The UAS Online system automatically creates an RSS feed for every class and ePortfolio page.

Podcasting (one-to-many)

A podcast is a specialized RSS feed that delivers audio or video content to viewers.  Generally this is done so that viewers can play back the content off-line (primarily with an iPod or similar product). The UAS Online system allows faculty to create multiple podcasts on their course home sites. In addition, any Portfolio page with audio or video items automatically generates a podcast.

Online "threaded" discussion (many-to-many)

An online discussion is a many-to-many communication tool which supports ongoing asynchronous discussion.  UAS supports several systems.  The forum tool may be added to any ePortfolio page and it has the advantage of notifying viewers of new content through an email digest.

Webmeetings (many-to-many)

A Webmeeting is a synchronous many-to-many tool which allows participants to use online chat, draw on a white board, share documents or applications or speak to one another in real time. UAS has integrated the Webmeeting tool into all course home sites and every ePortfolio page.

08/07