Ivy Tech Lafayette has now rolled out Xerox copiers on campus! As a reminder when using a RFID sticker, you will need to register it the first time you use it. This will tie your RFID sticker to your Campus Connect account. When you scan RFID sticker over the card reader on a Xerox device for the first time, it will prompt you to provide your Campus Connect username and password. When you supply your username, be sure to NOT include the @ivytech.edu. Once you supply your username and password, the device will pair your credentials to the RFID sticker. Any future use of any Xerox device in any Ivy Tech building will now accept your RFID sticker in place of manually typing your credentials. If you forget your ID card/sticker on any given day, you may always use the backup method of manually logging in. For faculty who would like an RFID and are only on campus during the evening hours please contact Valerie McCoy or Carrie Borders in the Copy Center in Ivy Hall 1186. They can send the RFID through department mail. Please navigate to the following link for Online Training Videos:
This past Thursday the Center for Instructional Design (C4IT) visited the Lafayette Campus for their LMS Tour 2016. During this time the C4IT team shared a presentation with faculty and staff on some of the LMS platforms available on the market. After the presentation C4IT received feedback and responses from those in attendance on what they would like to see in an LMS. C4IT will be sharing a link to the PowerPoint presentation for those who could not be in attendance. If you could not make the event C4IT would still like your input. Below is a link to the Learning Management System Faculty Survey:
Faculty and staff can take advantage of this professional development opportunity to obtain White Belt certification and to attain valuable skills in continuous improvement. Continuous improvement is integral to success in all types of organizations in the areas of quality assurance, problem solving, understanding customer relations, project team work, and eliminating waste.
This eight-hour workshop will be held Friday, April 22 in Ivy Hall rooms 1106, 1112 and 1114. Class begins at 8:00 am and ends at 4:00 pm. The workshop ends with a 30 minute test administered at the end of the session. Lunch will not be provided. There is no cost. Register now at ivytech.edu/quality. Capacity is limited to 65 participants.
Employees must seek approval from their supervisor to attend the training during scheduled hours. Time in training will be considered as pay status, and part-time staff will be paid for time they would have normally worked on the day of the training.
Systems Information
Internet
Service Provider maintenance will be performed from 12:00-6:00 am Saturday, April 2nd. No system outages are
expected, however if an outage were to occur Banner, Campus Connect,
employee email, and on-campus internet access would be affected. Banner
and Campus Connect will be unavailable due to maintenance
from 10:00 pm on Friday March 25th until 6:00 am on Saturday, March
26th.
As many of you are probably already aware, the Learning Management System (LMS) tour begins next week. The college will be collecting information from faculty and students regarding our LMS needs. Even if you plan to attend the tour date on your campus, please take a few minutes to click on the link below and tell the college about how you currently use our LMS (Blackboard) and what you would like to do with it that you may or may not already be doing.
Please share the LMS Student Survey with your students. LMS Student Survey bit.ly/lms-needs-student
Training Opportunity
This
week the Lafayette region began the transition to the Xerox printers/copiers.
The transition in the Kokomo region will take place March 30th through
April 1st. Training will be available on campus. The link below provides a list of
training videos for anyone who is interested in learning more but is unable to attend the on-campus training.
Thank you
all for your patience throughout the transition!
Important Reminder
As we begin our second 8-week sessions, please share the Online Education website with your students. The site is geared towards providing students with the information they need to successfully prepare for online courses at Ivy Tech. Both new and experienced students can benefit from a quick review of the FAQs and the short demo videos provided.
Internet Service Provider maintenance will be performed from 12:00-6:00 am on Saturday, March 19th and Saturday, April 2nd. No system outages are expected, however if an outage were to occur Banner, Campus Connect, employee email, and on-campus internet access would be affected. Banner and Campus Connect will be unavailable due to maintenance from 10:00 pm on Sunday, March 20th until 6:00 am on Monday, March 21st, and again from 10:00 pm on Friday March 25th until 6:00 am on Saturday, March 26th.
Test proctoring has changed! Please see the Click for Help tab in Blackboard and review the information in the Testing Services module on the new and improved test proctoring process!
Information and resources in the Testing Services module includes:
The new proctoring form
Instructions for using the new form (video and document formats)
Where the form should be sent
Options for test proctoring
Old forms will no longer be accepted by the testing centers so if you have students taking proctored tests for your course, please download the new test proctoring form from the Click for Help tab in Blackboard.
If you have come to the college since the summer of 2014 and do not already have an account, you can request a new account through the following steps:
Log in to Blackboard
Click on the "Click for Help" tab
Scroll down to the "Citrix GoToMeeting" module on the left side of the screen
Follow the instructions in that box to request your account
There was an issue early in the week with the Pearson MyLabs not being accessible if there was more than one person in the MyLabs course site with the Instructor role. Some reconfiguration was performed on Tuesday morning that appears to have resolved the issue. If you continue to experience issues, please contact the IDC.
Tutor.com Usage Report
Lafayette has maintained the second highest Tutor.com usage in the state. During the month of February 296 students from Lafayette and 48 students from Kokomo used the Tutor.com services. In summary:
1,088 new accounts were created
2,304 tutoring sessions were held
1,122.38 hours of tutoring were provided
MATH courses reported the highest usage
289 session were opened in the Writing Center
322 "Drop off essay" sessions were opened
Thank you for continuing to promote this great service! Feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive and students are reporting that they feel more confident and feel that the service is helping them to improve their grades and complete assignments.
Preliminary data has indicated that students who use Tutor.com are more likely to graduate or persist than students who do not take advantage of the service. Tutor.com services can be accessed from the home page in Blackboard. Students are currently limited to 15 hours, but if a student needs more time with the service they may contact Stacy Atkinson at satkinson17@ivytech.edu to discuss their needs.
Blackboard Course Notifications allows you to opt to be notified by email or text message when certain events take place within your course(s) in Blackboard.
For example, if you would like to receive a text message every time you receive a course message in your Blackboard course, you can set up a notification for that. Likewise if you would like to receive an e-mail every time one of your students submits an assignment, Blackboard will allow you to set up a notification for that as well. These are just two examples of a plethora of options.
For more information about setting up course notifications, please view the following video: https://youtu.be/XWqTgLHz3OQ
The Center for Instructional Technology (C4IT) will be conducting regional campus visits this spring in order to gather faculty and student input on their needs and interests in the College's learning management system (LMS).
The tentative schedule currently runs from March 21st through April 6th, with the team visiting the Lafayette region on Thursday, Mar. 24th at 9:00 am, and visiting the Kokomo region on Monday, Apr. 4th at 3:00 pm. These dates are subject to change.
The visit will include a brief presentation of some of the tools currently available, followed by a question and answer period. The visit will be open to all faculty and staff and attendees are welcome to come and go as needed. Additionally, data will be collected electronically to capture more formal feedback. For those who are unable to attend on these dates, webinars will be available (dates as yet undetermined).
Training Opportunity
Graduation Audit Workshop: What do you need to do for students who are graduating? Come to the Grad Audit Workshop to learn more! Tuesday, March 8th 9:30-10:30 am and 3:00-4:00 pm in IVY 1239 No registration required!
Blackboard Innovative Teaching Series: Accessibility Inclusive Classrooms Tips and recommendations for making your classroom more inclusive without adding significant addtional time and effort in building your curriculum. Click here to register!
Benefits Information
Transamerica Retirement Solutions will be in the region later this month to share information about retirement benefit options. The one-hour information session will be held at the following times:
Kokomo Weds., March 23rd 11:00 am - 12 noon, 2:00 - 3:00 pm, and 4:00 - 5:00 pm Event Center, 1500 North Reed Road (931)
Lafayette Thurs., March 29th, 10:00 - 11:00 am, 2:00 - 3:00 pm Ivy Hall, Lilly Rooms 1112, 1114, 1120, 3101 South Creasy Lane
If you are unable to attend these sessions a recorded version will be available on the Transition website. Contact your Human Resources office for more information.
Systems Update
Pearson MyLabs were experiencing intermittent errors and slowness on the morning of Monday, Feb. 29th.
McGraw-Hill reported an outage causing loading issues with Smartbook and Learnsmart, which caused some students to be unable to access assignments. The outage occurred from 7:15 pm ET until approximately 12:00 am ET on Monday, Feb. 29th. Another outage was reported on the EZ Test system from 9:00 pm ET until approximately 12:00 am ET, also on Monday, Feb. 29th.
