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IT News
Faculty use, big jump in student downloads increasing demand for course recordings
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Large increases in the number of faculty making recordings of their classes available and in the number of students downloading these recordings have ITaP gearing up for more course recording requests during the upcoming school year.
Student downloads of available class recordings jumped by 60 percent during the 2012 spring semester compared to spring 2011. Initiatives to encourage more technology use in instruction and to deliver more courses online also are ramping up faculty demand.
Blackboard Learn’s tools facilitate students’ writing and online presentations
Blackboard Learn pilot participant Karen Yehle has found the most satisfaction in using Learn’s improved discussion board tool, which has been enhanced in ways that fit the nursing professor’s use of online discussions, writing assignments and student collaboration on group projects. ITaP encourages faculty to register for Blackboard Learn workshops in June to get ready for the transition to Learn this fall.
Capacity in Purdue’s new top-ranked research supercomputer still available
Capacity in Purdue’s latest community cluster is still available with the new research supercomputer now in full production. Purdue faculty researchers using the Carter cluster report that it can significantly speed up time to results for many research applications and enable more complex simulations.
Events
Faculty urged to attend June Blackboard Learn workshops for course rebuild
Six hands-on workshops during June will help faculty rebuild courses in Blackboard Learn 9.1 before the fall semester. The sessions by ITaP’s educational technologists cover the new system’s essentials, assignments, assessments, grading, moving course content from Blackboard Vista, and more. Seating is limited, so registration is encouraged. These workshops will be available again in early August.
Tech Tidbits
Some purchasers of Adobe CS5.5 may be eligible for free upgrade Read more
Free, fast BLAST processing with friendly interface available to faculty, students Read more
Professor, ITaP seek faculty to collaborate on new learning technology Read more
Purdue employees can save money on software, hardware through ITaP Shopping Read more