IRT lists instructional technologies classes for summer 2006

IRT announces instructional technologies classes for summer 2006

From Information Resources and Technologies

Want to use the latest Blackboard tools to build a rich, interactive, online classroom? Interested in getting help to locate and manage your research materials? Want to learn how to search the Web more effectively?

The following instructional technologies classes will be offered during summer 2006. Class information and registration will be posted through Human Resource ’s Leadership Academy. Just click the link for “Training Online” to view the class offerings and register as they become available.

Blackboard Series

Blackboard Design and Content Basics
This class explores both online teaching issues and the basics of building a Blackboard course. If you are new to Blackboard, this session is the place to start.

Class session: 1:30-4 p.m. Wednesday, July 19, in Room 105, Charles J. Keffer Library, Opus Hall, Minneapolis campus

Blackboard File Exchange Tools
This class explores how to use Blackboard to share files and assignments with students electronically.

Class session: 10 a.m.-noon Tuesday, July 25, in Room 208, O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center

Blackboard Discussion Board
Learn how to use Blackboard’s Discussion Board, a communication tool for posting and responding to messages.

Class session: 2-4 p.m. Wednesday, July 26, in Room 105, Charles J. Keffer Library, Opus Hall, Minneapolis campus

Blackboard Question Pools and Tests
This class explores how to use Blackboard to design and deliver online tests and surveys.

Class session: 10 a.m.-noon Tuesday, Aug. 1, in Room 105, Charles J. Keffer Library, Opus Hall, Minneapolis campus

Blackboard Journal LX and Teams LX
Journal and Teams LX are set tools within a Blackboard course that foster active learning, facilitate collaboration and increase opportunities for student-instructor interaction and communication. Journal LX facilitates the development of online journals and blogs for gathering information and reflecting on course-related topics and assignments. Students can create and upload documents, include images, add links to other Web sites in their journal, and review and comment on their peers’ postings. Teams LX enables students to work collaboratively in groups to jointly create, edit and comment on shared documents and wiki (Web) sites. Prerequisite: Blackboard Design and Content Basics or basic familiarity in working with content areas in a Blackboard course.

Class session: To be announced; keep watching Training Online for the schedule.

Integrating Library Resources Into Blackboard
This hands-on classroom session is designed to share ideas on how to include library materials of various kinds in Blackboard course sites. Instructors from the UST libraries will cover adding links to a RefWorks database, creating online syllabi with links to full-text articles, and working with UST librarians to add custom or pre-existing library research guides relevant to the course to its Blackboard site. Prerequisites: basic familiarity with searching library databases, Introduction to RefWorks, Blackboard Design and Content Basics.

Class session: 9-11 a.m. Tuesday, July 25, in Room 105, Charles J. Keffer Library, Opus Hall, Minneapolis campus

Library Tools and Information Series
Faculty and staff can sign up for the Library series via Training Online; students can call the reference desk for the library where the classes are scheduled to register: O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center reference desk, (651) 962-5001, Charles J. Keffer Library reference desk, (651) 962-4664.

Introduction to RefWorks
This hands-on classroom session will introduce participants to the RefWorks citation manager software. RefWorks is a Web-based system that allows the researcher to save and organize citations from library catalogs, periodical databases and Web sites. The session will cover signing up for a personal RefWorks account, importing and organizing references, and using the software to format papers and generate bibliographies. Prerequisite: basic familiarity with searching library databases.

Class session: Noon-1 p.m. Tuesday, July 18, in Room 314, O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center
Class session: Noon-1 p.m. Tuesday, July 25, in Room 105, Charles J. Keffer Library, Opus Hall, Minneapolis campus
Class session: Noon-1 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 29, in Room 105, Charles J. Keffer Library, Opus Hall, Minneapolis campus
Class session: Noon-1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 31, in Room 314, O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center

Google and Beyond: Advanced Web-Search Techniques
This workshop introduces techniques for making your Google searches more refined and powerful, discusses why you might want to try search engines other than Google, and introduces some other tools to try for those times when traditional search engines let you down.

Class session: 9-10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 1, in Room 111, Charles J. Keffer Library, Opus Hall, Minneapolis campus

Faculty Research Tools
This workshop is designed to introduce library tools that support faculty research, including the Article Linker and the UST Journals A-Z list, RefWorks citation manager, table of contents and journal search alerts, citation indexes, and directories of publishing opportunities.