Drexel University
Quick Links
  • report a problem
Search

A Guide to Technology Resources at Drexel

Online Learning Team

Instructional Technology Center, Korman 109
215-895-1224
olt@drexel.edu

The Online Learning Team (OLT), located in the Instructional Technology Center (ITC) in Room 109 of the Korman Computing Center, provides one-stop service for Drexel faculty and staff in the areas of teaching, learning, educational technology, and training. The OLT designs new programs focusing on existing and emerging technologies based on the needs of faculty and staff.

Walk-in service for faculty and staff members (including teaching assistants) is available Monday through Friday, 8 am to 6 pm, or by appointment. Evening and weekend email support is also available on a limited basis.

Live chat support is available via the link entitled “Online Learning Team Chat Support,” located in the Campus Bookmarks channel of the Bb Vista Course List page. Live chat is available during normal business hours (Monday through Friday, 8 am - 6 pm).

Office call support is a service that the OLT provides, as staff members are available, during normal business hours. A team member visit to an on-campus faculty office can be arranged by appointment.

For a schedule of OLT workshops, be sure to check out http://www.drexel.edu/irt/help/workshops.

For communication with students, several electronic tools are available to help instructors. These tools include:

  • Blackboard (Bb) Vista – This tool for online course delivery allows instructors to interact with students, post a syllabus or other course materials, administer quizzes, create class discussion topics or groups, and use chat rooms. To get started, email olt@drexel.edu or visit http://www.drexel.edu/irt/facilities/itc. Faculty members and students can access Bb Vista through DrexelOne at http://one.drexel.edu, or directly at http://learning.drexel.edu.

  • Photo Class List - The Photo Class List service provides a list of students with their photographs, a downloadable class roster, and a one-click email feature to send messages to students. To access the service, log in with your domain credentials at http://www.drexel.edu/classlist. If your classes are not listed, you will need to contact your department to ensure that your class assignments are correct.

  • Banner – A faculty member’s class listing in Banner, which is accessible through DrexelOne, includes options for emailing individual students or an entire class.

  • ListServ – Faculty members may request mailing lists for their class(es) through Photo Class List or by emailing mailreq@drexel.edu. These mailing lists are especially useful for large, multi-sectioned courses (over 50 students), and email discussions.

Banner course information, such as course enrollment and grade submission, is available via BannerWeb in DrexelOne (login at http://one.drexel.edu, click the “Faculty” tab and make a selection from the Course Administration window). To access course information, you must be the instructor of record for the course.

BannerWeb provides access schedules, class lists, registration drop/add, student information, advisor functions, and grade submission.

Web-based instruction is delivered via Blackboard (Bb) Vista, which is the primary tool used at Drexel to supplement face-to-face courses or deliver courses remotely. A fully-featured course management system, Blackboard Vista works with both Windows and Macintosh platforms. More information about using Bb Vista for Web-based instruction can be found at http://www.drexel.edu/irt/coursetools/toolList/bbvista.

Bb Vista facilitates these and other course-related activities:

  • Course planning, management, and revision
  • Course content dissemination (such as syllabi and course readings)
  • Communication among students and instructor(s) using course mail, announcements, threaded discussion (asynchronous), and chat (synchronous)
  • Student self-assessment
  • Electronic assignment submission
  • Testing and grading (automatic grading is available)
  • Student access to grades
  • Organization of electronic work groups

Electronic teaching tools integrated into Bb Vista include:

  • Respondus – Automated upload of quiz questions/answers and images to Bb Vista for use in online assessments.
  • StudyMate – Creation of Flash-based, course-related activities and games by instructors or students.
  • Turnitin – Plagiarism detection, originality checking, electronic mark-up, and peer review of student papers.
  • Wimba Pronto – Live communication with students or co-instructors via instant messaging or group chat.
  • Wimba Classroom – Synchronous, virtual classroom with multi-way audio and video, application sharing, and polling.
  • Wimba Voice Tools – Voice-enabled discussion boards and assessments.

Tools to capture, store, and make lecture presentations available for live or on-demand viewing include:

  • Camtasia Studio – Screencasting software for recording, producing, integrating, editing, and publishing multimedia and other elements.
  • Camtasia Relay – A simple A/V recorder, is now integrated with DragonDrop.
  • Captivate – Screencasting software for producing Flash movies (with or without audio) that can include interactive elements.
  • DragonDrop – Web-based application for capturing, encoding, and publishing rich media for Web access via a streaming server.
  • Impatica – PowerPoint-to-HTML converter that compresses files for Web delivery.
  • Mediasite – Webcasting solution for capturing on-screen presentations as well as “front-of-the-room” activity on a streaming server. Recordings are archived for on-demand viewing via the Web.
  • PowerPoint – Slide presentations.
  • PowerPoint with voiceover – Slides with audio.