Category: Educational Technology Applications

Dev/Rev Planning

Dev/Rev Planning Process

Dev/Rev = New Course Development and Course Revision Projects

For the past four to five years, I’ve been assisting with developing processes for our College to improve our Dev/Rev Process. While I am an Assistant Director, that title is rather misleading as I am relatively low in the organizational hierarchy of the College. This is relevant because I wouldn’t have been able to make the progress I have to improve things for the designers, which includes myself, and the faculty if I didn’t have the support of my Directors and the Faculty and Administrative leadership of the College. We still have a lot of work to do together but I am happy for the progress we have made.

The presentation above is a distillation of a more detailed process flowchart.

https://app.diagrams.net/ was a huge find as it is a powerful, open-source option for creating diagrams. I really enjoyed working with this software.

iPad Only?!

Updates: see the comments below this post…

Two days ago, I took my work laptop into the shop for warrantee work on the keyboard. Since then, I’ve been doing almost all of my work on my iPad. I have a personal iMac that I could use, but mostly as an experiment I wanted to see if I could use my iPad for work. It’s generally been a success.

Not surprisingly, there are a few things I cannot do.

  • I logged in with my personal iMac to view a course assignment that featured the WC Peer Eval tool. It is an antiquated tool and would not run in Chrome or Safari on my iPad.
  • I’m limited by what I can do in the Smartsheet app, so I have to make sure I’m using it in Safari.
  • A number of the hot-keys do not work the way I expect, so I’m not as fast performing a number of functions I’m used to.
  • I use my iPhone for Zoom, mounted on a stand above my iPad because the built-in camera on my iPad has me “looking down” at everyone. My camera also cuts out whenever I switch to a different app during a meeting to do things like update or view the meeting notes.
  • I’ve lost the ability to keep a large array of items in my clipboard. Having an app to do that on my laptop saves me a lot of time on certain tasks. Thankfully, the MacOS ecosystem allows me to copy something on my iPhone and paste it immediately onto my iPad without having to do anything.

I am surprised that the smaller screen really isn’t a big problem, but I’m used to working around that. Unlike many of my peers, I haven’t used an external monitor once since we switched to remote work back in the spring.

Using the College’s virtual machine also helps because it allows me to access a “full desktop” right from my iPad.

What’s the purpose or benefit? Well, I have a lot more confidence and knowledge of being able to work remotely with very little while not having to sacrifice any productivity.

Photoshop… still the best for GIFs

Tutorial: Create an animated GIF from a series of photos

I’ve tried some so-called, purpose-built GIF apps like GIF Brewery 3 and Photoshop is still the best for creating compact, quality GIFs. It gives me the most control, but there are a lot of additional steps and things to confuse those new to Photoshop.

I still have to consider the pedagogical application of when to best use a GIF. You have to consider your audience. The size, quality, and timing all play into whether the work I am creating will be effective. I made the GIF below for the director of my office, but chose to send static images because I had to get the information to her quickly and didn’t want to confuse her with how I formatted the information.

Walk through of viewing the Revision History on a WordPress page

Related:

  1. Using GIFs of Screencasts, 10/24/19
  2. MOV to GIF, 2/23/16

Additional: to make a screen capture of a specific window on a Mac, click the space bar after pressing command-shift-4 and then position the camera icon over the window you would like to capture and then click the mouse

Just-in-Time Videos

There are a variety of ways to capture and publish just-in-time videos for use in class. Some factors when considering different options are: ease of use, PSU support, time to deploy, editing options, storage options, etc.

Related

Google Tasks to the Rescue!

I’ve switched all of my tasks over to Google Tasks and everything is already better. Things are starting to get really busy preparing for FA20 and I was feeling stressed out and behind. Having all my tasks somewhere I can manage them definitely helps with my stress levels.

Now I can access/edit my tasks from my laptop, mobile devices, etc. Before, I was using MS Outlook Tasks and that was horrible. I would continually having syncing errors and lost a lot of content after a recent sync. Office365 has been a real disappointment in general. Before that, I was very happy with Apple Reminders, but was very disappointed that when they updated Reminders with Catalina, I lost the ability to access/edit my tasks via online iCloud and non-Catalina machines (not including mobile devices).

I was going to move all my tasks to Smartsheet, but looking through a spreadsheet for your tasks is a horrible experience and while it can handle this kind of data, it’s definitely not the best tool for task management for me.

Google Tasks isn’t as detailed as Outlook and that’s better for me actually. I’m going to keep track of how well it helps me, but so far so good!

Looks like I can even export my tasks using Google Tasks Desktop. I hope that works because that wasn’t something I could do with Outlook or Apple Reminders.

How to Make a Perfect Screencast

I have a hard time making concise and direct screencasts while being as time efficient as possible.

I have recorded a screencast on how I make screencasts.

Basically, I make a screen recording without audio first, then I record the audio, and finally I edit them together into a final cut that plays back smoothly and much better than if I just hit record and do everything at once. All I use is iMovie and Quicktime Player on the Mac. Both are available for free.

While this takes a little longer, it is much less frustrating and higher quality than trying to record both my audio and the screen at the same time.

Canvas Roster Export for CATME

I just became aware that I’ll need to update our PSU CATME Site.

There are a few videos that need to be either removed or replaced.

I’m more concerned about the next task which is updating our information to assist users with exporting Group membership information from Canvas. I could have sworn that the Canvas Export Grades feature included Group information, but I may be wrong since there is a Canvas Community post that addresses this.

At the bottom of the comments is a post by Lucy Bamwo with a creative workaround:

Currently, there is no way of exporting groups out of Canvas. However, you could set up a group assignment (assign marks to whole group) 0 point, non-submission assignment, place in 0% weighting group and make sure that it has no due date and the grade posting policy is set to manual. You can then score the group with a number in speedgrader and then export the csv from the gradebook. You will then be able to sort them into groups by the group score given.

I didn’t see that information until after I requested Brian Daigle from our Production Team to create a script that would pull the Group information using the Canvas API. I found this information and attempted to apply it to our needs, but didn’t have success. I reached out to Brian because I know he has experience using the Canvas API. In a couple of hours, he had a working Python script that I helped to fine tune to match the input parameters that CATME looks for. While this approach is the most effective solution we have so far, it does require the user to be able to use Python and have the related Canvas module installed.

Recording Lectures using Zoom

When teaching online, blended, flipped classes, or preparing for class cancelations, recording your lectures can be an extremely useful technique.

I recommend using Zoom since Penn State has a license for all faculty, staff, and students. If you have any technical questions, you can contact the Helpdesk for assistance.

Here is a list of steps and related best practices:

  1. Quiet space
    1. Do not disturb signs
    2. Let others know that you’ll be recording
    3. Turn off notifications and silence your devices
  2. Prepare
    1. Plug in and test your headset or microphone
    2. Download the Zoom desktop client
    3. Adjust your Preferences
      1. Cloud Recording preferences overview
      2. Adjust recording preferences
        1. Check “Optimize the recording for 3rd party video editor” option
        2. Check “Audio transcript” option
    4. Record
      1. Consider chunking your presentations down into natural sub-topics
      2. Switch to Presentation-mode if you are sharing your slides
      3. For first recordings or when recording in a new space, record only a minute or so and check that recording to make sure everything looks good before recording your entire video
    5. Share
      1. Zoom will send you email notification(s) when your cloud recording is done processing
      2. Access your recordings
      3. Copy the Share link and distribute it to your students

Please contact the Office of Learning Design or check out the online web resources with questions.

Rockin’ with Rocketbook

I’ve just started using a Rocketbook Everlast Mini, Rocketbook Beacons, and the required iOS app. I’m not into product reviews, but wanted to make a post because I can already see how these products will definitely be part of my work productivity, especially the Beacons.

Rocketbook Everlast Mini with a black cover, a Pilot Frixion pen, and a folded microfiber wipeI chose the Mini mostly for personal use and used my own money to buy one. I didn’t want to spend a lot and thought the smaller form factor would be fine and perhaps suit my needs even better. So far, I’m happy.

Mini Pros

  • ∞ use? seems durable, but there appears to be minor etching on the page surface, not sure that will make a difference
  • encourages creativity: when the ink is your only consumable, I feel much more free to write down any little thought or sketch
  • cleans easily with only water: it’s not really a pain to have to wipe down each page, it’s actually cathartic in a weird way
  • back to analog! I’m always typing on a keyboard it seems and it’s nice to get back to pen on “paper”
  • there are other pen types in the Frixion line of pens, not just limited to the “ball point pen” experience of the pen that came with the Mini

Mini Cons

  • “odd” writing feel, no pencil-like experience
  • ink drying is longer than expected: they claim you need up to 15 seconds, but I’ve noticed it can take up to over a minute depending upon how much ink you’re using – when I’m sketching, I’m using much more ink than when I’m writing
  • no edge bleeds: it makes scanning more difficult
  • weather sensitive? not sure, but it doesn’t take much moisture to smudge the ink; scan your work often if you don’t want to lose your work

The Rocketbook Beacons are an interesting idea. Basically, these four stickers allow you to capture or broadcast any whiteboard space. Of course your need a smartphone running their app, but the app seems to work very well and is easy to use. I used to use my whiteboard all the time to brainstorm ideas or processes, but capturing them was always an issue. I used to use an app called CamScan, but saw an article saying I should avoid that app. Anyhow, Beacons definitely inspire me to pick up the whiteboard markers again!

Rocketbook App

  • Nice design
  • Free Rocketbook pages which you can print out, a feature that puzzles me since the whole mission of Rocketbook is to reduce the amount of paper we use
  • Flexible Destinations feature, but I don’t have access to store things in my various O365 Teams, I have to upload it to my OneDrive folder and then move it to a team location
  • Share with anyone is possible, but you have to make an extra click to access the “Share” option
  • Auto-rotation often does not rotate pages correctly – I thought it just used the QR code to determine orientation, but that is not the case; you can use the app to rotate the pages, but the QR code remains on the scan
  • No way to combine separate files into a single file without the use of 3rd party software

Media for INTAF 897: Deception and Counter-Deception

The following are some materials gathered for Col. Jacob Graham’s (ret. USMC) INTAF 897 course. These 3 particular subjects were mentioned in Malcom Gladwell’s “Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know.”

Go to this Sway

Accessibility

None of the images or videos have been QA’d for accessibility at this time. Updates will be posted here. Given that this Sway is only a draft, accommodations like transcripts will be developed on an “as needed” basis.

Sway

Sway has some nice media features and makes adding images and video relatively easy, although there are some limitations.

  • To add media, click on the “+” > “Media” tab > choose the form of media.
  • It doesn’t seem possible to preview the media within Sway, so I previewed videos in YouTube.
  • For the videos I wanted to use, I copied-pasted the URL in Sway’s Media Search field to display the exact video I was looking for.
  • Sway doesn’t natively display the titles of the YouTube videos, so I copied-pasted them in as captions so that the audience has some sense of what they can view.

I also discovered by accident that you can group Sway elements by clicking-dragging the elements over one another. There are grouping options available as well. This might be a good strategy to keep related content closely associated for pedagogical reasons.

Kaltura

  1. Created a Channel in Kaltura
  2. Created a Playlist in Kaltura
  3. “Add New” > “YouTube Video”
  4. Copied-pasted link to video
  5. Returned to new Kaltura Channel > clicked on checkbox next to video > “Publish”

This process takes too long. I don’t want to have to do multiple steps for every video.