ITS facilitates the use of several Educational Technology adjuncts that are either installed in various multimedia rooms on campus, available online or borrow-able from the Helpdesk on the main floor of the Library Learning Commons.
Look at the pages to the right for information about specific technologies we have available here.
Feel free to contact the Helpdesk (x2273 or helpdesk@ubishops.ca) for more information or to inquire about technologies you may not see here.
Moodle
The CMS (Course Management System) that we use at Bishop’s is called Moodle, an open-source web-based product akin to WebCT or parts of Blackboard.
Moodle allows you to upload content (Powerpoint decks, PDFs, etc.), setup date-observant assignment submission areas, poll your students, conduct online quizzes, embed online videos, and much more.
Each semester, ITS offers a Moodle Basics class to get faculty up and running. As always, you can stop by the helpdesk at J107 and the staff there will be happy to assist you with more advanced topics. You can also view our video tutorials.
Clickers
Student Response Systems (aka “Clickers”)
ITS offers the CPS (Classroom Performance System) Pulse clickers from eInstruction. These come in bags of 28 units with a receiver module that gets plugged-in to the computer in the classroom. There are 3 bags of 28, so if needed you may use up to 84 units in the same class at the same time.
With this resource you can, either anonymously or not, sample your students at points throughout the lecture using a variety of question formats (multiple choice, short answer, Likert scale, etc.). Additionally, you can decide to record these results as a basis for in-class participation marks.
The eInstruction software, a plug-in for Microsoft Powerpoint, is called CPS Powerpoint and is installed on all classroom computers on campus. You can also download and install the software in your office or on your home computer so that you can prepare your slides in advance. The link to the download page is here, and you will want to select the product “CPS Student Response Systems” and then click on download next to the software version that you want. At the time of this writing, CPS Powerpoint v6.72 for Windows is the standard for use on Windows 7 computers.
Smartboards
Many of the multimedia classrooms on campus are equipped with a Smartboard from SMART Technologies. By default, these Smartboards are just large touchscreen interfaces for the computer so that you don’t need to go back and forth to the mouse during your lecture.
Using the software provided on the classroom computers (Smartboard Tools), you can annotate your Powerpoint or web-based content and then save those annotated images/slides to distribute to your students after the class.
Additionally, using a SMART-developed Powerpoint replacement called SMART Notebook, you can produced interactive slide packages that allow yourself or your students to interact with the display on the Smartboard to work through lesson modules and receive active feedback
