This January, Academic Computing is offering workshops for faculty on basic technologies for teaching and research, audio & video production, and building course websites with SPARK. Many are hands-on sessions where you can learn new technologies while working with content from your own courses. For the workshop schedule, descriptions, and online…
Category: Announcements
OIT increases UMail quotas for campus community
The Office of Information Technologies (OIT) has increased UMail quotas for the campus community. Faculty and staff now have 2 GB of storage, graduate students have 1 GB, and undergraduates have 500 MB. Quotas for subsidiary and NENS (non-employee, non-student) accounts were also increased to 1 GB. This announcement comes as OIT completes significant improvements to…
SPARK Community of Practice Lunch – Tuesday November 17th 2009
Academic Computing is pleased to announce the next SPARK Community of Practice Lunch. For our second event of the year, Professors Rachel Mordecai (English) and Wilmore Webley (Microbiology) will join us to share their experiences using SPARK. Topics they are planning to address include managing grades, using discussion boards, posting course content, and collecting student…
Emerging Technology and Pie: Using Wikis with Students
Academic Computing is pleased to announce our next “Emerging Technologies and Pie” event of the semester: Using Wikis with Students Monday, November 16, 2009 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM Professors Millicent Thayer from Sociology and Kenneth Kitchel from Classics will join us to discuss their experience using wikis with their students. A “wiki” is a…
UMass Blogs Quota Increased
As of October 30, 2009, you have 100 MB of space allotted to your blog. This increased quota, the previous quota was 50 MB, will allow you to store more images, videos, and other files with your blog. Enjoy! Faculty can contact the OIT Help Desk for information about increasing their quota beyond 100 MB. More on…
Teaching with PRS: Effective Pedagogy and Best Practice – Thursday November 19th
The Center for Teaching and Academic Computing invite you to join us to explore ways to design and implement effective PRS pedagogy in undergraduate courses: At UMass Amherst, with more faculty members teaching large lectures, many have turned to PRS technology to help them engage students and alleviate the “passive attendance” phenomenon often seen in…
Cyber Security Awareness Month 2009
October is Cyber Security Awareness Month! In support of this national initiative, OIT is sponsoring a number of activities designed to help the UMass Amherst community stay safe online. Each week in October will have its own cyber security theme. Protecting your computer is easier than you think! Week 1: Safe Computing This week, we’ll take…
October Workshops at Academic Computing
This October, Academic Computing is offering many workshops on a range of instructional technologies, including creating effective presentations, working with digital images, learning about emerging technologies and copyright issues, and setting up a Blog with the Blogs at UMass Amherst system. Most sessions are only 50 or 75 minutes long! October workshop topics include: Previews…
Classroom Workshops Fall 2009
As a regular service of Academic Computing, we can visit your class for a demonstration or workshop on a wide range of technology topics. Recent topics include building PowerPoint presentations, creating Podcasts, getting set up with Blogs, and working with Digital Images. Recently, we have had an increase in the number of requests for this…
Departmental Visits Fall 2009
As a regular service, OIT’s Academic Computing staff is available to come to your department and talk to the faculty or graduate students about the teaching technologies available on campus. In particular, we think new faculty or graduate student instructors would find these sessions helpful. Are you and your colleagues interested in learning more about…
Labor Day Weekend Help
Academic Computing’s Instructional Media Lab will be closed for Labor Day weekend, Saturday September 5th through Monday September 7th, but Academic Computing staff will be monitoring email. Contact us at instruct@oit.umass.edu if you need assistance with SPARK or other instructional technology topics. The OIT Help Desk, Software Support, and OIT Account Management will be open…
Start of Semester Tip: When can students access SPARK?
Your students will have access to your Fall 2009 SPARK on Monday September 7th (12:01 AM to be exact.) If you have requested and received a SPARK course, but not yet opened it up and begun building it, your students will see that course listed as when the log into SPARK, but receive a “Course not yet…