UP TechTalk

Exploring the wise integration of technology in teaching and learning

Distance Learning

Zoom is Now Campus Wide!

Posted by Filed Under: News, Teaching and Learning

As part of our efforts to better support the needs of Hybrid and Online instruction, ATSI has expanded our licensing to provide Zoom Pro accounts for all current faculty, staff, and students. Instructors may choose either Zoom or Teams for their sychronous instruction needs depending on which best fits their instructional style.

To access your Zoom Pro license, you will need to sign up for an account at Zoom.us using your UP email address- you will receive prompts to join our account. For more information, view these step-by-step instructions to set-up a UP Zoom account. You can also use this process to convert a previous free or personally paid Pro account to the University plan, giving you access to the full features at no cost to you.

Helpful Links:

Finally, Zoom has announced important updates to security settings- which will take effect on September 27th, 2020- mandating the use of either the waiting room or a meeting passcode. Visit their support site to learn more. We highly encourage you to get familiar with and start using these features on your own ahead of the change to maximize the security for your meetings and class sessions.

What Students Need to Succeed in Online Education

Posted by Filed Under: Teaching and Learning

There is no question. The rapid transition to fully online education due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been an adjustment for everyone- staff, faculty, and students alike. Staff and faculty find themselves asking “how can we best support our students?” For students, the question is, overwhelmingly, “how do I get help when I need it?”

The number one thing we can do? Communicate. When they know they aren’t alone, students can free more energy to focus on their studies during this strange- and even scary- time. Whether your course content is being taught synchronously or asynchronously and what kind of activities to use are certainly important considerations in planning how best to teach your content to students online. The more that students share their experiences with education during the pandemic, however, the more that the availability of communication is raised as the key factor in feeling that they can succeed in their courses.

Luckily, The University of Portland has many methods of communication available which can be leveraged to develop a regular and open method of contact with students.

Email

Regular emails from instructors detailing expectations, updates, or even just a periodic hello so that students know you are engaged and available to them is an easy and familiar way to establish contact with students. A couple of ways to do this quickly and easily using your University of Portland tools:

  • Make yourself Outlook email groups containing the students from your courses so that you can quickly and easily reach all members of a course at once instead of having to add each student, each time.
  • Utilize the Quickmail option on your Moodle course, which allows you to contact your entire class, or individual students, right from Moodle while you are updating your course page.

As a reminder, if you need to send sensitive information to a student, please remember to encrypt your email to ensure proper security.

Online Chats or Discussions

Another great way to communicate with students is through online discussion forums or real-time chat, which can allow information to freely and organically flow:

Video Calls

When possible, many students note that being able to see others faces when having discussion can help them to feel less isolated and improve their ability to make connections to content. University of Portland has two main methods of providing video calls and synchronous lectures- Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Teams is available for free to anyone in the University community (our Quickstart Guide provides a good place to learn basics if you’ve never used the program before), while Zoom licensing is available on a limited basis.* For those unable to obtain a full license through the University, a free version is available, which can work well for one-on-one meetings such as office hours (it is important to be aware that there is a 40 minute limit for calls with 3 or more individuals, limiting use for full classes).** Both Microsoft Teams and Zoom have support sites with a wide range of help topics for their platforms, however some good starter articles include the following:

Questions about these solutions or others? ATSI can be reached at atsi@up.edu or x8774.

*As of Fall 2020, Zoom licensing was expanded to the entire university, and Pro accounts are now available free for all users. If you have not yet activated your account you can do so following our Activation Instructions.

** University Pro accounts do not carry a time limit for meetings.

Online Student Presentations

Posted by Filed Under: Teaching and Learning

There are several tools that will assist with the creation of presentations.

MediaSpace – Kaltura Capture

Techsmith Relay

Zoom.us for Group Presentations

VoiceThread

Secure Zoom Meetings

Posted by Filed Under: Teaching and Learning

Updated 6/25/20

As you may have already heard there are cases of hackers hijacking online classrooms and meetings.  We wanted to share updates and support articles to help you keep your online classrooms and meetings secure.

Security Toolbar

This icon provides a quick and easy way for hosts to located and enable many of Zoom’s in-meeting security features.

Visible only to hosts and co-hosts of Zoom Meetings, the Security icon provides easy access to several existing Zoom security features so you can more easily protect your meetings.

By clicking the Security icon, hosts and co-hosts have an all-in-one place to quickly:

Recommendations

  1. Keep your Zoom app updated. Visit the Zoom Download Center to get the latest version of Zoom.
  2. Add a password to your meeting to keep it private.
    1. Support Article – Meeting Password
  3. Enable the “Waiting Room” feature so you can control who enters.
    1. Support Article – Waiting Room
  4. Do not share invites to Zoom meetings on social media. Instead, send the meeting password directly to attendees.
  5. Use a random meeting ID, so it can’t be shared multiple times. According to Zoom’s website, this is safer than using a “Personal Meeting ID.”
  6. Keep your screensharing settings set to “Only Host”. This is a default in all Education Zoom accounts.
    1. Support Article – Update to Sharing Settings
  7. Lock a Zoom session that has already begun so no one else can join. Do this by clicking “Participants” in the bottom of a Zoom window, then clicking “Lock Meeting.” Those that leave the meeting will not be able to reconnect.
    1. Support Article – Manage participants in a meeting
  8. If someone enters your session without permission, you can remove participants.  Remove participants by hovering over their name in the Participants menu and click the “Remove” option.

Video – Passwords and waiting room

News

  1. KATU News Article – FBI investigating after two Massachusetts online classrooms hijacked by hackers
  2. April 1 – Message to our users from the Zoom Blog

New VoiceThread Mobile App

Posted by Filed Under: Teaching and Learning

VoiceThread has launched a new Mobile App.

Photo of an iPad and Phone with the Voicethread app lauched

View the video posted by VoiceThread

Updated look and feel

A clean new interface makes navigating through your VoiceThreads a pleasure! We’ve streamlined workflows and added more features to help the app work just like the desktop version.


Brand new infrastructure

We’ve re-built the back end from the ground up to create a faster and smoother experience. Media loads more quickly and consistently, a greater variety of files can be uploaded from your device, and audio and video recording is much more reliable.

What is VoiceThread?

VoiceThread is a collaboration tool for enhancing student engagement. Faculty and/or students can create, share, and comment on images, presentations, videos, audio files, documents, and PDFs.

Accessing VoiceThread at UP

Like many UP owned Apps you can visit My Apps and locate the Voicethread link to get started.