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Innovations in Teaching

Building Bridges to Success with Mathematics and Technology. Innovations in Teaching. Session # 81 Bill White USC Upstate. Today, I will address three main topics. Course management systems Online instruction Statistics paired with English composition. Course Management Systems.

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Innovations in Teaching

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  1. Building Bridges to Success with Mathematics and Technology Innovations in Teaching Session # 81 Bill White USC Upstate

  2. Today, I will address three main topics • Course management systems • Online instruction • Statistics paired with English composition

  3. Course Management Systems • A program that allows you to use technology to conduct your class. • Can be a small part of course instruction or it can be the entire class. • Most have been created by publishing companies; tied to textbooks. • Note that not all systems are equal, no matter what the book representatives tell you.

  4. What Systems Are Available? • WebCT / Blackboard • WebAssign • EduTools • MyMathLab – Pearson-Addison Wesley / Prentice-Hall • Eduspace – Houghton-Mifflin • Hawkes System – Quant Systems • MathZone – McGraw-Hill • Academic Systems – Plato

  5. What Can You Do with It? • Assign practice / graded homework, quizzes, tests • Use computer generated problems or create you own • Let the computer do the grading for you – grades automatically go to online gradebook • Give students access to online demonstrations, tutoring, discussion boards and other types of assistance

  6. Why Should You Use One? • What are the advantages? • No papers to distribute or take up. • Students get immediate feedback on their work. • Students have access to course materials 24/7. They can ‘t say they didn’t get the assignment.

  7. Why Should You Use One? • What are the advantages? • Students can have access to e-books – this can save them some money. • You can use the e-books for in class discussion. • Students who want extra practice and help have many more options available to them.

  8. Why Should You NOT Use One? • What are the disadvantages? • You are using technology – there is always the possibility for problems here. • Questions are not always what you like; it takes time to create your own. • Students can’t show their work. • You can’t be sure that students are doing their own work. • Adds to the cost of the course.

  9. Which Ones Have I Used? • Blackboard (WebCt) – the platform for many of the publisher systems • MyMathLab • Eduspace

  10. Blackboard • Create / manage courses online • Use standard files – Word, etc. • Extras – Chat rooms, email, discussion boards, digital dropboxes, etc. • Requires user id / password for access • Takes some work to learn to use

  11. MyMathLab • Best publisher system I have used • Problems match the textbook • Easy to use with multiple sections of a course; easy to copy assignments from one section to another • You can change settings for an entire class or for individual students • You have control of users – you can deactivate or remove students from the course • Web page is viewable by anyone once created • Creating / changing links is easy

  12. Eduspace • Used one semester in statistics • Had problems with registration of students • Problems did not match the textbook – made assigning problems a bit difficult • Could not remove students from the class – had to be done by Eduspace administrators • They may have corrected these problems since I used it last.

  13. Setting Up an OCM System • Many OCM systems are tied to the publishers textbooks; book reps are best source – they can arrange demonstrations, class trials and provide assistance in getting set up • Set up a student account for yourself • Make sure you give yourself enough lead time to become familiar with the basics of the system • Students must purchase new text book or purchase access separately

  14. Online Instruction • I have been doing my online course since Summer 2007. • The course is an elementary statistics course. • Enrollments have been good. • It is still pretty much campus based because I do my testing on campus. • Students in my online class do about the same grade-wise as my regular students.

  15. Online Instruction • The material is presented through Breeze for PowerPoint using Blackboard. I do have some audio to accompany some of the more important concepts. • Technology is a must. We use either Excel or the TI graphing calculator. I have technology assistance available online to go along with the help in the textbook. • Camtasia Studio is a nice program to enhance instruction.

  16. Online Instruction • I do quizzes online; I have collected homework both electronically and manually. • All testing is done on campus in a classroom. Computers are available but the test is pencil and paper. • I want to move to totally online. My primary obstacle continues to be online testing.

  17. Pairing Statistics with English Composition • Did not get this project off the ground this semester; plan to try again next fall • Common students in two classes – elementary statistics and English composition • Use the statistics content to drive the English writing assignments • Students writing is graded both for content and writing skill • Enhance practical understanding of statistics

  18. How to Reach Me Building Bridges to Success with Mathematics and Technology Mail: Mathematics and Computer Science USC Upstate 800 University Way Spartanburg, S.C. 20303 Phone: (864) - 503-5359 e-mail: bwhite@uscupstate.edu Fax: (864) - 503-5930 Web address: http://faculty.uscupstate.edu/bwhite

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