October 9, 2020IDC Virtual Drop-in Office Hours Fall 2020

Log on with specific instructional technology questions or concerns, and we will help you problem solve. Please note that all technology related questions should go through the Help Desk, helpdesk@ramapo.edu.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 8:30 – 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday: 2 – 4 p.m.

Access Virtual Office Hours Link: https://ramapo.webex.com/meet/training16

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October 9, 2020IDC Virtual Workshops

Be sure to check out all of the great workshops offered by IDC this semester. Upcoming workshop topics include OER and Canvas Commons, Turnitin Assignments, Webex (basic and advanced), Cybersecurity Awareness, and Google Docs. To view the workshop schedule and register, visit our training web site. Upon registration you will receive an email with the Webex meeting information needed to join the workshop.

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February 3, 2020Spring 2020

Welcome to this semester’s edition of Teaching with Technology, a newsletter from the Instructional Design Center. Here you will find the latest technology-related news and resources at Ramapo College. Each newsletter also features a profile on a faculty member using technology in innovative ways. This edition features Tammi Redd, Associate Professor of Management.

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February 3, 2020Canvas Teaching Circle

Canvas is the new Learning Management System for the college. Faculty have the choice of using Canvas this semester; Canvas is the mandatory LMS beginning Summer, 2020. This teaching circle focuses on the use of Canvas. Participants will share their experiences with Canvas, including their successes and challenges. We will also review the Canvas tools for content delivery, assignments, and grading. This teaching circle is also open to those interested in Canvas but not using it this semester.

Meeting Schedule

• February 5, February 19, March 4, March 25, April 8, April 22
• 11 a.m. – noon, in ASB-223

Register for Canvas Teaching Circle

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February 3, 2020On-Campus Training Opportunities

Weekly Workshops – Be sure to check out all of the great workshops offered by IDC this semester. There are a variety of workshops including Introduction to Canvas; Canvas Modules and Pages; Canvas Discussion Forums; Canvas Assignments, Gradebook and Analytics; and Importing Course Content into Canvas. To view the workshop schedule and register, visit our training web site.

One-on-One Support – Contact the IDC or drop into the lab (ASB-223) if you need personal support with Canvas or other instructional technologies.

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February 3, 2020Explore Canvas Resources

Find Canvas Resources customized for Ramapo, including tutorials, guides, online training opportunities, FAQ and more are available on the IDC Canvas Web page. Login to Canvas and click on the Help icon to access the online Canvas Training Portal, search video tutorials, step-by-step guides, or get answers on the Canvas Community.

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February 1, 2020Faculty Profile — Tammi C. Redd

Professor Tammi Redd, faculty member in the Anisfield School of Business and Director of the Faculty Resource Center, leverages technology to enhance student engagement, confidence, and access to content. As the instructor of several online courses, Professor Redd uses the full range of available technologies to bring the content to life and build connections with the students. Moreover, Professor Redd has experienced the transition of moving a face-to-face course, in her case Social Entrepreneurship, to an online format. One of the biggest challenges she faced was figuring out how certain assignments from the traditional course translate to an online setting. However, challenges also provide opportunities. She says, “Online discussion boards, if set up properly, can lead to much more meaningful conversations than on the spot questions in the classroom.” Because students have time to think about and craft their ideas in an online forum, their responses tend to be more thoughtful, according to Professor Redd. Also, through these platforms Professor Redd is able to elicit participation from students who are too shy to raise their hands in class.

Professor Redd is an early adopter of Canvas, having used it as her course LMS during the Winter session and now in this Spring semester. Her Canvas pages are full of embedded videos, case studies, web links, and other multimedia elements. She is very excited about the usability, organization, and features of our new LMS. To help students become familiar with the platform, one of her first assignments is to ask students to create their profile in Canvas and download the mobile app. She appreciates how students can not only respond to each other in the Discussions section but also click “like” for an entry. She is also an active user of Announcements in Canvas, which help students stay aware of upcoming assignments and important class events. In preparation for the Winter semester, Professor Redd built her courses in Canvas from scratch in order to experience all the possibilities of the platform. 

Professor Redd has some good advice for faculty members who are ready to incorporate more technology into their teaching. She says, “Don’t be intimidated by a new technology. Just go ahead and try it. With something like Canvas, sit down and literally click on every button and see what it does. If you make a mistake, it can always be fixed.”  

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October 21, 2019Webex for Web Conferences

Webex is a new Web conferencing tool that is available at Ramapo. Features include video conferencing, text chat, content sharing, polling, recording of sessions and more. This is a great tool for online and hybrid courses, as well as for snow days and virtual meetings. All faculty, staff and students will soon have accounts using their Ramapo sign-on. If you can’t wait and want to use Webex now, contact the Help Desk to get an account at helpdesk@ramapo.edu or 201-684-7777. Webex will replace Adobe Connect as the recommended Web conferencing tool on campus. Adobe Connect will be available through Winter 2021.

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February 1, 2019Faculty Profile - Ann LePore, Associate Professor of 3D Design and Animation

A quick glance at Professor Ann LePore’s lab and office says a great deal about her commitment to technological innovation and exploration. Spread across the table are microchips, computer parts, wires, and tools. We caught her on a day when she was in the midst of building a 3D printer from scratch. It goes without saying that Professor LePore is adept with technology, but it is her creative and artistic approach to technological tools that is most impressive.

“We’re really good at pushing buttons, but I want my students to think about the gestures and meanings behind technology. We spend time exploring ‘the why’ of physical computing,” says Professor LePore. This often entails taking things apart and putting them back together in a different way to explore the outcomes and results. Her physical computing course draws a mix of computer science majors and visual arts majors, who come into the course with different sets of expectations and concerns. Professor LePore says, “It’s magical when they come together and support each other.”  

Professor LePore builds student confidence and self-agency by giving them the basic building blocks for design and letting them discover new ideas and methods. It is important to her that students understand they can have a role in the world beyond just that of consumers. Her students become creators of objects and products, and they help each other demystify the tools that we use every day: microprocessors, electrical circuits, computers, mobile devices, and more.

One of Professor LePore’s goals for the future is to establish a makerspace at Ramapo as an integral part of the new Library and Learning Commons. A makerspace is where innovators gather to create, invent, and learn, usually with tech tools like 3D printers, software, electronics, hardware supplies and tools, and more. She hopes that the makerspace at Ramapo is a flexible space with tools available faculty, students, staff, and eventually the public.  

Even if your course is not related to building interactive processor-art in class, there are many things that other faculty members can learn from Professor LePore. She offers, “Failure is an important part of the process. If you are afraid to fail, you can’t take any risks, you can’t experiment, and you really can’t learn. To make the best of a failure, document it, figure out why it happened, and then to move on from there; it’s the best thing that can happen to you.”

Come learn some great tech ideas directly from Professor LePore on April 18 from 1:00-1:50 pm, when she will lead a workshop on 3D Printing in ASB 223 (the new IDC lab).

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February 1, 2019On-Campus Training Opportunities

Weekly Workshops – Be sure to check out all of the great workshops offered by IDC this semester. To view the workshop schedule and register, visit our training web site.

One-on-One Support – Contact the IDC or drop into the lab (ASB 223) if you need personal support with Moodle or any other instructional technologies.

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