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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Online Instruction I have been doing my online course since Summer 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.

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.

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.

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

How to Reach Me Mail:Mathematics and Computer Science USC Upstate 800 University Way Spartanburg, S.C Phone:(864) Fax: (864) Web address: Building Bridges to Success with Mathematics and Technology