The UW-Platteville Master of Science in Project Management program recently completed a new articulation agreement with the University of California-Riverside.

Bill Haskins, MSPM Program Coordinator, reached out to UC-Riverside about an agreement because of its strong international presence and to complete a series of transfer agreements with UC schools.

“UW-Platteville fulfills a real need for these schools by providing an educational path forward for their students,” says Haskins.

For more information and a list of MSPM articulation agreements, visit http://www.uwplatt.edu/disted/project-management-transfer-agreements.html.


To find out more, check out the full press release.

The Pioneer Academic Center for Community Engagement (PACCE) offers you, as distance education students and alumni, and your employers the opportunity to connect with on-campus students and faculty by becoming community partners to various service and community projects.

The PACCE program is designed to bring together students, community partners and faculty in order for all three parties to “experience, grow and make a difference” by working on real community projects. Students work under faculty and community partner supervision to achieve a goal or accomplish a task set by the group.

You can get involved today by contacting PACCE at 608.342.6121 or visiting their website at http://www.uwplatt.edu/pacce/index.html.

To find out more, check out the full press release.

With over 12 million users, SAP is the most widely used brand of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software today. Students with SAP experience are in high demand, and recently, five UW-Platteville students were offered internships by a large, regional employer looking for students with SAP experience.

UW-Platteville has been part of the SAP University Alliance since 2009, and in the late spring/early summer of 2011, the university will host a conference to determine whether to establish a local ASUG chapter to include areas of SW Wisconsin, NW Illinois, NE Iowa, and SE Minnesota.

To find out more, check out the full press release.

The UW-Platteville Criminal Justice Bachelor of Science Degree program recently forged two articulation agreements with Northcentral Technical College in Wausau and Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire.

Amy Nemmetz, instructor and program coordinator for the BSCJ program says, “We want to make a bridge between every possible technical and community college and UW-Platteville, so that these students know right away what courses transfer and what they need to take when starting their academic journey with UW-Platteville.”

Nemmetz attempts to complete three to four of these agreements with technical and community college programs annually, and always welcomes the opportunity to form articulation agreements with schools around the nation.

To read more, check out the full press release. For more information about UW-Platteville articulation agreements, check out the BSCJ articulation agreements page.

By Ian Clark

Online for-profit (proprietary) colleges and universities are coming under fire from quite a few directions. The U.S. Government Accountability Office, for one, may soon begin an investigation at the call of lawmakers on the hill. Even Saturday Night Live is getting in on the blanketing perception that online universities are fake institutions that pump out diplomas – or at least PDFs of them.



All joking aside, for-profit institutions are in their fair share of hot water. Recent press reports are raising lots of questions about the validity of proprietary institutions, namely that more than a quarter of all Title IV loans – Unsubsidized Federal Stafford loans, Federal Pell Grants, Federal Perkins Loans, Federal Supplement Education Opportunity Grants and Federal PLUS loans act as revenue for proprietary institutes, accounting for some $26.5 billion dollars. Also worth noting: the number of for-profit students has increased by 500 percent since 2000.

About 10 percent of college students attend for-profit schools. The concern from all this comes with the default rates of for-profit students; they constitute 44 percent of all students who default on their student loans. (It’s estimated that, by 2020, the government will lose $275 billion on Title IV loans.)

But consider this statistic: UW-Platteville, as a public institution encompassing both online and traditional students, has a student loan default rate of 0.63 percent. That can mean a few different things, all of them good for you.

Our students don’t have trouble repaying their loans because

• UWP students are well-prepared to enter the workforce when they graduate
• UWP students are a cut above the rest because they have to be; our programs are rigorous and carry the same weight as our on-campus degrees
• UWP students are backed by the brick-and-mortar campus in Southwest Wisconsin and are supported by personal advisors and student service representatives

By choosing a quality online program, you will be better-prepared than most of your for-profit attending peers. You will soon have a degree that you can be proud of…and you won’t have to fake a heart attack when someone asks the name of your alma mater in an interview.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the pros and cons of public and for-profit universities, check out this blog series. If you want to learn more about the industry that is proprietary institutions, check out of few of these other, independent blogs.

For-Profit Education Gains from the Pain of Customers and Sales Staff
– DailyFinance: an AOL money and finance site

For-Profit Colleges Need More Oversight, Senator Says
– Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Facing Cuts in Federal Aid, For-Profit Colleges Are in a Fight
– The New York Times

By Kim Maier

Are you planning to transfer to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Online? If so, I would like to lend a few tips to help your transition goes as smooth as possible.

• Deadlines
• Pay attention to them as they go fast. They were designed to help keep you on track and assist in your successfulness. You’ll see there are deadlines for application submission, class registration, payments, and the list go on. Write them down so you don’t forget. For a list of important deadlines and happenings, see our Important Dates webpage.
• Transfer credits
• Be prompt in having official transcripts sent from all the institutions where you’ve taken classes.
• Recognize that some credits will not transfer in or may only transfer in as electives. For example, we don’t offer an aviation program, so regardless of how rigorous those classes were; there aren’t any equivalents at UWP.
• Do your homework and be aware of each program’s admission requirements.
• Advisor
• Advisors are here to help you be successful at UWP. Follow through with your advising sessions when they are scheduled and be prepared to discuss a plan for your education. Once you have a plan, you’ll have a clear idea of what classes to take each semester.

Transferring to another university is an exciting experience. Remember to enjoy the moment and keep moving forward with your education so you can reach your final goal of a degree. Having a college education will launch you into your next employment opportunity, a pay raise or plain new experiences!

Part V of "Going back to school: Step by step"

By Les Hollingsworth

Once you’ve selected the program that is right for you, it’s time to get started. Admission processes and guidelines will vary in detail from school to school but they should follow a similar process overall.

1. Submit an application. Some institutions (especially the private, for-profit schools) will run promotions that allow you to waive the application fee. Many will not. You simply have to ask your enrollment counselor.
    
2. Submit official transcripts from your previous institutions. For undergraduate students, this helps get you transfer credits. For master’s students, this proves that you’ve earned a bachelor’s degree and might qualify for admission. Any respectable institution will require you to have a bachelor’s degree before you can enroll in a master’s program. If they don’t, be wary.
    
3. Investigate scholarships that you might qualify for. My favorite is FastWeb.com. You can build a profile and it spits out a list of potential scholarships. The more detailed you can be in your profile the better the results for your scholarship search. Also check with your local high school. The guidance counselor there might know of opportunities for your specific situation.
    
4. Decide if you should apply for Federal Financial Aid. The government has certain requirements you must meet to qualify, such as enrolling in a minimum number of credits per semester. Males: If you didn’t register for selective service when you turned 18, no luck for you. Here’s a red flag to watch for: if a school doesn’t qualify for Title IV Federal Financial Aid, you need to select another school. For one reason or another, Uncle Sam is wary of this school. You should be too. Many will offer loans through private lenders but interest will be higher and they generally won’t be subsidized (i.e. you’re loans interest will begin to accrue as soon as monies are dispersed).
    
5. Pick a start date and enroll.

I hope this series has been helpful. My recommendation overall is to be cautious. There are a lot of shady organizations that will try to boiler room you into a decision. Don’t rush, do your research, and you’ll get the education you deserve at the best possible price.

If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact me at hollingsworl@uwplatt.edu . My goal is to be a resource for anyone who seeks to improve themselves through education. Good luck!

About this series

Whether you're a new graduate with a bachelor’s degree, a blue-collar employee looking to strengthen your resume, or a skilled professional looking to climb the corporate ladder, it’s likely that you’ve thought about continuing your education. The odds are also good that you’ve wondered about doing it online. This five-part series will provide a few tips and thoughts over the next two weeks to help you decide.

• Part I: How to find and choose an online degree
• Part II: Deciphering accreditation: What the alphabet soup really means
• Part III: Public vs. for-profit colleges: Pros and cons
• Part IV: Red flags and warning signs when evaluating online degrees
• Part V: Starting the admission process

By Travis Courtney

As the need for online education moves toward the norm, rather than the exception, we continue to serve an increasing number of international students. While all UWP distance education students ultimately have opportunity to take courses together, regardless of physical location or background, the process of admission to a degree program may be slightly different if you. International students:

• Have permanent residence outside the United States
• Are not a US citizen or were born in a country other than the US
• Have high school or post-secondary academic records from an institution outside the US
• Do not consider English your official native language

You may be required to submit the following information in addition to standard application materials:

• Official academic records (called transcripts in the US)
• A Catalog Match evaluation performed by Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE) for any post-secondary transcripts you submit
• Official scores for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL® Test)
• One form of US residency documentation (visa, passport, permanent residency card, etc.) if you were born outside of the US, but now hold citizenship

Because it can take longer than you might expect to acquire some of these materials, you should begin the application process well before your desired start date. For more information, see the admission information for your program below or call the Distance Learning Center at 800.362.5460.

BS in Business Administration
BS in Criminal Justice
MS in Criminal Justice
MS in Engineering
MS in Project Management

Part IV of "Going back to school: Step by step"

By Les Hollingsworth

We have all experienced a situation where we didn’t ask the right questions or didn’t even know what questions to ask. Don’t let this happen with your education. A degree is both expensive and time-consuming — be an informed consumer.

1. Ask about the weekly time commitment. Let’s face it; college is supposed to be hard. If an admissions rep tells you that it will take less than 15 hours per week to complete the coursework, warning lights should be going off like a trooper in a high-speed chase. This brings into question the real amount of learning from the courses and the reputability of the school.
    
2. Be sure you understand the program’s on-campus residency requirements. These go by many different names: residencies, colloquia, time-savers, etc. At the end of the day, they all mean the same thing; you have to come to campus and that costs you additional money for travel/expenses/time off work. There are many schools now that do not require on-site time and you should be aware of these lesser-known requirements prior to enrolling.
    
3. Know what you need from a program and move through the admissions process at your pace. Many institutions hire professional salespeople as their admissions counselors. It’s important to know what you need so you can stick to your guns when an enrollment person starts calling. Save yourself time and money by not letting a counselor hurry you through the process.
    
4. Overall, if a program seems too good to be true, it almost certainly is. Be wary of schools that give you credit for just about anything. Don’t get me wrong, credit for life experience is good and legitimate in many cases, but question the legitimacy of the school if you get credit for that underwater basket weaving conference you attended.

If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact me at hollingsworl@uwplatt.edu. My goal is to be a resource for anyone who seeks to improve themselves through education. Good luck!

Next week: Starting the admission process.

About this series

Whether you're a new graduate with a bachelor’s degree, a blue-collar employee looking to strengthen your resume, or a skilled professional looking to climb the corporate ladder, it’s likely that you’ve thought about continuing your education. The odds are also good that you’ve wondered about doing it online. This five-part series will provide a few tips and thoughts over the next two weeks to help you decide.

• Part I: How to find and choose an online degree
• Part II: Deciphering accreditation: What the alphabet soup really means
• Part III: Public vs. for-profit colleges: Pros and cons
• Part IV: Red flags and warning signs when evaluating online degrees
• Part V: Starting the admission process

Part III of "Going back to school: Step by step"

By Les Hollingsworth

Part III: Public vs. for-profit colleges: Pros and cons

As a frequent visitor of LinkedIn, I see a question that comes up several times per month: Which is better: public or private, for-profit? Here are a few things to consider:

• The key to the whole educational process is finding a provider that meets your needs. In some cases, a state university will work the best; in others a for-profit may be the only way to go.
• Public University – The private, for-profits still receive a skeptical eye in some employment circles. They’ve also had some pretty negative press over the past few years. You could avoid a potential negative stigma on your resume by selecting a well-known state university. Most public universities also help by making no reference to “online” on your transcript. As an example, at UW-Platteville, your transcript is a University of Wisconsin-Platteville transcript. Your coursework is as rigorous and the requirements for earning a degree are comparable to on-campus programs, so there is no distinction on your transcript. Be sure to ask admissions advisors about this.
• For-Profit University – It’s almost guaranteed that a for-profit university will give you a better transfer credit evaluation than what you would get at a public school. They often have fewer bureaucratic and academic limitations and design the curriculum to accept more flexibility in transfer credits. But, this also should prompt you to carefully evaluate the quality of the program.
• Public University – Many public schools’ online courses are taught by the same tenured faculty using the same curriculum as they do in their traditional brick-and-mortar classes. This lends additional credibility to your coursework.
• For-Profit University – It’s easier to find information about these institutions. These schools are designed to be highly-responsive and they’ve spent the marketing dollars to ensure that you know they exist.
• Public University – Generally, tuition at a state university will be lower than an equivalent program at a private university. Be sure to compare what type of credit system (semester hour, quarter hour, etc.) the schools use so you can compare apples to apples.

I think that covers the main pros and cons. Use the comments feature to let me know if there are others worth mentioning. Also, If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact me at hollingsworl@uwplatt.edu. My goal is to be a resource for anyone who seeks to improve themselves through education. Good luck!

Next time: Red flags and warning signs when evaluating online degrees.

About this series

Whether you're a new graduate with a bachelor’s degree, a blue-collar employee looking to strengthen your resume, or a skilled professional looking to climb the corporate ladder, it’s likely that you’ve thought about continuing your education. The odds are also good that you’ve wondered about doing it online. This five-part series will provide a few tips and thoughts over the next two weeks to help you decide.

• Part I: How to find and choose an online degree
• Part II: Deciphering accreditation: What the alphabet soup really means
• Part III: Public vs. for-profit colleges: Pros and cons
• Part IV: Red flags and warning signs when evaluating online degrees
• Part V: Starting the admission process

Part II of "Going back to school: Step by step"

By Les Hollingsworth

After reading our first post, you’ve identified a list of four or five online programs or institutions that might fit your needs. Now it’s time to winnow that list to your top choices. The absolute first criterion is having the correct accreditation. Insufficient accreditation must make an option disappear faster than a thief at a police convention. Here are the facts:

• Not all online programs are equal. Make sure the school is regionally accredited. This is the gold standard for accreditation. National accreditation is technically a second-rate accreditation and is less reputable to other institutions and future employers. This can negatively impact transfer credits and many employers won’t recognize nationally accredited degrees, i.e. you paid money and invested time in a degree that isn’t worth anything.
   
• Be advised: Admissions folks at some non-regionally accredited universities will dance around this question. Also, don’t judge the acceptability of a nationally accredited institution based on the size of its student body. It just means that there are a lot of people who could find themselves in a tough spot down the road.
   
• Watch for schools that create their own accrediting body. This is a common practice used by degree mills. They create fictitious (and very formal sounding) accrediting bodies and tout them on their website but they’re really just gas. You can confirm regional accreditation for an institution by checking the Council on Higher Education Accreditation’s website at http://www.chea.org/.
   
• Programmatic accreditation is a specialized award that should be in addition to regional accreditation. This includes groups such as AACSB, AABSP, and PMI GAC as well as many others. These groups help ensure quality in a specialized academic discipline. In general, they don’t accredit institutions; they ensure specific standards in a given program. Consider these a bonus; they're not a requirement (and many institutions can’t monetarily afford to pursue them) but they could be used to break a tie between a first and second choice.

That's it for now. If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact me at mailto:hollingsworl@uwplatt.edu. My goal is to be a resource for anyone who seeks to improve themselves through education. Good luck!

Next time: public universities versus private for-profit universities.

About this series

Whether you're a new graduate with a bachelor’s degree, a blue-collar employee looking to strengthen your resume, or a skilled professional looking to climb the corporate ladder, it’s likely that you’ve thought about continuing your education. The odds are also good that you’ve wondered about doing it online. This five-part series will provide a few tips and thoughts over the next two weeks to help you decide.

• Part I: How to find and choose an online degree
• Part II: Deciphering accreditation: What the alphabet soup really means
• Part III: Public vs. for-profit colleges: Pros and con
• Part IV: Red flags and warning signs when evaluating online degrees
• Part V: Starting the admission process

By Les Hollingsworth

Whether you're a new graduate with a bachelor’s degree, a blue-collar employee looking to strengthen your resume, or a skilled professional looking to climb the corporate ladder, it’s likely that you’ve thought about continuing your education. The odds are also good that you’ve wondered about doing it online. This five-part series will provide a few tips and thoughts over the next two weeks to help you decide.

Part I: How to find and choose an online degree
Part II: Deciphering accreditation: What the alphabet soup really means
Part III: Public vs. for-profit colleges: Pros and cons
Part IV: Red flags and warning signs when evaluating online degrees
Part V: Starting the admission process

Part I: How to find and choose an online degree

So you're thinking about going back to school. With a family, a job, and/or other commitments, going to class on campus is not an option. And it would be really difficult to attend evening and weekend classes. Have you considered an online degree program? How do you find one that’s right for you?

Step one: find a list of institutions that offer online programs. There are actually countless schools that provide online degree programs – and many are highly respected state institutions. Several of the larger for-profit institutions have effectively dominated the marketing efforts for online education, making it somewhat difficult to find the traditional university that also offers online degrees. The moral of the story is that you can find a great school with a great reputation - you just have to know where to look.

In my humble opinion, the best - and most objective-source is Peterson's Guide to Distance Learning, which lists thousands of institutions and their distance learning programs in a clean and easily searchable format. Many of the institutions also list general information such as how much of the coursework can be completed online, tuition, etc.

If you're like most people, you will do a Google search of the degree name that you're looking for, i.e. "project management master's, business degree online", etc. The top results for these searches will often be lead aggregators. These websites gather information from numerous schools and then sell information that you provide to target schools. They are extremely useful to a potential student for requesting information from large numbers of institutions, but be aware that they are not a comprehensive list and certainly aren't objective. Position and findability on the website are determined by the highest bidder for different degree areas.

If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact me at hollingsworl@uwplatt.edu. My goal is to be a resource for anyone who seeks to improve themselves through education. Good luck!

Next week: Accreditation: What it really means.

By Melissa Gavin

The best thing about UWP's distance education programs is – the distance. When I was asked to contribute this blog, I looked at my calendar and was slightly concerned about timing since I was going to be out of town. However, this provided my topic. One of the best perks of the distance learning programs is the ability to travel while still going to school.

Unlike a traditional brick and mortar university, distance education allows students to participate in class whether at home or on the road. The key to success in this program is having an Internet connection available at some point during the day. As a student, I was able to travel with my family or volunteer my time out of town as long as the hotel I stayed at had a connection. This flexibility gave me a lot of freedom that I wouldn't have had at any other university. It allowed me to travel to weddings, special events, and for vacation at times when most students are not able to leave school.

Being at a distance is also a perk for being an active alumnus. As long as I have access to a phone line and Internet, I am able to be an active alumni member through the Alumni Advisory Board (AAB). Not only does the AAB allow me to stay connected to my alma mater and classmates, it also lets me continue to serve UWP from a distance. Once a month, I meet with fellow alums and members of the Distance Learning Center to discuss various items from mentoring to new developments to providing feedback. This connection is not something I have with the brick and mortar university from which I received my undergraduate degree.

By Charles Christison

Discussion assignments, whether whole class or group focused, are meant to be an interaction between all participants. The learning that takes place in a in a discussion forum is different than other types of learning. In a discussion, each student is exposed to the viewpoints of others and should be willing to share their viewpoint on the topic. In this light, discussions are interactive and support learning by participation.

Students should begin a discussion assignment after they have completed assigned readings and individual assignments. Without this preparation they enter the discussion without context. This leads to a poor learning experience.

One technique is to position students as teachers by evaluating the impact of how they have contributed to the learning of their classmates. A successful discussion does not mean that everyone agrees with everyone else, but that multiple viewpoints have been presented and discussed. Active discussions should lead to more critical thinking as reflected in questions and issues raised.

Discussions can be evaluated in terms of improved questions and the amount of engagement presented. Better responses will reflect Boom's higher level cognitive skills, such as analysis and synthesis. Poorest responses would be simple agreement or repeating of what others have stated.

Any behavior in a discussion that limits the amount of engagement, students dominating the discussion and otherwise restricting the flow of ideas should be corrected as soon as possible.

The bottom line is that discussions are meant to be an interaction between all participants to the benefit of all. Exposure to multiple viewpoints with active discussions should lead to a higher level of critical thinking.

By Clinton Nemitz

As a recruiter for UWP Distance Education, I am the first to hear students’ stories about their desire to further their education or get a much needed promotion. But lately, the stories have been a little different -- and not for the better. I don’t have enough toes or fingers to count how many times I have heard the words, “I just lost my job.” When the conversation starts, I have no emotional stock in a student, but when the story has been told and the conversation has ended, I am very close to the student.

We may have talked about how the loss of their job has affected them emotionally, physically, and put so much wear and tear on their family that it is almost unbearable to hear. Through all the emotions, we talk about options, because they called with a purpose: to turn a horrible situation into a positive one.

The biggest topic we discuss is money. How are they going to pay for school? We talk about financial aid and how it is available to all students in our program who take at least six credits per semester. I explain the scholarships our program has to offer. Finally, I give them the link to Fastweb.com. Based on students’ criteria, this website searches the United States for scholarships they are eligible to apply for. The awards range in value from a few hundred to several thousand dollars.

If you want something bad enough, you have to look for the resources to make it happen. Fastweb.com is just one of many resources that could help you finance your education.

by Les Hollingsworth, Corporate Marketing Director

If you've spent much time reading the news online, you've probably heard that an increasing number of universities plan to start up online programs to supplement revenue from their campus-based programs. A direct result is that many potential students are asking if online is really as good as campus-based instruction and many of the naysayers are once again spreading mis-information. So, to do my part in helping to debunk these myths I reference an article from Military.com. It lists the four biggest fallacies surrounding online education. Although the article is geared toward servicemembers, the information is relevant to all prospective online students. Here's the link:

Busting the Myths of Online Education
 

By Dan Klein, DLC Staff Writer

It seems as the Distance Education blog has been on a ‘tools’ kick lately, so here’s one more I’m sure you’ve heard of but you may have overlooked…

As a socialite, cultural observer & active member of the online community, I’ve been in tune with the growth of social networking sites. The younger internet crowd uses the connecting of individuals from around the globe in these extremely popular networking sites to share common experiences, photos, ideas, and comments.

Non-youth readers, you’ve probably heard all about this, haven’t you? You’ve done plenty of other net-savvy things like watched streaming video, subscribed to RSS feeds (like this DistEd blog or the DLC Announcements blog!), and frequented sites tailored to your specific interests, am I right? Just because you aren’t part of the youth of society doesn’t mean you’re any less ‘in the loop’ in regards to the internet. Therefore, don’t overlook these social networking opportunities as just child’s play - they are legitimate work tools.

The social networking sites that youth use to hook up, share photos of concerts, or support causes can also power professional networking. Business professionals use sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to reach the same ends youth socialites like myself do: Connect with others through similar interests, work connections, common geographic area, or other such criteria in ways not possible before.

The same things professionals for years have done in hotel lobbies at seminars, industry meet & greet sessions, and corporate conference rooms can be done globally through these sites! The benefits: a larger potential audience, it works with your schedule, and there’s no dealing with sweaty palms. Asking industry questions in a bar may not yield a thoughtful response, but asking one on a LinkedIn message board to users with similar experience often proves fruitful.

Staying connected is important now more than ever in the business world and young and old professionals alike. Social networking is one of the methods both can use to get advice, get insider information, and to get ahead in your field.

By Bob Streff, Instructional Designer/Web Developer

Anti-plagiarism software and services create controversy. There are pros and cons. On the one hand, faculty has been charged with upholding their institution’s academic misconduct policies. In the area of plagiarism, sometimes the line is not clearly drawn. If a student misses on quotation or incorrectly cites, is it plagiarism or just a mistake? As the results of accusing a student of plagiarism are quite serious on both sides, most instructors are cautious, even to the point of overlooking possible cases.

Faculty go to great lengths to develop research and writing assignments which are designed to increase a student’s ability to research topics, evaluate ideas, synthesize that information, and communicate their finding in a clear and scholarly manner. The purpose of giving grades is to evaluate those abilities, not the ability to obtain the end product without actually proceeding though the process.

Enter the services and software. They tout that they will seek the offender out and give the instructor an outside opinion as to the probability of plagiarized work. Now the instructor has a third party to suggest the offence and take the responsibility of being wrong. And it relieves the instructor of the added time involved in checking for plagiarism. There’s a new cop in town and it applies its laws equally for all.

But there is another side to this issue. The paper is the student’s intellectual property. Did the student give permission for a third party to see the paper? Some services keep a copy of the document basically to grow their reference library. Is this a copyright violation? One thing not mentioned usually is that those that do add the paper to their database gives the student proof of copyright by a third party. What determines a “clean” paper? What about reference material not in their database?

It seems like there needs to be a balance. How about this? Have the students use the software/service before they turn in their paper? Now they can see what the “grading criteria” is and have the opportunity to correct it before the final draft is submitted. Now everyone can be happy. The faculty’s worries are minimized and the students learn. And isn’t that what education is really about?

By Charles Christison, Instructional Designer

Are you one of those people always on the run? As you run from one errand or meeting to the next, do you often think you should make a note of something to remember, only to have your thought lost in your busy schedule? I often do. I came across a tool that helps me track my thoughts, called Jott. Jott uses different technologies by merging cell phones, email, and text messaging in a unique and useful way. Jott is currently a free service to which you subscribe online. During your account configuration, you identify your contacts and your cell phone number.



How does Jott work? You call its toll-free number and its automated voice system recognizes your phone, and asks you, "Who do you want to jott?" You respond with a name of someone on your contact list and, at the beep, you leave a message. Jott converts your spoken word into a text message and sends it to the contact that you identified. If your contact is identified with a cell phone number, Jott will send that phone number the text message. If your contact is identified with an email address, then Jott will send that email address the text message along with a link to the audio message.

Jott allows you to remind yourself or others when you're not able to make note on paper. For example: You're in your favorite store and have a thought for your presentation next week.After calling and sending a message to yourself, you will find an email with your memo in your email inbox when you get back to the office. You can also have Jott send reminders to you for upcoming events such as birthdays. You can configure a contact with a group of people. By sending a message to that contact, all people in the group will receive the message.

I'm still discovering all the features Jott offers. For more information, visit Jott's web site. If you decide to use it, please let me know your thoughts.

By Charles Christison, Instructional Designer

Your class has group projects and your group members are scattered around the globe. How do you bring everyone together and collaborate on the projects? Consider using one of the many free collaboration tools available on the World Wide Web. For now, let’s look at an online whiteboard that support collaboration.

These online tools let your group share a whiteboard space for brainstorming and for concept mapping. These sites allow for all to draw and annotate the board. One free online whiteboard is Twiddla. It has just been awarded the SXSW Interactive Annual Web Award for Technical Achievement. Besides the shared whiteboard feature, it has built-in chat and audio tools. This site is free, but you do need to register to have access. To invite people, you can choose to type their email in the invitation box or simply share the whiteboard location (i.e., URL).

Other collaborative whiteboards include Scriblink and Skrbl. All of these are free and have audio conferencing capabilities.

If you know of other collaborative tools that are worth passing on to others, please contact us.