Feel free to drop by and discuss your next project. We can help you decide what are the best tools to meet your goals. It is not always required that you learn a new software application before starting your project.
Here are two recent examples:
Create a survey instrument with multiple-choice and short answer responses. The goal is to have an online survey. The options considered are: Adobe Acrobat (an online form), Excel, Word, a web page form, and email message.
The discussion started at then END of this process. What did our visitor envision they would do with the collected information? Read the responses and print out paper. How sophisticated are the constitutents in filling out the survey form? What is the timeline for this project?
Acrobat is a wonderful choice. In the New Media Lab we have copies of the full version of Acrobat and can take plain documents and add form fields and calculations. (Many other features of Acrobat are available too.) However, constitutents would also need the paid version of Acrobat to send their responses.
Excel is another good choice. The questions could be written on a worksheet and with a column for responses. This document would be delivered to users as an email attachment and returned as an email attachment.
Word is a familiar choice. The curriculum form was distributed as a locked Word document with both checkbox and short answer fields.
A Web Page is an obvious choice. On the Wserver, forms can be completed and on submit, sends the information as an email message. A more sophisticated option is to also save the responses in a text file. The text file can be imported into Excel for analysis.
Web Forum is another way to encourage dialog among your constituents. The URL for the forum can be included in the email announcement . It would be best if the question prompts are the initial threads and several colleagues can be encouraged to post responses early.
An Email Message is the simplest option. Email would be basic text where constitutents write responses and send back as a reply.
Create answer keys so students can check their own work before coming to class.
This discussion also started at then END of this experience. What did our visitor envision students would access these answer keys? What is the timeline for this project? What resources are available in your division?
Manila is a new web server on campus (this is a Manila site!). Manila sites can be completely public or open to specific members. For faculty use with students, a public site would be the choice.
Blackboard This instructor is using the Blackboard Course Management System to provide handouts and answer keys to students. Blackboard offers more control over what is visible to students and allows for "tracking" student access to handouts.
The File Server is a remote hard disk that can be accessed from home or your office. Or from the New Media Lab! If you are creating documents and need to transfer the files to home or your office, submitting them to the file server is one option. Another option is to send the files to your own email account as attachments. This could fill up your email inbox! The files on this server are not accessible by students.
Acrobat is the tool of choice. In addition to capturing the handout text and the handwritten information, Acrobat documents and be "protected" so that printing is not permitted. View only! Acrobat can work directly with a scanner, for example, in the New Media Lab it works with the USB Epson Scanner. Since students will be viewing/downloading the files, it would be best to choose Manual Settings to limit the file size by controlling the DPI . In this case, scanning at 150 dpi allowed for readable image and reasonable file size. After scanning all the documents, there is a Batch Command option to set the NO PRINT option for all files in a folder.
Sacramento
City College
3835 Freeport Boulevard · Sacramento, California 95822
This page was last updated: Wednesday, August 18, 2004 at 6:23:42 PM
Print-friendly version of this page
|
