ORIGINAL EMAIL DATE: 08/12/09

As part of my ongoing encouragement for you to at least test out the Grader portion of Myitlab this semester, I have reserved Glass 467 for the entire day on Tuesday, August 18^th.  During this time, Josh and I will be in that lab and available to demonstrate, train, and help you with using this tool.  At this point in time, we plan to be in the lab from at least 9:00 AM to 12:00  and then again from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM – but can extend the hours before and after should we need to.

I have set up an online registration that divides the times indicated above into hour-long blocks, but this is intended merely to give me an idea of how many people might be coming at a certain time – you are not limited to an hour nor do you have to be there precisely at the time indicated.  If you’d prefer to come before 9:00 or after 3:00, please let me know by email. 

Registration is available at http://learning.missouristate.edu/myitlab_workshop_registration.htm.  Additional training will be held as needed. 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

ORIGINAL EMAIL DATE:  08/12/09

Yes, yes, it’s that time again – Instructor Orientations for CIS/CSC 101! 

We have a number of changes/updates and other important information to go over for this fall, so please make time in your schedules to attend one of the sessions.  Registration for the orientation meetings is at http://learning.missouristate.edu/Instructor_Orientation.htm – the deadline for registering is Wednesday, August 19, 2009. 

(Debbie and/or Linda – please have the CIS GAs register for one or the other session – even if they are all coming as a group, I would like them to register.)

(Lab Assistants: if you are on campus and able to attend, please do so – it is not mandatory.  If you plan to attend, please register.)

ORIGINAL EMAIL DATE: 08/06/09

Most of you already know we have a new book package for the Fall 2009 semester.  This package includes:

Technology in Action, 6/e

Custom Volume I (Word Chapters 1-4, PowerPoint Chapters 1-2), 3/e

Custom Volume II (Office Fundamentals, Excel Chapters 1-4, Windows XP, Windows Vista), 3/e

Myitlab Access Code

This sells at the campus bookstore for $118.35 (and the same price at TextBucks and Student Book Exchange, I believe).  Yes, this is expensive overall, however, students are receiving three books plus access to a training program as part of this package at a substantial discount over purchasing the items separately.  

Some of you have no doubt already received inquiries from students who wish to get the most “bang for their buck” and want to purchase the package online.  Unfortunately, because it is a custom package, it is simply NOT AVAILABLE elsewhere.  Students would need the ISBN of the package, and none of the on or off-campus bookstores is going to provide them with that information, simply because it is a custom package.

If you get student inquiries about the ISBN or something similar, so that you know or suspect they want to buy the books elsewhere, please explain that they CANNOT purchase this package elsewhere.  To purchase equivalent material would require the following AT A MINIMUM (using prices currently on Amazon):

As best as I can tell, the total cost of purchasing what may be equivalent content is $286.28, and that’s assuming best prices.  Even if you omit the Myitlab access code, it’s still over $200, and may not be actually the same material (projects, hands-on exercises, etc.) that the student would be getting in our package, which could substantially impact their ability to participate in the class.  It is not going to be in a student’s best interests to attempt to replicate our package by purchasing items elsewhere and separately. 

Please let me know if you have any questions – I’ll be happy to answer them.

ORIGINAL EMAIL DATE:  08/05/09

As you know, students are being migrated from BearMail to Live@edu accounts as of May 2009.  All incoming students should have been assigned Live@edu accounts instead of the old email accounts -  you will need to be very proactive about making sure all of your students do have Live@edu accounts as soon as possible after the beginning of the semester (you may wish to require them to email you from that account to prove it) AND that any students who had email accounts in BearMail have MOVED any content from BearMail to Live@edu no later than the final deadline of September 29^th in order to retain that content.  Any content remaining on the student email servers after September 30^th will be deleted, NO EXCEPTIONS. 

Related to the above, the Live@edu accounts have very substantial SkyDrives which are going to eliminate the need for any folders on the Magenta server.  As a result, those folders will also be deleted as of September 30^th.  If you as an instructor have an existing folder on Magenta that you used for instructional/demonstration purposes, you will need to move that content ASAP if you wish to retain it, as it will be deleted – again, NO EXCEPTIONS – at the end of September.  We will also need to be extremely proactive with any of our fall students who may already have Magenta folders and have them get their content moved as well. 

Please be prepared to disseminate the above information to your classes FREQUENTLY during the early part of the semester.  As every student’s IT foundation for Missouri State University, we are integral part of this process and need to be as proactive as possible in helping our students make this transition.

Let me know if you have any questions. 

ORIGINAL EMAIL DATE: 08/04/09

For those of you have used Myitlab in the past – at least to the point of having me create accounts/sections for you – here is an update:

·         As of today, any sections older than Fall 2008 have been deleted.  Almost all of those sections were created on an old template which is no longer functioning, so I saw no reason to keep them.

·         As of today, all sections from Fall 2008 have been set to “inactive”.  Those sections will be deleted at the end of the Fall 2009 semester.

·         As of today, all sections from Spring 2009 are still “active”. 

o   If you request new sections for Fall 2009, and want one of your Spring 2009 sections copied (which would retain the format of the class, but not the students’ data), please let me know as soon as possible.

o   If you request new sections for Fall 2009 AND DO NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFY, I will create new sections and set your Spring 2009 sections to “inactive” once the new courses are active.

New sections can take as long as overnight to become active; if you want any sections for fall (and this includes even a practice or test section), please request them as soon as possible.  The time it takes for a section to become active is highly dependent on the total number of requests being submitted to the system at that time, and the closer we get to the fall semester, the more requests there will be system-wide.

Thanks!

ORIGINAL EMAIL DATE: 08/04/09

Before you completely disregard this message because you don’t want to or haven’t used Myitlab in the past, give me a chance!

We’ve been chosen to participate in a pilot of a new component of Myitlab, called Grader. Grader is a live-in-the-application project grading tool.  Please see http://www.myitlab.com/grader.asp for more information about this new component.

As part of the pilot, we will be one of the few schools with access to this component for the Fall 2009 semester.  Pearson expects to completely launch Grader as part of Myitlab with the Spring 2010 semester.  My spring 2009 students were able to participate in a more limited pilot of this same component, and – within the restrictions of that pilot – much preferred this method of completing projects to the “use the project at the back of the book” type of assignment.  I preferred it, too – students were able to upload assignments, have them graded, get feedback as to how to correct the issues, and redo the assignments up to 3 times (one of the restrictions in the limited pilot), all without any intervention on my part, other than the initial assignment of the projects. 

All of our new 101 students will have to purchase new books this fall – and the Myitlab access codes are included in the book package.  Codes as a stand-alone item are very expensive (as much as $65) so to have this included in our book package essentially for free is VERY cost effective for us and our students. 

Obviously, I cannot require you to use Myitlab in your classes this fall.  What I WOULD ask, however, is that you consider at least testing out the Grader component with your students – either as a “take home” project, an “in class” demonstration, or “extra credit”, or even as part of your “real” coursework.  The more instructors/students we can get to participate, the more information we can gather – and I’d really like those of you who specialize in “breaking” software to give it a shot.  That kind of feedback is invaluable to me, both as the primary decision maker for adoption of new materials and as an instructor myself. 

I can promise each and every one of you that I will be available to you as much as possible to help you with using Myitlab and integrating it into your classroom.  One-on-one training, online technical assistance, and group workshops will be provided on an as needed basis. 

Please give testing this component – or all of Myitlab – strong consideration as you prepare for fall.  I am happy to answer any questions you might have about this program or the pilot.

ORIGINAL EMAIL DATE: 05/01/09

By now, you should have received an email indicating that Missouri State faculty and staff WILL NOT receive new Live.MissouriState.edu accounts at this time.  I have, however, obtained special permission to have SOME Live@edu accounts for CIS/CSC 101 instructors, TO BE USED FOR TEACHING PURPOSES ONLY.  It is IMPERATIVE that you understand that you cannot use the Live@edu email address as your “official” email address, communicate regarding University business in any way via that email address, or store ANY Missouri State files OF ANY KIND on the SkyDrive.  You can only use these accounts for teaching purposes, and in no other way.

Because of these restrictions, I have requested accounts ONLY for those instructors who are currently on the schedule for the FALL 2009 semester.  If you are teaching this semester, but are not on the schedule for fall, you will not have access to a new account.  If you have a Hotmail account, you can “try out” the Live@edu experience at http://get.liveatedu.com/Education/Connect/ – but our students’ experience will be a little different than that one, so it’s not completely transparent if you choose to use that as your demonstration/teaching tool instead.

You will need to provide me with a signed statement indicating you understand the restrictions of the Live@edu for faculty and staff if you wish to use this resource for teaching purposes – please see the attached PDF document.  This document must be either emailed, faxed (836-8886) or sent to me via hard copy before your account will be created.  If you do not want access, PLEASE TELL ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE so we can tell Computer Services to not create your account.

I must also remind you that we need to urge our students to use the web portal to make the change – the University would like us to encourage the students to use the portal as much as possible. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

ORIGINAL EMAIL DATE:  05/01/09

By now you should have heard of the upcoming migration of student email accounts from our current Bearmail/OWA format to the NEW Live@edu format. This will be a substantial change for the students, but a very beneficial one for them and for the University as a whole.

It is crucial that we, as CIS/CSC 101 instructors, take a few minutes with our students next week and walk them through the process of creating their new accounts and migrating their existing email into the new account.  The tools for obtaining their accounts, email addresses, and migrating their email files will be available on the My.MissouriState.edu web portal as of Monday, May 4^th.  I’ve attached both a Word and a PDF version of the student announcement – please disseminate this information as thoroughly as possible.  If you teach other classes besides CIS/CSC 101, please encourage those students to make the change as soon as possible as well.

It is VITAL that we get as many existing students to change now as possible – students will only have until September 29, 2009, to migrate any existing email – after that date, if they have forgotten or neglected to make this change, they can still obtain new accounts/email addresses, but any existing email in their old Bearmail accounts will have been deleted WITH NO RECOURSE. 

I will be sending some promotional materials over to your departments by Monday as well (I intended to do so today but the weather is not cooperating!).  The process should only take a few minutes so you should easily be able to incorporate this into your “end of semester” routine.   FYI, I am working on getting the CIS/CSC 101 instructors accounts so that we can demonstrate/teach the process to our existing students (and the incoming fall students as well).  It is the University’s intent to get as many new accounts created during the SOAR process this summer, but I am sure we will have some students who still have the old Bearmail accounts when the fall semester begins – and we will have much less time at that point to make the changes!

Keep an eye on your email – more information will be forthcoming as I receive it.

ORIGINAL EMAIL DATE:  04/14/09

For those of you (or your students) who are interested in web site design, Microsoft recently announced that SharePoint Designer 2007 is now FREE for everyone. 

Download details can be found here:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42

ORIGINAL EMAIL DATE:  03/30/2009

I got an email over the break from the ResNet Administrator – he decided to re-image the dorm labs over the break and also chose to upgrade to IE8 at the same time.  Unfortunately, IE8 – since it is brand new – is NOT compatible with Myitlab at this time.  It should be after the usual upgrade over the summer, but it is not at this time.  Students using IE8 will NOT be able to access Myitlab at all – unless they change the browser to “compatibility mode”.  Here’s how this is done:

1.       Open the browser.

2.       Go to Myitlab.com

3.       Click on the Tools menu for IE (upper right of browser window)

4.       Choose View in Compatibility Mode

Once the browser is set to compatibility mode, it should operate as IE7.  The students will have to make this change EVERY TIME they are using Myitlab with IE8, until after the summer upgrade.  The ResNet Administrator says he tested out several items in Myitlab and that they worked as expected, so I am anticipating no functionality issues – just complaints about this being “different” than the rest of the labs on campus and students forgetting they need to do it.

One other problem connected with this – not ALL of the dorm labs have IE8.  The ones that do are Scholars, Freudenberger, and Sunvilla.  The rest still have IE7.  Please try to communicate this issue to your students and apologize for the inconvenience.