Reading beTWEN the Lines: Ideas for Getting More Out of Your Course Management Software

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Reading beTWEN the Lines Ideas for Getting More
Out of Your Course Management Software

• CALI June 2005
• Kira Zaporski
• Reference Electronic Services Librarian

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• How weve been using TWEN at Loyola to provide
  student and faculty services
• How to use some of the new and advanced
  features
• Other ideas for getting more out of your
  courseware

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Ideas for getting more out of your course
management software

• TWEN is used at Loyola to provide a variety of
  services
• Supporting faculty teaching research
• Practice Exams collection, or e-reserves
• Student publications
• Student organizations
• Study abroad/summer programs

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Benefits of using courseware to provide
student/faculty services

• Access 24/7, especially useful for part-time
  evening students.
• Course management - Multiple instructors and
  shared course content
• Collaborative between many different
  constituencies
• Secure (hosted by Thomson/West servers), at no
  additional cost or licenses.
• Control - tied to Loyola student/faculty Westlaw
  passwords
• Flexibility in linking to outside content

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General Courseware Limitations

• Some learning curve for course administrator
• Some students not comfortable with high level of
  computer-based communication
• Functionality limitations, depending on your
  courseware and goals for use. (e.g., sign-up
  sheets, document quizzes)
• Lack of control over format/look, etc.
• How does your courseware compare?

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Using TWEN to Support Faculty Teaching

• Some examples
• Loyolas 1L Legal Research program is modular,
  self paced.
• Very well received by students
• A few suggestions
• Sign up sheets - Lack flexibility?
• Document quizzes - Can be difficult to edit, must
  plan ahead
• Quizzes very popular, but students want
  auto-notification that quiz properly submitted
  and recorded

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Using TWEN to Support Faculty Teaching

• Advanced Legal Research
• At Loyola, ALR course content varies by
  instructor, as does level of instructors TWEN
  use.
• Diagnostic quizzes
• Post answers to common questions
• Student communication (research topics, sharing
  articles/links)
• Add tutorials,web links
• Other examples

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Using TWEN to Support Faculty Adjuncts

• Coordinating and communicating with adjuncts
• Rarely on campus
• Already familiar with Westlaw
• Appreciate the attention support
• Serve as behind-the-scenes co-instructor

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Consider using your courseware for

• Ongoing faculty research projects
• Although student research assistants change, the
  core research collection (documents, web links,
  etc) can remain in central location
• Add TA/RA as a co-instructor

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Consider using your courseware for

• Support for a faculty practice area
• e.g., the IP faculty, employment/labor faculty
• Collaborative internal projects
• Store minutes, post articles, discussion, email
  groups, calendar

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Using TWEN to Provide E-ReservesPractice
Exams Collection

• Limited control over our network and OPAC led to
  use of courseware as an e-reseerves system.
• Previously paper copies made by Circ staff and
  sold at circulation desk.
• TWEN allows 24/7 student access at no cost,
  minimal staff time.
• Secure and Loyola-limited Westlaw password access
  alleviates faculty concerns.
• Posted in PDF prevents modification to documents.

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Using TWEN to Provide E-Reserves Practice
Exams Collection

• TWEN allows tracking of user access and compiling
  statistics.
• In the recent spring semester, the exam documents
  were accessed 5015 times.
• Faculty have increased student participation by
  contributing exams.
• Reminders to faculty once a semester and
  reminders to student obdy of availability.

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Using TWEN to Provide E-ReservesOther
E-reserves ideas

• Collections could be structured by faculty, by
  semester, by course
• Archive your collection or portions of it, or
  carry it over from semester to semester.
• Useful even for those faculty who do not use the
  other functionality of courseware.

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Using TWEN to Provide E-ReservesA bit of advice

• Set guidelines for multiple co-faculty
• Plan Ahead - for a large content collection, you
  need to plan ahead for expansion, because
  although you can copy content from one course to
  another course, you cannot move content from one
  document page to another within the same course.
  Instead you must download the item, save it
  somewhere outside of TWEN, then upload it to the
  new location.
• Example of practice exams and awkward expansion
  of alphabetical breakdown.

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Using TWEN to Support Student Activities

• Student publications
• Student organizations
• Moot court and advocacy
• Clinical programs
• Study abroad programs
• What are other schools doing?

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Using TWEN to Support Student Activites Student
Publications

• For example, the Loyola Law Journal
• TWEN is used as a virtual library for sourcing
  and cite-checking, eliminating strain on print
  resources and circulation staff
• Each article is a separate document page, with
  multiple items from Westlaw, HeinOnline or the
  web
• Allows for communication among editors, and
  between editors and staff assignment pick up
  and drop boxes
• Allows posting of training materials and web links

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Using TWEN to Support Student Activities
Student Organizations

• TWEN pages for student organizations
  e.g.,Loyola Child Law Society
• Popular functionalities
• Discussion forums
• Posting articles, web sites, job/career links
• Organize volunteer projects, sign up sheets
• TWEN course managed directly by the students
  (officers/board of the organization)
• Library provides training to incoming student
  leaders as needed

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Using TWEN to Support Student Activities

• Moot court and other competitions
• e.g., Frederick Douglass moot court
• Clinical programs
• e.g., Loyola Federal Tax Clinic

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Using TWEN to Support Student Activities Study
Abroad Programs

• TWEN pages for study abroad courses
• e.g.,Loyola International Commercial Arbitration
• Courses offered during summer and breaks, when
  students are not on campus, so off-site access
  very beneficial
• Add any student or faculty from other
  institutions who has a Westlaw password.
• Students/faculty are able to access materials
  posted while on location in foreign country, or
  can download ahead of time

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New (or sorta new) functionality

• Polling
• Master calendar
• Add school logo to customize - school graphic
  displayed as a header on your TWEN course pages.
• Easy access to online file directory

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New features InstaPoll

• Now located on home page of every course, but can
  be hidden
• Questions and all other info given verbally in
  class students with laptops logged in to TWEN
  respond on-the-spot
• Possible uses?

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New features Custom Polling

• Similar role as InstaPoll, but where InstaPoll is
  essentially yes/no to a verbal question presented
  to the group on-the-spot, with customized polling
  you construct written questions.
• More like an informal quiz structure
• see example in ALR
• Does not need to be done live in class

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New features Master calendar

• Keeps track of all the TWEN courses in which
  you participate or run as a faculty member.

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New features Customize with school logo

• Adds a little branding for the school and helps
  TWEN pages blend in with your web pages.

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New features Easy access to online file
directory

• Allows you to store files for all of your TWEN
  courses in one convenient place. You can easily
  link to these files from your forums and document
  pages using the file attachment tool.

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So what are other schools experimenting with?