Hello CSUSM faculty and welcome to the Spring 2018 semester. This newsletter is to update you on some of the activities that Instructional & Information Technology Services (IITS) has been undertaking over the fall break to get ready to help you with your instructional technology and other IT requirements for the new semester. We hope you will find the time to review this update, as many of these items will touch on your use of technology in your teaching and other uses of technology.
The CSUSM Campus App has seen a doubling of usage this past Fall, with over 201,000 unique starts of the App on mobile phones. This was driven is large part by the addition of access to Cougar Courses, which saw 80,000 visits to the LMS via the App. This usage has been enabled by changes in campus authentication, which now allow students to stay logged into the App for up to 7 days. During this authenticated period, students can come and go within the LMS without the need to login every time. Soon this capability will be added to PeopleSoft, as just last week, CSUSM completed the process to reface the entire Student Center for mobile access. With the implementation of these pages and services, every student function can be done via the App utilizing a streamlined and mobile friendly visual presentation. By Fall 2018, this mobile look will likely become the default for students regardless of device or browser, as they will no longer be seeing the rather dated appearance of the PeopleSoft pages.
Throughout the Fall Semester, our campus’ technology strategic planning effort has been underway gathering faculty, staff, and student input on our technology needs, requirements, and expectations. As this is the campus’ technology strategic plan, the effort has now received input from over 350 members of the campus community. The process has included sessions with colleges and divisions, classroom visits, faculty & student open forums, and the Technology Policy & Advisory Committee has dedicated their entire Fall agenda to this dialog. Unfortunately, the December fires interrupted two planned sessions, one being for CHABBS, however the team is working to reschedule and is striving to ensure all areas have an opportunity to share their perspectives. All of the comments and prioritization data is being compiled to share with a campus level Working Group that is about to start their efforts to draft the plan. A draft will be shared in April through various committees and the Academic Senate in order to receive further input and revisions.
Our Tech Bites lunch and learn workshop series continues this spring, starting Feb. 8th. Faculty can attend any of these stand-alone workshops, or choose from one of three themes and earn a certificate. Sessions will be live streamed via Zoom and recorded for those that cannot attend. See workshop descriptions, schedule and register.
As the use of online learning management systems increases, it is vital that campuses incorporate accessibility from inception through implementation. The Accessibility Compliance Team is available to work with individual instructors and departments to show them how to make Word, PDF, and PowerPoint files accessible for all students as well as Cougar Courses and media. Review our resources or contact ada@csusm.edu to setup an appointment.
If you are teaching in either location, stop by the TRC in Kellogg 2414 to learn how you can use the touch monitor to take notes using OneNote or Word using your finger or a stylus. Save your written notes and share them with your students through Cougar Courses.
The CALM initiative continues to rack up student textbook savings with our totals as of Fall showing a total savings of $2,918,210. In Fall alone, 82 courses were CALMed, saving 5,416 students almost $550,000. While these are great numbers, and CSUSM is a leader in adoption regardless of campus size, we do see a slowing with only 12 new faculty last Fall and 2 this Spring. To keep up with our initiative, please be on the lookout for the call for proposals in March. The CALM folks would be happy to meet with individual faculty or whole departments to investigate opportunities and help them to start preparing. If department chairs/associate deans/deans want information about the cost of the texts assigned, IDS can provide that as well as ways they can reduce the costs of their current texts. In our continued commitment, CSUSM will be applying for an additional $50,000 in AB 798 funds.
Instructors often ask us for examples of what others are doing in their courses. We are interested in hearing from you about the technologies and/or pedagogical methods you have integrated in your teaching. Email ids@csusm.edu with your gems!
A variety of pedagogical approaches are common and some strategies are more effective and appropriate than others. If you have been thinking
about enhancing your approach, email us at ids@csusm.edu to setup a consultation with one of our instructional developers.
Ever wondered if GIS would work for your classes? CSUSM students in a variety of departments (Liberal Studies, Sociology, History, Environmental Studies, Marketing, Public Health) have created over 8,000 GIS-related items in the past six months.
Beginning this semester, if you seek help from our technology support team, you may notice a change in the Help Desk phone system. In the past, IITS maintained several different support phone extensions. Moving forward, you will only need to remember one number, x4790, to reach support staff in IITS. This will now take you to a menu of options, which will help route your call to the appropriate support area. When calling from a classroom using the "Classroom Support" button on the phone, this menu will be bypassed and calls from classroom phones will now ring on 8 phones throughout IITS simultaneously to ensure a timely response.
If you’re new to CSUSM, this is a faculty-only workspace where you can get help and training from Instructional Development Services (IDS), meet with a colleague or just get some work done in a quiet place. Throughout the fall we have made additional upgrades to this space, including:
Teaching using the MiniHub.
We all know that wireless connectivity is a very important service for students, as well as faculty and staff. For the past two summers IITS has been upgrading outdoor wireless and the numbers for Fall semester are in, with over 12 Terabytes of data traveling over CSUSM' wireless network. This is a massive increase in usage, as locations were upgraded or coverage added across the campus. For example, a new access point outside of Markstein Hall immediately jumped to the fourth most used location on campus at just short of 1 TB of data. The most popular wireless locations are around the USU, as they served up a combined total of 3 Terrabytes of data alone. In case you were curious about the top wireless sites, it was Netflix at 51.5TB, followed by Youtube at 23TB, and iTunes at 8.3TB.
Did you know? CSUSM used over 1 million meeting minutes in the Fall semester! That’s across 4,400 meetings. Think of the travel savings and reduced carbon footprint.
A CSUSM instructor presents remotely at a conference in Hyderabad, India.
