UBC Arts ISIT Blog

Tomorrow is UBC's annual E-Strategy Open House. It is happening at UBC's Life Sciences Centre. They event is completely sold out with 400 people attending the morning and afternoon sessions.

Arts IS will be presenting Arts Metaverse and Open Croquet at one of the afternoon break out sessions and we will have a poster presentation on Word Press Multi-User (an open blogging software that we are currently using in our faculty) and how it can be used with our Arts Learning Tools.

Hope to see some of you there!

I came across a pretty good visualization of a 3D brain.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/3d/

It shows the human brain and all its compartments which is very useful for undergraduate bio-psychology courses.

I am now going to try to find something similar for monkey, rat, and cat brains.

In WebCT CE 4, most of the tools had a selective release feature present on the page the tools existed in 'designer' view. The designer or instructor simply had to select the tool on the page and click on selective release to set time release, for example.

In WebCT Vista 4, selective release is not as transparent. To set the release criteria (i.e. time release) for folders, pages, weblinks, etc, the designer or instructor would have to be in 'build' tab and would have to click on the 'selective release' tool which is at the bottom of the page under 'designer tools'.

Learning Modules, in Vista, have the selective release visible in the tool itself so setting it does not involve going to another tool.

UBC is currently piloting WebCT Vista 4. I had a discussion with a professor who began using Vista in Jan 2007 for one of her courses. She has been using WebCT for a number of years now and well versed in technology and course management systems.

Overall, she has had a very positive view of WeBCT Vista although she has run into a few problems as well. It took her 2 weeks to become familiar navigating through Vista as a course builder. She compared the experience to shopping in an unfamiliar grocery store. She knew what she was looking for was somewhere there but it wasn't in the usual place so she had to dig around a couple times until she became accustomed to it.

She found the separate 'teach' and 'build' tabs frustrating as she had to switch back and forth at first. But, she loved the 'student' tab as it provided a great view of what students actually saw (different from the 'view' mode in WebCT CE 4.1).

Knowing that Vista 4 is at a pilot phase at UBC right now she did not try the more complicated tools like assignments, quizzes, or grade book. But, she did use the discussion tool and learning module tool. She thought the discussion tool was similar to the one in WebCT CE 4.1 and didn't have a hard time using it. Although, she said that some students said that they weren't able to upload attachments or weren't always sure their message was posted. She was sure what browser or computer such students were using.

She thought the learning module tool had improved and liked the ability to add weblinks or folders. She ran into problems when she was trying to upload a bunch of files (most pdf) at once as her browser would freeze. Uploading single files, however, didn't cause a problem for her.

She loved the 'who's online' and the 'tracking' functions as they were greatly improved since WebCT CE 4.1. She could track which pages particular students had visited and how many times. This tracking functionality provides enormous feedback to instructors as it shows which pages/tools students find useful.

And, what really shows the measure of whether the instructor likes Vista or not - she wants to move all her courses on to Vista in the fall and will start to use the other tools as well.

We are pleased to announce the new release of the authoring interface of the Pronunciation Tool. There are 4 simple steps:

1. Write down your Pronunciation Tool Authoring key number that is given
2. Upload your sound files.
3. Add caption text and instructions to the sound files
4. View the results!

Don't forget to bookmark the authoring page to make modifications. Feel free to write to us on your comments and feedback to the tool.

URL to the Tool:
http://www.learningtools.arts.ubc.ca/language_pronunciation_tool.htm