UBC Arts ISIT Blog

I like WebCT's component of compiling and downloading calendar entries to a text file as well HotSync them onto a Palm date book. I don't see them to be a "must-have" feature but these days with palms being popular, I would consider it as a nice "add-on."

Sakai's scheduling doesn't have the ability of HotSync or compile/download onto a text file, however, it does have other beneficial features. It has the rich text editor, event type with groovy icons to specify if it is an assignment/quiz/exam/deadline, add attachments, and merge other calendar entries onto another course.

It would be interesting to find out if students and instructors are more likely to use Sakai's scheduling tool than WebCT's calendar. I guess I won't know the answer until after the summer term when one of our pilot members completes her course.

It's always been a challenge to add announcements in WebCT 4.1 and it's a feature that instructors keep asking for. WebCT 4.1 currently doesn't have a formal way to post announcements. The work-around is to add a calendar event or add a text block on the homepage.

Good news! WebCT CE 6.0 has implemented the announcement tool. The bad news however is we don't know when or if we'll be moving to WebCT CE 6.0. With the announcement tool, you can add your messages and select a start/end date and time.

Even better news! Sakai has it's own announcement tool too and it has more features than WebCT CE 6. It has a WYSIWYG message text box editor so you can add emphasis to your message. In addition, you can add attachments, save drafts, and send e-mail notification to participants. With Sakai, you can even revise your announcements at anytime. In comparison to WebCT CE 6, you can only edit announcements that haven't been sent which may be a slight drawback.

WebCT CE 6 and Sakai are both great content management systems. In comparison with WebCT 4.1, instructors would be pleased to use either WebCT CE 6 or Sakai with their new features and improvements.

I had an instructor come in to see me yesterday and wondered if there's any way for her students to easily share files. WebCT has the student presentation feature, however, it doesn't work as well as Sakai. In WebCT, students need to save their files as a web page and the file must be saved as index.html. It may seem simple for people that are familiar with WebCT to go through this process. We can't expect everyone to be able to understand it by clicking their way through and reading the help file. I provide technical training to faculty, staff, and students and most of them don't know how the student presentation feature works in WebCT. Being able to share files should be very simple. It should simply involve uploading any file type onto the server by a click of a button.

I suggested to the instructor to use Sakai since it has the "drop box" and "resources" feature. The drop box allows instructors and students to share documents privately. In "resources," students are able to access the files the instructor uploads. With these handy features in Sakai, the instructor has agreed to be one of our first pilot members to try Sakai.

We have launched a Flash tutorial to illustrate how to use the language pronunciation tool to author simple recording modules. This tutorial describes you need 1 sound file for the introduction along with a paragraph of text. This will be played and displayed as soon as the learners view the module. Then you need to author 1 sound file and the text for the question and 1 sound file and the text for the answer part. The user will have the time to answer (will be recorded) and compare his/her answer against the real answer sound.

We are pleased to announce that we have integrated Arts IS Learning Tools with the WebCT online learning platform. Keiko, a Japanese language instructor, implemented a word game in her WebCT course for the benefit of her students. This game has had huge success in helping her students to comprehend and learn new vocabulary. If you would like to know more, and learn how you too can have learning tools implemented into your WebCT courses, please feel free to contact us at Arts Instructional Support.

The source code for all learning tools will be released incrementally over then next few weeks. Please keep checking the learning tools site for any updates. If you have any questions or queries, please feel free to contact our support team at Arts IS.

Arts IS is pleased to announce the upcoming Image Annotation Flash Card Workshop to be held on March 14th. This workshop features a handsd-on tutorial to show how the tool works. We will also demonstrate how you can download this tool from the image gallery onto your local machine and how to install onto your server.

If you are interested in attending this workshop, please register at http://www.tag.ubc.ca/programs/series-detail.php?series_id=182 no later than March 13th.

The workshop will be held at the David Lam building in the Arts Multimedia Lab between 11 and 12.

This is a reminder to register for the Image Annotation Flash Card workshop. We will be recieving last minute registrations until 5pm.

Once again if you are interested in attending this workshop, please register at http://www.tag.ubc.ca/programs/series-detail.php?series_id=182 no later than March 13th.

The workshop will be held at the David Lam building in the Arts Multimedia Lab between 11 and 12.

It is official! The Arts IS Language Pronunciation Tool has been released.

The Language Pronunciation and Comprehension Learning Tool (LPCLT) is a revolutionary linguistics toolkit designed to enhance a student's comprehension and pronunciation of a particular language. This new learning tool developed by Arts Instructional Support (Arts IS) allows professors to author vocabulary and sentence structures into an oral component, to aid students in learning to hear and speak a new language.

This tool offers direct learning enhancement by allowing instructors to create their own oral component in any given language. Students, with this tool, are given the unique opportunity to hear, comprehend and speak their chosen language at their own leisure. The tool can also be used in conjunction with language labs, or by adding a direct oral component to a language curriculum. Additionally, if this tool is incorporated onto a WebCT platform, the students will benefit by being able to practice their oral skills at home!

For more details, check out the tool on the learning tools website. Select "Language Pronunciation Tool" located at the bottom on the left hand side of the screen. You will notice a synopsis of the tool with examples of usage and features as well as the ability to try a demo. The installation package for you is set to come in the very near future!

Come check out our latest learning tools release... the Language Pronunciation Tool is set to be released in the very near future and is geared towards language courses, to help students develop their speaking and comprehension.

To witness the agility of this tool, simply log into the learning tools website and select the Language Pronunciation tool located at the bottom on the left hand side of your screen.

The estimated release date for the Language Pronunciation tool is March 17th.

The source code for the Arts IS "Image Annotation Tool" has now been made available on the learning tools website. To download the source code, go to the image annotation tool and select the "Source Code" button on the right hand side of the screen. This will prompt you to download the source code which will allow you to access the image annotation tool.

Built on Gallery, the Image Annotation Tool (beta) allows instructors to upload images and quickly create text boxes referring to parts of a diagram, painting, or photo. The tool will provide a link to the annotated image which can then be distributed to students.