Projects
Instructional Services is involved in numerous projects throughout the year. Below are a few of the key projects we are currently working on and some that we have worked on in the past.
Personal Response Systems - "Clickers"
Personal Response Systems are also referred to as "Clickers" or "Audience Response Systems". Clickers allow students to enter responses via a small wireless device that records responses through software and a radio frequency receiver to the instructor station in a classroom. Instructors build a PowerPoint presentation with built-in response indicators and ask students to respond to certain slides during the presentation. Personal response systems have been around the educational world since about 1998 and their use is increasing at a rapid rate. Click here to read more...
University of Iowa Portfolio Project
The interest in electronic portfolio-based assessment has been building on campus for some time. In response to that demand, ITS-Instructional Services, with the cooperation and partnership of units across campus, is establishing systems for campus units to implement portfolio-based assessment via a web-based solution.
Online@Iowa
In the Summer of 2004, Instructional Services, began working with the Provost's Office, to produce the next generation of Online@Iowa. This totally online course for first-semester students at Iowa introduces them to the in's and out's of technology at The University of Iowa.
The E-Learning Project
The University of Iowa is engaged in an effort to understand the University's current state of e-learning usage and to lay the foundation for building an e-learning strategy for the University. In the summer and fall of 2003, we conducted an assessment of current e-learning usage and future needs on campus. A number of recommendations emerged from the assessment, including adopting a single, centrally hosted course management system.
Contact Molly Langstaff (335-5461, molly-langstaff) or read more about the E-Learning Project at The University of Iowa.
Collaboration Tools -- The Elluminate Live! Pilot
In partnership with the Colleges of Business, Engineering, Public Health, and the Division of Continuing Education, Instructional Services is developing a virtual collaboration tools service pilot based on Elluminate Live!. Anticipated uses range from conducting in-house, ad hoc training, to delivering classes and training across the Midwest, to providing distance education to a large number of developing countries that currently have only limited bandwidth. Contact Les Finken (335-nnnn, les-finken@uiowa.edu) or Boyd Knosp (337-4865, boyd-knosp@uiowa.edu) or read more about Elluminate Live!
Turnitin
Turnitin is a plagiarism detection service. An instructor can register a course and give all students in that course a course-specific login and password so they can submit any papers directly to Turnitin in Microsoft Word or other common file formats. The instructor then receives an "originality report" showing possible matches between the submitted paper and Turnitin's database and internet resources.
The University of Iowa has licensed Turnitin (http://turnitin.com/) and we invite all interested instructors to utilize this tool. Contact Ken Clinkenbeard (334-2171, turnitin@uiowa.edu) for more information or to get an account. Also, there is a support site here for more help.
