August Events, 2006
Paul Kates, Mathematics Faculty LT3 Liaison
Event Summary
UW-ACE Events
=============
* UW-ACE changes from version 6.2 to 7.1 on Wednesday August 23rd, 2006.
Information sessions about the new version are being held 1:30-3:30
at MC1050 on
Thursday, August 10th
Tuesday, August 15th
Thursday, August 31st
Register at: https://ist.uwaterloo.ca/course_registration/registration.php.
The basic features of UW-ACE (ANGEL 7.1) remain the same with a few
changes of name and location. Overall the system has a new, fresh look
and easier navigation. If you or your group would like a demonstration
of the newer version, please get in touch with me at pkates@uwaterloo.ca
Courses will be switched to the new version automatically. Instructors
and students will use the same UW-ACE url after the update.
* Documentation about version 7.1 from ANGEL is available.
* A typical course web page has several access levels - general public,
enrolled students and staff. UW-ACE courses have four
major access levels (public, UW members, course students, staff) and
several minor ones. Instructors can make any individual part of
their course available to the audience they choose.
* UW-ACE course Lesson pages look like Windows folders by default, but they
are not file directories. Each folder is a HTML web page that instructors
can add to - text, style, layout and colour HTML features. Even JavaScript
can be used. (See, for example, jsMath, a JavaScript program that translates
LaTeX math expressions into LaTeX-quality HTML mathematics.)
* Instructions for exporting course grades from UW-ACE
for electronic submission to the Quest system, plus Quest
import directions, are located at
http://www.quest.uwaterloo.ca/help/howdoi/grades_submission.html
MapleTA
=======
* MapleTA, the quiz system using the Maple math engine to display
questions and evaluate student answers, is available at UW on a
trial basis this fall. To see how powerful the system is, ask for a
personal demo or watch one online from the Maplesoft website
http://maplesoft.com/products/mapleta/index.aspx.
MapleTA is an advance over other quiz systems because it
* mathematically compares student and instructor answers
* uses MathML for accurate mathematics display
* offers LaTeX and an online math editor for question writing
* can generate similar, but not identical, questions for each student
* uses portable, text-based question banks.
The key attraction of any quiz system is to give some indication of how
well students understand the material. A pre-lecture quiz based on
advanced reading of the day's topic can prime students for a lecture.
A post-lecture quiz allows the following lecture to deal with any student
weaknesses revealed by the quiz results.
Lecture Podcasting
==================
* In 2004 the University of Western Australia (UWA) did a case study
on student and faculty use of their lecture recording system
Lectopia (formerly iLecture). The system has been in use since late
1998, recording every subject area mentioned below. In 2004,
7000 individual lectures were recorded. In 2005, 9500 lectures.
This comprehensive university has about 12K undergrads and 4K
graduates and includes science, engineering, medicine, law,
humanities, social science and economics among its studies. In 2004,
over 5K students used the recorded lectures, with an average of 40
hits per recording. Find out what students and faculty at UWA think
about audio lecture recordings by visiting the main events web link
above.
* Lecture podcasting is catching on at universities in North America too.
Download a lecture and read some stats about podcasting at Purdue,
Berkeley, Stanford and Duke universities.
LT3 Events
==========
* The Power of IDEAS: A Conference that explores how Innovative Design
and Delivery Engenders Access and Academic Success
Presented by numerous individuals.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006, 8:15am-5:00pm
Location: 3rd Floor RCH (J.R.Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall)
Info and registration: http://powerofideas.uwaterloo.ca/auth/welcome.
WLU Event
=========
* Laurier's Annual Teaching Day
Exploring and Understanding the Millennial Student: Take Two
Keynote Speaker: David Foot (UT Economics), Author "Boom, Bust and Echo"
Thursday, August 31
Conferences
===========
* Working with and Learning From the World's Best, August 8-11, Ottawa.
6th Annual MERLOT International Conference.
* 7th Annual Imperial Oil Summer Institute for Computer Studies Educators,
August 15-18, 2006, University of Waterloo.
UW-ACE Events
On the following days, IST will hold tutorials on the changes to UW-ACE coming at the end of August. Please register at the link above. Each session runs from 1:30 to 3:30 in MC1050.
- Thursday, August 10th
- Tuesday, August 15th
- Thursday, August 31st
Instructions for exporting course grades from UW-ACE for electronic submission to the Quest system, plus Quest import directions, are located at http://www.quest.uwaterloo.ca/help/howdoi/grades_submission.html
Wednesday, August 23
UW-ACE will be unavailable on the 23rd of August while it is being updated for use in the fall. Documentation about the new look of UW-ACE (ala ANGEL 7.1) is available from the UW-ACE Help page:
And more UW documentation is under preparation. Several ANGEL documents about version 7.1 are also available:
- What's changed between ANGEL LMS 6.3 and 7.1? (1 page)
- ANGEL LMS 7.1 at a glance (2 pages)
- What's new in ANGEL LMS 7.1? (7 pages)
- Faculty Quickstart Guide (7.1) (50 pages)
- Student Quickstart Guide (7.1) (30 pages)
If you wish to try out the new version of UW-ACE, please get in touch with me. Contact information is listed at the top and bottom of this page.
New fall 2006 UW-ACE courses for first-time UW-ACE course editors will use the new version of UW-ACE to create courses. Those familiar with the current version of UW-ACE will continue to use it until the switch to version 7.1 occurs.
Here's a list of the most obvious changes to UW-ACE brought by 7.1:
- some tabs have changed:
- MyPage is the Home icon
- the Welcome Page is replaced by the contents of the Course tab, a view of some of the course stats, calendar and message events
- the Syllabus tab is gone - the syllabus is located in the Resources tab
- the Class tab is gone - the class roster is in the Communicate tab and the team roster is in the Manage tab
- the InTouch tab becomes the Communicate tab
- the Tools tab becomes the Manage tab
- a new Report tab contains student info about milestones, student activities
- a new Automate tab is for managing triggers (agents) for student activity
- the CourseMap becomes the Guide (above the left-side icons)
- MyPage, Exit, MyPage Preferences, User Preview (eye glasses icon) and Help are now icons (most on left side of page)
- versions of the system's web pages supporting PDAs and the US Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards (Section 508) are icons (left bottom corner)
- mini boxes are used for grouping related commands
- content items like quizzes and dropboxes are no longer added to the course gradebook automatically
Supported browsers:
- Windows OS: Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Mozilla.
- Macintosh OS: Firefox and Mozilla. Safari will be certified by fall 2006.
Making UW-ACE courses part of the university community
As with earlier versions of UW-ACE, access to course content like the syllabus, assignments, FAQs, subject resources etc is controllable through settings made available to course instructors. Confidential information about names and grades is restricted and protected by default. Different access levels - instructor, student (in course), UW member, general public - can be assigned to each command tab and every individual item in the main Lessons folder. Instructors can thus share their course with potential students, other courses and faculty members or the general public.
Lecture Podcasting
In 2004 the University of Western Australia (UWA) conducted a case study on student and faculty use of their lecture recording system Lectopia (formerly iLecture). The system has been in use since late 1998, recording every subject areas mentioned below. In 2004, 7000 individual lectures were recorded. In 2005, 9500 lectures. This comprehensive university has about 12K undergrads and 4K graduates and includes science, engineering, medicine, law, humanities, social science, economics among its studies. In 2004, over 5K students used the recorded lectures with an average of 40 hits per recording.
The main findings of the case study of Lectopia, the University of Western Australia's (UWA) audio and video lecture recording and distribution system are found in several papers and pages at their home page. The 2004 study included 1262 completed student surveys, system usage logs and lecturer feedback. Here is a summary of some of their findings taken from this site:
Student surveys have shown that students using Lectopia fall into the following categories:
- students revising, including exam preparation
- students catching up on the occasional missed lecture
- part-time students or students with difficulty attending face-to-face lecture (including students with disabilities)
- students seeking clarification of lecture material (including students with English as a second language)
- students studying in regional locations
- students choosing to access Lectopia rather than attend face-to-face lecture
The uptake in the use of Lectopia by teaching staff at UWA has been significant. Apart from the benefits to students, teaching staff have reported many other benefits from using Lectopia:
- students are less likely to ask repetitive questions about material covered in lectures
- informal feedback can be gathered from students using the Lecture Rating feature
- accessing one's own lectures provides the opportunity for self-review
- listening to previous year's lectures can be useful when preparing lectures
The following two sections are taken from page 6 of Williams, J., Fardon, M., "On-demand internet-transmitted lecture recordings: attempting to enhance and support the lecture experience", presented at ALT-C, September 2005. This is a very good paper, reporting on research about lecturing, lecture recording and student learning styles, in addition to the 2004 iLecture case study.
Who used the recorded iLecture lectures?
- Students in the 16-20 and the 26-30 age categories are most likely to use iLectures
- Mature-age students (30+) are more likely to prefer to attend face-to-face lectures
- Part-time students prefer to attend face-to-face lectures
- Students with greater traveling distance to university are more likely to use iLectures
- Female students are more likely to use iLectures
- Students using iLectures are most likely to be average students academically, i.e. credit level (60-69%)
- High distinction students (80-100%) and students who fail (0-49%) are most likely to never use iLectures
- Students in first year level units are more likely to use iLectures than second and third year level students
Reasons given by students for using iLecture
- Students who prefer iLectures: 25% of students indicated they prefer to use iLectures rather than attending the face-to-face lecture. 42% of this group of students indicated that they either "always" or "regularly" attend the face-to-face lectures.
- Students with timetable clashes: 38% of students indicated they use iLectures due to a timetable clash.
- Work commitments: 30% of students indicated they use iLectures due to work commitments. The more hours that students worked, the more likely they were to use iLectures.
- Family commitments: 9% of students indicated they use iLectures due to family commitments. Further to this, 81% of students with children indicated they either "always" or "regularly" use iLectures, with only 54% of students with children indicating they either "always" or "regularly" also attend the face-to-face lecture.
- Revision: 60% of students indicated they use iLectures for revision purposes, with 75% of these students indicating that they either "always" or "regularly" attend the live lecture.
- Review occasional missed concepts: 43% of students indicated they use iLectures to review occasional missed concepts covered in the face-to-face lecture, often to complete note-taking or to review complex arguments.
- Convenience: A number of students reported using iLectures as it is inconvenient to attend the face-to-face lectures. Numerous issues were raised by students, including the traveling time/distance to the campus, parking difficulties, and having only one lecture scheduled on a particular day.
- Other reasons reported by students: Medical conditions or illnesses, and sports commitments.
Will lecture attendance decline from use of recorded lectures?
Here are Williams and Fardon's conclusion from page 7 of the above paper:
One of the most common questions that we are asked when discussing iLecture is whether students continue to come to lectures. When analyzing the use of eClass (a system with similarities to iLecture), Brotherton and Abowd (2004) reported that eClass did not encourage students to skip class. While no formal analysis of lecture attendance was undertaken as part of this study, many lecturers have reported that there are some students who are not attending lectures, and that the number of students attending lectures reduces as the semester progresses. This feedback from lecturers should be understood in the context of the results from the student survey that found that only 25% of students using iLecture prefer using this format to attending the face-to-face lecture. And of that group of students, 42% indicated that they still attend the face-to-face lectures either "regularly" or "always". This clearly indicates that while iLecture does have an impact on lecture attendance, it is likely that there are other more significant factors that are impacting whether students attend lectures. In particular, the demands on students in other areas such as work and family commitments, as it evidenced from the number of students using iLecture for these reasons. This finding also suggests that there are factors (perhaps social) other than gaining access to lecture material that encourages students to attend the face-to-face lectures.
Another smaller study at UCDavis done in the fall of 2005 with 4 courses showed findings consistent with the above UWA study. Here is one comment from the study:
80% of the students surveyed indicated that having mp3 lectures available enhanced the course value. Nearly all of the students commented how they appreciated having the mp3 files for review or study. The participating faculty also said they were approached by many students who appreciated having the lecture digitally accessible and that it was a benefit to the class.
Lecture recording and podcasting in Canada and the US
There is interest in lecture podcasting at several Canadian universities (Carleton, Brock, Toronto and UBC) according to a February 2006 National Post story about Apple's iTunes U program coming to Canada. Like Apple's regular iTunes music service, iTunes U is a hosting service for audio files. But instead of popular music, the contents are audio recordings of course lectures, guest lectures, commencement and other special events at participating universities. The free service offers each university its own large file space (100's of GB) and controlled access to individual content items. There is also the choice of using the iTunes U site for storing the content description files (podcast XML files, similar to RSS files), while keeping the audio content files (e.g. MP3 files) on local university servers, to address privacy concerns and obligations.
To listen to lectures, students use Apple's iTunes software (or other podcasting software, Juice for example) to subscribe to the files they want. When the software runs, it polls the Apple servers and downloads any new content in a student's subscription list. Students can listen through their computers or transfer the audio files onto portable MP3 players.
Berkeley, Stanford and Duke are using iTunes U. Some universities have set up their own podcasting systems. The West Lafayette campus of Purdue has 60 summer courses this year using podcasts in many subjects (1 math course and 1 statistics course). Berkeley also has a separate webcast service that has hosted 110 courses from the fall of 2004 to the summer of 2006. The summer 2006 courses, 38 in number, are mostly science, engineering and computer science courses.
I found the following four sites about how to record a lecture on a PC (Mac, Windows or Linux) and create a podcast XML file very useful:
- picture of the podcast process
- wikipedia article on podcasting
- how to record a podcast using free software audacity and easypodcast
- how to make a podcast on a Mac with garageband
MP3 file settings for speech recording are not as sensitive as for music recording. The following four audacity recording settings produced acceptable listening and showed no decline in quality.
| File size | Number resolution | Sampling rate | MP3 quality level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28 MB | 32 b | 44 kHz | 64 bps |
| 14 MB | 32 b | 44 kHz | 32 bps |
| 10.5 MB | 32 b | 44 kHz | 24 bps |
| 7 MB | 32 b | 44 kHz | 16 bps |
A growing number of classrooms in the Math and Computer (MC) building have an audio output wire from the audio amplifier housed in the computer podium. This wire is tagged with the word "Recording". It is used in combination with the wireless microphone found inside the podium. To record a lecture, plug the wire into the "Line-in" port (blue with -> into arrow) on your laptop; start the audacity program and click the round circle record button; turn on and attach the wireless mic to your shirt; after the lecture, click the square stop button; save your recording file. Back at your office, load the file and trim the blank space from the beginning and end of the recording using the mouse to select the blank areas of the graph (or click where the lecture really begins and use "delete from start"). Under the File menu, select "Preferences" and "File Formats" and choose 16 as the MP3 bit rate (see table above). Under the File menu, select "Export As MP3". Click on the MP3 file created to review the sound quality.
Several things can go wrong. The wireless mic batteries can die - there are spares in the podium. Without a working mic, nothing is recorded. Your computer can run out of disk space - audacity uses about 700 MB per recording hour. Later, a compressed version of this file is made into a much smaller MP3 file. But, the original high-quality recording is still on your disk. The microphone picks up your voice very well, but questions from the class are very faint, sometimes inaudible - repeat student questions before answering.
If you decide to try podcasting in your class, I'd like to help set up a learning case study of your class. Please get in touch with me.
LT3 Events
The Power of IDEAS: A Conference that explores how Innovative Design
and Delivery Engenders Access and Academic Success
Presented by numerous individuals.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006, 8:15am-5:00pm
Location: 3rd Floor RCH (J.R.Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall)
UW Promotes Inclusive Learning Environments On August 15th, discover
The Power of IDEAS at the University of Waterloo, a conference that
explores how Innovative Design and Delivery Engenders Access and
Academic Success.
New technologies and alternative strategies can enhance teaching and
learning. This conference will provide an environment for: exchanging
ideas in key areas of research, teaching methodologies, learning
strategies and applications of technology.
Sessions include topics based on sound pedagogy, factors that affect
performance outcomes for persons with disabilities, meta-cognitive
learning styles, and technology applications that promote learning
outcomes for all. Vendor exhibits will provide opportunities for
viewing adaptive hardware and software designed to invigorate the
senses and enhance learning, teaching, and research. The conference is
jointly sponsored by the University of Waterloo.s Office for Persons
with Disabilities (OPD), the Centre for Learning & Teaching Through
Technology (LT3), Information Systems & Technology (IST), and the
Office of the Associate Provost Human Resources & Student Services.
Reserve your seat Instructors, students, staff, administrators,
clinicians, and the general public from across Ontario are welcome to
attend. We hope that you will join us in Waterloo to promote
inclusiveness in the academic environment and discover the .Power of
IDEAS..
To register for this event, please go to:
http://powerofideas.uwaterloo.ca/auth/welcome
WLU Event
Laurier's Annual Teaching Day
Exploring and Understanding the Millennial Student: Take Two
Keynote Speaker: David Foot (UT Economics), Author "Boom, Bust and Echo"
Date: Aug 31/06
Time: 8:30 - 16:30
Location: Bricker Academic Building
Cost: Faculty and staff of educational institutions external to
Laurier are welcome to register. A $50 registration fee for non-Laurier
registrants will apply (fee includes keynote address, lunch, sessions
and resource materials).
Schedule and registration at link above.
Conferences
Working with and Learning From the World's Best - 6th Annual MERLOT International Conference, August 8-11, 2006, Ottawa Congress Centre, Ottawa. Co-sponsored by CLOE, The Co-operative Learning Object Exchange collaboration between Ontario universities and colleges (http://cloe.on.ca/).
MERLOT is an international cooperative of higher education
institutions and professionals working to amass superior online
resources to improve learning and teaching. At www.merlot.org MERLOT
maintains a digital library of online teaching-learning materials, as
well as myriad learning enhancements to help educators explore online
teaching and learning and bring it to their classrooms in productive
and vibrant ways.
Tuesday, August 15 - Friday, August 18, 2006 - 7th Annual Imperial Oil Summer Institute for Computer Studies Educators - Strategies for implementing the curriculum for computer science and computer engineering
Registration deadline: Friday, May 19th, 2006.
Registration and agenda: http://www.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/csteachers/invitation.shtml
Tuesday, August 15 - Friday, August 18, 2006
University of Waterloo
The Imperial Oil Summer Institute for Computer Studies Teachers
provides educators for grades 10-12 with activities useful
in the computer science and computer engineering classrooms. The
four-day conference will combine lectures, hands-on presentations and
computer labs and foster support and discussion on relevant curriculum
issues including curriculum content and teaching and learning
strategies.
Sessions will be presented by University of Waterloo faculty members
and graduate students, as well as high school teachers. Teachers will
also have an opportunity to network and relax in the evenings at
planned social events.
Maple
An Innovative Approach to Post-Calculus Classical Applied Math
Robert J. Lopez
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (retired), Maplesoft (Note: To
view the paper you may be asked to register at Maplesoft.com. If
you wish, I can send a copy of the paper instead. Please send your
request to pkates@uwaterloo.ca.)
From the introduction of the paper:
Post-calculus classical applied math is scattered through courses
in differential equations, boundary value problems, vector
calculus, matrix algebra, complex variables, and numerical methods.
Most of this material can be found in texts entitled Advanced
Engineering Mathematics. The mathematics in such texts is truly
classical, having been available in its present format for many
years, if not centuries. The apprenticeship for working in the
field of classical applied mathematics is long and arduous because
the apprentice must master material from so many different
disciplines.
Twenty-first century software allows this apprenticeship to be both
shorter and more effective. Modern computer algebra systems can be
the tool of first-recourse for teaching, learning, and doing such
applicable mathematics. Software tools such as Maple, Mathematica,
MuPAD, and Macsyma implement nearly all the manipulations of the
undergraduate program in applied and engineering mathematics. The
time has come to use these twenty-first century tools for teaching
eighteenth and nineteenth century mathematics.
A complete post-calculus applied math curriculum in which a
computer algebra system is the primary working tool appears in [1].
In this text the software is not just an add-on to a traditional
by-hands pedagogy. Instead, the software is used as an active
partner in the student.s participation in applied mathematics.
We give two examples taken from [1], examples that show how use of
a computer algebra system enhances pedagogy. The purpose is not to
tout a particular book, but instead, to call attention to the
concept that a computer algebra system can, and should, be the
working tool for teaching, learning, and doing classical applied
math. So, rather than talk about this approach, we give two
examples and let readers judge for themselves the viability of a
curriculum predicated on the ubiquitous use of modern software
tools.
Maplesoft.com has many online seminars available.
An Introduction to Maple 10 (42 min)
Introduction to the Maplet Builder (7 min)
Advanced Engineering Applications with Maple (50 min)
Clickable Calculus (54 min)
Click Here to Download the Associated Maple Worksheet for
this Seminar
Maple T.A. Demonstration for Instructors (24 min)
Maple T.A. Demonstration for Students (13 min)
Maple T.A. for Blackboard. Software Demo (8 min)
Syntax-Free Computations in Maple 10 (65 min)
Control System Development Using System Identification (43 min)
Technical Solution Deployment Using MapleNet 10 (34 min)
Introduction To Global Optimization Toolbox For Maple (61 min)
Maple in the High School Classroom (10 min)
Modeling Multi-body Mechanical Systems With DynaFlex Pro (65 min)
Implementing Technology in the Modern Math Curriculum (60 min)
Many mathematics lessons are also available using Maple.
Algebra (44) Calculus I (102)
Calculus II (59) Calculus III (23)
Case Studies (4) Complex Analysis (67)
DE's (89) Economics (20)
Elementary School (9) Engineering (68)
Geometry (32) Linear Algebra (22)
Maple TA (5) MapleNet (2)
Maplets (4) Numerical Analysis (15)
Operations Research (1) Physics (88)
Precalculus (42) Quantum Mechanics (19)
Real Analysis (20) Statistics (36)
Trigonometry (4) Vector Calculus (99)
MapleTA
MapleTA is an online assignment and quiz system backed by the Maple
mathematics engine that allows questions to be graded using Maple
to match and evaluate student answers.
Many different question types are available including questions
generated by templates and variables so students see similar but
not identical questions. Questions can make use of physical units,
error bounds, constraint expressions, and Maple procedures. Maple
graphs can be included in questions for display or for interaction
with a student e.g. selecting an area of the graph or plotting
points on a curve.
Questions can be created using the online math editor or with LaTeX.
MathML is used to accurately display mathematics notation.
MapleTA is available at UW on a trial basis. Please ask for a
demonstration or visit Maplesoft to see one online
(http://maplesoft.com/products/mapleta/types.aspx).
Past Events
| July, 2006 | |
| May, 2006 | |
| April, 2006 | September, 2005 |
| March, 2006 | August, 2005 |
| February, 2006 | July, 2005 |
| January, 2006 | June, 2005 |
| December, 2005 | May, 2005 |
| November, 2005 | April, 2005 |
| October, 2005 |
Liaison Information
Please contact me if you would like further information. Paul Kates, Mathematics Faculty LT3 Liaison, pkates@uwaterloo.ca, x37047
This page is located at www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~pkates/LT3/events.
More information about the services of the Centre for Learning and Teaching through Technology - LT3 is available at lt3.uwaterloo.ca/.
(1) More information about learning and teaching Mathematics and Computer Science, plus a description of the services I provide as Mathematics Faculty LT3 Liaison is available here.