In with the New, Out with the Old

Online@UT (Blackboard)
On November 11, 2011 all Spring 2012 Blackboard course sites will be available to instructors. Remember: Course Activation forms are no longer necessary as course sites are pre-populated with the primary instructor of record as identified in Banner.

As the end of the Fall semester quickly approaches, now is a good time to take some important steps to back up your course sites. To assure a smooth transition to the Spring semester, the following tasks are strongly encouraged:

• saving a backup of your Grade Center
• exporting/archiving your course site
• copying course content from a past semester's course site

Have you logged on to Centra lately? If not, you may be missing an important update. We encourage all faculty, staff and students to attend their next online session a few minutes early to ensure the Centra client is properly updated.

If you have any questions or concerns about your Spring 2012 Blackboard course sites, your semester transition routine, our planned purge, or the Centra update please don't hesitate to contact the OIT HelpDesk at (865) 974-9900 or submit a support ticket at http://help.utk.edu.

End-of-Semester Support at the Commons South
From Mon, November 28 – Fri, December 9 (excluding weekend), Online@UT consultants will be available at the Commons South from 8am-4:30pm to help you and your students wrap up the semester. If you have questions outside of our scheduled hours about Online@UT, Clickers, Technology Enhanced Classrooms, other instructional technologies, or arranging a consultation, you can reach us via the OIT HelpDesk at http://help.utk.edu or 974-9900.

IT Community of Practice Is On The Move
October's IT Community of Practice meeting featured rich dialogue on mLearning (mobile learning), and balancing technology implementation. Other conversation included activities and troubleshooting in the online course. Beginning next month we're taking the meeting about campus!

Bring your lunch and join us on Mon, November 21, as we visit Estabrook, where technology is being implemented in Engineering Fundamentals. We will also explore mLearning apps with Blackboard. The meeting will be held from 12:30-1:30pm in Estabrook 111.

For more information, or to be added to the IT CoP mailing list, contact Christina Goode at 974-6470 or [log in to unmask]

Attend the Clicker Technology Roundtable
Veteran and novice clicker instructors, as well as those who are "ready to get started," are invited to come and express your comments, concerns, or curiosity at an end-of-semester roundtable discussion. There will be Q&A, demos, and new feature highlights. OIT and Turning Technologies will sponsor the event on Tuesday, November 22, from 12:00-1:30pm in the OIT Teaching Lab, 110 Hoskins. Lunch will be provided.

For more information and/or to be included in the lunch, please RSVP to Christina Goode by November 18 at 974-6470 or [log in to unmask]

OIT Supports Mic/Nite
The inaugural Mic/Night, a 'Pecha-Kucha powered' social gathering designed to enhance the intellectual, interdisciplinary, and cultural life of the faculty and staff at UT Knoxville, was held at the Valarium on Wednesday, Oct. 19. OIT Support staff collaborated with Provost Susan Martin and Beauvais Lyons to facilitate the presentation and preservation of the event. Support staff members also hosted an Information Booth about OIT services to the more than 200 faculty and staff in attendance. For more information about this and future Mic/Nite events, see http://provost.utk.edu/mic-nite/

Offerings in November include:

Instructor-Focused

• Introductory SharePoint
• Share Point for Team Site Administrators

Registration is required for all workshops. To view descriptions and register for sessions, visit the OIT Training page. If you have questions or need help with registration for any of the workshops listed above, contact the HelpDesk at help.utk.edu or 974-9900.

Check Out IT Weekly!
If you’d like to receive weekly updates on timely information about IT and reminders of upcoming workshops, you can subscribe to IT Weekly, which is emailed on Fridays. To subscribe, go to the IT Weekly listserv page and click on "Join or leave the list (or change settings)".

Learn more about all of our services and events at our Website, http://itc.utk.edu.