January/February 2010

Featured Articles

Social Media and Distance Education

Users no longer review content in a passive or isolated way. Instead, they can easily create, share, and publish content, and they can review and comment on other users' products. With the prevalence of social media technologies and services, content sharing and user interaction has become relatively easy and efficient. View entire article

Instructional Technology Council Grants Awards to CSI, MBA Program

The Instructional Technology Council (ITC) recently named UMUC's Center for Support of Instruction (CSI) and the MBA program among the recipients of its 2010 Awards for Excellence in eLearning. CSI won the award for Outstanding Technical Support and Service, and the MBA program was named Outstanding eLearning Program. View entire article

UMUC 111 Virtual Meet & Greet Wins WOW Award

UMUC 111 Virtual Meet & Greet was named a recipient of a 2009 WCET Outstanding Work (WOW) Award in October for its efforts in improving interactions among online students and faculty in Computer Information Systems and Technology (CITE) programs. View entire article

Mapping Web 2.0 Benefits to Known Best Practices in Distance Education

Recent research has identified and confirmed benefits to using Web 2.0 technologies within the online classroom. These benefits can further be mapped to known best practices from distance education literature. View entire article

Student Response Systems (Part II)

This second in a series article provides information on the outcome and current usage of two UMUC faculty who were involved in the spring 2009 pilot clicker loan program. View entire article

TVnima Best Practices

This article briefly discusses TVnima, a Web-based application that allows you to create a 3D avatar with human-like elements such as a headshot and voice, and how to use it effectively and efficiently. View entire article

Important Information

UMUC Classroom Interruption Planning Guide

These guidelines emphasize effective strategies that will allow faculty to continue teaching and communicating with students if online or onsite classes become inaccessible for extended periods of time.

Expectations of Faculty Teaching for GSMT

All Graduate School of Management & Technology (GSMT) faculty members, whether teaching online or face-to-face, use UMUC's online course delivery system, WebTycho. Expectations of Faculty Teaching for GSMT outlines requirements including instructors' use of WebTycho to achieve UMUC's goal of providing the highest-quality education to its students. The document is available for download from the Faculty Resources section.

Expectations of Faculty Teaching for SUS

All School of Undergraduate Studies (SUS) faculty members, whether teaching online or face-to-face, use UMUC's online course delivery system, WebTycho. Expectations of Faculty Teaching for SUS outlines requirements including instructors' use of WebTycho to achieve UMUC's goal of providing the highest-quality education to its students. These documents are available for download from the Faculty Resources section.

Calendar

Please refer to the UMUC's Academic Calendar for semester start and end dates. Also, don't forget about the UMUC recognized holidays. In many cases there is a difference in the scheduled holidays between online and F2F classes.

For Face to Face classes: The start and end date for your class will depend on the day of the week your class meets. Please refer to the Schedule of Classes for the exact start and end date.

Information and Library Services



New One-Stop Access to Faculty and Student Research and Scholarship: Faculty and Student Research @ UMUC

Visit the new Faculty and Student Research @ UMUC Web page from Information and Library Services, which provides one-stop access to the growing body of research-related materials produced by UMUC faculty, students, and visiting scholars. View entire article

McKeldin Library Office Hours

Research assistance will be available to UMUC students, faculty and staff in the ILS office in McKeldin Library room 6259 during the following hours:

Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday: Noon to 8 p.m.

An appointment to see an ILS librarian at McKeldin at other times can be made using the appointment request form.