Category: Faculty/Staff

Academic Technology, Computer Classrooms, Faculty/Staff, Media Center, Public Computing, Students

Print Release Station Saves Trees, CO2, Real $$

Doug Willen

The Print Release Stations, which we’ve tested a bit in McCabe, and have been testing in the Beardsley Media Center continuously since Spring Break, have led to real savings in resources not used…  that is, jobs that people send to the printer, but choose not to actually print (or just forget to pick up). In the past one month (April 5, 2011 to May 5, 2011) we have saved a total of 8,159 pages, of which, 5,847 were color pages and 2,312 were grayscale.  They would have been printed on 5,807 sheets of paper (some people choose duplex).  To put … Continue reading Print Release Station Saves Trees, CO2, Real $$

Academic Technology, Faculty/Staff, Media Center, Students

Do you crave more power?

Andrew Ruether

ITS probably can’t help you with your plans for world domination, but we do have lots of computing power that we can share with you this summer. Virtual Desktops – If you are running projects that can use extra Windows-based systems, we have a pool of “virtual” computers that run on ITS servers and can be accessed from anywhere.  You can run a processor-intensive job on the virtual computer and leave your desktop computer free to perform other operations.  This is also useful if your program needs to run under Windows but you have a Mac or Linux system.  If … Continue reading Do you crave more power?

Academic Technology, Faculty/Staff, Google Apps, Students, Tips

Ideas for Summer Projects and Research

Andrew Ruether

We are only a few weeks away from the start of the summer research season.  Are you trying to accomplish more with your projects this summer?  Do you find that documenting summer projects has been difficult, time consuming, or ineffective?  If you are looking for ways to improve how you document, publicize, or carry out your research projects, ITS is here to help. Wikis – Wikis are ideal for documenting group projects because they make it easy to create and update web pages that link to one another and keep a history of all the contributions of each member.  Instead … Continue reading Ideas for Summer Projects and Research

Academic Technology, Computer Classrooms, Faculty/Staff, Public Computing, Security, Software, Students

Electronic Blue Books and Online Testing

Andrew Ruether

Swarthmore ITS supports faculty interested in moving from paper blue books to their electronic equivalents.  Swarthmore uses SecureExam software to allow students to take tests on public area computers while providing a safe and secure way of administering tests.  Many students prefer typing to writing and the software provides a basic word processor and spell checking tools.  Many faculty prefer reading typed papers instead of deciphering handwritten pages.  The software prevents students from accessing other programs while taking the test so it is possible to have a “closed book” exam.  At the end of the exam, students submit their work and … Continue reading Electronic Blue Books and Online Testing

Academic Technology, Faculty/Staff, Moodle, Workshops and Training

Moodle Training Over Spring Break

Andrew Ruether

Swarthmore is switching from Blackboard to Moodle next year.  The “Introduction to Moodle” training session helps new users transition to our new learning management system.  All courses and enrollments are automatically loaded into Moodle, so it is easy to get started developing your courses. In the first half of the class, we will cover logging in, navigation, and adding materials and online assignments to courses.  During the second half, participants will have to time to work on their course or explore additional features in Moodle. Next school year will be our last with Blackboard, so this is a great time … Continue reading Moodle Training Over Spring Break

Academic Technology, Blackboard, Faculty/Staff, Moodle

Faculty: here is an idea to make posting student work easier

Andrew Ruether

Here’s an idea for faculty who teach a course that involves posting or presenting student work.  Instead of having students e-mail you their weekly presentations, questions, or papers, create a wiki in Blackboard or Moodle and have your students upload and edit their own work. This has the added advantage of automatically allowing other students to to read, add to, comment on, and/or constructively criticize the posted work. It is quick and easy to set up a wiki and then you don’t have to do all the work to collect, transform and then post all the documents for that week. … Continue reading Faculty: here is an idea to make posting student work easier