Title III Lab Open House

The Title III Lab Open House was held on March 7. In the photo at the right Jon Lewis is shown demonstrating the process for scanning slides - one of the many techniques for creating course materials that are available in the lab. Faculty and staff were also excited to learn about our ability to create CD's, and to capture audio and video.
Jon Lewis demonstrates slide scanning

News From Component I
Web Based Student Services and Academic Advising

The Title III Advisory Focus Group met on March 15th to evaluate how the realities of the system are meeting our expectations. The focus question asked, is the system what we need and envisioned? A comprehensive list of comments and concerns was generated along with suggestions for improvements. Notes from the meeting were distributed to Focus Group members, members of the Governance Technology Committee, and Project Director, David Sonnenberger and are available to anyone interested.

The work to automate degree audits is also underway. The skill course combinations have been built and are being refined. After this is completed in early May, we proceed to Common Core courses, Core Electives, and majors. Our target date for this to be ready is December 2001. After that, graduate degree requirements and post-baccalaureate certificates will be done. Finally, undergraduate minors. The challenge is to accommodate the many different curriculum scenarios our students present.

Title III Web Site Launched

The Title III website was launched on March 28, 2001. We'll be posting information about progress of the project, as well as support materials for the course development software suite. Check it out at http://www.ben.edu/TitleIII, or follow links from the Benedictine University Home Page:

BU Home -> About Academics -> Title III Project

Off-Campus Experiences

• Eileen Clark, Linda Crafton, Jon Lewis and Ken Wittig attended the 2001 Illinois Higher Education Distance Learning Conference, held in Moline, IL on February 23. Wayne Hodgins, Director of Worldwild Learning Strategies at Autodesk, Inc. delivered the keynote "The Future of Distance Learning: Apprehension, Promise, Opportunity". Other session topics included the new release of WebCT, cut and paste Javascripting, and support services for distance learners.
  
  
• Jon Lewis will visit Kalamazoo College on May 3 to discuss their experience with student portfolio requirements. Information about The Kalamazoo College Portfolio is available at http://www.kzoo.edu/pfolio/index.html.

Technology Fair

A Technology Fair was held on April 6 in the Krasa Center. Title III and other faculty demonstrated ways in which technology is being used to enhance courses at Benedictine. The event was scheduled just prior to the fall registration period, so that students could use what they saw at the fair to help them select their courses.

Spin Panorama

We've been experimenting with a new software package! Spin Panorama will automatically "stitch together" a sequence of images and create a QuickTime movie. We've posted four panoramas - three taken inside Kindlon Hall, and one taken of a skull lab specimen. If you don't have QuickTime, you can download from http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/. Then you can use your browser to view

http://www.ben.edu/TitleIII/spin/kindlon.mov
http://www.ben.edu/TitleIII/spin/lab.mov
http://www.ben.edu/TitleIII/spin/topfloor.mov
http://www.ben.edu/TitleIII/spin/skull.mov

While viewing the movies, click and drag left or right to move around the panorama. Use the Ctrl and Shift keys for zooming. (NOTE: This technique will only work if your PC associates .mov files with QuickTime. If .mov files are associated with another media player, then you view these files by downloading them, and then opening them in QuickTime.)