Associate Professor of Education John Bond teaches the same class at four different locations. As a result, he desired to incorporate multiple technology solutions to improve the quality and efficiency of his teaching. He intended this use of technology to complement face-to-face instruction, rather than shifting entirely over to online instruction. ITS Director David Wicks came alongside Bond to assist him in pursuing this goal through the use of four different technologies: Camtasia Relay for recording scripted presentations and classroom sessions; video recording of guest speakers and his own teaching; Blackboard Discussion Boards for asynchronous conversations, and Adobe Connect video conferencing for real-time seminars with students at multiple sites. All necessary software and equipment was available through SPU, although Bond did eventually purchase his own video camera since he was often filming at off-campus locations. These technologies afforded Bond multiple advantages. First, he was able to make content, such as a presentation by a unique guest speaker, available to all of his classes. Second, the "Summary-Question-Response" discussion board strategy greatly enhanced student understanding and preparation for subsequent class discussions. Lastly, recording his own teaching allowed Bond to critique his own teaching style and habits.

John Bond, Assoc Professor, Educational Leadership

“Integrating technology tools such as Camtasia and video recording enhance the linkage of classes taught at different locations. They allow the experiences available at one location to be accessed by students at others. While I expected that using Blackboard discussions would enhance student understanding of assigned reading, I was surprised to see the positive impact they had on classroom climate and community. Students get to know one another through online discussion and it carries over into the classroom. It is a dynamic that has great potential where traditional classroom and online learning mutually support one another.”

Music Professor’s Website Design

Screen capture of website

With this website design project, Myrna Capp desired to share her African musical experiences with others, make colleagues and friends aware of her diverse musical activities (teaching, performance, and research), inform students about her past work, create a model for students to follow as they build their own websites, and share with local and state music teacher associations about her availability for workshops and presentations. Dominic Williamson, ITS Senior Graphic Designer, worked with Capp to design a site that best suited her content and audience. During part of the project, Capp was in Africa, and so much of the collaboration on the site was done through email. And though that email process took time, it worked well. As a result of their efforts, other faculty and students have been inspired to create their own websites.

Myrna Capp, Assistant Professor of Music

“One of my music colleagues (Dr. Wayne Johnson) inquired about who did my site, because he was impressed with it. Other music colleagues, musician friends, and some of my students, have commented on how professional the site looks.””

New Graduate Student Dinner Video

The Graduate Center partnered with ITS Audio/Video Specialist David Rither to produce a video for the New Graduate Student Dinner. The goals of the project included showcasing the breadth of SPU graduate programs, highlighting the academic and personal demands and rewards for particular programs, and featuring the quality of alumni who have graduated from SPU, all while holding the audience’s attention. Rither and his assistants captured footage of alumni interviews and supplied a rough cut of that footage to The Graduate Center for review. After several rounds of revisions, a final version was finished and approved.

John Glancy, Director of Graduate Admissions and Marketing

“We got positive feedback on the quality and content of the video, and I was very pleased with the support we received from ITS on the project and with the quality of the final product. I think the video achieved the goals we set out from the beginning, of showing the quality and breadth of our grad programs in an interesting way. We look forward to refining the process and getting even better next year.”

Social Venture Planning Competition Videos

Screen capture of video taken at event

The Social Venture Planning Competition (SVPC) is a multi-dimensional program for SPU students in which they formulate plans for enterprises that focus on important social issues (i.e., homelessness) and are sustained through revenue generating businesses.  ITS Audio/Video Specialist David Rither and his student assistants captured video footage of class sessions.  Those sessions were then posted to a Blackboard course site, enabling students to revisit presentations and review key ideas in preparation for creating their own social venture.  Video footage of the SVPC was also captured and edited to create a short film that provides an overview of the SVPC as a way to generate student interest and recruit participants.

Don Summers, Clinical Instructor of Management
“Over the long-term we will be able to use the footage shot for a variety of purposes, including a “historical” retrospective of SVPC. The help and support of Ian and other members of ITS is greatly appreciated and a valuable aspect of the success of SVPC. Thank you very much!”

Center for Career and Calling Workshop Videos on iTunes U

Click image above to launch iTunes workshops

The Center for Career and Calling partnered with ITS Audio/Video Specialist David Rither to record video footage of the Center’s workshops with the goal of making that footage available via iTunes U to not only those who attended but all current students and alumni.  Rither and his team of student assistants captured the footage, provided edited copies for review, and posted the final quality product to iTunes U all in good time.

Sadie Turek-Frederick, Administrative Assistant

Center for Career and Calling

President Eaton’s Video Blog

Communications Specialist Alison Leary Estep partnered with ITS Audio/Video Specialist David Rither to create a series of short video podcasts for President Eaton’s video blog.  The goals for this project were:

1. To establish the blog as a vibrant, intelligent, and informed place for President Eaton to express ideas in his own voice.
2. To identify SPU with a larger “cause.”
3. To strengthen connections with SPU’s current constituencies.
4. To explore and test the best methodologies to build relationships with new audiences in the broader Christian world who will become advocates for SPU in their own social communities.
5. To motivate current and new audiences to connect in some way with SPU, ultimately by making a financial gift or referring a prospective student.
6. To generate baseline information about current and new audiences

Alison Leary Estep, Communications Specialist
“Excellent work –– and quick turnarounds. David has been a pleasure to work with! These videos are getting better and better.”

Utilizing Lecture Capture Technologies: Camtasia Relay

Click image above to launch iTunes

Professor Andrew Lumpe worked with ITS Director David Wicks to create digital audio/visual presentations for online courses that use a minimalist approach to focus student attention on main ideas.  Prof. Lumpe storyboarded 10-15 minute presentations focusing on the major themes for the instructional module. Using PowerPoint, he created a presentation of 10-15 slides based on the storyboard. Each slide contained a key phrase or words related to the topic. He used Creative Commons to locate high quality images for inclusion on each slide. He then used Camtasia Relay software and a microphone to record an audio/visual presentation. The presentation was saved as MP3 and MP4 files which were made accessible to students via Blackboard and iTunes U.

One of the key benefits of sharing content in this format was that the students were able to focus on the main ideas presented and avoid being distracted by minutia. This was evident in the discussion threads, formative assessment blogs, and in the final project where students applied the main ideas without as much outside assistance as observed in previous quarters.

Andrew Lumpe, Professor of Education
“The first few sessions Prof. Lumpe used auditory presentation for lecture portion, but as the class went on he provided auditory and visual presentation for lecture. Both modalities for learning was great.” - Student

Podcasting Course Lectures on iTunes U

Click image above to watch video in iTunes

Professor Derek Wood worked with ITS staff to podcast on-campus lectures with the goal of providing students with the opportunity to review the content. Prof. Wood used an iPod fitted with an iTalk recorder (Belkin) and a mic to record the lectures and used Audacity to edit and reformat the audio files. After transferring the edited content to an FTP site, ITS staff then posted that content to iTunes U. Although it took roughly 30-45 min of work for each lecture from format to transfer, Prof. Wood found this delivery format to be better than simply posting PowerPoint presentations to his course site in Blackboard because at least 40% of the material covered in class was not on the slides. Given the complexity and volume of materials covered in class, having access to the recordings was an amazing benefit to students. Student evaluations directed to this technology indicated heavy use and were all positive. Students were able to better focus during lectures and asked more directed questions than in previous years in follow-up lectures and study sessions. There is no question that this delivery format facilitated student learning. Prof. Wood often had students stop him in the hall who were listening to the lectures on iTunes and ask him a question.

Derek Wood, Associate Professor of Biology
“I've been listening to your lectures on iTunes U as I've been recommending them to my students. Two of them, the history of Microbiology parts 1 and 2, I'd like to plunder for my next semester as they're way better than the lectures I've inherited from the guy who's retiring! We will of course credit you and include links to your originals! All help gratefully....” University Professor, U.K.

“The Good News About Fall Prevention” Video

Click image above to launch the video in iTunes U.

SPU nursing students, with faculty support and the guidance of ITS Audio/Video specialist and Production Supervisor David Rither, produced an 8 minute video on fall prevention. The video was designed to be used for both public and professional education and was based on the four fall prevention measures in the Center for Disease Control (CDC) brochure "What You Can Do to Prevent Falls." In 10 short weeks, students worked with older adults conducting interviews and focus groups and collaborated with professionals to edit and produce the video. David Rither acted as a consultant on the delivery of health education content via audio-visual technology, directed the filming, and edited the final product.

Carol Redfield, Instructor, FMSCH & Skills Lab Crd
“The video was utilized by many community partners/agencies during Washington State’s Fall Prevention Awareness events in 2008. The video was added to the State of Washington’s website, including the Department of Health, Injury and Violence Program. Permission to use the video in various hospitals, clinics and home health agencies was granted. The National Council for Aging and CDC also viewed the video and passed the viewing information on to their national network of organizations.”

Students Blog about Studies and Travels in South Africa

To read the Blog, click on image above

Professor Kimberly Segall worked with ITS Director David Wicks to create a blog site for students to share about their service and studies abroad in South Africa with the SPU community, family, and friends. Another goal of the blog was to foster understanding about the South African literature students discussed in class. Additionally, the blog forum was a medium to exhibit students’ creative writing projects. Whereas in the past students’ writings were photocopied and distributed at a debriefing session following the trip, blogging enabled students to gain instant access to each other’s reflections before they headed home.

Kimberly Segall, Associate Professor of English
“Students enjoyed reading each other’s pieces on the internet and sent the blog link to their family members.”

Creating Presentations Using Jing’s Screen-Capture Technology

Click on image to see an example of Jing

The goals for this project were to establish an online summer course for Professor Eric Long’s Biostatistics students. Biostatistics is a problem based discipline that requires a lot of data manipulation, often in software-specific applications (e.g., Excel, SPSS).  The goals for the project were to be able to provide an effective online course where students could learn how to use the appropriate software, even when the professor wasn’t physically present to instruct them.

Instructional Technology Services Director David Wicks provided instruction on how to set up an effective online course and introduced Professor Long to the Jing screen-capture technology.  Jing is a free, downloadable program that captures, in short video clips, everything that is occurring on a computer screen.  Further, by hooking up a microphone to the computer, a person can narrate what he or she is doing.   Jing exports video as a Flash file which can be easily uploaded to the internet, posted to Blackboard,  and added as a link in PowerPoint presentations.  

The beauty of this technology is that the professor did not have to write long, difficult-to-understand directions on how to perform a certain task.  Another benefit of the technology is that students could watch and listen to the tutorial as many times as they needed.  The students became much more competent, proficient, and confident at doing the homework and test problems because of their ability to watch the tutorials multiple times and observe, step-by-step, the correct procedure.  In course evaluations, students mentioned that the Jing tutorials were essential for helping them learn and apply the material.

Eric Long, Assistant Professor of Biology
“The videos online were super helpful! I would never have understood how to run most of the tests, or why they were important, without them.” “The explanations on the internet was a really good learning tool. It helped me to work through each problem and helped me to identify what it was I was supposed to do.”

Creation of a Poster for Display at International Symposium

The goals for this project were to communicate the ideas which had been accepted in a written  abstract format on a large poster for display at an international symposium and to develop a script and recording to accompany the poster. The poster presentation was accepted for a symposium entitled ‘Universal Design and Visitability: From Accessibility to Zoning – International Symposium’  at the Knowlton School of Architecture at Ohio State University in July of 2006.  ITS Senior Graphic Designer Dominic Williamson put FCS Professor Sandra Hartje's 20 PowerPoint slides on one poster that would be printed on a 4’ x 4’ laminated poster for display at the symposium.  ITS Assistant Director Janiess Sallee helped her record a script to accompany the poster for a separate presentation that was broadcast on the internet for persons who were attending the conference online.     

Sandra Hartje, FCS Professor
"I greatly appreciate Dominic's knowledge and skill and willingness to assist faculty, in this case, in creating a large, professional poster that I felt good about displaying. I also appreciate Janiess assistance in producing the recorded script. Both of them literally walked me through the processes, for which I have no experience, in a very kind and caring way."

PowerPoint design and build

The goal for this project was to create a presentation utilizing PowerPoint in a teaching and preaching format for a keynote speech for Ethnic America, a national conference, sponsored by the Billy Graham Association. This was an opportunity to speak and present on the SPU motto of engaging the culture and changing the world.   Dr. Nuesch-Olver used lecture material from SPU classes and with the assistance of ITS Senior Graphic Designer Dominic Williamson visually transformed it into an attractive presentation for an international audience of pastors and church leaders with many levels of English language ability.

Delia Nuesch-Olver, Associate Professor
"Oh my goodness.  When Dominic Williamson was done, I had a world class PowerPoint that I have repeatedly and successfully used in numerous multi-ethnic and multi-racial contexts."

“It must be nice to work at a university where your work is supported with this quality of technical and visual support."
- Audience member

Website build project

Click image above to launch site

With this web design project, Gregory Wolfe hoped to be able to represent the range of his interests, publications, and research areas.

The site was designed by former SPU staffer Joel Ertsgaard. After consultation with ITS Director David Wicks, Senior Graphic Designer Dominic Williamson constructed the site. Greg was then given instructions on how to maintain the site through the program Contribute.

According to Greg, the results have been mostly anecdotal, responses from students about what they've learned from his writings, research, and activities.  See the quote below.

Gregory Wolfe, English Instructor, Resident Writer, Master's in Fine Arts Director
"Mr. Wolfe's website, taught me a few things about him and his vocation as professor, editor, and artist that one can only guess at while walking through the English halls in SPU. For example, his section on his passions helped me connect his influences from the Renaissance period - Christian Humanism - with the particular mission of Image Journal. The website's particular strengths — balance, tactful graphics, and simplicity - speak to Mr. Wolfe's vocation as an arbiter of the arts here on campus."

Animated Biochemical Sequence

To see Flash animation, click on image above

The goal for this project was to add a dynamic dimension that would help students understand the biochemical sequence of events underlying what makes neurons work.  Professor Ben McFarland provided a static figure and a description of a complex sequence of about five events, and Dominic Williamson, ITS Senior Graphic Designer, created a Flash animation with artistic renderings of each step.   The existing figure was very complex, full of text, and didn't really convey the "wave" of ions washing in and out of the neuron that is the conceptual key to how it works. The animation effectively provides exactly this sense of what happens, without several paragraphs of words.  A picture > 1000 words.  McFarland will introduce this animation to his Winter Quarter 2009 course and test student retention of the concept on the unit tests.

Benjamin McFarland, Assistant Prof of Biochemistry
"I'm very happy with how chemical symbols, colors, and cartoon figures of proteins interact to show a complex mechanism very clearly. This is exactly what I had in mind, and I'm excited to show it to students."

Virtual Synchronous Classroom Using Adobe Connect

Images from Adobe Connect presentation

2007 Technology Grant Recipients:

Melani Plett, Brad Gjerding, Don Peter, & Elaine Scott Department of Engineering

Ryan LaBrie & Jeff Van Duzer School of Business & Economics

This project had two goals:
1) to make courses available to non-traditional students that could not be on campus during regular class hours.
2) to make our courses available to students who could not be present in the classroom for reasons such as sports, travel, work, or sickness but could attend from a remote location were the technology made available.

David Wicks, Director of Instructional Technology Services, worked with SPU Computer & Information Systems (CIS) to secure funding for the Adobe Connect server software and worked with the Department of Engineering and School of Business & Economics on client licensing costs. Additionally, there was support from CIS for hosting the server application and working with the researchers on acquiring and supporting the Tablet PCs.

Using modern Windows Vista based Tablet PCs, various web cameras, and some additional audio equipment (various classroom and lecturer microphones and mixers) along with the Adobe Connect server software hosted on CIS servers, faculty were able to provide a robust classroom experience to remote students. Students were able to hear the lecture, see the presentation, see the instructor and class participants, and actively participate through online chatting, speaking, and/or providing video of themselves at their remote location, all simply through a high-speed Internet connection. Note that the use of this technology did not come without cost.

There is a learning curve for the professor using this technology and getting use to managing the Tablet PC, the Adobe Connect environment, and the various types of students (in-class and remote) needs. Also with this complex setup, there is more opportunity for technology failure: bandwidth issues come into play for audio and video clarity, recording features need to be tweaked, there is an initial learning curve and setup for the remote student, etc.

Surprisingly, this technology really reinforced the want and need for the students to be in the classroom. Initially, faculty thought that perhaps once this was made available, many of the students would want to utilize it and not come to class. As it turns out, the vast majority of the students that used this technology were happy that was made available so that they didn't have to miss class, but they would still rather be in class if given the choice. This was a pleasant surprise and speaks to the reality that the classroom environment does provide something more.

“Eating Healthy For Life” Video

To watch Healthy Eating video in iTunes, click above

This group video project was part of the SPU Professional Nursing Synthesis Internship. The focus of the internship was on synthesis of past educational experiences within a variety of acute care and community settings. Project development incorporates interdisciplinary work, application of leadership skills, working in partnership with selected communities, and integration of prior knowledge base, as well as experience, in order to arrive at a newer level of thinking and performance. The goal of this particular project was to develop a 10-15 minute DVD showing healthy heart nutrition, an educational tool for the Wellness Program aired repeatedly on Crista's in-house television station. The tool was also to be used for staff education working with older adults. The aim was to help older adults make healthy choices in grocery shopping or in selecting restaurant menu items knowing that their choices can still impact the quality of life in future years. A group of five senior nursing students, one graduate student, and a nursing faculty member worked with ITS Audio / Video Specialist David Rither to create the film. Challenges were time and achieving quality work with limited resources. Fortunately, ITS was able to donate an expert for the project to help film and edit the footage. Their cost was considered "wholesale" cost which was passed on to Crista. Click on link to see it on iTunes

Rome's Pantheon Illustration

To see a larger version, click on image

SPU Assistant Professor of Education Dr. Scheuerman worked with ITS Senior Graphic Designer Dominic Williamson to develop an image to enhance a presentation Richard gives each year to Master's of Arts in Teaching teacher candidates on moral education. Dominic devised a graphic representation of Rome's Pantheon for "The Architecture of Moral Education" to better render the important discussion of this topic at its three fundamental levels - respect (foundation), responsibilities (pillars), and rights (superstructure).

Richard Scheuerman, Assistant Professor of Education
"Dom has a masterful way of designing symbols and models to elegantly express complex ideas."

Utilizing Web 2.0 Technologies in Online Course Instruction

To listen to podcast on iTunes, click on image

Arthur Ellis incorporates the use of wikis, blogs and podcasts into his graduate online course “Foundations of American Education” in order to actively engage students in the pursuit of insight and application of the great ideas that have shaped education over the centuries. He had taught this course for years in face-to-face settings and initially was not interested in becoming involved in what he says he thought would be a faceless, anonymous way of teaching students. But two things happened that caused him to reconsider this:

1. the format, including the recording of lectures, helped him to far more thoughtfully decide what is essential in the course, and
2. the required written weekly input and response to the input of others by all students has enabled him to “know” students in ways that are different but just as valuable as the ways we know students in traditional class settings. In regards to podcasting, the fact that students can listen and re-listen to lectures is particularly valuable for the growing number of second language learners SPU has and will continue to have in higher education.

Arthur Ellis, Professor of Education
"My lack of knowledge of nearly every aspect of the technical considerations involved in distance/online teaching and learning made the learning curve very steep for me. The patience and unflagging support from ITS has helped me to bring my knowledge of the field into a new (for me) delivery mode that has proven to be very rewarding professionally."

"The technology integrated into this process [group wikis] established high levels of communication and collaboration. Each member was enabled to actively participate in the construction of all milestone materials." - Student

Medieval Roundtable Posters

To view a larger version of posters, click image

Eric W. Vogt and Patrick McDonald collaborated on two consecutive years to organize the 'Puget Sound Medieval Roundtable', an event featuring speakers, medieval soups, and on one occasion, a world-class concert of Byzantine chant by the Capella Romana. For both years, ITS created beautiful color posters with medieval motifs. The goal for this project was to bring together regional scholars, artists, students and general public to learn and exchange ideas around various themes. With these promotional posters and the beauty of Senior Graphic Designer Dominic Williamson's work, we drew a lot of attention to the events and many people were coveting the posters.

Eric W. Vogt, Associate Professor of Spanish
“Dominic's work is worthy of being included in a time capsule of SPU, real collector's items.”

St. John's Gospel at Ivy Honorary

To view Powerpoint as a PDF, (without video clip), click image

PowerPoint was used to consolidate a multimedia presentation that included images and video about the creation of St. John's Bible.   Professor of English Luke Reinsma wanted to show images that were originally in a book, that wouldn't have been visible to most of the audience, and a video clip from a DVD.  ITS scanned the images, digitized the video clip, and embedded them all into the PowerPoint so that the presentation could be projected as one continuous piece. The goal was to make the presentation as easy and as seamless as possible for the professor, without him having to switch between different graphics mediums, pieces of software, or modes of playback.

An added benefit of incoporating the video into the PowerPoint presentation was that the audience watched footage of Donald Jackson, the calligrapher, engaged in his extraordinary craft. Following the presentation, several attendees asked Professor Reinsma how and where they could purchase copies of one of the volumes of the St. John's Bible.

Luke Reinsma, Professor of English
“At the last minute (1 week before I discovered I needed it), I asked ITS to scan 4 color pages from the St. John's Gospel into a power point presentation and then to provide me with a 2-minute video clip from an accompanying movie as well.  My challenge was that I'm basically computer illiterate, but like magic, the pictures and video clip showed up on the screen.”

Information Literacy Posters for the Library Computer Classroom

To view one of the posters, click image above

The educational goals for this project were to give visibility to the information literacy curriculum, which is taught in this room, and define what information literacy is and what an information literate student knows.

The biggest challenges were to design large posters (7’ x 3’), determine the font, font size, color and background, and get them mounted on the wall.

Bryce Nelson, University Librarian
“Because it was done by the ITS Designer, it has a proper use of scale, font, and color. It helps define what occurs in this room.”

Poster for "The Experience of Older Parents of Adult Children with Mental Illness"

To view two recent posters, click image above

This project is part of a funded faculty research grant to display study results as a large-format poster. 
Co-investigators on the grant are Emily Hitchens, RN, Ed.D. and Martha Worcester, ARNP, Ph.D.

One goal of the poster was to share research outcomes with educators and colleagues at the Nursing Honor Society, Sigma Theta Tau International Conference on May 6, 2007. This poster is also intended to showcase SPU faculty research and to help students and faculty understand the issues of older adults who are providing major support to family members with mental illness.

The biggest challenge of this project was creating the poster from appropriate portions of a PowerPoint presentation given at a prior conference.  An additional challenge was to make the text size large enough to read from a distance while also providing substantive information. ITS Senior Graphic Designer Dominic Williamson was able to draft several versions of the poster within a short timeframe so that Emily and Martha could make a judgment about what include or exclude.

Martha Worcester, Associate Professor of Nursing
“Dominic fit us into a busy schedule and was most gracious in working with us. He communicated by e-mail about the progress of the project to keep us up to date and facilitated our involvement in refining and proofing the final poster. He was most helpful in the ideas for layout and best size of print for easy visualization at the conference.”

To view PDF, click image above

An Open Source Approach to Collaborative Learning via Blackboard

Professor Kathleen Braden was the recipient of the 2006 Teaching and Technology grant sponsored by ITS, CSFD, and CIS.  She used the grant to obtain a software program (Teams LX from Learning Objects Inc.) to enable students to build collaborative projects within the Blackboard environment using a wiki.  The goal in using a wiki was to help students learn ways to construct, not just react to, knowledge appropriate to the course and to find a tool that would allow the instructor easy online evaluation of each student’s participation in a project.

The students liked the wiki tool and have commented that it saves them from the dreaded problem of group work in which it is not always evident to the instructor who is NOT pulling their weight.  Kathleen observed MUCH stronger student ownership of their work and projects and an increase in creativity because the wiki environment allows for material on the medium that is not just written word (visuals, links, even audio).  Kathleen also noted an increase in class cohesion as the students worked collaboratively in both cyberspace and in person.

Kathleen Braden, Professor of Geography
“The up front time investment in the program was fairly high, but I tackled it with interest and received good support form David Wicks and from the company (LearningObjects Inc.) itself.  It is now very easy for me to use it, and I continue to make it an important part of my pedagogy and also have students answer questions about it on my course evaluations.”

“This was excellent as it gave students reign of creativity beyond the conventional academic essay. It was set up to incorporate real-life material, and it was pertinent to technology advancements that we have today. The use of 'Blackboard' was very helpful.” - Student

To see some illustrations, click image above

The Significance of Cities

One of the services we often provide faculty is the translation of concepts into viuals. Dr. Boyce's project 'The Significance of Cities' has many concepts that are difficult to understand but when supported by instructional diagrams, the ideas become clear and provide a visual memory of the material.

Ron Boyce, Emeriti Faculty, Political Science
“The illustrations are of inestimable help in clarifying otherwise difficult concepts.”

To check out the History site, click image above

History Department Website

Project description:
To develop an all-new website for SPU's History Department. Website includes an attractive, user-friendly home page, with links to descriptions of mission statement, faculty, courses, degree requirements, student opportunities, and links.

Educational goals:
To provide, in easy-to-use format, the basic information that would be helpful to anyone seeking information about the History Department's personnel and program. "Anyone" includes current and prospective students, SPU faculty and staff, and off-campus information seekers.

Advantages gained by finished product:

• Information is current.
• Students have a one-stop source for links to everything related to the History Department's personnel and program.
• Website requires far less maintenance to keep current.
• Visitors have a clear, easy-to-comprehend access to the Department's mission, program and personnel.
• Website is visually much more attractive and inviting than the old page, setting just the right tone for the Department and its program.
  

Mike Hamilton, Associate Professor of History

To check out Laura's site, click image above

Website for the art of Laura Lasworth

The challenge with this project was finding a way to showcase the work of Laura Lasworth in a simple unobtrusive way - usable and clean, where the work is the dominant factor, where the design complements the work. Dreamweaver was used to build the main structure and Flash was used to display the paintings. This is now a very immediate resource for students and the public, and an archive of studio practice.

To check out iTunes U, click image above

Podcasting Classroom Lectures

Podcasting general chemistry classroom lectures through iTunes University provides a way for students to review a lecture at their own pace in an audio format that can be put onto a personal computer or MP3 player easily.   Although the advantages of podcasting a face-to-face classroom lecture are still being determined, the technology enables an instructor to reach out to students who are auditory learners. Students can fill gaps in their notes by listening to a lecture after class. It also affords an opportunity to reach out to students not registered for a class and not necessarily at SPU who want to listen to an explanation of a certain topic.

Greg Phelan, Associate Professor of Chemistry
“Podcasting as a way to support student learning is something that intrigues me.  When I approached David (Wicks) and his staff about using this technology on campus, they were extremely supportive and facilitated the entire project.”

click image for more information

Dr. Ediger's Geoquiz

The GeoQuiz project is a Flash based interactive set of political and physiographic map quizzes designed to aid in student learning of the countries and capitals of the world as well as prominent physiographic features. This project has gone through several versions, each one better than the last, as political and geographic regions continually change and as the educational technology available improves. These quizzes have been invaluable in formally assessing student knowledge of geography and students have 24/7 online access to these quizzes to practice. Please click on the image, which will take you to Dr. Ediger’s webspace, to tryout the quizzes. Dr. Ediger’s website was also created by Instructional Technology Services.

Ruth Ediger, Associate Professor of Political Science

“I have received numerous student comments on my faculty evaluations that speak to the students’ appreciation of the geoquizzes. I can also report unsolicited verbal student comments that suggest that the online format is much easier to use than a paper based system."

Graphic from video

Dr. Woodward's Tale of Three Cities

A Tale of Three Cities: The Story of the Coming of the American Revolution was originally a slide show. With the advent of DVD technology, the slide show was converted to video with graphic and audio enhancements to make explicit the chronology and geography of the historical process leading to the Revolution. After several adjustments to the format of the DVD to ensure it displayed properly in a classroom, the final product has proven to be a great educational tool. In fact, a number of students have requested that the video be posted online for review purposes.

Professor of Psychology Les Parrot worked with ITS Senior Graphic Designer Dominic Williamson to design a one-page overview of an initiative dedicated to helping local churches launch and sustain a successful Marriage Mentoring Ministry where seasoned couples come alongside less experienced couples.

Les Parrot, Professor of Psychology

"Dominic took a somewhat abstract and text-heavy model and conveyed it beautifully. He put the cookies on the bottom shelf – just what I hoped for."

Professor of Sociology Martin Abbott partnered with ITS Senior Graphic Designer Dominic Williamson to create an image for Abbott’s forthcoming book. Specifically, Abbott wanted to feature a prism that captured the dynamic of ordering data through the vehicle of a statistical process. Over a period of several days and after multiple revisions, a very striking image was created and submitted to the publisher.

Martin Abbott, Professor of Sociology

“I showed the image to several classes and individuals – all of whom were very impressed.  This came on the heels of another book I published through UW Press.  Their design people created their cover, but one of my co-authors remarked that this [Williamson’s] cover should ‘win awards.”