StatesmanCampus News
Monday, Jan. 31, 2011
Page 3
Faculty decides on Blackboard replacement By MEGAN BAINUM assistant news editor
A new learning management system (LMS) will replace Blackboard Vista starting Summer 2012 and those involved say the new program, Instructure Canvas, is more user friendly and will entice more professors to implement it in their classes. Associate Vice Provost Robert Wagner said faculty and students will like Instructure Canvas because “they (students and faculty) will compare it to Blackboard Vista,” which hasn’t had any updates in the last one and a half years. The Blackboard company is decommissioning Blackboard Vista Wagner, said, so they haven’t been focusing their efforts on keeping Vista current. Utah State University knew Blackboard Vista would have to be replaced with a new LMS, which is why the university started making plans in 2010 to look for a new program, Wagner said. USU, along with the other universities in Utah, made a list of criteria that they wanted featured in a new system and eight LMS companies responded and bid. It came down to three finalists, and then students were asked to take a look and experiment and provide feedback. Faculty and staff evaluated, too, and Instructure’s Canvas was the one all Utah schools wanted. “Our goal was to find the best product for faculty and students and we think we found it. Our goal now is make that product be successful for as long as it can,” said instructional designer Neal Legler. Faculty and students are going to see a lot of new things, Wagner said, including new features for both faculty and students that are “really going to help the teaching and learning experience.” Legler said after having various students and faculty test the new LMS, they found Canvas to be much easier to use and more student- and facultyfriendly. Legler said not only do they hope more faculty will use Instructure Canvas, they anticipate it. He said professors will have more of an incentive
to use Instructure because of how easy it will be to process grades and other assignments. “We would love for every faculty member to use Canvas,” Legler said. “The incentive will be there for them, much more than in Blackboard. The incentive will be in time savings when it comes to grading. I would go as far as to say that Canvas is so well-designed it can cut grading time in half.” Jeffrey Orme, a senior majoring in psychology, said he thinks the change is a good idea. He said Blackboard does not offer the main things students need in a user friendly way. “I don’t think Blackboard is interactive-friendly. I feel that you have to go through too many loops to be in close contact with classmates and professors,” Orme said. Legler said Instructure Canvas has found that “sweet spot” between being student-centered and faculty-friendly. With the new program, faculty will be able to communicate through messaging which students can receive in any format they want including text messages, e-mails, or Facebook notifications. It works both ways so faculty can send
students messages in their preferred method and students can receive it in whatever method they choose. “We have the opportunity to go to a product that is state of the art, that is innovative, it is taking advantage of all the latest technology and social media tools available,” Wagner said. Wagner said he hopes to get people to understand and appreciate Instructure Canvas and the new opportunities it will bring. He said he hopes those professors who have not used an LMS before will see Instructure Canvas as an “attractive option for teaching. “ Starting as early as February, Wagner said introductory events to Instructure Canvas will be held for faculty and students. He said they will have the opportunity to receive training before their classes migrate to Canvas. Information about Instructure Canvas and workshops that will be held are available online through USU’s website and Wagner said that website is essential to the migration of Blackboard to Instructure. A committee of faculty, one from each college, and student representatives from ASUSU is in the process of
Perks to Blackboard’s successor
– megan.b@aggiemail.usu.edu
• Notification options for faculty and students using Facebook, Twitter, SMS, and more. • Integration with Google docs. • Wikis, RSS feeds, web conferencing integrations, and more. • Works on any modern browser, including mobile browsers. Mobile apps are forthcoming. • Easy YouTube-like tools for posting video, available to faculty and students. • One-click recording and posting of webcam video, available to faculty and students. • Clean, intuitive user interface, featuring drag and drop usability throughout. • Rapid migration tool for pulling content (including quizzes and assignments) from Blackboard Vista. • Gold Star Certification for accessibility from the National Federation for the Blind.
Vet: Program gives Utah students a better chance at veterinary school acceptance -continued from page 1 school applicants were accepted. “If we didn’t have mature kids with a vision and commitment, it might have been harder to convince them (WSU) to do partner with us,” Baldwin said. “I don’t know if Washington State would be interested in this program if it was coming from somewhere else. This speaks very highly of our citizenry.” WSU wants to admit students who have the academic background to complete the rigors of the program, Baldwin said, and Utah students do very well academically, but also have the necessary level of maturity. They have the ability to “handle stress with grace,” he said. Baldwin said though USU pre-veterinary students are held in high regard at many veterinary schools, due to students’ finances, it is increasingly difficult to make veterinary school a reality. The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) helps pay for fewer and fewer students’ professional veterinary education, Baldwin said. While Baldwin received help from WICHE grants to get him through veterinary school, these grants are now harder to come by than ever, which discourages many students from applying. He said the number of WICHE grants
being formed. Wagner said they will be relying heavily on this committee for input throughout the migration process over the next 18 months to make sure faculty and student needs are being met. “Migration process needs to be one that is controlled and developed so transition is smooth as can be,” Wagner said. There are over 3,400 sections of Blackboard that need to be migrated to Instructure Canvas, and select courses will start to make that transition starting Fall 2011 and Spring 2012. At that time, Wagner said it is possible some students could have some classes available still through Blackboard, while others will be available through Instructure, depending on the courses being taken by the student. “There is just too much content to move everything over at once, “ Wagner said “This is not like flipping a switch, this is a process that will happen over the next 18 months.”
HIV: Davis says STDs are in conservative areas -continued from page 1
allotted in one year to USU students is now around five, and used to be double that number. “Just the fact that I will only have to be paying in-state fees, I won’t be finding a new place to live or a new deposit makes this whole thing that much better,” Scharton said. “It’s nice, too, because Logan is a pretty inexpensive place to live.” Cockett said she sees no negative aspects to USU adopting this program. White said, “It will certainly enhance our college and department. It will strengthen it, provide more resources, provide more classes and this will be the first professional school we have on campus.” As a result of the upcoming veterinary program, Baldwin said he hopes to see more general and specialist veterinarians practicing in Utah, because as of now, the number of experts in animal care are not sufficient to the number of animals that may need attention. “Do we have access to an animal cardiologist? Radiologist? The list goes on and on just like it would in human medicine,” Baldwin said. – catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu
VETS FOR FARM ANIMALS are in demand in Utah, and associate professor Tom Baldwin said he hopes the new school will prepare veterinarians who will one day fill these needed positions. Statesman file photo
leader of Vox, or Voices for Planned Parenthood, an on-campus advocacy group. He said an increase in the number of cases reported could just mean more people are getting tested. Dr. Jim Davis, physician and executive director of Student Health Services voiced the same concern. He said some clinics offer periodic free testing, which will lead to an increase in the number of reported STD cases. This increase does not necessarily indicate an increase in promiscuity. Davis said many students who visit the health center have a number of misconceptions about STDs. Among these misconceptions are that STDs do not exist in a conservative area like Logan, someone cannot get an STD from a single exposure, someone can only get an STD with penetration and that condoms are 100 percent effective at preventing the spread of STDs. “You can get an STD from any exchange of bodily fluids by any means,” he said. Orians said some STDs could also be spread from skin-toskin contact. Davis said another serious misconception is that if someone recently had a negative teset for an STD, they are completely STD-free. Some STDs, especially HIV, need to incubate in the body for a period of time before they will show up in tests; however, the STD can be spread to other people during that time. He said bacterial diseases, like chlamydia, are curable, while viral diseases like herpes or HIV are treatable but not currently curable. Novoa said Vox will focus this semester on prevention education and encouraging students to get tested. He said Planned Parenthood will host a Chocolate Festival fundraiser in February. Ryan Barfuss, prevention specialist for the student health and wellness center, said 70 percent of students surveyed reported not getting any sexual education from campus organizations. “I have seen students at health fairs on-campus who thought sample lubricant was some kind of candy and tried to drink it,” Barfuss said. Student Health Services offers outreach and education programs for interested groups on campus, Davis said. Health Services will also have some programs during Relationships Week in February aimed at educating students on a host of relationship-related topics. Davies said students who have symptoms of any STDs or think they may have been exposed to an STD should be screened because many STD carriers do not have symptoms. He said some students do not come in because they are concerned their parents will find out. He said the health center’s policy is 100 percent confidentiality; however, if a student chooses to bill their parent’s insurance, there is a possibility their parents will find out. Davies also said that affordable testing and treatment is available to all students with or without insurance. He said visits are free to students and tests are generally not as expensive as students assume they are. A herpes simplex test is $116 while tests for gonorrhea and chlamydia run between $20 and $30. If students have difficulty with the costs, payment plans are available, he said. “The worst thing you can do is ignore your symptoms,” Orians said. “There are always options for completely confidential care.” – rouchelle.brockman@aggiemail.usu.edu
Briefs Campus & Community
HURD Week brings non-stop athletics HURD is a USU social club created to rally the student body to athletic events and encourage pride in the university. Since its creation, HURD has been Utah State’s largest club and claims to be the “rowdiest, loudest, biggest and best fans of USU athletics.” HURD Week kicks off Monday, Jan. 31, with the Coach’s Show at Elements Restaurant at 6 p.m. There will be a 3-point contest held in the Nelson Fieldhouse on Tuesday at 5 p.m. Wednesday at 9 p.m, the men’s basketball team, current WAC leaders, takes on the University of Nevada Reno in the Spectrum. Men’s hockey plays Northern Arizona at the Eccles Ice arena on Thursday at 7 p.m. After the action on the ice, Oscar-award-winning film “The Blindside” will be shown in the TSC Ballroom at 8 p.m. To finish off HURD Week, men’s basketball plays Boise State at the Spectrum at 7 p.m. on Saturday. The Sports Academy is hosting student night following Saturday’s basketball game and is free for students This will be held from 9:30 until midnight.
Passport program increasing success In its third year, the Aggie Passport Experience has resulted in amplified involvement with more than double the participation than in past years. To display the many cultural and social campus opportunities available to Utah State University students, the Retention and Student Success Office, in collaboration with the Office of the President, sponsors the Aggie Passport Experience program. Students may choose events from four categories: Academic, cultural, community and social. Participants who attend six to eight of the selected events receive a monetary reward added directly into their Aggie Express accounts. Those who attend 10 events receive the funds in their accounts and an invitation to a formal dinner at the home of President and Mrs. Albrecht. “We encourage all of our students to participate in the Aggie Experience program,” said USU President Stan Albrecht. “The opportunities will enhance every aspect of your life and provide memories that will last a lifetime.” The Office of Retention and Student Success implemented this program based on research that indicates a direct correlation with students’ college success and participation in their respective campus communities. “All of the events included in the Passport program extend the students’ learning beyond the classroom, enriches their academic experience and knowledge base and involves the student in becoming an active member of the university community,” said Noelle Call, director of Retention and Student Success.
Concert hall holds youth production Utah State University presents the annual Youth Conservatory Monster Concert featuring 20 pianos, 200 students, the Cache Children’s Choir and a special guest monster Saturday, Feb. 5 at 6 p.m. in the Kent Concert Hall. “The sound of the students and pianos is so intense, it’s like listening to a piano orchestra in surround sound,” said Kevin Olson, director of the Youth Conservatory. The concert features a full stage of pianos, played by more than 200 pianists of a variety of ages, some as young as five years old, Olson said. “The effect we get in the final concert is awesome – 20 pianos playing the same song at the same time,” said Olson. Between musical numbers, students will participate in short readings and skits with the help of a costumed monster, making this concert even more engaging, Olson said.
-Compiled from staff and media reports