Report from Educational Technology Subcommittee of CCFIT
May 18, 2011
Co-Chairs: Lori Lubin, Physics, and Susan Keen, Evolution and Ecology
The Educational Technology subcommittee focuses on how technology can enhance teaching and
learning at UC Davis and how it can directly, and through CCFIT, promote information-sharing and
effective practices among the faculty, staff, students, support units, and administration. The
committee met every three weeks. Issues before the committee were those from previous years,
such as the transition to a vendor-hosted SmartSite and improvements to the SmartSite gradebook,
as well as new issues such as on-line learning, access to and function of clickers, and access to
software requested by faculty (e.g., anti-plagiarism and Browser lock-down software).
Four new issues were transferred to other committees or deferred for budgetary reasons:
(1) On-line courses. Liaison with the UCOP On-line course initiative was delegated to
CETL (Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning) following the recommendations of former
Provost Lavernia. Rosemary Capps from CETL serves on both committees; see the CETL annual
report for progess on this initiative.
(2) Clickers. UCD uses the PRS Interwrite clicker system, but the company has been sold
to new owners and the UCD clickers are many years behind the version the company currently
sells. Students are reporting problems with aging clickers. The operating software does not work
well with many new computers, MacIntosh in particular. ATS used to provide technical support for
faculty use of the software, but this was discontinued after the retirement of Robert Ralston. The
campus runs a clicker buy-back system through the bookstore with the intent that students can
recoup half the costs of a clicker upon resale. Switching to a new system would entail significant
cost if the buy-back program were honored. Given the current budget, the issue was tabled.
Recommendation: The 2012 committee may wish to revisit the issue and consider other vendors
or a clicker application associated with a smart phone.
(3) Exploration of large-scale Gradebook enhancements. A partnership with the Sakai
community on other campuses to further develop the SmartSite Gradebook has been proposed. To
date UC Davis is the only member of the Sakai open source consortium to develop a gradebook,
apparently because of the complexity of the task. However, some campuses have expressed interest
in accessing the UCD Gradebook and in contributing to enhancements. rSmart would act as a
facilitator/coordinator for the Sakai community, collecting two-years of funds from interested
universities to pay for a programmers and a QA person. rSmart proposes building on the UCD
gradebook, but the selection of particular items to be developed would be decided by voting
members. UCD would have 25% voting rights as the Gradebook founder, but input from other
campuses would be important. This potential partnership would bring more FTE to getting bugs,
etc. taken care of quickly, but involves collaborative development. Recommendation: 2011/12
committee members work with the ASCIT and the full CCFIT to discuss and respond to this
proposal.
(4) Educational Software. Consideration of new software designed to prevent plagiarism
or to control access to the internet during class was delayed pending the outcome of the faculty
survey on the State of Technologies for Teaching and Learning (see survey results in Appendix A
and summary on page xx below).
Issues from 2009/10 continued to be important to members of Ed Tech.
(5) On-line course evaluation. The issue of on-line course evaluation is of great interest
to ADMAN because of the significant staff time spent on processing paper and scantron course
evaluations, but all discussion of this issue was deferred pending an Academic Senate report. No
report from the Academic Senate was received in 2010/11. Recommendation: 2011/12
committee members may revisit this issue once the Academic Senate report is released in light of
the potential budgetary savings associated with a reduced burden on staff or as a way to deal with
staff reductions already in place.
(6) Survey of State of Technologies for Teaching and Learning. One part of the charge
to the Ed Tech subcommittee is “generating recommendations and proposing initiatives to further
the accessibility, effectiveness, and availability of appropriate educational technologies to further
the campus instructional mission.” The 2009 Ed Tech subcommittee surveyed faculty about the
value of the services available, but by the time the survey was analyzed there had been many
changes in the campus in terms of services provided and budget available to implement change. In
May 2011 a new survey designed to assess faculty perception of the state of facilities and
educational technology was completed. The survey was sent to all 1500 faculty and received 171
responses, as well as four comments sent directly to Co-Chair Keen. Survey questions with
numerical and free responses are contained in Appendix A. Below are brief summaries of the
results.
Comments on classrooms: Faculty were asked to discuss facilities in one to three
classrooms in which they regularly teach. Most faculty (169) discussed one classroom,
with 96 and 38 respondents, respectively, discussing a second and third classroom.
Responses were limited to 4 categories: satisfied to a great extent, satisfied to a small
extent, not at all satisfied, and not applicable. Removing the fraction to whom the issue
was not applicable, 50% to 70% of the faculty were satisfied to a great extent with available
facilities. Satisfaction was greatest with screens, AV consoles, seating, acoustics,
microphones and amplification, temperature, and room shape, but least for lighting,
blackboards, air quality, and wireless internet access.
The opportunity for written responses generated 242 comments on specific classrooms.
The top issues noted were: projection and audio in classrooms with 80 comments; room
size, seating and arrangement of chairs (requests for flexible seating) with 66 comments;
visibility and functionality of black and white boards with 51 comments; lighting with 40
comments, cleanliness and overall quality with 36 comments, ventilation and temperature
issues with 33 comments. There were a significant number of requests for two projection
screens in classrooms, along with requests for simultaneous access to screens and boards;
these sentiments were expressed in several different parts of the survey.
The written responses were telling because they contained relatively few criticisms related
to technology and significantly greater concerns with very fundamental structural issues
such as lighting, cleanliness, moveable chairs, modern surroundings, boards, and access to
boards and screens together. For example, a respondent described a room in Olson Hall as
follows:
“My class was packed tightly into this small space, with almost no room available for me
to lecture. The projector was so poor that it was unusable. The room as an astonishing
mess. I spent one day there and then moved my lectures to the room I teach the lab part of
the course in. In all honestly, I was horrified at this room, and the poor condition in was in,
and I was embarrassed as a member of the faculty at UCD.”
Very similar responses emerged in question 7, asking about rooms that were functional, but
flawed. For example, one respondent said: “
Overall, the classrooms are deteriorating. LCD projectors are getting old, so resolution is
decreasing. More maintenance is required. Overall, I do not like the rigid seats, although I
understand their purpose. There is often no chalk, or insufficient little pieces with the
chalkboard. Quality of chalk has also declined over the years. For large rooms or rooms
with poor lighting, this is important. Almost every classroom has lights that are burned out
and/or temperature control problems. On a positive note, I use the document viewers
often. Please keep them.”
Another respondent said: “All the classrooms I have been teaching in the last few years are
increasingly dirty. I believe we should not use carpet, and where there is carpet, it should
be pulled out. Also, whoever assigns the classrooms must be looking at the enrollment #
only - or primarily. However, certain classrooms are not suitable to some subjects (e.g.,
those whose seats are bolted to the floor, or where the seats are connected to each other, are
not suitable for group work, or other activities). I think that instructors should be able to
state their preferences for the type of classroom that is most suitable to their teaching
methods/activities before the rooms are assigned, not after (i.e., "complaining" about
them)”.
The room-by-room responses represent a very detailed list of issues specific to each space.
The challenge will be to address so many structural issues in times of tight budgets.
Recommendation: 2011/12 committee members should ensure that the detailed list is
passed to Registrar Frank Wada and Vice-Chancellor (check title) Fred Wood. The
committee should further ensure that a plan of action is developed and communicated to the
faculty (perhaps via Facultysupport.ucdavis.edu). It is essential that the time taken to
complete the survey in this level of detail be rewarded.
Comments on technology: Respondents were asked to select the five most technologies
most critical to their teaching. This style of question annoyed a significant number of
respondents who either did not use any technology in teaching or used less than five
technologies. In spite of this design flaw within the survey, three items emerged as
important: 84% of respondents identified Smartsite as critical, 56% of respondents
identified the Gradebook as critical, and 55% of respondents wanted classroom internet
access for faculty only. Embedded within the written responses in this and other sections is
dissatisfaction with the Smartsite learning management system, with the suggestion that the
campus switch to Moodle (see later discussion in item 7 of this report, p. xx).
Two other written responses are notable:
(i) “Lecture capture on this campus is a total joke. Two years ago, I tried to capture my
lectures for podcasting. First I was given an audio recorder that was incapable of recording
an entire lecture. When that problem was finally solved, two weeks into the course, I asked
for help in editing the audio to create a podcast. I was told that I had to do it myself using
free-ware that I could download from the Internet. In the end, I got so far behind that I just
gave up. I can't believe that MIT, whose courses are now used by people all over the
world, does things this way. If we want to compete with the "big boys", we have to act like
the "big boys".”
(ii) “The gradebooks are killing me. I have 400 students. 10-15 are in University
Extension. I ahve to keep everybody in my grade book but when it comes time to submit
grades I need to pull out the University Extension (open enrollement) students. We end up
with issues of our grade book not matching the class roster and it casues issues with getting
grades submitted. can somebody please bring University Extension into the 20th century. I
know they think they are the leading edge, but I have to submit hardcopy grades. They
should have their grades come in with the class roster. Their students should be listed in
the class roster, I should not have to enter them into the roster and then pull them out when
it comes time to submit grades. I am rapidly getting to the point that I am going to refuse to
take University Extension Sudents until they are transparent from the instructor end. So the
gradebook has some real limitation, but you can blame UE. Call if you want backup!”
The second comment results from a problem with Banner integration. Banner now falls
under Student Affairs and has a limited budget for programmers, but this fix might be
accelerated given that the faculty member is close to rejecting Extension students because
of the difficulties in handling them.
Instructor use of the internet with students: Quite a few instructors listed more than one
use, which is why the total listed uses exceed the total responses. Seventy-five of the 117
faculty responding said that they do use the internet with students during class. Their listed
uses included video clips such as YouTube (35), relevant websites/material/news (33),
demonstrating functions or accessing materials on SmartSite (16), accessing online
databases so that students can analyze data (11), student group work to find or create
resources in class (10), relevant simulations or images (9), library or literature searches (5),
online textbooks or online supplements to hardcopy textbooks (4), and one or two mentions
each of TED talks, Second Life, online homeworks, newspapers, Skype, catalogs, podcasts,
wikis, blogs, and faculty creating their own websites with primary materials.
One particularly heartening faculty comment was the following: “I have large (350-420)
classes of upper division and grad students. They ask a question and I can show them how
to get their answer. I will ask a question and we will rapidly develop answers with new
questions and directions. I use it to get them to think. Much of the material is on internet
sites (that I did not make). I show how easy it is to do research and how to protect
themselves from getting bad information.”
Forty-two of the 117 faculty responding said they do not use the internet with students during class.
Of this group, 22 gave specific reasons: two said that they don’t have the skills or technological
sophistication, 10 said that internet connections are not available or reliable in the classrooms where
they teach, and 11 said that it distracts students or obviates their thinking. Several in this last group
wished that they could control wireless access with a switch, so that students could access the web
for instructional purposes, but not when it is not assigned. Two faculty members said that they would
like to use it more to help students prepare for class if hardware and wireless connections were
available.
Instructor use of other facilities and technologies: When specifically asked about clocks, 40% of
respondents asked for clocks in classrooms, but this request also emerged in the free response
sections throughout the survey. Respondents noted that students cannot use cell phone clocks in
exams. Some respondents would like to use lecture capture and video-conferencing.
Availability of help for faculty via the Library, Student Judicial Affairs and other
services: Questions 12 to 15 deal with access to help for teachers outside of direct
instruction. Faculty are asked about the use of a wide range of campus services. It should
be noted that services used occasionally or rarely may be those for which the facilities are
quite functional. It should also be noted that mention of some services, such as training
sessions, led to surprise that such services existed; thus the survey itself has an educational
element. Many services listed as rarely used were scored as beneficial, nonetheless. For
example, few faculty might use CAPS (student counseling), but be very glad of its
existence during a crisis. One respondent asked for greater transparency from CAPS. Less
than 7% of respondents scored the listed campus services as “never sufficient” indicating
that the campus has done a good job of supporting faculty in these areas. Some
respondents noted that TA funds are needed more urgently than technology or support
services.
The UC Davis faculty acknowledged strong support for the University Library’s importance to their
teaching function and their students’ learning. Over sixty-one percent (61.2%) of the 104 faculty
responding indicated that the Library’s electronic resources (databases, journals and books) were one
of the top five educational technologies critical to their teaching. Fifty-five (55) faculty members
(33.4%) also pointed to the value of the Library catalogs (Harvest Catalog or Melvyl Catalog).
Faculty members recognize that having a well-developed collection of readily available online and
print resources is an important underlying factor for a rich teaching/learning/and research
environment.
Faculty further indicated that they made use of several library services for teaching, with 70.2%
(113 faculty respondents out of 161) indicating that they used Library course reserves while only
29.8% (48 faculty) indicated that they did not use this service. The new Library reserves online
form for placing items on Library Reserves also seems to be gaining fast acceptance with 47.8% (75
faculty) indicating that they had already used this new service while 52.2% (82 faculty) indicated
they did not use it. Other services used and mentioned include interlibrary loan, the engineering
library and librarians, and electronic scientific journals. In response to the question about receiving
Library support for administrative and co-curricular student issues: 31.2% (49) strongly agreed
while 37.6% (59) agreed. So a total of 68.8% or 108 out of 157 respondents either agreed or
strongly agreed that the Library was supporting them.
Summary of Free Responses: A comment from the final free-response section seems to
adequately capture much of the sentiment expressed throughout the survey:
“Nearly everyone now teaches with multi-media. You MUST improve ALL the general
classrooms to have adequate lighting and screens to support this vital teaching
methodology. Honestly, I can't believe you haven't had protests from the students the
facilities are so bad. I guess they just don't know how good it could be with a few
relatively minor changes. I am so tired of everyone saying they care so much about
teaching around here and then we have such lousy classrooms in Olson and Wellman - and
probably elsewhere that I have yet to experience. I Roessler things are much improved
which leads me to wonder if the science end of the campus has adequate classrooms but the
social science and humanities end of campus has been left to rot. If so, shame on UCD!
Before you waste time and money on adding more technologies - you must first fix the
basics like lighting, etc. or your money on further technologies will simply be wasted.”
Recommendation: 2011/12 committee members should further analyze results of the
survey and communicate the outcomes to the relevant sections of the campus. It may be
that a comprehensive approach to the issues raised should be developed rather than passing
on comments piecemeal. The results of this survey indicate that faculty have significant
concerns about the state of teaching on the campus.
(7) Smartsite oversight: The committee was informed that vendor hosting of SmartSite
through RSmart was working well, but there were several issues with faculty use of the Smartsite
Learning Management System (LMS) that remained unresolved throughout the year. An ATS
internal audit of Gradebook functions uncovered a problem with rounding error when the equal
weighting category was used. This issue has been addressed. The committee learned that a future
upgrade to Smartsite 3.0 would entail some change in the LMS that might be noticeable to users,
although a stepping process for changes is proposed.
Given some dissatisfaction with the current LMS (clunky interface and related comments within the
survey reported above), it makes sense to discuss replacing Smartsite with another LMS such as
Moodle. Recommendation: 2011/12 committee members should analyze the financial and
social/cultural costs and benefits of a change in the Learning Management System in light of
faculty comment from the recent survey. Because a change would be disruptive to many, this issue
may be passed to ASCIT (Academic Senate Committee on Information Technology) before
investing significant time in analysis within the Ed Tech Subcommittee.
Faculty input into the decision-making process for IT was a challenging issue for the Ed Tech
subcommittee in 2011. The Ed Tech subcommittee requested a member from ASCIT, but no one
was provided. In the previous year the AS representative on this subcommittee attended only a
single meeting. Recommendation: the number of ASCIT representatives on the committee should
be significantly increased. We further recommend that the 2012 committee work with ASCIT to
ensure closer collaboration and consider the proposal that each college or department appoint a
member to the committee. ASCIT suggested more faculty surveys in advance of IT changes in the
future. The approval process for surveys is quite lengthy, so if this suggestion is adopted, surveys
will have to be developed at least one quarter prior to the planned administration.
To make users aware of the status of known bugs, faculty trouble tickets, requested improvements
and new functions, the Smartsite home page now includes a link to these items. All bugs and
enhancement requests will be numbered and recorded on a schedule showing the date of each
request, its priority, and the anticipated completion date. Requested enhancements include the
addition of more data from the Registar to the Gradebook rosters.
The Ed Tech subcommittee met to prioritize bug fixes and the development of new services. The
guiding principles for these improvements were:
o
o
o
o
Issues that affect large classes;
Issues that are noted most frequently on calls to help desk and calls to IET-Academic
Technology Services staff;
Issues that significantly improve functionality and ease of use; and
Issues that keep up with new releases and system upgrades for Sakai.
Based on these guiding principles, the faculty on the subcommittee made recommendations as to
what they considered to be the top priorities for Gradebook2. Appendix B is a list of the fixes
being addressed over the course of the two-part upgrade this summer.
Importing and exporting functions for the Gradebook were identified as problematic to users. ATS
programmers have created a SmartSite Wizard to guide users through these aspects of the
Gradebook. Members of the Ed Tech subcommittee participated in a demonstration of the wizard
and requested many small changes to improve usability. A workshop for “live” testing of the
Wizard by ATS programmers and faculty on the campus will be offered in July 2011, during
Summer Sessions II.
To accurately gauge faculty needs on particular SmartSite tools, a set of forums on specific tools
has been proposed. By mining the use data for the Gradebook and other items, faculty using
specific tools could be identified and invited to a forum specific to tools of interest.
Recommendation: the 2011/12 committee may wish to develop these forums along with other
means of determining the needs of faculty.
Faculty criticism of the Ed Tech decision-making process, as well as the functionality within
Smartsite, came from three sources in 2011: (1) a memo from Professor Powell, Chair of the
Academic Senate, to Jeff Barrett; (2) a letter from Letters and Sciences Chair, Senior Lecturer
Boeshaar, to the Academic Senate; and (3) a letter to Elizabeth Gibson, head of ATS-Mediaworks
from Professor Casey, Chemistry. The Ed Tech subcommittee discussed the criticisms in each of
these cases, finding that some had merit whereas others resulted from insufficient familiarity with
the options available within Smartsite. Critical documents and the Ed Tech responses are in
Appendix C. Many of the concerns were resolved by discussion, but next year’s committee should
regularly reassess priorities for fixes and enhancements in consultation with ASCIT.
Respectfully submitted,
Lori Lubin and Susan Keen
Co-chairs.
Appendix A. Results of the CCFIT Ed Tech Subcommittee Survey on Infrastructure for Teaching.
Written
responses
: GA
Classroom
s:
Q1 - Q6
Any additional information you would like to share ?
Art 204
Art 204
ART 217
Art 217
Art 217
Art 217
Art 217
Bainer
1060 (55
students)
Bainer
1062
Bainer
10xx 40
students
bainer
1128
Bainer
1130
Bainer
Hall 1060?
Bowley
Center
Classroom
Briggs 122
Briggs Hall
158
Chem 179
Chem 179
from 2-4pm the heat in the room became almost too much. Only 1 window in the front opens
partially.
Needs better ventilation. Art history courses need to close the windows to
block out the light. In the hot months, temperature is very uncomfortable. If
Smart Panel was upgraded, may also Need a set of instructions for SMart
Panel in Art 204. Lighting is bad. AHI courses need to be able to dim the
lights so students can take notes in the dark while studying images on the
screen. Can't be done with existing lighting. This would be my top priority of
things to fix in this room.
There is a need for more and larger classrooms like Art 217 and 204 that
have side-by-side dual projection.
I use this room for upper division Art History courses (AHI 178A, B, C), with
enrollments upwards of 60 students. It is impossible to set good lighting
over the desks, so that students can write, without shedding light on the
screens so that the images are washed out. The situation is even worse in
Fall and Spring because the room becomes an oven. Students keep
opening the windows so they can breathe, which wipes out the projected
imagery even more. Finally, the old Smart Panel requires a Matrox device
to interface between it and a laptop for Powerpoint projection. The
connection is unreliable.
Needs better ventilation. Art history courses need to close the windows to block out the light. In
the hot months, temperature is very uncomfortable. Need a set of instructions for SMart Panel.
They were removed with update of the SmartPanel in 217 Art.
This room was worked well for me.
I prefer to use document projection and the location of the document device is awkward to
reach for purposes of writing on.
Our current setting up requires a instructor to bring a laptop for ppt presentation. Hope one day
we can do that by only using a USB stick drive.
1/2 of lights were out for a few weeks. odd shaped room with corridor by door, temp is
frequently too warm (winter heating)
The temperature control in this room was terrible. It was always cold, and the HVAC was
always blowing. The LCD projector did not have very good resolution, and overheats.
Need to have pod-cast capability
Room can be overrun by flies for some reason - other than that this is an ideal teaching
situation - students have plenty of space, very open and airy.
This is a laboratory and lecture room. For the most part it is fine but it desperately needs a paint
job. It might also help to remove a large raised podium at the front that is a tripping hazard, and
install another lab bench in the West end of the room to add more seats.
This is a small laboratory room that is also used for lectures. It lacks a projector and a good
clock. I don't know if internet is available there.
None
The first few rows are so close and the screen is too high so that it is uncomfortable and difficult
to have to look up at the screen. Really, you have to sit in rows 5 or higher. The smartpanel
may also have the same audio problem (microphone vs other input) as I described for Chem
194, but I have not directly used this in this room. It would also be EXTREMELY USEFUL to
have the ability to show the document camera and a computer input (video or ppt) at the same
time (or even have two document cameras at the same time). we should have two screens and
have the ability to project both inputs at the same time.
Chem 194
Chem 194
Chem 194
Chem 194
Chem 194
Chem 194
Chem 194
Chem 194
400
students All upper
division
and grad
students
Chemistry
166
chemistry
176
chemistry
179
Chemistry
194
Chemistry
I do not use the black board and so have checked NA for that reason I had occasional
problems with the audio not working The battery life on the wireless microphone is
distressingly short I have not used the wireless internet and so checked NA; students do
access the internet and mostly, it appears, not for the purpose of enhancing their educational
experience
the new smart panel appears to have one flaw that I have particularly noticed. you cannot
control or separate the microphone volume from the overall volume and it also appears that
when there is another audio input, then the microphone is diverted or amplified. for example, if
you have music, a video or news clip showing, then you cannot use the microphone and talk
with or over the other audio. it seems that the audio input overrides the microphone input. It
would also be EXTREMELY USEFUL to have the ability to show the document camera and a
computer input (video or ppt) at the same time (or even have two document cameras at the
same time). we should have two screens and have the ability to project both inputs at the
same time. A first step, would be to have the ability to easily toggle between the document
camera and the computer, as is the case in SCILEC 123.
Just a dreary room. If one can dim the lights in the front and keep the lights in the back bright
(like you can do in 1100 Social Sci) that would help. Also the projector does nto project a true
color.
The Smart Panel has a recurring problem with the internet model connection point. I know that
ITS is aware of this situation. but it needs to be fixed (2 quarters now...). THe shape of the room
doesn't meet my needs fully because I find that wide, shallow rooms create a much better
climate for interaction with students (I can actually see the faces and eyes of the folks in the
back row), whereas this room is fully shotgun - narrow and straight back to the next county. The
wireless connectivity is not something I bother with (although if the modem point sin't fixed, I
may change that practice), but I'm sure it works just fine for my students since many of them
see fit to multitask through lecture using Facebook, etc to entertain themselves in the
interstices between the "important' information.... The size of the room doesn't meet my
instructional needs AT ALL since it is built with the assumption that a class should number 400
in size when 40 is an appropriate class size for quality learning, but that is another point
altogether...
this room needs to be renovated; it is very hard to hear lectures even with the mike all the way
up. The room gets hot and wet like a sauna, the ventilation needs work. The appearance is
dingy; the AV cart with the document camera feels jerry-rigged. You cannot see the
blackboards with the screen down. The lighting controls are crazy and you cannot get a middle
light level.
The blackboards are ancient. At least put in blackboards or Whiteboards that can go up and
down, not side to side! Lighting for the boards is bad at best. Social Sciecne 1100 has a
superior board arrangement campared to Chem194.
This is the nicest of the rooms I've taught in. Its a bit hard to get the lighting right when using
power points but that's not much of an issue.
Chairs squek when students move around and room can get warm enough to cause some
students to be uncomfortable when the room is full.
The black board is hidden behind the screen so cant be used until the screen is put up.
60
students
Chemistry
Building,
179
Conferenc
e Room,
Research
1
(UCDHS)
Davis
Tower
1704
Education
Building
Sacrament
o
Education
Building,
Sacrament
o Campus
Room
1222
Education
building,
Sacrament
o campus,
Room
1204
Education
building,
Sacrament
o campus,
Room
1226
Everson
176
Everson
176
Everson
176
Room does not have a projector. Does not have internet access.
LCD projector on it's last legs. Images dark. Big problem because this is a radiology conference
room.
This classroom is set up in lecture style - good for that use. Would be nice to have two rows
per level, so that students could turn around and work in small groups more easily. I prefer to
use more participative approaches to teaching than the "talking heads"
This classroom is set up in lecture style - good for that use. It is a U-shape that promotes
intimacy among the group and good opportunity for interaction among students who can see
each other as well as the instructor. Would be nice to have two rows per level, so that
students could turn around and work in small groups more easily. I prefer to use more
participative approaches to teaching than the "talking heads"
This classroom has table top monitors and students face each other - so is amenable to group
work as well as lecture. It is cramped though, with tables very close to one another
I mostly use the document camera for projection since I don't like carrying my laptop around,
and also so I can project student work, books, and other non-electronic items. I only use my
laptop when I want internet access, and actually sometimes I just decide I don't need internet
access enough to make it worth carrying my laptop around. I appreciate the fact that the
document camera stays plugged into the VGA cable so I don't have to do that every time. It
would be even better if the document camera would stay plugged into the electricity, but
someone always unplugs it, so I have to unwind the cord at the beginning of every class. The
shape of the classroom and the acoustics are good, but I like students to be able to work in
pairs or even small groups. Pairs are OK, but when the TAs and I are walking around, we can
really only reach the pairs seated near the aisles. Small groups are basically impossible. I
would love to have moveable seats with real aisles between them so I could interact with
students more, and they could interact with each other, even in a class of 200. On warm days,
opening the outside door is a must for air quality. The screens cover the blackboard, so I can't
use both the projection and the blackboard. Also, when I adjust the lighting to work with the
screen projection, it is bad for seeing anything on the blackboard. Nevertheless, I would say
that this is the best large-ish lecture hall I have taught in at UCD.
There have been several problems with the A/V this year, and the room temperature fluctuates
a lot (generally too hot)
Everson
176
Everson
176
Geidt
1001 (not
sure of
room no.)
Geidt
1003
Geidt
1003
Geidt 150
students
Geidt Hall
1001
Giedt
1001
Giedt
1001
Giedt
1001
Giedt
1001
Giedt
1001
Giedt
1001
Giedt
1001
Giedt
1002
Giedt
1003
GIEDT
1007 30
students
Giedt Hall
(n=25
students)
I use this room for my lower division art history course (AHI 1B), with enrollments averaging
about 180 students. It is impossible to light the room enough for students to take notes without
wiping out the projected images. I often turn out the lights altogether so that students can see
the material under discussion. Also, there is only a single projector, not double projection.
Therefore the Powerpoint reaches less than half the screen area and is very small for people at
the back of the room. The room gets uncomfortable in Fall and Spring.
The wireless microphone is better than the one that goes around your neck, but both do not
provide a crisp sound, and sound is lost when you turn your head, etc. Microphone quality
could be much better.
The lighting for the blackboard was inadequate. No change when I reported this to those in
charge of the classroom.
Fantastic facility!
I like the style of blackboard, in which there are layers and the instructor can push a blackboard
up after filling it, to leave the writing in view while writing on new space. However, the rollup
blackboards are too high, and I can't reach a board that's been pushed up. I've had a hook
made to allow me to do this, but I know I'm not the only one with this problem ( I'm 5'2").
Board lighting is terrible - no light can be directed onto the blackboards. The side projection
screen is excellent and essential.
I like having the right side screen. Lighting system around the podium/chalk board does not
seem to be working.
It's a fine classroom, but the smartpanel is too cluttered with cables and locks and stuff left on
top. There's also always chalk dust on the surface that I use for my laptop.
White boards would be nice. I have poor handwriting, and it is difficult to see my writing from
the back of the room on dirty blackboards. The great thing about this room is that I can project
images to the side on a full screen while not blocking backboard space. I wish this was possible
in other rooms! One day during a rain storm in the winter of 2010, the front space flooded. I
spent the entire lecture standing in an inch of water that spanned the whole blackboard! I
almost slipped many times. The response to fixing this serious hazard was poor. I don't think
they have done anything to prevent this in the future.
This room has a better seating arrangement than haring 2205. Same issues with chalkboards,
often dirty and chalk of poor quality--can't read from a distance. Microphone sometimes
missing or not working. Table lecterns too high for shorter teachers.
The vga cable in the smart panel does not allow for projection using my Mac laptop computer.
This was not a problem last year. I was informed that the cables were replaced recently and do
not work with some mac computers. I am having to run my laptop through the document reader
in the class room. While this is functional, it is not an optimal situation and requires the
presence of an additional piece of equipment.
Needs a periodic table on the wall and also a clock.
This is a GREAT, beautiful classroom. Comfortable and well-equipped for the instructor,
comfortable and spread out enough for the students.
ART 204 40 students
Cleaning in the room in Giedt Hall was a problem. I finally called Facilities Services and asked
that the 4-week accumulation of chalk dust be removed from the front of the room. I *love*
black boards and writing on them. Some blackboard chalk is great. Some brands are too hard
and do not erase. I generally bring a stash of my own chalk and my own (chamois) eraser. I
profoundly dislike white boards.
Giedt
large
lecture hall
Giedt
lecture hall
-- about
200
students
HARCS:
Almost all
of the
lecture
halls
available
to HARCS
Haring
100
students
Haring
(about 270
students)
Haring
1227
Haring
2016
Haring
2016
Haring
2016
Haring
2205
Haring
2205
Haring
2205 (185
students)
Haring
Hall 1204
I am not up to date on the latest technologies. I would not know how to identify what might be
lacking. I use whatever is presently available. I understand that other institutions have far
superior technological support for the classroom. I would be interested in acquiring greater
knowledge and experience with these technologies.
White boards should be eliminated in favor of black boards. It should remain possible for
faculty to give lectures with chalk rather than A-V.
None of the rooms in Harcs have an adequate song system, and the internet and projection are
really poor. The sound gives feedback, the rooms do not have blackout capabilities, and the
quality of the projections is poor. For new media courses that need multiple screens and
projectors there are only two rooms and the seating and sound are not up to par.
It would be nice to have at least one general assignment classroom with some flexibility in
seating arrangements to facilitate group interaction even in a lecture space.
The room was exceptionally hot, and we had issues with cheating during exams because of
close proximity between students.
This is a very poor room for a political science class. It is difficult to sustain any kind of
discussion in a class with this layout and seating design. It is obviously a lab science
classroom and unsuited for social science instruction. Room was uncomfortably hot, very loud
(disruptive construction ongoing throughout the quarter), and yet very hard to hear students.
Awful.
The room does not get dark enough (blinds don't block out sun) to use the screen effectively.
The screen is not positioned very well, instructor can bump into it very easily. The room is often
too cold or too hot. Document camera is very much appreciated in there. Also, the ability to
move the chairs around is more important than any of these things and this classroom allows
chair to be moved into small groups. So don't change that, please.
I spent most of the *winter* opening up windows in the room because it was so hot. Then we
got the noise of the construction from across the street, plus glare from the windows. Not a
good situation. I don't know if "room shape" literally means the shape, or if it means the
condition of the room, but neither were particularly good.
wired internet not reliable (never got it to work)
Haring 2205 has bad temperature control. the room is extremely warm in spring and fall, and
also part of winter. just walking up the stairs, you can feel the temperature increase a few
degrees. i don't know how the students can stay awake, and as the temperature increases
outside, the classroom will become even more uncomfortable. this is especially a problem
when practically every seat is filled. I would however like to comment that this classroom has
not been upgraded yet (still has the original smartpanel rather than the new one I have seen in
Chem 194 and 179) and this means that there is separate microphone volume control, and you
can have two audio inputs without the microphone amplification being canceled. It would also
be EXTREMELY USEFUL to have the ability to show the document camera and a computer
input (video or ppt) at the same time (or even have two document cameras at the same time).
we should have two screens and have the ability to project both inputs at the same time. There
also is NOT a clock in this room.
This room is like a steep funnel and the steps are very slippery, esp. for teachers who would
like the ability to walk around the classroom and be closer to students in discussion. I find this
room hazardous for talking and walking. The cordless mic was sometimes missing or not
working. Chalkboards and chalk of poor quality and legibility, probably because they are not
cleaned frequently. Chalk is light white, hard for students to read.
It should be possible for faculty to connect to the internet via a login required.
Haring
Hall 1204
Haring
Hall 2205
Harring
1227,
apprx 70
students
Hart 1102
Hart 1116
Hart 1128
Hart Hall
10?
Hart Hall
90
students
Hart Hall
large
classroom
at north
end 45
students
Hart Hall,
9 students
Hart 1153
health sci
bldg
amphithea
tres
health
sciences
ed bldg -sac
campus
Hoagland
108
Hoagland
113
Hoagland
168
Hoagland
168
Hunt 100
This classroom backs up to the Unitrans area. It is so noisy you cannot lecture in it. I had to
move and was given an almost as bad classroom in Wellman.
Replace blackboards with white boards
AV systems was more modern and podcasting was easier here. A wire-less system though
would be greatly beneficially to avoid all the wires which create a trip hazard. Also, the system
made loud noises that cycled continuously when I plugged in my laptop. This probably
shouldnt be occurring. Seating here was better distributed and more modern with more space
for the student to write. I definitely preferred this classroom overall.
There are no windows in that room and the ventilation is very poor. I teach there for several
hours and we have to keep the door open with a chair because it gets too stuffy.
This room has several issues: there are many windows, which is OK for natural light, but the
shades do not work well; and it is very easy to hear outside noises (e.g., lawnmowers)
Too many chairs in this classroom
I no longer have the classroom number. It was on the first floor, but I have had similar problems
with the classrooms in Hart's basement. All are lecture halls. All have been modernized so that
various electronic devices can be played. However, the classrooms have not been insulated to
protect those outside each classroom from its enhanced sound. Therefore the sound from one
classroom booms into that whose wall it shares. I shared a wall with a class in African music
and dance; and my class heard the African music and dance instead of my lecture. Moral of
the story: when new equipment is installed enabling sound to be broadcast, new insulation
should be installed protecting those outside each classroom from its enhanced sound.
Everything was fine except that the room frequently had no chalk. For the first two lectures I
had to scrounge up some from the neighboring classrooms. After that I brought my own with
me. With all the push to high technology, please let's not forget about the basics!
fixed seats with no aisle in the middle is a problem.
the fixed seating in these amphitheatre classrooms prohibit small group work.
2206 could be an excellent room for 30 students, but the mistake was putting computers in the
room - now everyone has a laptop, no need for in-place computers except for the instructor.
The room was cramped and the air quality was not great. The classroom is old and seemed
run down. (20 students in discussion section)
As with many classrooms, lowering the screen almost completely obscured the blackboard, so
it made it hard to switch back and forth between board and screen. Also, I think in this room as
well as in others, the sliding blackboards leave a "well" beneath them, into which erasers fall
and never seem to be rescued...
As seems to be common (106? Olson had a similar problem despite repeated requests to have
it fixed) the vertical sliding blackboard does not stay where put.
The acoustics in this room are terrible. I had to yell all quarter, and I have a loud voice. Some
of this was due to a constant droning noise from the... a/c? something in the ceiling.
I don't
know if "room shape" literally means the shape, or if it means the condition of the room, but
neither were particularly good.
The air conditioning is extremely loud and the temperature overly cold.
Hunt 110
Hunt 110
Hunt 110
Hunt Hall
100
Hutchison
115
Hutchison
Hall 102
Kleiber 3
Kleiber 3
Kleiber 3
Kleiber
Hall
Klieber 3
Klieber 3
Main
Theatre
(Not GA)
Meyer Hall
1312
Meyer;
Hurley
Rm,
Music 105
Music 115
MUSIC:
NUT 116a
NUT 129
Olson
Olson
Olson (60
students)
I had repeated problems in getting good video quality using my computer (a MacBook Pro).
There seemed to be some sort of configuration problem. I need projectors that will
automatically configure themselves for my computer, so I don't need to spend time at the
beginning of a class figuring it out.
Overall it's a pretty nice room. Main drawback is inability to make it dark enough for slide
presentations. Blinds are ineffective and time-consuming to adjust.
Ventilation in this room is very poor. Even in the winter we need to open the windows so we
can breathe.
This room is TERRIBLE. The ventilation is so noisy that even with a throat mike students
complain they can't hear. The screen interferes with the blackboard, and the blackboards are
too small.
I use Powerpoint and blackboards simultaneously, and this room was a
nightmare.
The projector screen should be offset to one side of the blackboard instead of being located in
the middle. The screen location leaves only two small areas open on the extreme edges of the
blackboard. This is not specific to this room for some reason all rooms I have ever been in are
set up this way.
The screen is awkwardly placed with regard to the seating arrangement for the students. It
takes away a lot of space and one is never quite sure where to stand
Kleiber 3 is okay, but it has some problems. In the first place, the microphone situation is poor.
The microphone is of barely tolerable quality. In the second place, there was no adequate
podium or place to set my laptop while I was lecturing. The table in the room was often
upstairs, and I had to ask my male TAs to carry it down, which was unsafe for them or the
students sitting along the aisles. How could I possibly have lectured to 250 students with no
podium or place to sit my laptop. Absurd situation.
Screen covers black boards - this is a huge problem.
There is a large table at the front of the class. Different instructors use it differently, some not
at all. It has to be moved by each instructor to where she/he wants it. It is extremely heavy!
Very awkward board and screen layout. When using the projector, it becomes very difficult to
use the black boards (only a small portion is not obscured by the screen).
Cannot use clicker -- signal is not there for half of the room
The screen can not be used at the same time as the blackboard. Also, white boards would be
better than blackboards.
Introductory note: the whole problem here is non GEN ASSN classrooms. So: I have taught
only in Music Department classrooms (not generally assigned because we need pianos) and
the Main Theatre (for Music 10 only). The answers below are about the Main Theatre only.
Sound system, piano, student desks have not changed in the 20+ years I've been teaching
there.
Needs more space for instrument room
NUT 253 a and b met in the Hurley Room inin Meyer on the office side., enrollment ranges from
a low of 20 to a high of 152. It was too warm in the classroom with the door closed but we had
too close the door because of outside noise.
Primitive
Primitive.
I'm not sure whether a space like this is relevant to your survey or not. It's one-of-a-kind but
quite hard to teach in despite the valiant efforts of the Theatre & Dance stage crew.
I would give the class room a B+.
too cold in the room...... but this is a problem in Meyer Hall in the winter and spring quarters
and not in fall quarter when it's too hot.
chairs are extremely uncomfortable and old. internet interface requiring unnecessary extra setup is stupid protocols set up by well-meaning non-teachers, no doubt
The console just die in the middle of a Keynote presentation. doesn't happen often, but enough
to notice and remember.
Breaking down big group into discussion or collaborative projects extremely difficult. Chairs not
moveable, deters dialogue and communication in class. Huge drawback as chairs are nailed
down to the floor. Chalkboards and chalk of varying quaility. Blinds often broken and dirty.
Table lectern often missing or too high for shorter teachers.
Olson
(smaller
room, first
floor, 35
students)
Olson 1
Olson 105
Olson 106
Olson 106
Olson 109
Olson 118
Olson 118
Olson 151
olson 156
Olson 159
Olson 163
Olson 206
Olson 206
Olson 206
(aprox
117)
Olson 207
Unfixed desks in this room are nice. It's pretty tight in there, though, and it's difficult for all
students to sit so that they can see the screen.
great classroom
The screen for the room is located in one corner and the SmartPanel console in another with
desks and a table crowding between making it very awkward to stand at the panel or at the
table with a laptop (or use the document projector) and see what's on the screen. The
blackboards rattled quite a bit if I ever tried the uppermost sliding panes--I always had to slide
those up and use only the board attached to the wall. Overall the room was cramped so that I
had a hard time circulating among the desks to help students.
I would like to have rooms where the chairs aren't nailed to the floor--it makes it impossible to
do small group work which is important to the kind of courses humanities faculty teach.
Otherwise, the room is good and I love the document camera-Room is okay, not too small or too large for a 75 person class. However, the air quality is very
poor, and room temperature was generally uncomfortable.
Two major problems with this room: the design, and the interaction with my laptop (Dell) and
the Smart Panel. Regarding the first issue, the room is circular but it is not a good seminar
room because there is no central table and the chairs do not move. The shape of the room also
makes it difficult for everyone to see the screen. Regarding the second issue, I cannot plug my
laptop into an outlet and have it connected to the Smart Panel without getting loud static.
This was a horrific room and I had to be moved. The lights do NOT dim which makes the room
absolutely useless for using multi-media. The lights had to be off for the students to be able to
see the images and then they could not take notes. It was 85 degrees in the room and despite
many calls to have it fixed, it was not fixed. I had to be moved out of this room it was so
unbearable. In my short experience here at UCD (3 years) I have found the great majority of
the classrooms to have severe problems with lighting that make teaching with multi-media
(even just images) a real trial. It is embarrassing to have such poor conditions on a UC
campus. UT Austin where where I was previously had stellar classrooms with adequate
lighting and great computer, camera and screen set up. Nearly all the projecting screens in the
UCD classrooms I have had are far too small to allow all the students to see the images or text
being projected. It was also FAR too hot and stuffy in the classroom and many students
actually complained of headaches!
I am generally happy with this room.
Acoustics and room shape (which affects acoustics) are key in language teaching.
windowless classrooms in olson are a problem.
My class was packed tightly into this small space, with almost no room available for me to
lecture. The projector was so poor that it was unusable. The room as an astonishing mess. I
spent one day there and then moved my lectures to the room I teach the lab part of the course
in. In all honestly, I was horrified at this room, and the poor condition in was in, and I was
embarrassed as a member of the faculty at UCD.
Room size and arrangement works very well for lecture and also small groups.
This room is very wide and not very deep. I usually don't have to use a microphone but I do in
this room -- and it is available. A significant problem is in engaging the students in interaction.
The students want to contribute but cannot be heard from one side of the room to the other. I
asked for a portable microphone to give to the students but there are apparently only two on
the entire campus and they were already in use. I am not thrilled teaching 120 students in an
upper division class but when it is virtually impossible to engage them in conversation, it makes
my job just that much more difficult.
The chairs in this classroom are very disturbing as the constantly give off loud squeaks and
creaks. I have had several guests who are appalled by the constant distraction of the noisy
seats. The projector is ok for general powerpoint but poor brightness and color quality for
videos which are used more and more in the classes. The lighting is flaky and the dimmers
need replacing.
Really appreciated the prompt help from IT when equipment failed. It would be great, however,
if equipment was checked by IT before each quarter, to prevent last-minute failures and fixes.
Olson 241
olson 6
Olson 6
Olson 6
Olson and
Wellman
Olson
fixed chair
classroom
45
students
Olson or
Giedt
small
classroom
s
Olson, 1st
floor, midsized
lecture (70
students)
Olson,
about 60,
on 2nd
floor
Physical
Science
48
Physics
130
Physics
185
physics/ge
ology ??,
about 40
students
Physics;
25
Roesller
55
Roesller
66
Roessler
Compared w Olson 1 and 7 Olson 241 is cramped and hard to do group work in; I know,
however, that other faculty prefer it over Olson 1 and Olson 7. But it is my least favorite of
those three rooms. Much better tech support in Olson than in Veihmeyer in my experience.
The quality of projected images, specifically their brightness, was unacceptable. I emailed
about this problem, but there was no followup. I moved my class to another room. Also, having
two screens is poor when you have images that you have to point things out on (only one part
of the class gets the pointing -- or you spend too much time pointing things out on two screens).
Basically, this room is not useful for projecting things other than text.
Dream: movable seating, ability for small groups of students to gather around their own panel,
internet by wire only so students do not surf on own
http://studentofthemonth.steelcase.com/student/dr.-lennie-scott-webber
Olson 6 is a much better example of a large lecture room -- shallow and wide, with much more
space between the desks, cooler air, and better acoustics. There is also blackboard space on
either side of the screen, allowing for multiple forms of overhead at once.
Same comments as above but in the rooms with windows at least I could adjust the blinds so
that I could project the images but the students cold take notes with the lights off. You REALLY
need to do something about the lighting in your classrooms to make projecting possible. Even
just taking out the bank of lights at the front of the room where the screen is would be a huge
improvement! Air quality was also very poor.
Fixed chairs are annoying. Interfere with small discussion groups and with the ability to arrange
all seats in a circle. Equally annoying in large and small classrooms.
I think that more rooms should be set up in a seminar style--with tables rather than desk chairs.
This is a major problem for those of us who teach in the humanities in smaller classes (30 and
under). Rows do not facilitate intellectual exchange and desk chairs always need to be rearranged to facilitate a round table situation.
Fixed seating is annoying and stymies thoughts of group work.
Again, I prefer White board. The seats are fixed on the floor, making group work for students
especially difficult. I want students to talk to one another in small groups. This room makes it
difficult.
I really like having the blackboards that slide up and down.
Blackboards are too short in height.
This room needs general refurbishment.
These are great LITTLE classrooms used for physics and math sections. They have loads of
blackboard space but cannot accommodate many students. We need more lecture halls like
this -- but large enough for 50-70 students, There is a fine such room in Giedt.
Screens cover white boards. Too much light on screens when lights in the front are turned on.
Too dark with them off
Same comments as Roesller 66
Many lights are always out and students find it had to see in certain places in the room. Lousy
accoustics. And this room is too hot when Roesller 55 is fine, as is usually the case. The air
in both rooms seems to be connected...so if one is changed, the other is either too hot or too
cold.
Roe 55 could really use a digital voice recorder in the smart panel!
55
Roessler
55
Roessler
55
Roessler
55 AND
66
Roessler
66
Sci Lect
123
Sci Lect
123
Sci Lect
123
Sci Lect
123
Science
Lecture
Building
Science
Lecture
hall
Science
Lecture
Hall
scilec 123
Social Sci
1100
Social Sci
1100
Social Sci
1100
Social Sci
1100
Social Sci
1100
Social
Science
1100 360
students All upper
division
and grad
students
Electrical outlets should be in the podium/island. The island is setup for a lab science with a
sink, etc. which is awkward.
This is a model classroom in many ways. The lights are dimmable and the screen is big
enough that all the students can see the information. Air quality is sometimes an issue but
usually much better than in Olson and Wellman.
This year, the chalk boards in both 55 and 66 Roessler have not been working as well as they
used to. I'm not sure if this is due to the change in chalk, which I did not like, or that the boards
are not being cleaned as well overnight. In any case, it's now harder to read for the students.
It's now chalk that makes a lighter line on a dirtier board.
Lighting is a perennial problem in Roe 66. Burned-out lights (or possibly it's a problem with the
light socket itself) in the back create very dark areas. I feel sorry for students who have to take
exams in those areas.
This room needs a BIG clock in the back so that the instructor can have a clock to monitor the
pace of the lecture. Presently there is no clock except in front (which is hidden by the screen).
Haven't tried to access the internet except with ethernet in that classroom.
Very nice room. Can use the chalkboard and screen together.
Blackboards are covered when the screen is down. Two screens and two projectors would be
nice in this room so that you can project the lecture and write notes on the document camera
at the same time.
I believe that there is no clock in there; clocks are great . If it isn't Science lecture Hall it was
1100 Soc Sci.
Clicker reception erratically spotty during lectures. the same equipment was used in Soc Sci
1100 without problem, so some effect of the room with the clicker receiver. not sure there is
anything to do about that, but it would be good to warn the prof.
This room is so large that blackboard use is not feasible. I occasionally use Internet Access,
but whether it is wired or wireless is not important.
as faculty I should automatically be connected to the internet; there is no instruction for
switching between my laptop and a projector that is hooked up via a vga cable; there is no such
thing and I ended up having to scan everything to my laptop; the quality as a result of the
displays is compromised. I should be able to hook up several devices and switch back and forth
with a touch on a key pad;
I'd like to see these rooms equipped with computers so that I don't have to take my own laptop
to every lecture for Pwer Point presentations (like computer-equipped classrooms in
Hutchison).
The single screen that largely covers all of the blackboards is terrible for an instructor like
myself who needs to simultaneously do projection and make use of the blackboard.
This is a fairly functional room.
It is impossible to see the screens with the lights on. With the lights off it is too dark to take
notes. One cannot use the screens and the while boards simultaneously
Be nice to be able to use the chalkboard and the screen easily during the same lecture. One
chalkboard will not stay up. Also, has an unfinished look about it. Always dirty. Be nice if there
was a "mud room" so to speak in the back so the back doors do not open right onto the street.
When students come in late it is distracting to sit in the back--you hear the road noise.
I don't believe that this room has wireles, but that is not a disadvantage to me as long as I can
continue to hook to the internet connection on the multimedia podium.
Social
Sciences
1100
Social
Sciences
80
Social
Sciences
Building,
bottom
level,
room 70 I
think. 9
students.
Sproul
Hall
SS1100.
SSH 80,
81
Storer
1322
Storer
1322
Storer
1322
Storer
1342
Storer
1344
Surge 3
Room
1309
Surge III
Surge III -22
students
Surge III
(Aprox
100
students)
Surge III
1309
The room is configured in a way that allows use of the chalkboard OR the main screen for
powerpoint, but NOT BOTH. This is a bit of a problem for me. As a result, I use the chalkboard
only.
Students are unable to concentrate in this room. Their responsiveness in this room os much
lower than their responsiveness in any other room I have taught in.
The ceiling lights for the blackboard were obscured by a screen fixture hanging directly below
them, and there was never enough light on the blacboard. The room itself was quite dark too.
These seminar rooms really are in need of careful redesign with console/equipment support
and any other state-of-the-art technological developments.
This is a great place to teach. Great in all regards
The acoustics in this room are so poor that it is impossible to teach a foreign language.
Why don't these rooms have working clocks? I find this terribly annoying.
This room needs renovation. Also, better indication of where the lighting panel is would be
helpful (e.g., next to the actual light switch, a notice that dimmer light controls are on the lab
bench), as it's not an intuitive location and took me a couple of weeks to find it the first time I
taught in the room.
problems with the room: The DVI cable does not work with my computer. I can't use the VGA
since I don't have a vga adapter for my computer (new mac). The new microphone is no longer
has a way to clip it on. Not all professors wear clothes with pockets to put the mic in. The
volume control on the mic on the console does not work. It is not possible control the lights with
the the panel and light up the board effectively. I have used the room in the past with none of
these problems.
I *love* black boards and writing on them. Some blackboard chalk is great. Some brands are
too hard and do not erase. I generally bring a stash of my own chalk and my own (chamois)
eraser. I profoundly dislike white boards.
The screen faces the windows, which are so bright as to make the projection poor. The
projector is not powerful enough to illuminate dark slides (the same slides show perfectly in
SS1100, where I have taught). Twice the internet has been nonfunctional in this classroom.
Once I called the number, and a polite and thoroughly competent person has arrived. The
second time I simply gave the lecture without calling the tech. I will request not to have this
classroom next time I teach this class owing to the direction of the screen and the weak
projector.
The MAJOR problem I have at UCD is that there is no large classroom on campus with
moveable tables and chairs. I need a flexible setup in order to do "active learning" exercises
with classes, generally breaking the class into small groups for role plays, sketch exercises,
etc. PLEASE ensure that such a room is available. Not having one locks all instructors into a
traditional lecture mode of instruction.
Pens for the white boards could be stored in the locked console drawer.
Room is nice and intimate for a class of 15. For 22, some have to pile into chairs behind a set
of tables arranged in a "U". The whole building, however, is decrepit and going to class there
can be a depressing experience.
The room is too wide and the projection quality is only adequate. It would be helpful for the
lighting control to be such that the screen can be darker and some lights in the front and rear of
the room controlled by zones.
The continuous desk seating is great, I wish more of the large lecture classrooms had this.
However, the width of the room means it's hard to see the far ends of the whiteboards from the
opposite end of the class, and the far ends are the only spots available when the screen is
down, which makes it impossible to do a combination of PowerPoint slide and whiteboard
material during lecture.
Surge III.
surge IV,
135
students
the thrre
many halls
in Giedt
University
Club
dance
studio aka
Nelson
Hall studio
Veihmeyer
212
Veihmeyer
212
Wellman
Wellman small
rooms
109,
similar
Wellman
01
Wellman
02
Wellman
06
Wellman
105
Wellman
105
Wellman
106
Wellman
106
Wellman
11? - 25
Wellman
111
Wellman
119
Don't like the placement of the podium/console. To far to the left. Since I use iPad to project
Keynote presentations, I have no remote to advance the slides. So, I alway have to walk all the
way over to the podium in order to advance the slides. If the VGA cable were longer, that might
help.
This room shape works well for lecture, as no students are too far away. The screen is
awkwardly placed to use the whiteboard, however.
These rooms are models, and a delight to use
this room needs a lot of work to bring it up to general standard for technologically assisted
teaching and movement. I use it a lot with skype visual conferencing and it could do with some
ability to create a slightly darker area to project the images. could be solved with a couple of
curtains...
AV Console hook up requires restarting when using a Mac rather than plug and play as w/ most
projectors. Strange. And requires arriving early to make sure it will work and not delay start of
class.
Two things. There is no means of podcasting lectures from this classroom or, to my
understanding, other classrooms of this size. And I became worried about the amount of chalk
dust in the room and its risks to the laptop I used for Powerpoint.
The rooms in Wellman are terrible for air quality and temperature
The chalk dust makes the room an occupational hazard - I have come to live with the chalk
stripe across my tush, but I'm really tired of spending the entire quarter coughing for several
days a week.
Need projector ready for iPad2 use.
It would be nice if the lighting were set up so that the lecturer could be well lit without the
lighting also making it difficult to see the screen.
The last time I taught in this room, several of the desks were broken. The shape of the room
is awful (long and narrow). The students in the back of the room feel anonymous and
disconnected from the lecture.
I really don't care for (hate) using black boards and chalk!!! I much rather use white boards and
markers.
Dimmable lights would really help. Internet is spotty and practically unusable here. The number
of desks makes room seem too crowded, and it's hard for students to work together in a small
group-arrangement. Smart panel controls are slow to respond.
would like to have more uniform podcast technology throughout campus
Same problem with the quality of the video projection and the lighting control in the front of the
room is often not working properly....It is either dim or out
Room was too small
The room is fine for a grad seminar of 8-10 but would be REALLY crowded with 15, which I
believe is the actual seat limit. Air temperature has gotten better in the last couple years, they
used to really crank the heat in winter. I haven't taught in this room since fall, and the last class
in which I used a lot of internet was over a year ago, so I don't remember details, but I
remember it was a bit of a hassle.
119 Wellman is a good room for my classes and I hope to teach in this room in the future.
Wellman
119
Wellman
126
Wellman
126
Wellman 2
Wellman 2
Wellman 2
Wellman 2
Wellman 2
Wellman 2
Wellman
207
Wellman
209
Wellman
216
Wellman
216
Wellman
226
Wellman
226
Wellman
229
If this is the room I am remembering, the audio system is terrible -- weak and lacking sufficient
control. The lighting similarly is problematic -- lights failing and not well controllable. Fixed
seats are fine for lecture, but make it impossible to reconfigure for break out discussion. In
general, these general assignment classrooms enforce the podium lecture format we all claim
is dead. Finally, the chalkboards in Wellman get used in the evenings by student groups and
the maintenance staff cannot keep them clean. There is so much chalk dust in some that it
provokes my allergies. On one occasion (again, I'm not sure it was 119), an electrical plug had
been broken off in the outet, obviously shorted out, and posed a serious electrocution hazard
until I called for repair. Chairs are often broken, tossed around, and on two occasions I had to
have tables replaced because they had broken legs and would not support my laptop.
The room is REALLY crammed. It's uncomfortable for students to sit so jam packed for 2-hour
lectures. The seats come far too close to where the professor stands and lectures. It's really
difficult to turn in tests because there is no space for an aisle if someone sits behind the table.
The blackboard / screen arrangement is unworkable. When the screen is down, you have
almost no blackboard space accessible. Even without the screen, there is too little blackboard
space. Needs movable blackboards so you can have more information showing
simultaneously.
The universal remote control does not work well if you need to go back to DVD menus and
move to a different chapter. I can't seem to locate a button that will take you back to the menu.
In addition, the display only gives you the current time location of the DVD, but not the Chapter
number. The VGA cable is stored in the same drawer as the wireless mic which means that I
occasionally come to class and the drawer is locked. Why not store both of the cables in the
same drawer and move the mic to a dedicated drawer that can be locked? Would also be
nice if the classroom could be cleaned--it's filthy.
Although the shape of the room is somewhat awkward in that students on one side have
difficulty seeing the board on the other, it is better than the long, thin rooms like 6 Wellman with
limited blackboard space. In general, this is a very good room for both screen and blackboard
presentations.
Generally, I have few concerns.
Another room that needs renovation, perhaps more so: the seats are falling apart, and the
lighting is terrible with limited control.
The projection screen is too small, and it blocks the blackboard. This arrangement for a room
this size is ridiculous. Students seated toward the sides of the room can't see the screen
At one point during the winter quarter, a couple of the ceiling lights were flicking on and off like
a strobe light when I tried to lower the lights in order to use the computer projector. It took a few
weeks and several attempts to notify the classroom hotline in order to rectify the problem.
This room is OK, but very small; the blackboards are OK, but the ones in the back are difficult
to access, b/c there are many students, many desks, and some students are sitting w/their
back against the blackboards. Also, the other (front) blackboards are scratched, and have not
been thoroughly cleaned in a long time. Therefore, since someone decided to use colored
chalk that "embedded" itself in the surface, it is sometimes useless to try to use those
blackboards. And, this classroom is very very dirty:(
The room is almost always quite warm. This seems to be the case generally in Wellman--from
the basement up through the second floor. I can prop the door open for air. The wireless is
sporadic in there and so I use a cable with the laptop. In other Wellman classrooms, I have had
various compatibility issues with the projector. Apparently, when projectors are replaced, the
default settings are kept. In this way, the settings vary from room to room.
the wired internet isn't reliable, either
It is very hard for students at the back to see the board. Welllman is in general very poor and
has some of the worst rooms on campus
The room only has 80 seats and I expect students to attend class. The room is 4 rows of 20
nailed down chairs. It is impossible to have a discussion and it is like teaching sideways in an
airplane.
This room is filthy; there is chalk dust on everything. The seating is chaotic. I was forced to cap
my class to fit the room. to top it off frats and other student organizations must use the room
after hours and the chalk boards are covered with notes and messages. the only board that is
consistently cleaned off is the one at the front of the room at arm level. No clock. The room is
like a dungeon.
Wellman
233
Wellman
25
Wellman
26
Wellman
26
Wellman
26
Wellman 3
Wellman 5
Wellman 6
Wellman 6
Wellman
80
students
Wellman
Hall
Wellman
Hall, over
100
students
Wellman
room 1
(20-40)
I've had this classroom several times, and students never fail to complain about feeling
claustrophobic, although I will say that it is one of the few rooms where I feel the students aren't
drowning in a sea of space or far too separated from the front of the room. For some reason,
things are always getting stolen from this room: the front table, the chairs, etc., and it takes a
long time to get them replaced. Someone vomited on the floor at the beginning of the quarter,
and that took weeks to get cleaned up.
I like having 2 screens, since the room is rectangular; I still do not like teaching in the
basement, w/out windows
This is a dismal room -- hot, airless, long and narrow, with bolted-down seats and no way for
students to move around easily. A cordless mike would help, but mostly, they are packed like
miserable sardines.
The media cabinet is horribly placed and is actually dangerous. As a left-handed person I back
across the room from left to right as I use the board, and I often bump into the media cabinet.
When we first were in the room this quarter I removed a hook that sticks out toward the
instructor. I kept it with me so that it would not be reinstalled. It is very dangerous and could
cause serious harm, such as spine or kidney damage. I have reported this kind of thing for
years and thus think this is a lawsuit waiting to happen if somebody gets injured. The media
cabinet is very badly placed also -- it should be a bit out of the way of the board, perhaps over
hear the door and in front of that seat in the first row. I bump into it regularly. Also, the board is
hard to erase, as it is often very dirty, and things are hard for the students to see on them.
My students are less comfortable in 26 Wellman than in other classrooms.
In Wellman 3 it is impossible to dim the lights, which makes viewing the computer projection
difficult while maintaining enough light for students to take notes. The other problem is that the
A/V smartpanel automatically shuts off after a couple hours, without warning, which can be
disruptive to whatever I'm projecting on the screen at the time.
As the lights can only be turned on or off, the image quality of the screen when using the
projector is really poor and the slides can be barely seen. Unfortunately, if one turns the light off
everybody would fall asleep. There should be an intermediate lighting level that allows a better
visualization of the slides on screen.
Th right hand side of the blackboard (right when facing the board) is inaccessible; it is blocked
by the AV console.
This room also has a problem with the media cabinet, but it is not as bad as 26 Wellman since
the board is bigger and the cabinet is next to the side wall. I thus have some sense that I am
getting close to it when I back across the room, since I know the wall is approaching. It should
be moved away from the board also. It had a hook on it when we moved there this quarter, so I
took it off and took it over to 26 Wellman. Ditto about the board being somewhat hard to see.
long, narrow room, hardly any blackboard space; blackboards are not good--not erased cleanly
Some class rooms in Wellman Hall are simply too crowded. Students in the back of the room
hard to see. Writing on old chalkboords often barely visible (poor quality of chalk?) Instructors
get covered with dust chalk, students have a hard time reading what is on the board.
Not having a highly visible clock makes it very challenging to maintain a good pace during
lectures. I rarely use a watch and it's difficult to monitor the time on my laptop during my
powerpoint presentation.
I would prefer the screen and posiibly two screens for powerpoint projections to be sitauated in
the upper front corner or corners of the room for two reasons. 1) Students in the back can see
the screen more clearly rather than being obstructed in view when the screen is in the middle in
the front of the room. The second reason is that the screen/s will be more out of the way so the
the lecturer can write in the middle of the white or blackboard while a powerpoint is being
displayed to expand or answer questions while writing on the board. This screen arrangement
should be applied to all classrooms on campus particulalrly in those rooms where the student
seating and floor is level.
wellmen 1
Wohlers
234
Wright 101
Young
198
Young
198
Young 184
Young 192
YOUNG
198
young
198, apprx
170
students
Young
Hall 184
Young
Hall. Seats
about 120
students.
Theater
setting.
I'd prefer white board to black board.. Chalks produce powder that stick to my lap book. Chalks
are not healthy, period.
the lights in the front of the room should have the ability to dim so as to not cast glare on the
screen. also moobilenet is iffy from this room--sometimes I can get on and other times not--but
the ethernet is inaccessible since the built-in cord is too short to reach the podium desk.
since the new technology went in it's great.
Good room if you happen to have under 300 students in your class
I request that sliding boards will be installed. Having only one board is not very useful for
efficient teaching.
This room is terribly uncomfortable in the fall and spring quarters. If the A/C units are turned on,
students won't be able to hear.
This room is usually too hot and stuffy.
The configuration of seatings of this room is not suitable for exams. Not much space between
the seats.
I appreciate very much your consideration of these issues and thank you in advance for your
time. The AV console consistently crashed on me in the middle of lecture. This happened at
least 10 times during the quarter. I would be able to display from my mac laptop fine for the
first hour but then it would crash about half way through. I needed to reboot the whole system
to get it to work again. I feel like this was disruptive to students learning and should not be
happening. We either need a new system or better technical check-ups. Also, whenever I
plugged in at the beginning of lecture, the systems made loud static noises that reverberated
and cycled. I dont know why this should happen and in general think that the system should be
compatible with both windows and mac systems. Finally, the cables frequently got tangled. Is
there a way to set up a remote system for display? This would make things much easier. In
general, the AV projector system was outdated compared to what I have worked with in the
past. Could podcasting be made easier here? We had to purchase a podcasting recorder
which my TA had to have in his lap.
Student seating is too close and makes it too easy for
them to cheat. But this is likely difficult to remedy. Many of the chairs, however, were broken,
at least when I taught there. I appreciate very much your consideration of these issues and
thank you for your time.
The lighting in this room does not work with the boards. From the back of the room you cannot
read the writing on the blackboard. The rigid seats are undesirable, but of greater concern is
that the room is fairly deep, so the students in the back are far away from the instructor and
cannot see well. For 70 students you really need a sloped floor. Too many students for such a
small space.
Chalks and blackboard are unhealthy and messy.
No idea what a "general assignment classroom" is…
by instructor/
Wireless access needs to be controllable
Q 7:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Is there a classroom that you believe is functionally working but is fundamentally
flawed in some way? Or, is there a comment that you would like to share regarding the
current state of our classrooms ?
Open-Ended Response
Many classrooms in Olson and Wellman have the same serious problems with lighting
and air quality/temperature as described above and are thus fundamentally flawed and
actually barely usable or unusable as with Olson 118. You need to go through in a
systematic way with someone who understands the lighting needs for projecting screen
images and conduct an inventory of the absolutely unacceptable lighting conditions and
then systematically correct them. Do the same thing with air quality/temperature.
The comments about the universal remotes and SmartPanel displays applies to every
classroom I have used. Because there is very little functionality in terms of controlling
DVDs (and none for the VCR) on the actual smartpanel, the remote needs to be
programmed in such a way that you have full control--beyond basic commands like
play, stop, pause, fast forward, etc. Also, most of the classrooms in Wellman are
filthy. Would appreciate a cleaning of the front desk, podium, chair, etc. Only lock up
the wireless mics, not the VGA cables--move them if necessary. The Internet access
in most of the rooms in Wellman is poor. I cannot get a reliable enough connection to
show short videos from the Internet. Contrast this with teaching in Giedt where I am
able to show entire films via the Internet.
Every classroom in which blackboards have been eliminated in favor of white boards
and screens.
Why, why, why can't the classrooms be equipped with a basic, functioning computer so
that faculty could just bring thumb drives rather than schlepping their laptops around? It
has to cost the university more in wear and tear on the laptops than it would to provide
such basic functions.
No.
Wellman 5 or 6, one of the narrow ones. The narrow dimension is from back to front,
perpendicular to the screen. I was assigned it for a freshman seminar on animated film,
and many of the students had a very diagonal view of the screen. It would be better if
the screen were on the side of the room with the door.
The noisy chairs in Olsen are the greatest distraction to teaching.
health sci Sac campus classrooms new and in much better shape than many Davis
campus classrooms, but still way behind the best they could be -- with flexible space for
group work and problem solving
See the above regarding 109 Olson. That room should be re-designed.
Overall, the classrooms are deteriorating. LCD projectors are getting old, so resolution
is decreasing. More maintenance is required. Overall, I do not like the rigid seats,
although I understand their purpose. There is often no chalk, or insufficient little pieces
with the chalkboard. Quality of chalk has also declined over the years. For large rooms
or rooms with poor lighting, this is important. Almost every classroom has lights that are
burned out and/or temperature control problems. On a positive note, I use the
document viewers often. Please keep them.
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
The problem we face--it is slowly being resolved--is that NON-generally assignable
spaces like Music Dept classrooms don't get regular updates along with the rest of the
campus. When I arrived 8 years ago, we have no projectors installed and only one for
the whole department, which had to be carted around and set up fresh each time.
Things are better now, but only because we have spent departmental money and had
help from the Dean's office. We could make these rooms generally assignable, of
course, but ONLY if we can be assured of DECENT pianos, white boards WITH music
staff lines, etc.--a real hassle for all schedulers. Much easier to update non-generally
assignable rooms to a basic standard of operation.
see above: Chalkboards poor condition. Nailed chairs which do not allow for
discussion or collaborative projects in class. Not enough classrooms.
I think it's time to give up on "General Assignment" and non-GA and find out where the
important large classes are taught and make them right. Things like: sound interference
in the wiring, bringing a loud hum into all music; projectors that need tuning for color
(but can't be got at to fix), etc., are a daily vexation.
BLACKBOARDS (or Whitboards) The older classrooms have poor board systems. A
board is an importatn piece of hardware when trying toengage a class in discussion,
especially a large class!
Temporary Classroom 3 is ridiculous. There's an LCD projector and a screen, but the
room is so short (height-wise) and so wide (side to side) but shallow (front to back), that
hardly any of the students have an unobstructed view of the screen. You might as well
not use PowerPoint at all.
Fixed chairs are fundamentally flawed except in auditorium-type classrooms.
Overall, the classrooms are nice and well maintained (clean & orderly).
The MAJOR problem I have at UCD is that there is no large classroom on campus with
moveable tables and chairs. I need a flexible setup in order to do "active learning"
exercises with classes, generally breaking the class into small groups for role plays,
sketch exercises, etc. PLEASE ensure that such a room is available. Not having one
locks all instructors into a traditional lecture mode of instruction.
I love the fact that they all have SmartPanels and projectors as well as wireless
connections.
I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO SEE MORE CLASSROOMS WITH MOVEABLE SEATING
TO FACILITATE SMALL GROUP WORK. This is particularly important in classrooms
that seat 30-70, but I would like to see this in ALL classrooms. Also, I wish I didn't have
to carry my own laptop around if I want to go on the Internet.
SocSci 1100 - the podium set-up requires the lecturer to stay anchored at the podium
rather than setting up the computer elsewhere for mobility (could be solved by remote
mouse, I guess)....If students are to use laptops in class, wireless access really must
function at high capacity AND there need to be electrical ports for battery charging
(since we don't have really good battery technology yet). Additionally, there needs to be
more space per student to use the laptop efficiently.
The AV support is generally excellent... really no complaints there... very easy to use
and consistent among classrooms, which is great. The classrooms feel very dated
however, lighting is poor, seating is in poor condition, the air is often stale and smelly,
and the large classrooms I typically teach in feel like they belong more in a community
college than a first rate university. Clicker support is poor as campus clickers are not
well supported by MACs despite the fact that many of us use MACs... we need another
option.
In general, most classroom in which I have taught are pleasant and conducive to
learning. One general problem that surfaces in the transitional period between winter
and spring is that most if not all rooms do not permit local climate control. Sometimes
it's warm outside and the heat is still on inside, which makes the temperature
uncomfortable in the classroom.
In general the smartPanel are useful but classroom are often not clean; too many
students crammed into small spaces.
Our classrooms are an embarrassment. They are run-down and dingy. Internet
connections are flaky.
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
I've been impressed that most large classrooms now have SmartPanels that work!
It would be great if it were possible to turn off or block internet access to rooms during
exams and even lectures.
27 Olson, last time I taught there (Winter 2011), had HORRIBLE air and climate
control.
We desperately need more mid-to-large classrooms (i.e., seat 150-250 students) in the
main campus area. Scheduling a class for >100 students where they don't end up in a
room where they're on top of each other is difficult.
216 Wellman - poor visibility.
They all have problems. We cope. But nothing stands out.
Replacing the black boards with white boards will be a good idea.
No.
no, but they are mostly overheated in winter
Classrooms are barely adequate. I would like to do more with technology in the
classroom, but the consoles currently in use are no longer state-of-the-art. Showing
videos is particular problematic; using a laptop to show videos is also very difficult to
impossible. Microphones are often barely functional. Room climate is very
uncomfortable in general. And, lighting is inadequate. Chairs are uncomfortable. In
general, things are looking pretty dilapidated.
See comment above re screens obscuring the blackboard. Also, I LOVE the document
cameras, but not all of the smaller classrooms have them yet. Also -- netbooks are so
cheap now -- they're probably not too expensive compared to the A-V console that's
already there. Couldn't we have a little netbook (with a USB port) permanently
stationed in a classroom, so that we wouldn't have to lug our own notebook PCs
around in order to show something on our computers or access the internet? Well, just
a wish. Also, I'd love to use clickers, but from what I've heard of them so far, they are
not that easy and spontaneous to use. So I'm not jumping in yet -- who has time to
learn and prepare for that?
See above for 1001 Giedt
SocSci 1100--I don't teach there anymore, but it certainly was a dreary experience
when I did.
both of the above in the areas indicated
They could be better but could also be worse. As far as he classrooms I have attended,
I think that they are pretty much OK.
The classrooms in Wellman and Olson I usually use are pretty good in general, but the
student seating is not very adaptable. Specifically, the older "tablet-arm chairs" should
be updated. Desk part too small, too slanted—books fall off all the time.
adfsg
The classrooms aren't perfect, but they work.
Don't know
No
For my purposes, none encountered
No
The new General Education requirements expect students to complete 12 units in
Visual Literacy. We don't have general assignment classrooms equipped to meet this
need.
There are users, likely at night or on the weekends, that leave the front teaching area of
the classroom in complete disarray, with cables strewn about and debris (cups, papers,
stuff) left behind.
no, I don't use many classrooms on the main campus
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
All the classrooms I have been teaching in the last few years are increasingly dirty. I
believe we should not use carpet, and where there is carpet, it should be pulled out.
Also, whoever assigns the classrooms must be looking at the enrollment # only - or
primarily. However, certain classrooms are not suitable to some subjects (e.g., those
whose seats are bolted to the floor, or where the seats are connected to each other,
are not suitable for group work, or other activities). I think that instructors should be
able to state their preferences for the type of classroom that is most suitable to their
teaching methods/activities before the rooms are assigned, not after (i.e., "complaining"
about them)
No.
So many of the campus classrooms are grubby, gloomy places, technology can only
solve so many issues. If its actually unpleasant to sit in a room its hard to imagine
students are going to focus very well. The other issue is the blinds in these classrooms.
Many are old and barely functional, sometimes not coming down evenly or opening
properly
Some Hart classrooms are too wide and shallow -- it's difficult to track students in them.
there should be a way to eliminate lights on the screen while allowing dim lights for the
student seating. Nobody seems to design this in.
See above -- Olson 206
not applicable
None
No
The issue of compatibility of Mac laptops with the consoles is a chronic problem.
Adapters are not usually available on short notice. I teach courses in which students
give presentations. I warn them to scope out the equipment first, but being students
they usually don't!
no.... but I have less success in dealing with you than with my tech staff in our
department. you are slow to respond and you don't always help me with my specific
problem
chairs that don't move is fundamental flaw
None in particular
Again, see comment above about Wellman rooms
not that i know of
67
Veihmeyer 212's fixed seats are a major problem for group work
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
Many classrooms have a sad, depressing feel and could use updating. Most, however,
perform adequately as lecture halls and discussion spaces.
The placement of the media cabinets is very poor in many rooms, particularly in
Wellman. It is almost as if the designers of the rooms have little clue of the variety of
activities that might go on in them. Many of the erasers are poor, and while
maintenance seems to vacuum carpets and empty trash, the most important part of the
room to me, the boards, are often left quite dirty.
The help buttons on most of the Smart Panels don't work.
Some of the rooms in old buildings.
They are old and not very conducive to getting students involved in discussion. They
are suited to an older style of lecturing rather than interaction.
I generally feel that classrooms are very uneven in quality and upkeep.
NA
184 Young Hall - has an issue with air temperature and climate.
Large lecture hall in Young-- room shape is unworkable!
Most classrooms I teach in are fine for my needs. This survey is a good way to catch
the few that have problems.
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
There aren't enough large classrooms. If enrollment is increasing and faculty are
decreasing, this is not sustainable.
No.
Repeating myself: Nice to have computers in classrooms
no
I would like to see more flexible seating in at least one or two general assignment
classrooms.
Outdated and not equipped for nwe tecnlogies
Overall, I feel that the current state of our classrooms is sub-optimal for modern
teaching and does not allow faculty to utilize resources and educational technologies
that would benefit our students for more interactive learning. UC Riverside was
recently featured on Undercover Boss and one of their lecture hall classrooms (for 250300 students) was shown and it was more impressive than any classroom I have seen
at UC Davis. In addition to looking more modern, it had two screens, two projection
methods, and better seating. Instead of replacing classes with online lectures and
having all course content online, we need to improve our educational technologies in
the classroom to maximize the benefits of technologies as well as interactions and
student engagement.
Art 204: Lighting is bad. AHI courses need to be able to dim the lights so students can
take notes in the dark while studying images on the screen. Can't be done with existing
lighting. This would be my top priority of things to fix in this room.
Need better temperature control! And if we could ever afford it...better seating so
students could easily get in and out in the middle of the room. Not enough space.
In Welman and in Haring Hall i have on occasion been in classrooms where the
wireless connection does not work - i always report it when this occurs and have
usually been told the problem is localized, known (reported before) but there appears
to be no fix.
No
see above
No.
young 198. please see above, i.e., The AV console consistently crashed on me in
the middle of lecture. This happened at least 10 times during the quarter. I would be
able to display from my mac laptop fine for the first hour but then it would crash about
half way through. I needed to reboot the whole system to get it to work again. I feel
like this was disruptive to students learning and should not be happening. We either
need a new system or better technical check-ups. The seating is too close and
encouraged cheating.
100 Hunt
Please see comment above. Also please provide a chart with instructions for lecturers
how to turn on the powerpoint and other basic requirments. I recently had to give a
lecture in the Vet School and had to call someone to help me turn on the projector
which was not was not very obvious
no
They could be cleaner. I suppose janitorial activities have been cut, but sometimes the
rooms get really dirty, especially Young 198.
no, I'm really happy with both scilec and 3 Kleiber- its amazing how well you can see
the students in such a large hall, and the classrooms are always funcitional.
no
no
No
n/a
1322 storer. I added my comments above.
no
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I did not likely teaching in Wellman 126 due to reasons described above
Yes, 1003 Geidt Hall is a terrific classroom with terrible lighting by the blackboard.
Having come from schools without such extensive and well-maintained instructional
technology, I want to say how wonderful it is to have computer classrooms, on-site
technical support. and the SmartPanel, all of which allow me to integrate many useful
exercises into my classes.
The single biggest problem I face is the lack of large classrooms. I would and could
teach a much larger class, but the campus does not have an adequate number of
classrooms for large classes!!!
I would say that the SmartPanels are flawed insofar as they are off to the side, with
cords you can easily trip over, and strange doodads you need to project from your
laptop not available in the drawers.
Some classrooms have blackboards up on the
side of bolted-down desks, useless to the instructor. And why do we not have clocks in
the classrooms? I realize, too, that cordless mikes might walk away, but they are key
in large lecture classes.
No comment.
As noted above - board lighting in 1001 Giedt is terrible, screens covering blackboards
with no alternative option in other listed rooms make teaching very difficult for me.
no
No.
Storer 1344 if the internet or laptop projector is needed.
From my days teaching large lecture sections...I am not crazy about the acoustics in
1100 Social Sciences and Humanities. I generally leave the blackboard and wander up
and down aisles. The acoustics in 1100 SSH are such that sound does not travel well
from the seating area. Because I do not lecture with voice amplification, this makes it
harder for students to hear me. (I do not use a microphone because if I do, students
ask me to turn it up so that they can hear. If I don't, they ask classmates to be quiet. My
voice carries well enough that this works.)
Not really. The classroom is old and not very nice, but I make it work.
n/a
Research 1, conference room, UCDHS
see above, all are fundamentally flawed in the location of the screen that covers up the
bulk of the black or white boards
164 Art. The indirect lighting is poor, and this is critical for showing visual images in Art
History classes.
no
None
I've only taught in GH.
198 Young is a ridiculous shape--you cannot use any of the room except the very
center.
Q8:
From the list below, please check the five educational technologies most critical to your
teaching. (Even if the technology is not currently available in your classroom, but nonetheless
you believe it is critical to your teaching and/or your students' learning).
If there is something not on this list, please list it here.
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The wireless on campus is incredibly and embarrassingly spotty and often does not
work in the classrooms. Why do you not provide ethernet connections that work? I
have tried in countless occasions to use the ethernet port with my own cord (that I
have tested elsewhere) and the ethernet ports NEVER work! Why not? Why have
you not fixed these. As you can tell i have been extremely frustrated with the
classroom technology at this university and I have even considered leaving because
of it. It is really not acceptable.
Abundant blackboard space -- preferably of the two-layered sort that allows you to
keep something visible while writing the next bits up.
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It would be very helpful to have clicker software and smartsite integrated.
I should note that by comparison to a widely-used platform like Blackboard, the
SmartSite and Gradebook platforms seem awkward and difficult to use. I have never
been able to understand why UCD has never adopted Blackboard, and I still find
SmartSite requires new learning with every iteration of my teaching.
Some of the audio I use is podcast, but most is CD, also DVD and, yes, VHS for
operas that are otherwise unavailable. I need a piano or keyboard.
The capacity to project powerpoint
Markers for the whiteboard.
in order to use smartsite for online teaching it needs to be available 24/7. It can't go
down for periodic maintenance.
SmartSite wasted a lots of my time. It is not user friendly.
The gradebooks are killing me. I have 400 students. 10-15 are in University
Extension. I ahve to keep everybody in my grade book but when it comes time to
submit grades I need to pull out the University Extension (open enrollement)
students. We end up with issues of our grade book not matching the class roster
and it casues issues with getting grades submitted. can somebody please bring
University Extension into the 20th century. I know they think they are the leading
edge, but I have to submit hardcopy grades. They should have their grades come in
with the class roster. Their students should be listed in the class roster, I should not
have to enter them into the roster and then pull them out when it comes time to
submit grades. I am rapidly getting to the point that I am going to refuse to take
University Extension Sudents until they are transparent from the instructor end. So
the gradebook has some real limitation, but you can blame UE. Call if you want
backup!
I was going to put SmartSite, since having a CMS is vital to the way I teach, but the
truth is that I hate SmartSite, and I'd much rather the campus support Moodle
instead.
Would like a YouTube-type feature without having to use Google/YouTube. Would
like access to LE editing equipment and software to make use of smartphone video
shot by students.
sometimes the web conferencing does not support skype and this is centrally
important to my teaching.
computer plus projector for showing slides with examples, results from analysis,
graphics, etc.
Flexible classroom space, with moveable tables and chairs. It is ridiculous that the
campus focuses so much on various electronic technology when this most basic
educational option isn't available.
Some type of collaborative real-time writing software for students to write papers
together either in the computer labs or perhaps on a site. Also, some way to take
attendance using SmartSite would be nice.
smartsite would be critical if it was not such a flawed, counter-intuitive interface.
They must have a great sales team though!
Newsgroups that have the functionality of Outlook Express and/or Thunderbird.
As mentioned above, infrastructure items like electrical outlets for charging and
desks with room to work on laptop efficiently. O/T: my ability to teach large classes
while simultaneously maximizing internet technologies currently available elsewhere
would be enhanced if we had testing centers where students could take online
exams that are PROCTORED and ID REQUIRED.
As a language class, we use the DVD player and the laptop daily.
None of the above are particularly important for my teaching. I maintain my own
gradebooks, of course. So I am not sure what is meant by that category.
It would be great if classrooms could be set up so that cell phone access is
completely blocked. More and more in recent years, students are using smartphones
in class, which is not always easy to spot in large lecture classes. Instructors end up
having to repeat requests not to use such technology. This is becoming a problem
not just at UC Davis but at institutions around the country. If such access could be
automatically blocked somehow, this would become a non-issue for many
instructors.
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Usable white board markers and erasers
A screen that does not block the blackboard.
Lecture capture on this campus is a total joke. Two years ago, I tried to capture my
lectures for podcasting. First I was given an audio recorder that was incapable of
recording an entire lecture. When that problem was finally solved, two weeks into
the course, I asked for help in editing the audio to create a podcast. I was told that I
had to do it myself using free-ware that I could download from the Internet. In the
end, I got so far behind that I just gave up. I can't believe that MIT, whose courses
are now used by people all over the world, does things this way. If we want to
compete with the "big boys", we have to act like the "big boys".
classroom network
I hate SmartSite. It's clunky, ugly, and awful. Don't know anyone who likes it. Just
thought I'd share. Now I'm annoyed. I'm trying to advance to the next page of this
survey and it won't, even though I've answered every question on this page. Oh, I
see, you want 5 answers even though I don't use any of the ones listed. Why? So, I'll
just pick some.
Since this is my first year, (after a few years break) I was wondering if there are
workshops to learn what is available, technology wise. It will be very usefull to learn
how students can use the technology in language classes and language lab.
I use clickers in BIS 1A, but do not consider them critical. Actually, probably none of
the listed technologies are critical. I do consider my web site critical, but I don't use
SmartSite (because it is so clunky).
Document cameras -- love 'em!
working A-V, temperature control , better shape for better acoustics
Library books
Something like SmartSite, only better. I know such things exist. This is a poorly
crafted survey. You force me to choose 5, when I don't necessarily find 5 of these
critical. Answers will necessarily be biased and false.
Admin support
I'm old fashioned--I expect face-to-face dialog and handwritten bluebooks. I've listed
the ones that are most important
I don't think any of these things are critical.
excellent sound and video playback, conferencing (remote lecture) technology
Your survey is flawed -- it made me choose 5 boxes, and I included 2 in this "other"
box. So I added a random answer that is *not* really part of what I believe to satisfy
the survey's insistence on 5 answers.
I put SmartSite down but any teaching software that performs the same functions
would be OK. Smartsite finally seems to be working reasonably well.
Decent projection for powerpoint presentations in the classroom
Camera projector
At this time the most important things to me would be 1) safely placed media
cabinets, 2) media cabinets whose placement does not interfere with use of the
board, and 3) good erasers and clean boards.
A SmartSite that is actually smart and useful rather than an awful interface.
THIS QUESTION IS POORLY POSED. IT MAKES AN ASSUMPTION. ANSWER
IS MEANINGLESS BECAUSE OF BAD DESIGN.
I do not find 5 of these important. it is ANNOYING that you are making me choose
non-relevant technologies!!!! The only ones I think are useful are: (1) gradebook,
(2) library electronic resources, (3) smartsite
The ability to use screens and blackboards at the same time
USB drive presentation without bringing your own computer.
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(1) Computers would be nice. (2) This question was a bit vague. I use and need
gradebook and smart site, but not in the classroom.
I don't consider ANY of these critical to my teaching. Library resources can be nice
supplements. I've occasionally used Internet access in the classroom, but there is
no reason I couldn't download the relevant material to my laptop before class. I don't
use SmartSite at all, and I only checked it because this silly survey wouldn't let me
submit with fewer than 5 checkmarks.
AV access! I would love to have video AND audio lecture capture...where is this
actually available?
clean backboards, TAs to run Discussion Sections and help grade essay exams
NOTE: ignore "GRadebook". I was forced to name a fifth item, but I don't and won't
use an on-line grade book
nothing else
none
There isn't anything else, but the survey is insisting that I check five items.
LCD projector and Powerpoint
Sufficiently powerful laptop computer projector in room.
Movable desks. i ask students to work in small groups throughout class and wander
among groups. (nb: this question required 5 answers. I generally do not use the
internet during class)
Smartpanels.
Room simply needs a projector (not a SLIDE projector).
We would be interested to learn how you use the internet with your students during your
classroom sessions. Note: This is not a required response, but this information would
help inform future planning.
Open-Ended Response
I only use it occasionally to show a news clip or something - or access the course smart
site page. In fact, the students should not have internet access during class as it only
distracts them. This is why it is a really good idea to have ethernet ports that actually
work in the so called "smart panel".
Articles and resources needed for class are often on SmartSite.
Yes.
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As we discuss health issues, we ask the students to go on-line to large data bases to
research questions during class. We access videos on YouTube and other sources.
Some of our students are working in Second Life
We regularly use online databases in the computer lab associated with one of my upperdivision classes. I do not use it in my lecture classes.
To date very little. Internet access is simply too unreliable to use in large lecture classes.
In small classrooms I've used it, but even there the unreliablity is a huge problem,
especially wireless.
I use websites such as YouTube, catalogs, and video demos. The class website has
become and integral part of the classroom depending on the course.
we go to publicly available data sources such as World Health Org, Or OECD, or US
census. invaluable sources, ready for data manipulation and analysis
I use online homework systems; it requires internet access so I can demonstrate features
of the system.
I show examples of concepts or processes online, mostly demonstrations in the form of
video from Youtube or other websites (e.g., Frontline or HBO documentary segments).
I do not use the internet during classroom sessions, but I would like to use web-based
testing more regularly prior to class sessions as a means of fostering student preparation
for class. I realize that this could be done via SmartSite, but that platform remains so
awkward and hard to use that I have not developed the materials to enable this to
happen yet. My best hope at present is to find a publisher who has developed
proprietary software associated with the adoption of their text for my class.
I show students video and audio clips from the internet, as well as websites that relate to
course content or to opportunities outside of class related to course content.
To share up to date information with them and help them navigate websites to learn upto-date material that is not in books. Also for current events.
I would like to experiment with this in my smaller classes. In the larger survey courses, I
prefer not to introduce potentially distracting internet activities but to have students
interact in discussion.
I do not use internet. I would prefer no internet access for students- they spend alot of
time surfing the web.
I find simulations, pictures, etc. (on the web) and project them on a screen for discussion.
I show videos from the internet.
I sometimes show them a website or images on the projector.
Internet resources are fundamental to research assignments. The internet also provides
many of the reading assignments. However, I use the internet in class only in seminar,
and the seminar is not given in the general assignment classrooms.
So far, I have not used it. I would probably use it some to access things on line to show
to students directly using a data projector.
I have created my own web site for a humanities course on the blues. The site includes a
password protected section with music assignments. I depend on this for lectures to
illustrate points. I also use YouTube in the classroom at times to discuss performances.
Frequent joint look at SmartSite information, e-textbook, podcasts, etc. Increasing use of
YouTube clips and Wiki-Images.
I have large (350-420) classes of upper division and grad students. They ask a questoin
and I can show them how to get their answer. I will ask a question and we will rapidly
develop answers with new questions and directions. I use it to get them to think. Much
of the material is on internet sites (that I did not make). I show how easy it is to do
research and how to protect themselves from getting bad information.
YouTube videos, TED talks, walking students through what their assignments are on
SmartSite and where to find them.
I do not use it live with the students
You-tube videos on all sorts of topics Images Relevant websites
We explore the NCBI databases and access to them.
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Running online video clips, displaying technical information on web sites, browsing the
class smartsite/syllabus.
Not used.
I don't, but it would be nice to have better internet connectivity in all classrooms (e.g.
missing from Hutchison 115).
I often show them websites that have current information on them.
not at all--they do enough internet surfing outside the class room
I don't yet because it's not available in the classrooms I've been assigned.
I sometimes show YouTube video clips, but otherwise the internet is not an active part of
my lectures. It would be nice, on some occasions, to be able to look things up on the
internet during a lecture, but I find it too cumbersome to switch between powerpoint and
a browser. Mostly this is because the last laptop computer issued by the university to me
is over 8 years old, and it's too slow.
lots of skype visuals for practical tutorials, workshops and research. web connections
need to be faster, and right now often get interference.
Depends on class - access to online study design software, journal articles, material
previously posted to smartsite. Also showing them government resources (pubmed, CDC
information).
I don't use the internet during lectures. I do get information from the internet for my
lectures.
I show an increasing number of short YouTube videos as part of classes.
I teach a paperless UWP writing course now thanks to SmartSite.
viewing video clips and websties
Sometimes I want to show them relevant websites. This is very important in some
classes, less important in others.
To show online resources, datasets, relevant video clips, etc.
Primarily access to videos. Also looking into a clicker technology that is fully cloudbased (TopHat Monocle), but also includes texting capabilities for students without
laptops or smartphones.
I would LOVE to be able to shut off the internet in my classroom as students mostly use it
for facebook or IM-ing... its a distraction that they can't resist... they think they are paying
attention, but they are not and its actually a hindrance. I would LOVE the ability to turn
off the wireless in my classrooms... to allow them to use wireless ocassionally when its
needed but to have it off most of the time to remove the temptation for them to wander in
e-space When I use it, it is usually something that I am demonstrating on the screen
rather than them using something along with me... only a fraction of students bring
laptops to class, so I don't think I would ever have anything required that they had to use
on their laptops in class.
Students find topic related clips on the internet, show them to the class and talk about
them.
I haven't, because discouraged by lack of access in classroom during the last two years..
No
To show web pages that have information relevant to lecture topics or to demonstrate
technological resources relevant to the course material
I do NOT do this during classroom sessions
Since I can't rely on the internet working, I usually don't, other than to (try to) show them
SmartSite at the beginning of the quarter.
I always provide a summary of current news stories that are relevant to the course and I
do that by connecting in class to webpages that have those stories.
I sometimes use websites to demonstrate interactive models on websites or show
movie clips
library presentations on research methods students researching individual topics
projecting materials from the internet students send class materials to do at home or
pick up in class
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During the class, the only thing I use internet for is when showing online videos or
websites as part of lecture.
I don't use the internet; too unreliable to depend on.
I don't like them using the web when I'm lecturing, but I put them to work when I notice. I
tell them to look things up. My TAs say that many of them are surfing the web while I'm
lecturing -- and I'm not especially boring. I accept that they are able to divide their
attention. Still, why encourage divided attention?
I occasionally will show animated sequences from the web. Other than that, I don't use
the Internet during classroom sessions. I do use Podcast and put recordings on my web
site, but that isn't using the Internet during the sessions.
showing videos, downloading files, demonstrating how to do literature searches
I do not use the internet while teaching. My efforts to do so have not been a success. I
would like very much to access internet-based video materials and show during my
lectures, but my efforts to do this (with the very limited technological support I received
via the phone) were a failure.
I don't, yet, partly because of what I mentioned above, having to lug a notebook PC
around in order to do so. There are some online animations I'd love to show in my stats
class, and some short video clips here and there that would be cool to use. See earlier
"wish" re having "built-in" PCs in the classrooms that we could use.
We are working on small team projects throughout the quarter that require the collection
of information and data during the second half of the lecture. Internet is a great tool for
that as all students nowadays roam around campus with either their laptop or
smartphone/tablet and permits a real-time interaction and feedback from the instructor.
Use it to access and present to student primary materials including video & audio clips,
music, websites, relevant to course content.
No
Showing upper level classes how to use the Web of Science
no
we access information such as Youtube videos, online newspapers, online resources
(e.g., visuals such as museums virtual tours) to complement and update, even in real
time, what we are doing in class. I have also used Skype to allow a student to fully
participate in the class activities when this student could not be physically present; it
worked pretty well.
I would rather not have student Internet access in the classroom. I have enough
problems with keeping student's attention in lecture as many of them are texting, doing
email and surfing the web.
I occasionally show things on web sites, show students how to find things on the class
smartsite, or check information for a student (e.g., grade info).
I generally don't use it, because it is so unreliable in classrooms.
I use internet access for teaching purposes -- showing students sites where they can
engage in research and streaming videos. I actually would prefer that students NOT
have internet access in the classroom. Many are multi-tasking during class rather than
focusing on the material.
I don't use it unless I need to demonstrate an online tool (smartsite info etc)
Not used.
I seldom do--but occasionally I tell them to go to a particular url to get an image, or
whatever. Last night in a graduate seminar the pineal gland and parietal eyes came up
unexpectedly, and they went on-line to get info quickly and efficiently.
I show charts, film clips all sorts of stuff but NO powerpoint. Surprising finding:
Students in my largest lecture class said they were prefer that I ban computers since
they find their fellow students' use of computers during class a major distraction.
Because of my area in the humanities, there are phenomenal web support materials. I
use these regularly.
Do not use and would rather not have internet in the classroom since students spend
their time surfing and generally not paying attention.
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only occassionally to show video clips
students work in small groups to complete activities involving web research and UC
available databases collaborative writing in Google Docs access Smartsite for various
activities
I don't do much with it, but sometimes show videos and artworks that are online.
Do not use it.
I have them do what I am doing, or try slight variations of what I have projected on the
screen.
Accessing data Accessing Web pages Developing Web content with the students
(Network) Remote login to remote servers
I frequently access videos to show, and sometimes still images on websites. I ask
students to do tasks on the internet, sometimes during class.
I do not use it. I try to motivate students to think and not to turn to the internet for
answers that seemingly obviate thinking.
I show intrenet content during lectures
I don't use it much in the classroom.
I only use internet during the after class communications with students.
Smartsite
In order to connect concepts to the real world, I like to show news clips, videos and news
articles from the internet that can be discussed or used as case studies.
I teach students how to access library resources and how to find course materials on
SmartSite. As well, my lectures for AHI 1DV are online, and I need to train students how
to access these.
Not used in the classrooms specifically.
all class material is posted to the smart site or other sites with higher functionality than
smartsite. Smartsite is limited in its capabilities and there are better programs out there
that can be used. That allow students to input class data and to be more interactive on
student projects. Last year i used the DANR protal tools for class, Adobe connect for
webinar type teaching sessions, as well as a departmental website in order to have all of
the features I need - it would be nice to have this all in one place and to have tools that
were quite simple to use and cost-effective (watch the recharges for adobe connect you
will prohibit us from using it if it gets too high!). I have become a fan of Joomla! because
of its highly intuitive nature and the fact that the help function is in fact truly helpful. I also
prefer Moodle to Smart site, having used both of them. Moodle likewise seems more
versatile, and has a "cleaner" look to it.
We show videos online or show websites with computer simulations or maps. First day of
class we show them the course web stie and where to find things and also sometimes we
show them the textbook web site.
We show websites and have students engage with authentic materials in small groups.
We also show videos through Youtoob. We blog as well. It is also useful for collaborative
writing.
I've accessed files on my office computer and demonstrated certain instructional
websites.
I dont typically use the internet during teaching but this could be useful if the wireless
connections were faster.
I don't and don't plan to
To show video clips on Youtube and elsewhere.
just to show film clips
I don't. I'm not technologically sophisticated enough to use it during my classroom time.
recommend reading materials found in internet.
I show information posted on the wiki in smartsite
sometimes to show videoclips that are only accessible via the web
I occasionally show them protein structures and instructional videos from the internet.
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The Internet is actually less important to me than the interactive features I can control
through the main computer. For example, I regularly project student work onto the screen
to discuss with the whole class. I also project my computer when I am demonstrating
something. What would be nice is a way to lock down the *internet* access on student
computers with out locking down the entire computer. Sometimes I want students to be
able to write, but not web surf. Is that possible?
I have already do this.
Actually, I wish that students could not go online without me flipping a switch. While I
use it occasionally, they surf, text, and otherwise disturb.
i sometimes show videos, we do some library database searches together.
I connect to websites and youtube-like videos to illustrate principles that we are studying.
I do not use the internet during class.
I am in touch with my students at least weekly via SmartSite and email. I sometimes
share resources and visuals with my students in support of my lectures.
Can't use internet at all, since neither hardwire nor wireless access is provided in the
Research 1 Conference Room.
I do not use the internet during classroom sessions. I use the internet to post syllabi,
lecture notes, images, etc.
I don't use the internet in class, though I do use it in other ways.
My lecture notes often have to links to content from external sites. We also often run
computer programs and simulations that are hosted on the Internet.
I sometimes show you-tube or other videos during class. I access materials from the
textbook publisher's web sites.
From the list below please check the web based technologies most
critical to your teaching. (Even if the technology is not available as a
campus technology, but nonetheless you believe it is critical to your
teaching and/or your students' learning).
Please list other web based technologies you are/would use
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None of these are necessary for teaching at all.
SmartSite
SmartSite
manufacturer's cut sheets and instructional videos, CAD programs and special
databases related to various types of design. Museum and library websites
second life, gaming sites for competitive learning
Just SmartSite
I realy primarily on smartsite (including its chatroom function, though my students rarely
use it) and library databases such as the Naxos Music Library. I do not interact with
students via social media, but I encourage them to do so.
I don't use any of those
YouTube
The internet with SmartSite and I have wesites I developed for each class.
For my online class, Adobe Connect and Skype are critically important. I don't use social
media with my students. I use it personally, and they can use it, but it doesn't currently
have a place in my teaching. I've used wikis and blogs before, but only for graduate
courses, and even then it wasn't a huge success---I had to spend a lot of time doing
triage and hand-holding with students who were unfamiliar with media authoring.
Need larger MP3 file capacity to mail audio to students.
SmartSite
web conferencing. I used Adobe Connect (at my own expense) to run an experimental
virtual discussion section. Students loved the chat and whiteboard archiving. But I will
not pay $10 per month for the service.
YouTube.
smartsite announcements and resources
youtube
Websites relevant to course content.
None of these -- just internet, but it would be great if it was only available to faculty in the
classrooms
I use news server that I maintain, news.cs.ucdavis.edu
I use chat as venue for online office hours
Facebook is EVIL and a hindrance to teaching. Sorry.
None of these technologies is critical or even used in my teaching.
None of the above would be useful in classroom settings
Forums (discussion boards)
None of these are critical to my teaching.
None
Can't think of anything now.
None of the above.
I would like to show online news videos. I also use SmartSite.
Google Scholar and searches in general; Google Maps.
pubmed
None of the above. I had considered briefly Facebook as an alternative to Smartsite, as I
thought it would have been more engaging, but in truth the student really do not think at
the class much beween lectures and they do not follow the blog or wall or chat or
whatever.
audio podcasts
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Are you kidding me. How about "the internet"?
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I am NOT interested in any of these technologies
N/A
None of the above is critical to my teaching.
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There is absolutely no need for any of the above technologies in my classroom. None of
these improve student learning.
none
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Smartsite. Clickers need GREAT improvement - they are so buggy, and we often have
technical difficulties.
email
43
I don't want to use any of those technologies in the classroom or in my teaching, except
possibly wikis. Once again, your survey MAKES me provide an answer -- a very weak,
flawed survey design!
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52
I have not used these technologies in teaching.
On-line learning environment (Moodle)
None
None at present
access to published papers on pubmed access to newspapers
I use none of the above.
None
none
podcasts and videos (YouTube)
53
I post Mathematica demonstrations on my web page, but I do not use them during class.
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Screen vew -- so they can show me (remotely) exactly what they are doing
None
Mailing lists Compute servers on which students can run code
skype
None but the course web site on Smart Site.
You tube
i do not find any of these important
Smartsite
I don't use any of the above in my lecturing.
None of the above is importyant to my teaching.
SmartSite
youtube video resources
None
posting video clips and entries other than just text.
Don't use these technologies. I have a life.
i do not use any of these in my class. Not sure how one could and maintain the level of
confidentiality that is required. If i cannot have a class list on my own computer for fear of
release of information on enrolled students and a violation of their privacy I am not sure
how i could use a public forum and require that they use it
None of the above (it wouldn't let me hit next unless I submitted an answer for this
question)
Collaborative writing programs. We have tried Facebook and it wasn't effective for our
purposes of collaborative writting. Twitter doesn't let students write enough text.
None.
NONE of the above.
Company websites showing procedures and mechanisms of bicohemical pathways etc
YouTube
none of the above- I use email, smartsite, and the site associated with my textbook
Requires an answer but I don't use any of these.
none of the above
n/a
I wish that I could link articles to the smartsite using facebook or other similar
I use none of these for teaching
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SmartSite
None of the above. Don't force an answer.
Only Gradebook is crucial. The rest, frankly, is stuff they do too much of outside of class.
I want them to develop habits of mind that are different than those fostered by social
media.
Course website.
none of these are needed
Smartsite
Youtube
I don't use any of those
none
None of these are critical to teaching.
None of the above are critical to my teaching
None
none of these are critical to my teaching
Other (please specify)
If by clocks, you mean clocks on the wall that tell time so that we could see what time it is in the
classroom, then by all means yes. It is awful not to have clocks in the classrooms! That is another
nice thing about Roessler, it actually has a clock, what a miracle!
Course evaluation software - ability to collect evaluation data in the classroom
Blackboards
Basic computers in the classrooms!
I don't use the above 4 examples. I would need some training as to what they can offer me to help be
teach effectively.
I teach in 123 Sci Lecture Hall and there is no clock in the back of the room that I can see while I am
teaching-- hugely inconvenient for me to pace my lecture.
Why add podcasting when portable mp3 recorders are both good and cheap? Powerpoint can
display the time; why add clocks?
Video lecture capture for large classes allows me to do the same class tice a day. Video capture in the
morning and then a playback in the afternoon (with me present) so that I can get more students
through the same material the same way.
Good god, why aren't there clocks!! I mostly keep track of time by the clock on my laptop or my watch,
so I didn't think this was a big deal until I gave a final in 234 Wolhers, and I told students they couldn't
have their smartphones out (didn't want them looking up the SmartSite readings for answers to the
final). But they don't wear watches! They tell time on their phones. So I told them they couldn't have
the phones, but then they had no way to tell how much time was left on the exam. Ridiculous. Also,
podcasting (just audio) would be ridiculous for my classes, because even in large lectures I do a lot of
small-group or think-pair-share activities, and so the audio would just consist of ambient noise for that
part of the class.
Need iPad2 support.
I didn't know about podcasting and lecture capture.
I don't see the relevance of any of that for me.
Clocks, please!
many, many classrooms do not have functional clocks, including SCI 123, a 500 person lecture hall!
Moveable chairs!!! Built in computers.
Videoconferencing would be great for ONLINE courses.
Nothing
What do you mean by "clocks"?
The dearth of clocks -- in the back of the room, where the lecturer can see it but not the students -- is a
real and easily fix-able problem!
Clocks?
video conferencing is less impt if web conferencing works well.
Built-in PC, so we wouldn't have to bring ours in order to access the internet.
We are already simulcasting lectures to Taiwan with two-way audio-video from Chem 179. That's
potentially a useful sort of ability.
I do not understand the importance of clocks; maybe I misunderstood, or I do not know what you
meant
Get better clicker technology!!!
I currently use my laptop to capture the podcast audio. The podcast systems currently in the lecture
require me to buy a special flash drive (the kind used in a camera), which is not very convenient. It
would be much better if the system would allow me to plug in a USB flash drive.
I'm not sure which I would use. I do like having clocks in the classroom.
not applicable
I have not used web and video conerencing.
na
I never understood why there aren't clocks in all the classrooms. It seems like such a cheap
technology....
USB drive presentation without bringing your own computer.
Computers
It would be very important to have the ability to show two inputs at the same time. to have two
document cameras, or a document camera and a ppt or computer screen projected. two screens
would be best to display these. It would also be helpful to be able to more easily switch between
computer projection and document camera, but it would be best to have both able to display at the
same time. this would transform my teaching to be able to show both instead of choosing one or the
other. Currently I often have to decide not even show some videos or news items on the computer
because it can be too much time and trouble to switch back and forth.
Audio only technology not useful for art history courses, when emphasize the visual. What do you
mean by clocks? It would be nice to have clocks in the rooms, but when I lecture from PowerPt, I can
see the clock on my screen.
The option for lecture capture would be good - we have trialed livecasting via adobe connect and the
number of participants outside of the classroom has been disappointing - not sure it is worth it for a
handful of people. However i do anticipate a day and age in which people will participate more via
livecast lecturing and a way to share classroom instruction across the ten campus system
Blackboards or whiteboards, with chalk or working pens.
Clocks? Clocks??!
Videoconferencing could be very useful for smaller, seminar classrooms.
none
"Clocks"? Do you mean timepieces that provide information about the time of day?
The clock issue is important as students no longer have watches, they use their cell phones whose use
is prohibited during exams.
Are there other services you use, not listed here ? or other services you would like to have
available?
I access IT help on the Sacramento campus
I have on several occasions called IT Express with questions about SmartSite. The service is
fantastic. I have always gotten the information I needed within a couple of minutes.
Smart-site is awkward, not user friendly and very buggy. Both my TAs and myself find the
gradebook in smartsite frustrating and even with IT help prone to errors that have been
challenged by students. We all prefer the retired gradebook despite the many sessions of
instruction....IT IS NOT INTUITIVE!
huge difference between what is available on Davis campus and what on Sac campus - how
come?
I use written documentation a lot. I would like to see better written documentation for smartsite
and gradebook2. It's little hard for me to answer the questions above. In the past, I have used
many of the items heavily and always found them to be useful. Recently, I have not been adding
new things and have not need much support.
I wish I had known about some of these services (SmartSite/Gradebook trainings), and that they
were more accessible (times).
Let's save some money by getting rid of alot of this stuff and use it instead to pay for more TAs.
The biggest problem is the lack of TAs. (We have one TA for 511 students- unacceptable!). All
of this other stuff (except for emergency services to respond to AV and IT problems) is perhaps
nice for some, but definitely secondary to TAs.
UWP workshop on including writing in courses (found beneficial).
I use the scantron grading machines for midterm and final exams and really appreciate having
someone there to help me when I do.
I think the renaming of CETL one of the silliest things I can remember in decades of thinking
about teaching resources. Sillier, even, than the term "SmartSite," and, worse, the little motto
underneath. (Remember it?)
I really could use advanced technology help in building models for classroom teaching. The
model (equations) exist. I need help putting a frontend on these research models so that they
become effective teaching models as well.
I hate the Gradbook, but am forced to use it. I much prefer using an Excel spreadsheet. I wish
there were better upload options so that students could see component grades from an
uploaded spreadsheet rather than requiring me to mess with the Gradebook to make these
services available to students through Gradebook.
Comment: I puzzled out Smartsite on my own, but it was painful. A properly designed Smartsite
should not require any trainingl. The current Smartsite is terrible because of the design of the
user interface. A proper design would avoid all the current waste of time and money in providing
"training." Millions of people use Amazon.com to browse, find the items they want, and
purchase them with no training at all. The Apple iMusic Store: the same. I feel that UC Davis
purchases or designs software (My UC Davis, Smartsite, My Travel, etc.) that is counter-intuitive
and never tested sufficiently in advance by end users, resulting in a subsequent requirement for
"training" that shouldn't be necessary.
i have not used these but I do refer my junior faculty to them. What I would really like at the
moment is a speech therapy referral for one junior faculty member, not a native speaker of
English, whose written English is excellent and spoken English fluent and grammatically correct,
but who has problems with a few specific sounds that make comprehension very difficult. A good
therapist could fix this.
smartsite should not require training classes, it should be designed so that a reasonably savvy
person could use it. Smartsite must have a great sales team though! Or some sort of connection
with university purchasing.
Opportunity for faculty feedback to improve SmartSite
I've seen the software program that the Sac City Community College uses. And I've seen
Blackboard. FAR more intuitive than SmartSite. They don't need to offer all the training, but it's
clearer and more efficiently designed.
I didn't know training sessions, drop-in sessions etc. were available for SmartSite/Gradebook.
They could be very helpful!!!
I am fully conversant with SmartSite -- training sessions were not necessary, hence I did not use
them. We need technological support that comes to us when we are in the classroom. It is
almost impossible to find the time to attend seminars, which turn out to be of questionable value.
You mentioned "Faculty SmartSite/Gradebook Training Sessions in your dept."; I did not know
they were available; I'd like to have such sessions in my department. Who should contact whom
to get this service in one's department?
The Writing Center
I have teaching assistants who may use the TA program. I do think that the university should
provide information on the effectiveness of different classroom technologies. I use what I think
works but I don't know the research in this area.
better tech support
Better substitute for Smartsite??
There are no training sessions in my department and there is no category to indicate their
absence!!!
my dept uses the TA program so I benefit directly, although I am not using it myself specifically.
Don't have the time to attend classes for just one question to be answered - need much
improved help tools. usually when i do call and get ahold of someone I find out that the reason i
cannot figure out how to do something on smart site is because smart site does not have the
capability i am seeking. Guess my problem is being on too many other sites with higher
capabilities - smart site appears to be a generation or two behind the state of the art teaching
technologies.
I didnt know about most of these resources so it would be helpful just to be informed of them
before I each.
Clean classrooms and clean blackboards
I would use all of CETL more regularly if teaching were more valued relative to research here.
No
I have not used the CETL services for years but regularly refer grad students to their workshops.
I would like to attend FMF programs but haven't been able to eke out time. I have used a
workshop on writing in the disciplines.
I ask my colleagues for help, and find out how they are experimenting in the classroom.
I think the on-demand help is critical and must be maintained.
Q13:
1
Which of the following library services do you use in association with your teaching?
Are there other library services that you use, or would like to have available ?
More electronic databases in my field (Chinese).
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Q14:
more endnote instruction
I didn't know that library instruction for my class was available.
There used to be a librarian in Government Documents. Now there is no librarian
there, and it is never easy and sometimes impossible to find someone who can
answer my questions or those of my students.
More sessions for students both undergrad and starting grads about library resources,
databases, bibliographic samples online, etc.
Streaming Naxos. Every day.
Top quaility operation. A very helpful group of people.
It would be fabulous if SmartSite (or something OTHER than SmartSite, ha ha)
connected up with our library databases somehow, so that way I could search for the
pdf articles I want from within my course SmartSite and link to them directly, rather
than having to log in to the library, search for articles, download them to my hard drive,
then upload them to SmartSite (this is like 40 extra clicks when you think about it).
Everyone has to use CAS to log in to both anyway, so I don't see why this isn't
possible.
Students rely on what they call the "24," which is the all-night study room in Shields
Library.
Difficult to acquire journal articles
Quiety study rooms, which I find very helpful for preparing lectures.
When problems arise related to services in support of teaching, and they require rapid
responses, do you find response times of the following to be sufficient?
Other (please specify)
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I reported the hot house conditions in Olson 118 at least 4 times this spring and the
problem was never fixed. It is incredible and completely unacceptable. The classroom
tech hotline has a much better record of showing up and helping with whatever the
problem is. That service seems to work pretty well and the people are always friendly.
The registrar's office will never answer the phone so that makes it practically
impossible to get another room assignment when there are problems.
I find it unacceptable when Smartsite goes down for extended periods like it did last
quarter just before my final exam. Mission critical in the classroom means that the
system should be not only robust, but redundant enough to keep it up when some
server out of state goes down or "vapor locks." 99.5% up time is not helpful when the
0.,5% happen s before a quiz, exam or final.ou
I have found the help desk to be a great resource Equipment failures in the classroom
are rare, which I greatly appreciate
I'm glad that CAPS and Student Judicial Affairs are available if I did need them, so the
"not used" answer there is only representing the fact that I haven't had that kind of
student emergency yet (thankfully). But I've never encountered a problem with
classroom technology or my SmartSite that either I couldn't solve myself or that just
was unsolvable (i.e., the network is down or I want a resource that I then find out
doesn't exist).
UCD Police Dept. has been very responsive and professional when called to handle
obstreperous or disruptive students. CAP has been excellent in addressing problems
associated with the current student population raised on "anti-depressants" (female)
and ritalin (male), but the problem is escalating.
I have never had to contact SJA urgently so I don't know what their response time is.
They handle minor plagiarism fine.
SmartSite help has been poor. I've had to go elsewhere for an answer. I avoid SJA for
other reasons.
kirk alexander (?) has been particularly unhelpful at times with regards to critiques and
changes to smartsite. that team does not seem particularly open to feedback about
bugs.
Student Disability Center: Good response, helpful
Police - I once had to call and they were very efficient/fast
it's the rapid response that is missing.
I have not had good experiences with all the tech people at Smartsite. They don't get
to have an opinion about how the course is taught or how many courses for which I am
the instructor of record (23). It may be unusual for them, but that doesn't make it
wrong.
I cannot figure out how to use software to check all submitted papers for plagiarism. If
the UCD requirement is that I first suspect plagiarism before submission to SJA then
the end result is that I will catch exactly ZERO cases of plagiarism because my field
and the topic of the papers I assign are so broad that I will not have personal
knowledge of the vast majority of the sources that my students use for their writing.
Student judicial affairs is fantastic. They are an essential service that has done an
exceptional job every time I have needed their services.
Student Judicial Affairs staff are wonderful.
The disabled student office is a joke. They insist on providing services to students but
provide no resources. UCD should look at the way other institutions run their offices.
Please indicate your response to the following statement: I receive the necessary support
for administrative and co-curricular student issues from the following campus offices:
Other (please specify)
Under Burtis, CBS Dean's office has shown a lack of leadership in dealing with the shared
Bio Sci curriculum.
The number of scholarly databases and electronic journals that our library (whether this is a
UCD problem or a Melvyl problem I don't know) does NOT subscribe to is fairly pathetic. I
used to be on the faculty at the University of Illinois (the largest university library in the
country), and there was *never* a time when I couldn't get to the articles I wanted through
their library databases. I was actually really sad when they finally discontinued my
campusID, because I was still using it to do library searches through U of I instead of UCD.
"Sexual Harassment Office" presumes everyone is equally guilty or soon will be. Its
growing surveillance empire is a threat to civil liberties by its centralized collection and
storage of personal data. Academic Department Office has been decimated due to
"reorganization." Result: 1) Massive delays in accounting/reimbursement, 2) noncommunication in merit/promotion processes 3) compromise of mail, parcel, and equipment
security.
mostly OK, but I hate Smartsite
The library responds to my needs appropriately. I have sent students to CAPS and am glad
we have the referral service. But my department office is where I have the most interaction.
The staff are great but need more resources.
One of my students committed suicide during the course of the quarter a few years ago. I
received an email notifying me of her death and offering counseling. I only discovered
much later that UCD had hushed up the real truth about her gruesome suicide when I read
about the case in the Los Angeles Times. The campus CAPS needs to be more
transparent about the suicide problems on campus.
Q16:
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7
In the space below, please offer any additional comments you think we might find
helpful in this assessment of the instructional environment at UC Davis.
Open-Ended Response
Nearly everyone now teaches with multi-media. You MUST improve ALL the general
classrooms to have adequate lighting and screens to support this vital teaching
methodology. Honestly, I can't believe you haven't had protests from the students the
facilities are so bad. I guess they just don't know how good it could be with a few
relatively minor changes. I am so tired of everyone saying they care so much about
teaching around here and then we have such lousy classrooms in Olson and Wellman and probably elsewhere that I have yet to experience. I Roessler things are much
improved which leads me to wonder if the science end of the campus has adequate
classrooms but the social science and humanities end of campus has been left to rot. If
so, shame on UCD! Before you waste time and money on adding more technologies you must first fix the basics like lighting, etc. or your money on further technologies will
simply be wasted.
Our major problem is lack of TA support for upper-division advanced classes. Most
such classes can now be taught only every other year. I would divert funds from the
bloated IT budget back to TAships.
Smaller classes are necessary if we are expected to teach writing skills in any effective
way.
The SmartSite user interface is not intuitive, and I spend a lit of time of the IT help staff
to explain it.
smartsite is poorly designed and an endless source of frustration.
Please improve the microphones in large classrooms; please restrict student internet
but make faculty internet easily accessible and available in classrooms; please remodel
109 Olson.
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I have not had any problems with class environment- we should be putting our
resources into reducing class sizes...
It would be very nice to be able access our servers through the smart panel so we
would not need to connect a laptop.
Because I am in the School of Education, I don't teach in general campus classrooms.
The only point I want to make is that my teaching is much constrained by the general
absence of well designed and well equipped computer labs. Some hints: a well
designed lab has tables at two sides of a student. When facing the screen, the student
is oriented towards to back of the room. When looking at the instructor, the student
does not see the screen. There should not be too much noise from airco, or from
neighboring labs.
As language teaching becomes increasingly dependent on on-line materials, and as
these materials are part of what students purchase in their "textbook package," I
wonder about the long-term planning concerning the Language Learning Center.
We are a very long way from being competitive in on-line audio resources (proper
libraries have their entire sound collections available now), ditto 2D images, etc. You
look at Indiana and Michigan and Rochester and weep. CDL, however, has some very
useful attributes. I would say the biggest impediment to the instructional environment
in my discipline has been the dead stop to which the Library has come in these matters,
libraries if you include visual and audio collections in the departments. The second
biggest impediment is the antiquity of approach by everyone having to do with
textbooks, starting in the departments and ending in the Bookstore. So over. I'm a big
fan of SmartSite and the e-book and its offshoots.
If UCD has any hopes of expanding its online course offerings, SmartSite has to go.
I'm currently using a self-supported version of Moodle for my online course instead,
because SmartSite is utterly unintuitive--from both a faculty and a student perspective.
Techno-phobic colleagues (you know, the ones who make the TAs set up their
SmartSites) to whom I've shown my Moodle all say, "oh, that looks nice! it looks like an
online syllabus with everything linked right there! I can tell where everything is!" And
when I use SS in my large on-campus undergraduate course, I have to stand up every
single week in class and click through, on the big screen, where exactly students
should find the pdf readings, the forum, and the assignment for the following week.
When I don't do this (and sometimes even when I do), my inbox explodes later with
student messages about "I can't find the [whatever]." In an online course, this would be
an utter nightmare. (Oh, and don't tell me about the SS "module" function either,
because I've tried that, and students find it *even more* confusing, if that's possible.)
Dept. of Asian American Studies needs its central office personnel, services, and
academic presence reestablished after having been hit with: 1) Water deprivation
(serious health liability) 2) Cut off in Communication (phones) 3) Relocation of Key
Personnel and Cut Lines of Communication The above three are keystones in
psychological warfare/civilian pacification strategies used against Asians and Asian
Americans historically.
I would like to make greater use of web conferencing, but the labyrinth of firewalls
around campus generally blocks software solutions I would use from my own
computers on and off campus and I have yet to see a campus solution that worked and
didn't require a fee from me. Faculty need to be able to experiment with a variety of
tools to learn what will be useful and I don't find the UCD environment particularly
encouraging of experimentation outside programmed training classes that I have little
time for or patience with. I would rather learn and try on my own and seek help when I
need it rather than rearrange my schedule to attend a class.
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As you can tell, I think that Smartsite is a significant problem (as was My UCDavis
before it). The classrooms are generally okay, but the general maintenance is
beginning to slip (replacements of light bulbs, etc.). The library is adequate for
teaching, but I have serious concerns as to recent proposed cutbacks involving
research resources/journal subscriptions. Most of the other "teaching services" listed
elsewhere in this survey I have avoided or found unnecessary from my perspective as
a faculty member. For example, I've been widely informed that taking an issue to
student affairs is likely not worth the time required.
There are not enough classrooms with moveable d desks. Our students work in groups
and this is not possible in many of the classrooms on campus.
I would love to have more time to include new technologies in my teaching, but
honestly, I'm so overloaded I don't have the time to update things. I don't even feel like
I have the time to learn about new technologies to include in teaching. Basically, I get
by in my lectures. The information is there for students to learn. I am also concerned,
a bit, that the technology can be distracting from the information that is presented. I
think many students expect to be entertained, more than educated. While I'm in favor
of podcasting and posting videos of my lectures, because it *can* be an aid, I also think
this encourages some students to be lazy and passive, rather than engaging with the
subject matter in an active manner. I might be old-fashioned in this respect, but
humans are still humans, and learning requires investment of intensive thinking time.
One hand on the mouse clicking facebook, while a lecture is playing in the background,
does not count as studying.
Again, the MAJOR problem I have at UCD is that there is no large classroom on
campus with moveable tables and chairs. I need a flexible setup in order to do "active
learning" exercises with classes, generally breaking the class into small groups for role
plays, sketch exercises, etc. PLEASE ensure that such a room is available. Not having
one locks all instructors into a traditional lecture mode of instruction.
is this survey really going to change the top-down approach to the design of services?
particularly web based services? as it is, this soviet-style approach completely ignores
the user end.
SmartSite and Gradebook2 can be quite frustrating -- there doesn't seem to be much
thought given to day-to-day, intuitive use by faculty, especially faculty using it for large
classes (many little issues add up to overall frustration, e.g., limited spreadsheet
navigation via keystrokes in Gradebook2, annoying defaults like the 20-student-at-atime view that are not changeable, no capabilities for saving draft messages in Mailtool,
limited capabilities for polls such that I typically use SurveyMonkey or GoogleDocs
Forms instead, etc. -- there are far too many issues to list here). Perhaps a separate,
detail-oriented survey about SmartSite is in order, or a focus group with a small set of
faculty.
Invest! don't go on the cheap. Get some decent software instead of gerryrigged stuff.
I am increasingly concerned by the state of our classrooms. They are run down, dirty,
hot and uncomfortable. And, the limited technology available will soon be very much
out of date. Technological support is inadequate.
Thank you for undertaking the survey to find out what instructors think.
Since I use the drop box (SmarSite) function for turning in and returning term papers, I
have always though it would be useful to interface software that can automatically
check for plagiarism in say uploaded .docx files.
I have learned a lot thanks to the (formerly known as ) TRC and their many projects,
such as the summer institute, the FMF, the student-assistant project (I don't recall the
exact name for that), just to name a few. It seems to me that certain departments take
for granted that faculty will always be willing (and able) to use instructional technology
effectively -- and maybe creatively:) However, those same departments do not provide
direct instruction, or links to and incentives for programs that provide such instruction. I
believe that a minimum of instructional technology competence should be a
requirement for all instructors, leaving them, of course, the academic freedom to use
such technology - or not- according to their pedagogical preferences and needs.
Therefore, I hope that more funds, not fewer, will go to instructional services providers
such as CETL.
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Clickers - please fix the clickers!!! Use of Powerpoint 2004 is limited, and we really
need to improve the technical difficulties with these.
SmartSite is an abomination. It has too many unnecessary features and lacks critical
functionality (e.g., there is no way to link one "page" on SmartSite directly to another
page; its html editor always does the wrong thing, and I almost always have to hack my
own html code to get things right). It fights good teaching and administration every step
of the way (I will never forgive them for leaving out the ability to drop scores in
gradebook -- this was eventually fixed, but not after wasting hours of my time, and not
even an apology, let alone an offer to help, from the designers). SmartSite designers
are unresponsive to faculty needs and requirements. This is an embarrassment to the
University and an obscene waste of money that we can ill afford to throw away.
With teaching, research and service responsibilities, it is difficult to find the time to be
an innovative teacher. The university is undergoing a fiscal crisis and it strikes me that
we need to think more systematically about what we offer and how we offer it,
especially in the classroom. But there is never enough time to do the research and
implement new methods/technologies of teaching.
On-line instruction only. Not involved with on campus classroom activities.
I'm an old-timer. I have 10,000 Kodachrome slides and I'm not going to scan them all,
so I still give Carousel slide shows as well as PowerPoints. My teaching style is, shall
we say, mature. I've won a Distinguished Teaching Award and continue to use the
techniques I've developed over decades, though the students increasingly expect a ton
of bells and whistles. There are times when those bells and whistles are useful, and
very rarely they may almost be necessary, but in my field they're basically decorative.
The needs and expectations of the younger faculty cohorts, rather than mine, should be
driving your planning, so this questionnaire really should have included a question
intended to identify the respondent by age or rank or some suitable surrogate thereof!
this is not a short survey and I don't find it particularly effective.
I was forced to give 5 answers to one question when only 2 were appropriate. I could
not go ahead without making up answers. I think it was #8. This should not be
required.
It is amusing and disheartening to have a survey on technology that does not have
active hyperlinks or for which there is not a direct link to the survey in the email
announcing it. Smartsite is awful and inconsistent with the registrars databases for
the registration in the classes. Smartsite doesn't seem to provide the students
major/department.
we need better classrooms!
No.
I believe there are still substantial issues with Smartsite, especially server overload at
critical times. I would also like to see some serious attention devoted to thinking about
the use of video example and its access for teaching purposes.
In addition to improving and expanding our educational technologies, it remains
important to connect the faculty who use these technologies so that they/we can share
ideas (and frustrations) to help use these more effectively and more to our advantage,
and to the advantage of the student learning experience. The CETL plays a crucial
role in this and has been a very valuable resource to connect faculty and facilitate
interactions and the sharing of teaching and technology usage.
The Smartsite Gradebook is still not user friendly...it requires lots of calls to IT Express
to find out what has been changed. And I still have to download to a spreadsheet to
find out the averages on individual categories...all of which the old "my.ucdavis"
gradebook did easily....with a final summary page. When in heavy use...even the clicks
to delete columns don't work! It's a mess. Students can't see stats and I can't copy
them to a file for students to see...just get computer code. But faculty must use it so
students can seet heir grades, even if it takes so much of the instructor's time as to be
a pain. Looks like it was designed by programmers for programmers. Several
departments in Biosci have refused to use it at all! If it weren't for IT Express I wouldn't
use it either. Ditto for Smartsite.
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
We are behind the times. The students know it - many in my class do not use smartsite
and prefer the other sites with higher functionality. Our IT folks really need to get out
more and understand where the state of the art really is - i know the technology moves
very fast and this is not an easy thing to do but the campus has to figure out how to do
it so as to not launch something as "new" that is actually quite dated
I think reminding certain entities (eg., janitorial, facilities) that their role is to support the
mission of teaching and research on this campus. Sometimes when you contact them
they seem to not to want to help out, and they are always looking for a way to charge
you (for example, during the rains this winter the carpet in Sci Lab in the entranceway
was soaked--it was mildwey and we called to get it cleaned but they wanted to charge
our department to clean the carpet although it was at an entrance to a major doorway
and needed to be cleaned to prevent mold).
I think it would be great if a technical rep. could be available on the first day It teach a
class to show me how to use the equipment and help me trouble shoot the inevitable
problems that arise. One thing that would also be extremely helpful would be calendar
of classes. Right now all I can find is when we have holidays etc. If an on-line app
could be created that would create dates and times on a syllabus, omitting days that
are holidays, this would be extremely helpful.
The question that forced five selections of technologies is bogus. I don't use/need/want
five of those choices, and the two I gave as "Other" should be enough.
More large classrooms will be needed since there are fewer lecturers and us remaining
faculty will need to teach larger classes.
I think the instructional environment suffers from overcrowding and a devaluation of
humanities-style teaching. I think our support system is really good for a large research
institution. But with increasing numbers of students packed into classrooms and
diminishing TA support, it is almost impossible to teach writing or critical thinking well.
As well, teaching simply does not count as much as research, so the incentive for using
all this support is somewhat lower than it would otherwise be.
I'm concerned about the decline of CETL. I don't see anything being done to promote
"excellence" despite that now being their middle name. Although Andy Jones' program
was far from perfect, it was something. General comments on faculty development
programs: (1) there has been too much emphasis on technology. There are a lot of
issues in teaching and learning which have little to do with technology and we should
keep the focus on teaching and learning rather than technology. (2) Experienced
faculty could benefit more from small "learning communities" in which they share ideas
and experiences, than from larger, more rigidly organized events. I have seen this work
well at other institutions. (3) INexperienced faculty could benefit more from the kind of
top-down information flow typical of organized events. Events in the past have not
made much of a distinction between these two audiences. Maybe there should be a
boot camp and/or a weekly support group for first- or second-time instructors.
Storer 1344 projection facilities are poor. The internet goes down in this classroom. I
will attempt to avoid this classroom in the future.
My one issue with the registrar's office: I teach a class that meets MWF for 50 minutes
with a two-hour lab. I would prefer that the class meet MW for 80 minutes with a two
hour lab that begins in the same time slot. The longer lecture times would benefit
student learning and using the same time slot for the lab would reduce my students'
conflicts with other classes. However, I was told that this is not possible because it
does not meet a standard time slot. I wish that we could be more flexible.
I would like to see more faculty-centric offerings from the TRC (or whatever they call
themselves now).
I think facilities are in too short supply--the number of large classrooms has not kept
pace with demand. Late evening lectures are not conducive to teaching or learning. If
we are going to increase enrollments, then we must provide facilities for students. This
includes large classrooms and classes at reasonable times. Many of the rooms are
only marginally functional in terms of lights, access to boards that are not covered by
the screen, etc.
My Division
social sciences
School of Nursing
CBS
MPS
Engineering
HARCS
mps
Social Sciences
HArCS
HArCS
School of Education
HARCS
Social Sciences
HArCS
Social Sciences
Humanities, Arts and Cultural
Studies
Humanites, Arts adn Cultural
Studies
CA&ES
School of Education
HARCs
L&S HArCS
My Department
Physics
Computer Science
statistics
Psychology
Native American Studies
Music
Physics
Nematology
Art Studio
Physics
Sociology
French and Italian
Music
Animal Science
Asian American Studies
Animal Science
Native American Studies
Plant Sciences
DSS
Biological Sciences
HARCs
Education
Social Sciences
Statistics
Microbiology
TCS
School of Medicine
DSS
Social Science
Arts HArCS
MPS
social sciences
SocSci
SocSci
Biological Sciences
Social Science
Letters and Sciences
MPS
HARCS
College of Biology
MPS
CBS
Math & Physical Science, L & S
School of Medicine
CAES
CAES
HArCS
Biological Sciences
Social Sciences
HArCS
L&S
Extension
School of Veterinary Medicine
MPS
LEtters and Sciences
HArCS
Social Sciences
CAES
HARCS
L&S
Engineering
Social Sciences
biological sciences
Letters & Science
CBS
College of Engineering
CBS
L&S
MPS
College of Biological Sciences
HARCS
CBS
Anthropology
theatre and dance
Physics
mechanical engineering
Linguistics
Psych
Evolution and Ecology
Sociology
Integrated Studies Program
Geology
University Writing Program
Molecular and Cellular Biology
Plant Biology
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Chemistry
Pharmacology
Environmental Toxicology
Art History
French and Italian
Plant Biology
Psychology
Music
Political Science
Agriculture
VM: PMI
Physics
nutrition
Comparative Literature
Philosophy
HD
English
Mathematics
Computer Science
Psychology
Statistics
evolution and ecology
Psychology
NPB
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
MCB
Economics
Environmental Design
chemistry
Viticulture and Enology
Evolution and Ecology
German
psychology
NPB
Letters and Science
CBS
DSS
College of Biological Sciences
HArCS
Biology
HARCS
MPS
Biological Sciences
Social Science
Biological Science
BioSci
Letters and Science
SOM
CBS
HArCS
HarCS
College of Biological Sciences
Psychology
Plant Bio
Plant Biology
UWP
NPB
English
Physics
MCB
Communication
Evolution and Ecology
EVE
Neurology
NPB
Art History
English
VM: Surgical & Radiological Sciences
Evolution and Ecology
Appendix B: Summer, 2011 Bug and Usability Fixes
for Gradebook2
The following is a list of Gradebook2 bug fixes and usability issues that are being
addressed in the Summer, 2011 upgrades which will be accomplished in two parts.
The items listed below as "Ready" or "Resolved" are planned to be included in the
first upgrade slated for June 17/18. The remainder will occur in the August 12/13
upgrade.
Issue
Type
Ticket
#
Status
Summary
Bug
GRBK407
Ready
(QAPass)
Add the ability to import re-scored Scantron files (from
CETL) into the gradebook
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK525
Ready
(QAPass)
Export individual section based on export dialog
section dropdown
Bug
GRBK577
Ready
(QAPass)
Fix "drop lowest" behavior so that this feature is
disabled when unequally weighted items are added to
a category
Bug
GRBK592
Ready
(QAPass)
Menu drop down File>New Item. When you select a
category w/ neither "Weight items equally" nor
"Weight items by point" selected, the % of category
box disappears
Bug
GRBK676
Ready
(QAPass)
For Final Grade Submission, an alert is presented to
the instructor when extra credit has not been
completed by students. This shouldn't happen.
Bug
GRBK679
Ready
(QAPass)
When creating a new item, if uncheck "Include in
grade," choice is not saved; need to edit the item &
uncheck again.
Bug
GRBK704
Ready
(QAPass)
Letter Grade mode does not work with Pass/No Pass
Bug
GRBK772
Ready
(QAPass)
Improve item creation dialog to keep "% of Category"
field from disappearing
Bug
GRBK794
Ready
(QAPass)
Improve the behavior of the "Give ungraded no credit"
feature
Bug
GRBK803
Ready
(QAPass)
For letter grade gradebooks, don't show the grade
scale because numeric values are meaningless in a
letter grade grading setup
Task
GRBK806
Ready
(QAPass)
Post an event in Sakai_Events to log the grade
submission event
Bug
GRBK813
Ready
(QAPass)
Improve enforcement of "equal weighting" in "drop
lowest" categories
Bug
GRBK831
Ready
(QAPass)
Blank screen while import transitioning from
Percentages to Points
Bug
GRBK835
Ready
(QAPass)
Final grade submission confirmation dialog text has a
missing space between two sentences
Bug
GRBK840
Ready
(QAPass)
When exporting in XLS, we need to format the fields
according to their types: number, string, etc.
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK867
Ready
(QAPass)
Provide a warning when there is an empty category
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK868
Ready
(QAPass)
Add visual grade cutoff chart with drag and drop for
adjusting the grade cutoffs
Bug
GRBK869
Ready
(QAPass)
Grading only an extra credit grade item throws a null
pointer exception
Bug
GRBK887
Ready
(QAPass)
GradebookCalculationUnitImpl.calculateWeightedCou
rseGrade(...) throws a divide by zero exception
Bug
GRBK913
Ready
(QAPass)
Server returns HTTP 500 status code
Bug
GRBK919
Ready
(QAPass)
Slow gradebook performance
Task
GRBK943
Ready
(QAPass)
Implement warning if edit/create item is called and the
Multigrade window page size is bigger than some
trigger value
Bug
GRBK951
Resolved
- in QA
Extra Credit Category with Weight Items Equally
turned on and 3 items included causes gradebook
unbalanced condition to be flagged incorrectly
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK447
Resolved
- in QA
Add section info to import / export
Bug
GRBK458
Resolved
- in QA
Can increase item score to force an extra credit
"adjust" for the item, enter newer, higher grade, then
lower the points and select NO in recalculation pop-up
so the higher grade remains. There is no warning and
the Course Grade is no higher than 100% anyway
Ticket
#
Status
Summary
Bug
GRBK680
Resolved
- in QA
Give Ungraded No Credit' - Zeros given in scores are
not marked when dropped.
Bug
GRBK834
Resolved
- in QA
Import seems to create multiple items for a imported
item when it should not.
Bug
GRBK880
Resolved
- in QA
The '..not correctly weighted' message appears above
the grade structure, but nothing is highlighted to
indicate where the imbalance is located
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK894
Resolved
- in QA
Enable the export of multiple (subset of) sections
Bug
GRBK932
Resolved
- in QA
In both SS-dev and test, all gradebooks have the
Weighted Category headings (% Grade, % Category,
Points) in the top row of the tree view, even if the gbs
are set up as no category, category
Task
GRBK942
Resolved
- in QA
Implement Drop lowest after enough items entered in
calculations.
Bug
GRBK414
In
progress
Import doesn't handle grade items that have the same
name
Bug
GRBK593
In
progress
Fix the disappearing "% Category" field when
navigating between equal and unequally weighted
categories
Bug
GRBK824
In
progress
Prevent/notify the Instructor/TA from making grade
changes after the final grades have been submitted
Bug
GRBK833
In
progress
Only allow extra credit items in an extra credit
category. Remove "Extra Credit" checkbox when
creating items in an Extra Credit category. Note:
recommend blocking this.
Issue
Type
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK504
Not
started
Drop Lowest after enough items are submitted
Bug
GRBK797
Not
Started
Drop lowest displays incorrect points when you drop
more points than you have
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK483
Umich;
Test UCD
Provide toggle to show affect of category weighting
when viewing gradebooks entries for single item or all
gradebooks or across section gradebooks
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK485
Umich;
Test UCD
Add a search field to search for gradebook items for a
particular student
Import Spreadsheet/Export Gradebook2 Wizard
Issue
Type
Ticket
#
Status
Summary
Task
GRBK321
In
Progress
Improve import error checking and reporting process
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK401
In
Progress
If imported file has several "item" columns, Import
Setup frame needs a "loading dock" of some kind
where you can select what items to import and/or
delete
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK404
In
Progress
Improve export process to allow selective exporting of
gradebook elements
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK408
In
Progress
Add the ability to import the newer style Excel (.xlsx)
files into the gradebook
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK514
In
Progress
Add ability to import without grades (just structure)
Bug
GRBK627
In
Progress
Gradebook2 export - grades and structure -- some
gradebook settings are not included in the export,
making an imported gradebook act differently
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK688
In
Progress
For import of Scantron/Clicker files, need to have info
pop-up that shows the ID #s that cannot be matched
to students, instead of having to scroll down to find
them.
Bug
GRBK689
In
Progress
Create a process to enable Scantron and Clicker files
to import into a percentage or letter formatted
gradebook
Bug
GRBK698
In
Progress
gb2-import structure - import gives blank, grey screen
if there is a problem w/imported spreadsheet
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK752
In
Progress
Analysis for improvements the import/export process
(Wizard)
Bug
GRBK796
In
Progress
Fix to prevent the "unreleasing" of existing gradebook
items during gradebook import.
Bug
GRBK801
In
Progress
Warn user that exported percentage gradebooks
cannot be imported
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK804
In
Progress
Enable Import for Percentage/Letter Grade
Gradebooks
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK839
In
Progress
Fix to prevent the "unreleasing" of existing gradebook
items during gradebook import
Usabilit
y Issue
GRBK856
In
Progress
Allow imported GB files to overwrite existing comment
fields
Bug
GRBK859
In
Progress
Define consistent and accurate methods for
converting numeric values from external tools to letter
grades
Code Servicing Tasks
Issue
Type
Ticket
#
Status
Summary
Bug
GRBK753
Ready
(QAPass)
Replace deprecated GWT methods
Task
GRBK773
Ready
(QAPass)
Upgrade to newer version of Google Web Toolkit
Bug
GRBK815
Ready
(QAPass)
The NumericUtils class functionality needs to be part
of the BigDecimalCalculationsWrapper class
Status
Summary
Ready
(QAPass)
Remove dead code for v1.5.0
Issue
Type
Bug
Ticket
#
GRBK821
Task
GRBK909
Ready
(QAPass)
Upgrade Google Chart Tools (aka Visualization)
Library to from v1.1.0 to v1.1.1
Bug
GRBK920
Ready
(QAPass)
Tool service queries have to be null-aware to avoid
missing uninitialized values which should be
interpreted as false
Patch
GRBK921
Ready
(QAPass)
The InstitutionalAdvisor selection utility does not allow
you to deploy more than one impl
Task
GRBK718
Resolved
- in QA
Configure Apache to properly cache GWT *.nocache.*
file(s)
Bug
GRBK900
Resolved
- in QA
GWT Upgrade has caused cells to be uneditable after
hitting enter
Bug
GRBK901
Resolved
- in QA
Convert Gradebook2ComponentService.getRoster to
accept a list of sections via List<String>
Bug
GRBK902
Resolved
- in QA
Convert file download to post/put
Bug
GRBK935
Resolved
- in QA
Gradebook structure frame - appearing and
disappearing folder icons
Bug
GRBK936
Resolved
- in QA
Tree Panel entities cannot be opened or closed.
Bug
GRBK939
Resolved
- in QA
Replace deprecated JSONParser.parse(...) calls
Bug
GRBK949
Resolved
- in QA
Gradebook2ComponentServiceImpl NPE
Bug
GRBK820
Not
Started
Review Interfaces and remove unnecessary Spring
IoC setters if appropriate.
Appendix C. Three documents and related materials critical of the Ed Tech Subcommittee decision
process.
C1. February 7, 2011—Memo from Bob Powell to Jeff Barrett
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
UCDAVIS: ACADEMIC SENATE
January 27, 2011
JEFF BARRETT
PPM 200-45 Review Coordinator Informational and Educational Technology
Re: PPM 200-45 Review: Information Technology Shared Service Center Concept
The Davis Division of the Academic Senate forwarded the subject document to all standing committees
and the Faculty Executive Committee in each college and school. Comments were received from the
committees on Faculty Welfare, Information Technology, and Planning and Budget.
The document paints a generalized picture of what might be gained by an ITSM solution for UC Davis. It
does not establish any detail of limitations of the current set up. The fact that systems used are
“generally thought to be outdated” and “therefore we seek a new better system” does not substantiate
the need for an Information Technology Shared Service Center. Vague and unsupported statements fail
to articulate sound justification for the expense associated with replacement.
In fact, the document
fails to articulate how adopting this system will generate net cost savings. In every case, the campus
needs to be considering “Do we really NEED this?”
If one of the primary goals of a shared service
center is to save money, the concept paper should provide specifics on how savings will be achieved.
Fundamentally, all Organizational Excellence/Shared Service Center project requests originate with the
affected units to ensure optimum performance in conjunction with financial and operational efficiency. To
date we have not been provided evidence that centralization provides significant cost savings. Individual
departments and centers have special needs, and over the course of time have optimized support to
address those needs. Local optimization should be considered and weighed against the benefit of
centralization. The creation of a Shared Service Center (SSC) should never have a negative effect on
the campus’s educational missions, especially teaching and research.
The following administrative units will be affected by the proposed Organizational Excellence/Shared
Service Center project. The effects on these units will in turn have a significant impact on Academic
Senate authority over curriculum and admissions.
Administrative and Resource Management: Provides data necessary for the Senate to conduct
annual undergraduate program reviews. Additionally, there should be consultation regarding the impact
of consolidation on budgetary matters with the Academic Senate Committee on Planning and Budget
(CPB) and other Senate committees as needed.
Offices of the Chancellor and Provost: Centralizing would have a large and possibly
detrimental effect on the academic personnel process and might also affect the functions and
organization of the Academic Senate Office.
Information and Educational Technology: SmartSite contract oversight impacts Academic
Senate member interactions with students, communication of curricula and reporting of grades.
Student Affairs: There could be a detrimental influence on courses and curriculum, transcript
notation, internships, advising, degrees, and admissions and enrollment (ICMS, BANNER).
University Relations: Problems might be created for faculty who interact with government officials,
including the state legislature, and for gift administration, including faculty endowments. The proposal
states that the “goal of the IT SSC is to provide the highest quality customer service at the lowest
possible cost.” Faculty members on campus feel that there have been too many programs put into
Information Technology Shared Service Center Concept January 27, 2011 Page 2
place with the goal of “saving money” that have, in turn, lowered educational effectiveness and
increased dependence on faculty input of data, thereby increasing faculty workload and costs associated
with administrative tasks. We do not find it acceptable to sacrifice quality and faculty time and salaries to
save money on administrative salaries. Reducing costs should not be the first priority when
implementing a new IT system on campus. Before making decisions on centralization vs.
decentralization for units on campus, evidence concerning the pros and cons, including a true analysis
of savings and effect on the UC mission, should be presented, and the rationale for the decision should
be explained.
We wish to emphasize how critical Academic Senate input is in these cases. Senate input is needed
before the systems are already developed and decisions are already made. A good example of this can
be found in the case of SmartSite. There were clear requirements in the CCFIT sub-committee report on
the adoption of an alternative to MyUCDavis. The current SmartSite did not meet those requirements.
Indeed, the decision to use a commercial vendor is directly opposed to the requirements. The adoption
of SmartSite is clearly a case in which the campus has lowered educational effectiveness and increased
faculty workload. For example, SmartSite makes it difficult to weight assignments in particular ways, and
it insists on computing grades in terms of percentages when faculty members may want raw scores.
Even when one attempts to use “grade override,” students end up seeing the unwanted, and often
misleading, computations created by SmartSite. The program also makes it difficult to include Extension
students in a class roster. Faculty and student time is wasted in efforts to provide access to such
students, even though departments benefit greatly from the students’ fees. This is just one of many
examples of centralized IT decisions creating work for faculty and students under the banners of
‘efficiency’ and ‘cost savings’.
Sincerely,
Robert Powell, Chair Davis Division of the Academic Senate Chair & Professor: Chemical Engineering &
Materials Science Professor: Food Science & Technology
Response to Document C1
To: Pete Siegel, CIO and Vice Provost for IET, and
Professor Matt Bishop, Chair, Campus Committee on IT (CCFIT)
From: Lori Lubin and Susan Keen, Co-Chairs, CCFIT Educational Technology Subcommittee
Date: February 9, 2011
Subject: Memo from Bob Powell to Jeff Barrett, dated January 27, 2011
Dear Pete,
We write in response to the January 27, 2011 letter from Robert Powell, as Chair of the Davis Division of
the Academic Senate, to Jeff Barrett, RE: PPM 200-445 Review: Information Technology Shared Service
Center Concept. Specifically we would like to respond to the final paragraph of this letter dealing with a
purported lack of Academic Senate input in the campus Learning Management System, SmartSite. The
implementation of Smartsite and the development of the Gradebook and other tools (e.g. guest access,
SCORM tool) were developed under the guidance of CCFIT (Campus Committee For Information
Technology) where many members, including the Chair, are Senate faculty and the Academic Senate has
a designated representative. As Senate faculty who serve as co-chairs of the Educational Technology
subcommittee, we wish to make clear that we were involved in the process for over three years. We also
wish to make clear that there has been a very long history of requests for input, collaboration, and pilot
testing from the campus faculty as shown in documents included with this letter. A list of
communications on SmartSite and GradeBook from 2009 fills two entire pages. Faculty response led to
improvements in the products developed.
The paragraph to which we refer also conflates two issues: the outsourcing of SmartSite and the function
of the SmartSite GradeBook. SmartSite was not adopted from a “commercial vendor” as the paragraph
states. It is a UC Davis version of community-source software developed initially by a consortium of four
universities, with ongoing development now done by the Sakai Foundation, with over 100 educational
partners. The UC Davis SmartSite is now hosted by a commercial vendor, rSmart. We note that the
SmartSite GradeBook is an in-house tool, developed by UCD, maintained by UCD, and shared with Sakai
community. Resolution of GradeBook issues, including fixing bugs, is done in-house, independently of
rSmart.
We readily admit that GradeBook is not perfect, that it contains bugs, and that every function requested
by faculty is not available. However, some of “problems” described in the paragraph are, in fact, due to
user error or lack of user training. Other issues are bugs that have been brought to our attention and are
currently being addressed. Our committee and IET has always been committed to improving the level of
communication to and from faculty about SmartSite, its issues, and the improvement efforts. In fact,
there are numerous faculty who are so pleased with SmartSite that they believe that it must be
considered as infrastructure required for effective teaching and learning on this campus. As members of
the Academic Senate and chairs of the CCFIT EdTech Subcommittee, we are disappointed that the
comments contained in the letter to Jeff Barrett were sent without giving us a chance to respond first.
A2. February 2011 letter to Academic Senate—Boeshaar
Add letter here
ATS Point-by-point response to Boeshaar letter from L & S
1) The Help instructions did not correspond to the format layout of the GradeBook. It took many
calls to IT Express to find out what did and did not work.
Issue: Revised HELP menu documentation for GradeBook was posted on 14-Jul-2010, but was not
incorporated into the SmartSite Help files, and resided in a separate location that faculty had
difficulty locating (it was posted in Message of the Day, but not everyone reads these messages).
Help Files for Gradebook2 were integrated into the general Online Help system for SmartSite in
January, making them easier to locate.
Status: Complete. All GradeBook help files are now available in the SmartSite Help files. Our
additional printable documents are also still available.
2) The Grade view screen was very inconvenient, i.e., all of the grades for a student follow in one
long line independent of item, whether it be homework, exams, papers, etc. One was required to
delete columns to enter new grades next to a name, and then restore the columns. This is rather
onerous compared to the simple MyUCDavis format. MyUCDavis broke the grades into item
sections, in which the grade was entered per each individual item, and then combined
automatically in a separate category screen. Currently, the only way to see such a screen is to
download the data to an Excel spreadsheet and write your own instructions.
Issue: This may be a training issue. There are ways to turn off columns, and other tips are available
in the help files to customize the grade view screen for convenience. All grades for an individual
student can also be entered on a single screen.
Status: No fix required. Recommend that the L&S Executive Committee contact the faculty
member who reported this issue, suggesting they contact us for training; or, if acceptable, the
committee could provide us with the faculty’s name, and we will contact her/him.
3) Often, when entering a grade, the grade failed to be registered unless one goes to another
grade already entered. Scroll down did not work.
Issue: A fix has been developed and tested for this issue. It will be released Feb 18, 2011.
Status: JIRA - GRBK-775; Planned release: v1.4.0, Feb, 18, 2011
4) Nothing was printable from the SmartSite, GradeBook, including the statistics. The grade
distribution was presented in a compressed, simplistic format. On December 13, 2010, so many
people were attempting to utilize the statistics package that SmartSite was forced offline for
several hours. Furthermore, the students were unable to view the statistics, as the software I
currently inoperable, even though there such as option was listed. This was not true in the
MyUCDavis GradeBook. Every portion was printable, with a well presented statistics view screen.
Issue 1: Printing: This may in part be a training issue. Printing of some of the Gradebook is possible
using “Printframe”. However the above statement is true for those pages that do not work with
Printframe. Therefore, an enhancement request to permit printing of all pages in the gradebook
has been created.
Status: Enhancement Request for printing capabilities created Jan 25/2011; JIRA #GRBK-810;
Planned update v1.4.X TBD.
Issue 2: Statistics Tool: The Site Statistics tool had been experiencing occasional slow response
times in November. On Dec 1 the SmartSite Program Manager identified the problem as being that
the Site Statistics tables needed indexes. Unfortunately, there was not sufficient time to develop and
implement a fix prior to final exams. It is our policy not to purposefully take down the system
during exam periods.
Status: Trouble Ticket #RSN 8309917 (rSmart) addressed this issue which was corrected on Dec/7,
2010, even though it was during the exam period, because the system experienced an outage which
provided an opportunity to build the indexes. There have been no reports of issues since that date
(which includes Dec 13).
5) The upload option did not work properly. For example, you couldn’t upload ANYTHING into
the GradeBook if the GradeBook was configured to track percentage rather than points. Worse,
once it was configured to track percentages, you couldn’t change it back to points. Worse still, at
the time you chose to track percentages, there was no warning about any of this.
Issue 1: Uploads to GradeBook for percentage gradebooks. This is a known bug.
Status: Import capabilities planned for implementation in 2011. JIRA #GRBK-804; Planned v1.4.x
(TBD). Additionally JIRA #GRBK-752, created August 24, 2010, was created to perform an analysis
for improving the import/export process. A wizard tool has been identified recently that can
provide this functionality. We are discussing the requirements this week, and the estimate to
implement it.
Issue 2: Changing percentages to points. This may be a training issue. The GradeBook works in
both points and percentages.
Status: We will follow up with committee to get more details.
Issue 3: We have created a ticket to develop a warning to the user that exported percentage
gradebooks cannot be imported.
Status: Ticket created 18-Jan-2010; JIRA #GRKB-801; Planned v1.4.x (TBD)
6) Right clicking on a student’s name entered a comment, which promptly disappeared when
viewed later.
Issue: It is true that you cannot enter comments by right clicking on a student name. However you
can enter a comment by right clicking on a student's grade item.
Status: We have entered an “Enhancement Request” to allow right clicking on a student’s name to
enter a comment. Right clicking on a student’s name implies adding a comment at the student
level and not at the item level. If so, this represents a new feature. We have created JIRA #GRBK817, which will be based on a recommendation from CCFIT Ed Tech Subcommittee. (We will be
reviewing the right click context functionality and the need for further comment functionality with
the CCFIT Ed Tech Subcommittee. We welcome suggestions on how and where to document the
use of right click.)
7) One could not reuse an established SmartSite GradeBook format; one must start from
scratch, making it unnecessarily onerous for new TA’s teaching labs and recitations.
Issue: There was a workaround for this problem, however this is now being corrected in the
release due this weekend (Feb 18, 2010).
Status: Enhancement request ticket created 5/27/2009; JIRA #GRBK-149; Fix planned V1.4.0 (Feb
18, 2011)
8) Calculating grades by hand indicated that there could be more than a 1 point discrepancy
with SmartSite in some final grades, depending on the structure of the course and the gradeweighting method used. Apparently this had to do with rounding-off in the calculated grade of
each section. For this reason the Registrar was forced to use a separate verification process for
all grades originally calculated using the SmartSite GradeBook in Fall 2010 when the instructors
used the “equal weighting” option. The rounding error also was apparently the source of 14
incorrect grades being assigned in a course during UCD Summer Sessions 2010.
Issue: This is unfortunate misinformation regarding both the summer session II issue and the fall
issue. In addition, the fall rounding issue was both detected by, and the verification process
performed by, IET and endorsed by the Registrar, and not actually performed by the Registrar’s
office.
o SSII: A line of code instructing the program to round up, was commented out, affecting 14
students.
o Fall: A rounding error at the 4th decimal place in ONLY the Equal Weighting Option under very
specific conditions, had the potential to affect students’ whose letter grades occurred on the
border between two letter grades (e.g. B+ and A-). This did not affect the whole Gradebook, and
through the verification process, NO student letter grades were affected.
Status:
o SS 2010 bug was found and fixed in October 2010. 14 grade discrepancies were found and
grade changes were handled in cooperation with the Registrar’s office and the Senate Committee
on Grade Changes, employing Academic Senate regulations regarding Requests for Grade Change.
JIRA #GRBK-721; Fixed v1.3.1 (Oct-2010).
o Fall 2010 grade points rounding error was ≤ .0001 (GRBK-774). No letter grade discrepancies
were found. JIRA #GRBK-774; Fix planned V1.4.0 (Feb 18, 2011)
o We contacted Professor Boeshaar to identify where she saw 1% errors, in order to verify and
respond to this specific claim. She reported that it was not her, but rather someone else that
reported this large of a discrepancy. We are pursuing this issue, and will report more once we have
been able to make contact with the reporting professor (emails have been sent, but no response
received).
9) There was no ability to grade different sections of a class separately if one desired to set up a
page to send messages via Resources to the entire class. All sections were combined into one list.
Issue 1: Grading Sections: Select the section from the drop down and you can grade only that
section.
Issue 2: Emailing Sections: Faculty of large classes are taught to create multiple sites for a single
course (one for each section) to get completely separate gradebooks. This methodology allows for
emailing separate sections, while having the ability to roll up the gradebooks into one when
needed.
Status: We demonstrate to faculty, ways to effectively manage multiple sites to enable messages
and other needs of the entire class, while more completely separating activities by section. The
workaround stated above in Issue 2, is reported as being an acceptable method by all faculty who
have used it to date. A change to support multiple gradebooks in a single site would require
significant development work and would involve the Sakai Foundation. This has not been
scheduled because faculty report the workarounds as being quite acceptable, and therefore not
worth the cost of investment. Tickets for this large effort have been created Feb/March 2010;
JIRA #GRBK-477 and 525. However a fix is not scheduled/planned at this time.
C2a. Following the official response to the letter from L & S, Ed Tech Co-chair Keen invited Professor
Boeshaar’s and two colleagues (Professors McClain and Wittman) who were reported to share concerns to
attend the Ed Tech subcommittee meeting, either as a guest or as a member. Professor McClain did not
respond, Professor Boeshaar declined (email below) and Professor Wittman wrote detailing his issues. The
issues were forwarded to Gibson, emails below.
Response from Boeshaar to request to attend Ed Tech subcommittee meeting:
Hi There:
Unfortunately, I am already committed to an L&S Executive Meeting meeting from 1-2 p.m. on the 23rd
which requires some prior preparation. So my regrets, I will be unable to attend. I believe I have already
communicated to Liz Gibson the need for better communication between IET and the faculty, especially
with improved updates in the HELP section of the Gradebook. I am still calling IT Express since many new
changes are not documented and are far from obvious.
pat C B
Correspondence with Professor Wittman
(1) >> On 2/22/11 5:51 PM, David Wittman wrote:
Hi Susan, >> >> I won't be able to attend, but I would like to give some input. >> The big issue for me is
that I can't use Smartsite Gradebook to drop >> the lowest n scores out of m online quizzes. In theory I
should be >> able to do that, but in practice if a student doesn't take a quiz, it >> is recorded as "no score"
>> rather than "0". And only the three lowest *numerical* scores are >> dropped, so students who don't
take quizzes don't suffer (as long as >> they take one!) >> >> Even if I had the patience to enter 0 where a
student had no score on >> a quiz (which I don't, even for a moderate-size class in which a dozen >>
quizzes were given), I am not allowed to, because these no-scores came >> straight from the
Tests&Quizzes tool. >> >> The bottom line is that I do my grade calculations outside of >> Smartsite and
then re-import them so students can see them. A big waste of time. >> >> Cheers, >>
>>
(2) The above comment was relayed to Liz Gibson with the following response:
Elizabeth (Liz) Gibson > Director, IET - Academic Technology Services > UC Davis > > 530-752-3777
> > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Susan L. Keen [mailto:slkeen@ucdavis.edu] > Sent:
Monday, February 28, 2011 10:35 PM > To: David Wittman > Cc: Elizabeth Gibson > Subject: Re:
Invitation to Educational Technology meeting > > Dear David, > > Thanks for sending the comment
below. > We are checking into this issue and made sure it was discussed at the last meeting. > We will
have an answer for you soon. > > Best, > Susan > >
On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 11:37 AM, Elizabeth Gibson <emgibson@ucdavis.edu> wrote:
 Hello David and Susan > > I am attaching a pdf file that shows you how to convert "nulls" or
"not taken" scores to zeros in a gradebook item. It is a two-step process: > (1) double click
on the gradebook item, and it opens up a box. Then, > (2) in that box, click on the checkbox
for "Give ungraded no credit". > > This will insert zeros in all cells where the quiz score is
blank or 'not taken' for that specific gradebook item. You can do this regardless of whether
the gradebook item was initiated from assignments, test & quizzes, or in the gradebook itself.
> > Now - there is a known bug that I should let you know about. When you do this - it does
work properly (i.e. using the new zeros as part of the determination of the lowest n scores),
however normally the scores that are being eliminated turn red and are crossed out. When
you force the zeros the above way, they ARE used in the determination of n lowest scores,
but they do not turn red and do not get crossed out as they should. We have a bug report on
file to correct this visual cue. But again, it does work the way it should. > > If we can be of
more assistance in this matter or any other issues, please do not hesitate to contact myself, or
smartsite-help@ucdavis.edu > > Best regards > > Liz > >

 Reply from Professor Wittman:
 Well, that was pretty simple and I feel silly. As long as I have your attention, may I ask a
related question? How can I see each student's resulting average grade in a category? In "Edit
category" I have checked every box that seems reasonable, such as "Release scores" and
"Include in grade" but I can't see the results of any category-wise computation.
 ===============================================
A3. Summary of discussions with Professor Casey, Chemistry on Smartsite Gradebook.
Liz—nature of communication with Bill Casey