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Instructional Support

New on EEE: MessageBoard

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The Electronic Educational Environment (EEE) web team has launched the new MessageBoard tool, which allows instructors and TAs to create online forums for discussion with students outside of the classroom. MessageBoard includes a number of new features based on feedback from users of the earlier NoteBoard tool, which it replaces.

New features include:

  • Subscription: Receive email updates when new posts are made
  • Uploading: Post a file for others to download
  • Rich text: Easily format text and add links without HTML
  • Advanced controls: Restrict a forum to instructors and TAs, board admins, or specific people identified by UCInetID
  • Custom web addresses: Choose a friendly URL for your message board

You can visit the MessageBoard tool here.  The EEE Web site has extensive documentation on MessageBoard, including tips on how to use MessageBoard in instruction.

EEE: Streamlining Administrative Tasks to Facilitate Instruction

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In Fall 2008, the Electronic Educational Environment (EEE) web team introduced new features to facilitate course administration for instructors and TAs.

SignupSheet
In August 2008, SignupSheet was added to the EEE toolbox. This new tool helps instructors and TAs manage their classes by collecting online sign-ups from their students.

SignupSheet is in use already, with 100+ sheets published for students to sign up for presentation time slots, paper topics, and office hours with their instructors and TAs.

EasyWebsite
It’s easier than ever to build a class website and provide course materials to students with the new ‘Images’ feature in EasyWebsite. Instructors and TAs can add full image galleries, with automatically created thumbnails and customized image layouts.

Rapid Return
The Rapid Return process, originally launched in March 2007, has been streamlined. Starting Fall 2008, scanned exam files are automatically transferred directly to EEE from Distribution & Document Management (DDM), where instructors and teaching assistants can securely distribute them to students via EEE DropBox.

Help & How-to Primers
EEE Help & How-to guides now feature one-page student primers, useful for printing and distributing in class as part of the syllabus, or linking from a class website. Each downloadable PDF covers basic information about an EEE tool: what the tool is, how to access it, how to begin using it, and where to find more information.  Popular student primers include:

EEE wants to hear from you!
The EEE Web Team is always looking for new and better ways to serve the UCI community. EEE development is driven by the feature requests, questions, and other comments we receive every day. To share your feedback today, Contact Us.

Online Geographic Information System Services

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Geographic Information System (GIS) software has traditionally been used on desktop computers to develop, display, and analyze spatial data.  Recent advances in web-based GIS software now allow researchers and instructors to upload their spatial data to online GIS services.  Colleagues and students can then view and query — and even edit — GIS data online via a web browser and without having GIS software installed on their desktop computers.

NACS uses ESRI’s ArcGIS Server to provide online GIS services.  Development of a new online GIS service is straightforward.  Once an ArcGIS Desktop document is developed, the document and associated GIS data files are uploaded to an ArcGIS Server. A GIS service is generated and custom data queries are assigned. The URL for this new GIS service can then be distributed for users to visit the new site.

NACS has been developing GIS services using ArcGIS Server for two years.  If you are interested in making your GIS data available online, we can develop a GIS service on our server using your data, or we can help you set up ArcGIS Server on your own or a departmental system.

Here are a few ArcGIS Server applications running on the NACS GIS server.  When viewing these GIS services, consider how your own spatial data might be displayed and explored using ArcGIS Server.

Recent Southern California fires (Freeway, Tea, and Sayre) using ESRI basemap data and fire perimeters collected by the Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination.

California No Child Left Behind, within the UCI Department of Education.

History of North American Indians used for instruction within the UCI Department of History.

New Instructional Computing Labs

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Last fall, NACS brought three new instructional computing labs up, and we want to be sure faculty, staff, and students are aware of them.

The first lab, dedicated to faculty and staff training, is in the Anteater Instruction & Research Building (AIRB). Priority is given to NACS and the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) events, but it is available free of charge for other faculty and staff training on campus. Equipped with 16 Windows workstations in addition to an instructor’s station, this room also features the same console and other equipment found in UCI Smart Classrooms.

You can view the availability of the training lab in Oracle Calendar, or request reservations online (login with your UCInetID).

NACS@Student Center Lab

NACS@Student Center Lab

Two drop-in labs opened as part of the upgraded Student Center and Cross-Cultural Center. The NACS@StudentCenter lab has approximately 44 Windows and Macintosh workstations and a print station. The NACS@CCC lab has another 6 Windows workstations. Additional seats are available for students with their own laptops, with access to UCI’s wireless network.  Hours of operation, as well as hardware and software details can be found on the NACS Drop-in Labs web page.

Rapid Return

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David Pritikin (NACS) and Linh Nguyen (DDM) with Larry L. Sautter Silver Award

David Pritikin (NACS) and Linh Nguyen (DDM) with Larry L. Sautter Silver Award

Returning exams can be a burdensome task for instructors involving the distribution, collection and storage of graded work. Currently, exams may be returned through a distribution center or exam room where the students are required to present their IDs while a staff member retrieves exams from a wall of filing cabinets. Or, exams may be returned during discussion or lecture, taking valuable time away from instruction. Instructors may also return exams during office hours, which may not be accessible to all students.

To streamline the exam return process, Distribution and Document Management (DDM) and Network & Academic Computing Services (NACS) have partnered to release a new tool called Rapid Return.

Using barcode-assisted imaging technology and high-resolution scanners, DDM staff will scan and save graded exams as PDF files. Instructors then download their files and use Rapid Return to batch upload all the exams into the EEE DropBox. This enables students to download their individual exams securely and on their own time from any computer with internet access. Since students receive an exact copy of their exams, the integrity of the original document is maintained if the assigned grade is later challenged.

Rapid Return will drastically reduce the costs associated with storing and distributing paper copies of exams. The Department of Chemistry estimates that the elimination of their exam return room would save roughly $20,000 annually. Rapid Return will also free up limited office space currently used for storage and, most importantly, save precious time for more instruction and less administration.

Rapid Return recently received a 2007 Larry L. Sautter Silver Award from the University of California Information Technology Leadership Council.  The awards recognize innovations that have the potential to improve UC academic or administrative processes.

To learn how to use Rapid Return, visit http://eee.uci.edu/rapidreturn .