School of Education faculty, staff, students are invited to celebrate American Education Week November 15-21.   This year we explore the theme “Great Public Schools: A Basic Right and Our Responsibility”.  SoE events are posted online and include a special MERIT workshop "Exploring New Applications for Teachers in the Classroom" on November 17th from 2:30-4:30 pm 346 MERIT library with Seann Dikkers, PhD student in C&I.   

Sean notes, "Technology is changing the way we learn, and more importantly what we need to learn in a world saturated with new technologies. This workshop reviews the "new" learning, exploring some of the ideas from Clayton Christensen’s book "Disrupting Class," and discusses how schools and educational systems are responding to technology change. The workshop includes a "speed review" of software applications for productivity, cloud computing, classroom projects and creativity design."

SoE faculty, staff, students and area educators are welcome to attend.

School of Education Departments have identified the essential courses to be offered at a distance if needed in response to the spread of the H1N1 flu. MERIT staff is prepared to support the development and delivery of these courses. Course support will also be available at a distance through documentation in the School of Education Knowledge Base. 

Learn@UW and Moodle are the primary tools identified by faculty to support teaching at a distance. The campus has identified these two resources as high priority for continued support and maintenance in the event that the flu becomes so widespread that some or all face to face classes would be canceled. Additional tools supported by MERIT include Google Apps, MyWebSpace, LessonShare, Second Life, Library e-reserves, library course pages as well as software tools to support course work.

Tips on preparing to teach courses at a distance are available at the Teaching and Learning Excellent Website.

For further assistance, please contact Zach Buehl, IT Consultant (890-2080); Catherine Stephens (263-5949); or Jo Ann Carr (263-4755).

MERIT is pleased to announce the Fall 2009 workshop schedule.   Topics include:

Introduction to RefWorks
Introduction to Dreamweaver
Using Google for Academic Research
Introduction to EndNote
Introduction to Data Analysis with PASW (formerly SPSS)
Disrupting Technologies:  Exploring New Applications for Teachers in the Classroom
Introduction to the GIMP

As the fall semester begins, we invite faculty and staff to contact our instruction team to request course related instruction sessions.

We look forward to working with you!

What is Moodle?   Moodle is an open source course management system offered by several schools and colleges at UW-Madison.  The School of Education offers Moodle as an alternative web tool for courses and web-based projects.   Moodle is often considered when a flexible approach to course design is needed as it offers a choice of  formats and templates.  Moodle can be an appropriate choice for online course activites with a focus on collaborative group work. includes specialized support for math and science notation, and offers specialized support for teaching foreign languages, including voice recording.   

To support decision making around CMS software, the UW Madison Moodle council drafted a consultative guide to help faculty choose between Moodle or Learn@UW.  A copy of the guide Learn@UW or Moodle:  which to use? is posted in the SoE Knowledgebase.   Contact Catherine Stephens if you have questions about the guide.

MERIT staff can help recommend Moodle based on course objectives and design goals. MERIT staff work collaboratively to support design of Moodle coures sites, instructional support, support for posting and streaming video, instructional design, and graphic design and consulting.  To learn more about MERIT services in support of online courses, contact Catherine Stephens.

Gearing up for Fall:  Learn@UW FAQs

1. It's early August.  Why do I see only a partial list of students in my Learn@UW classlist?  

Answer:  Learn@UW student enrollment begins August 10.   Instructors will not find the complete list of students until that time.  

2. I would like to add a TA to my Learn@UW course. 

Answer:  Click on ClassList and choose Add a Participant.   Search for the TA by first and last name.  Carefully note the different roles.  Select Instructor or TA as appropriate.

Contact Catherine Stephens for help adding participants to SoE Learn@UW course sites.

3. Please remind me of the steps to copy course content from last Fall. 

a. Check that you are listed as an instructor for the current course as well as previous course.
b. Start from the new course site.
c. Select Edit Course from the Toolbar.
d. Select Copy Course Components.
e. Select Copy Components from another Org Unit.
f. Click on Drop Down arrow next to Existing Offerings and carefully select the correct course from previous semester.
g. Choose Components to Copy.   Click on Next.

Note: Student data and discussion content from the previous semester will not copy to the new course.

Resource:  The DoIT Help Desk KB:  http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=2617

4. How do I change the Learn@UW start date so that students can access the course materials prior to September 2nd?  

a. Select on Edit Course.
b. Select "Course Offering Information".   Modify the course start and end date.  
c. Note whether course is checked as Active.  Students will not see Learn@UW courses until sites are checked Active.  This feature allows instructors time to setup the course site materials.
d. Click on Save.

5. How can I add/remove Tools from the toolbar?

a. Select Edit Course
b. Select NavBars.   Select and open the Active NavBar.
c. Note list of Inactive and Active Links.  Use < > buttons to add or remove tools based on your planned use of LearnUW. 
d. Click on Save.

6. Will MERIT offer a workshop on Learn@UW this Fall?   Catherine Stephens will offer a "Getting Started with Learn@UW" workshop on August 27th from 9:45-10:45 am.   Please contact Catherine to register to attend.

Faculty and instructional staff are encouraged to arrange time to meet with Catherine for Learn@UW help and assistance with framing and posting content in Learn@UW.