From time to time, we'll highlight articles and news stories related to higher education and learning. Today, we're focusing on James Lang's "Try and Fail". Lang relates his experiences learning a new skill (scuba diving!) to his teaching in the classroom. The article is available on the Chronicle of Higher Education's career section (which is open to nonsubscribers.)

Have you ever wished you could attend a CTL seminar or brown bag but had a conflict? Audio-only podcast are available of all our seminars and brown bags. Check them out to see what you may have missed!

http://mymedia.msstate.edu/outputset.php?id=2474

Here is a great YouTube video that Dean Lynne Richardson forwarded to her faculty. It was created by a class at K-State. It is worth viewing to get a student perspective of the higher education classroom. In order for students to learn they must be an active part of the teaching process. What are you doing to make sure your students are engaged learners?

I've had a couple of questions recently about Second Life. I've found a website that might provide additional information....it's the Annotated Bibliography of Second Life Educational Online Resources.

If you've experimented with your class in Second Life, I would love to hear about your experiences----drop me a line!

In this Chronicle of Higher Education, David Shieh highlights strategies for using clickers in the classroom from Derek Bruff. Bruff is the assistant director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching.

http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=BJkdzckhgfpWw3Vkwnf8QnF65GfryTVr

The latest issue of Educause Review (March/April 2009) is now available. This month's issue focuses on the relationship between learning spaces and pedagogy, assessment, and education models. ER articles are freely available on the web.

Turnitin is sponsoring a free webinar this Friday, April 24. Part of the Turnitin Webinar series, this session is entitled: Plagiarism in the Digital Age: Voices from the Front Lines. The webinar is 75 minutes long and starts at 8:45 PDT (10:45 Central!)

According to the webinar description "...You'll hear from a panel of leading experts who will share their experiences from the front lines of the digital plagiarism issue. You'll also have an opportunity to submit questions to the panel, as well as have access to a range of "best practice" online resources you can use immediately."

For more information about the webinar and to register (required but free) for the session, please visit the online registration site.

The next Educause Live! online seminar is scheduled for May 5. The online seminar series is free but registration for each session is required. The May 5 session is entitled "Building Digital Discourse---Telling Academic Stories" and focuses on Tulane University's Digital Narrative pilot program. To find out more about the next online seminar and to register, visit the seminar website.

A recent article in Change magazine provides a different perspective on the role of instructional technology. Michelle Miller draws upon her background in cognitive psychology to discuss the positive role instructional technology can have in the classroom. Change is available through the Library's online collection and the article is available online to MSU faculty, staff, and students.

(The link above was built to allow remote access; you simply have to add the proxy server to the persistent link. Authorized remote users can log in with their netid and netpassword. You can do this for other readings from the library's online collections that you might like to add to your myCourses page. Don't know how? Contact us!)

U.S. News & World Report has an article on the use of Twitter in the classroom. The author provides several examples of how faculty are using the social networking/microblogging site to enhance communication both in and outside of class. The article is available online.

Not familiar with Twitter? Twitter permits microblogging or the posting of 140 character messages (known as "tweets") to others on the site who have signed up to "follow" you. In turn, you select those that you wish to follow. Many professional associations, including Educause, have Twitter accounts. Even some professional journals have Twitter accounts.

The Educause Learning Initiative has a a short introduction (pdf) to Twitter: "7 Things You Should Know About....Twitter."

Mississippi State University has renewed Turnitin.com for the 2009/2010 year. Purchased through the Office of Student Affairs, Turnitin is part of a campus-wide endeavor to foster a climate of ethical research at MSU.

Effective June 30, 2009, Turnitin will include some new or revised features. These include:

The default setting for all new assignments will be to exclude bibliographic and quoted material from the Similarity Index. (Instructors may choose, at their discretion, to add this back.)

Coming July 30, 2009:

(1) Optional exclusion of small matches in the originality report. Instructors may choose to set a percent match (between 1 and 100%) to be excluded from the report.

(2) Expanded similarity index show sources of matches: in addition to the overall similarity index, each Originality Report will also display the percentage of the paper's content that matches content in each of the three source repositories (student papers, web sources, and periodicals/journals/publications.)

(3) Automatic check of a user's system capabilities with Turnitin Systems Requirements. This has always been an option; with the July 30 release, this check will be performed automatically.

(4) Improved handling of document submissions and multiple file uploads. This update will double the size limits for individual file submissions (increased from 10MB to 20MB) and for zip file uploads (increased from 100MB to 200MB.) Users will also be notified if they submit a paper that exceeds the maximum size.

The Center for Teaching and Learning provides faculty support for any instructor of record who wishes to use Turnitin.com in their class. Turnitin may be used as a web product or through myCourses. For additional information about Turnitin, contact the Center at 325-1403.

MSU has a site license for the plagiarism detection service, Turnitin.com. Turnitin has had a number of upgrades and interface enhancements this summer. Here are some of the latest changes:

Languages: Turnitin now supports 10 different languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, chinese (traditional and simplified), Japanese, Korean, Malay Bahasia, and Thai.

Performance Imrpvodements: recent upgrades to the application web servers should result in improvements to both performance and system reliability.

New Features include:

An option to exclude quoted (and bibliographic) material from papers' Similiarity Index for an entire assignment (not just individual papers);

An option to exclude small matches in Originality Reports to help streamline the process of evaluating your students' papers for unoriginal content. Instructors can choose the size of excluded matches as a number of words (such as 8 or 11) or a percentage of all words in the paper (such as 4%);

An expanded Similiarity Index that shows multiple sources for highlighted matches in the Originality Report---not just a single possible source;

Automatic check of user's system capabilities and compatability with Turnitin system requirements;

Improved handling of document submissions and multiple file uploads. This includes: double the size limit for individual file submissions (from 10 MB to 20 MB) as well as an increase in the size of zip files (batch) uploads (from 100 MB to 200 MB); improved user notification for submissions that exceed the maximum size (and guidance to help fix the issue); and a new status bar indicating the status of uploads.

As always, you can use Turnitin with your classes via the Web service or through your myCourses class site. The Center for Teaching and Learning can set up a Turnitin.com workshop for your department! For additional information about Turnitin.com, please contact Dr. Deborah Lee at 325-0810.

Are you using the MSU Maroon Edition for 2009, A Painted House by John Grisham, in your course? Not sure how to direct the discussion in your class or build assignments around the book? This CTL seminar will offer suggestions and tips for using A Painted House in your class. There's still time to register! The seminar is scheduled for Wednesday, August 26 at 12:00 p.m. in 336 Etheredge. Register here and join us in the discussion of this interesting book!

Plagiarism is a serious issue in today's classroom. Barry Gilmore's Plagiarism: Why it Happens, How to Prevent It offers some tips for encouraging original work in your students' papers.

1. Specify the sources: provide students guidance in determining what are appropriate types of sources for their projects.

2. Require source proof: this would include both the source document and the notes the student developed from the source. (Be sure to warn students to NOT rip source documents from library books and journals!)

3. Build collaboration into the process: have students work in teams to develop their resources and papers.

4. Color code sentences by type: as an exercise, have students highlight different portions of their paper, based on sections written by them, sections based on other sources, and direct quotes. (This is easily done in word processing packages such as Word.)

5. Specify an audience: have the student identify a target audience for their work and discuss how publications (newspapers, trade journals, research journals) target their audiences.

6. Readjust the stakes: break the writing process down into its component parts—thesis statement, outline, bibliography, etc… Base the grade on each part and not just on the finished product.

7. Require specific components: consider specifying the number of quotes allowed, the types of sentences to be included, etc…

8. Involve peer editing: allow students to share ideas and approaches by incorporating a peer-review process.

9. Break the process into pieces: research has consistently shown that breaking down the writing process into smaller pieces significantly reduces the likelihood of plagiarism.

10. Require current sources: existing essays on the web often contain dated material; requiring current sources insures the student must consult newer materials.

The Center for Teaching and Learning has several seminars that can assist with developing effective writing assignments and offers support for the use of Turnitin.com in the classroom.

Just a reminder---we have the Advising for New Faculty workshop today at 2:00 p.m. in the IMC Presentation Room (located on the first floor of the Mitchell Memorial Library). If you're a new faculty member (or just a new advisor!), feel free to join us!

The Center for Teaching and Learning is pleased to offer a Brown Bag session on October 21, 2009. The topic for our October session is "Master Advisors: Specific Suggestions for Making Your Advising as Good as Your Teaching." The seminar will use a panel format: our guest speakers are: Ms Karyn Brown (Instructor of Communications), Ms. Chris Emplaincourt (Instructor of Mechanical Engineering) and Dr. Steve Grado (Professor of Forestry).

All Brown Bag sessions are held in McCain Hall, Room 150 (King Seminar Room). The sessins are scheduled from noon to 1:00, with networking beginning at 11:30 a.m. Lunch will be provided, while it lasts.

Registration is encouraged but not required. To register and to find out about all our workshops, seminars, and brown bag sessions, please visit the Center for Teaching and Learning's web page at http://ctl.msstate.edu.