IU and IU East provide an abundance of resources, services, and technology to help you develop a course that balances the needs/expectations of the current student body with the expertise and academic challenges you uniquely impart.
Developing or updating a course?
Technology
- Zoom: a web collaboration tool available to all Indiana University students, faculty, and staff. A regular Zoom meeting can support up to 100 simultaneous participants, while a large meeting can support up to 300 participants. Zoom also includes a webinar tool for very large meetings or classes. Zoom provides high-quality audio and video, intuitive sharing and co-annotation tools, breakout rooms, whiteboarding tools, the ability to easily add content to a meeting on the fly, and the option to download meeting recordings as MP4 files. Zoom integrates into Canvas as an external tool, and has apps for all platforms, including fully featured iOS and Android apps. Zoom's high-quality video and recording features also allow for recording simple videos with a webcam.
- Top Hat: a comprehensive teaching platform that instructors can use to engage students both within and outside of the classroom with interactive slides, graded questions, customized content, videos, discussions, and polls. Students use smartphones, tablets, laptops, or ordinary cell phones to participate in Top Hat activities.
- Turnitin.com: Turnitin is web-based plagiarism detection software owned by Turnitin.com, Inc. Turnitin can be used as a deterrent, but also as an educational tool to teach students how to work with sources and to improve paraphrasing and quoting skills. The integration of Turnitin into the Assignments tool of Canvas allows students to submit written work to both their instructors and Turnitin at the same time.
- Next.IU: Learning technologies are always evolving, and IU is always trying new tools to enhance teaching, learning, and colaboration on IU campuses. Next.iu.edu is a great platform to find the newest tools in education, and to signup, or even suggest pilots for new products.
Feel free to contact the IU East Center for Faculty Development if you would like help getting started with any of these tools, or if you are just looking for something new to add to your courses.
From peers
- Teaching with Technologies Faculty Showcase: A webinar series in which instructors throughout the IU system present their use of an instructional technology. Instructors elaborate on how they have addressed a teaching goal or challenge using a particular tool or strategy. Each webinar includes a brief introduction to the tool, and how to get started.
Each instructor teaches in a unique way. Our experienced staff is available to assist you during the brainstorming, implementation, and follow-up process. Private one-on-one consultations are available for teaching, research, projects, and presentation needs.
Thinking about trying something new with your students? Thinking about reworking an assignment that just didn’t go as smoothly as you hoped? Working on a research project and wondering if you are making the best use of your time? We’re here to help! Schedule a one-on-one consultation, and we can share our expertise and tailor our services to fit your needs.
One of the best places to start (especially if you're new to online teaching) is the IU Teaching Online Series (TOS), a self-paced, customizable, design and teaching resource delivered through Canvas. It includes seven modules that will take you through the process of designing and developing your course based on research and sound pedagogy, as well as provides tips on delivering your online course.
Digital repositories are rapidly becoming a key element of course development. Below are links to some resources that might help you plan your next course.
- MERLOT is a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by faculty all over the world. There are thousands of online teaching and learning materials in MERLOT, including peer reviewed open educational resources.
- Open Education Resources (OER) Commons is a dynamic digital library and network. Explore open education resources and join our network of educators dedicated to curriculum improvement.
- The Teaching Commons brings together high-quality open educational resources from leading colleges and universities. Curated by librarians and their institutions, the Teaching Commons includes open access textbooks, course materials, lesson plans, multimedia, and more.
- The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.
- nanoHUB is designed to be a resource to the entire nanotechnology discovery and learning community. STEM focused.
- MedEd Portal promotes educational scholarship and collaboration by facilitating the open exchange of peer-reviewed health education teaching and assessment resources.
The network of IU libraries and partner libraries offer a deep well of information and opportunities to the IU community. Find supporting course materials, provide research opportunities to your students, and keep up with the latest research and articles in your area of expertise.
Navigating such a vast collection can be time-consuming, so take advantage of the expertise of the library staff, who are dedicated to partnering with you for student success.
Services and resources include:
Library Instruction
The library can customize an instruction session to meet the needs of your students, whether they need a general introduction to the library catalog and databases or more in-depth research strategies to help them succeed.
We request that you schedule instruction at least 1 week prior to the class time and confer with a librarian about specific content. Information literacy instruction is most effective when it immediately precedes or coincides with a class assignment. Please note that the instructor must accompany and remain with his or her class.
To schedule instruction, submit a Session Request. If the form is not working, please submit information that follows to liblearn@iue.edu. Please provide course name, number, number of students and two date/time preferences. Also include any special libguide or assignment needs.
Library Resource Guides
Library Guides, or "LibGuides," are handy online guides to help our students find reliable, authoritative sources. They provide easy access to topic-specific databases, web links, and book lists, including e-books. In addition, the guides contain links and tutorials for basic library resources like IUCAT, ILLiad (Interlibrary loan), Writing & Citing, and our 24/7 reference services “Ask Us” and LibAnswers. Organized access is especially important for distance education students since stopping in to the library for help is often not an option.
To request a libguide, email liblearn@iue.edu or contact KT Lowe at 765-973-8434.
IUScholarWorks
Indiana University’s Institutional Repository provides open access to research at IU. The Indiana University East community of IUScholarWorks showcases the scholarly research output of faculty, students and other partners affiliated with the East campus. To contribute your work, please read the university’s policies; then to archive your work contact the IU East coordinator, Sue McFadden smcfadde@iue.edu
Library Resources Form for New Degree, Program or Course Proposals
When you need to create a new degree, program or course, our job is to make sure the library has the resources to support your students' research. Please complete a Library Resources Form for New Degree, Program or Course Proposal and submit it to Matthew Dilworth.
Librarians by Academic Liaison Responsibility
If you have questions or concerns, you can always ask for help. Each of our librarians have specific areas of expertise. Please choose the librarian whose area is the most similar to your question.
We encourage the use of the Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education project (TILT Higher Ed), an award-winning national educational development and research project that helps faculty to implement a transparent teaching framework that promotes college students' success.
Transparent Teaching is an empirically tested, pedagogical framework designed to foster student success. The premise of transparent teaching is that in helping students better understand the purpose and practices of course content, they will be more engaged and take an active role in their learning.
There are numerous resources available to learn more about this project and how you might incorporate transparent teaching in your own courses.