Piktochart by Michelle Pinzl

Piktochart is an online tool for creating info-graphics. Users can easily assemble and present information by combining interactive charts, animated graphs, text, and graphics using the drag-and-drop interface. Although it's generally geared toward the workplace for creating business presentations, Piktochart clearly lends itself to use in a university course.

I have used Piktochart to create a syllabus and my students have responded positively. It is my experience that when students are presented information that is visually appealing they feel more excited about the content of the class.

Like any other technological tool, Piktochart has both advantages and drawbacks. On a positive note, it is pleasing to the eye and hopefully inspiring for students. I find that using this tool as a syllabus also gives the impression that you, too, as the teacher, are excited about the class. On the downside, it is a very large file, takes awhile to load, and doesn't fit particularly nicely in D2L. It can only be made into a pdf. if you have Piktochart pro, though it can be shared on the web.

Overall, Piktochart is a program that is easy to navigate because it has several pre-made templates with excellent icons, which help to quickly create an organized info-graphic.

Piktochart is a free, web-based application (with some limitations). Users of the free version will not be able to save as a PDF but can publish interactive info-graphics to the web at no cost. Those who pay the educator price of $39 a year will get “pro” benefits of use of all templates and the ability to download print quality PDFs. 

For more information, visit http://piktochart.com/.

Submitted by Michelle Pinzl, Modern Languages

Voicethread by Lema Kabashi

I use VoiceThread for both face-to-face (SPE 424: Special Education Classroom Management and Positive Behavior Practices and online (SPE 401: Introduction to Exceptional Individuals) courses. The VoiceThread technology tool facilitates significant student-student and instructor-student interactions because it allows students to add voice annotation to a slide presentation, attached document/photo, and/or a video and also allows commentators to add comments/questions using audio, video, or text.

VoiceThread provides flexibility for students to post a question and/or comment at a specific location within a presentation, based on their interest, creating a more focused interaction, and also use their preferred mode of communication (e.g., audio, video, text). For the face-to-face course, groups of students prepare a slide show and short video role play demonstrating an implementation of strategy addressing challenging behaviors. The groups digitally share the VoiceThread presentation to the class during the week before the class meets face-to-face, where they participate in role playing activities, or during the week the topic is being discussed for an online class.

VoiceThread presentations allow students to watch, review, learn, comment, and question the theoretical aspect as well as the implementation of the strategy prior to being asked to practice the strategy in the face-to-face class meeting. Presenters may answer peers’ questions online or discuss them in class. Students report enjoying the ability to get familiarized with the content and procedural steps before class, watch the video over and over, and interact with their classmates both online and in class. When students are exposed to the material before the class meeting, the class meeting is more focused and productive. In addition, students are actively engaged in class activities (e.g., classroom discussions, hands-on activities, role play, etc).

VoiceThread has a free account but each student must create an account. Each account is only http://voicethread.com/
allowed one active video. For more information about VoiceThread, please visit:

Submitted by Lema Kabashi, Educational Studies

Web of Science and Google Scholar by Jen Holman

Thomson Reuter’s Web of Science (WoS) databases have long been the gold standard for cited reference searching. Google Scholar has been offering similar functionality in its search results for several years. At long last, the two information providers are sharing their cited-articles data.

Google Scholar to WoS 

From campus, there is nothing special that you have to do to see the links from Google Scholar to WoS.  If data are available in WoS, you will see the link immediately following the citation in Google Scholar: ​

For off-campus access, you will need to authenticate.  You can either use this link: https://libweb.uwlax.edu/login?url=http://scholar.google.com or use the LibX Toolbar to right-click on your Google Scholar search results to reload the page through our authentication system/proxy server (EZproxy) and authenticate with your UW-L NetID/password.​

WoS to Google Scholar 

From within WoS itself, you can access Google Scholar cited-articles data (if it is available) by clicking on the “Look Up Full Text” link from an individual record/citation:

As WoS pulls its sources from a small subset of the scholarship available, you may find that checking Google Scholar helps illuminate additional research on your topic, especially when doing a comprehensive literature review.

Submitted by Jen Holman, Murphy Library

GoogleDocs Study Guide by Melissa Weege

In my Pathophysiology course the students are required to master a long list of objectives. In order to help them focus their attention and create a collective study guide, I create a GoogleDoc for the class which includes directions, objectives for each unit, assignment objectives to students, and a framework within the document to help in creating a place to post their contribution. I organize the start-up but students own the content and the process after my initial set-up. The GoogleDoc is a study guide for the students, created, enhanced, and modified by the students.

Each student is assigned to 2-3 objectives per unit. After each lecture that covers the objective, the student assigned to the objective posts a summary and notes to the GoogleDoc in the section created for those objectives. The students from that week are also asked to review the posts from the students of the previous week to ensure accuracy and completeness. This structure helps students focus on particular items in lecture while not feeling overwhelmed, but also creates a sense of collective ownership for the material. The collective nature of this resource gets buy-in from all students, especially after the students are able to use the study guide for exam preparation!

I find this study guide to be a great tool to assist the students in collectively learning and enhancing materials presented in lecture. While I don't edit the GoogleDoc, I do look at it and am often pleasantly surprised at the details and additional information that students add to the study guide, often information gathered on their own (their own words, more examples and pictures from the web, additional research articles about a topic, etc.) Students really do more than regurgitate the lecture in the study guide and report the resource to be very valuable to their learning.

My recommendation to anyone interested in creating a similar study guide structure in GoogleDocs is to arrange it so the students own it and you are hands-off, write very clear directions for completing their assigned section, give information and a demonstration about how to post in GoogleDocs, and create a framework or outline to the GoogleDoc to help students in structuring a useful guide. Prior to
using GoogleDocs I used a PBwiki to create this study guide; I prefer GoogleDocs for accessibility and security. If you would like to see an example of a start-up or completed guide, please contact me.

For more information about GoogleDocs visit: http://learn.googleapps.com/docs

Submitted by Melissa Weege, Radiation Therapy

BrowZine by Deb Hoskins

BrowZine is a free app for Apple and Android tablet users. You connect it to Murphy Library, and it will help you keep up-to-date with the journals in your field. It’s a product of Third Iron, a group of library professionals, working mostly out of St. Paul, MN. I could tell they are library professionals because their user support was outstanding, as I discovered when I had a problem.

BrowZine’s main features:

• Consolidates across multiple databases
• Customizable – you choose the content and organize it as you wish
• Familiar “newsstand” organization
• Search multiple libraries (requires logging out of one and logging into another, in Settings) without losing anything
• Save articles to read later
• Export articles to other apps, including online storage like DropBox, research organizers like Zotero, and .pdf notation apps like Notability
• Share articles with colleagues via email or social media
• Request help from within the app and get outstanding service!

Here’s how to start using it: Download the app to your tablet. Start the app and select “University of Wisconsin-La Crosse” from the drop-down menu. Enter your netID and password. Now, click on BrowZine Library at the bottom of the app, then choose either Subjects at the upper left or Titles at the upper right to search and select the journals you want to monitor. As you select a title, BrowZine allows you to select on which of its four “bookcases” you want that publication to show. You can label the “bookcases,” as well as each shelf, and delete journal titles using Edit, and reorganize titles simply by dragging them. Institution Info takes you directly to the Murphy website. Click on a journal title to see the title and authors of the articles in the most recent issue. Tap the title to see the article. Save the ones you want to read later, or export them, or share them. Click Available Issues to see the backlist. In Settings, add your public library or other research libraries, and choose whether and how you want to be notified about articles you haven’t yet seen. Awesome.

For busy academics, keeping up with research in your field is infinitely easier with BrowZine.

Please note that while BrowZine is a free app to users, Murphy Library does pay a yearly fee for this product. To learn more, see Third Iron’s introductory video here and Murphy Library’s guide here.

Submitted by Deb Hoskins, Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning

Socrative by Jim Carlson

Socrative is an interactive iPad application that allows faculty to engage and assess their students with educational activities like polls and quizzes on mobile devices. The software is fairly straightforward and easy to use and works on most any web or app-enabled device (tablet, laptop or smartphone). Quizzes can also be graded automatically by the software.

Through the use of real time questioning, instant result gathering and charting, teachers can gauge the students’ level of understanding or share ideas from all students. The opportunities for immediate discussion and feedback help to promote learning and alleviate misunderstanding. Additionally, information can be collected and shared for group discussion or problem-solving. In order to get the most out of Socrative, plan carefully. Consider ways in which you will use the information you gather as a result of the instant feedback from individuals and the entire class. All in all this is a powerful student response system with the potential to support truly active learning.

Teacher and student versions of Socrative are available in the iPad App Store for free.

For more information, visit http://www.socrative.com/apps.php.

Submitted by Jim Carlson, Educational Studies.

YouSeeU by Nishele Lenards

YouSeeU is a web-based software tool that provides recording, sharing, interacting and learning through video submissions. This software is the perfect tool to deliver asynchronous oral presentations, video discussions, case study presentations, and oral exams. YouSeeU was initially designed for online or distance education but is now used for blending learning and Face-to-Face courses as well.

The unique feature of YouSeeU is that the software synchronizes the student video with their PowerPoint slides through a 3 sync player. The video and PPT slides are 2 separate presentations but are synchronized with the software after the fact. The third component of the 3 sync player is the ability for the instructor to provide feedback along the video/oral presentation timeline (video time stamp). Other forms of feedback include a customized rubric, numeric grading, and audio/video feedback options.

Benefits of this tool include:

• Ability to practice in a less threatening environment 
• Improvement through behavior based feedback
• Various means of connection with instructor/peers
• Interactive feedback-rich digital environment (independent of time/place) 

How do I use the YouSeeU software in my program? Students are assigned a special project that must be delivered as an oral presentation. They must record the video and also prepare PowerPoint slides. These are synchronized into one comprehensive oral presentation that is shared with the instructor and peers. I provide feedback along the video time stamp so students can see feedback in the exact location of the oral presentation. A rubric is used for grading, which inputs a numerical grade into the system. I also use the video feedback option to record messages for the students at the beginning of the course and for their presentations.

While the software is not free, it is available at a minimal price. Instructors can try the tool (a trial basis) before purchasing/implementing.  The cost is approximately $1/minute per student (for example $20 for 20 minutes). The student can purchase the minutes directly through YouSeeU or the instructor can establish a special course fee and be direct-billed by YouSeeU.

For more information, visit http://www.youseeu.com.

Submitted by Nishele Lenards, Medical Dosimetry