CSU's Affordable Learning Solutions (AL$) enables faculty to choose and provide more affordable, quality educational content for their students. By reducing CSU student course material expenses, more students acquire the course materials they need to succeed and benefit from their CSU learning experience.

For more information about AL$, please visit its.sdsu.edu/initiatives/affordable-learning

Services in support of assessing learning outcomes.

Use face-to-face or online assessment tools and surveys to measure student knowledge, gauge progress, and gather information from students.

Scantron

Optical mark readers. To get started using Scantron tests, visit the ITS Faculty Instructional Technology Center in Adams Humanities 1109 or call 594-6348.

ParScore

Test scoring software. To get started using ParScore, visit the ITS Faculty Instructional Technology Center in Adams Humanities 1109 or call 594-6348. You can also book an appointment online at https://fitcenter.as.me/parscore.

Assessment Tools

Audience Response System (iClickers), online Blackboard Tests, Surveys, Assignments, Respondus, and more!

Features and benefits include:

• ITS offers many assessment tools that allow for easy re-grading such as “throwing out” a poor question or giving extra-credit on a particular question.
• Many ITS assessment tools allow you to check the reliability of each question using powerful item analysis features.
• Blackboard Surveys allow you to obtain private feedback from your students at any time during the course, allowing you to consider feedback and make changes to the course in progress.

Services for recording, storing, editing, and publishing course lectures.

Set your microphone, start the recording, then at the end of class, simply stop and submit with a click. In less than 24 hours, a movie with your narration, slides, and visuals is ready to post to Blackboard for your students to review.

Screen Capture with Zoom

Zoom enables faculty and students to easily produce screen capture videos, including the on-screen content (i.e. Powerpoint, etc.), built-in or external microphone audio, and webcam video, as outlined in this short video.

TechSmith Camtasia Video Editor

TechSmith Camtasia is available to all SDSU faculty and staff. To obtain a license, please complete the Software Request Form.

Mediasite Automated Course Capture

Mediasite is built into the instructor podium and available in the following rooms: AH 1112, AH 2108, AL 201, COM 207, E 201, E 328, ENS 280, GMCS 301, GMCS 333, HH 130, HH 214, HH 221, HT 140, HT 183, LT 161, NE 60, PG 153, PG 242, PS 130, SHW 011, SHW 012, SSW 2667, & WC 220.

• Everything you say and show in class is captured and posted to Blackboard for students to review at their own pace.
• You teach your class as always, Mediasite captures and produces the finished video for you.
• Record content for students to listen outside of class, and free up classroom time for discussion.

More information, including requesting recordings in a Mediasite enabled room, can be found at its.sdsu.edu/capture/.

Services to ensure classrooms are suitably equipped and functional to meet the needs of the education experience.

The Smart Classroom system accommodates a wide variety of teaching pedagogues. Through the convenient interface, faculty can choose between connecting their own technology or simply using one of the many technologies provided.

Smart Classrooms

Most Smart Classrooms contain a video/data projector, built-in Windows and Mac computers, laptop connectivity, a DVD/Blu-ray player and document camera. Larger lecture halls also contain voice projection equipment. Many rooms also contain specialty devices such as interactive pen displays and lecture capture systems.

Features and benefits include:

• Smart Classroom podiums are equipped with both Mac and Windows computers (standardized with SDSU site-licensed software) to give instructors the freedom and flexibility to teach in any of our 200 learning spaces.
• The various technologies unlock the ability for faculty to express their own teaching styles in a manner both unique and innovative.
• The document camera helps faculty to reach a larger audience without visually diminishing the content (as sometimes happens when using whiteboards).

Linux Shell Classroom Accounts

Faculty may obtain EDORAS accounts for themselves and their students. EDORAS has replaced ROHAN for instructional support accounts. EDORAS provides Linux shell accounts with access to various software applications, Apache web server, compilers, and databases. edoras.sdsu.edu is hosted and supported by the SDSU Library.

Services to ensure that faculty and other course creators have the knowledge and assistance they need to optimize their effectiveness in using teaching and learning technologies.

ITS helps faculty redesign online, blended, and traditional face-to-face courses. A redesigned class can help save you time and energy while also improving the overall course quality.

Every course is different, and ITS instructional designers are available for one-on-one consultations to discuss your course and how it can be enhanced.

Features and benefits include:

• Increase student engagement and interactivity by creating assignments that stimulate active learning
• Organize your course in a way that benefits student learning and provides the support necessary for students to succeed
• Identify technologies that work with your teaching to save you time while grading and managing your class

Faculty Instructional Technology (FIT) Center

The FIT Center consultants are prepared to discuss their varied services. Instructional Technology Services is a good place to see a full view of the many ways we can help you.

Course Design Institute (CDI)

The Course Design Institute (CDI) provides opportunities for faculty to work with peers from different disciplines to design and develop fully online courses. Collaborating with colleagues outside their usual departmental circles as they develop their courses, the focus is on pedagogy, with a major emphasis on interaction and student engagement.

LMS services in support of managing and sharing course materials (e.g., videos, documents, spreadsheets, etc.) and facilitating learning through collaboration.

Allows students to access course documents, recorded lectures, YouTube videos, websites, journals, blogs, discussions, grades, tests, surveys, and more in a central location that can be accessed anywhere in the world with an Internet connection.

Canvas

San Diego State University has selected Canvas as the future Learning Management System (LMS) for the campus. This decision was informed by a two year pilot, which included a needs assessment, a user experience with more than 7,000 SDSU students and 150 faculty participants. The subsequent evaluation included careful analysis of thousands of surveys, open responses, and focus group feedback.

Both Blackboard and Canvas will be used during Summer 2020, Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters. More information can be found at canvas.sdsu.edu.

Provision and maintenance of technology in specialized learning environments.

Learning Research Studios (LRS)

The ITS Learning Research Studios (LRS) provide innovative learning spaces for faculty to experiment with state-of- the-art instructional technologies and student-centered classroom design.

LRS Reservation Request Timeline:

• LRS reservation requests will match Enrollment Services Schedule build
• LRS decisions/instructor placements will be made in time for Department Coordinators to make the changes to the class schedule

LRS spaces encourage experimenting with technologies that:

• Support alternative models of organizing, teaching, and managing a class
• Promote use of educational multimedia
• Encourage interactive, interdependent, cooperative learning
• Use wireless technologies for teaching
• Assist with the formative student assessment of instructional approaches

Faculty who teach in the LRS are encouraged to pursue scholarly research related to pedagogical innovations in these spaces, and are supported by ITS staff and a cohort of fellow LRS faculty. To this end, and to help ITS provide relevant ongoing support, faculty are requested to deploy a student survey at the end of the semester, and to complete a faculty survey on their teaching experience in the LRS.

Virtual Immersive Teaching and Learning (VITaL)

Offering a variety of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality tools in a flexible learning environment, the Virtual Immersive Teaching and Learning (VITaL) space serves as an incubator to enable experiences that would be impossible or out of reach in a traditional learning environment. A new Learning Research Studio, located in Adams Humanities (AH-1120), VITaL promotes experimentation with curriculum design and the scholarship of teaching and learning. 

Library Computer Labs

More than 500 computers for student use. The three largest Library computer labs are the Library Computing Hub (second floor Love Library), Research Services (first floor Library Addition/Manchester Hall), and the 24/7 computer lab (second floor Library Addition/Manchester Hall).

The term Universal Design for Learning (UDL) means a scientifically valid framework for guiding educational practice that:
(A) provides flexibility in the ways information is presented, in the ways students respond or demonstrate knowledge and skills, and in the ways students are engaged; and
(B) reduces barriers in instruction, provides appropriate accommodations, supports, and challenges, and maintains high achievement expectations for all students, including students with disabilities and students who are limited in their English language proficient.

For more information please visit, accessibility.sdsu.edu/instructional-materials/udl.