ETS Initiatives

Below you will find a sampling of our larger initiatives. Many of these are collaborative projects in which ETS has partnered with other units on campus. Each project title is clickable and will take you to a page specifically related to that project. There you will find information on how to get invovled, find additional resources, and learn how to contact us. You can also contact Cole Camplese, ETS Director, for more information.

ETS and Engineering’s eLearning Initiative

The College of Engineering’s eLearning Initiative is a shared project with ETS and the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education. The initiative aims to expose undergraduate students within the College of Engineering to issues of globalization, ethics, and societal contexts in engineering practice. In addition the initiative will require that students demonstrate an ability to work with and lead collaborative projects, including virtual/distributed work teams.

Courses under development include topics such as technology ethics, globalization, leadership, and entrepreneurship. The initiative will also assess the long-term viability of cross-campus courses, affording students first-hand experience with working in a distributed team environment. Finally, the initiative’s goals include an exploration of student portfolio tools, specifically how best students can capture evidence of learning in the areas of ethics, global awareness, and leadership.

Turnitin

Turnitin is a plagiarism detection and prevention system owned by Turnitin.com, which has licensed the system to Penn State for use in the University community. Faculty can submit students’ papers to the system to perform originality checks. Turnitin can also be used as a teaching tool to raise awareness of paraphrasing and quoting skills among students to avoid plagiarism. TLT staff provide information and support for Penn State use of Turnitin athttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/turnitin/, as well as additional academic integrity resources.

Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology

The annual Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology brings together faculty and teaching support staff to share innovative ideas and best practices for using technology to enhance courses. The next symposium is scheduled for March 29, 2008. As a complement to the event, the Web site at http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/ provides a calendar of events, podcasts, and a blog to which faculty are invited to contribute throughout the year. An RSS feed of new blog posts is available.

Podcasts at Penn State

Podcasting TagThe Podcasts at Penn State program offers a variety of services designed to offer faculty an easy way to produce educational podcasts and distribute them to their students. These services include hands-on training, information on locating equipment to borrow or purchase for producing podcasts, recommendations of the best practices for creating pedagogical podcasts, free software downloads necessary to create podcasts, free accounts to begin posting podcasts, online tutorials, and more. In addition, the Penn State on iTunes U project gives faculty a secure way to publish course podcasts. For more information on how to participate in the program and to begin podcasting to students, visit http://podcasts.psu.edu/ or e-mail podcasts@psu.edu.

Digital Commons at Penn State

Video Tag SmallThe Digital Commons is a University-wide initiative to help enrich students’ educations by creating digital content for their coursework. The Digital Commons will provide all campuses within Penn State with a common set of computing tools, a common set of support materials, and a common set of opportunities to create digital media of all kinds. The Digital Commons will also help educate faculty, staff, and students on the appropriate uses of digital media. TLT has committed to installing up to fifteen Digital Commons studios during the 2007-2008 fiscal year, with the remainder of campuses being completed during the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

Audio Tag SmallWhile video production has been at the core of our efforts, an increasingly popular activity within the Digital Commons is the production of audio. Each Digital Commons facility is stocked with some of the best audio recording equipment available to support podcasting. Additionally, each studio has professional lighting, digital video equipment, green screens and more.

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