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During the 07-08 transition year, the SmartSite team needs a brochure to provide a first point of contact for new instructors /and TA's who maintain course sites. It should emphasize the collaborative nature of the instructor/TA relationship and how it can be extended, updated, made easier by using SmartSite.
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- What does SmartSite do?
- Why is SmartSite unique/exciting?
- How will SmartSite help to save time/make life easier for teaching?
- How can TA's and instructor's use SmartSite to collaboratively manage courses?
- What will happen to the tools in MyUCDavis, particularly Gradebook?
- How do I get started/get help quickly?
- What are some of the more in depth training and peer support opportunities?
- What has worked for my peers?
What does SmartSite do?
SmartSite provides a online platform for faculty, students and staff to share information. When used for teaching, instructors and TA's can use SmartSite's tools to create an online home for their courses where:
- classroom discussions can continue via a chat room or forum
- materials are stored and posted for students at timed intervals
- assignments are turned in
- grades are managed and submitted to the registrar
- students can take quizzes to assess their progress in a course
- TA's and Faculty can share question pools and collectively grade student papers.
Why is SmartSite unique/exciting?
Like the Firefox web browser, the software powering SmartSite is an open source, community driven project. UC Davis is just one of over 100 institutions involved in the Sakai project, the non-profit consortium that jointly develops tools specifically for higher education. Faculty will increasingly find their peers at institutions like Cal, Michigan, MIT, Stanford and Indiana are using similar tools. SmartSite is unique because its software is developed based feedback from members of each universities user community. As with most technology, there is going to be issues. But, because of the wide network of developers, each institution can rely on a community effort to solve pressing, software related problems. We're not alone, if you're having a problem with a particular tool.
Proposed Project Plan
Due Date | Goal | Who's Responsible | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
8/10 | Establish a project and advisory team | - | - |
8/10 | Brainstorm content ideas/angles, consult previous communications, develop content | - | - |
8/13-17 | Graphic Artist to develop concepts | - | - |
8/21 | Share proposed content and graphic mock ups with project team | - | - |
8/21-24 | Revise content and graphics as needed | - | - |
8/27-8/29 | Layout a first draft | - | - |
8/30-9/4 | Circulate draft for comments | - | - |
9/5-9/7 | Finalize layout | - | - |
9/7 | Get final approvals | - | - |
9/10 | Send to press | - | - |