Overview
During the 07-08 transition year, the project needs a brochure to provide a first point of contact for instructors who are new to SmartSite.
Audience
Instructors who are not familiar with SmartSite.
Goal
Increase the number of course sites throughout 2007-08
Distribution Points
- New Faculty Orientation
- Mediaworks
- TRC
- Training Sessions
- Departmental Presentations
- Faculty Mentoring Faculty Meetings
- More Thoughtful Teaching Events
- ET Partners
- IT Express
Copy
Cover
Is your course in a class of its own?
Simplify your workload.
Create a SmartSite to meet your unique teaching, research and collaboration needs.
SmartSite can help:
- Reduce paper work
- Share class materials
- Collect and grade assignments
- Communicate with students
- Organize lectures
- And more!
smartsite.ucdavis.edu
Pages 2&3
What is SmartSite?
SmartSite is a sophisticated set of web-tools designed for higher education. It is also UC Davis' new course management and collaboration system powered by Sakai, a software development effort that brings together one hundred plus educational institutions.
Like Mozilla's Firefox web browser, SmartSite is part of an open-source community dedicated to the success of a particular piece of software. This sense of community and collaboration allows UC Davis to participate in the development of useful tools that will help meet the rapidly changing technological needs of academic institutions worldwide.
How are other instructors using SmartSite?
Faculty Profiles (Photo and Quotes on INE Pubs):
Roger MacDonald
Kristina de Korsak
Susan Keen
Milmon Harrison (Need to get Photo/Quote; use place holder if needed)
Pages 4-7
Why should I use SmartSite?
Some general reasons for using SmartSite include:
- Communicating with students, TAs and colleagues
- Encouraging collaboration and communication among students
- Promoting independent and self-paced learning
- Assessment, evaluation and feedback
- Collecting, grading and returning assignments
- Sharing resources with students, TAs and colleagues
- Automating processes and reducing paperwork
- Sharing and organizing classroom presentations
Which tools are right for me?
One of the strengths of SmartSite is the variety of tools available to instructors. This can seem overwhelming at first, but the number of tools you use will depend on factors such as teaching style, class size and subject as well as your comfort with technology. Your course site is scalable and can fit a variety of academic needs. More than likely, each of your course sites will be slightly different based on their particular purpose.
Which tools do your recommend?
We recommend familiarizing yourself with the following tools and picking one or two general areas to focus on.
For instance, if you'd like to distribute your course materials electronically and improve communication with your students, try using the Resource tool to share store your materials and hold online office hours Chat.
Resources
Assignments
Mail Tool
Chat
Site Info
How do I create a SmartSite?
Where do I get help?
Is there training available?
What about one-on-one or drop-in support?
What about my class material on MyUCDavis?