Tool Spotlight

April 2021, Tool Spotlight

Ace Your Presentations

If you have to give a presentation this semester, consider using PowerPoint’s Presentation Coach, available in PowerPoint 365 (online only) at https://www.office.com/launch/powerpoint.

The Presentation Coach allows you to practice your presentation, while PowerPoint monitors and analyzes your speech. During practice, the Coach will give you tips on pacing, word choice, projection and verbal crutches (like ‘um’s and ‘ah’s). Once your practice is complete, it will provide you with a detailed report on your performance.

Click here for to learn more about the PowerPoint Presentation Coach

Digital and Information Fluency, November 2020, Resources, Teaching with Technology, Tool Spotlight

Who Loves LinkedIn Learning? We Do!

Since LinkedIn Learning, the online learning platform formerly known as Lynda.com, was launched on campus in August it has found many fans. This month we talk to three of our most active users.

Affoue Koffi – Graduate Student, School of Management

Affoue, a student in her first semester of a Masters in Finance graduate degree, was thrilled when she heard that Clark was providing access to LinkedIn Learning. Initially she was just hoping to get a refresher on finance basics prior to taking her Financial Accounting class this semester (click here for Financial Accounting videos), but then became hooked. She has since progressed to more in-depth financial videos, giving her a head-start on important skills and concepts for her dream of becoming a Corporate Financial Analyst (click here videos from the Becoming a Financial Analyst course).

To make time for extra-curricular learning in addition to her regular course work, Affoue sets herself a weekly goal that equates to about 20 minutes a day. When watching the videos she takes notes in a notebook, and takes advantage of the replay option for more complex topics that may require a second watching. By sticking to this reasonable goal, she’s made impressive progress in her learning paths, and is one of our most active LinkedIn Learning users.

John Freyermuth – Faculty, V&PA

This semester saw a new way of teaching and learning for many faculty and students. John Freyermuth, a faculty member in V&PA, turned to LinkedIn Learning to keep his teaching engaging and authentic. For his Computers and Music course, John wanted his students to see and hear complicated concepts covered in class demonstrated in professional environments. A series of curated LinkedIn Learning videos offered this opportunity to students, with John stating “the ability to visualize an auditory phenomenon has been beneficial for a lot of students.” They were particularly excited to watch animations of Microphone Polar Patterns, and on and off-axis microphone frequency responses (Click here to watch videos from the Digital Audio Foundations course.)

For John, the videos offered by LinkedIn Learning don’t offer an alternative to opportunities in the classroom, but actually enrich the learning from a different perspective. He’s excited for other faculty to consider using LinkedIn Learning but warns that with so many wonderful videos it can be easy to post too many!

Michelle Johnson-Sargent – Assistant to the Director, IDCE

Michelle Johnson-Sargent, Assistant to the Director in IDCE is one of Clark’s most active LinkedIn Learning users, and a true life-long learner. “I’m always looking for ways to be more efficient and work smarter not harder…LinkedIn Learning has definitely helped with that.” Michelle has spent lots of time learning more about Excel (click here for the Master Microsoft Excel videos), particularly how to format and present data better and be more effective at using formulas.

While working in a very busy role in IDCE, Michelle makes time for extra learning by multi-tasking. “It’s easy to have a topic of interest playing in the background or with the screen minimized.  When I really want to focus on a topic, I log in and learn on the weekend.” Next on Michelle’s agenda? Project Management – a skill she knows will align well with her work in the department (click here for Project Management Foundations.)

Interested in LinkedIn Learning

If Affoue’s, John’s and Michelle’s stories have inspired you to check out LinkedIn Learning, click here for more information, and get learning!

Tool Spotlight

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a powerful communication and teamwork tool that allows Clarkies to keep working and learning regardless of where they are on campus or around the world.

While ITS provides a number of technology options to support your communication needs (including Zoom, Skype for Business, and OneDrive), Teams is the perfect tool for regular, small team or person-to-person collaboration and meetings.

The video links below go to LinkedIn Learning where a log in is required. All current members of the Clark community have access to LinkedIn Learning. Click here for more information.

Why Use Teams?

Calls: Voice and Video

If you need to speak to another Clarkie, Microsoft Teams allows you to make voice or video calls between users from your laptop, desktop or mobile device. No need to worry about being at home or in the office, Teams calls work the same regardless of where you or your caller are. Click here for a short video on how to make voice or video calls.

Chats

Sometimes you may just have a quick question or comment for someone that doesn’t require a full conversation. Teams is a great platform to connect with your colleagues, classmates, or friends with quick text chats. Click here for a short video on how to chat in Teams.

Collaboration

Teams also gives you the option of collaborating on Word, Excel or PowerPoint files with another Clarkie, or a full team. Editing and collaboration all takes place within the Teams application. Click here for a short video on how to share files and how to edit and collaborate.

Convenience

With an iOS and Android app, Microsoft Teams allows you to continue collaborating when you’re on the go or away from your computer and chats are synchronized across all your devices. Click here to learn more about the mobile apps.

How to Get Started

All Clarkies have access to a full Teams account. Click here to install Microsoft Teams on your computer or to use the web app, or visit the App Store or Google Play store for the mobile app.

ITS has curated a short playlist (less than 50 minutes) of useful LinkedIn Learning videos that will give users an overview of the most useful features in Microsoft Teams. Click here to access the Microsoft Teams Learning Path which includes the videos above and many more.

Need Support?

If you have any questions about Microsoft Teams, or any of our services, please email helpdesk@clarku.edu or call 508-793-7745.

April 2019, Tool Spotlight

Using Foxit Reader to Work with PDFs

Foxit Reader is an easy-to-use PDF software that is available for faculty and staff, and is already installed on all Clark owned computers. Foxit Reader allows us to view, create, and annotate  PDFs.

Specifically, some of the things you can do with Foxit Reader are:

  • View your PDF in read mode, full screen mode, night mode, or view just the text of the document.
  • Rotate your PDF pages, and delete any pages you no longer need.
  • View the pages of your file as thumbnails so you can rearrange them via drag-and-drop.
  • Have your PDF read aloud to you (if it was digitally created).
  • Add text to your PDF.
  • Annotate existing text and images with notes, shapes, and highlighting tools.

To access these features, and many others, Foxit Reader provides several tabs that give us access to the different tools.

For instance, the “Home” tab allows us to control how we view our PDFs.

The “Comment” tab allows us to choose how we would like to annotate our PDF so that we can add notes, callouts, texboxes, and shapes to our documents.

To learn more about Foxit Reader you can view the user manual inside of the application by opening Foxit Reader on your computer, clicking on the “Help” menu on the top of the screen, and then clicking on “User Manual”.

If you have any questions about Foxit Reader please contact the ITS Help Desk.

March 2019, Tool Spotlight

Clark University Bulletin Board System

Do you need to get the word out about your group, event, service, or anything else Clark related? CUBBS (Clark University Bulletin Board System) is a great way to get your message out the community, and it’s free.

CUBBS is an electronic signage system dedicated to promoting community events and campus-related communications. Any department or registered Clark organization is welcome to submit a message. CUBBS boards are located in prominent, high traffic locations such as the Academic Commons in the Goddard Library and in the University Center. Messages or “slides” posted on CUBBS play for about 10 seconds each on a continuous loop.

To learn more about the CUBBS digital signage service, please visit: https://www2.clarku.edu/offices/its/cubbs/

 

January 2019, Tool Spotlight

Panopto

Panopto is an easy-to-use, video creation and hosting platform that is available for all faculty and staff members to use. Panopto allows you to record a webcast style video, record your screen, or upload and convert an existing presentation (such as a PowerPoint slide deck) to share with others.

Panopto has been available on campus for a couple of years, and a few of the things that  people are currently doing with it at Clark include:

  • Recording videos that explain an assignment or concept.
  • Creating demonstrations of software and experiments by capturing anything you show on your screen.
  • Allowing students to create video presentations as part of an assignment.
  • Recording meetings or classes for review at a later date.

While Panopto is primarily used with courses and accessed via Moodle, it doesn’t have to be. If you are an office or student group on campus that would like to make video content available, turn a PowerPoint slide deck into a video, or talk about other ideas you may have for the platform please click here to contact the Academic Technology team.

To learn more about what Panopto can do, check out this support page, or click here to contact the Academic Technology team.