Center for Teaching Initiatives | Information Technology Services | John M. Lilley Library | Learning Resource Center
Center for Teaching Initiatives
Welcome, Devin!
Devin Faulhaber is the latest addition to the Center of eLearning Initiatives at Penn State Behrend as an Instructional Designer. His first official day was October 17th, although he has helped assist the Center over the last year as a budding designer.
Devin is a Penn State graduate twice over, with a BFA in Creative Writing in 2010 and a M.Ed in Learning, Design, and Technology through World Campus this Fall. He has previously worked as an Ad-missions Counselor at Behrend for 6 years where he helped manage out of state recruitment efforts in CA, FL, MD, NJ, VA, and Washington DC.
As a recent graduate of an online program, Devin will bring a student-oriented perspective to the course development process, combining pedagogical theory with creative and collaborative solutions to common design issues. Devin’s senior capstone project focused on integrating augmented reality, gamification, and Web 2.0 technologies to help address: student engagement, identity, and creative collaboration.
Devin loves to travel and has visited the UK and Japan as a Behrend student, the Middle East as an Admissions Counselor. He is engaged to be married next Fall and is the father of an amazing three-year-old. Devin also enjoys video games, cooking, and writing.
Qi Dunsworth, Award Winner
Congratulations to Dr. Qi Dunsworth, who, along with Dr. Dave Kahl, Assistant Professor of Communication, was awarded a Penn State University Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence Faculty Teaching Community Grant. They plan to use this award to support the Penn State Behrend Faculty Teaching Community, a group of recruited faculty interested in pedagogy and its improved implementation in the classroom.
Information Technology Services
Office 365: Tip to Add Team Members in Bulk
This question is frequently asked: How can I add a large number of people to a team? The most obvious answer is to do a bulk upload of email addresses. Unfortunately, this isn’t possible to do in Teams. But there is a round-about way of doing this by using a Team code.
This is accomplished by sending the Team code in an email message to a group of people. When a recipient opens that email and clicks the Join Team button, they are automatically added as a team member. (In essence, you are giving the recipients the opportunity to opt-in as a member of a Team.) Also, since individuals are added automatically, there is no other action that the Team owner needs to take (to add members).
For step-by-step instructions on how to create and use a Team code, please visit the Get Connected web site. Scroll to the Resources category, click on the link for the Office 365 Tips document, and go to the section called “Add Team Members in Bulk”.
Status of University Initiatives at Behrend
BITS is involved in two University-wide initiatives for Enterprise Active Directory and Converge, both of which affect the entire campus community.
Beginning last spring, BITS began the process of migrating faculty and staff, to the Enterprise Active Directory (EAD). EAD simplifies the login process so that there is a single password to access most University resources. Approximately 90% of faculty and staff have been migrated thus far with the remainder to be completed by the end of the semester.
Currently, BITS is in the early stages for planning the migration of all computer networks to the Converge network. Converge will provide better performance and monitoring of the networks.
Students: P-Drives have been Retired
This summer and early fall, student file storage was transitioned from the P-Drive to the University's PASS space (X-Drive) and to OneDrive. As a result, the student P-Drives were retired in mid-fall. However, if you still have files on the local P-Drive that you need to save to the X-Drive, please submit a submit a ticket to BITS.
Office 365: OneNote and Planner Training
There are lots of applications available in Office 365, but probably the two most popular are OneNote and Planner.
- OneNote is a note-taking application that provides a single place for collecting, organizing, and sharing digital information. Your notes can include text, photos, audio, video, and other digital content. OneNote makes it easy to search your notes and share them with others.
- Planner is a basic project management application that provides the means to organize projects, assign tasks, and track progress. The visual interface makes it very easy to use this product.
This past summer, U.P. provided 1-hour sessions for each of these topics. The sessions were recorded and provided a great introduction to the basic concepts and features for OneNote and Planner. To access the recordings, see the links below. (Note: There are several minutes of silence at the beginning of each recording as things were being set up --- just fast forward to the time mark as indicated.)
- Planner (Advance 3m:55s to bypass the silence)
- OneNote (Advance 13m:15s to bypass the silence)
Of course, LinkedIn Learning is another great resource of video tutorials. Once logged in, search for “Office 365 OneNote” and “Office 365 Planner”. You can go through the entire tutorial or just choose the topics of interest.
Requesting Help from BITS
Just a reminder that if you need technical assistance, please call the BITS Help Line at 814-217-HELP (4357) or submit an IT ticket. And on a related note, we’ve also made a few changes with the help line to further enhance our coverage.
Upgrades Made to Labs and Classrooms
A number of improvements have been made in the labs and classrooms. These include:
- Nearly 75% of the classroom podiums now have new Dell PCs.
- All the older PCs in Witkowski 21 were replaced with newer models.
- New Dell PCs and 34” curved monitors were installed in the editing rooms of the Kochel communications suite.
- New Dell PCs, configured to help meet the needs of engineering students (but open for use by all students), replace the former PCs of the Library’s 12 PC island (on the 1st floor).
- A new projector, along with a new digital podium control panel, were installed in Burke 101-107 and 175-176.
- The center projector in Burke 180 has been replaced with a new 4K HD model.
- New printers were installed in Burke 7, 8, 13, 143, 146, 148 and in the Library (1st floor).
- The time to login to the lab and podium PCs has been improved. This is due to the new podium PCs and the new CLM build which handles roaming profiles. Specifically, Chrome favorites are NOT being copied across during the roaming profile process. We highly recommend not trying to circumvent this process since your login times will increase. Additionally, don’t store files on your desktop as this will also impact your login times. Always store files to your X-Drive.
Changes to Guest Wireless Services
The AT&T wireless service for campus visitors will be replaced with PSU-GUEST this fall. PSU-GUEST is currently active in the residence halls and will be expanded across campus.
John M Lilley Library
New Book on Glenhill Farm
On Founder’s Day, October 30, Librarian Emeritus Rick Hart, gave this semester’s book talk on this new book Glenhill Farm: The History of a Family Estate, as Revealed in the Correspondence Between Brognard Okie and Ernst and Mary Behrend. Hart did extensive research at the Pennsylvania State Archives which holds the papers of prominent Philadelphia architect R. Brognard Okie, a master of the Colonial Revival style. Okie’s correspondence with the Mary Behrend (there are only a few from Ernst and his Hammermill colleague, Spencer Gordon) constitutes the largest series in the collection and it includes many architectural drawings of even the smallest details such as doorknobs and hinges, as well as several boxes of letters. Hart traces how the Behrends came to choose Okie and the planning and construction of the home during the Great Depression.
Collaborative Classroom Opens in Lilley Library
On Wednesday, November 20, 2019, an event was held to celebrate the opening of the Collaborative Classroom, an interactive classroom space in Room 12 on the lower level of Lilley Library. The Collaborative Classroom is a joint project of the Library and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and includes seating for 24 students, movable tables and chairs, and new technology, including multiple displays, additional outlets allowing students to plug in laptops and USB-powered devices, and a next-generation Epson smartboard and projector.
The smartboard is the first of its kind installed at Penn State Behrend, and has capabilities ranging from capturing written notes and annotations on the whiteboard to a USB drive, allowing the whiteboard to be used as both an electronic and analog writing surface, and the ability to project to the whiteboard surface and switch back and forth between notes and presentations. Additionally, there are several smaller double-sided whiteboards around the room allowing for group discussions and capturing of notes.
The genesis of the Collaborative Classroom was a desire by Matthew Ciszek, Lilley Library Director, to seek innovative ways of transforming this space for student use. The classroom, which once housed the Behrend Archives, had become underutilized as student study space in recent years. The Library was approached by Dr. Eric Corty and Tina Rapp from H & SS, who were seeking space to develop a more synergistic learning environment than existing spaces in the Kochel Center, and the idea for the Collaborative Classroom was born. The Classroom will open for regularly scheduled classes starting in the Spring Semester of 2020, and brief instructional sessions on using the new technology in the Classroom will be coordinated by the Library and the Behrend Information Technology staff in the new year. If anyone would like a demonstration of the space or has any questions, please contact Matthew Ciszek.
Double Congratulations to Angela Davis
Not only was Angela Davis awarded tenure this year, she and other University Libraries colleagues won the prestigious Homer I. Bernhardt Distinguished Service Award. The award is given by the Engineering Libraries Division of the American Society for Engineering Education at its annual conference for a “work that contributes to the advancement and development of excellence in engineering libraries.” The paper, “Google Scholar’s Coverage of the Engineering Literature 10 Years Later” was published in the May 2018 issue of the Journal of Academic Librarianship. Her co-authors included Vanessa Eyer, John Meier, and Carmen Cole (who is a Behrend alumna.)
Library Hosts Open Houses
The Lilley Library hosted two open houses this year. The staff open house was on July 31st and featured many items from the collection that can help college staff with their jobs, as well as with their leisure activities. The student open house occurred on September 11th. It featured a scavenger hunt (winners received Amazon gift cards), library putt-putt, giant Jenga, and other games, as well as Creamery ice cream.
Check Out Our Media for Your Holiday Entertainment
Don’t forget to drop by the Lilley Library for all of your holiday break entertainment needs including: books (both adult and juvenile), movies, games, and audiobooks for the car trip home. And while you’re here, say hi to Moritz Behrend, father of Ernst and Otto Behrend.
Learning Resource Center
GRE/GMAT Information Workshops Offered
The Learning Resource Center offers three GRE/GMAT Information workshops in the fall and four in the spring. These one-hour workshops are identical in content and cover graduate exam fundamentals. Topics include what the tests measure, study methods, a review of free and vendor resources, and how to use those resources effectively. A portion of the session discusses what to include in personal statements, how to write them, and how to select faculty recommenders. A total of 33 students attended this semester’s sessions.