Each month a faculty member, nominated by their dean, is recognized for their efforts to integrate innovative technology into their classroom. April’s digital faculty member of the month is Kelley Ellis, assistant professor of practice, school of Accounting, College of Business and Public Administration. Read an interview with Kelley below:

Which course(s) do you use this technology in? I would like to share a variety of technology tools that I use in my courses. I am continually looking for ways to make my life easier, make my courses easier to navigate, and make the content more interactive for the students. I probably use the most technology in my Accounting Systems course.

What type of technology do you use?

1. I have set up this course in Blackboard using Modules and Module Pages so that I could create “pages of content” that included my written context comments, documents, and videos.
2. I use Panopto recordings to tape lecture content for the students. I have also embedded quiz questions into the Panopto lecture to test the student’s understanding of the content and to ensure the students actually viewed the lecture. The quiz scores from Panopto are automatically transferred into Blackboard.
3. I have used Blackboard Collaborate on a limited basis to video chat with students and be able to share computer screens to talk through technology issues and project questions with students. This particular tool in Blackboard has a lot of potential, especially for online courses
4. I use test pools that I download from the textbook publishers to create quizzes for students that generate unique quizzes for each student.
5. I use grading schemes so that Blackboard grades can be electronically transferred into MyDUSIS. I also use grading color codes so that I quickly and visually see how students are doing on each assignment, project, quiz, and exam.
6. I also integrate the textbook assignment software into Blackboard so that the students can access everything that they need from one source—Blackboard. The grades for the homework assignments from the textbook software system are then automatically recorded into Blackboard.
7. The other major technology that I will use next year is Citrix. The students have traditionally had to buy and install QuickBooks general ledger software onto their laptop computers. The IT department worked with QuickBooks to get the software and allow the students to access the software for class via the Citrix server so that they no longer have to install the software on their personal computers.

How does this type of technology align with your teaching pedagogy? I think demonstrating the use of lots of different technologies within the course is good for the students to see for this system course. In their professional careers after graduation, they will have to learn many new software packages and tools. This course gets them used to learning new technologies—and me too.

Where did you get the inspiration to make a change?
Some changes were required out of necessity, others were based on attending training sessions at Drake by ITS or webinars offered by Blackboard.

How long did it take for you to implement this technology?
None of the technologies that I have implemented took very long to master. I have just added new things each year and tried to continually improve the course.

Did Drake ITS assist you in implementing this technology?
I have set up consultation meetings with ITS to talk about objectives I wanted to accomplish. ITS gave me options to choose from and pointed me toward resources to help me learn the skills needed. Once I started implementing a new technology, I developed very specific questions, and ITS was always very responsive in answering my queries.

Are you interested in trying out new technology in your classroom? Want help from ITS? Schedule a technology adoption consultation.

Jon Hurdelbrink, CPHS, and Carla Herling, ITS