Category: Technology

Thank you to the many of you who provided (Who, or office here) insight and feedback to help streamline the current Strategic Planning Initiative (SPI) form and workflow. Because of this feedback, tactics will now be optional and the workflow is only one step to update an SPI. The (Who, or office here) will update current SPIs to the new format on Nov. 15.

To learn more, visit wichita.edu/strategicplan/<site of new directions>.

Now is the time for instructors to consider converting one Blackboard course to the Ultra Course format for spring 2022. Converting a course now gives instructors time to learn the format before all courses convert to this format in spring 2023. The Ultra Course format has both design, layout and grading interface differences from the past versions Blackboard.

The Office of Instructional Resources (OIR) knows this conversion is a big ask for instructors. OIR is here to help and support instructors throughout the process, and they have compiled many of their support materials on a single webpage to help instructors get started.

The Office of Instructional Resources has developed a curriculum packet for faculty who want to add more information about freedom of speech and expression to their fall or spring courses. The packet offers information representing multiple points of view as well as an optional short quiz faculty can provide to students for extra credit.

For more information or help setting up the freedom of speech and expression packet in your Blackboard class, please contact the Office of Instructional Resources at OIR@wichita.edu.

Want to know how to find a proposal in workflow or create a permanent course from an experiential course?  Check out the Curriculum Management (CIM) user guides for these tasks and many more:

User Guides (updated frequently)

You can also bookmark these other popular links for quick access:

• CIM Course Form
• CIM Program Form
• CIM Misc Admin Form
• Approval Page
• Curriculum Change Guidelines

You can also attend one of the following one-hour Zoom CIM training sessions, which include a  30-minute question and answer session. The Zoom links to these sessions are available via myTraining:

• 1-2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20
• 1-2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov 10

To lower student costs for proctoring services, Wichita State University has joined the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) proctoring contract with Examity. This service will replace ProctorU for the spring 2022 term.

Because proctoring adds expenses to students and can increase stress in the testing environment, we encourage faculty to first consider options for exam integrity that do not require proctoring. For more information please view the information on test integrity from the Office of Instructional Resources.

Examity can be set up for four different levels of proctoring:

• Automated Proctoring Standard: Recorded with artificial intelligence flagging irregularities — without a proctor audit ($3.75 per test)
• Automated Proctoring Premium: With a human audit of the recording ($5.75 per test)
• Live Proctoring Standard: Live authentication, session recorded and reviewed by AI, followed by Examity review of the session ($11 for the first hour and $5 for each additional hour)
• Live Proctoring Premium: Overseen by a live proctor the entire session ($12 for the first hour and $5 for each additional hour)

Faculty wanting to use student-paid proctoring options in their classes are encouraged to learn about Examity directly from the Examity website.

We will be working on installing Examity’s Blackboard integration during December to make it available for spring 2022 courses.

Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor (recording that uses AI-flagging) are both still available to the university at no cost to students. There are a limited number of Monitor licenses for the entire year, so we ask faculty to consider how many Respondus exams they use.

Instructors of all ranks have been asked to learn new educational technologies and methods quickly this past year. The Media Resources Center (MRC) would like your feedback about how effective you have found our service, training, and technology by taking part in a short survey.

The data you provide will be valuable as the MRC works to improve the services they provide to its customers. Your response and ideas will help in our effort to reach our Strategic Enrollment Managements and Kansas Board of Regent priorities and to provide an excellent learning experience for our students.

As you know, Wichita State is in the process of becoming a full Blackboard Ultra school. At this time, all Blackboard users are in the Ultra Navigation area when they log in to Blackboard, and approximately 100 instructors are also offering their courses in Blackboard Ultra Course format.

To assist all instructors in the move to Ultra courses, WSU has been working with a vendor to provide an Ultra version of most of your previously offered courses. Beginning Sept. 20, most instructors will receive an Ultra course version copy of their current and previous courses going back about two years. Here is what you need to know:

• Most courses on the Blackboard server have been copied and the copy has converted to an Ultra version. This Ultra version of the course can be found in the Development/Sandbox Course Shells area in Blackboard and can be identified as a copy by the U at the end of the course name.
• These Ultra version courses are copies of the original courses and the original courses also still exist. The original versions can be found under their associated semester in Blackboard.
• Instructors are not required to use these new Ultra course version courses. This version is provided as a gift and is intended to help instructors as they develop their courses in Ultra. Instructors are welcome to use these new versions in the future, but it is not required.
• Eventually, all courses at WSU will need to be in the Ultra course format. The Office of Instructional Resources recommends that instructors work in only one Ultra course format initially to get used to the new tools and then adopt the Ultra course format for the rest of their courses over time.

All courses at WSU must be in the Ultra Course format by the spring 2023 pre-session.

This is a reminder for all students, faculty and staff that send out surveys to use Qualtrics. Wichita State has a license for Qualtrics, which became the official institutional survey software in 2012.

Qualtrics can be used for research purposes, program review, nominations, elections, applications and much more.

Listed below are some of the benefits of using Qualtrics for your survey needs:

• The program reduces overall cost as the university has a site license for Qualtrics, so users do not have to pay any other third-party vendor.
• There is access to the Qualtrics Support Site to help users with survey design, methodology and survey questions.
• Members have access to on-campus survey experts to optimize their survey and response rate.
• Qualtrics ensures that users get accurate email lists of students, faculty and staff for their survey.
• Qualtrics educes survey fatigue as it can create reduced samples that more approximately target your survey population.
• Qualtrics sends reminders, follow-ups and thank you emails to survey recipients.
• Users can view analytics of create reports, including filtered results within Qualtrics.
• Users can avoid getting marked as a spammer by sending surveys through Qualtrics rather than through their myWSU email.
• Users can create surveys with embedded video, audio and graphics.
• Users can create surveys that only show appropriate questions to each user using skip logic and survey flow.
• Users can export data directly to (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Comma Separated Value (CSV) format or Portable Document Format PDF.

If you need an account, would like training, or have questions please contact Whitney Crager in the Office of Planning and Analysis at 316-978-5350 or whitney.crager@wichita.edu.

Until further notice, students and faculty should not rely on Blackboard’s calendar integration. The Office of Instructional Resources will push out any updates as they become available.

Recently, the Blackboard calendar tool has experienced problems when integrated with external calendars such as Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar. This interrupts the transfer of assigned items to flow from Blackboard to these integrated calendars.

This is a nationwide issue that is not limited to the Wichita State campus. For more information, contact OIR@wichita.edu.

As part of our ongoing commitment to provide quality service, Wichita State’s Information Technology Services (ITS) Telecommunications is announcing an upgrade to the current university voicemail service.

Because the university’s current voicemail system has certain features that no longer work and the manufacturer support has ended a new system, Opentext CXE, is required. Opentext CXE integrates with email to enhance users’ voicemail experience.

To utilize full features, a valid @wichita.edu mailbox association must be provided for each voicemail box. After this upgrade, all voice messages will be stored in the associated Wichita State University exchange mailbox. Messages will continue to be accessible through the phone, and can also be accessed by email.

To migrate to this new system, all current WSU voicemail users will receive an email from telecomservices@wichita.edu, listing their extension, associated email and caller ID information. The email will contain instructions on the steps you must take to activate your new voicemail.

If you or your department has a voicemail account that is not associated with a specific @wichita.edu email address, your service will move to the new system, but will not be integrated with an email inbox. You will receive an email with details on how to set–up and manage your new voicemail service.

If your department has a shared @wichita.edu email address you would prefer voicemails to be sent to, please enter a ticket at the link below. When you click Service Requests, just click Telecommunications Assistance and you will be able to choose a category, including voicemail. This system allows our office to process requests more efficiently.

For more information visit the Telecommunications Opentext CXE upgrade, contact 316-978-3535, or visit the official ITS Telecommunications website.