Semester Break

The blog is on break. Will return with summer school.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.

Tech Note: Overwork in Overdrive

Air cards made travel easier; portable and personal hotspots now make travel with office peers/equipment easier. The purpose of both is to access the Internet via personal wireless accounts. Typically purchased from a cell phone provider, an air card is either card or USB stick for use in a laptop computer. Some computers and other devices (like the iPad) come with an air card built in ready to turn on for a month or a two-year contract.

A portable hotspot works the same way but it's a small network for you and nearby friends. The nearby element is important; Sprint's version, the Overdrive, has a reach of 150 feet for up to 5 devices at a time.

I have used both types of access and prefer the Sprint Overdrive. My cost went from $40 to $60/month but convenience and speed soared. The Overdrive connects to the web at 3G and 4G speeds. Any web device can join the network with the password you provide; I have confirmed connection with several laptops, iPhones, and a wireless printer. These pieces, along with a converter for the car, support the mobile office better than ever before.

Service coverage should be checked for any product. With Sprint service, I have found 3G speed along Interstate highways, and 4G speed at a local dog park. Portability of work can lead to overwork, of course.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.

Not Free Summer Conferences: On Ground Offerings

It is increasingly difficult to find an up-to-date list of assessment conferences. This list for Summer is current (just in time for early bird registrations, in some cases) but surely not complete. I'm starting earlier on a fall list!

Association for Institutional Research (AIR)
Charting our Future in Higher Education
Chicago, IL, May 29 - June 2, 2010
http://forum.airweb.org/

Retention 2010
International Conference on Student Success
Educational Policy Institute
Chicago, Illinois, June 9-11, 2010
http://educationalpolicy.org/events/R10/default.htm

New England Educational Assessment Network (NEEAN)
Summer Institute on Assessment
Keene State College, NH, June 10 - 11, 2010
http://www.neean.org/

Taking the Next Step: Shared Ownership of Assessment & Retention in Higher Education
International Assessment & Retention Conference
New Orleans, Louisiana, June 10 - 13, 2009
http://www.assessconf.net/

UT Austin Assessment Institute 2010
Measure better. Measure smarter. Measure up.
Austin, TX, June 17 - 18, 2010
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/diia/ai/

The 23nd International Conference on The First-Year Experience
Maui, Hawaii, June 7-10, 2010
http://sc.edu/fye/ifye/

SACS 2010 Institute on Quality Enhancement and Accreditation
Tampa, FL, July 25-28, 2010
http://www.sacscoc.org/institute.asp

The International Association for Educational Assessment (IAEA)
36th Annual IAEA Conference: Assessment for the Future Generations
Bangkok, Thailand, August 22-27, 2010
http://www.iaea2010.com/index.php

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.

Free Summer Conferences: The Virtual Kind

Free conferences for higher ed typically are sponsored by commercial interests. That doesn't make them bad. What works for both the commercial interest and the attendee is that most are virtual today. Low investment on both sides but, again, that doesn't make them bad.

Campus Technology coordinates Webcasts and Webinars with larger vendors and the month of May still has some opportunities. The plus for these sponsored events is that they almost always feature academics and managers from universities and colleges (along with the vendors). Sign up is free. Attendance is free. And if you don't already receive Campus Technology magazine (choice of print or electronic), take the time to sign up for that, too.

One of the Campus Technology offerings is for moodlerooms. That company's webinar sign-up page is also worth visiting. Several summer dates are announced and the focus in 2010 is the new moodle platform, joule. The moodleroom community page lists them.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.

Tech Note: Bucknell's Outstanding Tour & Map

Every campus map should aspire to the high level of engagement produced by Bucknell University's Virtual Tour. An interactive map highlights campus locations according to your selected term: inquisitive, creative, conscientious, sleepy. (And more than 50 other descriptors.)

You have to be willing to click a bit to understand how the site works. Don't hesitate to click your mouse on the plus sign (+), the markers on the map, the "Back To The Map" link, and virtually every image that crosses the screen.

Support for beginning: on the main page, click "Begin Your Tour." On the next screen, click on the plus sign in the middle of the page. And just keep clicking.

Besides modeling outstanding web site design, Bucknell manages to communicate a simple message: we like our school and here's why.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.

Budget Cuts Reported in a Blog

The Chronicle's blog Campus Cuts presents short news blurbs about budget-related changes in higher ed institutions. Most are in the U.S.

All of these budget reports are in newspapers and web sites, along with other news of the economic downturn. The real story is that cuts have become so routine that a blog is dedicated to them.

To access Campus Cuts from the Chronicle's home page, scroll down to the list of blogs on the left side of the screen. Campus Cuts is in the list.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.

UNR: Big Picture Chart of Assessment Plans & Reports

U of Nevada-Reno displays an impressive "big picture" chart of assessment plans and reports. Each program's reports are identified as submitted (S) or published (P) for the years 2004 - 2009.

Look for the underscored Ps for hyperlinks to the summary reports of measures of SLOs. For a fuller picture, also click on the name of the program. You'll find the assessment plan with SLOs.

Programs from all colleges are listed. At the bottom of the chart, Student Affairs Programs appear (with assessment activity equal to the colleges). A very new section lists 11 courses in the Core Curriculum of the institution. Among those, 2 reports have been published in 2009.

The web page is the work of the UNR's Office of University Assessment.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.