Center for Instruction & Technology

January-March Training Schedule

Join us in the CIT for new classes added to our schedule:

Introduction to Creating Presentations with Prezi
Voice Recognition with Dragon Dictate/Naturally Speaking
Introduction to the Flipped Classroom
Screen Capture with Screenflow for Mac
Photoshop Layer Mask, Blend Modes and Filters
InDesign CS6 New Features

Check out the dates where classes are being offered from the CIT Training calendar, and then register online.

Learning Technologies Fair

Mark your Calendars for Learning, Technolgy Raffles and Fun...

Tech Fair 2013 The CIT will be hosting the 2nd annual Learning Technologies Fair in the McLaren Complex on Tuesday, January 29th, 10am-3pm. Technology vendor partners will be on site to present new technologies applicable to faculty and students. Demonstrations, presentations and opportunities to ask questions will be made available. Hourly raffles of various technologies will be offered in the McLaren Complex lobby at 10:50am, 11:50am, 12:50pm, 1:50pm and 2:50pm. Your presence and a valid USF ID is required to win. A light lunch is provided. RSVP.

Instructure Canvas

Canvas offers some unique Web 2.0 features like the ability for instructors or students to add an audio or video file almost anywhere in a course. However, Canvas' best attribute is its ability to convey information intuitively.

Intuitive, easy-to-use format
Clean, simple design
Makes grading and viewing grades easy (there is a “What if?” feature for students and a “SpeedGrader” feature for instructors.)
Integration with Google Docs, Twitter, Skype and other applications

Click here for a short video on some of the Canvas features. If you would like to try out Canvas for your spring course(s) or just take a look at Canvas, please contact cit@usfca.edu.

Capture your Content

Looking to record your lecture to place on Blackboard for further review by your students? Want to create content to accompany your lectures or even to flip your classroom? There are a variety of software solutions available to accomplish this but we will focus in this segment on lecture and screen capture. There is a wide range in this venue alone from free resources to commercial. If you have a Mac with OS X 10.6 and beyond, Quicktime Player, installed on every Mac, can do simple screen recordings with audio from a microphone. There aren’t any built in screen capture programs on Windows but there is a free web based service called Screencast-o-matic (http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/) which does a nice job capturing your screen, audio from a microphone and then exporting to a video file or to services like YouTube. This service does limit the free version to 15 minutes.

USF also has a site license for Echo360 Personal Capture, available for both PC and Mac, which provide a simple way to record your screen, voice, and yourself via a webcam. Personal Capture also provides simple editing tools to trim video and publishes a link, which can be emailed to students or inserted into Blackboard.

Finally, there are two commercial software packages that provide an expansive set of production tools to build around the screen recording. Camtasia Studio for PC and Camtasia 2.0 for the Mac from Techsmith allow you to work with the recorded screen capture just like any movie editing software like iMovie. Titles, transitions, effects, multiple tracks are all available as well as various formats to output like Quicktime and Youtube. A final product available on the Mac is Screenflow, which has even more of an iMovie like interface and similar editing tools like Camtasia.

From the simple to the complex, there are many choices to help you create the content to bring the course materials to another level. Contact us at the CIT to learn more about the different products.

Want to know more about iPad?

If you are new or an owner of an iPad, here's the place to check on. We have a resource page full of tips and tricks, and every now and then, we will share with you different apps our staff recommend.

CIT on Facebook and Twitter @usfcit

Like us on Facebook to receive updates to events and activities happening in the CIT http://www.facebook.com/usfcit. If you like learning about different educational technologies, and would like to keep up with the trends, follow us on Twitter @usfcit.

LAB RESERVATION POLICYThe CIT's classrooms are designed to provide instructors and their students with access to technology that is an integral part of the course. If your course format does not require students to use computer technology during class time, we recommend that you reserve a standard USF Smart Classroom. Room requests have to be made at least 24 hours in advance. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

If you wish to reserve a lab for non-academic lectures or trainings, please login to http://ems.usfca.edu/Virtualems for your request. To reserve a lab for academic course, please contact the Program Assistant of your Department. For lab information, please click here.