Author Archives: Bethany Winslow

NEW! Excelsior OWL: Online Lab for Developing Reading & Writing Skills

The Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL) makes it’s debut at San Jose State University fall 2018 semester.  The Excelsior OWL is a replacement for Writer’s Help, it’s a free, open educational resource that is easy to use and mobile friendly! This powerful online tool is an excellent resource that instructors can freely share with their students so that they can get the help they need to improve their reading and writing skills. Students can also go directly to Excelsior OWL on their own, no account is necessary. 

Reading & Writing Support

The Excelsior OWL if chock full of engaging college level interactive content on a variety of topics.There are actual two distinct areas of Excelsior OWL, the Online Reading Lab and the Online Writing Lab. Both are easy to navigate, and the search feature returns targeted and more relevant  results than searching in Google.

Customization Options

Instructors might be interested in several other exciting options that let them integrate Excelsior OWL content with their own curriculum. The link below takes you to a page that shows you how to get the HTML embed code of over one hundred writing activities and almost two hundred interactive reading activities. Once you have the embed code, you easily add it to your own page in Canvas. Your students will be able to see and interact with that content without ever leaving your Canvas course.

Instructors who want to create free accounts are able to gather whatever instructional content they like from Excelsior OWL and organize it into a larger customized lesson called an “Owlet”.

Check out the video below and explore the Excelsior OWL today!

Excelsior OWL from eCampus on Vimeo.

Tech Tip Tuesday: Piazza Brunch-n-Learn Event!

Piazza Event image

How much do you know about Piazza, the robust wiki-style Q & A platform that helps boost  participation of women and minorities in STEM and other disciplines? If you’re not familiar with it this is a great opportunity to meet representatives who will be on hand for a demo, and hear from a panel of SJSU faculty who use and recommend Piazza. This platform helps boost the participation of women and minorities, in STEM and other disciplines!

Read about how the founder was inspired to create Piazza when she was one of only three women in her computer science program, and “…dreamed of a way to empower all students, shy or outgoing, male or female, to benefit from the power of collaborative learning.” (She was awarded 2016 Women Of Vision ABIE Award Winner for Technical Entrepreneurship.) The platform is certainly not limited to STEM fields. Anytime your students would benefit for collaboration, look to Piazza for features that go far beyond what you can do with Canvas discussion boards. For example, here’s a real psychology course on Piazza.

Register Today!

  • WHEN? – Friday October 26th, 10am-12pm
  • WHERE? – SJSU Student Union, Meeting Room 2B
  • Click Here To Register!

Tech Tip Tuesday: Camtasia!

Recent research indicates that students really value recorded lectures to supplement their learning, and videos can stand in for you when you are NOT face to face with your students. It’s also easier than ever to get started with video development, with Camtasia! From a quick motivational talking-head style pep talk, a screen-cast showing a software application, to a narrated PowerPoint with additional images and effects, Camtasia is a robust program that lets you do it all.

In fact, there’s still room in the two beginner workshops scheduled for tomorrow, September 26th, at 9 and 10am. Don’t hesitate to get in on the fun, email bethany.winslow@sjsu.edu to join one or both workshops!

(NOTE: Camtasia is available for SJSU faculty and staff only. For students interested in video check out your options with Adobe!)