Mobile Portal for Faculty

Our ITS department has communicated some exciting news recently about the release of our new Faculty MOBILE Portal Site! 

Faculty are now able to log in to a mobile-friendly version of the portal by navigating to my.baypath.edu/go on a smartphone or tablet. Once you go to my.baypath.edu/go, tap on the 'Mobile Faculty Portal Login' link and you will be able to log in to the mobile Faculty Portal.

On mobile portal site, faculty will be able to:

• See an overview of a term's course schedule, along with dates, locations, and times

• Get class listings for each course, along with each student's photo ID (unless they are FERPA-restricted), and email the student(s) enrolled in the course directly

• Enter grades on the portal from the mobile site

• Review advisee information, including advisor's type (for example, WELL, MAJOR, etc.) and email advisees directly

• Search room availability on each campus.

No new login is needed for the mobile portal site; use the same login as you do for the desktop portal site.  You'll still enjoy automatic login to your Bay Path Gmail and the mobile site is accessible via any device on any platform!

There is so much more to see!  Checkout the site by going to my.baypath.edu/go on a smartphone or tablet! 

Please reach out to Jill Cooney (jcooney@baypath.edu) if you have any other questions or feedback!

Creating Digital Books

Want to create a textbook for your students? Looking for an alternative way to present information? With this week's release of the Kindle Textbook Creator as a jumping off point, here are a few links to get you started on creating books for mobile devices.


For Kindle:

https://kdp.amazon.com/edu

For iOS and Android:

http://www.redjumper.net/bookcreator/

For OS X and iOS:

http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author

Podcasts: A Primer

Transmitter by Dave Tappy. CC by 3.0

Podcast: a program (as of music or talk) made available in digital format for automatic download over the Internet.

In the last few years, podcasting has taken off, invigorating a new crop of storytellers and introducing (or in some cases, reintroducing) people to new and exciting content. Likely, you've heard of the term at one time or another. Apple bundled it's own Podcast app with iOS 8, causing a lot of "What?" and "Huh?" comments from lots of users.

In just three steps, I'd like to give some insight into this world of free content. And the amount of free content available is staggering.

To get started, either watch the video or read the steps below. Or both. Your call.

1. Find a good podcast player. There are a lot of podcast apps for Android, Windows Phone, and iOS. 
• I really like Overcast.
2. Using the device-specific store, look for content that appeals to you.
• Look for content collections such as Education, Public Radio, Technology or Sports to get started. Or if you're looking for something new. There is something for everyone.
• My rotation currently includes current news, long-form journalism, multiple comedy shows, true stories told live on stage, comic book history and an NPR-style public radio drama as if Twin Peaks or the X-Files were real.
3. Subscribe. Listen. Enjoy.

In the next post, I'll talk about how you and your students can create your own podcasts.

Portable Scanning Solutions.

With the recent release of Scannable on the iOS App Store, I thought it might be a good opportunity to curate a few links that can do scanning on the fly.







Scannable: Available for iOS





CamScanner: Available for iOS and Android







Genius Scan: Available for iOS & Android



Of course, none of them replace a flatbed scanner. However, they all work really well as portable scanning is becoming increasingly more productive and useful. Give them a shot, and if you use another one please let us know in the comments!

Battery Life

Post-holiday, a reminder about understanding the battery life of your devices so that you can get the most out of your technology in 2015!

Maximizing Performance on Apple Devices

SnapDragon Battery Guru (for Android phones, courtesy of Bryan C.)

Maximizing Performance on Windows Computers

Office. For iPad. For Free.

Microsoft has just released Office for free on the iPad, and the Center for Online & Digital Learning and Student iPad Assistants are here to help.

But wait? Wasn't Office free before? It was. The new version allows users to create and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. The files can then be stored on the iPad, One Drive or Dropbox. Click here for more information!

There are, as with everything free, a few caveats. Please read this page for what you can and can't do with the free version. For instance, users cannot Track Changes or use Landscape mode without upgrading to Office 365.

If you have questions regarding Office on your iPad or iPhone, please contact the Student iPad Assistants for help!

Android Users: Sign up for the preview version now.


Permalink:
http://products.office.com/en-us/mobile/?WT.mc_id=OAN_en-us_bnr_MSCOM-Prog-iPad
http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/products/office-resources-FX102896045.aspx#Resource6

Getting the Most of Your Battery: A Primer

Becoming an increasingly mobile campus, which ranges from iPads in the classroom to BYOD, ensuring that batteries last as long as they can is of the utmost importance. For all of the things that our mobile devices can do, I wanted to send out a few links to help you better understand the batteries inside of them.

The majority of perceived issues regarding 'poor' battery life that I experienced while at Apple were, more often than not, educational opportunities: Understanding how the battery works is just as important as what the device can do.

For your consideration, here are links to battery management on iOS, OS X, Android and Windows.

Maximizing Performance on Apple Devices

SnapDragon Battery Guru (for Android phones, courtesy of Bryan C.)

Maximizing Performance on Windows Computers


If you have any questions, do not hesitate to let me know!


Image Credit: Battery by Rediffusion from The Noun

App Discovery: Rachel Alter

Title: Librarian

About Me: Reference and Instruction Services 

App 1: Doc Scan has been a great help to students here in the library when the printer/scanner is down. It scans to PDFs, doing the same thing the big scanner does, and eliminating the step of emailing the scan to yourself.

App 2: Overdrive, which can be used with an eCard at the Boston Public Library, for downloading audiobook titles from their huge collection, and then listening to them on your commute.

App Discovery: Bryan Corbiere

Title: Tech Support

About Me: Your friendly local IT Giant! Proud Android user, always happy to answer questions about any tech.

App 1: AlarmDroid for Android A free and powerful alarm tool with tons of options including obstacles to solve before the alarm stops!

App 2: Google Play Rewards Free, Android. Free Google Play rewards money! 

FREE MONEY!

FREE!

MONEY!

App 3: Snapdragon BatteryGuru Control what applications sync on your phone and how often. Can increase the battery life on your device significantly (up to 30% in some instances)!

Honorable Mention: The redesigned Weather Channel app, clean and beautiful new UI gets the most important information to you right away.

App Discovery: Michael Roberts

Title: Online Course Builder

About Me: Audiobooks. Ebooks. Immediately.

App 1: Overdrive - I listen to books. A lot. 

App Discovery: Dave Wallace

Title: Associate Professor of Psychology

App 1: Notabilty - I was very fortunate to pick this up when it came out; it is an outstanding note taking app that is still my go-to one for taking notes at meetings, lectures, conferences, etc. Directories, Solid organization (where can move files into your own named directories etc), and Exporting features. Most of all - their CS is without peer. When I once had a problem after upgrading my iOS, they responded within hours When that fix didn't work someone else got back to me 5 hours later with a fix.

App 2: Toodledo - A great task manager. Less detailed than some of the more formal GTD apps, (it is streamlined), but it still allows for Outlines, Notes, Dates and Times due, Alarms, Repeating a task, Searchers. etc.

*tie*

mSecure - a fantastic encryption app. It can transfer to Mac, PC, and mobile formats. You can wifi to update each one (so you can enter passwords etc in one, and they pop up in the other), and you can save your info in an encrypted form as a backup.

App 3: Weblock - a great way to reduce the number of ads, scripts etc that we pick up along the way. It creates and manages your PAC (proxy auto configuration), and uses a dummy proxy to allow you to not get many of those ads and other things that pop up.

*tie*

Plants vs Zombies/Bloons 5! Everyone needs a fun game now and then to unwind -- and these are pretty fun ones regardless of one's background, interests, and abilities.

App Discovery

Bay Path University Community,

There has been a lot of interest expressed that there be suggested apps, along with tips and tricks, posted more regularly to the Center for Online & Digital Learning's blog.

However, we want to engage more with you: We are seeking faculty and staff that want to share their favorite apps and why they can't live without them. Think of them as Indispensable Apps.

Be on the lookout soon for an email containing all the information that you'll need to be a member of this awesome group.

Thank you in advance!!


Chris Gaudreau
cgaudreau@baypath.edu
Learning Technologist
Center for Online & Digital Learning

Hangout with us.

Oh, hello everyone.

There has been a lot of faculty interest around the use of Google Hangouts. It is a robust tool that everyone at BPU has access to, though one that doesn't see a lot of use. To help curb that notion, we have created a resource guide

Things that the Center for Online & Digital Learning has been asked about how to:

• Collaborate on Documents
• Record and Archive a Meeting with Students
• Add an archived Hangout to your classroom

To best facilitate your learning, view the workflow here. We'll see you in a Hangout soon!

Getting Organized!

Links to help you Get Organized!

Evernote - https://evernote.com
Evernote Introduction - https://evernote.com/introduction
Evernote Apps - https://appcenter.evernote.com/
Evernote Family of Products - https://evernote.com/products/

As we discussed, some things you can put into your One Workspace:

• Recording of a student advising or tutoring session
• Clippings from your Gmail conversations
• Marked up PDFs via Skitch
• Syllabi
• Classroom Prep with all your material and a reminder in the same note
• Flash Cards and Citation assistance via Study Blue and RefMe
• Sunrise Calendar offers Google Calendar and Evernote integration

Need help finding the 'right' app for you?

iOS App Store: Productivity - https://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/ios-productivity/id6007?mt=8
Google Play: Productivity - https://play.google.com/store/apps/category/PRODUCTIVITY
Windows Phone: Tools and Productivity - http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/top-free-apps/tools-productivity/toolsandproductivity
Mac App Store: Choose Productivity from the right-hand drop Category drop down. There is also a Get Stuff Done category currently live.