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Whose history? Your history!

myHistro is an app that gives students the ability to create interactive, embeddable timelines for use in Canvas or as projects on their own. Users can incorporate text, audio and video alongside a Google Map that can play at a designated pace or that the user can click-through on their own.

myHistro gives students the ability to demonstrate their understanding of historical events and offers an incredibly rich use case scenario for a lot of classrooms. Check out this example of a myHistro project - the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay.

Happy creating!

O-E-R and Y-O-U

What is OER anyway? According to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, “OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.” ("Open Educational Resources").

Simply put, OERs could be defined as educational content created by you or your colleagues that other educators can use freely in their own courses. You can use OERs in your courses, too!

According to Inside Higher Ed, “The OER movement has sprung up in response to the rising cost of higher education, and aims to curb one of the additional fees that sometimes take students by surprise once they make it to campus -- namely textbook prices” (Straumsheim, 2014).” Indeed, as we begin to understand OER, we will be empowered to help make higher education more affordable for our students.

So, what can you do now?

There are a few simple things you can do now if you are curious about OERs:

• Learn more about OERs 
• Browse for OERs that relate to your own field on popular sites like oercommons.org, merlot.org or openstax.org
• Contact a member of the Center for Online & Digital Learning or the Hatch Library if you are interested in exploring ways to incorporate OERs into your own courses 

For now…

Check out an example of an “OER” that discusses the world's population:

Sources:

Open Educational Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2015, from http://www.hewlett.org/programs/education/open-educational-resources
Straumsheim, C. (2014, November 4). Open educational resources perceived as high quality, even though faculty awareness lags @insidehighered. Retrieved February 13, 2015, from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/11/04/open-educational-resources-perceived-high-quality-even-though-faculty-awareness-lags

Make A Tegrity Lecture Capture Video

Lecture capture is a powerful tool that allows students to view and engage with recorded lectures and demonstrations on their own schedule. It also allows faculty to provide additional instruction outside of the classroom for more in-depth topics or to support the "flipped classroom" model.

Learn how you can get started using this tool to enhance your students' learning experience. Click here to view Justin LeTellier's, demonstration of how Tegrity works. Note: this link will open in a new window and may take a moment to load.

If you have questions about getting started with Tegrity, please contact Bay Path's help desk at techsupport@baypath.edu.

Office 365 for Your iPad or Computer-it's FREE

Microsoft Office is now available as a FREE download for use on your computer and iPad.

Here's how to get Office 365:

1. Click on this link and sign in using your Bay Path email. Note: this link will open in a new window.  You'll be sent a message asking you to confirm your identity and set up an account.
2. Once you have created an account you can download the Microsoft Office 365 products (Excel, PowerPoint, Word etc.) individually onto your computer.
3. On your iPad, you can also download your favorited Microsoft 365 app from the App store.

Read about Microsoft's free Office 365 subscriptions here. 

If you would like to learn more about how to add Office365 to your teaching toolbox, contact: 

• the Center for Online and Digital Learning by emailing online@baypath.edu or calling 413.565.6880

If you have any difficulties with subscribing or downloading Office365, contact:

• the IT Department by emailing techsupport@baypath.edu or calling 413.565.1487 

Happy working!