In each edition we chat with a different Community member. In this issue:
Benjamin King
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Roane State Community College
Tennessee Board of Regents
Community Coordinator (CC): "Benjamin, you've contributed many posts in the Community on the Quizzes tool. What is the greatest challenge you face using the Quiz tool to teach math?"
Benjamin King (BK): "It is my most used feature outside of Content and the one I have had the most questions about. I would love to be able to click on a question in a student's quiz attempt and be taken to the question in the Question Library. I am a big fan of random sections, and use them in almost all my quizzes, but sometimes I have difficulty finding the question in the Question Library."
CC: "I've often wished the same thing and we frequently receive this request. We're working on it, Benjamin."
"We have heard this feedback from several clients and are working to include this feature, along with much more robust searching and sorting within the Question Library, for the next major iteration of the quizzing tools. Anybody out there that has ideas to contribute is encouraged to sign-up for design activities using the surveys provided. We plan on kicking off client activities around this in the new year."Kenneth Chapman, Lead Product Manager, Desire2Learn Inc.
CC: "What's your favorite tool in the Learning Environment?"
BK: "There are so many capabilities with the D2L Grades tool, allowing even a math teacher such as myself to use about any computation formula possible for students' grades."
CC: "How long have you been teaching math?"
BK: "I am in my second year as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Roane State Community College. I teach developmental and freshman level mathematics courses. Prior to teaching at Roane State I taught as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Tennessee Knoxville."
CC: "What other programs are offered at Roane State?"
BK: "Roane State Community College is a two year institution serving a large portion of East Tennessee with eight campuses. Roane State provides transfer and career preparation options in a variety of areas including Nursing and Education."
CC: "What unique projects is Roane State using Desire2Learn for?"
BK: "D2L was used to facilitate the International Education Conference hosted by Roane State. All students enrolled in Allied Health programs take a Clinical Course in D2L prior to beginning their programs. D2L has provided faculty teaching Distance Education classes at Roane State campuses with a more reliable system for collecting coursework from remote locations previously connected only by live video feeds and courier service."
CC: "The Tennessee Board of Regents is fairly new to Desire2Learn. What other LMS experiences have you had?"
BK: "As a first year faculty member in 06-07 I used WebCT to enhance the learning experience for my students and to facilitate communication. In training for D2L in the Spring 2007, I was impressed by the ease of use and the variety of capabilities D2L provided for its users. I asked if I could pilot two courses in Summer 2007, and in turn was asked if I would be a Faculty Mentor for the transition to D2L from WebCT."
CC: "How's the mentoring role working out for you?"
BK: "The capabilities and relative ease of use of D2L have made mentoring my fellow faculty a pleasure."
CC: "I enjoy working with you in the Community, Benjamin. What do you like most about the Community?"
BK: "It is great to see D2L staff, administrative staff from individual schools, and faculty who are using D2L all collaborating together to help each other succeed. I have asked some tough questions in the forums, and was happy to see that even though it took some time, D2L was always willing to work to make sure my questions were answered."
CC: "Good point about taking time. We like to allow the users that collaboration time in the Community before jumping into a thread. What would help you to find answers in the Community faster?"
BK: "Global Search in the forums. The tool that I used most was the Global Search, and since its removal, I have had a difficult time finding the answers to any of my questions. Sometimes even finding my questions has been difficult! There is a huge wealth of information available in the Community, but unless there is a good way of finding it, it becomes useless."
CC: "I wholeheartedly agree. We're working to improve our search tools. The global search feature was removed because it caused some performance concerns. We will reintroduce it for general availability once we can address those issues. In the meantime, we will leverage use of the ability in 8.2.x to copy messages to multiple forums and topics. This should make it easier to find those answers that have been difficult to locate."