Collaboration and Interaction Services

Collaboration and interaction activities can be effective strategies for engaging students in the learning process, encouraging teamwork, class participation, and creating community. In recent years, a variety of technologies have become available for use in an online or classroom environment and are provided through the Learning Technologies group.

The following tools are available to faculty and staff at the Univerisity of Maryland for collaboration and interaction activities:

• ELMS (Powered by Blackboard) [1]: includes integrated collaboration tools, such as private and class discussion areas and file sharing. In addition it includes 3rd party tools such as Live Classroom, Teams LX (wiki), and Journal LX (blog).
• Wimba Live Classroom [2]: includes collaboration and interaction tools in a live/synchronous environment.
• Clickers [3]: classroom-based interactive audience response system.
• Blog [4]: journalling tool; two options available (a freestanding and an ELMS integrated blog).
• Wiki [5]: web page/site collaborative editing environment; two options available (a freestanding and an ELMS integrated wiki).
• GRACE: [6] central shared file storage space for courses activities and research projects.
• OTAL web server: [7] web server space for courses activities and research projects.
• Qualtrics [8]: Qualtrics is Web-based survey software available for use by all University of Maryland faculty, students and staff to support teaching and research on campus.

In addition to training and technical support, the Learning Technologies instructional design staff provide guidance to faculty in the selection and effective integration of appropriate tools into their courses. To assist with this individualized process, we provide consultation services [9] to discuss your goals and help you design a pedagogically sound strategy.

Related Services and Resources

• Training Services and Consultation Services [10] [11]
• Instructional Resources [12]

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