Academic Innovation Blog

Falcon Online now has a new tool, Follett Discover, that makes it very easy for instructors to choose and adopt course materials and for students to purchase those materials.

Instructor View

To access Follett Discover, log in to Falcon Online. On the My Home page, select Follett Discover from the navbar as in figure 1 below. Or log in directly by clicking on this link: https://daytonastate.betterknow.com/. 

You will then see a page similar to figure 2 below. Choose a term to see a list of course cards for that term. If materials have already been adopted, they will be listed in the course cards. If you have yet to adopt materials, you will see a screen similar to figure 3 below.

In figure 3, select the relevant term then select the course title in the course card. You will then see a screen similar to figure 4 below.

The screen in figure 4 allows you to select your course materials as follows:

1. Select the “Update” button to choose the course discipline and subject.
2. Select the blue “Discover for this course” button. This allows you to search a listing of materials based on the discipline and subject. You can filter this search based on:
   1. Previously adopted materials
   2. Videos
   3. Rental materials
   4. Publisher materials
   5. Pre-approved materials
   6. Open education resources (OERs)
3. You can also choose to create custom course packs from the available materials
4. Or you can upload your own materials
5. Lastly you can provide special instructions to students. For example, you can provide a link to a video you want students to watch prior to the class start date.

Once you have chosen your materials, your courses will show a pending status until the materials have been vetted and/or approved by your department or the bookstore.

For more detailed information please review the Using Follett Discover faculty video (https://follett.com/discover/training.cfm?vid=2) .

Student View

Students access Follett Discover through the same link in figure 1. It is important to note that since this link is on the My Home page, students can access it prior to class start dates.

Once a student accesses Follett Discover, they will see a screen similar to figure 5 where they see all their current enrollment course cards. On this screen, a student can:

1. Select the relevant term
2. Purchase all materials for all courses for that term
3. Or select an individual course to purchase just that courses material

If a student selects an individual course from figure 5, they will see a screen similar to figure 6 where they can purchase individual materials and see any special instructions from the instructor.

For more detailed information please review the Using Follet Discover student video (https://follett.com/discover/training.cfm?vid=3) .

Additional Resources

The College and Follett will be hosting mini training sessions, with the 1^st scheduled sessions being held Tuesday, February 27^th, Wednesday February 28^th and Thursday March 1^st in the Business Services/Purchasing Conference Room, Building 1100 (located next to the Men’s Baseball field) at 1100 Willis Avenue.

The training sessions will be facilitated by Scott Mehr, Regional Manager, Sales & Operations, Follett Higher Education at 10:00 am, 11:00 am, 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm. Please RSVP to Elaine Thiel, Executive Director of Business Services, Elaine.Thiel@daytonastate.edu or call extension 3075. If you are unable to attend one of these sessions, additional training dates will be scheduled.

Review these user guides for more information:

• Follett Discover Faculty User Guide
• Follett Discover Department Admin User Guide
• Follett Discover Concierge Adopter User Guide

Please let your students know about this great new way of purchasing their course materials!

I encourage you to subscribe to this blog to receive notifications of future posts and give us your comments or contact us in the Faculty Innovation Center.

Bill Harrison
Senior Instructional Designer/Instructional Technologist
william.harrison@daytonastate.edu | 386.506.4306

"Technology has the ability to enhance relationships between teachers and students. When teachers effectively integrate technology into subject areas, teachers grow into roles of adviser, content expert and coach. Technology helps make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun." (Wantulok, Tyler. "How important is Technology in Education? Pine Cove's Top 10 Reasons" Pine Cove Consulting) 

Technology is a necessity in education whether we openly embrace it or avoid it like D2L 102. The very nature of online studies is technology, so staying abreast of the latest developments in educational software and programming, as well as keeping our equipment updated, is paramount in making sure our online programs are successful. 

"Online learning opportunities and the use of open educational resources and other technologies can increase educational productivity by accelerating the rate of learning; reducing costs associated with instructional materials or program delivery; and better utilizing teacher time." (Use of Technology in Teaching and Learning, US Department of Education) 

The services we offer include, but not limited to:

Equipment: 

• 6 desktop computers each equipped with a Surface 3 tablet 
• 1 iMac desktop 
• 4 MacBooks 
• Fujitsu Color Image Book Scanner ScanSnap SV600 
• Dell Printer/Copier/Scanner/Fax Machine 
• Projector  
• 2 wall mounted televisions 
• Wireless bluetooth keyboard and mouse

Services: 

• Adobe Connect 
• Falcon Online 
• Respondus and LockDown Browser 
• TurnItIn OriginalityCheck and GradeMark
• Office 365/Office 2016 
• Mobile Device Assistance 
• Consulting and Course Review 
• FIC on the Go 
• Additional Video Services 
• Course development/build-out and redesign

We want you to utilize your time at the Faculty Innovation Center as efficiently as possible. Stop in and see us so we can help you tech it out! 

Pam Ortiz
Administrative Specialist, Division of Online Studies
pamela.ortiz@daytonastate.edu | 386.506.3638

One of our values at DSC is integrity.  Specifically, "Daytona State strives for the highest ethical standards in all areas of operation, including the fair and consistent treatment of all members of the Daytona State community. The college fully supports academic freedom and the right of intellectual pursuit."  Don your cape, mask, shield, or whatever it is that turns you into an overseer because you are the guardians of your grades!  At your fingertips are the tools to protect the integrity of your assessments. We will show you some features in the Quizzes tool to help maintain grade integrity in online testing.  Within each quiz, you have features like time limits, random question folders, and shuffling to assist you in this modality.

The following are quiz options in Falcon Online, and the order does not reflect importance nor effectiveness in deterring questionable results on your assessment.  

 Time limit 

A time limit would be more useful if your quiz has multiple choice, true/false, or matching questions.  A time limit reduces students' ability to reference a Web source like Google, the textbook, or a friend for answers.  Say you have a fifteen-question quiz on the content in chapter 1 of the textbook, and you assume your students read the material. They should be able to answer the questions quickly.  A time limit of 15 minutes gives the students, on average, one minute per item, which limits them from using various sources for the answer.  If they've read the material, they can probably locate it quickly enough to confirm or change the selection; but at least they learned the material, and the correct answer proves mastery of the content.  Alas, if a student did not read the chapter, one minute goes by quickly when they have to scour the entire section for an answer.  You may say, "My questions follow the textbook," so they start at the beginning and work their way through the chapter until they find the answer.  We have a solution; shuffle your questions so the order does not reflect the chapter layout.  I will address a solution for e-texts and Web browsing on the same device further along in this blog post.  To set a time limit, look within the Restrictions tab. 

 Shuffle

As stated above, you can shuffle your quiz questions so the order does not follow the chapter.  Also, if students have more than one attempt per quiz, the order of items is not the same on the second try.  They may have seen the question, but the chronology is different.  You can even shuffle your answers, but be careful if you have multiple-choice questions and one of your answers is ‘All of the above." That answer could move to the top of the list, and that would not make sense in the quiz answer layout.  You can find the ‘Shuffle questions at the quiz level' box in the Properties tab.

 Random Section

A Random Section folder allows you to add questions from the Questions Library into a folder and then add questions randomly into your quiz.  Let us take our example for the Chapter 1 quiz.  Instead of a fifteen-question quiz, we will make it a ten question quiz.  You also want different questions for different attempts.  The solution is to create a random section folder and add fifteen questions from the Library.  The quiz is now set up to randomly pull ten of the fifteen questions into your quiz.  If students decide to attempt the quiz en masse or they have more than one attempt, they will not have the same quiz.

In this example, the selection size is small, but if you have fifty questions to randomly select ten from, the chance for duplication is much less.  Therefore, if you have a time limit with the answers shuffled, their ability to cross-reference is reduced.  Random section folders take a few steps to setup, but you can create them in the Add/Edit section on the Properties tab in the quiz.  Say you do not want random section folders, shuffled questions, shuffled answers, and time limits; we have another option.  Change your types of questions.

 Question Types

Maybe you want to challenge your students' understanding of a concept through written response. Written Response (WR) questions tasks them with demonstrating their knowledge through explanation.  Perhaps your students draft similar reactions because they are collaborating, but at least they are discussing the concept and writing a reply that enhances their understanding.  They think they are sneaky, but you have tricked them into learning.  I heard a story about a professor that allowed students to create a cheat sheet for a test only for him to cancel the test because he knew if they created a cheat sheet, they went over the material.  Sneaky educator.  The point is you can vary your question types to include written responses that encourage your students to use their words to demonstrate comprehension or at least discuss the topic in enough detail so any answers are not identical.  As a best practice, create your questions in the Questions Library and not individual quizzes.   

 Respondus Lockdown Browser

Respondus Lockdown Browser will prevent your students from navigating away from the quiz and accessing additional resources like a PDF or e-text. If you require Lockdown Browser, keep in mind your student must install it on their device.  A link is available for students to install the application for Windows or Mac if you require it for the exam.  Lockdown Browser "locks" users from accessing external resources like e-mail, browsers, and applications and prevents them from going to Google or opening their e-text and using the Find function to locate specific language.  I know it is common to have multiple, connected devices in a home, but if you combine time limits, shuffling, random folders, and different question types, you add roadblocks to dishonest assessment.  You can find the Lockdown Browser options on the Lockdown Browser tab on the Quizzes tool menu bar.  

I have presented multiple ways for you to protect the integrity of online assessment.  Also, we have provided resources to help you create questions to preserve the integrity of online assessments.  If you use different methods to protect your online assessments, please comment so your peers can integrate them too.  If you would like any assistance with the Quizzes tool in Falcon Online, please stop by or contact the FIC. 

Aaron Sunday
Instructional Designer
aaron.sunday@daytonastate.edu | 386-506-3209

  P.S.  Wonder Woman resides in the FIC! 

Resources:

https://class.daytonastate.edu/shared/Documentation/Help/Instructor/Search.htm?q=quizzes

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxHabmZzFY6kAoPnl_PgFb9q-qCbRST3m

https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/measurement-evaluation/exam-scoring/improving-your-test-questions