The John Marshall Law School Louis L. Biro Law Library has created a new Academic Technologies Department (ATD) that combines Media Services, Class Sites and distance education support.
Jessica de Perio Wittman
As part of Dean John E. Corkery’s intent for the law school to be technologically advanced, the group was created to establish a more direct correlation between John Marshall’s use of technology in education. Information Technology Services continues to handle all eCommons, computer maintenance and other technology issues. The new group now handles the online presence of John Marshall curricula. The integration of various law school departments and services will help faculty with both on-site and distance education classes, to provide students with integrated multimedia and technology support.
Jessica de Perio Wittman, assistant director of ATD, said this new amalgamation will bring more of a team effort in delivering education in an electronic format—online and in the classroom. Wittman is joined by Chris Bevard, administrator and trainer for Moodle learning management system which is Class Sites; and Tony Jeswald, instructional technology specialist, who will aid professors with Class Sites as they integrate technology and an online presence into their coursework. Media Services is assisting with classroom support, audio-visual needs and lecture recordings.
Chris Bevard
The distance education program is expanding and ATD will help navigate its software and formulate best practices for an online classroom.
LegalEase, the former learning management software system, has been replaced by Moodle as the portal for professor-to-student communication. This switch has been a large part of the improvement of eCourses at John Marshall.
Wittman said Moodle will better integrate coursework and communication in a way that is less segmented than LegalEase. Students and professors will be able to view handouts, assignments, and discussions more as a group, and materials can be organized chronologically or topically.
Tony Jeswald
Another component of Class Sites is MindManager, which allows students to organize their projects and tasks through visual maps. Wittmann will demonstrate the free program at an information session Sept. 19 at 12:30 p.m., Room 529.
“Multimedia content is faster and more varied, and as Class Sites software is updated, we’ll be able to add mobile functionality and a lot of other features to John Marshall’s system that just weren’t available before,” Bevard said. “It’s really helped push us forward.”
Bevard noted that with Datatel, a software and services program designed for higher education, in place and Moodle accessible through eCommons, professors can now use Class Sites for anything from reading materials, to Tegrity recordings, to supplemental material, such as discussion forums.
Bevard is offering group sessions and one-on-one sessions for professors to become fully comfortable with the class sites. He can be reached at cbevard@jmls.edu or ext. 723 to arrange one-on-one assistance.