In the latest episode of the ITS podcast, Andrea Reynolds from the ITS Service Center and Jason Webb from Online Learning Services discuss how they’re helping students, faculty and staff prepare for the upcoming semester.
ITS BTM · Episode IV: We Know What We’re Doing This Summer
Transcript
Eric Ferguson: Hello and welcome to Behind the Monitor, the official ITS podcast. My name is Eric Ferguson and I am joined by two people who know a lot more about tech than I do, which is why they’re here. I am merely a facilitator. My co-hosts, Andrea, will you please introduce yourself?
Andrea Reynolds: I’m a support analyst for the Help Desk working under central ITS, which is the main IT area on campus. And my job is to help students, staff and faculty with all of their technical needs.
Eric: Then the guy, the man, the myth, the legend. Looking as only he can look. Jason Webb, Jason say hi.
Jason Webb: I don’t know if I could top that introduction, but my name is Jason Webb. I work for Online Learning Services again underneath ITS. My dog’s in the background saying hi to everybody. But yeah, I help support faculty and students with education, technology on campus, everything from Blackboard to Expressions, Google, Microsoft, whatever you can use in the classroom to help you be successful and learn the best way you can. That’s what we’re here to help with.
Eric: And so it might seem a little a little odd that we’re recording and podcasts about higher education in June – it’s still June, right? I’ve completely lost all track of time.
Andrea: It’s Blursday. But yes, it is June.
Eric: It’s Thursday. But so there is this mystery, especially there’s a lot of work going on to get ready for fall. And in addition to summer courses that are going on and providing support to summer session students and faculty. So we’re just gonna throw it open a little bit and just talk about, what are you working on just as yourself and in your teams? What are you working on to kind of help get fall semester ready to go? It’ll be a combination of in-person and online. It’ll be something that is new to everyone. But we have a lot of expertise in IT across campus. And I think that’s what makes me feel best is that we have people who are qualified to do this, ready to help out. Which makes me feel a lot better because I can barely start my computer. I can do that for real. Like, I can do that pretty well.
Andrea: You know, so I’ve been working on various projects and initiatives to support the students’ and faculty’s experience as they return to campus and begin to teach and learn through the challenges of mixed modality. Because as you may or may not know, as people are coming back on campus, we are going to be working both in person and remotely and often both synchronously and asynchronously or all at the same time. And one would say, man, how can I do all of these things at the same time? And that’s pretty much what I’ve been working on, is taking that big question of “how?” and breaking it down into smaller, more digestible pieces in the form of technical documentation. So that has been my non-stop project for the last.
Eric: So let me stop you there. Where do I find all this technical documentation?
Andrea: That’s really great. So all of our technical documentation, all of our knowledge base is actually live inside an area called Answers that is accessible by going to answers.syr.edu. It’s such a great first stop that I think sometimes gets overlooked and kind of pushed around in the shuffle. But as helpful as a quick Google search is, a quick search inside of Answers will so commonly come up with that quick little, like, “That was what I was looking for.” Some of the new projects that we’re implementing are still in draft mode. So looking right now, you may not be able to find them, but coming soon will be articles for how Kaltura, a new video platform that we are introducing, integrates with not only the classroom experience, but how you’re using Blackboard. And I’ll let Jason kind of explain a little bit more about that soon.
Eric: But not now.
Andrea: No. But how you’ll be able to use Zoom and Blackboard collaborate to not only participate in your classroom discussions as if you were in the classroom, but how you can review information that was explained in class at a later time.
Eric: So I’m going to jump in here and just give my little testimonial. I joined Syracuse University from another institution. Loved the institution. There was nothing like Answers there. So Answers has been super helpful for me. I mean, I think that the biggest tip when it when it comes to Answers is just knowing that it exists. And then once you know it exists, it can solve a lot of your problems. So good job, everybody who works on answers. And that’s like a campus-wide thing, people from all over contribute to Answers. So schools and colleges in addition to ITS and other campus partners.
Jason: My job is to make sure that people are pointed to it. What I do now for the last couple of weeks is working with faculty and yeah, pretty much faculty on campus, getting them ready and prepared for anything that could happen this fall. I know that our number one goal is to be on campus wholly. But we know that that’s not really gonna be possible, possible for everyone. So coming up with a contingency plan and working with faculty to get them comfortable with the technologies that they need to be able to use to be able to facilitate their class and be as successful as possible has been a pretty big uptick. I’ve had the privilege of working with some awesome faculty so far. I’m looking forward to working with more as the summer goes on. But people are actually, you know, they come into the meetings very timid and nervous about, like, “do I have the support or do I have the ability to do what’s called the flex or a hybrid type classroom coming into the fall?” Hopefully working with myself and other people in my group for Online Learning Services, we kind of help facilitate that conversation and help them feel a little bit more at ease with things. And like Andrea said, one of the things that we point to is to the Answers documentation so that they can go in there, have some support so they don’t have to constantly come back and ask the same questions over and over again. The support that the Service Center, that Online Learning Services and a bunch of other groups on campus have done, that we will hit on in later episodes, it’s been amazing to help faculty feel at ease with what they’ve got going moving forward with the technology. We have faculty from anywhere upwards of 80 years old that are teaching classes all the way down to people that just got out of a postdoc or graduate degrees. So the use of technology, the experience with technology is wide and wide open pretty much. And it’s been exciting to work with these people and kind of ease their anxieties and help them understand what works best for them. And every case scenario is going to be different. And, you know, that’s the part I like about my job is finding what it is that the faculty are trying to do with their class and what technologies can work in cohesion, or as I like to say symbiotically, with it so that students could be as successful with the information as possible.
Eric: Yeah, I think, speaking kind of as the representative of people who aren’t as familiar with the technology, I think one of the things that, you know, it seems overwhelming that there’s just like all of this technology and all of these possibilities are just really overwhelming. But also, it’s an opportunity to just rethink and I’m not telling anybody how to do their job—far from it—but just like it’s an opportunity to rethink, like, what is essential to education and what are the key things that are non-negotiable. We’ve got knowledge transfer between a faculty member and a student, knowledge discovery in terms of research. And there’s any number of ways that can happen. And, you know, obviously, best case scenario, everyone’s back on campus and we go back to how it was before all this happened and, you know, everybody’s studying in the classroom together. And that’s, you know, that’s a great experience. But there’s any number of things that we can do given the circumstances that we’re in. And I think it’s exciting to kind of figure those things out and just to see how resilient we are as a campus and a university. That’s been really great to watch relatively outside of it, but just as a communications person. I’ll say that the things that I’m working on this summer have been emails to faculty and students and just trying to slowly but surely share this information out, especially as we get closer to August and welcoming people back to campus, and just letting people know what to expect, how things are going to work, reminding them of resources that your teams make available to everybody. And just trying to help people feel as comfortable as possible when the semester starts. So anything that I’m working on is, I’m just standing on the shoulder of giants. There are people who are much smarter and better at this than me and all of the stuff that they do, I boil it down to as few words as possible to make it comprehensible. So hopefully we’re doing a good job of that. And I think things like the podcast are another way just to make people feel like this is an accessible thing and there’s real people behind it making the stuff happen. So thank you, guys. I feel like I should always thank you for taking your time, taking time out of your day to help out with this podcast, because I know there are other things that you guys have to work on today, tomorrow, for the weeks ahead. I think what I would like to do now—hold on. So is there anything else that you’d like to talk about in terms of like getting ready for fall or any big things that you’re working on or just like things that students or faculty should know? Faculty have a lot of things that they can do to get ready for this. For students, it might be a little bit soon. So, OK, Jason Webb, what do you have to say?
Jason: We’ve got a bunch of stuff that’s going on through the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence and Online Learning Services with Michael Morrison. And a couple of the other groups are coming together to do lunch and learns every week. Yes. Every Tuesday afternoon, they’re doing them via Zoom. So every week faculty can jump in and kind of ask questions and they’re going to go over integration and technology. They’re going to talk about pedagogy. They’re going to bounce between Martha Diede or Michael Morrison about stuff that’s happening on campus with course design and tech integration through Blackboard and everything. So every week is going to be a different topic. People will be able to ask questions and kind of come together over Zoom via the lunch and learn. Our department is actually going to be doing a whole bunch of Zoom trainings. We’re going to be doing open office hours where you could come and connect with us at any time and ask questions to one of the members of our group. So there are six of us in Online Learning Services. Any time one of us will be in that room and somebody will be able to come in and ask questions, talk with other people, get feedback from us. If you have a quick question, you could pop in the room and then pop back out again. And we did this when we first went online back in March and April. We did it on a consistent basis and then it started trailing off. So we kind of held off on it. So, you know, people didn’t get confused. We’re gonna bring that back. So look for that e-mail from him.
Eric: Oh, you’re pointing at me. Yeah. No, I’ll send it. Absolutely.
Jason: So that information will be coming out shortly within the next, you know, short amount of time. I could say weeks or whatnot. I know we’re finalizing all that information and, you know, just trying to make ourselves available for anybody that, you know, like I said earlier, just has a little bit of anxiety or just has a question or two to help clarify some things. We’re there to help with it.
Eric: Andrea, anything to add?
Andrea: So that’s definitely for the faculty/staff side of things. On the student side of things. Again, it’s over the summer, so it feels like there’s not a lot of chatter to do, but we have a lot of new and incoming students who are excited to be Orange. The Help Desk is still operating Sunday through Thursday, eight a.m. to midnight, Fridays and Saturdays, eight to five. So we are still open our normal hours. Some of the biggest things that we’re getting questions on right now are bursar questions and registrar questions as everybody’s getting their SU IDs and getting ready to activate their NetIDs, trying to figure out who they’re rooming with on campus, trying to figure out how things are going to look. And we are definitely that best first stop for all of those answers. The entire point of everybody who works under this ITS flag is to make technology more accessible and more user friendly and not scary. And to take that, “I’m really bad at technology” and remind you that you’re not. You’ve got this. So, yes. OLS has these really amazing things for faculty. And the Help Desk is here for that frontline of support for our students as well.
Eric: Happy I work for ITS, just got to say that. I’m happy I work at Syracuse University and happy to work with the cool kids at ITS.
Andrea: Yes, that’s definitely the coolest team.
Eric: Unless there’s any objection, I would like to move forward with our Lightning Round-ish game. In our family, we play a game, usually if on a hike or something where we’re just trying to kill time and not notice it, called What’s Your Favorite? It’s a very simple game. I’ll propose a topic. You tell me what your favorite is. Are we game for that day? OK. What is your favorite animal?
Andrea: Narwhal. Hands down.
Eric: Wow, did not see narwhal coming. That was definitive. I was worried that you’d be all wishy-washy, “I don’t do favorites.” But no, narwhal. Jason, who do you got? Now you got a turtle.
Jason: Sea turtles.
Eric: All right. Thank you very much. So this one could be an act it out. What is your favorite emoji?
Andrea: I’m too happy to act mine out. But it is the two eyes and the straight line like it is SO OVER everything. But sometimes it’s the only response I have because I don’t want to say anything, but I need to emote. So that is my number one emoji followed closely by laugh/cry.
Eric: That’s great. That’s good. That’s a good one. Jason?
Jason: Mine by far is the one with a high eyebrow, the “What the?”
Eric: The People’s Eyebrow?
Jason: Yeah. The People’s Champion eyebrow. So, yeah, that one.
Eric: I can get my Rock tshirt out of the closet. I’ll do it. We can take this podcast on a whole different direction. What is your favorite cereal? What is your favorite breakfast cereal? But really, cereal can be any meal. What is your favorite cereal? I’ve got to talk to fill the air here, people.
Andrea: You know why it’s a stumper. It’s because it depends on if it’s either like “I’m eating breakfast because I’m about to go work out and having a bowl of cereal” or “I’m having a bowl of cereal at 10 p.m. because I have a sweet tooth.”
Eric: So. Lucky Charms either way. I mean, let’s not kid around.
Andrea: What are you talking about? No, no. The sweet treat is definitely Cocoa Pebbles. But like the day starter is like a runner up between Honey Bunches of Oats and Raisin Bran Crunch.
Eric: Raisin Bran Crunch is solid. That’s a really good pick.
Andrea: That’s a go-to. But but definitely Cocoa Krispies or Cocoa Pebbles if I’m in the mood for sweet.
Eric: Ok. Jason?
Jason: I would have to go with the Honey Nut Cheerios.
Andrea: Really?
Eric: That’s a good one. That’s why we do the podcast. What is your favorite gaming console all time?
Andrea: Not fair.
Eric: Come on. That’s the one where you’re like, I can’t do it.
Andrea: So here’s why I can’t do it. Number one: I have played every Halo ever. I beat every Halo on legendary. Halo is my game. I actually used to play it competitively and won regional tournaments. So I want to say Xbox. But I literally play nothing else on Xbox other than Halo. However, I’ve owned all of them because Bungie and Microsoft are besties. So I feels like I have to say Xbox. But like PC Master Race … Detroit Becomes Human is only available on PlayStation and that’s like the greatest game ever written. So come on man. No, no, can’t me choose. It’s like choosing between your children.
Jason: So I will go with, like the old school, I like the PS2.
Eric: That’s old school?
Jason: Yeah. For the most part. But yeah, I definitely enjoy it. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the Wii console for a long time, especially when my oldest daughter was younger, doing Mario Kart on there, doing other activity games. One of her favorite games was … not Skyrim. It was the other one.
Andrea: Skylanders.
Jason: Skylanders, yes. We have different versions of that. So I play that with her all the time, so I love that. I thought it was a lot of fun.
Eric: All right. Last one: What’s your favorite podcast?
Andrea: Am I in trouble if it’s not this one?
Eric: Oh, sorry. No. That was a caveat. Present company excluded.
Andrea: Part of me feels like I have to plug my husband’s podcast or the one that my son just did his very first voiceover for, which is not my husband’s. He was invited to be a voice actor for friends of mine. I used to work for Apple many moons ago before coming to Syracuse University. A lot of people that work for Apple are insanely talented and a few of my friends have gone on to create podcasts. One of them is called the Storyteller series, and basically they seek out small authors that write short stories. They get permission to use the stories. They find a narrator and use them. They get local voice actors to help produce local talents. And it is a side project from American High, which is a movie studio local to Syracuse now and produces movies with the likes of Vince Vaughn and Pete Davidson and things like that. Storyteller series. Never Not Heard of It.
Jason: My guilty pleasure one is a Ron Burgundy podcast.
Andrea: Such a good pod! Such a good pod!
Eric: Let’s talk about that offline because I can’t believe that I’ve never listened to it. But my favorite movie is Anchorman, but I didn’t want to try the podcast because I thought that it might like ruin it.
Andrea: No, it’s excellent. No, it isn’t. It’s excellent.
Eric: So happy to hear this. OK. And then what’s other one?
Jason: This one. We’ll go with this one.
Eric: And I appreciate you saying that because certain people among us didn’t feel the need to rank us in their favorites. But, you know, you stand up. You represent the team. I appreciate it.
Jason: I’m here for you.
Eric: And then what’s your other one?
Jason: My second favorite ones is like multiple of visual effects and animators and storytellers and people that do all these crazy things. And what’s funny is they will start showing up on each other’s podcast talking about projects that they’re working on. So I feel like I flow from one to the next. The next day I hear different stories and different podcasts and different approaches to doing different things. And it’s hilarious to do that. But, Film Riot, bunch of other ones like that, that just kind of fall together. They’re all great. All informational, great storytelling. Just a lot of fun to listen to. You know, like us, they keep it lively.
Eric: Hopefully informational and fun to listen to. That’s the needle we’re trying to thread here with Behind the Monitor as we as we draw to a close. I thank everybody for listening. Thank you, Andrea and Jason, for taking your time and talking to me. Appreciate it. And we’ll see you next time.
Andrea: Go to our Instagram! And our Twitter! And our Facebook! And our TikTok? Do we have a TikTok?
Eric: We don’t have a TikTok. We should have a tick tock, tick, tick, tick tock, tick tock. You don’t stop. … So, Jason, we’re gonna have to cut all of this.
Jason: No, no. It’s staying in.
Eric: This is the vibe. This is the vibe. This is what you get when you listen to Behind the Monitor, the official podcast of ITS at Syracuse University.