Dear all,
If any of you are regular Top Hat users, you may have heard they are opening up the platform free of charge for the remainder of the semester.
More important, this is also the case for folks who never used it before. If you were not teaching with Top Hat this semester (or have never taught), you can set up a free account now and let students in for free.
I’ve been an avid user for the last four years for my large class of 150+ students. I can’t think of teaching the class without it.
They have great (and free) MacOS/android apps and great web platforms (in Chrome and Firefox…less so in Microsoft or Safari.) All materials are disseminated online, attendance checks happens online and all recorded in a virtual gradebook (it’s set and forget). Issuing and administration of exams/ assignments/polling is all online.
I often use ppt presentations often with links to governmental websites/video etc. If you go off to an external website outside your ppt material, the system takes the student along with you while keeping checked in the attendance record. It’s all seamless, whatever you are presenting on your computer shows on their device without having to share the screen. It all happens through the system.
They have lock screen mechanisms for exams and a proctor option for faculty to be on the system and see the progress of each student: Not started, completed, in progress, locked out and reason why (faculty can change prmtrs of the locking mechanism so many minutes of inactivity, so many minimizations or exits from screen etc.) and gives the instructor the opportunity to let students back into the exam at discretion.
It has a great scheduler for dissemination of slides, docs, assignments, practice etc.
If you have lots of graphs…like I do this semester… you can share the ppt and if you are running your presentation from a tablet (or in my case a touch screen) you can graph on top of blank pages, it all shows on their screen.
The only thing that is not online in my principles are my physical presence in the classroom and the “soothing sounds of my own voice.” So for me, transitioning will only involve how to record and distribute my lectures. I’ve never done it before but apparently it is seamless with Zoom and within the system.
Of course, path dependence rules the day. If you are a user (or power user) of E-Learning. Then I would recommend sticking with what one knows.
I’ve never used E-Learning (short of entering scores). Carol Langham has been incredibly generous and incredibly informative if you’re planning to use E-learning and, like me, are not very good at it.
For me personally, minimum deviation from optimal suggest to stick with what I know. I hadn’t planned to use Top Hat this semester for my small class of 30. And did not want to impose an extra cost to the student. But as of this morning I was made aware they are making the full platform free for the remainder of the semester (the firm is Canadian so they are nice J.)
I’m in the process of converting hand-written notes to slides and have a course already established. Once I’m a little more set with my course, I’d be happy to share how I do it in a Zoom call (if I can figure that part out, Carol is mentoring me)
Dean Holmes mentioned it might be useful to share this. I’m distributing this to econ first, but if she thinks colleagues in EPPS at large might find this useful. I‘d be happy to forward to the large dist list.
Kristine is my own rep and she’s great (email below). If you are interested, I can have her contact you for an online training/discussion etc. Or feel free to contact her directly the company is continuing support remotely. You do not need to bring my name up if you don’t want (or do, up to you)
Vic Valcarcel
Associate Professor of Economics
School of Economics, Political and Policy Sciences (EPPS)
University of Texas at Dallas
Hi Victor,
It was great speaking with you just now and I’m glad you’re keeping well!
As discussed, I have attached the article on best practices for running your course and tests online.You will also see the freelance request form link in the testing section, where you can submit your request to have your test created for you.
Lastly, if you have any questions or want to cover anything at all, please don’t hesitate to let me know. If you have any colleagues that would like to take advantage of the free platform for the remainder of the semester, just let me know and we can arrange that for them.
Have a wonderful day and stay safe!
Cheers,
Kristine Dobosz
Account Manager, Top Hat