New Faculty Information

Welcome to WSU! It is a pleasure to welcome you to the WSU family. You will find resources on this page that will answer some of your questions about teaching at Winona State as well as where to go when you need help with your courses, your classroom, or your computer.

How do I host my courses? D2L Brightspace Winona State is a D2L Brightspace university. Brightspace is a fully-functional learning management system, including discussions, content management, quizzing, drop boxes, grade book, and much more. Course shells are automatic created for each semester and faculty load their desired materials into each shell. Materials can be created directly in Brightspace or, in some cases, imported as Word docs, Powerpoint decks, videos, and more. Brightspace supports face-to-face, online, and hybrid learning. Here are a couple articles from the WSU Knowledge Base to get you started: General overview of and introduction to Brightspace Comprehensive list of all articles on Brightspace for instructors Microsoft Teams Some faculty choose to host portions of their courses in Microsoft Teams. While Teams does not support some learning management system functions like a grade book, it is excellent for discussions, file sharing, and team assignments. A Teams site is create for the course and the enrollment list is imported into the Teams site. You can then conduct your course through Microsoft Teams or in Teams in concert with Brightspace. You can find a lot more information on Microsoft Teams in the following article: Overview of Microsoft Teams Have questions? Help is at your fingertips. Check out the resource list in the right column of this article. Help is available face to face, over the phone, by email, or in Zoom. How do I prep for the new semester? Get your checklist here Check out the article entitled Prepare for the first week of classes in the WSU Knowledge Base. Where do I record and store videos? Video storage Kaltura MediaSpace is a suite of tools for creating, publishing, streaming, and sharing media files on the Web. It functions much like YouTube, but without the commercials. The Minnesota State system office covers the cost of MediaSpace and it is available to everyone on campus. You access your personal MediaSpace account and all the MediaSpace tools using your Web browser. You can upload video, audio, and image files to your personal, private MediaSpace account and organize your media into playlists and channels. Video creation and capture You can create video and audio media using a variety of tools. Kaltura Capture is included in the MediaSpace toolset and can be used to capture any combination of your voice, screen activity, and webcam. Media is uploaded directly into MediaSpace from Capture. Zoom can record your meetings and, if you record to the cloud, automatically upload the media into your MediaSpace account. (More on Zoom in a minute.) Inserting your media into your Brightspace course Including media from MediaSpace in your Brightspace course is a breeze. Check out the article on adding MediaSpace content to your course in the Knowledge Base. Want more information? Check out Kaltura MediaSpace article in the Knowledge Base or use the contact info in the right column of this article to find a live person. How do I meet virtually with students and coworkers? Zoom Zoom is a full-featured web conferencing tool that can be used on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. It supports video and audio over the Internet, document and screen sharing, and more. Meeting hosts can create meeting sites, provide access to those rooms through a URL, and then use the tools available in the room to facilitate engaging online meetings with anyone in the world via a web browser. WSU employees can create and host Zoom meetings anytime. WSU students can create and host their own Zoom rooms for 1:1 or group meetings. More information on Zoom There is a plethora of information in the Zoom article in the Knowledge Base or dial up help from the list in the right column. Teams Microsoft Teams is an application that supports group work. Every Teams site supports text, voice, and video messaging. You can easily communicate with members of specific teams and with others at WSU and in the system using integrated text messaging and a built-in conferencing app. Want more? There is much more information on Microsoft Teams in the WSU Knowledge Base. Where do I start when I am doing research? Let's start with the Office of Institutional Planning, Assessment, and Research IPAR serves the Winona State University community by discovering, interpreting, and providing information. This information is used to enhance institutional effectiveness and facilitate knowledge-based decision making across the campus. You can get more information on IPAR from the WSU website. Collecting your own research data WSU endorses Qualtrics as our go-to data collection tool. Qualtrics is a full-featured, web-based tool for creating and conducting online surveys. This tool is both easy to use and extremely powerful. Qualtrics enables users to do many kinds of online data collection and analysis including market research, customer satisfaction, and course evaluations. You can get more information on Qualtrics from the WSU Knowledge Base. Where do I go with course enrollment questions? The Warrior Hub has the knowledge The Warrior Hub is a one-stop shop for students' financial aid, records, registration, and account services. As a teacher, you can use the Warrior Hub to check on student enrollment status or allow students to join your course when it is full or it is after the start date. (At WSU, granting permission for a student to join a full class or join after the start date is called giving the student a "blue card.") How do I contact the Warrior Hub? Want more information on the Warrior Hub? Check out https://www.winona.edu/warrior-hub/. And what if my students need training on some specific software or hardware for my class? The DLC to the rescue! The Digital Learning Commons (DLC) will design custom training for your students based on your specifications. Simply tell the DLC what you want and when you need it, and they will visit your class and train your students for you. (Be sure to give them sufficient lead time to create the materials and lessons you need.) Contacting the Digital Learning Commons DLC's contact information can be found in the right column of this page. What if my students need other types of help? WSU's Access Services Helping Students Succeed is the motto of WSU’s Access Services. Many academic resources are offered free of charge to qualified students. Examples of academic accommodations include but are not limited to extended time on exams, low distraction test environment and alternate format textbooks. There is more information on Access Services on the WSU website at https://www.winona.edu/accessservices/. Tutoring Services WSU Tutoring Services' mission is to help the student meet academic goals by providing outstanding free academic assistance, including tutoring and a Supplement to Instruction Program (S2I). There is more information on Tutoring Services on the WSU website. Tutor.com offers free online tutoring round the clock. Receive help with your writing, math and more. Linkedin Learning LinkedIn Learning offers thousands of videos to develop your technical, creative, and business skills. You can check out the videos at LinkedIn Learning's website. Don't have a LinkedIn Learning account yet? Follow these instructions to create your free account. For other new employee information If you have other general questions about WSU and how things work, check out the New Employee Information article. What if I have other questions? If you have ANY questions at all and don't know where to go, give TLT a holler. They might not have the answer, but they are more than happy to find the answer for you. You can find the contact information for TLT in the right column of this page.

Getting help If you have questions or problems and you need answers, there are people at WSU ready and waiting to assist you in any way possible. At Winona State University, students and employees can find technical support around every corner. From walk-in and phone support to our online help desk options and accessible documentation, WSU Information Technology Services (ITS) is always here to help you. Organized into two teams, the Technical Support Center helps resolve your technical problems and Teaching, Learning, and Technology helps you learn how to use all the technology available here at Winona State University. Walk-in support Just walk up to these help desks for face-to-face technology-related support during the following hours of operation: Technical Support Center Location: Somsen Hall 207 on the Winona campus Hours: 7:30 am to 4:30 pm Monday-Friday during the school year Hours: 7:30 am to 4:00 pm Monday-Friday during the summer Services: Hardware/software purchase, installation, troubleshooting and repair as well as networking and phones Professional Development Center Location: Maxwell Hall 130 on the Winona campus Hours: 7:30 am to 4:30 pm Monday-Friday during the school year Hours: 7:30 am to 4:00 pm Monday-Friday during the summer Also available on Zoom during working hours (see below) Services: Employee technology usage questions, instructional design support, classroom and event AV assistance, digital signage support Digital Learning Commons Location: Darrell W. Krueger Library 105 on the Winona campus Hours: 7:30 am to 10:00 pm Monday-Thursday (until 5:00 om on Friday), 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on Saturday, 1:00 pm to 10:00 pm on Sunday during the school year Hours: 7:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday-Friday, 1:00 pm to 9:00 pm on Sunday during the summer Also available on Zoom during working hours (see below) Services: Technology usage questions, printing support, student training Coffman Center in Rochester Location: Coffman Center 122 on the Rochester campus Hours: Open during fire hours Services: Hardware repair, software and service problems, classroom and event AV assistance, digital signage support Zoom support Receive just-in-time, live support online in Zoom during the following hours of operation. Only those signed in to Zoom using their StarID credentials will be able to join these sessions. TLT Zoom Room Meeting link: https://minnstate.zoom.us/my/wsutlt Hours: 7:30 am to 4:30 pm, Monday-Friday Services: Employee technology usage questions, instructional design support, classroom and event AV assistance, digital signage support DLC Zoom Room Meeting link: https://minnstate.zoom.us/my/wsudlc Hours: 7:30 am to 10:00 pm Monday-Thursday (until 5:00 om on Friday), 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on Saturday, 1:00 pm to 10:00 pm on Sunday Services: Student technology usage questions, printing support, student training Phone and email support Phone 507-457-5240 Option 1: Tech Support Option 2: Classroom Support Option 3: TLT Email techsupport@winona.edu tlt@winona.edu dlc@winona.edu digitalsign@winona.edu Online self-service help Use the following online self-service resources to help answer your technology-related questions: WSU Technology Knowledge Base - The home page of this knowledge base wiki. Search it to find online articles and documentation about all of the technology available at Winona State University. DLC Get Started Video Series - Visit this wiki article to access a series of helpful videos for students on how to get started using some of our more common tools and services. FAQ - Visit this wiki article for a list of the most frequently asked technical questions. Keep Teaching Manual - Visit this wiki article to access specific information about teaching online or from a distance.

 

Except where otherwise noted, text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.