Instructional Technology

Are you interested in using Blackboard? Maybe you’re already using it but are ready to add more features to your on-campus, hybrid, or online course. VITAL can help! We have many user guides available on our Faculty Guide page.

For assistance, please submit a VITAL ITicket by clicking here.  This helps prioritize and track requests.  We are measuring the support needs and submitting a ticket is greatly appreciated.

Valpo uses an online course evaluation system for student evaluations of teaching. The Office of Institutional Effectiveness manages our CourseEval system.  They can provide faculty with evaluation reports, files and support for the software. Tenure track faculty preparing their binders should contact Melizza Zygmunt for more information.

Click here for answers to FAQs and tip sheets.

Certification produces quality courses that use instructional design principles to enrich student learning.

Interested faculty should contact Kevin Steele for more information.

Starfish retention software facilitates meaningful communication among students, faculty, and staff. It provides an easy interface for students to reach out for assistance, for faculty to provide feedback to students, and for all users to actively engage in a student’s opportunities for success.

System Access: starfish.valpo.edu

Training & Implementation Schedule

More information & Training Videos

Technical Contact: starfish@valpo.edu

Top Hat is a classroom response system that replaced the “clickers” of a time passed. Top Hat is app-based on the students device.  It can handle a multitude of question types (multiple choice, open answer, matching, heat maps of images, etc.  Top Hat also has an attendance feature that uses geolocation to prevent the spread of the code to those not attending class. It also houses its own gradebook that can be synced with your Blackboard gradebook and attendance.

The resource is free to the university, but much like the clickers, the students purchase a license to the software through the product. The licenses options for pricing are below.

Students do not have to pay per class, but by the semester, year or lifetime. The students can purchase using student aid & scholarship money at the university bookstore.  This pricing is not as competitive as purchasing it directly through the app.  The app pricing has been negotiated as follows:

• Single semester – $18
• Year-long – $28
• Lifetime (5 years) – $60

More information is available on the Confluence page. To learn more, contact our dedicated Top Hat representative, Brennan Berardo, for a demonstration, training or assistance.  You may schedule a meeting with Brennan directly from his calendar.

Valpo has WebEX! WebEx is available to all faculty and staff for meetings with internal and external guests, online class meetings, virtual office hours, bringing in guest speakers through video conferencing, etc.  Want to know more?  You may register for an account at webex.valpo.edu and click on the Login button to request your account. Only the host of the meeting needs an account, but can invite external attendees via email from their meeting space. Training videos and more information are available.

Students also have access to WebEx for meetings with group members, connecting to home, speaking with experts in the field, etc.  Students can get their own account at connect.valpo.edu.  They can schedule and start their own meetings outside of class.