The Instructional Media Lab: Help for Instructors

Come to the OIT Academic Computing Instructional Media Lab and get help with your instructional technology needs from some of the most knowledgeable (and patient) people you will ever meet.

Hours and Contact Information

Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Phone: 545-2823

Email: instruct@oit.umass.edu

Location: A205 LGRC.

Appointments are available in up to 2-hour blocks most weekdays. Drop-ins are welcome on a space-available basis. For more information, including a faculty events calendar, see Teaching with Technology: Services for Instructors.

Services and Facilities

• Assistance with course sites: Get introduced to Moodle for an easy-to-make course site that can include sophisticated communications tools, or use the Blogs at UMass Amherst service to build a public course Web site that is easy to create and update.
• Audience Response Systems (ARS): Instructors can learn to use i>clicker, a new audience response system, to engage students and promote interaction in large classes.
• Media capture and editing: Learn how to capture, edit, and deliver video or audio for your students over the Web or on disc media (cd & DVD burners available). Take advantage of our sensitive microphones and cameras to capture audio and video for instructional uses. Use our video conversion rack to capture clips or convern from one media to another (VHS/PAL or NTSC, miniDV, Hi8, DVD, Blu-Ray).
• Lecture capture: Learn how to use Camtasia and other technologies for recording in our sound-dampening recording room. 
• File conversions: Convert Word documents to PDF, PowerPoint to PDF or HTML, and more. Save images in Web-friendly formats. We have readers for most popular digital camera cards (CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, IBM Microdrive, MultiMediaCards, & SD Cards).
• Scanning images & text: Learn how to get the best results when scanning images, without creating unwieldy, gargantuan files. Learn to get the best results when scanning text documents. Scanners available: slide scanner (35mm), flatbed, and sheet-fed document scanner (8.5x11) with character recognition.
• Exploring Technologies: If you have a new tool in mind, we will help you learn the basics and figure out how best to use it to meet your goals. If you have a goal in mind, but aren't sure if there is a tool that can help, we'll review the options with you and see if there is something out there that can help.
• Building Confidence: Not everyone loves fiddling with technology.If you get stuck, or aren't sure how best to use a tool, we're here to help. Our goal is to build your confidence and get you to a place where you can use a tool and have it help, not hinder, your work as a teacher.
• Emerging technologies: Learn about the latest tools being explored for teaching. We'll help you review what the tool can do and if it will help you meet your goals.