Instructional Technology

Areeda 410
is@law.harvard.edu
Fax: 617.495.5002

ITS resources are available to support faculty with tools and techniques to design, develop, and integrate instructional technologies into the teaching and learning process. Services include training, consultation, course management software, other web-based tools, and the Presidential Instructional Technology Fellows program. Please contact Instructional Technology Services within ITS directly at is@law.harvard.edu with questions on any of the services listed below or the faculty technology support line at 6.9025.

Teaching with Technology
MyHLS (Course Management System)
Presidential Instructional Technology Fellows Program
Training and Consulting
- Semester Start-Up Classes for MyHLS
- Consultation and Collaboration
CALI (Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction)
Copyright and Digital Course Materials
InfoAdvantage
Faculty Research Portals

Teaching with Technology

The MyHLS Course Management System provides a powerful suite of tools for administering courses and teaching with the Web. Instructional Technology Services provides year-round consulting designed to serve the variety of needs and interests of the HLS faculty. An array of tools and services are available to faculty and teaching staff. Faculty and teaching staff are invited to e-mail is@law.harvard.edu with ideas and suggestions.

Funds and resources are available for faculty and teaching staff who wish to extend the functionality of MyHLS or have learning technology project ideas that will enhance the student learning experience. Faculty are encouraged to submit a course-related project proposal to our PITF program. The Provost's Content and Innovation Funds offer faculty additional opportunities for implementing learning technology projects.

MyHLS Course Management System

The MyHLS Course Management System (http://myhls.law.harvard.edu) allows faculty and their assistants to easily maintain a course Web site. Course shells are created by default for all credit-based HLS courses and class enrollments are updated several times per hour throughout the academic year. One-on-one assistance on the use of your course Web site for teaching is provided to faculty through ITS for faculty. Classes are provided at the beginning of each semester for faculty assistants. Faculty with questions about MyHLS should contact the Faculty Technology Support line. Online help and tutorials can also be found on the iCommons Help Page and here.

Presidential Instructional Technology Fellows Program

The Presidential Instructional Technology Fellows (PITF) program recruits and trains Harvard undergraduate and graduate fellows (students) to work with faculty to develop digital course materials. HLS PITFs are deployed and supported by Instructional Technology Services and typically work either for the summer or for the academic year. During the summer, PITFs typically are more project based while also working on course Web site development and enhancement. During the academic year, PITFs typically are more course focused working directly with faculty on immediate teaching needs. Teaching Fellows often make ideal course PITFs and we encourage faculty to contact us about using TFs accordingly. You can find more information and applications here: Program Description.

Training and Consulting

Instructional Technology Services offers training and consulting throughout the calendar year designed to serve the wide array of needs and skill levels of faculty and teaching staff who wish to use specific learning technologies or the Web in their teaching, or who have general questions about using technology to enhance student learning, improve communication, or to facilitate the logistics of managing a class. We offer beginning of the semester classes each term and are available throughout the year for individual consulting and needs analysis.

Semester Start-Up Classes

At the beginning of each term, Instructional Technology Services holds several classes during the first few weeks of the semester for HLS faculty and teaching staff who are interested in learning more about MyHLS and how best to leverage its tools and functions. These classes are designed to introduce participants to MyHLS and several policies, procedures and best practices. Participants will leave the class with an understanding of the MyHLS tool set, best practices for using them and the policies and procedures for creating course shells and maintaining enrollments. Participants should bring their Harvard University ID and PIN to all classes. The class schedule will be distributed via e-mail to faculty and teaching staff and posted to this web site in June/July and October/November of each year.

Consultation and Collaboration

Faculty often envision a way to deploy a specific learning technology, extend the functionality of a course web site, or simply want to know how technology may help them in their teaching. Instructional Technology Services fields inquiries from faculty and teaching staff throughout the year on these and all aspects of teaching with technology. We regularly meet with faculty and teaching staff to discuss challenges and needs and how technology may help mitigate or eliminate them. We will work with faculty to develop a project proposal, when appropriate, and work closely with the project team to guide and support the project through to completion.

CALI(Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction)

The Law School is a founding member of the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI). Through the Law School's membership in CALI, faculty may make use of computer-based tutorials in dozens of legal subject areas, use CALI authoring tools to create their own computer-based lessons, and attend conferences for law school computing. See http://www.cali.org for additional information or contact Instructional Technology Services with questions.

Copyright and Digital Course Materials

With the proliferation of digital course materials, faculty should be familiar with the University's policy regarding use of copyrighted material.

InfoAdvantage

Instructional Technology Services and the HLS Research Librarians have collaborated to create the InfoAdvantage service. The goal of InfoAdvantage is to bring library e-resources closer to your students. Within your course Web site you will find library e-resources that have been designed for the subject area of your course. The Librarians maintain this content centrally and are available if you would like to further customize this content for your course specifically.

Faculty Research Portals

Instructional Technology Services and the HLS Research Librarians have collaborated to provide faculty with customized faculty research portals. The research portal provides faculty with one location from which content related to your research is accessible. The Research Librarians will work with faculty to build links to resources and documents. The portal provides faculty anywhere, anytime access to their research resources.