AUB’s Academic Computing Center holds open house

President Dorman (center) and Rosangela Silva (left) at station 2

AUB’s Academic Computing Center (ACC) held on April 1 an open house inviting all AUB faculty, students, and staff to check out their new premises and their latest academic computing services.

Last fall, the ACC moved from the dark windowless College Hall basement to a wider location in the annex of Van Dyck Hall. Six display stations were set up for visitors, who included at the open house AUB President Peter Dorman. The first station was a greeting point including snacks and beverages. The second station featured a presentation of the hands-on training activities organized by the ACC, and station three presented Moodle, the official learning management system at AUB, emphasizing its recent integration with Turnitin, the plagiarism prevention tool.

Station four highlighted the multimedia and design unit of the center which promotes the use of multimedia tools for interactive and innovative teaching and learning at AUB. Attendees had the chance to experience hands-on the various computing services at station five, which was equipped with five computers running the ACC’s software programs. The last station included a demonstration of the ACC’s latest addition, Clickers—a new IT learning/teaching tool called Classroom Response System (CRS) which allows students to respond electronically to questions posed by the instructor and immediately tabulates the answers so the instructor learns how much of the lecture the students are getting—or, missing.

“This open house is a chance to celebrate our new location. Our staff is happier and more motivated, and I have felt a change in their approach to work since our move....We decided to put together this open house to advertise further our facilities and introduce the faculty to our new location,” said ACC director Dr. Rosângela Silva.

Samira Maghdessian, Information Services Librarian, who attended the open house, said, “Our department collaborates closely with ACC, and we seek more collaboration whenever we get the chance,” she said.

Assistant professor of business administration Ali Kreim, who joined AUB this year, said, “ACC showed great support in teaching me about Moodle and were very helpful in giving me one on one training sessions and assisting me in integrating Moodle into my classes.”

The visitors of the open house also included AUB alumni such as Dr. Abdel Rahman El Saghir, who left the following audio recording: “Well I’m very happy to be here in this computer center. It seems it’s a very interesting unit. I was a professor at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences from 1964 to 1987 and at our time the computer was a huge unit found in College Hall and it was completely different, so I am very happy that this improvement has taken place at AUB.”

Various visitors praised the efficient and hospitable reception shown by ACC staff members at the opening.