FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                          April 5, 2006

NORTHWESTERN FACULTY MEMBERS NOW HAVE USE OF LIVETEXT SOFTWARE

            A new software program designed to make faculty evaluations easier and more streamlined is now available for Northwestern faculty members.

            LiveText,  the same software used by education students to assemble digital portfolios, can now be accessed and used by faculty members to develop e-portfolios to be used in the evaluation process.

            Dr. Louise VanOsdol, associate professor of business and a member of the LiveText team at Northwestern, said e-portfolios make the evaluation process much easier by eliminating the passing of one copy of a paper-based portfolio from one evaluator to the next and from one administrator to the next.

            LiveText access is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through its web site, www.livetext.com. LiveText accepts all types of documentation, including Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, html documents, videos, hyperlinks to Web sites, scanned documents and photos, etc.

            VanOsdol said LiveText provides a portfolio template that includes the five major sections (with their subsections) of the current faculty evaluation form.

            She added that the assessment process is becoming increasingly important in response to accreditation standards and LiveText creates an improved reporting methodology for North Central Association requirements, as well as for the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and other accreditation agencies. When portfolios are shared and evaluated, LiveText collects data for the generation of reports.

            The next faculty evaluation period is the fall semester of 2006. The non-tenured faculty in the Education and Business, E-Commerce and Agriculture departments will use LiveText to create and submit their portfolios. The tenured faculty is encouraged to use the program. Eventually, all departments will use LiveText exclusively to create and share portfolios.

            VanOsdol said dates and times for training in LiveText will be announced later this spring. In the meantime, anyone with questions should contact her at ext. 8507 or livanosdol@nwosu.edu, or other members of the LiveText team: Dr. Mark Denton, director of assessment, ext. 8148 or mmhdenton@nwosu.edu; Dr. Rodney Murrow, director of graduate studies, at 8589 or rcmurrow@nwosu.edu; or Dr. Beverly Warden, director of teacher education at ext. 8450 or bjwarden@nwosu.edu.

-NW-

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