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THE MEREDITH
HERALD
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September 26, 2018
Taking on D.C. as Students from M.C.
By Abigail Ojeda
IN THIS ISSUE
NEWS
Beltline Expansion Update
Voting Local
Sizzilin' September
Classifieds
A&E
Review: Ms. Courageous
Fast Fashion at
Gaddy-Hammerick
Review: Searching
OPINIONS
The Girl Who Cried Thorns
Homophobia in the Realm of
the Angels
California Dreamin'
Brightspace
By Mimi Mays, Associate
Editor
Over the summer of
2018, Meredith broke ties with
Blackboard and joined over 1200
schools, colleges, universities, and
businesses around the world who
use the learning management sys
tem Brightspace. Meredith piloted
some courses on Brightspace start
ing in Spring 2018, led by 59 total
instructors. It was their feedback
that helped facilitate the campus
wide transition later in the year.
As of 2016, Brightspace’s
rate of use by U.S. collegiate insti
tutions fell in fourth place behind
the three most popular learning
management systems: Black
board, used by 33% of institutions;
Moodle, used by 19% of institu
tions; and Canvas, used by 17% of
institutions. In July of 2015, Black
board released a new interface
that excluded colleges who were
self-hosted, like Meredith. “We felt
pushed to adopt a managed hosted
approach (cloud-based),” says
Director of Instructional Design
8c Academic Technology Cheryl
Todd. “The cost of Blackboard’s
managed hosting solution and the
additional costs they charge to add
features that other LMS providers
included in their licenses led us to
consider researching other solu
tions.”
To tackle this task, Mer
edith hired an external consultant
and formed a Learning Manage
ment System Advisory Committee
to examine the full needs of the
On the night of Aug. 20,
proteFrom women’s suffrage to
Hamilton, Meredith Honors students
took over our nation’s capital last
weekend. Every year, Honors
students take a trip to explore a new
city and investigate a specific topic
through a mini-course taught by
a Meredith professor. This year’s
topics focused on the themes of
gerrymandering, the history of
marching on Washington, space
technology and the Cold War,
an important business dinner as
depicted in the musical Hamilton,
and the history of journalism and
news. With plenty of food, walking,
and learning, the Honors trip to D.C.
created a unique take on visiting
Washington.
In the gerrymandering mini
course taught by Dr. Manzo, students
toured the capital building, visited
the office of U.S. Representative
David Price, and learned about
the prevalence of gerrymandering.
Olivia Slack reflected on her time
with the group: “Our experience
was fascinating; meeting with David
Price’s staff assistants was really
insightful because I am considering a
future career in politics. We learned
about conferences for women in
politics and how to build a network
of women in politics that we can
trust.”
Following events in
Washington from the 1963 March on
Washington for Jobs and Freedom
to the 2018 March for Our Lives, Dr.
Robbins’ students learned about
the monumental societal shifts that
instigated marches on D.C. Student
Naomi Hill said; “I think my favorite
faculty, staff and students. They
reviewed the Blackboard features
and determined the most-used as
pects and what would be required
of a new LMS. “Our primary goal
was to identify a suitable LMS that
would efficiently and effectively
support Meredith College, sup
porting face-to-face instruction,
blended/hybrid courses, and online
course and program delivery,” ex
plains Todd.
Desire2Learn, or D2L, the
software company behind Bright
space, reports that the system is
“more than just a [learning man
agement system], combining all
the tools and support you need to
offer a great teaching and learning
experience for students and facul
ty.” However, some professors here
at Meredith may disagree in part.
“There are kinks,” said an SMB
professor who wishes to remain
anonymous, “but it’s hard to tell
whether it’s Brightspace itself or
just how we’ve learned to use it.”
For any hardships, however,
it’s evident that both Meredith and
part about our mini course was the
story we learned at the Belmont-Paul
house. The fact that Alva Belmont
had mugs made that say “vote for
women” shows her intelligence and
commitment to the cause. She shows
that you can have both humor and
strength.”
Dr. Waddelow’s course
focused on events portrayed in
Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical
Hamilton and assessed the music
against historical comparisons and
evaluated the music itself The
group stopped in at Kramerbooks
& Afterwords Cafe, a bookstore and
coffee shopopen Until 3 a.m. on the
weekends, to fuel their learning
experience. Melanie Cusick said, “I
loved being able to discuss one of my
favorite musicals in depth with other
angels!”
Former C.I.A. employee
Dr. Rogers led his mini-course
through the Air and Space Museum
to discover some of the technology
used to propel the United States’
intelligence, power, and exploration.
For example, students saw old and
new versions of astronaut suits—the
newest one consists of thirteen layers.
Haley Parsons, a member of the
group, said, “The mini course with
Dr. Rogers was a great experience. It
brought together people from several
majors, and we were able to view the
spy exhibit to learn about the space
race.”
After monitoring local,
national, and global news sources
for several days and taking two trips
to the Newseum, Dr. Walton’s mini
course focused on the meaning
of news and journalism both in a
historical and present day context.
One room in the Newseum held
archives of the front pages of
newspapers since the days of Martin
Luther. Katie Thompson described
her experience, saying, “While
visiting the Newseum, I was opened
up to the world of news—the sad,
the gruesome and happy stories that
occurred and are occurring all across
our world.”
In their spare time, students
visited art galleries, museums, book
stores, and restaurants. The best
part was that many activities in
Washington D.C. are free, making
them particularly great opportunities
for college students. The next time
you’re in D.C., Honors students
recommend you check out the places
they visited.
D2L are committed to
resolving errors and as
sisting all users maximize
their experiences.
According
to Technology Services,
Meredith is “still using
the Feedback form with
faculty and students to
collect information to
share with D2L with
hopes that it will influ
ence future updates.”
“One of the positive
outcomes that we’ve
experienced throughout
this [transition] process
is that more faculty have
reached out to our team
for assistance with Bright
space and have partici
pated in our workshops,”
guarantees Todd.
At today’s Tech
Fair in the Cate Cen
ter from 9:30 to 3:30,
there will be Technology
Services staff members
addressing student inqui
ries.
Comic by Micah Clark