Are you getting excited about the upcoming academic term? Are you looking for new things to use in the classroom or trying to find your old favorites on VIPEr? VIPEr’s Team Bug has something that might help!

This BITeS post is not actually about my favorite teaching materials on VIPEr, but it is about your favorites. A few months ago VIPEr rolled out some new features that allow you to tag learning objects as “My Favorites” and to indicate that “I Have Used This” learning object in the classroom. We would like you to use these new features, especially here at the beginning of the semester/trimester/quarter, so that these new features become more useful for all of us.

“My Favorites” allows you to bookmark VIPEr materials for future use. You can pick out the things that you have used in the past or just find some things that you would like to use in the future. You can then come back and revisit them when it comes time to write an exam, create a problem set, or do a presentation on a particular topic. “I Have Adopted This” allows you to share with the community that you have in fact done that!  The number of favorites and adoptions are visible on the “My Notes” section of each learning object.

So why would you want to use these features? There is both a selfish and a selfless answer to that question. You can selfishly find all the materials you’ve marked in this way--if you go to the left menu, you will find the labeled “My Content” section where you can access both of these lists any time you like. As a member of the VIPEr community you can also selflessly give back by using these features. The author of the learning object will be able to tell how many people have used their teaching materials and how many people have found them helpful. They might even be able to use this information in future personnel reviews! By sharing this information about how you use the site, you are also letting other VIPEr users know which learning objects might be useful for them to check out in the future.

The Leadership Council would like to encourage all VIPEr users to be more active in our community the New Year. If you can spend just 10 or 15 minutes this week going through and identifying your favorite learning objects and letting the VIPEr community know which ones you’ve used in the classroom, you will help all of us! Stay tuned for even more ways to be an active VIPEr participant in the New Year.