Author Archives: Aaron Axelsen

ePortfolio Meeting – April 7th, 10:00am

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AC7O6330Are you interested in learning more about ePortfolio use on campus? If so, please join us from 10:00–11:00am on Friday, April 7 in McGraw 19A to hear updates on the exploration and discuss benefits, challenges, and aspirations for ePortfolio use on campus.  Faculty, staff, and students are all welcome!

Background
A student’s time at UWW is much more than just grades–it’s about experiences. During their time at UWW, students participate in general education, educational experiences specific to their major (culminating signature work), honors, co-curriculars, extracurriculars, aspects related to LEAP, 21st century skills, and engage with the real world (e.g, practicums, internships, etc.) that aim to make them educated citizens and market-ready for their chosen career path. How can we enable them to capture and document their experiences in a variety of meaningful ways (e.g., papers, images, multimedia projects, blogs, etc.), reflect on them thoughtfully tracking their growth over time, and have them assessed by the institution as a way of showing evidence of meeting core learning objectives?

Why ePortfolio?
In Summer 2016, AAC&U officially endorsed ePortfolio as the 11th High Impact Practice (HIP). According to George Kuh (2016), “With the assistance of prods and comments from faculty, staff, and peers, the ePortfolio helps make learning visible to students themselves, to their peers and faculty, and to external audiences. As a result, the process induces students to develop deeper, more meaningful understandings of how and why their learning has changed how they think and how they can transfer what they have learned to different settings and circumstances.” Further, ePortfolio has been described as the “meta-HIP” as it allows for the collecting, reflecting, and showcasing the HIPs that impact student learning (e.g., writing-intensive courses, collaborative assignments and projects, global learning, community-based learning, undergraduate research, internships, etc.).

Therefore, an integrative ePortfolio approach may help students “to integrate their learning–across general education, majors, and the co-curriculum, as well as prior professional, academic, and life experiences inside and outside of the classroom” (AAC&U, 2017, para. 1). Further, ePortfolio can be a wonderful way for students to showcase their experiences to the institution, future employers, and others who support them.

Want More Information?
Contact Kelly Delaney-Klinger (delaneyk@uww.edu)  or Nicole Weber (webern@uww.edu)

Respondus Lockdown Browser Update

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CaptureWe have deployed an additional enhancement to the Respondus Lockdown Browser for the Spring semester.  In previous versions, students needed to open the Lockdown Browser separately, login, and browse to the quiz.  Now, there is an easy way!

In any browser, the students will see a “Launch LockDown Browser” button on configured quizzes.  When they click the button, the Lockdown Browser will launch, and students will automatically be logged in and taken directly to the quiz in D2L.  This helps improve the user experience for the student.  If LockDown Browser is not installed, a message will be displayed telling them to download it from the above link.

Student facing documentation has been updated to reflect the change.  These documents can be found at: LockDown Browser: Getting Started (Students).

If you have any questions about this change, please contact UW-W Desire2Learn Support.

Spring 2017 Updates from the Learning Technology Center

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Over the last year, the Learning Technology Center has been hard at work refining our mission.  The full mission statement can be found on our website: http://www.uww.edu/icit/ltc/ltc-mission-statement

WE BELIEVE in integrating pedagogy and technology to assist instructors in developing effective learning experiences.

WE SUPPORT instructors in their pursuit of excellence in teaching and student learning.

WE INNOVATE with instructors by initiating emerging technology exploration projects that investigate learning technology trends in higher education.

WE CONNECT people on campus and beyond who have the same interests and are doing the same things to create community among instructors.

WE PARTNER collaborate, and communicate with colleges, programs, departments, instructors, and tech-liaisons to understand and meet university instructional needs.

WE LEAD learning technology initiatives and extend expertise to campus wide initiatives.

The UW-Whitewater Learning Technology Center (LTC) is here and ready to help you! Our team of experts have a wide range of skills to tackle all of your instructional course related needs.

New LTC Website

Along with the updated mission statement, we also revamped our website to better align with the new mission.

webbyThe LTC Team. Do you want to know who makes up the LTC and some fun facts about them?  Put a face to that name and check out our new LTC Team page.

Quality Services. The list of service offerings on campus may be overwhelming at times.  We put together a simple list of our supported services all in one place, with links to easily view more information about them.

Timely Assistance.  We may not be here 24/7, but we do have resources that are available at all hours of the night.

Emerging Technology Exploration Projects.  We are always looking for the next best thing, and watching trends to see what’s on the horizon.  See what we are up to this semester!

Creating Community.  No one likes to sit around alone, in the dark, struggling on their own.  Our goal is to create communities and enable users to work together to collaborate on new approaches and ideas.

Cutting Edge Programming.  Things change every day, so we do our best to offer workshops and events to keep everyone up to speed on the current education technology and trends.

Head on over to the site ( http://ltc.uww.edu ) and check it out.  Feedback is always welcome!

LTC Staffing

degenWe are happy to welcome Shane Degen into the LTC family.  Shane was hired back in October of 2016 in the role of Learning Management System Admin and Student Advocate (aka D2L Admin).  Shane is a UW-Whitewater Alum and has extensive experience with online education and D2L.  Welcome Shane!

The LTC is actively recruiting for a new Learning Technology Specialist Position.  This position will allow us to further our exploration of emerging technology and also provide additional support related to pedagogy and instructional technology.  More information on the position is available at: https://my.uww.edu/employment/jobs/LTC12782.html

The LTC is also hiring for the Technology Promotion and Adoption Specialist Position.  This position will work with departments to understand technology needs and promote technology adoption to meet those needs. More information on this position is available at: https://my.uww.edu/employment/jobs/12680.html

Weekly Email Updates

figure3_4Did you know that you can get a weekly email update about what’s going on in the LTC? Every Monday morning, you’ll get an email that contains a summary of the latest items from our blog. To sign up for these updates, just fill out the form below!

Spring Book Group

The LTC will be holding a book group this spring.  Motivating and Retaining Online Students is a research-based book which provides effective online strategies that help minimize student dropout, increase student retention, and support student learning.  This group will include an opportunity to interact with one of the authors, allowing participants the chance to learn from her experience.

Meeting Time: Tuesdays 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Meeting Dates: January 31, February 14, February 28, March 24, March 28 & April 11

Register at: https://my.uww.edu/signup/Registration/Details/14953

Upcoming Events

Check your calendars and save the date!  We have a number of events coming up this semester that you won’t want to miss!

  • Celebrating Teaching and Learning: Strategies that Transform Educational Experiences and Enhance Student Success. Save the date:  Thursday, May 18 from 8:30am-4:30pm. This special forum is meant to showcase the wide variety of ways we are all transforming the lives of our students through teaching and learning.  It will include break-out presentations, discussions, and a keynote address.
  • Summer 2017 Institute for Online/Blended. This highly interactive workshop demonstrates teaching best practices using a variety of teaching methods and technology tools.  The structure of this course not only allows you to explore new teaching and course design methods, but it also enables you to participate in activities that provide you with experience in being an online “student.” Applications will be available in early February.
  • Discussion Basics. This LEARN/LTC workshop series is focused on how instructors might most effectively utilize discussion in our courses (both face-to-face and online).  The first session (2/16) is on discussion basics – core principles and purpose of discussions as well as sharing strategies and tips for more effective discussions.  The next sessions will focus on difficult discussions (3/8) and discussions conducted in D2L (4/13).- a collaboration with the Learn Center.

LTDC Virtual Showcase – Save the Date

2017SaveTheDate3c-1Save the Date! The UW System Learning Technology Development Council (LTDC) Showcase 2017 will be held virtually April 4-5, 2017.  This year’s theme is Humanizing Learning.

This virtual conference offers an opportunity for sharing your successes and challenges in teaching with technology. This conference will provide you with the opportunity to virtually connect with other practitioners and requires neither travel expense nor a significant time commitment.

Watch our blog for updates once the showcase schedule is released!

Course Repository

icit-ltc-course-repoStarting with the Spring 2017 semester, we launched a new storage offering called Course Repository – aka Course Repo.  Course Repo is designed to offer classwork specific storage on a per semester basis.  Specialty course storage by request is also available.

The idea behind this storage offering is to offer an easy way for a course to collaborate that has unique file storage needs which cannot be met by other existing storage solutions.

Course Repo is a replacement for some old storage offerings which some of you may have known as student storage or class storage.

Documentation and training materials are available on the website: Course Repo.

If you are interested in having a repo setup for your spring 2017 courses, contact the Learning Technology Center to schedule a consultation and we’ll make sure it’s the right solution for you!

Turnitin Dropbox Dates

Since the D2L Upgrade last summer, we have been made aware of an ongoing issue that is impacting how Turnitin works inside of the Dropbox.

Some users may be receiving a message reading “Error communicating with Turnitin.  Try to resubmit the file.  If this issue persists, contact your administrator”.

tii-logoIf you are seeing this error message, please make sure that you have both a start date AND end date set on your Dropbox in Desire2Learn.  Once you have set the start and end date, the issue should be resolved and you can resubmit the file.

Desire2Learn is working on a solution to this problem, however at this time we don’t have any information on when it will be released.  Until then, hang tight and remember to set a start and end date on your dropbox!

More information on this issue is available at: Turnitin Date Management within D2L.

Respondus Lockdown Browser Update

CaptureWe have deployed an additional enhancement to the Respondus Lockdown Browser for the Spring semester.  In previous versions, students needed to open the Lockdown Browser separately, login, and browse to the quiz.  Now, there is an easy way!

In any browser, the students will see a “Launch LockDown Browser” button on configured quizzes.  When they click the button, the Lockdown Browser will launch, and students will automatically be logged in and taken directly to the quiz in D2L.  This helps improve the user experience for the student.  If LockDown Browser is not installed, a message will be displayed telling them to download it from the above link.

Student facing documentation has been updated to reflect the change.  These documents can be found at: LockDown Browser: Getting Started (Students).

Exploration: New Technologies

shutterstock_382942804We have been exploring a number of cool technologies and have some new things for you to try out!

  • Pattern. A few UW-Whitewater classes are testing a tool called Pattern in the spring semester of 2017.  Pattern is a tool to help students track and measure your learning patterns, providing analytics and insights to become better learners.  The tool allows users to track how they spend time in and out of the classroom, and provides a personalized visualization of their data.
  • Desire2Learn Intelligent Agents. The Intelligent Agents tool allows instructors to have D2L email students who meet Release Conditions in their course.
  • Desire2Learn Awards Tool. The Awards tool allows instructors to provide students with non-grade incentive to meet short term goals through the creation and distribution of awards.

Need Desire2Learn Help?

We are here to help you with all your Desire2Learn (D2L) course needs! The best way to request support is by using our online support form which is located at http://d2l.uww.edu/contact

shutterstock_110236751

We do our best to respond to all support requests within 1 business day of receiving them. We do monitor the box on evenings and weekends for critical issues on a best effort basis.

Don’t forget to request for spring semester courses! Course creation must be completed every semester, and it is a manual process on our end. Courses created by 3pm on business days are typically available the next day. Request for your courses at http://my.uww.edu/d2lrequest

Don’t forget to Visit Us

Are you still with us? If so – great, you made it to the end!  Did you know the LTC employs a former kids train conductor, a guitarist, a first time college grad in the family, an Eagle Scout, a former EMT and a brewmaster?  If you didn’t then you haven’t explored the website enough.  Go look at it now! http://ltc.uww.edu Be sure to stop by the LTC throughout the semester to visit. As a reminder, we are located in McGraw Hall, Suite 120 and are around between 8:00 AM and 4:30 PM weekdays. We can also be reached at ltc@uww.edu or 262.472.1004. We’ll always be willing to help, and have plenty of treats on hand for your sweet tooth. Have a great semester!

Access Issues with Rev Streaming Videos

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Known IssuesCurrently, we are aware of an access issue that is impacting some videos that are hosted on VBrick Rev (http://streaming.uww.edu).

The issue is currently impacting the playback of “private” videos that have course specific access configured.  At this time, the only work around would be to change the access level of the video to “All Users”.  We are working towards a resolution and will post an update once the issue has been resolved.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this issue is causing.  Please contact UW-W D2L Support if you have any questions about this issue.

The UWW Academic Innovation Snowbox: A Space for Collaboration and Creativity

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snowflakeCan you name one needed change that will advance student learning? Develop your idea, find partners, and write a formal proposal all in one day! Make January 20th a day of real change.

Higher education has always innovated at the intersection of precarities like economic hardship, gender, race, age, while also pursuing the development of public discourse that is predicated on educational outcomes aimed at empowering graduates for success. This Snowbox, or winter sandbox activity, is a place for broad-based collaborative engagements among faculty, academic staff, administration, and students, to catalyze and sustain a culture of Academic Innovation that relates high impact practices to our core principles such as inclusive excellence. The forecast is for a flurry of ideas!

The outcome of this blizzard of activity will be the formation of teams focused upon innovative problem solving in each of the following areas:

  • Reduce students’ time to degree,
  • Reduce equity gaps,
  • Reduce barriers to creative solutions,
  • Foster greater student learning,
  • Create new opportunities for students to engage with contemporary
    content and issues using high impact practices.

Each participant in the Snowbox workshop will receive a $100 stipend for the day, provided by the Provost. By the end of the day we expect a snowstorm of ideas and each person will be eligible to apply for the first cohort of the Academic Innovation Summer Institute 2017 (bring your sunscreen!).

Friday January 20, 8:30-4:00 pm
To register for the Snowbox: https://my.uww.edu/signup/Registration/Details/14964
Register before January 10, space is limited.

If you have any questions, contact David Reinhart, Academic Innovation Coordinator; reinhard@uww.edu.

Desire2Learn Scheduled Maintenance – January 5th, 2017 (UPDATED)

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Winterim Instructors: On Thursday, January 5th, 2017 there will be scheduled infrastructure maintenance taking place between 8am and 11am.  During this time, Desire2Learn will not be available.  The scheduled work is not expected to take the entire time, and access will be restored as soon as possible after the work has been completed.

As you are working on and preparing your winterim courses, please adjust your course assignments and due dates accordingly.

If you have any questions about this outage, please contact UW-W Desire2Learn Support.

Group Project Rooms for Students

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Need a room for a group project? Collaboratory meeting rooms are available for 3-6 students to work on group projects in Andersen General Access Lab, L1008.

Rooms are equipped with:

  • A desktop computer with the same software as a lab computer
  • A projector connected to the desktop computer
  • A SMART Board for projection and collaborative note-taking

Reserve one of the Collaboratory meeting rooms (L1008D, L1008E, L1008F, L1008G, L1008H ) from the comfort of your home through http://www.uww.edu/reserve. See lab attendant upon arrival.

If you have any questions regarding this, please call 262.472.1234.

VBrick Rev Service Update (11/25)

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On Friday, November 25, ICIT will be deploying the VBrick Rev 7.12 update to our environment between 7am and 2pm.  During this time, the Rev system (http://streaming.uww.edu) will not be available. With no classes scheduled, Friday was chosen as the optimal window to minimize disruption to the campus

In this latest update, the following fixes and enhancements will be included:

  • (New) Bulk Video Editing and Deleting.  Users can now bulk edit video access settings, video status, video categories, video tags and video settings.  Users can also bulk delete videos.
  • (New) Ability to set content Publish Date.  Inactive videos can now have a “Publish Date” configured.  The video will be automatically set to “Active” on the selected date.
  • (New) Ability to set content Expiration Date.  Active videos can now have a “Expiration Date” configure.  The video can either be set to inactive or deleted upon expiration.
  • (New) Ability to replace a video file.  This allows the file to be updated without needing to replace links or update embed code.  This can be done by any user that has “Edit” access to the video.
  • (New) Playlists can now be shared with users.  Previously, playlists were only visible by the user who created them.
  • (New) Responsive Embed Code.  There is a new “Responsive” option when generating the video embed code.  Using this option is recommended and will allow the video to automatically scale for the best possible user experience.
  • (New) Variable Speed Playback.  Users can now play videos at 1.0x, 1.25x, 1.5x and 2.0x speeds.  This feature is only supported in the HTML5 player and may not currently work in all browsers.
  • (Update) Redesigned Usage Reports.  Video reports on the video play form have been redesigned.
  • (Fixed) Audio/Video sync issue has been corrected on some videos when using Chrome or Firefox on PC or Mac.
  • (Fixed) An issue impacting multicast video playback using the Edge browser on Windows 10 has been corrected.
  • (Fixed) Corrected an issues where embedded videos were not playing in Safari & Internet Explorer 9/10 browser when set to All Users or Private access.

If you have any questions or concerns about this update, please contact the Learning Technology Center.