Class Storage Connection Workaround

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

We are currently experiencing issues with WebDAV connections to Student Storage (stustorage.uww.edu) and Webbe (webbe.uww.edu). While we are working towards a resolution for this problem, there are alternative ways for users to access these sites.

The recommended solution for PC and Mac users is secure FTP. This will work from both on campus and off campus. We have documentation available below for the two supported clients.

Fetch (Mac Only): https://webbe.uww.edu/webstoragedocs/connect-mac-ftp.html
Filezilla (PC or Mac): https://webbe.uww.edu/webstoragedocs/connect-pc-ftp.html

Windows-based campus computers, such as computer lab and office machines, will automatically map both Student Storage and Webbe through drive “U:”. If you are using a Mac on campus, use the secure FTP options listed above.

If you have any additional questions regarding this, please contact the Learning Technology Center.

[RESOLVED] Users Experiencing D2L Login Errors

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

UPDATE (10:00 AM): As of 9:33 AM this morning, Learn@UW has reported that the service should be fully restored after identifying and correcting additional server issues. Users should no longer be experiencing errors while logging into D2L.

UPDATE (9:00 AM): Additional issues have been detected, and Learn@UW is working with Desire2Learn to resolve the problems. Please watch the login page for additional updates.

UPDATE (8:30 AM): The initial login issue has been resolved, and D2L is available. The initial outage started at 7 AM and lasted until 8:30 AM this morning (11/21).

As of approximately 7:23 AM today, users have reported errors while trying to log in to D2L. We’ve reported this to Learn@UW, and their technicians are looking into the problem.

We apologize for the inconvenience. We will be updating this news item as we receive more information.

TurningPoint (“Clickers”) Software Upgrade

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

We recently discovered that the new clickers receivers provided from Turning Technologies will not work with the currently installed version of TurningPoint 2008 (4.3.2). To mitigate this problem, we are going to install the latest point release of TurningPoint 2008 (4.5.1) on all windows based classroom computers beginning at 5pm on Thursday, September 19^th, 2013.

If you are currently using TurningPoint 2008 on an office computer to create presentations for classroom use, you will also need to upgrade those installations to version 4.5.1. This can be done using the steps below:

Make sure that you have PowerPoint completely closed on your computer.
Click on the “Start” icon and locate the “ZENworks Application Window”
Find the application named “TurningPoint 2008 (4.5.1)” and double click it.
Once the installation finishes, you will now have the 4.5.1 version of TurningPoint installed on your machine.

If you are currently using TurningPoint 2008 on a personal computer to create presentations for classroom use, you can download the latest version by going to: http://www.turningtechnologies.com/software/downloadForm.aspx?AssetId=400

The first time you open your existing clicker presentations, you may receive a notification that they need to be updated to the latest version.

Click “Yes” to allow the conversion process, and the rest will be done automatically for you. Be sure to save the presentation after it has been converted.

We are also planning a migration to TurningPoint 5, along with some additional levels of D2L integration. Additional information will be made available at a future date. The upgrade to TurningPoint 5 will NOT take place in the middle of the semester.

If you have any additional questions or concerns regarding this, please contact the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

D2L Slowness Reported

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

Update: The service interruption has now been resolved. Users may have experienced unusual slowness or received errors between approximately 1:18 PM and 2:50 PM this afternoon (September 4th, 2013). If you are still having issues logging into D2L, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

Users have reported intermittent access interruptions, slowness, and some are receiving “Internal Errors”. Users have also reported the inability to log into D2L, either the process times out or an error is displayed. This has been reported to Learn@UW, and their technicians are looking into the issue.

We will update this news item with any new information as we receive it.

Firefox 23 – Mixed Content Handling

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

Mozilla recently released Firefox 23 which introduced a new way of handling “mixed content”. Due to this change, you may experience issues viewing some content that is available in your D2L courses.

What is “mixed content”? Whenever you visit a secure webpage (served over HTTPS), the connection between your computer and the webpage is encrypted to secure your information. When the secure webpage attempts to load content that is not delivered over an encrypted channel – such as images, audio files, video files, and other media – the browser will detected this as “mixed content” and will not display it on the webpage.

How do I disable “mixed content”? When the browser detects “mixed content”, you will notice a “shield” icon that will be displayed directly to the left of the webpage address.

Simply click on the “shield” icon, click the arrow on the drop-down menu and choose “Disable Protection on This Page”.

The “mixed content” will now be displayed correctly. Anytime you load the webpage, you will see a “warning” icon. This simply means that “mixed content” is now being displayed on the page.

If you have any further questions regarding this, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

Manage Dates Tool in D2L

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

The Learning Technology Center (LTC) has added a new D2L Mini Session featuring the Manage Dates tool in Desire2Learn (D2L) .

The Manage Dates tool enables instructors to view a list of objects in your course and edit their date availability values all on one page. This includes content, discussions, dropbox, grades, news, and quizzes.

The video can be viewed below and can also be viewed on our YouTube channel.

If you have any questions about the Manage Dates Tool, please Contact UW-W D2L Support.

[RESOLVED] D2L “Term Not Found” Errors

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

Updated: The service issues have now been resolved. Users may have received Term Not Found errors between approximately 7:00 and 8:00 a.m this morning (8/15/2013). Any additional questions or concerns may be sent to D2L-Support.

Some users have been reporting receiving “Term Not Found” errors while working in D2L. This has been reported to Learn@UW, and technicians will be looking into getting this corrected. Thank you for your patience while this is being investigated.

eTextbooks Available for D2L

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

Are your students currently purchasing books or supplemental materials for your course? If so, you may want to check out our eTextbook partner, CourseSmart. At this time textbooks located in campus textbook rental are not eligible for this service.

CourseSmart is the largest provider of eTextbooks and digital course materials. eTextbooks are discounted up to 60% off the purchase price of the print versions. It allows for anytime, anywhere online or offline access to digital course materials for students and faculty. With eTextbooks, faculty have the ability to apply notes, highlight important text areas, add annotations, as well as assign notes to highlighted text to any books that are added to the digital bookshelf. D2L@UWW is currently setup to offer direct integration to eTextbooks with CourseSmart.

If you are interested in using CourseSmart eTextbooks for your Summer or Fall 2013 course, please Contact D2L Support.

Using the “Burn” Application with iMovie

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

Apple no longer supports iDVD and will no longer include this software package as a part of their suite. Since iDVD is no longer being supported, we have come up with a 3^rd party freeware solution with an application called Burn. To download and learn how to use this application in place of iDVD please see: Using Burn with iMovie.

If you have any questions about this, please contact UW-W Learning Technology Center.

Problematic PDFs in Firefox 19.0 and Newer

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

The latest versions of Mozilla Firefox, beginning with version 19.0 contain a new built-in PDF viewer. If you run into issues viewing PDF content from Desire2Learn in Firefox there are a few workarounds listed below:

Use a different web browser
Download the PDF and open it with a program on your computer
Disable the Firefox PDF viewer

Please view this webpage for more details and information on the workarounds.

If you have any questions or concerns, please Contact D2L Support.

LTC Instructional Resources

Author Archives: Aaron Axelsen