Author Archives: Susan Degen

Annual D2L Course Cleanup Process

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D2L-ZipIn order to maintain optimal storage capacity and ensure the ongoing smooth operation of D2L, a purge of older courses from the system is conducted annually by the UW System Utility.

We’ve begun to prepare for this year’s D2L Course Cleanup process that will take place on Friday, May 2nd, 2014. On May 2nd, 2014, courses from Fall 2010 through Summer 2011 will be purged from the D2L system. Instructors with one or more D2L courses slated to be purged were contacted via email on Monday, March 3rd.

The D2L Course Cleanup resources site is available with more information on the Cleanup process and instructions on how to export course materials and student data.

If you have any questions or concerns about the D2L Course Cleanup process or need assistance, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

Desire2Learn Service Update (2/27)

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Desire2Learn logoOn Thursday, February 27th, Desire2Learn Inc. deployed Service Pack 14 to our D2L learning environment.

In addition to the fixed issues listed below, this update includes a hotfix for several performance fixes including quiz query performance and delayed or problematic launching of external learning tools.

Content:

  • External links now open correctly in a new tab or window when they are accessed from the Content Browser widget.
  • When inserting a URL Quicklink into a Content item, insecure content links (http) now automatically convert to secure links (https) or are set to open as external links in a new window to help mitigate blocked content errors caused by browser security changes.
  • Adobe Presenter package in Content Viewer now maintains the viewing window size and no longer increases unnecessarily.
  • When using a larger font size, user-generated content now renders correctly without text overlap.
  • Frames now size correctly within Learning Environment webpages.

HTML Editor: When using Internet Explorer 9, the browser no longer crashes when users use the HTML Editor.

Dropbox: An error message no longer displays to users when they view Dropbox due date notifications in the Minibar.

ePortfolio: Changing item sharing visibility now works correctly at the org level.

Course Package Converter:

  • Content files no longer contain broken links when using the course conversion service for Blackboard 9.1 packages.
  • Descriptions for Content objects (i.e., modules and topics) now convert correctly for Blackboard 9.1 course packages.
  • Support was added for converting Significant Figures question types in WebCT packages.

If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

2014 UW System Survey of Online Teaching, Learning and Services

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Question Mark IconDear Faculty and Instructional Academic Staff Members,

The UW System Learn@UW Executive Committee is currently conducting a survey about teaching and learning technologies. The survey is one of the most effective channels to provide feedback on your needs regarding our Learning Management System (D2L), related instructional technologies, and the services that support your use of the technologies.

This survey is open through March 7, 2014 and will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. Your responses are anonymous.

Many of you completed a similar survey in 2005, 2007 and 2010.  The results from the previous surveys have been extremely helpful to the Learn@UW Executive Committee and UW System in the budget and support planning for the Learning Management Service and future instructional technology needs. Survey results also help to identify potential issues with current technologies and assess the quality of support provided. Results are also shared with individual campuses.

To access the survey, please use the following link: http://tinyurl.com/mjvpkwn

Thank you in advance for your feedback.  Your time and effort in completing this survey is much appreciated.

UW System Learn@UW Exec Committee