On 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.

Dear 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

The D2L eGrading process allows instructors to transfer final grades from their D2L Gradebook to their WINS Grade Roster in a few simple steps. This process is currently open and available for instructors to transfer their semester grades from D2L to WINS.

For more information on how to use this process, please see the following Instructional Resources wiki pages:

• Step 1: Configure your gradebook’s final grade
• Step 2: Export from D2L
• Step 3: Accept grades in WINS
• Frequently Asked Questions

We also have a video available to guide you through the first two steps:

If you need additional assistance with your Gradebook or if you have eGrading questions, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

We’ve received a notice from Learn@UW, and they have confirmed the dates for the upcoming version 10.1 D2L upgrade. The upgrade is scheduled from January 8th, 2014 at 9:30 PM to January 9th, 2014 at 10:30 AM (all times CT). During this upgrade, D2L will NOT be available.

This outage and upgrade will greatly affect Winterim courses, so please plan your course work accordingly. It is also suggested that you end any dropboxes, quizzes, or other deadlines a half hour before the outage’s start time (i.e., 9:00 PM CT) if there are items due on that day.

The major change with this upgrade will be to the Content tool and its interface. We will be posting “What’s New” documents and videos with more details once we get closer to the upgrade window. If you have questions or concerns, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

This morning, Thursday, November 21st, Desire2Learn Inc. deployed Service Pack 15 and Service Pack 16 to our D2L learning environment.

In addition to the fixed issues listed below, this update includes a hotfix for the intermittent issues we’ve been having with accessing Quizzes. Users should no longer receive Internal Errors when trying to access the Quizzes tool in a D2L course.

ePortfolio: eP items submitted to Dropbox now display correctly when reviewed in Dropbox for org units that have names containing an ampersand “&” character.

Discussions: When a Discussion post contains a quicklink and a notification email is sent for that post, the quicklink now correctly navigates to the linked item.

Quizzes:

• Export to CSV now correctly exports unanswered questions.
• Students now have a drop-down list for ordering questions instead of manually entering entries into a text box.

Web Framework and HTML Editor:

• Embedded Flash content now displays correctly in Chrome and Safari even when the right-click options menu is disabled.
• Users can now enter HTML5 elements into the HTML Editor.
• YouTube videos embedded through Insert Stuff now use a secure protocol to allow them to work regardless of web server security.
• You can now also insert YouTube videos through Insert Stuff using a secure protocol, which allows them to work whether the web server is secure or not.
• Users can now refresh a quiz page in any supported browser without causing main action buttons to disappear.
• iPad users are now able to submit quizzes if dialogs are set to open as pop-ups.

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

This morning, Thursday, October 24th, Desire2Learn Inc. deployed Service Pack 14 to our D2L learning environment.

The following fixes were included in the service pack:

• Performance improvements were made in the Email address book to make it quicker at selecting recipients and adding them to an email.
• Quicklinks in notifications generated by News items now correctly navigate to each quicklink item.

A hotfix was also applied during this update that corrects the issue that was blocking users from adding participants with the “batch file” option. If you’ve previously used this option but were unable to do so during this semester, you should be able to do so now.

Mixed content handling in Firefox and Chrome is still an issue, especially for courses that have links to external resources. We wrote about this previously on our blog, and you can view that post for more information.

As a reminder, the Notifications feature has been enabled starting this semester. This feature allows users to receive notifications on several different tools to either their email or to their phone. For more information, please see our blog post on the Notifications feature.

Also, for interested faculty and staff, the D2L Ignite Regional User Forum is still accepting registrations. For more information on the conference and a link to the registration, please see this blog post.

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