Category Archives: Announcements & News

Announcements and news on technologies

Webex Update (9/15/2020) – Breakout Sessions!

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On Tuesday, September 15, Cisco will deploy additional updates to Webex Meetings. The highlights of these additional features are below. Full release notes are also available. 

Video Breakout Sessions in Webex Meetings
Breakout sessions allow you to place your meeting participants into smaller groups to collaborate and share ideas. Inside of the breakout session is like being in a smaller meeting, complete with audio and video where participants can collaborate and share content, or even ask the host for help from the main session. For more details, you can explore these capabilities in depth. UWW users may have up to 100 breakout sessions per meeting with a maximum of 1,000 meeting participants.

To sign up for a training session on Breakouts please see our calendar.

Be sure anyone participating in a Webex Meeting on a mobile phone or mobile device updates the app on their device. While they will be able to join the meeting, they will not be able to go into a breakout session until they update the app. UWW owned devices will automatically update, but student apps and devices may not.

View of Breakout session tool within Webex Meetings

In-Meeting Cohost Role
As a meeting host, you can now assign other meeting participants as cohosts. Cohosts share your host-level privileges like muting and unmuting other participants, moving participants to or admitting participants from the lobby, and more!

You can assign cohosts on the fly, directly in-meeting, by right-clicking the participant and changing their role to Cohost. You may have as many cohosts in a meeting as you wish.

The following features aren’t currently supported in a breakout session and will be addressed in a future release:

  • Raise hand, People Insights profile, and the notes taker role
  • Closed captioning
  • Recording breakout sessions
  • “Optimize for motion and video” content sharing
  • Sharing web browser or multimedia
  • Annotation and Whiteboard
  • Live streaming
  • Polling
  • Saving chat
  • Users who join from the Webex Meeting web app can’t share content

Grid Layout for Cloud Recordings
With the grid layout becoming the default experience in Webex Meetings, meeting recordings will default to the grid layout in this update for new and existing Webex hosts. This applies to both Webex Meetings and Webex Events. To return to previous settings or make changes to your recording preferences, sign in at uww.webex.com, navigate to Preferences and then select the Recordings tab. Be sure to hit SAVE!

Recording settings in your preferences

Participant Content Sharing
Hosts can now allow the participants to share their screen during scheduled meetings or Personal Rooms meetings.

Additional attendee settings

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

Webex Update (9/8/2020)

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On Tuesday, September 8, Cisco deployed the Webex Meetings 40.9 update. The highlights of this release are listed below. Full release notes are also available. Please note, some of the updates outlined in the full release notes are not yet available. We expect these to launch next Tuesday, September 15.

Optimized Audio and Video Preview
The larger, optimized Audio/Video Preview window makes it easier to look your best and find the settings you need before joining a meeting.

Webex preview window

Updated Controls in Meetings and Events
The look of the controls in Meetings and Events has changed to make them more intuitive and easier to use. Meeting controls are now clearly labeled and located at the bottom of your meeting window, which means you’ll always have them in sight, but without them covering up shared content or video.

Clear and easy-to-find meeting controls

Contextual Option Menus
Audio settings and camera settings can now be conveniently accessed in the menus at the right of their respective mute and camera buttons.

An easier way to adjust your setting

Consolidated Panel Controls
Panel controls (like Participants, Chat, and Q&A) can be found towards the right, where the panel opens.

Panel controls

Additional Virtual Background Improvements and Support
Cisco has added more virtual background images to choose from in your Meetings and Events. The virtual background feature is now supported on Macs with dual-core processors.

Virtual background preset images

Other Updates to Note:
-Users of Amazon Echo Show or Google Home Hub Smart Display devices will now be able to use Webex Meetings on these devices. Amazon Echo Show devices will be able to display meeting and recording lists, as well as play back recordings. Google Nest Hub devices will be able to display meeting and recording lists, play back recordings, and schedule meetings.
–Facebook Portal users will now be able to leverage their Webex Meetings app directly from all Facebook Portal devices! The experience will match what currently exists in the Android app.
–Cisco is officially retiring Support for Internet Explorer 10 and Windows 7. While users on these platforms won’t be prevented from joining or starting meetings, Cisco will no longer provide bug fixes or updates for this operating system and browser going forward.

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

Summer Flexible Blended Faculty Development Workshop Series Fall 2020 “Reprise”

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The Learning Technology Center’s (LTC) 2020 Summer Flexible Blended Faculty Development Workshop Series was one of the most popular offerings in LTC history!

Given the popularity of this series, we have put together a fall “reprise” of this series highlighting many of the most popular sessions in a shorter format. The “Blending Face-to-Face and Online Assessment” sessions are even all available in one day on Friday, September 11th.

Planning for Flexibility:

Using Technology for Learning in the Physical and Online Classroom (Thursday, September 10th at 9:00 am)

Blending Face-to-Face and Online Assessment:

Assignment Options (Friday, September 11th at 9:00 am)

Peer Review of Student Work (Friday, September 11th at 10:00 am)

Exams & Quizzes (Friday, September 11th at 11:00 am)

The Blended Class:

Instructor Presentation of Content Part I (Tuesday, September 15th at 9:00 am)

Instructor Presentation of Content Part II (Wednesday, September 16th at 9:00 am)

Student Presentations (Friday, September 18th at 9:00 am)

Student-Student Interaction (Monday, September 21st at 9:00 am)

These sessions are applicable to instructors teaching online, hybrid, remote, HyFlex, or even potentially traditional face-to-face.

If you have any questions, please contact icit-techpilots@uww.edu

HyFlex Teaching “Office Hours”

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If you are teaching in a HyFlex or video-enhanced classroom this fall, the Learning Technology Center is offering “office hours” during the first three weeks of September for assisting you with any questions or ideas relating to teaching in a HyFlex style.

The dates and times, with sign up links, are below:
(please note that you will need to sign in with your UWW credentials in order to register)

Friday, September 4th at 1:00 PM
Friday, September 4th at 2:00 PM

Friday, September 11th at 1:00 PM
Friday, September 11th at 2:00 PM

Friday, September 18th at 1:00 PM
Friday, September 18th at 2:00 PM

If you have any questions about these “office hours,” please contact the Learning Technology Center.

Canvas Update (08/15/2020)

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On Saturday, August 15, Instructure will deploy the latest release to the Canvas environment.  The highlights of this release are listed below.  The full release notes are also available.

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

Tracking Student Progress in Alternate Formats (8/14/20)

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As we near the beginning of the fall semester, you might be wondering how you can keep track of your students’ progress while also navigating the changing learning environment. Please consider joining the Learning Technology Center for a session on tracking student progress in alternate formats. The session description is below:

If you are new to teaching online, hybrid, remote, or any format other than face-to-face, you might be concerned about how you can tell whether your students understand the course material and how you can chart their progress. Join us for a discussion and demonstration on how you can keep track of your students’ progress when teaching in alternate delivery formats.

If you are interested, please register. You will need to login with your UWW credentials to register.

If you have any questions about this session, please contact us at icit-techpilots@uww.edu

The Blended Class: Student-Student Interaction (8/7/20)

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The Learning Technology Center’s Summer Flexible Blended Faculty Development Workshop Series, and our exploration of the blended class, concludes with a session on student-student interaction. The session summary is below:

This session will discuss various ways to manage and assess technology-mediated student-student interactions. Facilitators will discuss ways to encourage students to interact with each other using technology for activities and assessments. Participants will identify opportunities in their courses for technology-mediated student-student interactions into their courses. Opportunities for and challenges of mixing synchronous and asynchronous interactions will explored.

If you are interested in this session, please register so that we can send you the Webex Meeting link, for the synchronous session, and the link to the asynchronous Canvas course for the workshop series.

We thank you so much for your support of the LTC and this workshop series over the summer! If you have any questions, please contact us at icit-techpilots@uww.edu

The Blended Class: Student Presentations (8/5/20)

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The Learning Technology Center’s Summer Flexible Blended Faculty Development Workshop Series continues exploring how to facilitate a blended course with a session on student presentations. The session summary is below:

This session will discuss various means of facilitating and assessing student presentations using technology. Facilitators will discuss ways for individuals and small groups of students to give technology-mediated presentations suitable for online, blended, or remote formats. Participants will develop an approach to facilitate and assess technology-mediated student presentations.

If you are interested in this session, please register so that we can send you the Webex Meeting link for this synchronous session, and the information for the asynchronous workshop series Canvas course.

If you have any questions about this session, please contact us at icit-techpilots@uww.edu

The Blended Class: Options for Instructor Presentation of Content (8/4/20)

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The final three sessions of the Learning Technology Center’s Summer Flexible Blended Faculty Development Workshop Series focus on facilitating a blended class. The first of these sessions focuses on ways for instructors to present course content to students. The session summary is below:

This session will discuss synchronous and asynchronous approaches to online lectures. Facilitators will discuss ways to make online or remote lectures more accessible and engaging to face-to-face and online students. Participants will develop an approach to conducting online lectures that would be applicable whether a course is blended or fully online.

If you are interested in this session, please register so that we can send you the Webex Meeting link, and the information for the accompanying asynchronous Canvas course for the workshop series.

If you have any questions about this workshop series, please contact us at icit-techpilots@uww.edu

Blending Face-to-Face and Online Assessment: Peer Review of Student Work (7/24/20)

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The Learning Technology Center’s Summer Flexible Blended Faculty Development Workshop Series concludes the set of workshops focusing on assessment with a session on facilitating peer reviews of student work. The summary for the session is below:

This session will discuss different ways that you can have students work asynchronously or synchronously online, to review each other’s work. We will discuss both written (e.g., essay) and performative (e.g., presentation) peer reviews. Facilitators will discuss different ways for students to conduct peer reviews of student work. Participants will identify a specific peer review assignment, and determine a method to conduct the peer review.

If you are interested in this session, please register so that you can receive the Webex Meeting link for the synchronous session, and the self-enrollment link for the asynchronous Canvas course for the summer series. You will need to log in with your UWW credentials in order to register.

If you have any questions about this session, or the summer workshop series, please contact icit-techpilots@uww.edu.