Category Archives: For Instructors

Reported Issue with D2L Frames and Chrome Browser

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Google_Chrome_icon_(2011)Learn@UW has reported an issue in D2L with the latest version of the Chrome browser (version 30). Any frame inside an IFRAME that gets dynamically resized may not render correctly causing frame sizes to be too small to work with effectively.

Affected areas in D2L include Discussions and the Question Library. This issue should be corrected in Chrome version 32. Until then, the current workaround is as follows:

On screens where there is a visible frame divider, move the divider to restore a normal view. Where there is no visible frame divider, grab the side of the entire browser window and make the window narrower until the content comes into view. You may then resize the window as desired.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

Desire2Learn Service Update (11/21)

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Desire2Learn logoThis 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.

UW System Learning Technology Development Council Showcase 2014

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Call for Proposals Now Open! 

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Date: April 10-11, 2014
Location: Virtual Conference, no travel required

The UW System Learning Technology Development Council (LTDC) Showcase 2014 will be held virtually April 10-11, 2014. Faculty, teaching staff and learning technology support staff – please share your innovations!

This virtual conference offers an opportunity for sharing your successes and challenges in teaching with technology – in your face-to-face, online, blended/hybrid, flex, flipped or MOOC. This conference will provide you with the opportunity to virtually connect with other practitioners and requires neither travel expense nor a significant time commitment. Please join us and submit a proposal to present or facilitate!

All presentations will be conducted virtually with technology training and orientation available prior to the conference. The presentations will be approximately 30 minutes in length with 15 min Q&A following. Proposals are sought in the following six general categories:

  • Innovative Approaches (Hot Topics) – Tell us about how you’re working and teaching. Are mobile applications a part of your learning and knowledge portfolio? How have you taken traditional teaching and enhanced it through an innovative approach? Can you share a successful case study?
  • Engagement of Students – How are your students connecting with each other and you? What works now or what do you expect might be a future method of engaging students? Can you share a successful case study?
  • Faculty Development – How are you supporting your faculty? Are you facilitating learning communities? How are you engaging faculty to try new approaches to teaching and learning? Do you have a successful case study to share?
  • “How To” and Resources – Do you have a skill to share? Have you created a wonderful set of resources for faculty and students? We’re interested in successful case studies; what can you share?
  • Best Practices – Are you using a particular learning technology (or set of technologies) and know through evaluation that it definitively engages students and promotes learning?
  • Emerging Topics – Do you have a proposal that doesn’t quite fit into the other topics?

Proposals are due December 31, 2013. Successful proposals will be notified by February 10, 2014. Please visit the following website to submit proposals: http://goo.gl/NaWyWY

Snackable Series: Authentic Assessments

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snackable-logo-fall2013The Learning Technology Center (LTC) is pleased to invite faculty and instructional staff to attend the next free session in the Snackable Series “Solving Teaching Challenges One Byte at a Time.” In the “Snackable Series” sessions, a specific learning technology is spotlighted. The next session will be held November 20th and 21st and focuses on authentic assessments.

An authentic assessment is a type of assessment in which students perform “real world” tasks to demonstrate the application of essential knowledge or skills.  Authentic assessments can increase higher-order thinking, are forms of active learning, and help prepare students for their future careers.  This session will address common types of authentic assessments and will showcase faculty examples.

The dates, times, and location for this snackable are as follows:

Wednesday, November 20, 2013: Noon to 1 p.m.
Thursday, November 21, 2013: 11 a.m. to Noon
Location: iCIT Training Center, McGraw 112

Register online today for this “Snackable Series” session, seating is limited: http://signup.uww.edu

If you have any questions regarding the Snackable Series and its sessions, please contact the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

Winterim and Spring 2014 D2L Course Requests Now Open

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Desire2Learn @ UW-WWinterim and Spring 2014 D2L course requests are available now through the D2L Course Request application.

As a reminder, course requests for a semester become available on the first day of priority registration for students, and course shells for D2L need to be requested for every semester you plan on using D2L.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

Desire2Learn Service Update (10/24)

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Desire2Learn LogoThis 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.

D2L Ignite Regional User Forum – November 8

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On Friday, November 8, 2013, the first regional conference in Wisconsin to be hosted by Desire2Learn will take place at the Sheraton Madison Hotel in Madison, Wisconsin.

Similar to the annual D2L Fusion User Conference, this regional event provides an opportunity for teaching faculty, staff, and those interested in exploring technology in teaching and learning to attend “locally” without incurring a lot of travel expenses and time commitment.  It will be a great venue for sharing, networking, and exchanging ideas with your colleagues from other regional campuses. Topics will focus on a variety of aspects of pedagogy and teaching with technology both directly and indirectly related to D2L.  The UW System is co-sponsoring this event and assisting in planning the program.

Registration and session details can be found at:
WI D2L Ignite User Forum – registration deadline is Nov 1.

Snackable Series: E-Service Learning

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snackable-logo-fall2013The Learning Technology Center (LTC) is pleased to invite faculty and instructional staff to attend the next free session in the Snackable Series “Solving Teaching Challenges One Byte at a Time.” In the “Snackable Series” sessions, a specific learning technology is spotlighted. The next session will be held October 16th and 17th and focuses on E-service learning.

Service learning is a powerful tool to foster critical thinking, engage your students, and promote civic engagement. E-service learning is a service learning program or project conducted online. This format allows students limited by work obligations and geography to participate. This session will introduce some formats for online service learning, some common partnerships, and the practices of other faculty.

The dates, times, and location for this snackable are as follows:

Wednesday, October 16, 2013: Noon to 1 p.m.
Thursday, October 17, 2013: 11 a.m. to Noon
Location: iCIT Training Center, McGraw 112

Register online today for this “Snackable Series” session, seating is limited: http://signup.uww.edu

If you have any questions regarding the Snackable Series and its sessions, please contact the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

Linking to Google Docs from D2L

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There is currently a known issue in D2L that impacts quicklinks pointing to any “google.com” website.  iOS (iPhone/iPad) users that are viewing a course in “Desktop View” will not be able to click on quicklinks to “google.com” websites.  The supported workaround is to create the link in a new course file using the “Insert Stuff” tool.

Within any course file in the D2L text editor, you can choose the “Insert Stuff” icon from the menu bar.  Within the dialog window, choose “Insert Link” and then enter the desired URL.

The Insert Stuff button is pressed down in D2L

If you have any questions or need additional assistance, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

Email and SMS Notifications Available in D2L

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Starting this Fall 2013 semester, email and SMS notifications have been enabled for Desire2Learn.

You can receive instant notifications to your email or phone for several tools, including Discussions, Dropbox, Grades, News, and Quizzes, or receive a daily summary of activity. You can also exclude specific courses from your notification options.

To set up or change your Notification settings, after logging into D2L, you can click on either the Tools menu or your name in the minibar (as seen in the screenshot below), and select the Notifications option.

Screenshot of Notifications in the minibar

Also note, that if you use the mobile notifications, do not include the “1” preceding the area code in your phone number.

For more directions on setting up your notifications, please see this page of the D2L user guide. If you have any questions or need additional assistance, please contact UW-W D2L Support.