Category Archives: For Instructors

Desire2Learn Service Update (January 2013)

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On Thursday, January 31st, Desire2Learn Inc. deployed the two latest Service Packs to our D2L learning environment. Unfortunately, along with the deploying the Service Packs, Learn@UW has reported a new issue that affects copying grade items. Instructors cannot copy gradebook items and/or categories from any previous offering of the course using Copy Components. Currently, the workaround is to use Export and Import Components functions instead. Learn@UW is pushing for a fix to have the Copy functionality restored for Gradebook items. However, these Service Packs included several fixes to existing issues with two prominent issues being resolved:

  • ePortfolio: Users no longer encounter an error when they push a presentation to a course. Presentations can be successfully pushed to a course without having to create a Sharing Group.
  • Minibar: Users can now receive and access alerts. Minibar alerts should no longer be blocked by unsubmitted quizzes after a quiz is no longer accessible to a user.

In addition to those fixes, there are several others in various tools as follows:

  • Calendar: Due dates displayed in Calendar for Checklist items no longer display as UTC time. The time now correctly converts and displays in the user’s time zone. Offsetting dates in Calendar now calculates times correctly when the offset spans a daylight savings time shift.The Calendar widget and the Upcoming view in Calendar now only show events for the current day if they are still occurring. Previously, current-day events that ended were still displayed.
  • Classlist: Online status in Classlist now displays correctly across different time zones.
  • Competencies: After copying a Learning Objective with a Manual Rubric activity without receiving errors.
  • Content: Content user progress was not updating when viewing sequenced SCORM 2004 packages. Visits to these topics are now correctly tracked.
  • Dropbox: The notification now correctly displays the number of submissions to the assignment folder in Dropbox. Word wrap is now working correctly for Feedback in Dropbox.
  • ePortfolio: News feed load time is now improved, users with a large amount of shared activities will notice a faster load time.
  • Grades: In a student view, when users click on the calculator icon for a calculated grade item, they can view the results of what grade items were included. They will no longer encounter an error.
  • Homepages: Shared widgets now properly display on new homepages that have been copied via Copy Course Components.
  • HTML Editor: If a custom widget contains a <form> tag it will now be wrapped in an iFrame. This prevents the <form> from getting stripped out of the custom widget.
  • Minibar: When a user has visited 50 courses or more, the course selector now correctly displays the order of the results when sorted by last accessed course.
  • Quizzes/Question Library: If a random section is deleted from a quiz, it will allow users to successfully import questions from that random section back into the quiz. The Quiz Attempt Log now records any changes, saves, and submissions made by the user. Users can now access the Edit and Preview actions from the context menu of a question within a random folder without receiving an error.

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

TurnItIn Submissions Not Processing in D2L

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Learn@UW has notified us of a reported bug in D2L involving TurnItIn (TII) Dropboxes that are copied/imported from another course. When Dropboxes are copied from a previous course where TII was already enabled, the new Dropbox will not be created on the TII side and submissions will not process.

Until we have a fix, all Dropboxes should be created NEW in courses, unless the source Dropbox does not have TII enabled. Learn@UW is working with D2L to get existing submissions processed.

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

D2L Training Scheduled for January 18

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The Learning Technology Center is pleased to invite faculty and instructional staff to “D2L Day” that will be held on Friday, January 18, 2013 from 9:00 AM to 3:45 PM in Hyland 3101.

It’s a full day D2L Winterim Workshop with breakout sessions on D2L tools, such as quizzes, discussions, plagiarism detection, and rubrics. These will include a variety of hands-on “How To” sessions, tips, best practices, and new strategies to effectively use D2L in your classroom. View the full-day schedule here: Winterim D2L Workshop Schedule

Participants may now register for the all-day workshop or for individual sessions using the signup tool. The workshops are listed under “iCIT-LTC Training.”

Clicker Reminders for the Upcoming Semester

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If you plan to use student response system (aka “clickers”) technology in your summer course, please contact the LTC to register. Classes using clickers must be added to the Clicker Registration application so that your students can register their clickers and you can retrieve a class participant list for use in TurningPoint.

If you have courses you would like added to the Clicker Registration application, please provide the LTC with your course name and number. If you have multiple sections, please also specify if you prefer to have your course sections combined or separate.

UW-Whitewater also offers ResponseWare, an “app” that allows students to use their smartphones, laptops, and other Internet-connected devices rather than a clicker keypad. The reduced cost for students to use an app versus purchasing a clicker keypad can be significant. If you are interested in using ResponseWare in addition to using clickers, but you do not yet have a ResponseWare account, please contact the LTC for setup.

Respondus 4.0

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Respondus is a convenient tool for professors to create and manage exams that can be printed to paper or published directly to Desire2Learn. Whether you are familiar with online testing or relatively new to it, Respondus will save you hours on each project! With Respondus you can:

  • Create exams and assessments offline using a Windows computer.
  • Insert mathematical and scientific symbols using the Respondus Equation Editor.
  • Import and Export question from Desire2Learn.
  • Respondus Testbank Network offers thousands of publisher testbanks that instructors can use for free.

For more information on how to install Respondus to your computer, please visit the Respondus wiki instructional page.

If you any have question or concerns please contact the Learning Technology Center (LTC) for more information via email OR visit us at McGraw Hall Suite 120.

eGrading Issues Resolved

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Starting on Wednesday, December 12th, eGrading was not working due to several server problems, but this has been rectified as of this morning. While these issues were occurring, you would not have been able to accept grades into your grade roster in WINS.

If you tried sending grades from D2L to WINS before today but after the 12th, please check your grade roster in WINS. Several of the files that were in queue have been processed, so your grades may already be ready to accept in WINS. However, you may have to re-send them from D2L.

If you have any questions about eGrading or this outage, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

“The Flipped Classroom” – Call for Proposals and Save the Date

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While not an entirely a new concept, there has been increased interest in what’s called the “Flipped Classroom.”  Typically, “flipping” is considered to be the practice of using video segments to disseminate content-rich lessons outside of the classroom, thereby allowing classroom time to be used for interaction and hands-on activities.  However, the flipped classroom model can take many forms and may also involve a wide variety of technologies and methodologies.  Join your UW-Whitewater colleagues as we consider what it means (and does not mean) to “flip” a classroom and discuss the potential benefits and pitfalls of this practice.  Particular emphasis will be on exploring methods for using “flipping” techniques to enhance student learning and engagement.

If you have used “flipping” techniques in your own teaching, please share your experiences and ideas with your colleagues – even if you have just experimented! We welcome presentation proposals that include best practices (based upon successes or failures), lesson samples, demonstrations, techniques, lesson evaluations, and/or Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research results.

This event is sponsored by the Learning Technology Center (LTC), the LEARN Center, and the College of Education and Professional Studies.  Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

If you are interested in registering for this workshop as a presenter, please contact Renee Pfeifer-Luckett, Director, Learning Technology Center to discuss your proposal topic (pfeiferr@uww.edu).  Full details on the Call For Proposals can be accessed from the following link: http://geturl.uww.edu/1i3