On Saturday, April 14, 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.
Course navigation – Rubrics: The Manage Rubrics button will no longer be available through Outcomes, and will instead have its own Course Navigation button.
Instructure has moved to a “Ready Release” method of weekly updates to address pressing issues during the sudden shift to online. The full list of ready release notes are available. We have included what we believe to be the two most notable updates here.
Analytics – Chart tabs: Analytics charts are now available in tabs rather than a dropdown.
UW-Whitewater Updates
D2L Retirement is progressing. All information you would like to keep must be exported out of D2L before June 1st, 2020. Whether it’s an old for-credit based course, or an ongoing course – make sure all material is backed up. Once our access is removed, we will not have any way to obtain this data. For more information check out the Desire2Learn Retirement Planning post.
RESOLVED: 12:45 PM (4/15). The issue should now be resolved for all courses. If you are still noticing this issue in your course, please contact the Learning Technology Center.
Update 12:10 PM (4/15). The issue has been resolved for the majority of courses. There are still some outstanding issues impacting certain courses that the vendor is investigating. If you are still noticing this issue in your course, please contact the Learning Technology Center.
We are investigating an issue that appears to be impacting the view of currently scheduled Webex Meetings, Classroom Collaborations and Office Hours inside of Canvas. We will provide additional details as they are made available.
Instructors who had previous meetings scheduled should follow these steps:
If you are interested in attending to learn more about using Linkedin Learning, please use the above links to register, and you will then receive an email with a link to the Webex Meeting.
With the recent UW-Whitewater announcement regarding COVID-19 and Spring Break, the Learning Technology Center (LTC) has put together the following workshops and resources to help support this rapid shift to teaching courses in an alternate delivery. The workshop schedules and descriptions are available below.
Walk-In Sessions are located in the LTC – McGraw Hall Suite 120.Virtual walk-ins are also available during those times. Call us at 262.472.1004 or email ltc@uww.edu and an available staff member will invite you to a Webex session.
The Media Recording Studio is available between 8:15 AM and 4:00 PM – schedule your appointment. Recorded videos will be made available as soon as possible. The studio will be closed from March 23rd to April 3rd.
The LTC Staff are available Monday – Friday from 8 AM to 4:30 PM. If you are not able to attend any of the sessions below and need assistance call us at 262.472.1004 or email ltc@uww.edu to schedule an appointment.
Do you need a help setting up Webex, figuring out how to record your lectures, or getting your assignment added to Canvas? Stop by for Walk-In Assistance during spring break between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM in the McGraw Hall 120 Suite.Call us at 262.472.1004 or email us at ltc@uww.edu to connect remotely using Webex. The LTC Staff will be ready to help!
Workshop Descriptions
How-To Transform a Face-to-Face Course for Teaching Remotely (60 minutes offered both in-person and virtually)
In this workshop, you’ll learn what the Top 7 things to consider as you work to transform your course using Canvas. Face-to-Face and Webex Web Based workshops are available. The workshop will highlight:
Communication
Email (Sent from WINS)
Canvas Announcements
Canvas Inbox
Webex Teams and Meetings
Assessments
Assignments with Due Dates
Quizzes with Due Dates
Discussions
Create and Share Content
Pages with To-Do
Weekly Course Summary
Grading and Feedback using Speedgrader
Publishing your Course
Getting Help
We will be holding the workshop at the following times. Face to Face offerings will be held in McGraw 19a. Computers will not be provided for this training.
Overview of Webex Meetings (30 minutes offered both in-person and virtually)
Join this introduction to Cisco Webex Meetings to gain a high level overview of how to schedule your meeting, manage audio and share content. At the end of the class you will be able to host your own meeting and receive resources to help you continue your learning.
Overview of Webex Meetings for Teaching/Instruction (30 minutes offered both in-person and virtually)
Join this introduction to Cisco Webex Meetings to gain a high level overview of how to schedule your meeting, manage audio and share content. In addition we will cover how to authorize the Cisco Webex integration in Canvas. At the end of the class you will be able to host your own meeting and receive resources to help you continue your learning.
Conducting Webex Meetings (60 minutes offered both in-person and virtually)
Need a deep dive into the capabilities available to you as you conduct your meetings? Join this class to learn how to manage audio and sound alerts, turn on video and access different video layouts, use the whiteboard for collaboration, sharing techniques and best practices, and much more. You will receive resources to help you continue your learning.
Conducting Webex Meetings for Teaching/Instruction (60 minutes offered both in-person and virtually)
Need a deep dive into the capabilities available to you as you conduct your meetings? Join this class to learn how to manage audio and sound alerts, turn on video and access different video layouts, use the whiteboard for collaboration, sharing techniques and best practices, and much more. We’ll go into detail about how to use the Cisco Webex integration in Canvas, including how to hold breakout sessions, record sessions, and how to use Virtual Office hours.
Communicating Remotely (30 minutes offered both in-person and virtually)
Learn about campus tools to support virtual communication, including a high-level overview of Webex Meetings, Teams, and Jabber. We’ll also cover why you may want to learn more about Google Drive in order to collaborate on shared work.
Introduction to Campus Technology (60 minutes in-person)
The goal of this session is to create awareness of the campus-supported communication, collaboration, and work productivity tools that apply to all staff and introduce participants to support resources. This session will be particularly helpful to those new to campus, however, all staff may benefit from hearing about technology tools they might not be aware of or changes to technology that make the tools more useful for their work.
Google Apps for Education: Essentials (60 minutes in-person)
Learn about the different Google Apps for Education you can use to collaborate and file-share on the go! This workshop is an overview of Google Apps including Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Presentations, Forms, Drawing, and Sites. Learn the basics of each program to get you up and running quickly with Google applications.
During the first two weeks of March, the LTC will be offering Canvas Open Labs (1 Hour) to work on and learn about Canvas while a local expert is available to offer assistance. Whether you are working on your current course, or planning for the future – stop on by! Whether you happen to be in the building, or are walking across campus to make it, we are happy to see you!
Group Specific Trainings (variable length) The LTC offers customized trainings that can be setup by request for your departments/group. If you are interested, contact us at 262.472.1004 or ltc@uww.edu and we will work with you to get the training scheduled.
The Learning Technology Center (LTC) has been supporting instructors in using adaptive and personalized learning platforms as part of a pilot project since 2018. If you are interested in adaptive and personalized learning, please consider joining us this Friday for a discussion that will include experiences of instructors in the current pilot project.
Registration is suggested, but not required. You can register at the following link (please note that you need to sign in with your UWW credentials to register):
If you are interested but unable to attend in person, please register and then email us at icit-techpilots@uww.edu, and we will get you set up to attend virtually.
If you have any additional questions about these adaptive and personalized learning sessions, or other LTC events, please contact the Learning Technology Center.
During the spring 2020 semester, the Learning Technology Center is supporting a small group of instructors in piloting Linkedin Learning. As a part of that project, pilot instructors will be presenting on how they incorporate Linkedin Learning into their course design and facilitation.
Linkedin Learning
There are three sessions. Each session focuses on a different use.
Dealing with the unexpected inside the classroom is part of teaching, but what happens when the unexpected prevents everyone from even gathering? Certainly any number of things could force you to cancel class, but what can you do to help students continue to progress while they wait out the latest winter storm?
Don’t fear, the LTC is here!
Here are just a few of the tools you can use to enable learning from almost anywhere:
Canvas
Every semester, all courses are automatically setup and created in Canvas. As an instructor, it’s up to you to Publish the course before the students are able to see it. Once the course is published, you are able to send out News Announcements, post Assignments, and start up Discussion Forums all with a few clicks. The best part is that Canvas Support is available 24/7/365 to help you get up and running!
Webex Meetings
With Webex Meetings, you have the ability to schedule and create a web based meeting where you can use both audio and video to communicate with your students. To make things even easier, this is also integrated directly into every Canvas course on campus. Click on the “Cisco Webex” link in your course to get started. All you and your students need to connect is an internet connected device.
If you are already using Webex Teams with your class, it’s a great tool to use for last minute and unexpected situations. Webex Teams allows for communication using an app that students can download onto their computer, mobile devices or access using the web browser. You can use teams to group message, share files and even schedule Webex Meetings right from the application.
Video is also a great way you can deliver a lecture to your students virtually, from anywhere. We have created a guide that explains the available tools and recommend uses.
The next time you find yourself in an unexpected situation that might impact your class, remember there are a number of great tools and resources out there. You can always reach out to the Learning Technology Center if you have any questions!
COMPLETE: Sunday 4:30 PM – The upgrade is complete and videos are once again viewable. Thank you for your patience during the extended upgrade outage.
Update: Saturday 7:15 PM – Due to unforeseen circumstances, the outage window has been extended until 8 PM on Sunday, February 9th. We are aware of the impact this may have on your course work. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
Update: Saturday 3 PM – The planned outage is taking longer than expected and we’ll be extending the outage window until 8 PM. We’ll update this message once the maintenance is complete.
On Saturday, February 8th 2020 between 9 AM and 5 PM VBrick Rev (http://streaming.uww.edu) will be unavailable for scheduled maintenance. During this outage, we will be deploying the latest version of VBrick Rev.
Videos hosted on Rev will be unavailable during this outage. Please plan your assignments and classwork accordingly.
How do I know if my video is hosted on VBrick Rev (streaming.uww.edu)?
Take a look at the two examples below. Note the differences in the bottom player control bar and the play button.
Since 2018, the Learning Technology Center has been exploring adaptive and personalized learning. The LTC would like to invite any UW-Whitewater faculty, staff, or student interested in adaptive and personalized learning to discuss the state of adaptive and personalized learning on campus.
Come join the discussion on adaptive and personalized learning!
These are open discussions. Registration is suggested but not required. There are two meetings this spring 2020 semester. Please feel free to attend either or both:
Remote attendance for these meetings is possible as well (please just contact icit-techpilots@uww.edu after registering to receive a Webex link to join virtually). If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact the Learning Technology Center.
