D2L Version 10.1 Known Issues

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Aaron Axelsen

Known Issues Welcome back to the Spring 2014 semester! As many of you are aware, Learn@UW recently deployed the 10.1 update to our Desire2Learn environment. There are a number of issues that have been reported and that we are working to get resolved with D2L. Below, we just wanted to touch on a few of the major issues that we have been seeing:

Inline Document Viewer
There were two major issues reported with the new inline document viewer:

Files not previously rendered for display by the 10.1 Document Viewer could load very slowly until rendering completed.
Some documents load quickly but display an error icon.

At this time, configuration changes have been made by Desire2Learn which appear to address these issues.

Popup Windows will not load in Chrome
In Chrome 32.0.1700.76 and earlier, some popup windows will not load correct (Insert Stuff, File Uploads, etc). This issue is reported to be fixed in Chrome 32.0.1700.77. This issue does not impact alternate browsers.

Content Editor Causes Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) to Crash
When you are working with content in IE9, using various tools from the “NEW” HTML editor cause the browser to crash. This issue has been reported to D2L and the current workaround is to enable compatibility mode in IE9 or use an alternate browser.

Quicklinks as Content Topics to Course Files No Longer Supported
In previous versions of D2L, a Quicklink Content item could be made to link to an internal course file. This option is no longer available in D2L, and any Content items made this way previously will not be accessible for download within Content. You can tell if your Content item was made as a Quicklink by looking at the source underneath that item’s title. The workaround is to delete Quicklink Content item and create a new content item using “New” and selecting “Add From Manage Files”.

System.IO.PathTooLongException Error when Copying Courses
In recent versions of D2L they have imposed a file character limited with copying course content forward to new courses. The System.IO.PathTooLongException error will be triggered if you have a file or directory name that is too long. If you do get this error when copying content, the only workaround we currently have is to rename files/directories that have long names. We are hoping there is a better solution for this in the future.

If you have any questions about the above issues, or any other D2L related items please fill out the D2L support form.

Hello and Welcome Back to the Good old U-Dub Dub!

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Elaina Barr

I hope you all had a good break filled with nothing but catching up on your reading and appreciating being back at home! …no? Me neither.

Allow me to introduce myself; my name is Elaina and I work at the LTC and today I am here to talk to you about the new D2L changes. At this moment I can already sense your distress at the word, ‘changes’. Cue the B-movie horror screams.

I can assure you that they are both new and scary to professors and students alike, but not to fear because we at the LTC have taken the time to make super cheesy videos for your entertainment and higher learning.

Here is a link to the first video in a playlist of different videos we have made, try not to be distracted by our overly excited introductions:

You might note than many of these changes that take the time to painstakingly list in the videos are neither scary nor all that surprising.

“We got a due date column now? Okay.” That’s generally the reaction were expecting from the students. I might mention just for comparison’s sake that professors tend have a more emotional reaction.”Due date column?! YOU MONSTERS!! Why must you change everything I love?!”

That is all I have for you guys right now. Remember that if you have any questions or concerns, do not be afraid to contact UW-W D2L Support.

Thank you for your time!

Class Storage Connection Workaround

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

We are currently experiencing issues with WebDAV connections to Student Storage (stustorage.uww.edu) and Webbe (webbe.uww.edu). While we are working towards a resolution for this problem, there are alternative ways for users to access these sites.

The recommended solution for PC and Mac users is secure FTP. This will work from both on campus and off campus. We have documentation available below for the two supported clients.

Fetch (Mac Only): https://webbe.uww.edu/webstoragedocs/connect-mac-ftp.html
Filezilla (PC or Mac): https://webbe.uww.edu/webstoragedocs/connect-pc-ftp.html

Windows-based campus computers, such as computer lab and office machines, will automatically map both Student Storage and Webbe through drive “U:”. If you are using a Mac on campus, use the secure FTP options listed above.

If you have any additional questions regarding this, please contact the Learning Technology Center.

Reported Issue with D2L Frames and Chrome Browser

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Susan Degen

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.

Email and SMS Notifications Available in D2L

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Susan Degen

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.

Copying Links Out of OWA

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Susan Degen

In the Outlook Web Application (OWA), emails that include a hyperlink are automatically rewritten to include a redirect. The reason OWA adds the redirect is to keep your information, such as user name and subject line of an email, from being inferred from the URL.

When you copy any of the links out of OWA, they will include the redirect. This can be problematic if you intend to share or use this URL with others, either in another email or in Desire2Learn (D2L). Because the redirect is specific the OWA, other users will not be able to access the original link.

There isn’t an easy, catch-all solution to avoiding this depending on how the link is formatted in the email. For example, if the hyperlinked text is the same as the intended link destination (the URL is “http://www.google.com” and the text is also “http://www.google.com”), you can simply copy the text to get the correct URL. If the hyperlink text is just text (e.g., the URL is “http://www.uww.edu” and the text is “UW-W Homepage”), the easiest way to get the correct URL is to click the link and then copy the URL out of the browser’s address bar. Also, if available, using the Microsoft Outlook desktop program to access emails and copy out links will avoid this issue altogether.

If you have any questions about or need assistance with copying links out of an email in OWA and into D2L, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

Firefox 23 – Mixed Content Handling

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

Mozilla recently released Firefox 23 which introduced a new way of handling “mixed content”. Due to this change, you may experience issues viewing some content that is available in your D2L courses.

What is “mixed content”? Whenever you visit a secure webpage (served over HTTPS), the connection between your computer and the webpage is encrypted to secure your information. When the secure webpage attempts to load content that is not delivered over an encrypted channel – such as images, audio files, video files, and other media – the browser will detected this as “mixed content” and will not display it on the webpage.

How do I disable “mixed content”? When the browser detects “mixed content”, you will notice a “shield” icon that will be displayed directly to the left of the webpage address.

Simply click on the “shield” icon, click the arrow on the drop-down menu and choose “Disable Protection on This Page”.

The “mixed content” will now be displayed correctly. Anytime you load the webpage, you will see a “warning” icon. This simply means that “mixed content” is now being displayed on the page.

If you have any further questions regarding this, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

Using the “Burn” Application with iMovie

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

Apple no longer supports iDVD and will no longer include this software package as a part of their suite. Since iDVD is no longer being supported, we have come up with a 3^rd party freeware solution with an application called Burn. To download and learn how to use this application in place of iDVD please see: Using Burn with iMovie.

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

Problematic PDFs in Firefox 19.0 and Newer

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Aaron Axelsen

The latest versions of Mozilla Firefox, beginning with version 19.0 contain a new built-in PDF viewer. If you run into issues viewing PDF content from Desire2Learn in Firefox there are a few workarounds listed below:

Use a different web browser
Download the PDF and open it with a program on your computer
Disable the Firefox PDF viewer

Please view this webpage for more details and information on the workarounds.

If you have any questions or concerns, please Contact D2L Support.

Did you know? – D2L Mobile

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Erica Mendez

If you have a smartphone or tablet you can learn on the go and interact with your courses wherever and whenever you’d like! Desire2Learn (D2L) mobile supports multiple tools like content, grades, discussions, drop box, and many others.

In order to access the mobile version, grab your smartphone or tablet and navigate to the D2L login page. D2L will detect that you are using a mobile device and will display a mobile friendly version of your course material.