Respondus Webinars and Product Training – February 2015

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respondus-R-m4CRespondus has a number of 45-minute sessions scheduled for February to provide live demonstrations of their software applications, as well as tips for getting started.

LockDown Browser & Respondus Monitor: Prevent Cheating During Exams*
This comprehensive training webinar is intended for instructors who plan to use LockDown Browser and/or Respondus Monitor with online exams. The session is 45 minutes, plus a Q&A period at the end.

*Note: If you are interested in using Respondus Monitor, please contact the Learning Technology Center.

Respondus 4.0: Create & Manage Exam Content
Learn how to save time by creating and managing your online exams with Respondus 4, including importing test questions from Word files, using official publisher test banks, and more. The session is 45 minutes, plus a Q&A period at the end.

StudyMate: Engage Students with Learning Activities and Games
Learn how to engage students with course content by quickly and easily creating learning activities and self-assessments. This session will include both StudyMate Author and StudyMate Class. The session is 45 minutes, plus a Q&A period at the end.

If you have any questions regarding the Respondus Webinars, please contact the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

 

 

Desire2Learn “My Courses” Widget Update

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With the deployment of Desire2Learn Service Pack 14, the “My Courses” widget on your D2L homepage has been improved.  The new “My Courses” widget offers increased performance and additional filtering.  If you are enrolled in multiple courses, the tab based navigation for your roles has been replaced with a drop-down list instead.  In addition, a “Semester” filter is now available.

Old “My Courses” Widget:
d2l-mycourses-old

New “My Courses” Widget:
d2l-mycourses-new

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this change, please contact UW-W Desire2Learn Support.

Desire2Learn Service Update (2/5)

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On Thursday, February 5th, Desure2Learn deployed Service Pack 14 to our D2L Learning Environment.  In this latest update, the following fixes and enhancements were included:

Classlist

  • Fix: Checklists that contain empty categories now correctly display all items to users.

ePortfolio

  • Fix: Users can now successfully add tags to files and links they share through ePortfolio.

HTML Editor

  • Fix: Flicker integration now supports new Flickr API SSL endpoint.

Import/Copy Course

  • Fix: When using copy course components, the sort order of grade items and categories is preserved in the new course.
  • Fix: When Kaltura videos are embedded into News items (and other areas), replace strings are used to avoid hard-coded course identifies.  Items containing Kaltura videos can be successfully copied to other courses.
  • Fix: Dropbox start, end, and due dates are now copied successfully during the Copy Course Components process.

My Courses

  • Enhancement: The My Courses widget has been updated to allow for increased performance and filtering.  The role based style tabs has been replaced with a dropdown filters.  Additional information available at: Desire2Learn “My Courses” Widget Update.

Quizzes

  • Fix: The user experience of taking a quiz through the Content user interface now offers the same access to submission view and reports that it is available in the Quizzes tool.

There is also a known issue that can impact group restricted discussion forums.  More information on that is located at: D2L Known Issue: “Internal Error” when accessing the “Groups” tool.

If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

Call for Proposals Extended: LTDC Virtual Conference

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Virtual-ShowcaseThe UW System Learning Technology Development Council (LTDC) Showcase 2015 will be held virtually April 9-10, 2015. Faculty, teaching staff and learning technology support staff – please join us and submit a proposal to present or facilitate by February 13, 2015! Proposals may be submitted at the following website: Virtual Showcase 2015

This virtual conference offers an opportunity for sharing your successes and challenges in teaching with technology. This conference will provide you with the opportunity to virtually connect with other practitioners and requires neither travel expense nor a significant time commitment.

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:

  1. 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?
  2. 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?
  3. 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?
  4. “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?
  5. 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?
  6. Emerging Topics – Do you have a proposal that doesn’t quite fit into the other topics?

We look forward to learning more about your teaching and learning experiences!  If you have any questions contact the Learning Technology Center.

D2L Known Issue: “Internal Error” when accessing the “Groups” tool

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Known IssuesSome students may receive an “Internal Error” when trying to access the “Groups” tool in specific Desire2Learn courses.  This is a bug that has been reported and confirmed by Desire2Learn.  The workaround requires the course instructors to adjust the visibility options of group discussion forums.

To correct this issue, make sure all of the group discussion forums in the course are set to “visible”.  If any group discussion forums are hidden or are hidden with an end date in the past the visibility will need to be changed to active.  You can still prevent students from posting in the group discussion forums by using the “lock” feature to restrict access.

Additional Information: LMS-60 – “Internal Error” when accessing the “Groups” tool in specific courses

If you have any additional questions or concerns regarding this issue, please contact UW-W Desire2Learn Support.

Fall 2014 Snackable Series Recap

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The innovative use of technology in higher education continues to provide new possibilities for enhancing teaching and learning. The Learning Technology Center (LTC) Fall 2014 “Snackable Series” showcases two current approaches to leveraging technology to promote collaborative learning online. Feel free to bring a lunch, and join us!

Did you miss out on watching the last Snackable series about Collaborative Learning Online?  Here are the recorded video recaps!

Collaborative Learning Online: Group Assignments

Collaborative Learning Online: Teaching Strategies and Tools

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

Desire2Learn Grid View is Back!

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As many of you remember, when we took our last D2L upgrade over the summer, the discussion tool got a major overhaul.  There were some key features that were not included in the new version.  D2L has heard our feedback, and we are happy to announce that the Grid View and the Print all Threads option has returned!  These features were included in Service Pack 13, which was deployed on Thursday, January 8th, 2015.

The Reading View will remain the default view for all courses.  Individual users can set a Default View on the “Account Settings” page.

We have created the following step by step guides:

Other issues fixed in this update:

Calendar:

  • Fix: Previously deleted event occurrences are no longer recreated unexpectedly when users edit a recurring event in Calendar.

Discussions:

  • Fix: Users’ sorting and filter options are now preserved when they navigate through a discussion by using the browser’s Back button.

Grades:

  • Fix: Deleted grade schemes no longer affect the performance of User Progress.

Import/Copy Course:

  • Fix: A performance improvement was mode for copying courses that contain a large number of release conditions.

If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

D2L Training Scheduled for January 15

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DSC_3940The Learning Technology Center is pleased to invite faculty and instructional staff to “D2L Day,” a series of hands-on sessions held on Thursday, January 15, 2015 from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM in McGraw 19B.

This D2L Winterim Workshop includes breakout sessions on D2L tools, such as Quizzes, Discussions, Dropbox, and Content.  These will include a variety of hands-on “How To” sessions for all levels of D2L users. Morning sessions will cover the basics of the most commonly-used tools, and afternoon sessions will cover each tool in more detail as well as discuss some lesser-known tools. Each session will be “hands on” and include some tips and tricks for attendees to become D2L power users.

Participants may register for the all-day workshop or for individual sessions using the signup tool. The workshops are listed under “ICIT-LTC Training”. If you have any questions about this workshop, please contact the Learning Technology Center.