WebEx Upgrade Tonight: September 3, 2014

Cisco has scheduled an upgrade to WebEx, our web conferencing service, tonight, Wednesday, September 3, 2014. The upgrade will take place between 9:00 p.m. September 3 and 2:00 a.m. September 4 (Central Standard Time).

Upon entering a WebEx session after the upgrade, all meeting hosts and attendees will be asked to download a new version of the WebEx Meeting Center software. Users should follow the prompts to download and install the software on their computer. Once the software has been installed, the user will be required to restart their web browser.

Here are several of the new WebEx features users will enjoy:

  • New user interface with modern look and feel.
  • New “WebEx ball” icon.
  • New icons and panels with consolidated controls and “Quick Start” tabs.
  • Users can now resize the video pane.
  • Introduction of “Collaboration Meeting Rooms.”
  • Ability to allow a host to leave a meeting without being required to end the meeting.
  • The host role can be automatic transferred.

Please see Cisco’s “What’s new on WebEx Meetings?” video and “What’s New Cheat Sheet” to learn more about the new WebEx Web Conferencing service.

We recommend that users allow extra time to become familiar with the new interface before entering into a WebEx meeting.

The ICIT Technology Training team is in the process of updating UW-Whitewater documentation to reflect the changes. Revised information will be posted to our campus WebEx service web page as soon as possible.

TurningPoint 5 Clicker Updates

TP ConceptAs the Fall semester approaches, we wanted to let you know about several new changes to our Clicker software.

During the summer, we upgraded to TurningPoint 5. With this new version of TurningPoint, Turning Technologies has taken its available clicker software, such as TurningPoint, TurningPoint Anywhere, Results Manager, etc., and combined it into one singular program. Along with this change, some of the common processes you may have used to conduct your clicker sessions have changed slightly or have had their locations changed. Please see our What’s New in TurningPoint 5 wiki page for more details.

With this upgrade, we were also able to implement Clicker integration with D2L. This integration allows students to register their clicker keypad or ResponseWare license through D2L and allows you to retrieve participant lists through D2L as well. For steps on how students register their clickers, please see the TurningPoint 5: Registering Your Clicker wiki page. For steps on how to retrieve a participant list, please see the TurningPoint 5: Retrieving a Participant List wiki page.

Turning Technologies also migrated ResponseWare accounts during the summer, and if you didn’t receive an email with a migration link from them to the email account you used to register, you will need to use the Forgot Password link on their site to get a new link. For more detailed information on this, please visit our ReponseWare Migration blog post.

As a reminder, if you haven’t done so already, please stop by the Learning Technology Center (McGraw, room 120) to swap out your old clicker hardware (receivers, clicker keypads, etc.) for a new kit as soon as possible. The old hardware is NOT compatible with the latest version of TurningPoint.

We still have plenty of kits for the current user group and for several new users if there is interest. To see what the new receiver looks like compared to the old one, see our previous Clicker update blog post.

If you have any questions on TurningPoint 5 or clickers, please contact the Learning Technology Center.

ResponseWare Account Migration

ResponseWare LogoDuring the summer, Turning Technologies updated their ResponseWare service, and because of the change, all ResponseWare accounts need to be migrated over to the new service.

If you’ve previously signed up for a ReponseWare account, you would have received an email from Turning Technologies to the email address you used during the sign up (most likely your UW-W email account). The email will include a link to follow to migrate your ResponseWare account.

If you haven’t received an email from Turning Technologies to migrate your account, you can visit the Account page for ResponseWare and click the Forgot Password link. Do NOT make a new account from this page. Enter in the email address you used to register for a ResponseWare account in the forgot password screen, and you’ll receive a new email with a link to migrate your account.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the ResponseWare migration, please contact the Learning Technology Center.

Orientation Workshops: August 21, 2014

Come join us on August 21, 2014 for two workshops by the Learning Technology Center.

ClassroomOnline Teaching: A Primer
August 21, 2014
9:30 – 10:30 AM, UC 259B

Many of the basic principles of teaching are universal; however, the online learning environment has some specific challenges for students and instructors. This session will address these challenges, explore the basics of online course design, and give practical suggestions to make the online learning experience better for both you and your students.

Evaluating Online Student Group Work
August 21, 2014
11:00 – Noon, McGraw 115

Group work can be a valuable experience for students, but evaluating group work can be a challenge for any instructor. This session will explore common issues and concerns regarding evaluating online student group work, models for group work, and some simple tools for getting started with group assessment. Specific tools include the D2L Dropbox, D2L Rubrics, and PeerMark.

To register for these sessions, please sign up at:  http://signup.uww.edu.  Seating is limited.

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

Desire2Learn Service Update (7/31)

On Thursday, July 31st, Desire2Learn Inc. deployed Service Pack 7 and 8 to our D2L Learning Environment. In this latest update, the following fixes were included:

Quizzes

  • If Question Library contains thousands of questions, attempting to delete hundreds of questions simultaneously no longer result in an error.
  • Previously, when users paged through the responses to a question that has more responses than other questions, the system remembered the page number they were on, and when they returned to the list of questions to grade a different question with fewer responses, the system brought users to a blank page 1. Now, quizzes correctly display questions and responses.
  • Because the same question cannot be imported into a Question Library more than once, an error page now appears to explain to users why some questions were not imported successfully.
  • The Equation Editor option now opens correctly when users open the HTML Editor in a pop-up window in Question Library and select it.
  • When editing quiz question types, users can now successfully delete answers with empty value fields without encountering an error.

Dropbox

  • Users working in Chrome browsers can now upload files to Dropbox folders successfully.
  • Instructors now remain on the Evaluation page for a user they evaluate after they click Publish, Update, or Revert. Previously, clicking these actions would automatically take instructors to the next student, and often instructors who were not aware of the change assumed their feedback wasn’t saved successfully and mistakenly do the evaluation again for a different student.
  • Dropbox now accepts submissions with file names that contain a period ending. For example, a Microsoft Word document called “MySubmission.” will upload successfully as “MySubmission..docx”.

Content

  • The Content tool no longer automatically adjusts the Due Date or End Date for a module or topic when a user edits a Start Date or Due Date. The date and time associated with a Start Date, Due Date, or End Date will only change if they are explicitly set and saved. A validation message will appear to users when they set an end date to occur before a Due Date. Validation checks to ensure that the Due Date and End Date are after the Start Date still apply.
  • Uploading a file with a name that is identical to an existing topic file now updates the topic successfully and no longer causes the creation of a new topic too.

Import/Export/Copy Components

  • An error no longer occurs when copying a course with Dropbox folders that contain special access.
  • Course files with commas in their names now copy successfully to new courses and an error no longer occurs. For example, a course file with the name “Module1,Reading1” now copies successfully through the “Copy selected components” or “Copy all components” workflow.

Discussions: If you attempt to export User Statistics from the Discussions Statistics/User tab, you will now get Discussion Statistics instead of Forums and Topics.

Grades: Instead of sorting by internal UserId and ignoring “Key Field”, the grades export file now correctly sorts by “Key Field” as set by the user.

Calendar

  • Calendar events that include YouTube videos now display the video correctly when users read the events from the Agenda view.
  • User interface changes were made to the List view’s “Filter By” activity type control. The changes include fixing wrapping issues that caused the control to wrap across three lines, and the “X” icon is now replaced with the words “Clear all filters” to improve usability.

Competencies: Copying courses with a large number of competencies that have associated quizzes no longer results in a timeout.

User Progress: The system table holding user login history was restructured to prevent slowness in login and querying.

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

Distance Teaching and Learning Conference

MononaTerraceCloseThe University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Continuing Studies is pleased to announce the 30th annual conference on distance teaching and learning.  It will be held August 12-14 at the Monona Terrace of Madison, Wisconsin.

Explore the conference program and register today!

The conference will include 56 information sessions, 16 workshops, discussions, ePosters, and showcases.  Topics such as MOOCs, mobile learning, gamification, learning analytics, competency-based learning, and generational learning styles will be addressed.

Keynote speakers include:

  • Michael Quinn Patton, Founder and Director of Utilization-Focused Evaluation
  • Ray Schroeder, Associate Vice Chancellor of Online Learning, University of Illinois Springfield and Director, UPCEA Center for Online Leadership and Strategy
  • Jane Bozarth, ELearning Coordinator, North Carolina Office of State Personnel

For more information, visit the conference website: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/

D2L v10.3 Discussion Tool Changes

The latest upgrade in D2L to version 10.3 included a complete interface overhaul of the Discussions tool. This new interface includes a change to the structure of Discussions and some new features, which are outlined in the video below.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the Discussions tool or the changes, please contact UW-W D2L Support.