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 3rd 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.
myDesire2Learn is a free tool offered and hosted by Desire2Learn Inc. that uses the same framework as the ePortfolio tool in D2L. It allows for users who are graduating and/or leaving the university to continue using their ePortfolios. Because they will no longer have access to UW-Whitewater’s D2L system, myDesire2Learn allows those users to continue to update and share their ePortfolios that they’ve developed during their college career.
To access this service, users will need to click the “Export to myDesire2Learn” button in either the Instructor or Student Resources widget after logging into D2L. This will have more information on myDesire2Learn and links to start the process.
If you have students that are graduating this semester, feel free to pass this information along to them. If you have any questions about ePortfolio or the myDesire2Learn service, please contact UW-W D2L Support.
This morning, Thursday, April 25th, Desire2Learn Inc. deployed Service Pack 9 to our D2L learning environment.
Along with some tool fixes (as outlined below), D2L has made a much-requested change to the interface. The course navigation bar no longer disappears when users are viewing full-screen pages, such as the “Enter Grades” tool. Issues with downloading files in the Dropbox and Content tools’ file attachments through Internet Explorer 8 have also been resolved.
In addition, these are some tool specific fixes from the Service Pack:
Discussions:
On the Group Restrictions page for a discussion topic, returned results now work properly when you select All Forums in the Forum drop-down list when previously no results were returned.
After users perform a Role Switch and then access Discussions, they can now perform actions only allowed by the switched role permissions, and no longer possess the original role permissions.
Grades:
Lengthy grade category descriptions now wrap correctly; this eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling.
Formulas for Calculated Final Grade and Adjusted Final Grade now copy correctly when Grades are copied in Copy Course Components.
In Grades’ Enter Grades page, each grade item’s Properties information no longer displays “Weight” properties if the grading system is not a Weighted system.
Dropbox:
The Dropbox Folders page and Folder Submissions page now correctly indicate the number of submissions that are “Unread” and “read” after file submissions are viewed online or downloaded.
In Dropbox folders with Turnitin OriginalityCheck enabled, an error no longer occurs when a GradeMark Available to Students date is set in the past. This error occurred most frequently in OrginialityCheck-enabled Dropbox folders that were copied from another org unit.
Chat: Previously, chat messages had a maximum limit of 400 characters. This limit has been removed.
Content:
The Content Browser widget did not update release conditions when conditions were met. Release conditions are now computed when the widget loads so students can see content that becomes available.
Inserting a quicklink no longer updates the topic title if it is not empty.
User Progress: User visits to Content topics and modules and navigation through them with the Next or Previous buttons are now correctly tracked.
HTML Editor: Image resizing is now supported in Firefox for both instances.
Homepages: Duplicated instances of a custom widget can now be styled independently without affecting all instance of that widget.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact UW-W D2L Support.
On the scheduled, weekly maintenance window from 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM this Thursday, April 25th, Learn@UW will be deploying Service Pack 9 to our D2L instance. During this window, access to D2L will be intermittent, and you may experience errors. If you are using D2L during this time frame, please plan your work accordingly.
LTDC presents the West Regional Technology Conference at UW La Crosse this Friday, April 26, 2013 from 8:00AM-5:30PM. The conference theme is “Dynamic Practices: Engaging Students in the Classroom, Online, and Beyond.“
Visit this site for the in depth agenda details, registration, and more information.
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.
The Learning Technology Center is pleased to announce the fourth annual summer faculty development opportunity on “Online/Blended Course Design and Best Practices.” If you need to design a new (or refresh an older) online or blended/hybrid course, please consider participating in this unique opportunity to collaborate with other UW-Whitewater instructors and explore proven course design strategies and best practices.
This highly-interactive summer workshop demonstrates teaching best practices using a variety of teaching methods and technology tools, and topics are presented in an experiential learning model format. The structure of this course not only allows you to explore new teaching and course design methods, but it also enables you to participate in activities that provide you with experience in being an online “student.”
The workshop consists of an online component conducted via Desire2Learn (D2L), face-to-face meetings, and webinars. The online portion begins on May 24 and ends July 30. There are also five, “in-person” face-to-face sessions scheduled for May 30, June 24-25, and July 29-30 as well as webinar-style meetings throughout the course. For more details, to register, and to listen to what participants have to say about what they learned from participating in last year’s workshop, please visit the Online/Blended Workshop Blog.
This workshop is sponsored by the by the UW-Whitewater College of Letters and Sciences, the LEARN Center, and the Learning Technology Center. If you have questions or would like more information, please contact the Learning Technology Center (LTC) at ltc@uww.edu or call 262-472-1004.
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.
As a reminder, course requests for a semester become available on the first day of priority registration for students, and course shells for D2L need to be requested for every semester you plan on using D2L.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact UW-W D2L Support.
Does teaching 10,000 students or more online really work? There has been a lot of hype about the effectiveness of massive open online classes (also know as “MOOCs”). The Chronicle of Higher Education conducted the largest survey of professors who have taught MOOCs and shows that the process is time-consuming but, according to the instructors, often successful!
Check out the full article “The Minds Behind the MOOCs” by Steven Kolowich that contains the survey results.