Instructional Technology Showcase – April 12!

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UW-Extension, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Whitewater, UW-Colleges and UW-Parkside are pleased to announce the UW System Virtual Showcase 2013, sponsored by the LTDC.  This webinar-style event will be held on Friday, April 12th from 8:45 am to 2:15 pm.  Keynote speakers, Patricia McGee and Scott Hamm will discuss active and mobile learning.  UW-Whitewater Faculty member Jeannine Rowe will share her ResponseWare Best Practices and John Reilly will provide his insight on “Flipping the Classroom.”

Session details, registration, and information on how to connect are available at: http://blogs.ces.uwex.edu/showcase

Desire2Learn Service Update (4/4/2013)

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Desire2Learn logoThis morning, Thursday, April 4th, Desire2Learn Inc. deployed Service Pack 8 and a few hotfixes to our D2L learning environment.

A bug that made instructors unable to copy gradebook items and/or categories from any previous offering of the course using the Copy Components tool has been fixed. Also, a fix has been applied that corrects an issue with the “New Survey” function not working in some courses under the Surveys tool. Issues with downloading files through Internet Explorer 8 are now resolved. News and other tools’ file attachments are now downloadable from IE8.

In addition, these are some tool specific fixes from the Service Pack:

  • ePortfolio: Invitation messages that are longer than 150 characters when entered, but are less than 150 characters after formatting, no longer results in an error when viewed.
  • Grades: When copying a course with an attached grade scheme using the Import / Export / Copy Course Components tool, the default grade scheme selection is now retained. Several database performance issues were corrected to improve or reduce load issues.
  • Dropbox: If a dropbox folder has a date availability restrictions, its folder instructions no longer appear in the calendar to users without proper permissions until the available start date. Also, when users evaluate the last dropbox folder submissions on the Evaluate Submission page, the “Finish” button is now replaced with a “Done” button and no longer publishes the last submission listed. “Done” instead redirects back to the Folder Submissions page.
  • Widgets: The links widget did not allow users to add links within it even if users have proper permissions. This has been corrected.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

TurningPoint Hyperlinks Workaround (Clickers)

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In Office 2007 and Office 2010, there is a known issue with hyperlinks in PowerPoint. Any time a hyperlink to an outside program is used in a presentation as a certain type of custom animation, this will cause PowerPoint to crash. Since TurningPoint uses these types of animations as their base for functionality, this issue is common among its users. While Turning Technologies is actively investigating this issue at this time, there are some useful and easy workarounds available.

Please view the TurningPoint Hyperlink Workaround PDF for more details about the hyperlink workarounds.

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

Utilizing D2L Groups for Class Projects

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Are you thinking about setting up groups for your class this semester, but you’re not sure how it works? Check out this new, short video that explains how you can utilize groups in D2L to create group dropboxes, discussion forums, and lockers for your class projects.

If you would like to start using the groups tool in D2L, visit our Instructional Wiki pages on:

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

D2L Quiz Tips

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We have a few tips and tricks for you to keep in mind the next time you take a quiz in D2L.  The items below will help you avoid the most commonly reported issues with quizzes.

  1. You should always “Save” a  response after you have answered a question.
  2. If you close out your browser while taking your quiz the timer will not stop.
  3. Know when the quiz ends and how much time you have to take the quiz so that you can plan accordingly.
  4. Be aware of how many attempts you have to take a quiz.
  5. Before you submit your quiz, click on the “Save all Responses” to make sure that all of your answers have been saved.

If you have any questions please, Contact D2L Support.

TED Studies Instructional Material

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A new free resource is now available to help integrate content from TED talks into your courses called TED Studies. TED Studies combines recorded TED video sessions on a given topic and adds essays, key terms, debate topics, assignment questions, activities, and other instructor materials to round out each set of programs.

TED teamed up with publisher John Wiley & Sons to create PC and iPad-based content that can be used to support lessons on happiness studies and statistics, with more on the way. Additional topics planned for future release include:

  • Government and Politics: Cyber-Influence and Power;
  • Linguistics: Exploring the Evolution of Language;
  • Marine Biology: Deep Oceans;
  • Media & Journalism: Covering World News; and
  • Urban Design: The Ecology of Cities.

For more information about more courses that are available, please visit Ted Studies.

If you have questions on how to best use this in your course, contact the Learning Technology Center.

Upcoming D2L Course Cleanup

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In order to maintain optimal storage capacity, and ensure the ongoing smooth operation of D2L, the UW System conducts an annual purge of older courses from the system. This year, we are beginning preparation for courses from Fall 2008 through Summer 2010. Courses that are in this time frame will be purged from the D2L system beginning on May 3, 2013.

Things to keep in mind for the Cleanup process:

  • Only courses from Fall 2008 through Summer 2010 will be affected by this year’s Cleanup. Any courses that don’t fall in that time frame, including courses that are “OTHER” or “ONGOING” designated, are not affected.
  • Course materials or student information in courses can be exported if they’re needed for future courses or analysis. If you need assistance with exporting these items, please review the “How To” section of the D2L Cleanup Resources website.
  • Course components and materials can also be copied to an “OTHER” or “ONGOING” course shell if you plan on using the same materials for future courses. To complete a request for one, use the “Special Course Request” section of the D2L Course Request application.
  • If a special circumstance exists where a course that is slated for cleanup needs to be maintained as is (this is usually for reasons other than retaining course materials or student information), please complete and submit the Course Cleanup Retention form before April 26, 2013.

If you have any questions about the D2L Course Cleanup process, please review the Frequently Asked Questions section of the D2L Cleanup Resources site as your question may already be addressed there. If you still have questions or need assistance, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

Media Lab Specialty Printing

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Starting on May 28th, 2013 the iCIT Media Lab will only be accepting purple points for faculty and staff specialty printing (color prints, poster prints, and laminations).  The ability to charge departmental and project org codes will still be available.

We have produced a short video that explains the changes and also the general printing process.

Additional information is available on the Media Lab website.

The Media Lab printing services are available for use by all students, faculty and staff.  Any questions regarding this can be directed to: medialab@uww.edu