Learn@UW will be performing maintenance during the regularly scheduled maintenance window on Thursday, October 27th from 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM (CDT).
D2L will not be available during this time frame. Please plan your coursework accordingly.
[RESOLVED] Intermittent Login Issues
Update: As of 9:10am iCIT Technicians have identified and resolved the issue.
We are currently aware that some users are having intermittent login issues with Desire2Learn. We are actively investigating the issue and will keep you updated.
Faculty Best Practices: StudyMate
An engaging way to reinforce key concepts in a course is to provide interactive learning activities and games, such flash cards, crossword puzzles, and challenge games. These types of activities encourage students to spend more time with course content because it doesn’t feel like “learning” to them. Developing these types of educational games and activities has been made easy to do using StudyMate Author. This software tool helps instructors create ten Flash-based activities and games using four simple templates.
- Activities created using StudyMate can be used with D2L or posted on any website.
- StudyMate Author will import items from MS Word files, publisher test banks, and directly from Respondus, making it easy to create interesting, interactive activities from existing content with no programming knowledge.
- Educational Uses: Fact cards, flash cards, pick a letter, fill-in-the-blank, matching, crossword, challenge, and glossary.
More information is available here: StudyMate Wiki
D2L Service Stability Update
Since the emergency maintenance to the database systems on Tuesday morning, we haven’t had a re-occurrence of the problem behavior we’ve experienced earlier. Based on this, Learn@UW is believes that the cause has been addressed.
As of now, the service is considered stable. The Learn@UW Utility will continue to monitor the situation and engage with Microsoft support as needed. Thank you for your patience during this time.
Instructors’ Imaginations Ignited: Second Life at UW-W
Learn about the innovative use of Second Life in higher education and learn about the work of a year-long, cross-disciplinary learning community of UW-Whitewater instructors focused on leveraging Second Life in their courses.
Day: Wednesday, Oct. 12
Time: Noon – 1 pm
Location: UC 275A
During this LEARN Center session, instructors involved in the Second Life Learning Community will discuss how they experimented with instructional strategies to leverage the use of Second Life in their coursework. Examples of actual course activities will be showcased and key success factors learned, ideas, strategies, and tools used by the learning community will also be shared. The learning community work was made possible through a UW System Curricular Redesign Grant administered through the Learning Technology Development Council.
Details at: http://www.uww.edu/learn/ws1112.php
Please register no later than October 11.
To reserve a place, please contact the LEARN Center:
262-472-5242 or learn@uww.edu (learn@uww.edu)
Register online at: http://signup.uww.edu using your Net-ID
The workshop is listed under “LEARN Center.”
Learn About D2L Rubrics
The Learning Technology Center (LTC) is pleased to invite faculty and instructional staff to attend the next free session in the Snackable Series “Technology – One Byte at a Time.” In the “Snackable Series” sessions, a specific learning technology is spotlighted. The next sessions will be held October 19 and 20 and focus on the use of D2L Rubrics. Please bring your lunch and join your peers on the following days to learn about D2L Rubrics:
Desire2Learn’s Rubric Tool
Wednesday, 10/19: Noon to 1 pm
Thursday, 10/20: 11 am to Noon
iCIT Training Center, McGraw 112
D2L Rubrics are a useful tool for Instructors to provide clear criteria to students regarding what is expected for an assignment as well as effectively communicate feedback on why a grade was given. Most often formatted as a grid, a rubric can be organized in a variety of ways and reflect an infinite number of grading schemes.
Register online today for this “Snackable Series” session – seating is limited: https://signup.uww.edu
To submit ideas for future topics for the “Snackable Series”, please e-mail the UW-Whitewater Learning Technology Center at ltc@uww.edu.
D2L Service Unstable – Database Errors
There have been several related service outages during this week that have affected access to D2L. Learn@UW is working with Desire2Learn Inc. and Microsoft database technicians to find the source of the outages and work towards a permanent solution. Until we receive official word from Learn@UW, the D2L service’s status is considered unstable.
This issue resulted in the following outages:
9/15 (Thurs): 7:44 AM to 7:49 AM
9/26 (Mon): 9:24 PM to 2:29 PM; 9:59 PM to 10:05 PM
9/27 (Tue): 12:15 AM to 12:28 AM
9/28 (Wed): 1:12 PM to 1:25 PM
9/29 (Thurs): 8:34 AM to 8:40 AM; 4:08 PM to 4:18 PM
10/3 (Mon): 10:22 AM to 10:30 AM; 1:38 PM to 1:47 PM
10/6 (Thurs): 11:59 AM to 12:09 PM
10/7 (Fri): 12:35 PM to 12:41 PM; 1:17 PM to 1:27 PM
Future outages relating to this issue will also be posted here.
New D2L Documentation for Students
Desire2Learn has provided new documentation specifically for student (or “Learner”) audiences. We’ve edited this documentation to better reflect our instance of D2L, and it is now available for our students.
The documentation covers all the basic tools available in D2L courses, including Quizzes, Dropbox, Discussions, and more, and also covers basic tasks within these tools.
Please visit the Student D2L Documentation site to take a look!
What’s New in 9.2.1 and New Documentation
Now that we’ve upgraded to version 9.2.1 for the Desire2Learn, we have some new features and updates we’d like you to be aware of, including an overview of our new login page and information sites. For more information, please see the “What’s New” wiki page.
In addition to the updating the D2L Learning Environment documentation for version 9.2.1, we have also added ePortfolio documentation. Please take a look at our D2L version 9.2.1 documentation site. (Please note that you may be prompted to log in when accessing this site.)
New for Clickers: ReponseWare
ResponseWare is a web-based polling application from Turning Technologies that lets participants use the devices they use most, such as their mobile devices and computers. Participants using smartphones, laptops, and other Internet-connected devices can respond in real-time to interactive polling questions.
This application can be used as a replacement for a clicker keypad, and a ResponseWare license can be purchased directly from Turning Technologies via their “Student Store” website. Students who opt to use the ResponseWare enjoy the benefits of cost savings and are not required to keep track of and maintain a separate clicker keypad device.
Both ResponseWare and clicker keypads can be used in the classroom simultaneously, thereby allowing instructors to accommodate students with and without a personal mobile device. To use both ResponseWare and clicker keypads, instructors simply enable use of ResponseWare within the Turning Point software that is already used.
For more information on ResponseWare, please see either the ResponseWare for Instructors wiki page or the ResponseWare for Students wiki page. For more information on clickers and TurningPoint, please see the Clicker Resources page.