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Wednesday, 27 November 2013
SU Blackboard Users:Today's Cork St (11-1p) & HPB (1:30-5p) Traveling Blackboard Support sessions are cancelled. If you have any questions Blackboard related questions, please fill out a workorder.
The IC Department wishes you and your family an incredibly cozy and relaxing Thanksgiving!
Best,
IC's Blackboard Support Team
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
There are many resources available to SU users for Blackboard support here at Shenandoah University. For Example:- We send out our Technology Liaison, Tristan Plummer, to provide immediate Bb support for all Blackboard users on daily visits around campus called Traveling Blackboard Support.
- We write a daily tech blog, a Doah column, and a weekly tech buzz that often times contain useful Blackboard information.
- We encourage our workorder system to be used as much as possible so that users can get quality assistance incredibly quickly.
- We also have such a close relationship with Blackboard that when SU makes suggestions, Blackboard will consider our ideas and even change the entire Blackboard system (Have you noticed that the Journal instructions are back to the top of the Journal's main screen? Yes, all Blackboard users see that now, and yes, it was a suggestion that came from SU).
- Blackboard has made available a phenomenal website for all users called help.blackboard.com (This website does not contain information about SU's specific Blackboard environment)
- We have created Blackboard courses for Organization Leaders and Students to participate in to acclimate them to SU's Blackboard environment
Despite all of the above support, perhaps the best Blackboard resource available to all of our users is Shenandoah University's Blackboard website.
If you have not been to Su.edu/Bb, you're missing out on a knowledge-treat. Here you will find:
- System Announcements, a simple way to be in the know about SU's Blackboard system
- Browser Compatibility Information
- Forms for achieving your specific Blackboard goals
- Faculty information (If you're curious as a student to see how the Faculty side works, this is an awesome resource)
- Student information (Includes how to take tests, turn in assignments, use the calendar tool and much more)
- Organization Leader information
- Integration Tools (Awesome tools that can make your Blackboard experience way more interesting, interactive, and personalized)
Keep in mind, where help.blackboard.com is a website created by Bb Inc. Su.edu/bb is a website created here at SU. The information contained within this website is relevant to our specific Blackboard environment, making it your go to location for SU Blackboard instant knowledge gratification!
Monday, 25 November 2013
11/27/2013 7:30AM-9AM
The File Servers (FS1 & NS02 [Drives H, I, J, K, L, T, Z]) will be down for maintenance/migration.
Following the Migration, the drive L drive (\\nas02\working) will be remapped to \\fs1\working.
If you are having problems accessing your files after 9AM please check your emails for followup announcements. Also make sure to log off/on before contacting the Help Desk
I've got the usual tips and tricks this week including a great way to send files straight to Google Drive from Gmail, a handy screenshot tool for Chrome and the Evernote WebClipper for Safari! If I don't get to see you this week, have a great holiday and safe travels!
Where I Will Be This Week
Monday - Bowman Building - 11 - 1 - Room 212
Wednesday - Cork Street - 11 - 1 - Room M 155
Always Online @ www.su.edu/training
Techsmith - the makers of Camtasia and a host of other software, have come out with a Chrome extension that is pretty handy. This screen shot tool allows you to click and drag a part of your screen and then mark it up using the built it annotation tools. The link to share is right there as well. Best of all, your images are saved in Google Drive for easy future access! Give it a try!
The Evernote WebClipper for Chrome is something I have covered in the past, and it is one of the tools that I use everyday to snag articles, images, emails, etc... from my internet wanderings. Now you can have all that goodness on the Apple browser Safari! Check out the link to download this amazing extension for your own browser. You won't be disappointed.
Remember to submit your name suggestion here before leaving for the holiday. All names must be submitted by Dec. 8th. You could win $100.
Where I Will Be This Week
Monday - Bowman Building - 11 - 1 - Room 212
Wednesday - Cork Street - 11 - 1 - Room M 155
Always Online @ www.su.edu/training
A recent update to Gmail on the web allows you to send any attachments that are sent to you over to Google Drive. What is especially nice about this is that you do not have to leave your email. This is a huge timesaver for those who receive attachments all the time! Want to see more? Check out the link for a brief video walkthrough of the process in action.
Techsmith - the makers of Camtasia and a host of other software, have come out with a Chrome extension that is pretty handy. This screen shot tool allows you to click and drag a part of your screen and then mark it up using the built it annotation tools. The link to share is right there as well. Best of all, your images are saved in Google Drive for easy future access! Give it a try!  |
The Evernote WebClipper for Chrome is something I have covered in the past, and it is one of the tools that I use everyday to snag articles, images, emails, etc... from my internet wanderings. Now you can have all that goodness on the Apple browser Safari! Check out the link to download this amazing extension for your own browser. You won't be disappointed.
Remember to submit your name suggestion here before leaving for the holiday. All names must be submitted by Dec. 8th. You could win $100. Friday, 22 November 2013
That being said, the IC department has decided it is time to name this little critter, but what should the name be?
You decide!
Click the link to submit your name for the Bb Moose
The person who submits the winning name will receive
$100
How the contest works:
- Potential names will be collected, through the above link until 12/8
- After name collection ends, a poll will be created and shared. Voting will begin on 12/9 and voting will last until 12/21
- Winner Announced and prize distributed in the Student Center on 1/3
Thursday, 21 November 2013
Shenandoah University's Blackboard team proudly introduces it's newest member. The, currently nameless, cousin to Blackboard's UX Moose!
From now on, you will be able to spot these gorgeous antlers around campus, and in the Moose-tracks will be the best Blackboard support Shenandoah's IC Department can provide!
The Moose is here, and it's ready to drop some serious Blackboard knowledge all over this campus!
Don't be shy, stop on by and give this Moose your time
The Moose is here, and it's ready to drop some serious Blackboard knowledge all over this campus!
Don't be shy, stop on by and give this Moose your time
(and affection).
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Tuesday, 19 November 2013
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Yesterday's Blog Post was a simple, clean, and informative "infographic" that I created using www.easel.ly. Though this website is in beta, it has proven itself to be a user-friendly tool that can visually represent your ideas and data in fun, professional, and interesting ways, and get this, it's free. Getting Started:
- Create an account, or else you will not be able to save your image.
- Drag preset templates or create an infographic starting from scratch by dragging down a blank background into the canvas
- Edit the canvas by adding or removing objects and items to the canvas to visually represent your information on the canvas
- Once completed save your image.
- Once saved, download, embed, share, and upload your image wherever you would like!
If you get to know easel.ly, I have no doubt that you will be able to impress a few people who are tired at looking at the same old flow charts and pie graphs. Feel free to comment on this blog post with some of the infographics you have created through ease.ly.
The following video is a short video produced by ease.ly. Check it out!
Monday, 18 November 2013
Google Docs Research
Insert Tables
The Google Docs research tool is an incredibly useful addition to Google Drive. This side pane allows you to search and insert web links, pictures, quotes and now tables all directly into your Google Docs and Presentations. Want to see a demo? Click the link to check it out!
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| Gmail Ipad App Update The Gmail App on iOS got a recent update that provides a much cleaner and more user friendly interface. If you haven't updated the App yet, go to the app store to get the update. I think you will like the new and improved interface. Want to see what's changed? Check out the link above for the gmail blog. |
Google Now Voice Commands
Google Now is the intuitive assistant that lives within the Google Search App. By using the voice search within the app, you can have instant access to a whole host of information. Check out this great info-graphic for all of the voice search terms that the assistant can respond to conversationally.
Where Devon Will Be This Week
Monday - Bowman Building - 11 - 1 - Room 212
Tuesday - Feltner Building - 11 - 1 - Third Floor
Wednesday - Cork Street - 11 - 1 - Room M 155
Thursday - Wilkins Building - 11 - 1 - Conference Room
Thursday - Halpin-Harrison Hall - 2:30 - 4:30 - Room 140
Friday - Health Professions Building - 11 - 1 - In Front of Library
Always Online @ www.su.edu/training
Friday, 15 November 2013
The Sun is shining, it's Friday, all is right in the SU universe, and I have a phenomenal Blackboard feature to tell you about! That's right, the feature is integrated pasting from Microsoft Word into Blackboard's Content Editor!In older versions, in order to properly paste from word into Blackboard, you had to go through the Paste from Word mashup which seemed, to many, like too many steps were involved.
Now, to paste perfectly formatted text from Word into Blackboard, all you have to do is copy and paste. Granted, sometimes numbered lists get a little wonky, but Blackboard has built in to the content editor a wonderful button that allows you to highlight text and clear format so that you can manually straighten them out. The "Clear Formatting" button can be found in the image of the content editor below:
I suspect many of you have already enjoyed this feature many times without knowing about it because its use is so seamless. The next time you paste from Word to Blackboard, do it with confidence!
Thursday, 14 November 2013
Once installed as an extension to your browser, Evernote will provide you with the capabilities to save your modified articles directly into whatever Evernote folder you choose!
Evernote Webclipper has been around for some time now as an extension to Chrome, and was just recently released for Safari! Firefox has access to the Webclipper tool as well, but user reviews seem to be a little lower than Chrome and Safari based on some functionality issues.
Here is a brief video about how the Webclipper functions:
Blackboard Inc has provided several fixes and improvements, as you will see below. One big one for SU users is the fact that instructions are now showing by default on landing page of Journals.
Having problems with Blackboard (Bb) at Shenandoah University (SU)? Or just want to know if anything has changed on SU's Bb site. Take a few minutes to look at the IC Help Desk Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ichelpdesk), or look at the System News area on the SU Bb Support Site (www.su.edu/bb), Check your SU email, or follow IC's Technology Support Liaison Tristan Plummer on Twitter (https://twitter.com/TplummerIC). If you do not see anything indicating and issue, please submit an Online Support Ticket at https://workorder.su.edu.
Inline Grading/Discussions/Journal/Wiki/Blogs/Assignments:
This update to the inline grading experience improves the user experience and resolves defects in the recently released Inline Grading feature for Assignments, Blogs, Journals, Wikis and Discussion Board.
Instructions for Assignments, Blogs, Journals and Wikis are again available in the left panel.
Item Analysis:
Partner Cloud:
Leveraging the larger Blackboard Cloud infrastructure, the Partner Cloud allows institutions to access multiple state-of-the-art integrations of high quality educational content within Blackboard Learn platform through a single Building Block.
Bb Mobile Web:
Having problems with Blackboard (Bb) at Shenandoah University (SU)? Or just want to know if anything has changed on SU's Bb site. Take a few minutes to look at the IC Help Desk Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ichelpdesk), or look at the System News area on the SU Bb Support Site (www.su.edu/bb), Check your SU email, or follow IC's Technology Support Liaison Tristan Plummer on Twitter (https://twitter.com/TplummerIC). If you do not see anything indicating and issue, please submit an Online Support Ticket at https://workorder.su.edu.
Inline Grading/Discussions/Journal/Wiki/Blogs/Assignments:
This update to the inline grading experience improves the user experience and resolves defects in the recently released Inline Grading feature for Assignments, Blogs, Journals, Wikis and Discussion Board.
Instructions for Assignments, Blogs, Journals and Wikis are again available in the left panel.
- Additional metadata is available in the right panel under the "About…" menu.
- Reintroduced the ability to hide/show empty Blogs and Journals in the user navigation list on the right panel.
- Blogs and Journals with no entries will display default informational text to the user instead of a blank panel.
- The index legend formerly available in the right sidebar is now available in "More Help."
- Discussion Board "Failed to Save" error message is displayed and the VTBE fails to load when replying to Discussion forum threads.
- Anonymous Discussion forum posts can be edited and made not anonymous by instructors.
- Rubric Discussion Board Feedback is not displayed to the student or instructor.
- Using Firefox 22+ to quote or reply to a Discussion Board thread incorrectly presents the text from the previously created post.
- Tool based assessments such as Discussions, Blogs & Journals and Wikis cannot be graded due to the grading area not appearing when viewing student activity
- A NullPointerException error is reported when a student submits an Assignment using an attachment with the file name over 125 characters or 42 Multi-byte characters. The file is still added and the attempt created, but the instructor will receive a NullPointerException error when trying to view the attempt.
- The student ID and Avatar are displayed in Blog posts when the anonymous option "Allow Anonymous Entries and Comments" is enabled for the Blog
- Blog instructions are not displayed in the middle of the page. To view the instructions, the usermust click on "About this Blog" on the upper right side of the page. The same behavior is observed with Journals.
Item Analysis:
- Incorrect difficulty percentage calculation in Item Analysis Report with Question Sets
- An "Invalid page access for course" error is displayed when selecting grade details for
- Self and Peer Assessment when show Show Evaluation Results to Submitter is False
- Rounding score is leading to incorrect percentage in Self and Peer Assessment
Partner Cloud:
Leveraging the larger Blackboard Cloud infrastructure, the Partner Cloud allows institutions to access multiple state-of-the-art integrations of high quality educational content within Blackboard Learn platform through a single Building Block.
- Enhanced UI on Partner selections including new and enhanced partner selection page, table of content icons, and deployed location information in the content discovery process for links already added to the course.
- Activity Accumulator: Reporting enhancements for commercial content in standard Learn reports.
- Mobile: Enhancements to support Bb Learn Mobile app accessibility
- Commercial Content Option: For SP14 and above, if no partners are enabled for PC, Commercial Content option is removed.
- Achievements B2 has been, causing some images to not appear When Guest users access, 'Something went wrong' message box pops up
- Achievement building block giving errors on export / archive / copy (Internal)
- The date in the certificate is not the achieved date but the system date (Internal)
- The issuer name cannot be null on the Select Rewards-Badge) (Internal)
- When issuer = Course, the expiry date, issuer name and other parameters in the UI should be applied to both badges and certificates in order to have a consistent behavior (Internal)
- When issuer = Course, the default value for Issuer Name should be set from the admin Manage Achievements page for both Certificate and Badge (Internal)
- Screen Reader announces twice for Achievement Type (Internal)
- Screen Reader announces twice for Review Status in the Define Trigger page (Internal)
- Screen Reader announces incorrectly for Expiry Date in the Select Rewards page (Internal)
- Show All button is not working as expected in the Recipients light box (Internal)
- When editing an achievement there is no quick way to Save and Exit. UI update has been made so that the buttons now appear as: "Cancel Save and Exit | Next <context>" (Internal)
- Typo under Achievements > Membership > Recipients > "Date Received" (Internal)
- Manage Achievements page needs Help text (Internal)
- Access to Manage Achievements should be defined via Entitlement in the Admin Panel (Internal)
- Instructors should be able to designate a reward expiry based on reward received date and validity period (Internal)
Calendar:
- For instructors and administrators enrolled in a large number of courses, the calendar displays "Error Getting Events Not Found"
- The course calendar does not load in a course if the Course ID contains more than one period (.)
- Date format is incorrect when usingg Korean language pack
Content Editor:
- HTML editing breaks formatting and images in course migrated from Vista/CE8
- Video Everywhere not working for students when inserted as thumbnail
- Embedded audio always auto playss
- Unable to embed a URL when using the Insert/Edit Embedded Media window
Grading/My Grading:
Retention Center:- Custom Smart View returns incorrect results if Course ID contains underscores,
- Grade Center displays errorParsingDataMsg
- Test results do not appear when there are disabled users in the course without attempts, even after all enabled
- Hidden columns on Grade Center are shown to students on My Grades tool,
- Error when students access assignments from within My Grades after grade attempt is cleared
- Performance issue EWS' insert runs indefinitely
- Warning generation queries and course list on My Blackboard need to take into account courses with Term availability (Internal)
- Retention Center rules and alerts appear to duplicate users,
- Retention Center building block fails with collation conflict on sql server,
- Retention Center does not work with custom language packs,
- Early warning rules do not display for courses associated with terms,
- IE9 causing CPU spiking and slow response in taking quiz
- Test description is missing inside of assessment
- Resolved: issue where extra brackets were added to item titles
- Resolved: issue where some students were having trouble loading content
- Resolved: issue where empty URL fields were being passed to the app
- Resolved: issue where users were receiving push notifications from unavailable courses
- Resolved: issue where Surveys and Assignments were not marked as read
- Resolved: issue with mobile compatible tests and editing the start/end date year
- Resolved: issue where Discussion posts were not being marked as read
- Resolved: issue where data error occurred when loading courses
- Resolved: issue where new items in Learning Module were not marked as unread
- Resolved: issue where Assignments were not being marked as read
- Resolved: issue where the B2 settings page was crashing for some schools
- Resolved: issue where available content in an unavailable folder was accessible
- Resolved: issue where some schools’ courses were not viewable
- Resolved: issue displaying special characters
- Improved: enhances lesson plan view
- Improved: addresses a grades column display issue with the "Score Attempts Using" grade logic set by the instructor in the Grade Center
- Improved: enhances course artifact linking in Discussions
- Improved: simplify B2 settings
- Improved: localization improvements
- Added: support for multiple choice questions when the 'Show Answers in Random Order' option is selected in a mobile compatible test
- Added: Instructors can now open unavailable mobile tests in the app in order to preview the student experience
- Added: the Group File Exchange area in group tools
- Added: tracking for when a user adds a new Blog entry, a new Blog comment, and a new Journal comment (a new Journal entry was already being tracked)
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
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Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Since November 6, the Library tab has functioned slightly different in that, when you click on the Library tab (a sub tab from the "Academics" top-frame tab), the page will load in a new browser tab. I know many of you keep your pop-up blocker settings on and always vigilant to protect your computer from annoying advertisements (remember, if a popup says you've won a new iPad, chances are, you're just going to win some malware and a headache if you click on it).
If you keep your pop-up blocker on, make sure that you pay attention to your browser when trying to open the Library tab because it will most likely prompt you to disable pop-up protection for this page in particular. Disable your pop-up blocker for this particular page and everything will work as you would have expected.
On a side note, I want to point out that the Tech Support top-frame tab within Blackboard contains a subtab called "Library Passwords" where you can get the username and passwords to many Library related resources.
Monday, 11 November 2013
Today's blog will come in two parts. The first part is an allegorical account of what happened today between Datatel and Blackboard that caused the disruption that lead users to not be able to access their courses. The second part of today's blog will be the official System News regarding the incident that was authored by Melissa Stange.
*Allegorical account of today's Datatel Integration Incident*
Datatel (the system that deals with the vast majority of our user account information) and Blackboard (our online learning management system) are two close friends that go everywhere together and rely on each other's communication. Some,in the past, have called them, "two peas in a pod."
Datatel happens to be an important lady, and though what she has to say is crucial to every SU user, she is very shy; thus, what she says often goes unheard to all but Blackboard. Like a good friend, Blackboard recognizes how shy she is and keeps her out of the spotlight; but he makes sure to relay her words to all SU users in a clear and concise way.
Normally, Blackboard and Datatel communicate incredibly well, and because of that, their friendship flourishes. Today was a little different, and though they never got angry at eachother, they certainly had a miscommunication. Datatel was trying to say the right words to Blackboard, but the words did not come out properly! Blackboard was left without words to relay, and because of that, he thought that what Datatel was trying to say is that he should temporarily deactivate all user accounts. So that's what he did. Even though, she did not say exactly what she meant to.
Shortly thereafter, Datatel found her voice again, and told Blackboard what it needed to do to correct the problem. Blackboard did that, and all was right in the world.
*System News*
This morning the Datatel process that builds the integration table for Bb student enrollment failed due to timing out. This caused a data not to be in the table when Bb tried to update the student enrollment. Thus disabling all student records within Bb for the Fall courses. During this time, the Bb system was up and available for login. All non-grading & student course access was fully functional.
Upon first alert from Micheal Magro at 12:56p, IC Bb Team investigated to find the empty file. The Datatel team, CTL, & Help Desk was notified about the issue. IC Bb Staff were in the process of pulling last night enrollment file to get students back end when the normal integration process created a new good file. Due to the automation everyone had to wait till 2p for the re-activation of the student records.
During the waiting time period, IC Bb team personally responded to every Online Help Desk ticket submitted on the issue, all Bb Support emails received about the issue, IC Bb team responded to all emails received on the issue in our personal emails, IC Bb Team posted information about what was happening on IC Facebook page, Twitter, & was communicating with Student Life.
When the student enrollments had been restored verified by reviewing user accounts for all who contacted us, an all clear email was sent to CTL, Help Desk, Student Life, IC Facebook page, Twitter, & Bb Support System News page.
IC has already taken steps to avoid this problem in the future and will continue to review the issue to see if there are additional steps that may be taken. IC apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank all of you who submitted tickets via our online Web Help Desk system (https://workorder.su.edu ).Upon first alert from Micheal Magro at 12:56p, IC Bb Team investigated to find the empty file. The Datatel team, CTL, & Help Desk was notified about the issue. IC Bb Staff were in the process of pulling last night enrollment file to get students back end when the normal integration process created a new good file. Due to the automation everyone had to wait till 2p for the re-activation of the student records.
During the waiting time period, IC Bb team personally responded to every Online Help Desk ticket submitted on the issue, all Bb Support emails received about the issue, IC Bb team responded to all emails received on the issue in our personal emails, IC Bb Team posted information about what was happening on IC Facebook page, Twitter, & was communicating with Student Life.
When the student enrollments had been restored verified by reviewing user accounts for all who contacted us, an all clear email was sent to CTL, Help Desk, Student Life, IC Facebook page, Twitter, & Bb Support System News page.
(System News Authored by Melissa Stange)
You know it is Monday because Devon Taylor, SU's Technology Training Coordinator is helping SU users Work Smarter, Not Harder. With his weekly technology tidbits.
YouTube Comments now Linked to Google+
In an effort to clean up after YouTube's notorious trolls, a new commenting system has been put in place. This system will show you more relevant comments first, as well as those that are made by people in your circles on Google Plus. For the full rundown of changes, click the link!
Zoom.us - Video Conferencing for All!
The Zoom.us service allows anyone to host online video conferences with up to 25 people, even if they don't use zoom.us. (and its free!) You can share screens, highlight, annotate and much more! Want to give it a try? Head over to zoom.us and download the client. I don't think you will be disappointed.
Want to discuss these technologies further. You can visit with Devon at the following sites:
Monday - Bowman Building - 11 - 1 - Room 212
Wednesday - Cork Street - 11 - 1 - Room M 155
Thursday - Wilkins Building - 11 - 1 - Conference Room
Thursday - Halpin-Harrison Hall - 2:30 - 4:30 - Room 140
Friday - Health Professions Building - 11 - 1 - In Front of Library
Always Online @ www.su.edu/training
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| Want to get Hands Free? The IOS Google Search App now responds to "Ok Google" just like on Android. Want to see it in action and some examples of what you can do with voice search? Click the link for my video demo of the Google Search App! |
YouTube Comments now Linked to Google+In an effort to clean up after YouTube's notorious trolls, a new commenting system has been put in place. This system will show you more relevant comments first, as well as those that are made by people in your circles on Google Plus. For the full rundown of changes, click the link!
Zoom.us - Video Conferencing for All!The Zoom.us service allows anyone to host online video conferences with up to 25 people, even if they don't use zoom.us. (and its free!) You can share screens, highlight, annotate and much more! Want to give it a try? Head over to zoom.us and download the client. I don't think you will be disappointed.
Want to discuss these technologies further. You can visit with Devon at the following sites:
Monday - Bowman Building - 11 - 1 - Room 212
Wednesday - Cork Street - 11 - 1 - Room M 155
Thursday - Wilkins Building - 11 - 1 - Conference Room
Thursday - Halpin-Harrison Hall - 2:30 - 4:30 - Room 140
Friday - Health Professions Building - 11 - 1 - In Front of Library
Always Online @ www.su.edu/training
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