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Monday, September 22, 2014
SU Technology Tips and Tricks for Monday, September 22, 2014
Monday, September 15, 2014
BROADENING EDUCATIONAL HORIZONS -VaBUG
VaBUG CONFERENCE ANNOUNCED
THIS IS JUST A FRIENDLY REMINDER....WE'D LOVE TO HAVE YOU JOIN US, AND WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU PARTICIPATE AS A PRESENTER FOR THIS YEAR'S CONFERENCE!
TIME TO REGISTER!
The Virginia Blackboard Users Group (VaBUG) announces its fifth annual conference, to be held at the Holiday Inn at Valley View, on Friday, October 24, 2014! This is a perfect time to enjoy the peak fall foliage in the Roanoke Valley area while you share knowledge and ideas with Blackboard users from across the state.
The Holiday Inn at Valley View is located just a couple of miles off of Interstate 81 and a short distance from the historic downtown market area. It is also just a short drive to the Blue Ridge Parkway, where you will be able to enjoy the beautiful fall colors.
The conference will once again have free registration, so that is even more reason to mark your calendar now.
We have reserved a block of rooms for those of you who want to stay the night.
Please make plans to joins us!
We hope you will add this date to your calendars, and that you will share this information with colleagues at your institution!
This year’s theme is:
“BROADENING EDUCATIONAL HORIZONS”
For more information, please visit our site at http://vabug.org. You can also follow us on FACEBOOK.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS!
The VaBUG Conference Committee is now accepting proposals for our 2014 Annual Conference.
The VaBUG conference is a great opportunity for Blackboard users to discover, discuss, learn, and share best practices. In order to afford our members the best possible personal and professional development opportunities, we are asking instructors, administrators, staff members, and any other interested members to submit proposals for concurrent sessions for this year’s conference. What exciting ways have you been utilizing Blackboard in the past year?
Our conference theme this year is "Broadening Educational Horizons", so we are looking for sessions that focus on using Blackboard to better reach learners and expand the reach of learners' knowledge. The concurrent sessions will be scheduled for 50 minutes (this includes time for questions and answers). Sessions will be organized along the following tracks:
- Blackboard administration
- Instructional design
- Faculty best practices
- K-12 best practices
Please consider participating as a presenter, and pass this message along to someone you feel may be interested in participating. Students, maybe you could get a group together to present to the attending faculty on what you look for in Blackboard or meet with the Blackboard representatives about your needs from the product.
We need your help to make this conference a success! For more information, please contact George Hoffman in the Center for Teaching & Learning at ghoffman@su.edu.
SU Technology Tips and Tricks
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Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Blackboard Tidbits
Scroll Wheels and Blackboard:
Students using the scroll wheel to move through tests may find that their answers are changed. Scroll wheels are designed to also switch radio button choices – so advise students when test taking NOT to use the scroll wheel on their mouse.
Internet Explorer:
Stop using it with Blackboard. Firefox is the preferred web browser and IE is consistently at the root of many issues.
Mobile Devices:
Students are increasingly using their mobile devices to access Blackboard. There is
a Blackboard App, called Mobile Learn that can be downloaded from any app store. Blackboard (Bb) also seems to run well just using the Safari web browser on iOS devices. However – some tools like journals do not seem to play well with mobile devices.
Students can view grades using their mobile devices. Students should test their ability to use their mobile device to complete certain assignments and be prepared to get to a computer when needed. Student can test this by going to the Bb student orientation course under the Help & Support button in all courses.
Faculty currently cannot enter grades using the Bb Mobile Learn app. But soon faculty will be able to use the mobile grader app. It is currently in development at Blackboard Inc.
Use PDF Files:
Unless there is a reason to post a MSWord or PowerPoint document (such as students
need to fill in items on it), please consider posting PDF files. These files will open on any computer and will open on mobile devices.
Native formats (.docx; .pptx, etc) will not readily open and often require the
program in order to be opened. This is an unnecessary annoyance when all you wanted was for students to read and/or print the document.
In most programs, you can use File>>Save As to change the format to PDF. Be sure to keep the original file for your own use.
Thanks goes out to Dr. Karen Kellison for providing and sharing this Bb information.
Students using the scroll wheel to move through tests may find that their answers are changed. Scroll wheels are designed to also switch radio button choices – so advise students when test taking NOT to use the scroll wheel on their mouse.
Internet Explorer:
Stop using it with Blackboard. Firefox is the preferred web browser and IE is consistently at the root of many issues.
Mobile Devices:
Students are increasingly using their mobile devices to access Blackboard. There is
a Blackboard App, called Mobile Learn that can be downloaded from any app store. Blackboard (Bb) also seems to run well just using the Safari web browser on iOS devices. However – some tools like journals do not seem to play well with mobile devices.
Students can view grades using their mobile devices. Students should test their ability to use their mobile device to complete certain assignments and be prepared to get to a computer when needed. Student can test this by going to the Bb student orientation course under the Help & Support button in all courses.
Faculty currently cannot enter grades using the Bb Mobile Learn app. But soon faculty will be able to use the mobile grader app. It is currently in development at Blackboard Inc.
Use PDF Files:
Unless there is a reason to post a MSWord or PowerPoint document (such as students
need to fill in items on it), please consider posting PDF files. These files will open on any computer and will open on mobile devices.
Native formats (.docx; .pptx, etc) will not readily open and often require the
program in order to be opened. This is an unnecessary annoyance when all you wanted was for students to read and/or print the document.
In most programs, you can use File>>Save As to change the format to PDF. Be sure to keep the original file for your own use.
Thanks goes out to Dr. Karen Kellison for providing and sharing this Bb information.
If you have an additional questions about Blackboard at Shenandoah University, please contact the Help Desk at 540-665-5555, submit a Help Ticket at workorder.su.edu or physically stop by the Help Desk.
Setting Up the Accessibility Features on the MacBook Pro
These directions are designed to help you write
documents with the dictation & speech features of your MacBook Pro. You
will also be able to have text read to you when proofreading what you have written.
These can also include Web pages when doing research! Just follow these
directions to set up your computer.
SETTING UP DICTATION
In the menu bar, click on the Apple icon 
and choose System Preferences.
and choose System Preferences.
Click on the 
that is
shown in the fourth line.
that is
shown in the fourth line.
Under Dictation,
choose On 
Now you will be able to dictate what you want your computer
to type for you when you press the fn key
twice. Launch Word or any other text-editing program and try it out! Once the
words are typed into the document, re-read it and revise/edit. Use the TOOLS
option in Word and choose to check your spelling/grammar!
SETTING UP TEXT TO
SPEECH
Now go back into the System preferences and choose
but this
time select the Text to Speech
option.
Play with the different system voices and speaking rate and choose what
you prefer to hear. Click Play to test it out.
Then click to choose Speak
selected text when the key is pressed. Leave the current key to Option +
Esc (do not change key).
Now you will be able to highlight any text you have written or text shown in
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Blackboard xpLor
What if course content could be changed in one place and then updated with minimal effort across those different platforms (Bb Learn, Angel, or Moodle)? That is exactly what xpLor can do. It is "a master learning object repository in the cloud. It is a rich authoring environment where you can create content just as you can in an LMS (Learning Management System), including high-stakes assessments. It has a powerful search capability to search on metadata, content, or even aligned standards. It has sharing functionality that allows you to control how you share, and with whom. It has built-in copyright protection you can apply to your work." (Bb Inc, 2014).
xpLor was built on open standards to
make it work with as many systems as possible (Learn, Moodle, Angel,
Sakai, etc) and to ensure that we can use the largest amount of content
currently available. There are two open standards at the heart of xpLor: Common Cartridge and LTI
Common Cartridge defines the content type. You can import any common cartridge into xpLor, whether it comes from your LMS or from another repository. LTI allows Bb to deliver content to your LMS without import and export. All content lives in xpLor permanently and all you add to your LMS is an LTI link. That link allows the content to be delivered in such a way that it appears as native content. It also allows for passing grades and completion information to the grade book. LTI also allows Bb to deliver content from other repositories just as if it were native in xpLor. These standards allow to make it easy for all of you to develop, share, and deliver open educational resources.
Here are some additional resources on xpLor.
NOTE: Content created from information provided by Blackboard Inc.
Common Cartridge defines the content type. You can import any common cartridge into xpLor, whether it comes from your LMS or from another repository. LTI allows Bb to deliver content to your LMS without import and export. All content lives in xpLor permanently and all you add to your LMS is an LTI link. That link allows the content to be delivered in such a way that it appears as native content. It also allows for passing grades and completion information to the grade book. LTI also allows Bb to deliver content from other repositories just as if it were native in xpLor. These standards allow to make it easy for all of you to develop, share, and deliver open educational resources.
xpLor OR Content Management?
Together, xpLor and Content Management create a complete learning content solution that provides personal, course, institutional, and global content management capabilities for all of your learning content.- Content Management: File management system for personal, course, and institutional document management, sharing, and reuse.
- xpLor: Cloud-based, global learning object repository for authoring, copyright, sharing, and discovery of rich educational materials and open educational resources.
| When do you put content into Content Management? | When do you put content into xpLor? |
When you want to...
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When you want to...
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Here are some additional resources on xpLor.
- Blackboard xpLor Help
NOTE: Content created from information provided by Blackboard Inc.
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