D2L Changes for Spring 2012

D2L Changes for Spring 2012

Includes settings changes and 9.2 to 9.4.1 Upgrades

New and Upgraded Tools

Note: This document mainly is intended to introduce new features rather than instruct in their use. However, more usage detail is provided here for those tools that are more conspicuous to the user or more pressing in importance.

Pager

The Pager tool is basically an Instant Messaging (IM) tool that can be used by faculty or students to contact each other within D2L. It does not send messages outside of D2L. Though available in earlier versions, it was limited and essentially turned off until now.

The Pager can be accessed in either of two ways. The main way is to click the icon in the green bar at the top of any D2L page (looks like a word balloon). This gives you access to all the Pager tools for sending, reading and reviewing past messages.

When a page has arrived for you, the icon will change slightly to include three dots and a red circle in the balloon area.

In your Preferences area you can also choose whether incoming pages will be indicated by an audio alert.

To send a page,

1. click the Pager icon to open the Pager dialog window
2. Click the Classlist tab to see access members of your classes (alternatively you can use the Friends tab to maintain a sort of personal address book independent of your classes)
3. Use the filter by tool to select a group of recipients such as the members of one class
4. Select desired recipients by checking their boxes
5. Click the Send icon as shown.

The Inbox tab shows all your received messages. You can respond by clicking the green arrow to the right of the message.

Note that there is no option for deleting old messages.

You may also send Pages while logged into a class by going to the classlist tool, selecting recipients, and then clicking the Pager tool at the bottom of the list.

Calendar (formerly“Schedule”)

The Calendar has undergone a number of significant changes that improve functionality and interoperability with other tools.

The first two things you’ll notice about the Calendar is that

1. it’s no longer referred to as the “Schedule”
2. it looks a lot different and in fact now closely resembles a Google Calendar.

(Calendar, cont’d)

In addition, the calendar focuses on course-driven events/dates. Instead of having a personal calendar for non-course events, you use the Tasks tool in the right panel or you keep an outside calendar and import the D2L calendar into it (or vice versa).

By default what you see when you click the Calendar tool is a composite of all calendars available to you. Calendars are color coded to easily indicate which event goes with which calendar.

All active calendars are listed in the left panel and these have events displaying in the main panel.

You can alter which calendar’s events show by checking or un-checking them.

For each course calendar you can create either of two types of events.

1. Availability Events. These are tied directly to dates related to course content, such as the deadline for completing a quiz or submitting an assignment to the dropbox.
   These events can be initiated either when creating a new content (when setting Restrictions, check the box for posting in the calendar) or by starting with the calendar and linking the event back to an existing Content item.
   
2. General Events. These are not associated with specific course content. You just create a new event on the calendar and the item stands alone. For instance, a history teacher might drop in calendar events for important dates like D-Day or the first moon landing.

Tasks

Tasks replaces personal events and will not show to your students.

Adding a task is as simple as typing text into the Add a task field.

Click the “>” symbol next to a task to add details like notes or due dates.

To delete a task, click the “>” symbol then click the (trash can) icon.

Mark tasks as complete by checking the box to the left of each one.

Task Settings can be adjusted to personal preference.

To change how Tasks are displayed, click the Settings link near the upper right of the Calendar.

Use the Task Pane drop menu to set which Calendar views should include the Task Pane (Agenda, Day-List, or All views).

Set a default due date. This can be overridden by clicking on the details of an individual task.

Set a confirmation prompt before deleting tasks.

Choose whether to hide completed tasks or keep them visible for a few days.

Coordinating your D2L Calendar with your personal calendars

The D2L calendar no longer supports personal events being placed alongside course-related events. Personal events can be added to the Tasks area or you can keep your persona events on a Google or Outlook calendar and then, within those tools, subscribe to your D2L calendar.

There are two types of subscriptions:

1)Subscribe to a static iCal file (see Exporting an iCal File below). While you can view this from your non-D2L calendar, being a static file, any changes you make to your D2L calendar after export will not be reflected in the file so this is best done after you have finalized your class.

2)Subscribe to an iCal Feed (see Subscribing to an iCal Feed below). This makes available a non-static file that will let you view your D2L events, complete with ongoing changes, in your Google or Outlook calendar without logging into D2L.

(Following iCal information provided by Desire2Learn)

Exporting an iCal file

Exporting iCal files allows you to export your calendar events as static events into external calendar tools such as Google Calendar® or Microsoft Outlook®. Your external calendar will not reflect changes to your Learning Suite calendar.

To / Do this
Export all Calendars /

1. Click Subscribe in the calendar views area.
2. Click the link, which downloads the iCal file to your desktop and imports it into your default calendar application.

Export one Calendar /

1. Click the context menu for the course name in the calendar management area, and select Subscribe.
2. Click the link, which downloads the iCal file to your desktop and imports it into your default calendar application.

Export tasks /

1. Click the context menu for Tasks, and select Subscribe.
2. Click the link, which downloads the iCal file to your desktop and imports it into your default calendar application.

Subscribing to an iCal feed

Subscribing to iCal feeds syncs your external calendar application or device with the Learning Suite Calendar tool, keeping you updated without necessarily logging in to Learning Environment.

To / Do this
Subscribe to all calendars (including your Tasks) /

1. Click Subscribe in the calendar views area.
2. Copy and the paste the URL into an external calendar tool.

Subscribe to one calendar /

1. Click the context menu for the course name in the calendar management area, and select Subscribe.
2. Copy and the past the URL into an external calendar tool.

Subscribe to your Tasks /

1. Click the context menu for Tasks, and select Subscribe.
2. Copy and the past the URL into an external calendar tool.

More calendar resources:

Video:

Notifications

This set of tools allows users to have D2L notify them of changes in News, Dropbox, Discussions, and Quiz activities via email or SMS (cellphone.texting).

Access the notifications tool to input your desired contact data by clicking Notifications in the My Settings widget or the Settings tool at the top of the News widget.

RSS feeds are also available for the News tool only. To set up a feed, click the RSS icon () at the top of the News widget.

Social Networking

Users can now share their Social Networking profiles with classmates.

Click on Profiles in the MySettings Widget and fill in the desired URLs.

Dropbox

The Feedback interface has been updated.

The general layout goes from largely vertical…

…to a side-by-side view.

The Rubric tool is now embedded in the Feedback area. At the instructor’s option it can be applied to dropbox submissions and included in the comments to the student.

The Record Audio tool has been added below the feedback text field.

In addition, clicking the filename in the feedback area will now open the file in the browser rather than launching a separate application to view it in, like Word or Excel.

You may still download submitted documents and then open them in a separate app, allowing you to edit and re-upload the file. Also, clicking the filename in the folder submissions list will still launch an application.

News Widget

Several new features in this tool.

Students can “dismiss” (hide, essentially) news items showing in the News Widget once they’re read by clicking the “X” in the upper right corner of the item. These items can be retrieved later if necessary.

Dismissed items will also reappear if the instructor edits them and checks the “Major Edit” box when doing so. Not checking the box allows the instructor to make less consequential changes.

The News tool on the user’s D2L home page will now include news from all classes he is enrolledin as well as global news items. Each course-related item will be identified as to the specific originating course, with links to the course provided.

Instructors can now compose a news item and save it as a Draft rather than publish it immediately.

Grading

Several new helpful features have been added, including:

Instructors can elect to grade all the student responses to the same quiz question at once, rather than grading all of one student’s quiz then moving to the next student.

Blind grading— keep student identities anonymous during grading to avoid bias.

New “Distribute weight by item points” grading option.

Audio Capture

D2L now allows faculty and students to record brief audio files with an internal capture program. Files are recorded in .wav format and stored within the individual course.

The audio tool is associated with three areas:

• The Dropbox (can attach audio when creating a folder, submitting an assignment or leaving feedback
• Discussions
• News postings

Where the tool is available you’ll see a button labeled “Record Audio.” Click it and the recording dialog window will appear.

To record (Windows):

1)Select your preferred recording equipment in the Settings tool then click Close

2)Click the Record button

3)The Record button will change to a Pause button while recording and an audio meter will appear. Make sure the meter is indicating sound is being received.

4)When complete, or needing a break, click Pause.

5)While paused, you can play back the audio so far. You can re-record over all or a portion of the recording.

6)Click the Add button to upload the recording. The Recording window will close and you’ll see your file ready to submit.

7)You can click the filename to play back the recording.It will play back using Windows Media Player. If it’s OK, click the Submit button to complete the upload process. If it’s not OK, click the delete (trash) icon and start over.

Note: Macs can record also andwill play back the recording using iTunes.

*** More detailed Audio Recorder directions are available from IT. ***

D2L Mobile Web

Note: the Mobile Web functionality will be introduced at a later date. These tools largely revolve around access to discussions via smartphones and are not intended to allow all class activities to be easily accessible via smartphones.

Settings Changes

Classlist Tabs

The Classlist is now broken into Roll categories. Faculty, Studentsand TA’s each have their own tab. The All tab is a comprehensive listing that includes Faculty, Staff, TA’s and any other roll such as Sample Students.

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