eSupport @University College

Adobe Connect moves to version 8

2011-08-10T06:58:00.000-07:00

UMS IT announced an upgrade to meet.maine.edu to Connect Pro version 8. The upgrade is planned for August 13 & 14. All active account holders were notified via email of the upgrade.

Connect.maine.edu will see an upgrade before the start of the fall semester.

Version 8 brings interface changes and the addition of new pods. See the Quick-start guide for meeting hosts at http://seminars.adobe.acrobat.com/vqs-hosts/

Adobe hosts many video tutorials at http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-adobe-connect-8/ and
you can contact any of the support team FMI

Fall 2011 Deadlines for Copyrighted Works submissions

2011-07-06T06:11:00.000-07:00

Any copyrighted materials, including but not limited to, articles, drawings, CDs and DVDs, must go through a clearance process before they may be copied, broadcast or posted. Submit legally-purchased originals of broadcast media (CD, DVD, audiotape, etc.), or camera-ready copies of print media to Learning Services in July for fall courses.

Contact ucls@maine.edu or call UC Teleservice at 1-800-868-7000.

UC phone bridge gets an upgrade

2011-05-31T06:40:00.000-07:00

Beginning on June 1 University College will expand and upgrade the Learning Services phone bridge. Our current system has been in place for nearly a decade, and has limitations we hope to move far beyond.

Our new service provider, Intercall LLC, provides for an unlimited number of participants, national toll-free access and support for most mobile devices.

Contact UC Learning Services for specifics on this important advance in University College services.

QR codes

2011-05-10T15:31:00.000-07:00

QR codes are gaining in popularity. They provide a way for mobile users to access URL, text and, media by scanning a 2-dimensional coded image.

Many generators exist that create the QR code. Many smart phones already include an application to scan QT codes through the phone's camera.

Scanning the QR code herein will bring you to the Faculty Services homepage.

Educators are using QR codes to link students to their syllabus, or add their contact information directly to student's smart phones from paper documents and online webpages.

CourseCast Focus replaces ClassCapture

2011-01-10T09:27:00.000-08:00

Beginning in the Spring semester, CourseCast Focus (Panopto) will replace the Echo360 system we have been using for streaming of ITV classes into Blackboard courses.

CourseCast Focus eliminates some problems with the older Class Capture, in that we are no longer restricted to Windows OS, and no longer restricted to Internet Explorer.

Questions about CouresCast Focus should be directed to Tech Support: 800-696-4357, or email techsupport@maine.edu

Windows on Maine brings video-on-demand to instructors and students

2010-10-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

A collaboration between Maine Public Broadcasting, the Annenberg CPB, Northeast Historic Films and UMaine System Libraries offers streaming video of local and national documentary titles. In short:

Windows on Maine is a pilot project to develop an online service offering streaming video programs and clips, and other primary and secondary digital resources, via broadband and wireless connections. It features a searchable database of complete programs and video clips from Maine Public Broadcasting Network's award winning historical series, HOME, the Story of Maine and its signature science series, Quest, Investigating Our World. Rich multimedia that further documents Maine's history and the Gulf of Maine ecology has been selected from collections of the state's cultural institutions, and complements the video archive.

From windowsonmaine.library.umaine.edu (share this quote)

Visit them at Windows on Maine

U.S. Copyright Office issues exemptions for DVD excerpts

2010-09-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

Quick hit from Inside Higher Ed

New DVD Copyright Exemption for Educational Purposes

The U.S. Copyright Office on Monday promulgated a number of new exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, including one allowing university staffers and students to hack DVD content and display it for educational purposes. If a university or student lawfully obtains copy of a DVD, the agency says, they can bypass the encryption so long as "circumvention is accomplished solely in order to accomplish the incorporation of short portions of motion pictures into new works for... Educational uses by college and university professors and by college and university film and media studies students."

From www.insidehighered.com (share this quote)

Link: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/27/qt/new_dvd_copyright_exemption_for_educational_purposes

YouTube videos in Blackboard: Is there a copyright?

2010-09-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Donna Bancroft at Off-Campus Library Services for this link to the EFF article
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2007/07/youtube-embedding-and-copyright

In short the article states:

In an academic environment, there are further protections if the video is being used to educate. First, a fair use argument could be made. Secondly, if the video is being used for distance education, the TEACH Act can be applied, provided the video was placed in Blackboard.

Call OCLS with any questions about Fair Use and the TEACH Act.

Quicktime errors and Win 7 OS

2010-09-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

Those who are having difficulty watching Quicktime videos, who are also using Windows 7, can get past the 'Navigation cancelled' errors.

Before this error appears, there is warning message from Internet Explorer that states; "this page contains secure and non-secure content..." click 'No' when you see this warning, and the media should load properly.

We have also seen problems in Win 7 with rtsp links. Windows Media Player wants to take over those file types, but cannot ultimately play the file.
Users can right-click the link and choose "Save Target As..." this will create a local file (actually a pointer to the media)that can be opened from the Quicktime Player File menu.

BB 9.1 live today

2010-08-25T08:20:00.000-07:00

New services were active today at 10AM EST. Blackboard 8 is still available at https://bb8.courses.maine.edu/

Transfers from BB 8 to 9.1

2010-08-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

If you have a course on the BB 8 server that you need to move to 9.1, please see the doc 'bbtransfer.pdf' in the Support and Documentation area of the Learn website.

There are 2 steps to the process: exporting the BB 8 course to a zip archive and, importing that compressed file using the Packages and Utilities function in the BB 9.1 Control Panel.

BB 9.1 switch-over information

2010-08-19T09:46:00.001-07:00

UMS IT has posted the following for Blackboard 9.1 maintenance:

Planned System Maintenance: System maintenance may be performed during the scheduled maintenance periods on August 22, August 25 and August 29.

Instructors and Course Builders: Effective August 17, student enrollment cycles have been discontinued for summer session courses (1030).
Beginning August 18, the process of migrating Fall 2009 (1010) courses into the new Blackboard system will begin.

During the scheduled maintenance windows on Wednesday and Sunday mornings, Blackboard services will be restarted immediately before 5:00 AM; this will result in a momentary disruption of services.

Making the Change to BB 9.1

2010-05-13T05:55:00.000-07:00

Instructional Development posted a Quick Guide for faculty, showing the differences in the BB 8 & BB 9 workflow. Download it here, or visit the faculty website @learn.maine.

Blackboard 9.1 Documentation available

2010-05-11T08:09:00.000-07:00

With the impending upgrade to Blackboard 9.1 scheduled for Fall 2010, Instructional Development has released support documents for all UMS faculty. See our sidebar for links to these pdf files, or visit the faculty website @learn.maine.

Summer textbook orders due March 1

2010-02-12T12:09:00.000-08:00

All textbook orders for Summer 2010 course are due on March 1. Please use the Textbook Order form to process your requests in time!

Spring Blackboard course availability

2010-01-04T07:14:00.000-08:00

A reminder to activate all new spring courses through the Control Panel. Navigate to Settings>Course Availability

Spring 2010 Connect Pilot applications

2009-12-03T10:13:00.000-08:00

A new proposal form is online for Spring 2010. All participants from Fall should submit a new proposal for the upcoming semester. Find the new form at the Connect Support page of the Faculty website

Quick Start guide for students published

2009-09-24T06:04:00.000-07:00

We now have a guide for first time participants. Download it here. We suggest you post this in a Blackboard course, or place it in a file share pod in your first meeting. We'll be developing more student resources, and welcome you suggestions on what would be most helpful to you.

Best practices - Connect Hosts

2009-09-18T05:49:00.000-07:00

I'll be adding to this list as we go through our Pilot.

1. Always quit unnecessary applications, especially those that vie for bandwidth: e-mail, chat, newsfeeds/RSS feeds. Even that little weather widget you have on your desktop will use bandwidth better utilized in Connect.

2. Run through the Audio Setup Wizard to adjust mic levels. Meeting>Manage My Settings>Audio Setup Wizard.

3. To keep people from entering your Meeting Room when you are not there, end the meeting rather than just exiting. Meeting>End Meeting

When you re-enter, deselecting "Lock the meeting after starting" allows participants to enter per the Meeting's configured access.

Audio configuration guides for Connect

2009-09-18T05:46:00.000-07:00

Our intrepid IT team has new tutorials for audio setup in Win XP & Vista, and for OS X users. See those resources at http://help.its.maine.edu/help/computing/web-conferencing

Faculty manual posted

2009-09-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Anne Newell and Glenn LeBlanc for an edited version of the Connect manual. Posted today at the webconferencing faculty page, or available right here as a single pdf download.

Blackboard Gradebook and Safari users

2009-09-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

Safari (ver. 4.0.3) is known to produce 'java-language' errors when attempting to create weighted columns in the Gradebook. Firefox shows no such errors and should be used by all Mac users under OS 10.5.x

Adobe Connect Support

2009-08-19T05:52:00.000-07:00

The URL we used to launch the Connect Pilot is now the support site for participants.

We will continue to add to this resource as the Pilot progresses. Visit the site for support materials, tutorials in PDF, and recommendations on hardware for use in Connect.

Note also the list of video tutorials on this blog.

New pilot Fall '09: Adobe ConnectPro

2009-07-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

UC and UMS IT are about to embark on a pilot of Adobe's ConnectPro. Faculty have been clamoring for a way to share docs and presentations online in a synchronous environment. That is what ConnectPro promises. See the faculty services website for an application and full details.

New Docs on Respondus & SafeAssign

2009-07-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

From Ashley Montgomery @UMF, comes 2 handy guides in PDF format:
A guide for Respondus, and a guide for SafeAssign. Thanks Ashley! Ad these to your kit bag of management tools for Blackboard.

More Twitterin' Ways

2009-06-29T05:38:00.000-07:00

IN the never ending search for MORE reasons why Twitter is so cool:

From Jodi Williams, a link to 50-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-college-classroom

and from Sarah Walton a link to the FastCase blog on how "Social Media" has helped in Disaster Recovery, helping the homeless, and other related stories.

IE 8 causing problems in Blackboard

2009-06-08T07:16:00.000-07:00

The newest version of Internet Explorer is not certified with Blackboard and numerous problems have been reported by students trying to work in their Blackboard courses. Initial problems surfaced with timed tests (timer would obscure the 'Submit' button), other problems arise when viewing QT media (controller hidden).

Microsoft describes the removal process in this KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957700

The above article also mentions that if SP3 has been installed after IE 8, then it too must be removed, so the "not removable" lock is removed from IE 8.

Note also that IE 8 is installed as an update to IE 7, not as a new program so, the usual method of using Add/Remove programs from the Control Panels will not do the trick.

Other articles suggest Blackboard will work properly if IE 8 is set to "Compatibility Mode" but no tests have been done, as yet, to determine if this is a viable option for students.

October 30 Sloan-C New England Regional Conference

2009-06-02T05:48:00.000-07:00

University College and the University of Southern Maine will be co-sponsoring a New England Regional Sloan-C Conference in Portland on Friday, October 30.

We're excited about the opportunity that partnering with Sloan-C and USM offers us to network with colleagues from institutions all over New England. Since our conference will be held in conjunction with the 15th Annual Sloan-C Conference in Orlando, the largest conference in the nation for online learning, we will be able to share some sessions and a keynote presentation with the national conference. We plan to offer at least one conference session from Maine that will be made available at a distance to participants at the national Sloan-C Conference, so there is an opportunity for the work of UMS faculty and staff to be recognized nationally.

We hope that you will not only plan to attend in October, but strongly urge you to submit a proposal to present an individual or group session, roundtable, or poster session. Some possible topics:

Assessing student learning in online courses
Applications of learning theory to the design of online learning environments
Multimedia applications
Case-based learning designs and their outcomes
Supporting collaboration and community
Approaches to blended ("hybrid") learning
The use of Web 2.0 technologies in online learning (blogs, wikis, social networking sites, etc.)

You can find more information about the conference and the Call for Presentations online at www.learn.maine.edu/sloan.

The conference registration fee will be waived for all UMS faculty and staff. University College will provide travel support as we have traditionally done for the Faculty Institute, and will cover lodging expenses for faculty traveling from UMM, UMFK, and UMPI for the evening of October 29.

Let us know if you want to talk about ideas for presentations or have any questions about the conference.

Changing how we support streaming media

2009-06-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

We've been streaming Quicktime here for many years, using the Darwin Open Source server

Up to this time, we've embedded media pointers in Blackboard, or other HTML docs, and created streams to accomodate 256Kbps users and 56Kbps modem users.

We are now using a method that will use a simple URL to the media. Here is a sample that uses the H.264 CODEC @15fps with MP3 audio @22Khz. This method will launch an external app to handle the rtsp request. Students will now have greater control over the display of media files, adding the ability to re-size the media in its own window, or entering a full-screen mode. This method also allows any application registered on the computer to play rtsp requests to handle the media, rather than always depending on Quicktime.

Twitter & pedagogy

2009-06-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

Recently started working with 2 apps to explore the use of Twitter in our ITV classes, as a way of generating more interest in participating by distance students.
First up: TweetDeck [http://tweetdeck.com/beta/], first glance shows a lot of promise here, especially with the use of Group Feeds, where the registered user can easily create their own group of followers, and gather all messages/updates, etc from those twitterers. Also combines many useful functions in one interface; twitpic, shorten URL and a fantastic Twitter search.

Next up is an app that displays Tweets in a billboard fashion: Twitter Camp [http://www.danieldura.com/code/twittercamp]. Much more limited in scope than the above mentioned TweetDeck, this nevertheless may be a good way for faculty to see incoming messages during a broadcast. Advantages here are the greatly simplified interface (one configuration screen) and the way Twitter Camp displays multiple messages clearly with no interface obstructions.

The academHacK blog has some interesting comments on using Twitter in higher ed, worth checking out

Day One

2009-06-01T07:08:00.001-07:00

We open this blog to provide a clearinghouse for information on the many applications in use in UMS, and to explore some of the frontiers of emerging trends in eLearning. We'll report on some of the more interesting items we've come across in scouring the Web for signs of intelligence.

Greetings All!
the UC Support Team
Glenn, Scott, Rich