Beginning at 8am on Thursday, May 10th, Springboard will be upgraded to version 9.4.1. This is considered a minor upgrade and consists mainly of bug fixes, so no additional training will be necessary.
In order for Desire2Learn to perform the upgrade, Springboard will be offline and unavailable beginning at 8am. We anticipate the upgrade to take approximately 8 hours to complete.
The link from the recorded 4/13/12 Springboard session on Discussions can be viewed in Panopto: http://coursecast.uakron.edu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer/Default.aspx?id=3714da04-adb2-4f3a-9d92-ed5f81267ad2
Additional recordings will be added to the “Springboard Demos” folder in Panopto as they are created.
For the rest of the semester, DDS and ITL are hosting a session for faculty each week on instructional techniques you can implement with Springboard:
Friday, April 13, 2012 (1:30pm-2:30pm, Leigh Hall 414) Teaching with Springboard: Discussion Forums and Topics
You probably already know how to set up Discussions in your courses. But are you ready to take it to the next level? This session is likely to combine conversation, demonstration, and the sharing of tips and tricks in areas like these:
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Thursday, April 19, 2012 (1:30pm-2:30pm, Leigh Hall 414) Teaching with Springboard: Quizzes
You may already be using Quizzes, but are you making the most of this feature of Springboard?
Bring your questions about using Quizzes to this Springboard session! ——————————————————–
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 (11:00am-12:00pm, Leigh Hall 414) Teaching with Springboard: Rubrics
Rubrics are a great tool for defining “what counts” and “how much” in an assignment. Do you use Rubrics to:
If you aren’t using Rubrics, come to learn more about them. If you already use them, come to learn whether the built-in Rubric functionality in Springboard can improve your workflows, eliminate some paperwork, and streamline your grading!
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We have been able to stagger the times and days of the week somewhat to accommodate different schedules and will miss you if you can’t join us, but recordings will be posted for on-demand viewing in the “Springboard Demos” folder in Panopto.
To sign up for any or all of these events, please RSVP your attendance via ITL’s online seminar registration system.
In a world that provides 24×7 connectivity, the time-honored tradition of submitting a printed paper for review can seem obsolete. Using dropboxes in Springboard allows students to submit a paper 24 hours a day. However, it doesn’t necessarily improve the process of providing feedback to the student. General comments on a paper can easily be provided through Springboard. You can also provide comments within a Word document. Tracking changes in Word document, however, can be a tricky proposition for the uninitiated. Enter Google Docs.
Every student at The University of Akron has access to Google Docs as part of their UA Google Apps account. For the uninitiated, Google Docs provides an online interface to creating text documents, spreadsheets and presentations. The only software the needs to be installed by a user is a web browser.
One of the many features of Google Docs is the ability to share and collaborate on documents, in real-time. Students can share individual documents, or entire folders with their faculty and peers. Documents and folders can use three basic levels of sharing:
We recommend that you use the “Anyone with the link” option when sharing your document. Anyone with access to the file can make changes or post comments to it, making this a great avenue for collaborating on documents and providing feedback.
Once you determine that Google Docs fits your needs, you just need to share a document with someone to get started. To share an existing Google document, there are a few steps that the content-creator will need to take:
Note:If you intend on using Springboard to keep track of student submissions and grading, Springboard doesn’t allow students to submit an assignment without uploading a physical document. That is why we recommend students paste the link into a Word document or a text document before submitting it.
Once a document has been shared, everyone with access can add comments to the document. Comments can be applied to the entire document, similar to a comment entered in Springboard or written at the end of a printed document. Comments may also be linked to specific passages of text, similar to comments added to text in a Word document. Both types of comments are added to the document in real-time. That means that multiple people can view a document and comment on it simultaneously. You can even reply to an existing comment. And, since comments are added to the same document that a student submitted/shared, there is no confusion over which version of the document is most current.
To add a general comment to a document, just click on the Comments button at the top-right corner of the browser window (next to the Share button). Clicking on the Comments button will allow you to add a comment that applies to the entire document and, view all of the comments that have already been added to the document.
Often, you will want to provide feedback to a specific word, phrase or paragraph. Google Docs makes this possible with just a few clicks.
As outlined above, Google Docs allows two or more people to comment on the same document. Sharing also allows users to collaborate on a document, in real-time. This drastically improves the feedback loop be eliminating the time required to save a document, email it and then wait for the recipient to read it and reply. In Google Docs, everyone has access to the most current version of the document. Google Docs also allows multiple people to edit a document simultaneously. No longer will someone need to reconcile multiple documents into one finished product.
While this post focused primarily on text documents, as mentioned, these steps can be applied to presentations and spreadsheets. You can even upload your own Office documents to Google Docs in order to share them with a group. The variety of files supported make Google Docs a great tool for group projects or large research projects. You can place all of your assets into one folder that the entire group or team can access; Word documents, copies of research articles, presentations, images and even spreadsheets of survey data.
In DDS, we often use Google Docs when working on large projects. We find it to be an effective tool for collaboration within our department. When collaborating with groups outside of our department, where access to a common shared drive doesn’t exist, it has proven to be an invaluable tool. When working across institutions, Google Docs may be your best option for quickly and easily sharing documents.
Panopto has released version 4.1 of Focus. This update will be installed onto the server Thursday, March 15. Following the upgrade, the Panopto Recorder installed on your computer will require updating. You will be prompted to install the updated version upon launching the previous Panopto Recorder.
Panopto Focus (version 4.1) includes many design and functionality enhancements. A complete listing of the new features can be found on Panopto’s blog. http://www.panopto.com/blog
We expect this upgrade to afford an even better experience for both you and your students. We will also be updating the Design and Development Services website in the coming days with updated resources and documentation. http://www.uakron.edu/it/instructional_services/dds/
If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to call or email.
Jamie Newhall
x8920
Do you provide an “I need help!” board for students? You don’t have to log into Springboard to check for urgent questions and requests. Receive an email instantly when they post that they need you:
The Flipped Classroom concept is explained in this InfoGraphic: http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/
Consider using Panopto Focus to capture one or more of of your lectures this semester. Spend a bit of time editing the recording so it is as concise as you prefer. Next time you teach the course put the link to the recording into your Springboard course where the content would naturally occur. Now task the students with reviewing the content before class so that class time can be used to clarify and extend the concepts covered in the recorded lecture. Visit the Instructional Services website to learn more about Panopto and to download the recorder.
The recent change to Federal financial aid regulations mentioned in the Email Digest impacts all courses–but it also has a special impact on our typical practice for dealing with the grades for our online students:
Logging into an online class without active participation is NOT considered attendance in an online course.
To identify “last day of attendance” for online students with an “F” or “NCR” grade, you now need to find the last day that the student actively participated in course activities.
Examples might include submitting an assignment, participating in a student-student class discussion, or interaction with you or a TA by phone, email or in person.
See the announcement area in Springboard if you would like more information!
Courses for Spring 2012 have been brought in to Springboard. Instructors – now would be a great time to request that your Spring courses be combined! You can request course merges by sending an email to springboardhelp@uakron.edu. Please be sure to include the course number (1234:567-890, for example) for each course that you would like to have combined.
With the latest version of Springboard, the notifications function has been expanded. If you previously were subscribed to Discussion notifications, then you likely started receiving daily activity emails from your courses. You will receive emails containing things like the number of unread Discussion messages, Quizzes that have not been attempted, Dropbox submissions that have not been graded, etc. While these summaries can be a great way to stay up-do-date with your courses, they can quickly become an irritant when you receive emails from previous courses. Notification emails are sent for courses that are active and within your availability window.
For students: This isn’t a problem unless your instructor removes the end date on a course. You can either email the instructor asking him/her to replace the end date, or add the course to your list of excluded courses.
For instructors: Because instructors retain access to a course after it has closed, you will continue to receive notifications for courses with items that require attention, such as unread Discussion posts or ungraded Dropbox submissions, even after the semester has ended. You will need to address the items listed in the activity summary, or add the course(s) to your list of excluded courses.
We have created a step-by-step guide for adding courses to your list of excluded courses in the Notifications tool, which can be found here: http://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/2291105.pdf. You can also turn off daily activity summaries by selecting Never from the How Often? dropdown menu in the Notifications tool.
