Categories
Announcements

Professional Development Opportunity for Faculty

Instructional Services congratulates the faculty colleagues who completed the “Quality Matters in Online Course Design” workshop.
The next cohort is now forming and will run February 7th through March 4th. Information during this professional development workshop focused on design of online courses using the Quality Matters standards and directions for registration are provided online. To join the next cohort, please contact Wendy Lampner at wjl3@uakron.edu or Jacob Bane at jhb13@zips.uakron.edu.
Categories
Diving Deeper

LOR: Storage

Digital storage space is at a premium. When you copy your course, you make an extra copy of every item in your course, thus duplicating storage needs.  If you copy your course multiple times, you are repeatedly increasing digital storage space requirements in Springboard.
So what’s the alternative?  The Learning Object Repository (LOR) provides a place to share your learning objects as well as store them. You can publish your content into the LOR and place a link to the objects in your course.  Now, when you copy your course, you will copy only links and not data and additional storage space will be minimal.  As an added benefit, your copy will take significantly less time!
Picture from: http://www.desire2learn.com/learningrepository/overview/
Also consider that courses older than 3 years will eventually be purged to recover space on the file system. Although courses will be purged, there are no plans to eliminate the LOR. This means that learning objects that you publish will be secure and will be available for the foreseeable future.
Select this link for an overview of the LOR.
Select this link for detailed information on the LOR.
The LOR is waiting, store your learning objects today!
Jacob Bane
Graduate Assistant Design and Development Services.
Categories
Diving Deeper

LOR: Metadata

Metadata is essential for the ease of use of the Learning Object Repository (LOR). Metadata can make items that you post easier to find by your colleagues and vice versa. Essentially, metadata is a series of descriptive tags that are attached to learning objects that allow them to be found easily. With the LOR, you can attach metadata to your own learning objects or search for items already in the LOR with metadata.

To attach metadata to your own learning objects, you must add the metadata during the publishing process.
1. In the course you wish to upload files from, select the content tab.
2. Next to the content you wish to upload, select the publish icon ( ) on the right side of the screen.
3. Select the option to create a new object.
4. Select whether you want to hide the object.
5. Select the metadata icon () to add metadata.

6. Add your desired metadata and select save.
7. Select next.
8. Select publish
9. The object can now be accessed from the LOR and contains the added metadata.

To search the LOR using metadata:
1. Go to the course you wish to upload files to.
2. Select the content tab
3. Under manage content, select add learning object.
4. Select advanced search.
5. Add your desired metadata search criteria

6. Select search.
7. Items relating to your search terms and metadata will be displayed.

Select this link for more information on metadata.

Select this link for more information on the LOR.

LOR resources are waiting to be found, add or search with metadata today!

Jacob Bane
Graduate Assistant Design and Development Services.

Categories
Announcements

D2L: Fusion

Did you know that Desire2Learn is looking for presenters for their annual Fusion Conference? Desire2Learn is the company behind the online learning platform we use at the University of Akron, Springboard.  Fusion is an annual users conference, held in July, where Desire2Learn users from around the world come to discus the online learning platform. Fusion 2011 will be held July 10th through 15th in Denver, Colorado. Fusion is looking for proposals of presenters for the next conference right now. The final deadline to submit a proposal is December 22nd.

If interested in Fusion, select this link.

If interested in submitting a proposal, select this link.

Jacob Bane
Graduate Assistant Design and Development Services

Categories
Announcements

D2L2Go: Features

Desire2Learn recently updated their mobile viewing experience to D2L2Go. In order to access the new features, login to Springboard from your mobile device. Supported mobile devices include: iphone, itouch, android, and blackberry. A welcome message, events and news can be seen from the main screen. A list of available courses can be found in the dropdown menu at the top of the page and more advanced features can be accessed through the tools button (). The tools menu offers access to the content, news, bookmarks, grades, and calendar tools.

With the content tool, course content can now be accessed anytime, anywhere. Content can also be bookmarked to read later on.

The grades tool allows constant access to course grades.

The news tool allows for constant access to course announcements. Such as class cancelations or the opening of a quiz.

Why not use the new tools offered by D2L2Go today?

Jacob Bane
Graduate Assistant Design and Development Services

Categories
Diving Deeper

LOR: Linking Versus Retrieving

Accessing resources from the Learning Object Repository (LOR) is quick and easy. Items such as quizzes, presentations, lectures, etc. can be accessed and shared among colleges or just among your own courses. When accessing materials, consider carefully if you would like to link to an object or retrieve it from the LOR.

After selecting an object in the LOR that you would like to access, there are numerous choices for you to consider.

The top two choices will allow you to link to the object in different ways. The “dynamic” link will allow you to access the newest version of the file constantly, yet this may mean a change of content or appearance. A “locked” link will always take you to the file you are viewing currently, yet you may be linking to outdated material in the future.

The next three choices allow you to retrieve the object. These choices give you the benefit of actually having the file, yet the materials may be outdated in the future and require you to access the LOR to find updated materials manually.

Select this link for more information.

LOR materials are waiting, access today!

Jacob Bane
Graduate Assistant Design and Development Services.

Categories
Announcements

D2L2Go Demonstration (Video)

Did you know Springboard is now easier to access from your mobile device? Desire2Learn recently updated their mobile viewing experience to D2L2Go. In order to access the new features, login to Springboard from your mobile device. Supported mobile devices include: iphone, itouch, android, and blackberry. Select the link below to view a quick video demonstration of D2L2Go.

D2L2Go Demonstration

Jacob Bane
Graduate Assistant Design and Development Services

Categories
Diving Deeper

LOR: How to Update an Existing Object

Updating objects in the Learning Object Repository (LOR) is quick and easy. Items such as quizzes, presentations, lectures, etc. can be updated to ensure that the latest version is available in the LOR.

1. In the course you wish to update files from, select the content tab.
2. Next to the content you wish to update, select the publish button ( ) on the right side of the screen.

3. Select the option to overwrite an existing object.
4. Select search to search the LOR for the previous version of the file and select it.
5. Select next.

6. Select publish
7. The updated object can now be accessed from the LOR.

Select this link for more information.

Outdated LOR assets are waiting, update today!

Jacob Bane
Graduate Assistant Design and Development Services.

Categories
Announcements

D2L2Go

Did you know Springboard is now easier to access from your mobile device? Desire2Learn recently updated their mobile viewing experience to D2L2Go. In order to access the new features, login to Springboard from your mobile device. Supported mobile devices include: iphone, itouch, android devices, and blackberry devices. The login page remains the same, yet once in the program, the interface has been updated for ease of use.

A welcome message, events and news can be seen from the main screen. A list of available courses can be found in the dropdown menu at the top of the page and more advanced features can be accessed through the tools button ().

The tools menu offers access to the content, news, bookmarks, grades, and calendar tools.

Why not use the new tools offered by D2L2Go today?

In future posts, I will look more in depth at some of the features of D2L2Go.

Jacob Bane
Graduate Assistant Design and Development Services

Categories
Diving Deeper

LOR: How to Retrieve

Retrieving resources from the Learning Object Repository (LOR) is quick and easy. Items such as quizzes, presentations, lectures, etc. can be accessed and shared among colleges or just among your own courses.

  1. Go to the course you wish to upload files to.
  2. Select the content tab; Under manage content, select add learning object.
  3. In the search field, type your desired search term or terms and select search.
  4. Select an object to view the file, select retrieve object to gain access.
  5. Select how you wish to access the object. You will have options to link, import, or download the object.
  6. The object can now be accessed through the chosen method.

Select this link for more information.

LOR resources are available, retrieve today!

Jacob Bane
Graduate Assistant Design and Development Services.