Final Grades & D2L

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Sam Harris

At the end of each semester, I always get questions about how D2L interacts with final grades. A couple of reminders:

D2L is not connected to AccessMaryville. Final grades in D2L will not automatically translate to “official” university grades. So, if you keep a gradebook in D2L, you will still need to key these grades into AccessMaryville.

If you keep a gradebook in D2L, the “final grade” (Final Calculated/Final Adjusted) is not automatically released to students. You have to manually tell D2L to release the final grade. Now, you do not have to release these “final grades” in D2L, however, in my experience, students are always asking for this.

How to release final grades in D2L:

If you are having issues, please let us know !

D2L: Add a Twitter Feed to the Course Home Page

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Sam Harris

D2L has the ability to do some pretty amazing things. One example of a creative way you can add media to your course is by adding a Twitter feed to the course home page.

Here is the process for adding a Twitter feed to your course home page !

There are two phases to this addition. First, you need to set up the widget to display the proper twitter feed. Second, you need to put the twitter feed on the course home page.

To set up the correct twitter feed on a widget:

1. From a course, select “Course Tools” in the upper right hand corner, then select “Widgets.”

2. This will give you a list of available “Widgets” within the course. Locate the “Twitter Feed” widget, and make a copy of it. When you select the “copy” button, a dialogue box will appear asking you to confirm this action.

3. Once copied, a new widget will appear in the list called “Twitter Feed-Copy.” Locate this widget and choose the “Edit” (Pencil Icon) button.

4. This will take you to the “Edit Widget” page. Select the “Content.” tab. Also, feel free to change the name of the widget to something more appropriate than “Twitter Feed-Copy.”

5. From the “Content” tab, select to edit the “HTML” code for this widget. The “HTML Source Code Editor” will appear. Locate the Twitter username. It will follow the code “setUser (“Twitter Username”).start ();

5. Replace this username (‘csamgo87′) with the username for the twitter feed you are going to use. This is typically located on the Twitter page, OR you can use whatever comes after “Twitter.com/_______”

The example below is the Twitter account for the Wall Street Journal. The Twitter username is “WSJ.” You can locate that in two locations (see below).

When finished, select “update” on the HTML editor (bottom left hand corner).

6. This will take you back out to the “Edit Widget” page. Go ahead and “Save and Close.” This will take you to the list of Widgets. You can preview the widget. If satisfied, select “Course Tools” again.

To add this Twitter Feed widget to the course home page.

1. From “Course Tools,” select “Homepages.”

2. Locate the “active” homepage. Then choose the down arrow to the right of its name and “Copy” it. 3. This will produce a copy of the active home page called “Course Default-Copy.” This copied home page will be highlighted blue, select the name of this home page to edit it. 4. This will take you to the “Edit Homepage” page. You can rearrange the default widgets as you see fit. To add the Twitter Feed widget, select “Add Widgets.” This will bring up a list of available widgets. Locate “Twitter Feed-Copy” OR whatever you renamed the widget to, and choose “Add”

5. The Twitter Feed will be added to the homepage template. Select “Save & Close.” This will bring you back out to the list of Homepages.

6. The last step is to use the drop down on this page to set your new homepage as the “Active Homepage” for your course. After you select your homepage, choose “Apply.”

7. Now you can go to your Course Home page and admire the new Twitter Feed !

D2L: Navigation Bar is Back in the Gradebook !

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Sam Harris

For those of you who don’t know, we recently updated D2L from 10.1 SP4 to 10.1 SP5. With this upgrade comes the return of the navigation bar within the gradebook! Before this upgrade, the navigation bar disappeared when you were in “enter grades,” and there was no obvious way of getting out of the gradebook (see below).

Above is the old version where the navigation bar disappeared. Below is the new and improved version !

D2L: How to Reorder Dropbox Folders

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Sam Harris

If you use the “Dropbox” tool, one thing you may need to do is reorder the folders. Folders are listed in the order they where created, so if your first assignment was the last folder you set up, it will be at the bottom of the list. It makes sense to put these folders in chronological order.

To reorder Dropbox folders:

1. Select “Dropbox” from the navigation bar, then choose “More Actions” and “Reorder.” 2. This will bring you to the “reorder” page. Use the dropdown arrows on the right side column (“Sort Order”) to reorder the folders. When finished, select “Save.”

3. When you select “Save,” it will take you back out to the Dropbox main page, and your folders will be in their proper order !

D2L: Publisher Course Package Import Capability

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Julia Bergfeld

Many times faculty are concerned that publishers do not have D2L compatible course packs. In fact there are many formats of course packages that ARE compatible with D2L.

The following package formats can be directly imported into the D2L Learning Environment using the browser based import or Bulk Course Create. If you have questions, please contact us.

Blackboard 5.x, 6.x, 7.x, 8.x, 9.x
WebCT CE 3.x, CE 4, CE 6.x/8.x (single modules or quizzes only), Vista 4.x/8.x (single modules or quizzes only)
IMS Common Cartridge 1.0
SCORM 1.2/2004
Respondus 2.0, 3.x, 4.x
Desire2Learn 8.x, 9.x, 10.x

D2L: How to Reset a Quiz

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Sam Harris

There is a constant need for students to have quizzes reset. This can occur for a number of reasons. The most common reason is that the student claims that D2L “kicked” them out of the quiz. This seems to be most likely due to “sketchy” internet connections at the students home. Regardless, faculty do have the ability to reset quizzes within D2L.

To reset a students quiz.

1. Go into D2L, and access “Quizzes”

2. Find the quiz you want to reset, select the down arrow to the right of the quiz name, and choose “Grade.”

3. Now, students will probably fall into two categories here. Students who have “completed” the quiz and students who have an “attempt in progress.” There are different steps to take for each case (i’ll demo both below).

Students who have completed the quiz:

4. Once you enter the “grade” area for Quizzes, you will probably be on the screen that will show “Users who have completed an attempt.” If not, use the dropdown menu (see below) to display these students then select the “search” icon to bring these students up on the page.

5. To reset a students quiz attempt, just locate the student, choose the checkbox next to the attempt you want to reset (probably attempt 1), and choose “delete” (trashcan icon). This will delete this students attempt, basically resetting the quiz for that student, allowing them to retake the quiz.

6. You will be prompted with a dialogue box making sure you want to reset the quiz, select “yes.”

7. Once you hit yes, the students attempt will not longer display on the page. The student can then retake the quiz, IF the end date has not yet been reached.

Students who have NOT completed the quiz:

8. If a student is kicked out of a quiz (for any reason) AFTER the end date, they will not be able to get back into the quiz to submit it. The quiz will be stuck “in progress.” It is possible as the instructor to get into the students quiz and submit it to be graded for them.

9. Again, Once you enter the “grade” area for Quizzes, you be on the screen that will show “Users who have completed an attempt.” Change this to “users who have an attempt in progress,” and hit the search button. This will display the list of students who are either currently taking the quiz OR students who never fully submitted it when finished. Then, select the impersonate button to enter the quiz AS that student.

10. You will now be in the quiz AS the student. All you need to do is select “submit quiz.” You will get two confirmation screens, just select either “yes” or “submit quiz” for both.

10 .You will be brought back out to the grade area of this quiz, and the student will no longer be on the list of “users with attempts in progress. Change this to “users who have submitted attempts” and choose the “search” button.

11. The recently submitted quiz attempt will appear. Select the checkbox next to the attempt you want to reset and select the “Delete” button. The student can then retake the quiz.

D2L: How to Change the Font Face & Font Size

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Sam Harris

One question I recently got, was “how can I make the font larger in D2L?”

Well, it is actually quite easy to do this.

1. Log into D2L.

2. Select your name on the mini bar, and choose “Account Settings.”

2. From the “Account Settings” tab, you can change the font settings. I recommend PT Sans as the font face. This was a recommendation made by D2L (as the most “optimized” for the system), however, you can choose which ever font size you like the most OR what is the easiest to read. I also recommend keeping the font size at either 11 or 12. You can make this larger, just note that if it gets too large some text may be cut off within the system (only in certain places). The good thing is that there is a little “Preview” bar to aid in your selection.

3. Select “Save and Close” when finished.

You should now have a new font face and font size.

How to Change Audio/Video Inputs With D2L Capture

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Sam Harris

D2L Capture is a great way to pre-record OR live broadcast lectures. Before using Capture thought, it may be necessary to adjust the audio and video outputs. By default, Capture will use the internal microphone and camera on laptops. However, some of you may want to use a headset to record (for better/crisper audio) OR an external webcam. If you choose to use an external device, this change needs to be made within the Capture software.

To use external devices with Capture:

1. Plug the device into the computer (i.e. external headset, external webcam)–usually via USB.

2. Launch D2L Capture.

3. Select “Options” in the upper right hand corner of the Capture screen, and select “Devices” from the menu bar.

4. From the “Devices” screen use the drop down menu next to “Video” and “Audio” to select the external device. Note* These will be defaulted to the internal devices. When you select the drop down menu, the plugged in external devices will display (see above).

5. Finished. When you record, Capture will use the specified devices from above.

McGraw-Hill Campus now available via D2L

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Julia Bergfeld

We now have the capability to tap right into the McGraw-Hill Campus resources directly through D2L.

To connect with McGraw-Hill Campus in your course, go to the Content area and either add a Module or under an existing Module, click “Add Activities”; next select “External Learning Tools”; under the second drop-down menu options entitled “External Learning Tools”, select “McGraw-Hill Campus”

mcg

then select “Insert”. This will add a link to McGraw-Hill Campus as a Topic in your course. Once it is added, locate the link in the Content listing and click on it. This will take you to the McGraw-Hill Campus site where you can select your textbook by Title, Author or ISBN.

This connection allows a single-sign on way for your students to access the online course materials.

You should already have set up your McGraw-Hill Campus account so that you can customize the book to meet your course needs.

D2L Quizzes: Special Access for Students with Disabilities

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Sam Harris

It is important in any classroom to provide the necessary support for students with disabilities. One way this can be done is by giving these students extra time for quizzes/tests (this can also be done for students who miss a quiz due to an excused absence).

The “Quizzes” tool in D2L allows for instructors to set up “Special Access” for students that is in lieu of the regular date/time restrictions for the rest of the class. For example, you can give one student time and half to complete a quiz, and that setting would only apply for this one student. You can also set up extra days for any one student to complete a quiz, so instead of a quiz being due on Monday, you can give some students until Tuesday (great for students with disabilities AND students who miss a quiz due to excused absences).

How to Set Up Special Access for a Quiz:

1. Go into the appropriate course, and select “Quizzes” from the Navigation Bar. Then choose the name of the quiz you want to give special access to.

2. This should take you to the “properties” tab within the “edit quiz” page. Select the “restrictions” tab. Scroll down to the bottom to the “Advanced Availability” section.

3. This will take you the “Special Access” page. Use the date/time settings to set up the special access, then scroll down and select the check box to the left of the students names who this will apply to. When finished, select “Add Special Access.” 4. This will take you back to the quiz “restrictions” tab. You will now see that the students with special access are listed under “Advanced Availability,” and their settings are different than the regular quiz settings.

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Category Archives: Desire2Learn (D2L)