Technology Update - May 21, 2012
Table of Contents
DrexelOne Mobile Gets Attention
Flashback Mac Trojan
Accounts Information for 2012 Graduates
Transitioning to Blackboard Learn
Optimize Windows 7 Folders
10th Annual e-Learning Conference
Improved DragonFly3 Wireless Performance for Windows Computers
Speedy Networking at the Academy of Natural Sciences
End-of-Life for DragonFly2
Course Migration from Bb Vista to Learn
Download Your "My Files" from Bb Vista
Bb Vista Browser Compatibility Update
Overlay Calendars in SharePoint
Sign Up for OLT and OLC Workshops
DrexelOne Mobile Gets Attention
DrexelOne Mobile continues to get attention at Drexel and off-campus. Downloads have now exceeded 20,000 copies across the five supported platforms. Microsoft is publishing a case study on how Drexel used its tools to both build the Windows Phone app and the framework that integrates Banner, Blackboard, and other functions used by the Android, BlackBerry, iOS, HPwebOS, and Windows Phone. This summer, IRT will be presenting at an education technology conference on how DrexelOne Mobile has made information accessible in ways that Web sites, even mobile-optimized ones, cannot.
As part of the Microsoft case study, Microsoft will be presenting a Win Big event at the Recreation Center on Monday, May 21 from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The event features demonstrations of Windows Phone, the DrexelOne app and other apps, a hands-on "device bar" of Windows Phones, and giveaways of a Nokia Lumia 900 phone, Amazon gift cards, and more. For more information, check out the poster at http://drexel.edu/irt/d1m/WinBig.
IRT is soliciting feedback from DrexelOne users. The Android, iOS, and Windows Phone apps have links to submit suggestions, but a "full-sized" Web browser works even better. To make suggestions, comment on others, or vote to tell IRT which ideas deserve the most development time, visit http://d1m.UserVoice.com.
Flashback Mac Trojan
Flashback is a piece of malware that is currently infecting Macintosh computers. It poses as a Flash installer, but it actually takes over your computer.
The original version of Flashback required user input, but a newer version is circulating on the Web that automatically infects a computer when the user visits infected Web pages.
Apple has released software updates to defend against this threat. If you have not already applied the updates, IRT recommends that you update your Mac now.
To check for updates, go to "System Preferences" > "Software Update" > "Check Now" and wait. It might say that there are no updates for your computer. If so, your system is already up-to-date, and no further action is necessary. If you do get a Java update, it will automatically remove the Flashback malware.
IRT's security group is notifying users who's computers are already compromised so they can fix their machines.
If you have any questions about this notice, please contact the IRT Help Desk at 215-895-2020 or consult@drexel.edu.
Accounts Information for 2012 Graduates
Are you a student graduating from Drexel this June? If so, there are a few things you might want to know regarding your Drexel computer accounts, e.g., access to your email, the software server, DrexelOne, and more.
Most of this information can be found on IRT’s Web site, but in short, the following policies apply to graduates:
- Your official Drexel email account (ending in “@drexel.edu”) may continue to be used for up to two years after graduation. After two years, access to this account will expire. If you would like to close this account before two years have passed, you may do so by contacting the IRT Help Desk.
- Drexel-branded email accounts (“@elink.drexel.edu” and “@glink.drexel.edu”) may be retained indefinitely.
- Access to DrexelOne will remain for up to two years after graduation.
- Access to services that require a Domain login (the software server, DragonFly3, etc.) will expire 30 days after graduation.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the IRT Help Desk at 215-895-2020 or accounts@drexel.edu. And congratulations on your impending graduation!
Transitioning to Blackboard Learn
With Blackboard Inc.'s support for Blackboard Vista and Blackboard Classic nearing its end in late 2012, Drexel will be transitioning to the new Blackboard Learn platform this summer. All courses at Drexel that begin on or after June 23, 2012 will be taught in the new Learn system. (Courses with start dates before June 23, 2012 will be completed in Bb Vista or Classic.) Learn will be linked to the Banner system and to the DrexelOne portal.
All faculty and staff currently have access to the new Learn system. To log in, go to http://learn.dcollege.net and enter your DrexelOne credentials. Students should have access to the system on June 11 in order to view any available orientation materials. Courses for the summer quarter will become available to students on their term start date.
Blackboard Learn includes a number of new features:
- Wikis
- Email and messaging (within-course notification) tools
- An Early Warning System to notify students based on custom parameters
- A Performance Dashboard for improved instructor monitoring of student performance
- Customizable grading views
- Simplified content management with thumbnail views
- Improved accessibility features
- "In-context" grading
- Drag-and-drop reordering and file uploading
- An Integrated search for textbooks
- "Mashups," which incorporate rich-media content using Web resources such as YouTube, Flickr, and SlideShare
- Per-course email notifications
The Online Learning Team (OLT) is currently offering workshops on Learn (see below for the schedule, or view the full workshop listing on the OLT's Workshops page). To reserve a seat for any of these workshops, email olt@drexel.edu. For self-paced training materials, including a wide array of instructional videos and documentation, visit the OLT's Learn Tutorials page.
Following the migration to Learn this summer, access to Bb Vista will eventually be phased out. To ensure that you have access to the information you need from your sections, you can archive items from your Bb Vista sections by saving them to your computer. Step-by-step how-to documents and videos on how to archive these items, which could include files, grade book entries, assessment reports, assignment submissions, discussion posts, and tracking reports, can be found on the Learn Tutorials page.
For more information about migrating your courses to Blackboard Learn, see “Course Migration from Bb Vista to Learn” below.
If you have any questions about the transition to Learn, please email olt@drexel.edu.
Optimize Windows 7 Folders
In Windows 7, you can set folders to present their content optimally. By default, this is how Libraries in Windows Explorer are set. The “Music” folder will display album covers, and its details columns will contain metadata such as “Artist” and “Release date.” Pictures will be organized by date using large thumbnails, while Documents will include “Date modified” and “Type” columns.
If you find these presets useful, you can browse to any folder on your computer and set it to one of the following choices:
- General Items
- Documents
- Pictures
- Music
- Videos
To do this:
- Navigate to the folder on your computer.
- Right-click on the folder and choose “Properties.”
- Select the “Customize” tab.
- Choose the optimization type under “What kind of folder do you want.”
10th Annual e-Learning Conference
The 10th annual e-Learning 2.0 Conference on March 29th was a rousing success! Held for the first time in the new Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building, the conference drew more than 170 people from 40 institutions, companies, and non-profit organizations all around the region. Attendees traveled from as far away as California to learn about a variety of e-learning topics (including social media in education, mobile learning, online course development, and student engagement) and exchange ideas with other faculty members, administrators, and students in the field.
If you would like to access any of the conference presentations, including the keynote address by Dr. Marc J. Rosenberg on “The Special Sauce of Social Learning,” an archive has been posted on the conference Web site at http://www.drexel.edu/irt/News/events/eLearningConf/events.
Mark your calendar for next year’s conference on March 28, 2013! The call for proposals will begin in October, and registration will open in late January 2013. If you are not on our conference mailing list and would like to be added, please send your name and email address to el2n@drexel.edu.
Thanks to everyone who participated for helping to make this year's conference one of the best yet!
Improved DragonFly3 Wireless Performance for Windows Computers
If you are a Windows user, and you manually set up your DragonFly3 configuration or haven't run the Wizard since it was first introduced last fall quarter, you are encouraged to do so again. The Dragonfly3 Installation Wizard can be found on IRT's Web site at http://www.drexel.edu/irt/networks/wireless/dragonfly3 or on the home page of the Drexel Guest wireless network.
Speedy Networking at the Academy of Natural Sciences
IRT has extended the Drexel fiber-optic network to the Academy of Natural Sciences located at 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The new fiber-optic network connects the Academy to the Drexel network at 10 Gigabits per second, providing virtually unlimited speed to reach resources at Drexel, on the Internet, and, for the first time, to provide access at the Academy to Internet2, the nation's Advanced Research Network. Previously, the Academy's Internet connection was limited to 4.5 Megabits per second, requiring staff and researchers to severely ration network resources. The new network offers more than 2,000 times the previous capacity without restrictions.
Inside the building, IRT has upgraded the network switches that deliver network service to the desktop in order to provide increased intra-building network capacity and make full use of the full technical support offered by IRT's Networking Team. The Academy's IT staff is currently moving Academy departments onto the new, faster network. One-third of ANS users have been moved; all users should be migrated by mid-May.
Additionally, IRT is developing plans with the Academy and Drexel Facilities to provide a new, unified data/voice wiring infrastructure along with the necessary air- conditioning and power supplies to deliver the DragonFly wireless network, the Drexel phone system, and 1 Gigabit per second wired networking throughout the Academy, funded by a Pew grant. It is anticipated that work on this project will begin during the summer with completion expectedand finish by the end of this year.
End-of-Life for DragonFly2
DragonFly and DragonFly2 are wireless networks for devices that cannot process the higher security standards used by DragonFly3. To simplify the use of wireless networking at Drexel, DragonFly2 will be deactivated after the spring term. If you currently use DragonFly2, you’ll need to make a small configuration change by June 18, 2012.
Currently, most wireless devices support DragonFly3, including all current Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone, iPad, and iPod systems, along with many other computers, smartphones, and appliances. If your device does not support DragonFly3, you should configure it to use DragonFly before June 18 when DragonFly2 will be turned off.
Lab managers and interested users might like to know that DragonFly and DragonFly2 are nearly identical. Both require Wi-Fi MAC address pre-registration using the DrexelOne portal. Both share the same IP subnet and IP address range. The only difference between the two networks is the length of their WEP security keys: a 64-bit key is used for DragonFly compared to a 128-bit key for DragonFly2.
If your devices are configured to use only the DragonFly2 network, you will need to reconfigure them to use DragonFly instead.
If you have to reconfigure, you’ll need to know the DragonFly security key. This key can be found in the DrexelOne portal by clicking on the "DragonFly Registration" link under the "Drexel" tab in the "Technology Services" box. Instructions are also available on the IRT Web site at http://www.drexel.edu/irt/networks/wireless/.
Email reminders regarding this change will be sent to individuals who are using DragonFly 2 prior to the June 18 decommission date.
If you have questions or need assistance, please contact the IRT Help Desk at 215-895-2020 or consult@drexel.edu.
News and Notes from the Online Learning Team
Course Migration from Bb Vista to Learn
In anticipation of the move from Blackboard Vista to the new Blackboard Learn system this summer, the migration of course content to Learn is already well underway.
Before requesting a course migration from Bb Vista to Learn, faculty should first confer with their specific academic unit(s), as they might have a specific migration process in place. Once you have conferred with your department, please complete this form to request the migration of an existing Bb Vista course(s) to Learn: http://drexel.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6R8R27Xuky3nZIw. Only one version of each course will be migrated, so please choose the most complete version of each course you teach (e.g., ENGL-101, ENGL-102).
Below is an overview of how various types of course content are handled during migration. Since Learn uses a somewhat different structure for the organization of online content, some types of content copy better than others. Instructors should review migrated content before deciding whether to copy the migrated content to an active course, or build the active course manually.
Content Migrated from Bb Vista to Learn
|
Requested Course Migration
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Manual Copy
|
|
What
|
Copied to Learn?
|
Notes
|
Action Required
|
|
Files
|
Yes
|
N/A
|
Zip and download; upload as Package to course Content Collection
|
|
Assessments
|
Yes
|
Questions are not automatically added to question pools
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Download questions with Respondus and upload to new course with Learn personality; be sure to select “Create new Pool” instead of “Create new Exam”
|
|
Discussions
|
Yes
|
Top-level thread posts are copied with forums and should be deleted
|
Manually copy and paste text
|
|
Assignments
|
Yes
|
Copied to Assignments content area; linked from other folders and modules
|
Manually copy and paste text
|
|
Course Mail
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No
|
N/A
|
Copy and paste into document
|
|
Web Links
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Yes
|
Copied to Web Links content area
|
Copy and paste into document
|
|
Page Headers and Footers
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Yes – as ”items”
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Learn does not use page headers or footers
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Create new item; copy HTML code and paste into code view
|
|
Grade Book
|
Yes – but not formulas
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Check columns carefully
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Export .csv file from Bb Vista, change “User ID” field to “Username,” remove student IDs, and import into Learn
|
Student data in Bb Vista is not copied with a migrated course, but it can be copied manually by going into the desired tool from the Teach tab and using the appropriate process shown below.
Archiving Student Data
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What
|
Action Required
|
Notes
|
|
Assessments
|
Export assessment reports as files
|
N/A
|
|
Discussions
|
Save printable view as file
|
To select all posts, select “All Topics,” then "Expand All"
|
|
Assignments
|
Save printable view as file
|
N/A
|
|
Course Mail
|
Save printable view as file
|
Printable view saves only messages that are on the page; adjust paging to make all messages visible
|
|
Grade Book
|
Export to .csv file readable by Excel
|
N/A
|
|
Student Tracking
|
Export to .csv file readable by Excel
|
N/A
|
To access videos and step-by-step documents about archiving student data in Bb Vista, as well as a large repository of video tutorials about Blackboard Learn, please refer to the Learn Tutorials Page.
Download Your "My Files" from Bb Vista
Although course content can be migrated from Bb Vista to Learn, there are some things that can’t be moved, such as the personal file storage for each user located in the "My Files" area of Bb Vista.
To download the personal files you have stored in your "My Files" area in Bb Vista, follow these instructions posted on AskDrexel.
Bb Vista Browser Compatibility Update
In response to user demand, an update was recently made to Bb Vista that allows users with the newest versions of Firefox and Chrome to successfully log into the system. After logging in, users might see a browser check pop-up window stating that the browser is unsupported, but this message can be disregarded since the browser will still work with Bb Vista.
If you have any questions about using your browser with Bb Vista, or about Bb Vista in general, please contact the Online Learning Team at olt@drexel.edu or 215-895-1224.
Overlay Calendars in SharePoint
New in SharePoint 2010 is the ability to overlay a calendar from any SharePoint site onto the calendar for your SharePoint site. This allows you to see, at a glance, the events that are taking place on another group's site. For example, a few site owners have chosen to display the upcoming workshops offered by the Online Learning Team on their own site calendar so that their colleagues can see workshops that interest them.
To overlay calendars in SharePoint, you first need to update your SharePoint site to the new 2010 user interface, if you have not already done so. You can contact websupport@drexel.edu if you have questions or need help updating your site.
Once your site is updated, adding another calendar to your site is as easy as obtaining its URL. For full instructions, please visit AskDrexel.
Sign Up for OLT and OLC Workshops
The Online Learning Team conducts training sessions on Blackboard Learn, Camtasia, DragonDrop, Dreamweaver, Mac OS X, Respondus, SharePoint, and more. In addition, several brown bag lunches and workshops on technology products of interest are held each month. These training sessions are open to members of Drexel’s community as well as the general public. For your convenience, online learning council (OLC) sessions are listed here as well.
To reserve a spot at any of these workshops, email us at olt@drexel.edu with your name, institution (if other than Drexel), contact information, and the name of the workshop(s) you would like to attend.
Below is a sampling of workshops taking place in May and June:
Improving Response Rates in Online Surveys
Tuesday, May 22, 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Learn Full Day Workshop
Friday, June 8, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Mac OS X Lion Workshop
Tuesday, June 12, 10:00 a.m. – noon
Editing Content with Dreamweaver
Thursday, May 24, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
University Events Calendar Training
Thursday, May 31, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Introduction to Sitecore
Thursday, June 14, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Visit our Web site for our complete training schedule and workshop descriptions. Unless otherwise noted, all training sessions will be held in room 116 of the Korman Center (off the Quad on Drexel’s Main Campus, 33rd Street between Market and Chestnut Streets).