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Technology Update - October 17, 2012

Table of Contents

Outlook/Exchange Upgrade 
Microsoft Revising Visual Studio Licensing
Unlimited Software Use and Training Available
Testing for Next DrexelOne Portal
Update to Internet Explorer 8
Use Plain Text for Safe Copying & Pasting
Best Practices for Restricting Availability in Learn
Sign Up for OLT Workshops

Outlook/Exchange Upgrade

On October 22, IRT will make a change in the Exchange servers used by Outlook and smart phones connect in preparation for an upgrade to the servers. The upgrade will bring new features, better security, additional redundancy, and larger mailbox quotas. When the change is made on October 22, users will notice a new login page at exchangeweb.drexel.edu.

Some smartphones may re-synchronize email, contacts, and calendars with the new server. Some older phones might stop synchronizing with the Exchange server until a slight manual reconfiguration is made to reestablish the link. More details will follow as we proceed with the upgrade. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact the IRT Help Desk at 215-895-2020 or consult@drexel.edu.

Microsoft Revising Visual Studio Licensing

DreamSpark, which is also appropriate for teaching in lab environments, is now the preferred application for Visual Studio Pro requirements and is available at no cost to students, faculty, and staff.

Visual Studio for Applications is also included with all of the Microsoft Office applications.

To obtain DreamSpark, instructions are posted on the secure software server. Administrative departments and colleges that still need to buy Visual Studio Pro for their staff institutional software developers should contact the CDW-G Account Manager, Lucas Seelig, at 866-854-4008.

Unlimited Software Use and Training Available

Bentley STUDENTserver is a self-service Web site designed for students. There, you can access an extensive library of Bentley products, training, technical support, and more. STUDENTserver offers many benefits:

  • Access to software products covering a wide range of disciplines and subject areas

  • Provision of all-day, every-day access, for finishing and accessing your projects at home or elsewhere

  • Training in Bentley’s software provided by the Bentley experts

  • Access to professional networking resources, giving you a competitive edge for the job market

  • Project and time management tools

Take a short video tour. To access STUDENTserver, visit www.bentley.com/studentserver, click "Join Now," and create an account. You will be required to enter Drexel's school code, which you can obtain from our secure software server (navigate to the Bentley software folder and click on the file "STUDENTserver_school_code.txt").

Testing for Next DrexelOne Portal

IRT is in the process of testing an update for the DrexelOne portal to Luminis 5, which will streamline the look and feel of the system. When you login to DrexelOne, you might see an invitation to try out the new version of the portal. We encourage you to do so! If you choose to try it out, a new Central Authentication System (CAS) will keep you logged in to a variety of Drexel services. Look for the notice to be posted soon on the DrexelOne login page.

If you have feedback or need help, send your comments or questions to nextd1@drexel.edu.

Update to Internet Explorer 8

If you are using Windows XP and haven't done so already, be sure to update your Internet Explorer browser to Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8). IE 8 offers improved security and functionality, e.g., when displaying Drexel's new Web site (which was designed with IE 8 and later in mind). Windows 7 computers are pre-installed with IE 8 or later.

Also, if you are a staff or faculty member who is not running certain applications or Enterprise software that require Windows XP, consider upgrading to Windows 7. Microsoft has stated that the end-of-life for Windows XP will be April 2014, meaning that after that date, no further updates or support will be provided for XP from Microsoft.

To find out how to upgrade, and to verify that your computer can run Windows 7, contact your departmental IT team, or the IRT Help Desk at consult@drexel.edu or 215-895-2020.

Use Plain Text for Safe Copying & Pasting

If you copy text from a Microsoft Word document or a Web site and paste it directly into Blackboard (Bb) Learn or Sitecore, you might notice that superfluous code is copied along with the desired text. This can cause problems with the way your page renders and how the content displays to users. How do you copy the text without this superfluous code?

You can paste any copied material as "plain text"—that is, text without formatting. To do so, copy the text and paste it into a text editor, such as Notepad. Then, copy the text from the text editor and paste it into Learn or Sitecore. Use the tools in the Text Editor to apply any formatting you wish, including bold or italics, hyperlinks, headings, bullets, etc.

Depending on your operating system and browser, you might be able to paste text without its formatting by using a keyboard shortcut such as Ctrl + Shift + V (Windows) or Shift + Option + Command + V (Mac OS X).

News and Notes from the Online Learning Team

Best Practices for Restricting Availability in Learn

One of the most common issues that faculty report about Learn is: "I can see the assignment (or test or PowerPoint), but my students say they can't see it. What am I doing wrong?" The answer, in most cases, is that it exists in one place as an object and in another place(s) as a link—and the instructor has inadvertently set the object to be unavailable, which, as a result, makes it unavailable through the link(s). The examples and recommendations below are organized under three general principles that will, hopefully, help you make object availability more of a choice than an accident.

  1. Use Links Only When Necessary. In Learn, links can have their own availability settings because they are independent of the object to which they are linked. Both the link and the original object (document, test, assignment, etc.) must be available for the link to work, and hiding the link does not necessarily hide the original object. Here are three cases where links are often created:

    1. In courses migrated from Bb Vista, the Assignments (or Assessments) tool becomes a folder (item on the course menu) containing the originals of all assignments in the migrated course. Links to the assignments that existed in folders and learning modules migrate as links to the originals in the Assignments folder. The same holds true for Assessments, but the folder on the course menu is called Assessments.

      Pitfall: If the Assignments folder is hidden on the course menu (indicated by a white square with a gray line through it), no assignments will be available to the students, even if the links are available.

      Recommendation 1: Move assignments from the Assignments folder to the modules where they are used and delete the link objects (indicated by a link symbol in the upper left-hand corner of the icon).

      Recommendation 2: Retain the Assignments folder and make the folder visible by selecting "Show Link" from the drop-down menu next to "Assignments."

    2. Creating a Course Link from the Build Content menu: Links to any content in the course can be created by hovering over "Build Content" and selecting "Course Link." For example, a test can be deployed to an "Assessments" folder, and a link to the test can be created in a "Week 3" folder. Course Links can be easily distinguished from the objects to which they are linked by the presence of a link symbol in the upper left corner of the icon. Links to discussion forums, on the other hand, do not have the link symbol (because forums do not exist outside the Discussion Board).

      Pitfall: Restrictions on the original object (e.g., Adaptive Release "Dates" or "Membership" criteria) can limit availability of the object from the link, even though the link is available.

      Recommendation: If you plan to restrict the availability of objects in your course, do not use Course Links. In the example above, you could move the test from the "Assessments" folder to the "Week 3" folder and delete the link object, or keep the test in the "Assessments" folder and delete the link in the "Week 3" folder. If you do decide to use Course Links, remember to change the availability of the item in both the original object and the link.

    3. Creating a discussion forum in a content area or folder creates a forum and a link to the forum.

      Pitfall: If the forum is unavailable, the link will appear to be available but will return an error message.

      Recommendation: Test availability of links frequently using the Test Student. (Under "Course Tools," click "Add Test Student" to create a Test Student in your course and set its password. Log out and then log in as the Test Student, or open another browser and log in as the Test Student.)

  2. Understand the purpose and behavior of Adaptive Release before using it. Adaptive Release is used to restrict access to objects. It has no other function. The "Grade" criterion in Adaptive Release allows the instructor to base the availability of an object upon completion of a related task.

    Pitfall: After setting date restrictions for a test or assignment in Adaptive Release (under "1. Date"), the instructor also selects the Grade Center column for the object (under "3. Grade"), and the object becomes unavailable. Setting a "Grade" criterion is not necessary when setting date criteria, and choosing the Grade Center column for the object creates an impossible condition: it must be submitted before it can be attempted.

    Recommendation: If you are setting date restrictions in Adaptive Release, leave "Select a Grade Center column" set to "None," unless you really want to make access to the object dependent upon completion of a different prerequisite task. (Date restrictions can also be set in the Availability section of the test or assignment by using the "Display After/Display Until" checkboxes, but setting dates both there and in Adaptive Release is redundant.)

  3. Hide tools in the Tools Area only if the Tools Area is visible. The Tools Area is a page of tool links that can be made available to students through the course menu, since students do not have access to the Control Panel. Tools that will not be used in the course should be hidden from the Tools Area. However, although the button next to each tool says "Hide Link," clicking this button actually disables the tool.

    Pitfall:  An instructor hid the Blogs tool in the Tools Area and also deleted the Tools Area from the course menu. Later, the instructor decided to use a blog and created a blog topic. No error messages were shown to the instructor, but students attempting to use the link saw the message "Blog Content Item not available." The Tools Area had to be readded to the course menu in order to turn on the Blogs tool again.

    Recommendation: If you hide tools in the Tools Area (therefore making them unavailable), do not delete the Tools Area from the course menu.

Sign Up for OLT Workshops

The Online Learning Team conducts training sessions on Learn, Camtasia, DragonDrop, Web basics, 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.

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 October and November:

Learn Full Day Workshop
Thursday, November 15, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Drexel Learn and McGraw-Hill
Thursday, October 25, noon – 1:00 p.m.

Recording and Editing with Camtasia Studio for Windows
Thursday, November 8, 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Basic Image Editing
Thursday, October 18, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Wednesday, November 14, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

HTML Basics
Tuesday, November 13, 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 University City Campus, 33rd Street between Market and Chestnut Streets).