To:  All Learning System Instructors and Associates

(Request from eLearning Team:  Please circulate this communique to any new faculty in your departments!)

Student Load Dates (when students will be able to see your site content):  EDUC -- Wednesday August 24, 2011    All Others:  MONDAY September 5, 2011

In this Issue:
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1.  Final Call for Fall 2011 and Fall/Winter 2011 Course Requests
     We've  heard from about HALF of you..
2.  From the REGISTRAR'S OFFICE:  About adding students manually to learningSystem sites
3.  Faculty/Staff/Teaching Assistants Free LearningSystem Workshops Continue...
     New this year:  Webcasting and 2 full days in Oshawa...   Again this year:  SMARTboard workshops + iClicker workshops
4.  iClicker Upgrades to 5.5.2
5.  Great time to 'empty your gradebooks' if you're reusing/recycling a site
6.  How Do I?  Copy content from one site to another in the learningSystem?
7.  Assignment Dropbox:  Allow student takebacks
8.  Hiding Sites from Previous Years that You Want to Keep
9.  "Date Rollover" -- the easy way to check & update all due dates at once
10.  Remove Other Tools from the left menu that you're not using

Note that the learningSystem/WebCT was out of service for most of the day yesterday as we battled a security certificate issue.  Thank you all for your patience.  Full service resumed before 3pm.


1.  Final Call for Fall 2011 and Fall/Winter 2011 Course Requests  (Please don't send your WINTER course requests just yet...)
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If you're not yet sure of your teaching duties, please let us know as SOON AS YOU KNOW and we'll try to accommodate as time permits.   There is no deadline, but there will be a delay in site creation/student loading for your site(s) if you wait too long.

Official List of Course Sites for the Fall in the Learning System: http://www2.trentu.ca/cgi-bin/mls-courses
Course Request Form:  http://www.trentu.ca/mls/instructors/course-request.shtml
 Faculty who submit the form will be given eternal priority over faculty who 'reply to this email'.

If you do not see your course listed on the 'Official List of Course Sites' above, please use the 'Course Request' link to let us know about your Learning System plans even if you used the site last year!     If your course site in the Learning system does not contain 2011FA or 2011FW  - then it has not been readied for student loading and we need to hear from you

Of particular concern are the EDUC course sites that have not  yet been requested...

All requests sent by form will be placed in a request queue in "RequestTracker" for processing.   If you plan to reuse materials, please do feel free to update your materials now even before your request has been resolved/answered.

• Please hide any folders marked "assignment solutions" and/or "mid-term exams" at this time!

Student Load:  All students will be loaded into September course site on the MONDAY of Intro Week this year (Monday, September 5th before noon).  This should avoid lots of "last minute" access issues of loading them on the first day of fall classes.    EDUC Fall course sites will be loaded with students on Wednesday August 24th.


2.  From the REGISTRAR'S OFFICE:  About adding students manually to learningSystem sites
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At the beginning of each term, instructors are often approached by 'not-quite-registered' students for early access to course learningSystem/WebCT sites.

If you add a "not-quite-registered" student to your learningSystem/WebCT site, you are giving them "reason to believe" that they are also properly registered in the course...   Students that complete course requirements without registering are getting a "free ride" for that course, and the university loses significant revenue each year because of improper / missing registrations.   The most common reason for students to not be able to register for a course involves "nonpayment of fees" and not system or Registrar's Office issues as they may lead you to believe.

ANY TIME that you manually 'enroll' a student into your learningSystem site, please make a list of this action.  After the deadline date TO ADD COURSES has passed, verify the registrations of these manually-added students via Colleague or via your department secretary -- and REMOVE / UNENROLL any student who has not followed through with their registration responsibility.  FINAL DATES TO ADD COURSES WITH PERMISSION: FA AND F/W COURSES - SEPT. 30; WI COURSES - JAN. 27.


3.  Faculty/Staff/Teaching Assistants Free Learning System Workshops Continue...
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A full slate of free Learning System workshops are being offered during the months of  August and September and the schedule/online registration can be found at www.trentu.ca/mls/instructors/workshops

New this Fall:  "Intro to Webcasting" for anyone teaching in Wenjack, OC 203, SC 137 or Oshawa 121.  Faculty teaching in other rooms may attend but this service cannot easily be used by them.  Also new are two full days of workshops for OSHAWA faculty:  Thursday September 8th and Monday September 19th.  Again this round:  "Intro to iClicker/iGrader" for anyone who has already adopted this technology for the fall and also "Intro to the SMART board" for anyone teaching in a SMART equipped room.

Location of known SMART boards:  http://www.trentu.ca/mls/instructors/workshops/welcome.shtml#smart

If you're having difficulty with a particular Learning System tool, or would like to talk to one of us about how to take your site to "the next level", please let us know -- we'd be happy to help as time permits.


4.  iClicker Upgrades
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The current version of iClicker for Macs and PCs for Trent instructors is 5.5.2 (you can determine your version by launching  your iClicker software -- it will show up on the blue title bar).  It includes a few minor bug fixes over the version that most of you are using now which is likely 5.5.0.

The latest version of the software worldwide is v6.1, but this version closely corresponds to V2 clicker functionality which involves a different student clicker with an LCD screen (and an increased cost to students).   Trent University has decided as a whole to stay with the current student clicker versions.

Please do NOT upgrade to software version 6.1.

To upgrade to the latest version of level 5 software,  open your iClicker Folder on your memory stick and choose 'WebUpdate" for an automatic updater.  


5.  Great time to 'empty your gradebooks' if you're reusing/recycling a site
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If you are reusing a site from a previous course offering for this fall, you'll notice that any gradebook columns used previously still exist.  It's much easier to "delete these columns" NOW than to try to do it once you've started entering grades.   If the column was created by a quiz or an assignment dropbox, you cannot delete the column until you delete the quiz or assignment.  Otherwise, go to 'Gradebook Options', 'Column Settings' and delete any column that you no longer want for the new version of the site.


6.  How Do I?  Copy content from one site to another in the learningSystem?
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If an item exists in another course site and you want to copy it over to the site you're working in, it's easy!

BUILD -> Add File -> Browse for Files.    Instead of choosing 'My Computer' like you usually would, look under 'Class Files' for the other course title, and navigate to the document that you'd like to insert into your current site.  Choose 'OK' and you're done.  


7.  Assignment Dropbox:  Allow student takebacks
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A handy option to be aware of is 'Allow Student takebacks" for the assignment dropbox tool.  It allows students who have submitted their papers BEFORE THE DEADLINE to make changes if they have after-thoughts -- but it does not allow anyone to take back their submission AFTER THE DEADLINE HAS PASSED.

From the assignment's "Edit Properties" screen, choose 'More Options' and then check the option for *Students can take back and correct work after submission*.  Save.


8.  Hiding Sites from Previous Years that You Want to Keep
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If there are courses on your LearningSystem list that you'd rather not see right now but want to keep, here's how:

Look for the little yellow pencil directly to the right of the 'Course List' title. Click on it -- on the resulting page, you can choose which courses you want to hide.   Click on the 'myLearningSystem' tab to return to your Course List page. If you're looking for a course that should be there but you can't see it, watch for the "Number of Hidden Course Links: 1" reminder -- and use the yellow pencil to look for your course sites there & unhide.


9.  "Date Rollover" -- the easy way to check & update all due dates at once
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Choose 'BUILD', 'Manage Course', 'Date Rollover' to manage all due dates in your course sites at once.   If you want to set forward the dates for all course items by a certain number of days,  select Adjust All Dates. Then you can further adjust the dates and times for individual course items. To do this, click Adjust Individual Dates.


10.  Remove Other Tools from the left menu that you're not using
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Use 'BUILD', 'MANAGE COURSE', 'TOOLS' to add or remove the visibility of left-menu course tools to your students.   Remove a checkmark from a tool, and choose 'save' at the bottom of the page to remove that tool.

If you're not using the graphical calendar, then remove it.
If you're not using the discussions tool, and don't want the responsibility of checking your student behaviour in this tool, remove it.
If you're not using the built-in MAIL tool in the learningSystem, we strongly suggest that you remove that one or students will use it to contact you, and receive no response!