IMGconnect

Adobe Connect, one of the many online communication/lecture capture systems offered by Auburn, has recently been expanded for better functionality and reliability. Recent upgrades to the network and more server space have allowed us to increase the user limits. Now up to 100 users can be in a room at once (with the ability to raise the limit to 200 if needed). In addition, up to six video feeds at a time may be concurrently displayed. Connect’s policies have been updated to reflect these changes. Also, if you would like to request a Connect session, please fill out the form on the Policy webpage.

Auburn offers many online communication/lecture capture systems. Please contact IMG at 844-5181 to find the best one for your teaching needs, or you may review the overall differences online (PDF).

In past Tech Bits, we have shared many wonderful open source (free!) programs to enhance your teaching. However, hardware cannot be downloaded for free and often comes with a steep price tag. IMG has recently expanded our available equipment inventory and now offers many new items for instructors to check-out.

Interested in video lecture capture? Then check-out a Flip Video Camera or HD camcorder. How about narrated PowerPoint or podcasts? We have both wireless lavaliere mics and USB headsets available. Would you like more student feedback in the classroom? We have over 40 clickers available.

Call us at 844-5181 and we’ll be glad to discuss what hardware will best suit your teaching needs. And, of course, there is no charge for using our equipment.

View a complete list of hardware faculty can check out

Respondus is a great tool for creating multiple quizzes and uploading them to multiple Blackboard courses. However, Respondus’s unique file management system may lead to confusion on how to backup your files. But it is possible to backup all your quizzes to a flash drive or any other location. We recommend doing this at least once a semester, just to ensure you always have your quizzes handy. And since Respondus 4.0 is now available, now is a good time to backup those quizzes!

As a final note, if you have trouble running Respondus or if all your classes do not show up in the course list, you can fix this issue by reinstalling Respondus. Uninstall the software, then delete the Respondus Projects folder (C:\Respondus Projects). Be sure to backup your quizzes before deleting! Then reinstall Respondus and it should run properly. Otherwise, give us at call at 844-5181.

Over 750 podcasts are now available on Auburn’s iTunes U and all of these files can be downloaded and synced to an iPod. But this does not mean you must have an iPod to view iTunes U content. Any MP3 or MP4 player can play the podcasts (MP4 players are required for video). For example, if you recently purchased the new Zune HD (or have an older model Zune), the Zune software can automatically import all podcasts downloaded through iTunes.

If you don’t have a Zune or an iPod, the podcasts can still be added to your personal player. Copy the files from the iTunes U directory to wherever your MP3/MP4 files are saved. The iTunes U library is located at:

Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\iTunes U

Mac OS
HDD > Users > USERNAME > Music > iTunes > iTunes Music > iTunes U

And remember, you can always play a podcast on your computer directly through iTunes U.

Fall workshops for October are now available for registration. IMG introduces two more workshops: KompoZer and Podcasting through Keynote. KompoZer is an open source (free!) alternative to Dreamweaver that novice webmasters will find easier to use. KompoZer can be used to develop new sites or edit/modify existing sites. The Keynote workshop will help participants learn to design presentations, add narration, and create podcasts using Keynote. Participants will need to bring a Mac with Keynote 09 installed.

IMG also offers Blackboard Quick Starts, PowerPoint 2007 refreshers, and other podcasting workshops as well.

Blackboard now has the ability to reorder the grade order for students through the My Grades tool. In the past, the grades in My Grades (the link students click to see their grades) were fixed in the order created. So if you created your Final Grade column before your Quiz 1 column, Final Grade would always appear before Quiz 1 in My Grades.

Now you can order the grades under My Grades in any order. The order the columns appear in your Grade Book is the order used for My Grades.

Help is available online showing exactly how to reorder the Grade Book and My Grades.

If you require students to register at third-party sites, especially if grades are stored on the third-party server, students must use aliases if that publisher has not signed a FERPA-compliance agreement with AU. The following on-line vendors have signed appropriate agreements with AU:

• Cengage (includes Aplia)
• Lyryx Learning INC
• Interactive Point of View
• John Wiley & Sons
• WebAssign

For faculty using third-party on-line material, such as publisher websites: AU now has an easy means of assigning aliases.

SmartAlias, an application developed by Dr. Daniela Marghitu, Michael Fuller, and Ben Brahim, is now functioning through a link in Blackboard. Students will use a link in Blackboard and be assigned an alias. They will register at the third-party site with their aliases and an e-mail address other than their Auburn e-mail. They will access that site with that alias throughout the semester and grades will be stored for that alias.

SmartAlias also includes forms that allow instructors to match and to reveal alias information using .csv files from the vendor and the Blackboard grade book. Faculty will access the instructor forms from the link on the Blackboard Teach Tab. Included on the Instructor page of Smart Alias is a link to video instructions for using the instructor match grades for by aliases to the User ID information in the Blackboard grade book and how to upload those grades.

Faculty will need to add a link to the SmartAlias system in their Blackboard courses; instructions for adding the link can be found here: http://www.auburn.edu/img/alias/instructors.html.

Faculty should feel free to include this link to instructions for students in their Blackboard courses as well:    http://www.auburn.edu/img/alias/students.html.

As we near the end of the semester, we would like to mention a few Blackboard Best Practices to ensure a smooth transition from Spring/Summer to Fall.

Always download a copy of the Grade Book throughout the semester, but especially at the end. Since courses are removed from Blackboard after one year, having a local copy will be useful for grade challenges.

Copy your course content to a development course or to your Fall course. You have control over the creation and deletion of development courses, so they are the perfect area to store your course materials.

Fall courses are available in Blackboard for you to add content, but students will not have access to the course material until two weeks before class begins (August 1st).

If you would like to use Authenticated iTunes, now’s a good time to send in your request.

Would you like to record yourself grading essays using Word’s track changes while offering audio commentary? Show students how to access and use a specific computer program? Demonstrate how to find an article using Auburn’s EBSCOHost? It can be done online and for free at ScreenToaster.com.

ScreenToaster allows you to record either your entire computer screen or a specific region. These recordings then can be uploaded to ScreenToasters or YouTube, or downloaded to your computer as an MOV file (which can be converted to any format, perfect for iTunes). These videos can have audio commentary, subtitles, or webcam video. For more information and a demo of the process, please visit http://faq.screentoaster.com.

IMG offers online help in Flash, PDF, and HTML formats, and now there is another format available: Podcasts. Throughout the upcoming semester, IMG will convert the help for Blackboard into podcasts and add them to AU iTunes. Anyone will be able to download and view the podcasts on their computer or portable media player. The podcasts are also optimized with bigger callouts for smaller displays.

To download an IMG podcast, go to http://itunes.auburn.edu/ and click “Open AU iTunes” to open Auburn’s iTunes store. Click “Instructional Multimedia Group” then on the next page click “Help Files.” Click “Get Movie” next to the podcast you wish to download.