Author: Jamie Ackley (Page 2 of 3)

D2L Course Copy – Share Content with Another Instructor

August 1, 2022 / Jamie Ackley

There are times when instructors may want to share their course content with another instructor or create a backup of their course for future reference. This is done by exporting your D2L course as a Brightspace course package (zip). This package (zip) can then be shared with another instructor to import into their course or saved in a secure location as a course backup.

Step 1: Export your course as a Brightspace package

In your D2L course, go to the Course Tools > Course Admin.

Select Import/Export/Copy Components.

Course Admin > Import/Export/Copy Componets

Select Export as Brightspace Package > Start.

Select Components to Export > Continue.

• Select Components to Export > Continue

Important! – Under Additional Components to Export, select Include course files in the export package > Export.

Additional Components to Export, select Include course files in the export package > Export.

The Export will start. You’ll be notified on the Updates Alerts icon in D2L when the export is ready to download (orange dot indicates new notification).

Select Export Finished in the Updates Alerts to download the Export Package (zip).

• Select Export Finished in the Updates Alerts to download the Export Package

Click to download the Export Package (zip).

Save zip file to a secure location.
Send this zip file to the instructor you are sharing your course with.
That instructor will now go to Step 2 for directions to import the zip file into their course.

Step 2: Import the Zip file into a new D2L course

In your D2L course, go to the Course Tools > Course Admin.

Select Import/Export/Copy Components.

Select Import Components from a course package > Start.

Import Components from a course package > Start.

Under Import Course Package, select Upload then browse to the zip file shared with you.

When the file upload is complete, select Import All Components.

Based on the size of the course content being imported, this process may take a few minutes. When complete, select View Content.

Once the course is imported, there are a few cleanup items you will need to check:

Syllabus: Remove the old course syllabus and upload the new course syllabus.
Announcements: delete any old announcements that was in the previous course (Course Tools > Course Admin > Announcements).
Modules: Review the content within the weekly modules to determine if content is in the proper order and is visible to students. Hide or delete any content you do not wish to use.
Assignments: Review and edit assignments. Double check the scores of each assignment to make sure they match with your syllabus. You can also change due dates individually or bulk edit to change due dates for all assignments.

Discussions and Quizzes: Just like with assignments, edit dates, scores and review content within the discussion forums and quiz questions.
Grades: Select Grades > Manage Grades to determine if the gradebook is set up properly and matches with your new syllabus.
Dual Delivery Course? If teaching a dual delivery course, set up your virtual classroom meeting dates in advance. Select Virtual Classroom > Plus sign (lower right hand) to repeating virtual meeting dates.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to contact the Teaching and Learning Center team by emailing: ssconline@ssc.edu.

Bongo Virtual Classroom and Video Assignments (webinar recording and resources)

May 3, 2022 / Jamie Ackley

Virtual Classroom and Video Assignments are two Bongo integrations directly accessed through your D2L course.

Virtual Classroom is used to schedule meetings with your students, with the option of recording and automatically saving the recording in your D2L course so students can re-watch. Virtual Classroom has similar features to Zoom, such as sharing screen, polling and breakout rooms.

Video Assignments provide an additional resource to increase student engagement by allowing students to record class presentations remotely, answer text questions with a timed video answer, and/or answer questions that overlay upon an instructor’s pre-recorded mini-lecture or video. Video Assignments allow for grading with scores passed directly to your D2L gradebook.

Below is an archived recording of this online webinar from the Teaching and Learning Center:

Leveraging D2L Course Data (webinar recording and resources)

May 3, 2022 / Jamie Ackley

Knowing how and when students are interacting with course material can be invaluable and allow instructors the opportunity tweak and adjust their content during the term.

Below is an archive webinar recording from SSC’s Teaching and Learning Center focusing on various places within D2L instructors can access analytics and statistics about their courses, including looking for trends in late and missing submissions, viewing quiz questions and responses, comparing student learning between topics, confirming students are indeed accessing course material and strategic planning for intervention, if necessary.

Download PowerPoint Presentation

Scheduling a Virtual Classroom Meeting and Launching Bongo

January 12, 2022 / Jamie Ackley

The directions below demonstrate how to schedule and launch a Virtual Classroom Bongo session for your students in D2L.

To watch a recorded webinar on using Virtual Classroom, visit this site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjFULR9KNvA.

To attend a live online webinar, visit the Training Calendar above to register for a Virtual Classroom session.

Setting up a meeting:

1. Click on Virtual Classroom in the header of your D2L course home screen.

2. Click on the Plus sign located in the lower right corner of the screen.

3. This brings up a new window where you will enter your meeting information.

4. You can select “Repeat weekly for” in order to create multiple meetings for the semester

5. Further down in that window you have other options to select such as

Publish recorded meeting
- Makes meeting recordings visible in the Virtual Classroom.
Allow external participants
- Creates a link you can share with those outside the class.
Invite entire class
- Will allow all students to see the meeting in the Virtual Classroom.

6. Select “SAVE”. Your scheduled meetings will now appear under “Active Meetings”.

Starting a Scheduled Meeting

1. Find the meeting in the “Active Meetings” of the Virtual Classroom.

2. Click on the three dots under Actions and select “Launch”.

3. On the next screen select “JOIN”.

4. Select how you want to join the audio.

5. Make sure to allow BONGO to use your microphone.

6. Here is what the active meeting screen will look like.

Sharing Your Webcam

1. At the bottom of the active meeting screen, click on to share webcam.

2. Allow BONGO to use your camera.

3. Select the camera and click “Start Sharing”.

Sharing Your Screen

1. At the bottom of the active meeting screen, click the small screen icon to share your screen.

2. Next, choose what you want to share.

Entire Screen
- Your full desktop
Window
- A program such as Word or PowerPoint
Web Browser Tab
- An open browser tab (Chrome in the example below)

3. To stop sharing click on the screen button.

Participant List and Chat Tool

1. Access the participants by selecting the Participants tab.

2. Access the chat tool by selecting this tab.

Adjusting Settings and Ending a Meeting

1. Click on the three dots located in the top right corner of the meeting screen.

2. Several options are available as shown below.

3. Click on “Settings” to adjust items such as….

4. Click the End Meeting icon to end the class session for everyone.

Cross-listed Courses in D2L

January 11, 2022 / Jamie Ackley

Seeing triple or more? When a course that is cross-listed in Colleague is batched to D2L at least three shells are created. One shell for each of the individual courses (ART-130-003 and then ART-E77-703) and one shell with the courses combined (ART-130-003, ART-E77-703). This process allows instructors increased flexibility. If you do not plan to post material by section (ART-130-003) and only to use the combined section (ART-130-003, ART-E77-703) you can make the individual course shells inactive which will hide them from the view of both you and your students. The individual shells themselves can not be deleted without impacting the enrollment of the course.

While in the course shell you wish to hide follow these steps:

Wait until the Day Your Course Begins.
Select Course Tools
Select Course Admin
Select Course Offering Information
Uncheck the box that reads “Course is Active”

So What Does this Mean for Dual Delivery Courses?

You have two options for managing your D2L class shells for Spring 2022.

1) Use the individual Parent Shells for each Specific Section (usually 2 per course)

This will allow you to post different information (due dates, announcements, assignments, quizzes, etc.) to each section of that one course.
For example, you might post instructions for the virtual students (one parent section (PSY-211-002)) that are different than what the in-person students (a second parent section (PSY-211-072)) will do.
The downside is you may have common information for both groups and you would have to post this information twice (one in each parent section).
With this option you would hide the combined child section (PSY-211-002, PSY-211-072) when it becomes active on the first day of your class.

2) Use the Combined Child Shell that Includes all Parent Sections for that Course (1 per course)

This allows you to post information once and all students in the class will see the same thing, regardless of the child section they are in (i.e. virtual or in-person).
Good if each section is taking the same quizzes and doing the same assignments.
If desired, students can be sorted by sections. This can be done in D2L under Course Tools > Admin or in the Gradebook.
The downside is that if different parent sections have different information (due dates, announcements, etc.) you will have to insure each section knows which information pertains to them.
With this option you would hide the individual parent sections (PSY-211-002)(PSY-211-072) when they become active on the first day of your class (see above instructions).

D2L Course Reset

January 10, 2022 / Jamie Ackley

Have you ever copied a previous course into the current term’s course shell and then realized it was the wrong course? Or have you ever just wanted to start from scratch in your course design of your D2L course? If so, D2L now has a course reset feature to allow faculty to “start over” with their course shell.

The course reset permanently deletes everything in the course including all content, activities, grade book items, etc., but does not affect user enrollments.

Who can reset a course and where is it found?

The course reset feature is only available to D2L Admins. If you’d like your course reset, email your request to the Teaching and Learning team at ssconline@ssc.edu. Include the course information, such as term, course id and section information in the email.

What if students have already started using the course?

If the course has started, it may be too late to start over. In that case, you will have to delete content, assignments, etc. on an individual basis.

Dual Delivery Student Engagement – Strategies and Examples

October 21, 2021 / Jamie Ackley

Welcome to the Dual Delivery Student Engagement Strategy and Examples blog. The Teaching and Learning staff at South Suburban College will provide strategies and examples to assist faculty in teaching in a dual delivery format. Check back often for updates as we plan to add creative and innovative strategies throughout the term.

What is Dual Delivery at South Suburban College?

A dual delivery class provides for both limited in-person seating and virtual students attending via D2L virtual classroom. Students must choose their preferred delivery mode section when registering. Virtual students are expected to be available at the scheduled class and lab times.

What do the Virtual Students Experience?

Remember, the virtual student can only see a small portion of the physical classroom, usually the instructor and white board. The instructor can also share their screen as they showcase a PowerPoint presentation, website, or a variety of course content. But if in-class students are talking and participating in the class discussion, the virtual students may only be able to hear audio (unless the instructor moves the camera). These are considerations to keep in mind when designing your course in D2L or guiding in-class discussions.

Strategy and Example #1 – Incorporate Weekly Online Discussion Forums

The Set-up

To encourage student engagement with your virtual students, create an online discussion forum with a topic you plan to discuss in-class. This allows your virtual students to feel like they have another option to participate and be heard.
To encourage building community with both in-class and virtual students, make it a requirement that both sets of students respond to the weekly online discussion forum.
Name each weekly discussion forum Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, etc., so that the discussion forums can be easily identified.
To encourage participation, provide feedback and grading by giving the weekly online discussion forum a point value, i.e., make it worth their time.
Let students know that their online discussion forum post may be brought up during class time.
See: How to Create Discussions Forums in D2L

How to Implement

Prior to your in-class time, read the online discussion forums and take note of interesting comments by both in-class and virtual students.
During your class time, call on two students who had interesting comments in the online discussion forums or that you would like to clarify specifics of their posts.
When students respond during class time, have them mentioned their name first. This allows the virtual students to make a connection to the in-class student. The virtual student may not see those in-class students, but they may have read their online discussion forum posts.

See it In Action – Examples

“ I use the out-of-class posts to guide in-class discussions”.
Dr. Jay Howard, reprint from the Teaching Professor Newsletter
(December 2016)

Dr. Jay Howard is a professor of sociology and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler University and author of the book Discussion in the College Classroom – Getting your Students Engaged and Participating in Person and Online.
Dr. Howard uses this strategy for his traditional face-to-face courses.
According to a Reprint from the Teaching Professor Newsletter, Dr. Howard has found advantages to this strategy:
- Encourages class-wide participation.
- Students who might experience anxiety of being called upon in-class, may feel better organizing their thoughts in an online discussion forum first, then clarifying their thoughts in-class.
- Since students know their online discussion forum posts may be brought up in-class, this encourages them to provide reflective posts.
- Motivates students to complete readings required that week. Students can be assigned to provide a quote from a reading in the online discussion forum or post something that raises a question.
- Since Dr. Howard is reading the online discussion forums prior to class, he can determine where students may be struggling and if more in-class discussion is required.
- On that same note, he can also determine if students are on track and he can now focus on other areas of discussion.

Resources:

Brown, K. (2016, December 22). Online forum posts improve discussion in a face-to-face classroom. The Teaching Professor. https://www.teachingprofessor.com/topics/teaching-strategies/teaching-with-technology/online-forum-posts-improve-discussion-face-face-classroom/. (Note – the above referenced article is behind a subscription firewall. To read a hard copy of this article, visit SSC’s Teaching and Learning Center)
Howard, J. (2021, July 26). How to hold a better class discussion. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-hold-a-better-class-discussion/. (see no. 7 – Online discussions)

Contributions?

Are you teaching a dual delivery course and would like to provide a helpful strategy? Email: ssonline@ssc.edu.

Bongo Virtual Classroom – Large Gallery View (display 25 student cameras at once)

October 1, 2021 / Jamie Ackley

Bongo recently introduced a new feature in their virtual classroom platform that increases the number of student cameras that can be displayed at one time. The Large Gallery view can be found under settings and can be utilized by both the instructor and student to customize their individual view. Presentation view is on by default, but users can toggle between Presentation view and Large Gallery view.

Bongo Virtual Classroom Large Gallery View

Toggle Between Presentation view and Large Gallery view

While in the virtual classroom, select the Settings options (three dots in the upper right corner)

Select Large Gallery view

Bongo Virtual Classroom Toggle to Large Gallery View

Repeat steps to return to Presentation view

Important Note – In order to use Large Gallery view, at least one camera must be turned on, otherwise this option will be greyed out. Large Gallery view is not available on mobile devices.

Pin Your Camera to be the First Displayed

Click on Participants
Select Your Name
Select Pin camera

For a complete list of recent Bongo updates see: https://bongolearn.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4406998122907-Bongo-21-9-Release-Notes

Using Respondus Lockdown Browser with a Pearson MyLab course

August 27, 2021 / Jamie Ackley

South Suburban College has an institutional license for Respondus Lockdown Browser. Students should never have to pay any fees associated with Respondus Lockdown Browser.

If using a MyPearson lab course, instructors will have to complete an additional step to avoid students paying a fee. It’s a one-time set up of connecting Respondus Lockdown Browser in D2L to their Pearson MyLab course.

Step 1: Enter your course in D2L

Select Quizzes > LockDown Browser
Select Continue

Under LockDown Browser Resources > Select Other Systems
Select the + icon next to Pearson MyLab
Copy the Pearson MyLab Code (code is unique for each instructor)

Step 2: Go to your Pearson MyLab course

Navigate to course settings > Learning Aids and Test Options
Under LockDown Browser and Proctoring > Check Use Automated Monitor in this course
Select Complete the Respondus Monitor Proctoring license Set up
Paste the Pearson MyLab Code from Step 1 above
Select Make Available

Release an Assignment or Quiz to a Particular Section of Students