How to get access to the LRC Sanako (teacher materials, student recordings) from your office or home PC

2013/05/15 Leave a comment
  1. Run the Sanako Installer (first meant for faculty offices only, but now faculty also want to have access from home, so I added that functionality).
  2. On your office and or home PC, you get a folder “SANAKO” on your desktop.  This folder will contain all you need to access student assessments from past classes or upload learning materials for future classes:
    1. In the office:  image: It is sufficient  to click the additional “UNCC…” links at the bottom of the list .
    2. At home: image
      1. Click “1st connect…” and log into the campus.
      2. Click “How teachers find…”, log in with the blog password, open the PDF, click  the links in the PDF to the Sanako off-campus folders, log in again with the network credentials as shown in the PDF (sigh…).
      3. EXAMPLE: Here you can see on a faculty home PC:
        1. the sanako recorder and campus connector: image
        2. the SANAKO desktop folder shortcuts: image
          1. You get the Word templates only if you can use them (have WORD installed –  remember you can install MS-Office with your free faculty license from here).
          2. (No, you won’t get the “UNCC…”shortcuts at home, we simplified since.)
      4. Both office and home:
        1. Drag any audio  files into the Sanako study recorder window (further reading on why the Sanako study recorder is useful for teachers).
        2. Need to record? configure your microphone in Sanako study recorder, menu Tools.
Categories: e-languages, e-infrastructure, documentation, audience-is-teachers, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, service-is-it-managing, service-is-configuring-learning-tools, service-is-programming Tags: , , , , , ,

How faculty can move their local files to the new computer during their office PC upgrade using temporary network space

2013/05/12 Leave a comment
  1. Go to your H: drive: image
  2. Click on the icon: “TempMigrationStorage”: image
  3. Here is your temporary storage which you should move your files to from your old computer, so that you can move them later to your new computer:
    1. image
    2. In this example, I copied my “downloads”folder from my local drive to my network  “TempMigrationStorage”. Even when my old computer gets removed, I will be able to access the network from the new computer and download the files from there to the new computer.
  4. Files on your H:  drive do not need to be moved that way. Settings on your old PC cannot be moved that way. Typical candidates for files that should be moved that way include large multimedia files that you could not store on your H: drive. For finding them on your local drive, I recommend examining your C: drive with the free WinDirStat.
Categories: audience-is-teachers, e-infrastructure, service-is-documenting, service-is-it-managing Tags:

Make life simpler in the language lab by disabling extra audio panels

2013/05/10 Leave a comment
  1. Problem: Having multiple audio panels enabled can led to too many options = sources of errors and confusion.
    1. Software (e.g. Saba Centra) may defaults to different audio panels (front “Microphone” preferred over a “Rear Input” that can be used as a Microphone and is the preferred device in your lab (for security, safety and ergonomic reasons).
    2. Students may make erroneous assumptions and try to reconfigure the PC audio by plugging cables into a different outlet.
    3. ESP Panel  software detects plugging in of devices and asks users to identify whether microphone or line-in device has been plugged into rear input which confuses our users even more.
  2. Software configuration:  On Dell Optiplex 760 under Windows 7 , you can
    1. run  mmsys.cpl,
    2. go to tab:“recording” devices
    3. to disable the front panel input microphone:
      1. select “microphone”(that is the front input)
      2. right-click and  choose “disable”: image
      3. result: image
      4. right-=click and uncheck “show disabled devices”
    4. to configure the “rear input”:
      1. select and click “properties” image
      2. go to tab “custom” (may require having an add-on driver installed, consult the DELL driver update utility) image
      3. check “use as microphone”
      4. check (optional, recommended): “microphone boost”
    5. “Ok” out of all mmsys.cpl dialogues and (for good measure) restart computer.
  3. Test your software configuration to work (listening, recording) with the applications used in your lab:
    1. Sanako student recorder
    2. Saba Centra
    3. Audacity
    4. Voicethread
    5. Moodle: Audio and Kaltura (even though no webcam)
    6. Etc.?
  4. Hardware configuration
    1. Plug your headset microphone and speaker into the rear audio panel. Tie the microphone cable down with a cable tie. Students have managed to pull the cable through the cable tie, so tie the cable into a knot around the cable tie to prevent that
    2. Tape (plastic that student cannot push a plug through easily) over the front audio panel and put a label on top: “Do not use! Get help at desk!”. Instruct your help desk student staff.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, hardware, headphones, service-is-configuring-learning-tools, service-is-troubleshooting-debugging Tags: ,

How to comprehensively identify your software packages using the MS-Installer infrastructure

2013/05/10 Leave a comment
  1. Problem:
    1. Some packages may have built-in checks which prevent installation. The built-in error messages may be difficult to interpret (even if you speak foreign languages).
    2. Some built-in checks may be erroneous.
    3. Product name and version may be difficult to identify.
    4. Etc.
  2. Solution: Take advantage of the features of the MS Installer infrastructure.
    1. If necessary (setup file does not come as an MSI file), try to unpack your setup file (7zip alone will work in many cases. There are more advanced free  extractors available on the web).
    2. with the the unpacked MSI’s
      1. run with the “/log” parameter  and to generate and examine the log file for more speaking (an English!) installation errors.
      2. Open  with MS-Orca to examine the software package properties: image.
      3. Right-click and “copy cell” : image
      4. Esp. note the following:
        1. “Make”
          1. Productname (base, qualified) variants
        2. “Model”
          1. GUID for Upgradecode (e.g. {00140000-0028-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE})
          2. Productname
        3. “Year”:
          1. GUID for Productcode ({90140000-0028-0804-1000-0000000FF1CE})
          2. ProductVersion
      5. you can edit your MSI with MS-Orca (better be sure what you are doing).
    3. you can compare this installer package with what you already have installed in the registry
      1. use a registry search tool
      2. you have to search the registry for the compressed GUIDs, to compress, use this: http://thomasplagwitz.com/tag/guid/.
Categories: e-infrastructure, service-is-it-managing Tags: , ,

How to provide student’s with blended human/computer-automated feedback on their speaking using a dictation with speech recognition assignment screencast

2013/05/08 Leave a comment
  1. Teachers often feel there is never enough time for grading students’  speaking proficiency. Fortunately, we can now automate feedback on pronunciation using Windows 7 dictation with speech recognition.
  2. This feature will be  available for 7 languages on Windows 7 in the LRC, here is a demo for a reading exercise dictating German.
  3. An assignment step-by-step could look like this: Students
    1. record a screencast of their dictation
    2. read a text to the computer in MS-Word
    3. turn track changes on in MS-Word and correct the text (immediately or after dictation) where the computer could not recognize their speech
    4. upload their screencast to Kaltura in Moodle
    5. to grade, the teacher has to look only at the very end of the screencast to see how many corrections the student needed to make.
  4. This could be a regular assignment type since I provides the following benefits:  
    1. immediate feedback for the student
    2. little grading overhead for the teacher, so that the teacher can concentrate her work on providing aural feedback on student recorded speech as a highlight maybe twice per term, maybe after mock exams  before a midterm and final exam
    3. some multimedia pieces demonstrating language proficiency for the student’s ePortfolio.
  5. Requirements:
    1. a quality headset (we use Sanako)
    2. Windows 7  Enterprise/Ultimate with Language Packs
    3. (recommended:) TBA:a simplified language switching facility
    4. (recommended:) voice training data: it is advisable that speech recognition users train the computer at the beginning, but this needs to be done only once, since this data can be saved on a flash drive or personal network share space
    5. a reading text (often authentic texts can be taken straight from the textbook, to fit in with the syllabus)
    6. MS-Word
    7. screencast software (we use TBA:MS community clips)
    8. a way to submit the results to the teacher (we use Moodle with Kaltura video uploading, but email could be sufficient depending on screencast length and attachment allowance).
Categories: assignments, audience-is-teachers, multimedia-recording, Speaking Tags: , , , , ,

How not to have to join a Saba Centra online class from the LRC late, for lack of speaking capabilities

2013/05/06 Leave a comment
  1. Problem: We continue getting reports from teachers that students who try to participate in a Saba Centra online class from the LRC listening station computers (with analogue headphones) experience a considerable delay in joining and cause disruption to online classes since they have to troubleshoot their microphones, for lack of being audible online.
  2. Root cause: Saba Centra on startup automatically selects the “microphone” as recording device…
  3. Workaround:
    1. On XP, click “Start”, click “Run”, type (without quotes) “SndVol32 –R” (meaning: “SoundVolume for Recording”), click “OK” which opens the volume mixer for recording  devices. The radio button selected will be “Rear input”. image
    2. Start Saba Centra.
    3. Switch back to the volume mixer you opened in step 1. Note that the radio button now selected is “Microphone”. This is wrong for the listening stations i(and the teacher station) n the LRC.  Switch it back to “Rear input” (you know that your headset is supposed to be plugged into the rear). image
    4. And off you go…  Plus note: There is no need for “expensive” workarounds like:
      1. haphazardly trying to replug headphones,
      2. purchasing your own USB headphones,
      3. hogging the main classroom with its USB headphones.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-learning, Listening-Stations, Presenter-Computer, presenter-computer, service-is-configuring-learning-tools, service-is-troubleshooting-debugging, Speaking Tags: , ,

Saba Centra on startup automatically selects the "microphone" as recording device…

2013/05/03 Leave a comment
  1. … But we in the language lab use the (dual function microphone/line-in) "rear input" for our headsets (for ergonomic, health&safety and security reasons). Workaround here.
  2. Apparently this startup behavior cannot be changed within Saba Centra:
    1. Any startup will bring up the “Audio Wizard” asking users, even in a controlled lab environment, to configure their audio devices,
    2. and if users do (and choose what they have: headset), make wrong assumptions which audio plug to enable (“Microphone” front panel, even if your headset is plugged into the rear panel dual “line-in/microphone”)
  3. The workaround according to  these easily Googled instructions is using the “Advanced” audio wizard options to override this “Audio Wizard” error, like so:
    1. “Re-open the Audio Wizard, go to the third screen and change your recording device in your “Recording Device” menu. Advance two slides and determine if you can hear your recorded voice. ”
      1. 1st screen: image
      2. 3rd screen: image
      3. note the instructions –  Click “Advanced”. But it is easier to just use from the start our Workaround here.
  4. The long-term solution is reconfigure your hardware and disable the front panel audio – but will Saba Centra  understand you? Stay tuned…
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, e-learning, Glitches&Errors, Listening-Stations, mental-notes, service-is-troubleshooting-debugging, Speaking, Uncategorized Tags: ,