Area-is-any | Thomas' Work Space

How student downloads, edits and submits files sent from the teacher with Sanako Study 1200 Homework –the ultimate training summary….

2012/10/16 plagwitz Leave a comment

…using animated GIFs. (Here are the parts 1+2 that your teacher has to do). Slower? Click , 0.50sec, 0.75sec, 1sec, 2sec, 3sec, 4sec, 5sec, 6sec, 7sec, 8sec, 9sec, 10sec.

UPDATE: Now also split into

PART 1: download from teacher (Here are the parts 1+2 that your teacher has to do). Slower? Click , 0.50sec, 0.75sec, 1sec, 2sec, 3sec, 4sec, 5sec, 6sec, 7sec, 8sec, 9sec, 10sec.
PART 2: submission to teacher(Here are the parts 1+2 that your teacher has to do). Slower? Click , 0.50sec, 0.75sec, 1sec, 2sec, 3sec, 4sec, 5sec, 6sec, 7sec, 8sec, 9sec, 10sec.

Categories: animated-GIFs, assignments, audience-is-students, digital-audio-lab, e-languages, Student-Computers, Writing Tags: homework-activity, sanako-study-1200, student.exe

How the LRC can help you proctoring your computer-based make-up exams

2012/10/15 plagwitz Leave a comment

We are testing
1. whether we can offer proctored make-up exams for students that missed scheduled (publisher website- or Moodle-based) computerized exams that were held in the LRC. We have not been given additional resources for this service, so we have to set it up as smoothly as possible – as you and your students will desire also.
2. Alternatively, you could administer your exam in your office, like you used to, but now using your office computer (where presumably you tested the exam in the first place – the LRC can temporarily borrow you a headset
3. or we could group schedule all remaining students for a make-up in the main LRC classroom maybe during class meeting (likely more secure and quicker, but taking away from contact hours). Both the presence of the teacher and the lrc director may be required.
The teacher gives
1. to the studentthe exam’s
2. to the LRC coordinator the exam password. The LRC coordinator publishes the password in LRC Moodle forum “sticky notes” (to which only LRC staff has access).
The student
1. From her NINERMAILcalendar
  1. prepares a new/meeting request,
    1. “subject: [your course number] make-up exam”,
    2. to “resource:” lrcroomcoed433c @uncc.edu AND lrcroomcoed433d@uncc.edu, our small group rooms,
    3. uses the tab:”scheduling assistant” to find a free (= white, not-blocked) time-slot with the exam duration and before the exam deadline,
    4. and deletes that group room that s/he does not need before actual sending the meeting request (For the quietest experience, s/he should also stir clear of tutoring hours, subject:”up to ####” in the other group room http://mail.uncc.edu/owa/calendar/LRCRoomCOED433c@uncc.edu/Calendar/calendar.html http://mail.uncc.edu/owa/calendar/LRCRoomCOED433d@uncc.edu/Calendar/calendar.html ).
    5. The student can get help withmaking this meeting request at the LRC reception desk, including booking the room on the fly, but no group room may be immediately available for walk-in clients).
  2. cancels the meeting request if s/he changes her mind, to make the room available to other (we record the check-in time to report offenders who prevent other students from taking their make-up exams). Only in our 2 group rooms next to the reception desk the student can be (loosely) monitored by LRC assistants serving as proctors from behind the reception desk. We can test before term start if your website can use additional security features like Sanako controlled web browsing or Respondus Lockdown browser.
2. comes to the LRC shortly before her scheduled time slot,
  1. logs in on the computer in her group room first (to speed things up);
  2. opens her meeting request on the reception desk computer to receive a check-in code from the LRC assistant into the meeting request and “sends update”;
  3. places any personal possession behind the reception desk;
  4. opens the exam instructions (e.g. goo.gl/g8q5g) on the group room computer;
  5. Following instructions therein, goes to the exam website on the group room computer, opens the exam, so that the LRC assistant can type in the password from the LRC Moodle forum “sticky notes” without letting the examinee know the password.
  6. TBA: Will we require students to get a checkout code? The LRC assistants are not in a position to enforce exam deadlines; your testing software likely should be.

Categories: assessments, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-teachers, e-languages, policies, Reception-desk, service-is-assessing, small-group-work-spaces, step-by-step-guides Tags: make-up-exams, proctoring

Delete the Flash Global Settings if the iMacs webcam displays black frame only

2012/10/11 plagwitz Leave a comment

Problem: Safari and (not recommended after last testing round) Firefox both hung on iMAC6 when a student tried to do a Moodle Kaltura Webcam assignment and got to the built-in ISight camera display page.
Cause: maybe a Flash security problem accessing the web cam? maybe security dialogue was not answered by the student correctly earlier, and the “preference”stored in her account?

Solution (presumably): System started working again after I deleted the Flash Global settings, by right-clicking on the webcam video preview window like so:

Ceterum censeo that we need a computer management infrastructure if we want to use MACs for language learning technology. Faronics-Deepfreeze would have prevented this problem, provided we have a software imaging system (CASPER coming up apparently) that can let us start with a usable image, and the staff time to learn and configure 2 usable OS images and dual usable computer management infrastructures. TCO now > TCO dual OS infrastructure > TCO web cams for 45 PCs.

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, Glitches&Errors, iMacs, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, lms, multimedia-recording Tags: FAQs, faronics-deepfreeze, kaltura, moodle, webcam

How to fix “no audio” on the computers with black Sanako headsets

2012/10/10 plagwitz Leave a comment

First, show the Sanako student application (e.g. from button:Start / Student).
Is the Volume Control slider set to 0? Move it up where it says “Adjust volume”:
Still hear no audio playing on the black Sanako headsets? Then the volume slider was likely moved to 0 since the headset was not detected: On the rear of the computer, check the connection
1. of the blue headset plug into the USB extension cord, and
2. of the extension cord into the rear of the computer.

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, documentation, headphones, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging, Student-Computers Tags: audacity, FAQs, sanako-study-1200, volume

No audio on listening stations and group rooms, and workaround

2012/09/26 plagwitz Leave a comment

Symptom: Headsets work (test feedback by putting microphone near headset speakers), but audio files from internet do not play with sound.
Cause: having to support 2 different kinds of headsets (USB with built-in soundcard versus traditional analog) in one PC software image.
The workaround

for temp staff is to start / run / sndvol32.exe and up the low volume sliders here:
for permanent staff is to unfreeze any computers that have been missed previously and put this script into the all users startup folder now:

The solution: standardize on USB headsets when you get a chance.

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, e-infrastructure, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, Listening-Stations, service-is-it-managing, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging, small-group-work-spaces Tags: audio, FAQs

Oral assessments with Sanako model imitation – The ultimate training summary…

2012/09/25 plagwitz Leave a comment

…using animated GIFs. Load the speed of your choosing (or several, use CTRL-Click to open links in a new tab) into the left screen of the teacher station before administering an oral exam, with the window active, press F5 in your web browser to restart the animation from the beginning. Slower? Expanded:050cs, 075cs, 100cs, 150cs, 200cs, 300cs, 400cs, 500cs, 1000cs.Or compact for recapitulation: 025cs, 050cs, 075cs, 100cs, 150cs, 200cs, 300cs, 400cs, 500cs, 600cs, 700cs, 800cs, 900cs, 1000cs.