audience-is-any | Thomas' Work Space

Calendaring can improve instruction

2014/02/25 plagwitz Leave a comment

It’s coming: “An Interactive On-line Course Calendar for Multi-Section Courses, by María Paredes Fernández (University of Pennsylvania): The interactive online course calendar was project that received funding from the Penn Language Center at the University of Pennsylvania in early 2012 to streamline class preparation for fellow colleagues, promote transparency for the students, and ensure continuity and quality instruction of the Accelerated Elementary Spanish Course, Spanish 121. The day’s lesson plans organized and uploaded on an interactive webpage on the course management systems Blackboard and Canvas. The lesson plans were comprehensive, as it featured the links, PDF documents and PowerPoint presentations of the day in one convenient location, and were easily shared with students to aid in their preparation. This talk will focus on how the interactive syllabus shaped this course and how it could work for other programs.”

Moodle can ICS exporting, which students and teaches can subscribe to in their NINERMAIL.

Categories: audience-is-teachers, conferences, lms Tags: 2014, calendaring, neallt

Audio player error message involving “pluginfile.php” in Moodle quiz

2014/02/24 plagwitz Leave a comment

LRC assistants may get called by students with this error regarding pluginfile.php in a Moodle quiz, it appears in the audio player interface itself and looks like this:
1. The error messages flashes only briefly, and afterwards the audio simply will not play.
2. In a Respondus lockdown browser quiz, you can bring up the error message again by clicking “next” and then resuming the attempt. When the quiz page reloads, the error message will briefly flash again.
LRC assistants cannot work around this error, they need to alert permanent staff. Usually it is related to a quiz author needing to update the audio file link, like so:
1. Go into the quiz, on the left, click “edit the quiz”):
2. Find the audio file link, edit the link:
  1. Can you actually load the link? If it says “file not found”, you have the root cause:
  3. Does it say “draft” in there? Not good. Copy the unique identifier from the path:
3. Go to in Moodle course / Files section, locate the offending file (you can use the unique id you put in the clip board to search), i.e. make sure it actually exists:
4. Get the correct URL for the file, puit it int the clipboard:
5. Go back to editing the quiz, update the wrong URL with the correct one.
6. Save the updated quiz.
Now the student can reload the quiz, if in Respondus lockdown browser, like above by clicking “next”and back.

Categories: assignments, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, lms Tags: audio, moodle, Respondus-lockdown -browser

Here is how the LRC could use an engraver to deter theft of equipment

2014/02/20 plagwitz Leave a comment

Categories: audience-is-administration, e-infrastructure, service-is-library Tags: security

FAQs for issues with Respondus Lockdown Browser

2014/02/18 plagwitz Leave a comment

New to Respondus Quizzes? Read the CTL’s write-up.
No Photo ID (Niner ID or other state-issued)? Use the reception desk camera to take a photo with sheet, like below, we will forward it to the teacher for verification.
Issues with starting:
1. Respondus won’t open: How to bypass a Moodle Popup Window when using Respondus lockdown browser
2. Test won’t open and you get a warning
  1. in Moodle that this test must be run in Respondus Lockdown Browser? Close your regular web browser and double click on the desktop on the Moodle Lockdown Browser Icon:, then go to Moodle2 from in there.
  2. in Respondus that “No more attempts are allowed”, but the student has not made any attempts yet and the quiz closing date is long in the past: contact the teacher to check whether the quiz needs updating.
Issues with Audio:
1. Students are advised to test the headsets before entering Respondus Lockdown browser assessments:
  1. Start Audacity from the desktop, click record: if you say something, you must see something;
  2. Play back to test the speakers. Hear nothing? Try the volume knob:
  3. (More detail here).
2. Rewind-audio may get you stuck – to fix, next-page, then back (reloads page). More info: How to workaround Moodle quiz audio not playing to the end in Respondus Lockdown Browser
3. How to bypass a Moodle Popup Window when using Respondus lockdown browser
4. If no audio and error “pluginfile” flashes when clicking “Next”and back: notify permanent staff.
Issues with Writing:
1. Lost the ?
  1. Clicking around nearby where it was may bring it back.
  2. Or , quickly cancel (gets you out of lockdown browser), new attempt from desktop shortcut.
  3. Learn to use the installed US-international keyboard shortcuts. .
  4. more info: Problems with accented characters in Respondus Lockdown Browser
2. If your keyboard stops typing in English in a Respondus lockdown browser quiz…
Issues with finishing
1. If the test won’t submit, start Respondus lockdown browser on a different computer to see whether you can resume your attempt there.
More issues? Let us know in the comments here.

Categories: assessments, assignments, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, Glitches&Errors, Listening-Stations, lms, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging Tags: FAQs, moodle, Respondus-lockdown -browser

The Films on Demand subscription of Atkins library

2014/02/17 plagwitz Leave a comment

Benefits:
1. provides access to over ten thousand streaming videos.
3. including world languages:
Remaining Problems:
1. 741 titles for World languages is not a lot (additional materials may be applicable to language learning, but I do not see the most commonly requested foreign language films used in the department which we are currently trying to rescue across the demise of VHS). Any particular silo of information is not comprehensive (given the power of the network effect, YouTube wins hands-down most if the times),
2. any content is difficult to integrate into a language skill curriculum,
3. any added interface restrictions may make it more difficult, not more stable,
4. not unlike YouTube, files you may have used, even linked, can get removed.
5. the website seems to be available only on campus – even if you are logged into your campus account (university VPN will likely help, and not, given that it has video throughput issues).

Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-learning, erepository, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, library-unit, Media, unit-is-any Tags: movies, vhs, videos, youtube.com

Google new maps’ photo tour slideshow viewer

2014/02/12 plagwitz Leave a comment

<Grumble> If these internet companies invent anything else, I won’t get out much anymore.</Grumble> (I have always loved “travelling on a map” too much already Smile ).

This is not your grandparents’ photos feature in Google maps anymore. The new photo tour automatically (I must assume? Based on GIS data included in the photo, image recognition to cluster motifs?) intelligently tags the map includes highlights of well-known sights, and it seems to automatically group similar shots/motifs, providing the feel of an in-depth exploration, even presence. And the occasional grandparents in the foreground remind us, that this remains a crowd-sourced project… Smile

Now how to plan a better intercultural map exploration class with this…

Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-languages, learning-materials, Media, websites Tags: google-maps, maps, photo-tour, photos

Call it “blog”, “CMS” or whatever, as long as your WordPress site visitor stats show that it helped people

2014/02/11 plagwitz Leave a comment

I have been asked by a colleague about the “hits” in the upper right on my website. They are the number of visits I had(not counting myself, at least not when I am logged in – like many “bloggers”, I am likely my own best audience! Smile ).

My website could be called “a blog”, since it is based on WordPress, which started as a platform for blogging (but now – being so easy and flexible, and free (though not to host)- is behind every 5th website on the planet!).

WordPress is also the platform for the faculty blogs in CLAS-pages: If you are member of CLAS and not represented up there, I hope you know that you can request getting a CLAS-page here.

“Blog stats” is a hard-coded label that I cannot change. If I could, I’d prefer to call it “Content Management System stats” (that’s probably why they do not allow for changes Smile ).

As opposed to just “web-logging” what is going on in my daily work life, I try to organize in this CMS the little things that I discover, hoping for reuse:

by other people. That’s at least my justification for blathering, and I am sticking to it. (1125 posts? Really? Plus plus 1? Oh well… ).
by myself. For the CMS and blogging habit (summarizing into a somewhat presentable, comprehensible form, and tagging for findability) makes me often search for answers that I have forgotten on my blog rather than on my computer (and that is despite me loving OneNote).

In my WordPress site (hosted on wordpress.com), I can see site visitor statistics like in the picture below: Includes search terms which led to clicks on one of my posts, countries of origin, outgoing links clicked etc.

I don’t do SEO or anything similar advanced on this website, nor do I use the statistics to cater to my audience (I am sure it is almost entirely transient). For me, it is just fun how I can glean from these statistics that I could help people find answers to their language, learning (and too often: computer infrastructure) questions and some of my work can be reused.

Heck, I decided to “blog” this email response, since it might answer the questions of a few more of colleagues than the person that emailed me.

Categories: audience-is-teachers, blog, e-infrastructure, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, websites Tags: wordpress

How LRC assistants now help maintain LRC functionality with routine checks

2014/02/06 plagwitz Leave a comment

Oral assessments have begun this week in the LRC. Please note that when using the LRC you may see LRC assistants going through the rooms doing a variety of chores (if need be, we can remind them that they must not disturb classes and other user activities).

We have written a large number of procedural guides, check lists with spreadsheets and illustrated parts lists (linked below) to train 7 groups of experts (varying in size between 2-6) in how to regularly inventory, test and maintain functionality of LRC equipment and services:

1. Daily LRC walkthrough check

2. Weekly headset test

3. Weekly film equipment check

4. Weekly staff and equipment calendar check

5. Biweekly faculty equipment check

6. Film collection maintenance (work in progress)

7. Help desk supervising

Samples of issues that we hope to address this way:

a. You check out a headset for recording learning materials over the last weekend before classes start and do not want to find it broken.

b. Your students come to the LRC for a quiz assignment/distance education and in the middle of it find the headset does not play audio while the timer/class is running.

c. You hold a recording class in the LRC and do not want to spend the first several more minutes – after the computers logged in – troubleshooting individual headsets that do not play or record.

d. Your students, when setting up film equipment for a film project (with location, actors/interviewees scheduled) have to find that the lights cannot stand essential since screws are missing.

e. Films cannot be located.

f. Etc.

I hope you will find experiencing fewer such issues a simplification in your interactions with the LRC .

How LRC assistants help maintain the film collection

‎Tuesday, ‎January ‎21, ‎2014, ‏‎10:14:54 PM | plagwitz

Protected: How LRC assistants help with LRC room and resource mailboxes

‎Tuesday, ‎January ‎21, ‎2014, ‏‎11:17:00 PM | plagwitz

New supervisor role for senior LRC Assistants

‎Monday, ‎January ‎13, ‎2014, ‏‎7:09:36 PM | plagwitz

Daily LRC walkthrough

‎Friday, ‎January ‎10, ‎2014, ‏‎10:45:32 PM | plagwitz

LRC headset tests