Archive

Archive for the ‘Glitches&Errors’ Category

Scheduling assistant shows no information on free/busy

2014/01/16 Leave a comment

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This effectively prevents all reservations of shared equipment. We tested with these 4 resources, and increasingly nearer dates in the future (from May to today). This is in Offcie265 from a student account. From a staff account in OWA, I do not see the same behavior: image

Update: A resolution is being worked on… Update2: FIXED

Categories: e-infrastructure, Glitches&Errors, service-is-library Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Deepfreeze rebooting the lab computers again during use

2014/01/14 Leave a comment
  1. I have been told that Deepfreeze will reboot lab computers (hourly?) only when they are idle (on login screen).
  2. However,  I have observed the unsolicited reboot also when trying to work with these computers.
  3. Today, I had both lab computers that I was working on with the Sanako , reboot in the middle of my testing, with the 1 minute warning dialogue. CAM04314
  4. Will pressing “cancel” prevent this, especially during high-stakes writing and speaking  assessments with the Sanako? What if the users misses it (we sometimes deliberately have the screens blocked/blacked out during parts of classes).
Categories: audience-is-IT-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, e-infrastructure, Glitches&Errors Tags: , , , ,

Positioning of Language Lab PCs needs improving

2014/01/11 3 comments
  1. Update: We worked around the issue with a male/female USB extension cord (black) to connect the Sanako USB connector (blue) into, this way, the whole setup can be aligned with the rear of the PC and won’t stick out and get in the way: image
  2. Problem: Rear connectors of computers get disconnected or even damaged. Input  (keyboard, mouse, microphone) and output devices (headset) get disconnected connected and therefore fails to work. Damaged equipment needs to be ordered and replaced, at considerable cost of time and money ($TBA per Sanako cable). It is too time-consuming to test equipment functionality (30 headsets and mice and keyboards) before each assessments and exam.
  3. Example of student in seat: CIMG0016
  4. We have observed these and similar damages regularly:
    1. CIMG0020
    2. CIMG0019
    3. Cause: Our language lab computer desks and rows are too narrow, for individual student sitting in front of the computer, not to mention classes moving in and out of their seats
    4. Other requirements:
      1. We need to have equipment plugged in the rear connectors of the computer and cable-tied to prevent students from trying to adjust or “fix” computers by re-plugging the equipment (often improperly, making them fail to work), and also because there is limited desk surface in front of the computers, given keyboard and mouse need to fit in front.
      2. For the functionality of the Sanako digital audio language lab system, we especially need to make sure,  that the headset is plugged in on the same USB port in all computers.
    5. Solutionsthat we have
      1. already tried
        1. we have tied down the connectors with cable ties, but this has not worked sufficiently.
      2. yet to try: is there a way
        1. to permanently attach computers in a different, safer position on the existing furniture?
        2. or to buy and install different furniture, computers seated under desks inaccessible for end user and locked?
Categories: e-infrastructure, Glitches&Errors, headphones, Photos, proposals, Student-Computers Tags:

Sanako recorder still requiring configuration from student on every log in?

2014/01/08 Leave a comment

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Categories: digital-audio-lab, e-infrastructure, Glitches&Errors, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte Tags: ,

Personalization error when logging in?

2014/01/07 Leave a comment

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This dialogue – an error message apparently, but not expandable to a size where it is legible – seems to hang around.

Categories: e-infrastructure, Glitches&Errors, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte Tags:

Working around problems getting ELTI course worksheet out of Report Express

2013/11/20 2 comments

Problem: I used to, but cannot anymore get the course worksheet for ELTI out of Report Express. My choices:

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Result set is empty:

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Course enrollment does not work either:

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I am still in a position to get the full class list out of the system, but that is not what I need, and is not the course worksheet sheet just a calculation based on the

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Solution: Use “international programs” as the “department”.

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It seems “department”and “subject” drop downs synchronize only with the selection of “college”, but selection of “department” can be in conflict with selection of “subject” (Is this a good GUI?).

It also seems that this affects only  the “course worksheet", but not the “class list”(Huh?)

Another example: I seem to be able to get to the  Film studies course list only if I leave all other drop down to “all”..

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Categories: e-infrastructure, Glitches&Errors, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, Learning-logs, websites Tags:

How to work around “Audio init failed” when recording in MyLanguageLab

2013/11/12 Leave a comment
  1. If you see this (or similar errors): image
  2. Try running the browser tune-up, image
    1. check for any new software versions (you can update Java, unfortunately only for your current session on this computer)
    2. finally run the voice recording setup wizard to check for results. image
  3. Suggest you do this before entering a homework assignment, since a timer may be keeping running while you troubleshoot
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, Glitches&Errors, multimedia-recording, textbooks Tags: , , ,

Why not streaming audio from teacher to students in the Sanako is a poor workaround

2013/11/12 Leave a comment
  1. We lost streaming capabilities with upgrade to Sanako Version 7 – still investigating how we can get them back, for the workaround is not working well: Now class activities fail because of permission issues that we did not have when we still were able to stream.
  2. Below is the result of an attempt today to play a listening comprehension activity to students for a TOEFL list mock exam with a student that has regular SANAKO permissions, but not the ones to download from this file location (would need to redo the permissions if we keep streaming).
Categories: audience-is-IT-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, Glitches&Errors Tags: ,