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MyGermanLab shortlinks and step-by-step chapter test for GERM1201, GERM1202 classes

2012/10/10 Leave a comment
  1. Using Internet Explorer, go here: goo.gl/JUSUC.
  2.  Log into MyGermanLab.
  3. to open your test:
    1. Click on the assignment for today on your assignment calendar to the right: image
      1. if your test does not show as assignment in the calendar (Update for proctored make-up exam: this applies espeially to you), go to the top tab: “course materials”“. Hold the CTRL key and click on the assignment
        1. either in the list on the right or
        2. at the bottom in the list on the left.image

     

    1. Enter the password that you will be given during the exam in the LRC: image, hold the CTRL key and click button: “OK”.
    2. Click  button: “start”. image
    3. Click through the pages until it tells you you have “submitted” the test.
  5. to handle multimedia:
    1. Use the headsets hanging behind the screens for questions that require listening/speaking.
    2. When you load the audio player or audio recorder, you will see  a dialogue like these, click button: ”Run” or “Trust”:mylanguagelab-certificate-blackboard-wimba-20121010_110002image
    3. There is a step-by-step guide on how to record here.
    4. If you get an error for the audio recorder saying “Authentication failed”, keep calm and carry on, your recording is not lost, you only cannot review it anymore: mylanguagelab-blackboard-wimba-authentication-failed
    5. If you have a question, do not disturb others. Rather put your headsets on and get in the queue by clicking button: “Call” in this  window image. Your call will be answered shortly.
  6. Please be advised that this exam is
    1. proctored and that your screen can be seen by the proctor at any time.
    2. randomized, so that your neighbors’ screen will most likely display your current test question at a quite different time.
Categories: assessments, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-languages, German, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, learning-materials, service-is-training, step-by-step-guides Tags: , , , ,

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

2012/09/25 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.

Categories: animated-GIFs, assessments, audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, Presenter-Computer, Screenshots, training Tags: , ,

Video quizzes on Youtube.com in Beta

2012/09/23 Leave a comment

Video Questions Editor lets channel owners display multiple-choice questions on top of their videos as they play (I see only a “start” in the timeline), offer hints, get results on your feedback page.

But if it supports only summaries, not usernames, it is more a poll than a quiz, which limits it usefulness in foreign language classes as much as that you apparently are limited to your own uploads, and cannot link your questions to the wealth of foreign language video uploaded by others…

Categories: assessments, audience-is-teachers, e-learning, learning-materials, service-is-evaluating-learning-tools, Videos, websites

Summer 2012 Learning materials creation clinic for preparing oral assessments/assignments

2012/07/12 Leave a comment

1.     I am holding a “Clinic”, open to anybody who needs help with preparing their classes using oral assessments/assignments in the LRC this fall term – RVSP if interested.

2.     This clinic focuses on material creation for delivery in upcoming specific courses – based on, but different from  my faculty workshops on this topics, If you have not attended, please view the below links for what was covered in the workshops

a.     https://thomasplagwitz.com/2011/08/18/sanako-study-1200-workshop-spring-2011/

b.     https://thomasplagwitz.com/2011/12/08/screencasts-for-fall-2011-workshop-computer-classroom-management-in-the-lrc-using-sanako-study-1200/

c.     https://thomasplagwitz.com/2012/04/06/spring-2012-faculty-workshop-i-how-to-ease-your-end-of-term-oral-assessment-burden-with-the-help-of-the-lrc-moodle-kaltura-and-sanako-study-1200-oral-assessments/  

d.     https://thomasplagwitz.com/2012/04/30/spring-2012-faculty-workshop-i-oral-proficiency-testing-with-audacitysanako/

Specifically:

1.       Materials creation

    1. with SANAKO

                                                             i.      make teacher  audio recording  for model-imitation/question-response oral exam: https://thomasplagwitz.com/2012/01/25/how-a-teacher-best-adds-cues-and-pauses-to-an-mp3-recording-with-audacity-to-create-student-language-exercises/

                                                            ii.      Make teacher recording (https://thomasplagwitz.com/2012/01/11/recording-with-audacity/) for model imitation with voice insert (like reading practice homework assignment, https://thomasplagwitz.com/2012/01/24/how-a-teacher-creates-audio-recordings-for-use-with-sanako-student-voice-insert-mode/ ):

    1. with Moodle

                                                              i.      Moodle Kaltura webcam recording assignment: https://thomasplagwitz.com/2011/11/02/how-to-grade-a-moodle-straming-video-assignment-and-moodle-streaming-video-recording-assignment-glitch-2/

                                                            ii.      Prepare Moodle metacourses learning materials upload: https://thomasplagwitz.com/2011/06/17/moodle-metacourses-part-iv-the-support-workflow-uploading/ and https://thomasplagwitz.com/2011/01/26/moodle-batch-upload-learning-materials-give-students-access/

    1. with PowerPoint (visual speaking cues with timers): https://thomasplagwitz.com/2009/11/18/create-a-powerpoint-slide-with-a-timer-from-template-for-a-timed-audio-recording-exercise/
    2. Materials delivery with SANAKO
    3. remote control student pcs, collaborate over headphones: https://thomasplagwitz.com/2012/05/04/how-you-can-view-the-computer-screens-of-your-class-using-sanako-study-1200/
    4. pairing students’ audio using headphones: https://thomasplagwitz.com/2011/05/11/study-1200-pairing/
  1. You must bring some assessment ideas that fit into your skills course which we will turn into audio recordings. You can also bring prerecorded audio files from textbooks as mp3 which we can edit to turn them into materials. If you would like some examples of what colleagues have done
    1. With Moodle Kaltura: https://thomasplagwitz.com/feed/?category_name=learning-usage-samples&tag=kaltura
    2. With Sanako oral (formative) assessments/(outcome) exams:  please email me, I make accessible to you samples that we do not publish to preserve exam integrity.

 

Categories: assessments, assignments, audience-is-teachers, service-is-assessing, service-is-learning-materials-creation, workshops Tags: , , ,

AP Exams in the LRC with Sanako Study 1200

2012/05/11 Leave a comment

You first need to enable AP examinations in the Sanako Study 1200 settings (not enabled by default).  image

Only then you can follow the instructions from the Sanako documentation: “The AP® Exam is an exam type that is used in the highschool level by the Advanced Placement Program in the United States. With Study 1200 you can also accomplish externally-certified AP® oral exams and the Study 1200 student application provides a quick, easy and efficient exam vehicle. Before initiating the actual test, the students give their exam number code. To start the entering mode for the students’ PIN codes, click Send ID requests. The students enter their exam PIN code in the dialog that appears on their screens. The PIN codes appear on your GUI’s class view under each student icon. To initiate the exam, click Start. The media source is connected to the students, and the students are automatically recorded. The students hear all further instructions and the exam questions from the exam source and proceed with the exam as instructed. To end the exam, click End. The student recording collection window opens automatically and you can collect the student tracks for later evaluation.”

Categories: assignments, service-is-assessing Tags: , , ,

How to easily merge MP3 files

2012/05/11 Leave a comment
  1. There are many ways, including many that are easier than doing it manually in Audacity.
  2. MergeMP3 is a free and easy one that worked here: mergemp3
Categories: assessments, documentation, e-languages, reviews, service-is-assessing, service-is-learning-materials-creation, software Tags: , , , ,

Does Respondus-lockdown–browser block when a user attempts to load a Moodle quiz on 2 different computers?

2012/05/08 Leave a comment
  1. We experienced slowness of Moodle during an exam where about 12 students
    1. load a Moodle quiz into the Respondus lockdown browser (lockdown browser hangs with message "page loading"),
    2. but also already when logging into Moodle with a regular browser (hangs on login page).
  2. Turns out large classes used the Moodle quiz function elsewhere on campus which put lots of load on the Moodle servers.
  3. What can we do on our end to work around this as smoothly as possible?
    1. First, be patient while Respondus-lockdown–browser displays “Page loading”
    2. “Refresh” or “Back/forward” are the next resort once “Page loading” attempt has stopped and the page
      1. states it cannot be loaded
      2. displays an error about missing CSS component (likely due to incomplete load before timeout)
      3. says it “can be loaded only in Respondus-lockdown–browser” while you are in Respondus-lockdown–browser (Huh?).
    3. Keep calm and carry on, i.e. on your current computer.
      1. In general, trying on additional “fallback” computers is likely to make matters only worse, since even more load is put on the Moodle server system.
      2. Specifically, however, does Respondus-lockdown–browser block when a user attempts to load a Moodle quiz in Respondus-lockdown–browser on 2 different computers simultaneously? One student kept getting “can be loaded only in Respondus-lockdown–browser” consistently, until closing Respondus-lockdown–browser on this computer. Then the quiz would finally load in Respondus-lockdown–browser where she was logged in on another computer (can this being tracked by the Respondus-lockdown–browser security layer that checks whether a page is loaded within Respondus-lockdown–browser? Why then no more helpful error message, or is this “Security by obscurity”? Data seems inconclusive).
  4. Additional tips for takers (and authors) of Moodle exams are available.
Categories: assessments, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, Glitches&Errors, lms Tags: ,

How a teacher can use Sanako voice insert to easily add spoken comments to students’ Sanako oral proficiency exams

2012/04/25 Leave a comment
  1. All other things equal (given a limited amount of time), teachers can provide more and better corrective feedback on student oral proficiency recordings if, during their grading, they could easily insert their own oral comments into the students’ recordings (delivered as MP3 files to teachers’ desktops after Sanako oral exams).
  2. Both the Sanako Tutor and Student Player have a voice insert mode that is much easier and quicker to use than (albeit not free as) editing the student audio in Audacity (which we still recommend for bare-bone viewing/listening because of Audacity’s capability of loading and displaying multiple tracks simultaneously).
  3. Fortunately, Sanako tutor/student player are available on the teacher/student station PCs in the LRC (the latter’s insert function is available when the PC connected to the running Sanako Tutor on the teacher station).
  4. How easy and fast is it to use this? As you can see in this demo screencast on how to use Sanako voice insert to add spoken comments into your students’ Sanako oral exams, voice insert only requires:
    1.  a click on the voice insert button in the center, whenever a user wants to speak during listening,
    2. and, from the top left menu, a “file”/ “save as” at the end.
  5. In a next step – not only during the grading process –, how easy is it to distribute student recordings made with Sanako to students? That is TBA:a different story.
Categories: audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, e-languages, grading, multimedia-recording, Presenter-Computer, Screencasts, service-is-assessing, Speaking, Student-Computers Tags: , , ,