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How a teacher can organize a student-controlled high-stakes assessment recording session using the Sanako in the LRC

2013/03/12 Leave a comment
  1. How:
    1. An initial central microphone and speaker test (animated step-by-step) is recommended. Clear the session afterwards.
    2. Recording: Have the student operate the Sanako recorder to individually record (like during a self-access assignment)
      1. For starters, teacher can display this narrated individual recordings with the Sanako Student Recorder training screencast, it auto-starts and auto-cycles):
      2. And/or explain:
        1. Red Record Button to record;
        2. Blue Stop button to stop recording
        3. Green Play Button to play their assignment for review (also use the recap button to jump back)
        4. Menu: “File / New”, if they want to redo the assignment.
        5. Button: call/envelope to call the teacher on the teacher station for help (an audio connection between student and teacher should pause  the recorder automatically)
    3. Submitting:
      1. Individually by students:
        1. Menu “File” / “Save” (opt to save as student track mp3), to save locally, once student is happy to submit.
        2. (recommended:) upload the save file to a Moodle single-file upload assignment. Requires the teacher to create a Moodle Single file upload assignment, with optional attached file first.
      2. From the Sanako tutor at the teacher station:
        1. For entire class (If you do not need the flexibility to have students end at different times). TBA
        2. Group-wise (varying (staggered) recording times):  TBA
  2. Pro’s:
    1. Less distraction from language learning by having to operate technology (editing audio rather then practicing L2) and more language-learning-specific features (sidetone, recap) than if using Audacity.
    2. Works with the Sanako Study 1200 teacher stations (e.g. automatic pause of recorder when remote connecting to student during monitoring of recording task).
  3. Con’s:
    1. noise interference with dozens of student speaking in a confined space simultaneously. Nobody wants to return to the language lab station of yore, i.e. in a cubicle. However, a teacher-controlled oral exam (sample video, step-by-step video),
      1. can play a soothing background sound to students over the headphones which insulates them from their neighbors (prevents both distraction and cheating);
      2. there is no room  for distracting unrelated chit-chat;
      3. there is no need for distracting conversation when  students do technical troubleshooting, during highly structured question/response exams.
    2. More user flexibility/control  is achieved by more individual distracting operation of computer technology, which always implies more opportunity for user error. To reduce (not eliminate!) the error ratio:
      1. Students
        1. have to have received the general digital audio lab introduction for students.
        2. have to double-check their recordings for quality before submitting.
      2. Teachers
        1. have to monitor students’ recording progress closely
          1. which the Sanako Study 1200 teacher station (link cannot replace hands-on training) greatly facilitates (provided Students use  the Sanako Student Recorder, as described above).
          2. however, even with a classroom management system like Sanako Study 1200, it is impossible to completely monitor a class size of students operating computers. Therefore teachers
        2. have to check the validity of submissions before students leave.
          1. If you use submission through Moodle, here are 2 tips how to do this quicker:
            1. how to quickly download their Moodle file submissions
          2. Whether you use submission through Moodle or collection through Sanako tutor:
            1. view end of this video for how to quickly check validity of all file submissions in a folder using Audacity
          3. are advised to have a make-up assessment plan not only for those students missing the exam, but also for those that miss to complete the computerized multimedia assessment correctly.
Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, documentation, lms, multimedia-recording, Presenter-Computer, step-by-step-guides, Student-Computers, training Tags: , , ,

How to batch download all submissions as a zip file from a Moodle: Gradebook File-upload assignment column.

2013/03/01 Leave a comment
  1. I have no file upload assignment with submissions handy in my own Moodle course, so I am patching this together from other universities (thanks, umass.edu, cotc.edu).
  2. “ Another time saver you can use is the Download all assignments as a zip link.  This will package all uploaded documents from any submissions in the assignment into
    a zipped folder that you can download. Once downloaded, you can unzip the file and  access each paper. This can be a real time saver!”. Image:
  4. Extra: This procedure will add the student’s name to the file. No more wading through submitted audio files named by students trying to identify submitters.
Categories: e-learning, grading, lms Tags: , , , , ,

Which browser and operating system we could get which Moodle Kaltura webcam assignments to work in

2013/02/14 Leave a comment

Below please find our current (work in progress) test matrix. Use one of the combinations that worked (“YES”) to avoid problems when taking or grading webcam assignments (or come to the LRC where we set up a working combination). You can view your version of the Kaltura video player and of Adobe Flash by right-clicking on the Kaltura video window.

Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, lms, multimedia-recording Tags: , , , , , , ,

How to copy your tried and true Moodle course into the new term/sections

2013/01/24 Leave a comment

Just another shout-out for some useful documentation from the CTL: Instructions on how to copy your Moodle course: Text | Video. Plus a recommendation: stop being hard on yourself and refrain from manually adding content to individual sections of the same course, instead, use the copy (import) feature at term start in each section. Requires preparing your Moodle course when you do not teach and grade – which seems preferable and for which the LRC aims to offer Learning materials Clinics.

Categories: announcements, audience-is-teachers, clinics, e-learning, learning-materials, lms, training Tags: , ,

Kaltura Webcam assignment GRMN1201 example

2012/12/13 Leave a comment

image

Categories: e-languages, German, learning-usage-samples, lms, Speaking Tags: ,

ICS corruption in Moodle calendar events?

2012/11/28 Leave a comment
  1. I am seeing once again a large number of events loaded as internet calendar into MS-Outlook via an iCal link default to the same day: image
  2. This time the iCal sources is Moodle, but it also displays the iCal feed internally so: image
  3. I observed a similar issue when loading certain Drupal calendars into MS-Outlook, only that
    1. it seems to have affected only certain sites on the same (?) Drupal instance (is this user input error?)
    2. Events defaulted to the current day in MS-Outlook – the Moodle issue does not.
    3. All events were effected – not so in this Moodle issue.
Categories: documentation, Glitches&Errors, lms Tags: , , , ,

How to switch the input language in Respondus Lockdown browser, e.g. to Arabic

2012/10/23 Leave a comment
  1. Short answer:
    1. Right-click the Language bar on the taskbar and choose “Restore the  Language bar”, like so:
    2. language-bar-restore
    3. This makes the language bar a floating toolbar on top of the screen, like here: image. This floating toolbar you can still access when in Lockdown browser.
    4. The language bar can be temperamental, you may need to bring it up again, try switching back and forth between input fields.
  2. Long Answer:
    1. Respondus Lockdown browser blocks many functionalities, including the shortcut combination to change input languages (usually LEFT ALT + SHIFT) and access to the Language bar on the task bar.
    2. This is not an issue when your quiz is in a western language and you have US- international keyboard layout configured as your default (which lets you type most Western diacritics without need for keys blocked by Respondus Lockdown browser )
    3. It is an issue with e.g. Arabic. You cannot even temporarily set Arabic to your default input language before starting lockdown browser, since then you cannot log in (with MS Maren IME, you can override the Arabic default to enter your username in western characters, but not the password. Respondus Lockdown Browser is built on Internet Explorer, but it does not share the cookies, so being logged into your LMS in Internet Explorer does not carry over to your Lockdown Browser session).
    4. Workaround: See above.
Categories: Arabic, audience-is-students, Farsi, Greek (ancient), Hebrew, Hindi, Korean, Listening-Stations, lms, Mandarin, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging, Spanish, Writing Tags:

How teachers can use MS-Word Mail merge with filtering and if-then-else to quickly provide personalized feedback based to students depending on grade

2012/10/18 Leave a comment
  1. Intelligence is adaptation to feedback. Providing personalized feedback to students depending on their performance could make student development much more successful.
  2. Intelligence is expensive. How can the teacher provide personalized feedback time-efficiently? Likely by blending artificial intelligence with her own.
  3. Sounds like Sci-fi? A great practical example, using existing familiar IT infrastructure, you can find here:  MS-Word’s (2010; 2007 works the same) mail merge feature, on the basis of a downloaded Moodle gradebook with student results, can customize semi-automatically your reusable feedback email message template to individual recipient’s performance and needs:
  4. Step-by-step instructions:  http://teaching.uncc.edu/moodle/grade-book/how-to/using-mail-merge-grade-book.
  5. Screencast of the webinar instruction: http://mt202.sabameeting.com/SiteRoots/main/User/GuestAttend.jhtml?pb=true&s_guid=0000018151460000013a0a22cfb39443&domain=/Customers/uncc&domain=/
Categories: audience-is-teachers, e-learning, grading, lms, office-software, Screencasts, step-by-step-guides Tags: