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How to easily view resource mailboxes calendar free/busy using Outlook calendar groups

2013/05/29 Leave a comment
  1. Display all items in a category with a single click on the checkbox I front  of the calendar group
  2. Display any portion of the time line in " scheduling view"  by
  3. Selecting the days in the square calendar sheet in the upper left
  4. Navigate the time line with the bottom horizontal scrollbar
  5. Note the additional helpful "from [start date]" indicator in a mailboxes booking that is not displayed completely
  6. How to easily view resource mailboxes calendar free busy using Outlook calendar groups
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, documentation, e-infrastructure, office-software Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

How to quickly add resource mailbox calendars as an Outlook calendar group

2013/05/29 Leave a comment
  1.  Right-click the left calendar tree.
  2. Choose context menu item: add calendar group / from address list:
  3. image
  4. Type " LRC" to search  – or the consistent naming scheme you implemented  (I hope!).
  5. Select all relevant calendars to add.
  6. Click on  button: "calendar".
  7. Click on  button: "ok":
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  9. Done:
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Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, documentation, e-infrastructure, office-software, service-is-library Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

How to organize your email by creating an Inbox rule in OWA

2013/05/28 Leave a comment
  1. This step-by-step GUIDE was written for filtering emails from our langlabemailer program (they happen to have “Your UNCC-LRC”  in the subject) into a separate folder so that users of the LRC keep the overview:
    1. students (longitudinally, for their language learner ePortfolios) ,
    2. but especially teachers (of classes with up to 36 students, throughout the term).
  2. But you can easily adapt the guide to any other email purpose.
    1. Including other LRC workflows based on emails: LRC resource booking also relies on OWA emails. All email sent from LRC resource mailboxes have “LRC”  at the beginning of the user name and email address.
  3. In short: Options / Create an Inbox Rule / Click “ new” / choose a type / choose keywords / choose folder to sort the email into when it arrives. Or graphically:
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Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, documentation, e-infrastructure, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, office-software, step-by-step-guides Tags: , ,

How to get access to the LRC Sanako (teacher materials, student recordings) from your office or home PC

2013/05/15 1 comment
  1. Run the Sanako Installer (first meant for faculty offices only, but now faculty also want to have access from home, so I added that functionality).
  2. On your office and or home PC, you get a folder “SANAKO” on your desktop.  This folder will contain all you need to access student assessments from past classes or upload learning materials for future classes:
    1. In the office:  image: It is sufficient  to click the additional “UNCC…” links at the bottom of the list .
    2. At home: image
      1. Click “1st connect…” and log into the campus.
      2. Click “How teachers find…”, log in with the blog password, open the PDF, click  the links in the PDF to the Sanako off-campus folders, log in again with the network credentials as shown in the PDF (sigh…).
      3. EXAMPLE: Here you can see on a faculty home PC:
        1. the sanako recorder and campus connector: image
        2. the SANAKO desktop folder shortcuts: image
          1. You get the Word templates only if you can use them (have WORD installed –  remember you can install MS-Office with your free faculty license from here).
          2. (No, you won’t get the “UNCC…”shortcuts at home, we simplified since.)
      4. Both office and home:
        1. Drag any audio  files into the Sanako study recorder window (further reading on why the Sanako study recorder is useful for teachers).
        2. Need to record? configure your microphone in Sanako study recorder, menu Tools.
Categories: audience-is-teachers, documentation, e-infrastructure, e-languages, faculty-offices, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, service-is-configuring-learning-tools, service-is-it-managing, service-is-programming Tags: , , , , , ,

How faculty can move their local files to the new computer during their office PC upgrade using temporary network space

2013/05/12 Leave a comment
  1. Go to your H: drive: image
  2. Click on the icon: “TempMigrationStorage”: image
  3. Here is your temporary storage which you should move your files to from your old computer, so that you can move them later to your new computer:
    1. image
    2. In this example, I copied my “downloads”folder from my local drive to my network  “TempMigrationStorage”. Even when my old computer gets removed, I will be able to access the network from the new computer and download the files from there to the new computer.
  4. Files on your H:  drive do not need to be moved that way. Settings on your old PC cannot be moved that way. Typical candidates for files that should be moved that way include large multimedia files that you could not store on your H: drive. For finding them on your local drive, I recommend examining your C: drive with the free WinDirStat.
Categories: audience-is-teachers, e-infrastructure, service-is-documenting, service-is-it-managing Tags:

How to comprehensively identify your software packages using the MS-Installer infrastructure

2013/05/10 Leave a comment
  1. Problem:
    1. Some packages may have built-in checks which prevent installation. The built-in error messages may be difficult to interpret (even if you speak foreign languages).
    2. Some built-in checks may be erroneous.
    3. Product name and version may be difficult to identify.
    4. Etc.
  2. Solution: Take advantage of the features of the MS Installer infrastructure.
    1. If necessary (setup file does not come as an MSI file), try to unpack your setup file (7zip alone will work in many cases. There are more advanced free  extractors available on the web).
    2. with the the unpacked MSI’s
      1. run with the “/log” parameter  and to generate and examine the log file for more speaking (an English!) installation errors.
      2. Open  with MS-Orca to examine the software package properties: image.
      3. Right-click and “copy cell” : image
      4. Esp. note the following:
        1. “Make”
          1. Productname (base, qualified) variants
        2. “Model”
          1. GUID for Upgradecode (e.g. {00140000-0028-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE})
          2. Productname
        3. “Year”:
          1. GUID for Productcode ({90140000-0028-0804-1000-0000000FF1CE})
          2. ProductVersion
      5. you can edit your MSI with MS-Orca (better be sure what you are doing).
    3. you can compare this installer package with what you already have installed in the registry
      1. use a registry search tool
      2. you have to search the registry for the compressed GUIDs, to compress, use this: https://thomasplagwitz.com/tag/guid/.
Categories: e-infrastructure, service-is-it-managing Tags: , ,

How not to have to join a Saba Centra online class from the LRC late, for lack of speaking capabilities

2013/05/06 Leave a comment
  1. Problem: We continue getting reports from teachers that students who try to participate in a Saba Centra online class from the LRC listening station computers (with analogue headphones) experience a considerable delay in joining and cause disruption to online classes since they have to troubleshoot their microphones, for lack of being audible online.
  2. Root cause: Saba Centra on startup automatically selects the “microphone” as recording device…
  3. Workaround:
    1. On XP, click “Start”, click “Run”, type (without quotes) “SndVol32 –R” (meaning: “SoundVolume for Recording”), click “OK” which opens the volume mixer for recording  devices. The radio button selected will be “Rear input”. image
    2. Start Saba Centra.
    3. Switch back to the volume mixer you opened in step 1. Note that the radio button now selected is “Microphone”. This is wrong for the listening stations (and the teacher station) in the LRC.  Switch it back to “Rear input” (you know that your headset is supposed to be plugged into the rear). image
    4. And off you go…  Plus note: There is no need for “expensive” workarounds like:
      1. haphazardly trying to replug headphones,
      2. purchasing your own USB headphones,
      3. hogging the main classroom with its USB headphones.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, Distance-education-format-is-Synchronous, e-learning, Listening-Stations, Presenter-Computer, presenter-computer, service-is-configuring-learning-tools, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging, Speaking Tags: , ,

Saba Centra on startup automatically selects the "microphone" as recording device…

2013/05/03 Leave a comment
  1. … But we in the language lab use the (dual function microphone/line-in) "rear input" for our headsets (for ergonomic, health&safety and security reasons). Workaround here.
  2. Apparently this startup behavior cannot be changed within Saba Centra:
    1. Any startup will bring up the “Audio Wizard” asking users, even in a controlled lab environment, to configure their audio devices,
    2. and if users do (and choose what they have: headset), make wrong assumptions which audio plug to enable (“Microphone” front panel, even if your headset is plugged into the rear panel dual “line-in/microphone”)
  3. The workaround according to  these easily Googled instructions is using the “Advanced” audio wizard options to override this “Audio Wizard” error, like so:
    1. “Re-open the Audio Wizard, go to the third screen and change your recording device in your “Recording Device” menu. Advance two slides and determine if you can hear your recorded voice. ”
      1. 1st screen: image
      2. 3rd screen: image
      3. note the instructions –  Click “Advanced”. But it is easier to just use from the start our Workaround here.
  4. The long-term solution is reconfigure your hardware and disable the front panel audio – but will Saba Centra  understand you? Stay tuned…
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, e-learning, Glitches&Errors, Listening-Stations, mental-notes, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging, Speaking, Uncategorized Tags: ,