FAQs | Thomas' Work Space

Check today’s date if you’re the only one in your Saba centra class

2013/09/04 plagwitz Leave a comment

And if your neighbors do not have problems connect to Saba centra.
Your teacher may have put one Saba centra link for every class session, like in the list of links you can see in the center column here:
You have to click on today’s one to participate.

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, Distance-education-format-is-Synchronous, e-learning, Glitches&Errors, lms Tags: FAQs, moodle, saba-centra

How to find resources that best fit your schedule using the OWA scheduling assistant parallel timelines

2013/09/02 plagwitz Leave a comment

Load all equivalent resources for each resource type that you require.
Using the parallel free/busy timelines in the “Scheduling Assistant”, look for and “plug the holes” (in white):
1. In the above example,
  1. for the given time frame (between rad/green line), no item is completely available;
  2. however, if you adjust your time frame slightly to earlier in the morning, you would be able to book either camera13 and 17 (assuming you need only one) and micboom 2
Remove the resources from the “Attendee list that are non-white = busy for the start/end time that you require the resources for.
Click upper left menu: “Send” to book.

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, Film-studies, service-is-library Tags: calendaring, FAQs, live@edu, ms-exchange, outlook, outlook-live, resources, scheduling, scheduling assistant, sharing

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

2013/05/06 plagwitz Leave a comment

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.
Root cause: Saba Centra on startup automatically selects the “microphone” as recording device…
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”.
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).
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: audio, FAQs, saba-centra

How to make (and cancel) a room/resource booking without conflict by sending a meeting request from OWA and OUTLOOK–the ultimate training…

2013/04/16 plagwitz Leave a comment

…using animated .gifs. Note the update for Outlook (desktop) users at the bottom. (Slower? Click the Links.)You can not only book lrcroomcoed434@uncc.edu like this, but any resource listed here.If you need the classroom repeatedly or other advanced features, read on.

To Book:

0.25sec,0.5sec, 0.75sec, 1sec, , 2sec, 3sec, 4sec, 5sec, 6sec, 7sec, 8sec, 9sec, 10sec. 1.5sec

To Cancel booking (why so?):

0.25sec,0.5sec, 0.75sec, 1sec, , 2sec, 3sec, 4sec, 5sec, 6sec, 7sec, 8sec, 9sec, 10sec.

Both book and cancel booking: Compact: 0.25sec,0.5sec, 0.75sec, 1sec, , 2sec, 3sec, 4sec, 5sec, 6sec, 7sec, 8sec, 9sec, 10sec. 1.5sec Or including unmarked frames: 0.25sec, 0.5sec, 0.75sec, 1sec, 1.5sec, 2sec, 3sec, 4sec, 5sec, 6sec, 7sec, 8sec, 9sec, 10sec.

And now in addition 2 screencasts (make/cancel reservation) for our OUTLOOK (desktop) users:

Categories: animated-GIFs, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-teachers, e-infrastructure, office-software, service-is-documenting, service-is-library, training Tags: calendaring, FAQs, meeting-requests, ms-exchange, ms-outlook, OWA, resource-mailboxes

How to prevent squealing noise on the brown headphones AKA audio feedback

2013/03/13 plagwitz Leave a comment

Symptom:high-pitched squealing sound, usually when logged into the computers along the wall (listening stations –other computers have different black headsets which are not as prone to this problem,) and not wearing the headset.
Short answer: LRC Assistants will let the student who causes the squealing noise know:
1. ”Turn the volume knob on the brown headset down!”
2. “You can turn it back up once you have put the headset on”.
Explanation:
1. The brown (analog) headsets on the listening stations exhibit this squealing noise when
  1. the students do not wear the headset
  2. AND the microphone is too close to the headphone speakers
  3. AND the headphone volumne knob is turned up to high.
2. This phenomenon is called an (audio) feedback loop:
  1. The headphone speakers echo what is spoken into the microphone (this is called sidetone).
  2. This is an important language learning feature (helps you control your pronunciation).
  3. However, it spirals out of control when students do not wear the headset. They also need to “wear the headset!” (general recommendation in the language lab) to have the benefit of the sidetone (and then their head insulates between speakers and microphones).

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, digital-audio-lab, Glitches&Errors, Listening-Stations Tags: audio, FAQs, sanako-stuy-1200

Have I reserved the LRC? 10 safety nets for you, plus a bonus

2013/03/12 plagwitz Leave a comment

No need to use them all: The first one you notice suffices. But we hope 1 of the 10 will work for you. Starting (that is why it is in explained in How to book LRC resources – explained in one screenshot: “Book me!”versus “Leave me alone!”) with the tab: “scheduling assistant” in your “meeting request” itself before you try to book the room: It tells you when the room is free (white or blank along the timeline). Don’t try to book the room when the room’s timeline is not blank and the hovering tool tip tells you “Busy”: It is futile.
But if you do, there will be more alerts: Immediately after you send the meeting request, a so-called “toast” (think of a slice of bread jumping out of a toaster – depending on email client you are using for NINERMAIL in the lower or upper right of the screen) flashes briefly with the automatic response from the room attendant. The response has in the subject : “Accepted or Denied” (you will not get “Tentative” from the room like in the example – UPDATE: only faculty and staff used to receive such toasts, but with the next upgrade of NINERMAIL, students will also!):
Never mind if you miss the toast: it just notified you that the automatic response from the room attendant went into your inbox. You can see it on top there (here I unfolded it). It tells you in the subject and in bold in the body whether your booking was accepted or denied. If you have questions about these messages, you can forward them with your comment like any other email (no point in responding though). This does NOT remove the appointment from your own NINERRMAIL calendar (makes sense if you think about it: You still have your appointment (exam etc.), just the room can not be part of it).
If you miss that also, go to the LRC homepage and click on “Hours&Events” under the Quick links in the upper left (How to view ?)
You do not even need to visit the LRC home page: you have privileged access to the the LRC hours end events calendar from your NINERMAIL, if you subscribe to it there (shortcut: start @ #3 armed with this link:http://mail.uncc.edu/owa/calendar/LRCRoomCOED434@uncc.edu/Calendar/calendar.ics).
You can do all this under guidance at the LRC reception desk: We try to have 1-3 name-tagged student assistants there at all times during LRC opening hours, 8 eyes see more than 2.
One day after your booking, you will also be able to see your reservation (if successful!) on the : .
If in doubt, do all this well before your class takes place.
Take a training: ITS supports NINERMAIL and CTL teaches Taming your inbox.
Bonus: In the unfortunate event of a “Denied” response to your booking request, if it is not just an AM/PM error or similar which you can easily correct, the response includes information on the prior reservation, organizer, and email address.
1. Why not email the colleague (click on the underlined name of the colleague that booked the LRC before you) from right here and see whether you both can rearrange? Remember: Sharing is caring.
2. There is a departmental initiative to reschedule entire classes that might conflict over the use of the LRC. Talk to the departmental office well before the the prior term ends (i.e. before next term’s class schedules are finalized).
3. Still confused? At this point, talk to LRC permanent staff who will go through above list with you. Please understand that the LRC staff cannot cancel other faculty’s bookings, we only extended the availability and bookability of the LRC which is readily available and easily bookable at many times during each term.

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-teachers, e-infrastructure Tags: 2010, calendaring, FAQs, meeting-requests, ms-exchange, ms-outlook, OWA, resource-mailboxes

How teachers find their Sanako files – once they are in the right network share folder

2013/03/11 plagwitz Leave a comment

The beginning of the folder name with your recordings corresponds to the date/ time the exam was collected (some translation required – the date time appears in this special format yyyy-MM-dd hh_mm) so that the folders can also be easily sorted by name, see below).
When viewing the folder, click on the column headers to sort by name (sorting by date also often works):
If you forgot when you held your exam: The exam appointment is not only in the LRC room calendar (which can get busy and takes some prior setup to be searchable), but in your own NINERMAIL calendar, so that you can check there also:
We recommend that the exams (unlike the system tests (“nametests”) which can be collected using the computer name as filename) be collected using the student username as recording filename, you can also search the student folder for students with your username:
We also recommend that you add a memorable (to you) tag to the folder name when collecting (in this case “level2 speaking exam1”) to make it easier for you to retrieve your assessments. The best tags in this world of computers helping us find things seem to be long unique strings (think of twitter hashtags).