Are you able to connect to Collaborate on a military network or on a base, please let me know. It appears that military networks have moved the goalposts again and some students can't access Collaborate from their workstation on base.
Sometimes your local IT department can make the changes that you need. In this case, they'll need to make sure that sites US-SAS.bbcollab.com / sas.elluminate.com is whitelisted on ports 80, 443, and 2187.
You might also be able to go to the Java Control Panel and use the Advanced tab to set “Perform TLS certificate revocation checks on” to “Do not check (not recommended)”. If you can't do that, talk to your IT people and see if they'll do that for you.
Please use the comments below to give any advice for those on NMCI or any military network!
Sakai Classified is for available for classified local classes in the STBL as well as classified Distance Learning running from the STBL.
If you have the need, you can have the same experience on the classified side, and you can conduct classes in the same way, the only difference will be the classified content and facility use. No more multiple emails of syllabus, assignments, etc. and now the ability to track content as well as timed quizzes etc.
For more information please contact the Classified Computing lead, Justin Bales at justin.bales@nps.edu, 831-656-3045
DON'T UPGRADE TO CATALINA UNTIL YOU READ THIS!
This is a blog from November that needs repeating.
Upgrading to OS Catalina (10.15.3) will prevent you from being able to use your camera in Collaborate. This means that if you upgrade, you it's likely that the camera that shows your image to your participants (or your classmates and professor) won't work, but you can still participate in your lecture and everything else works. For more information, please contact us here at the Sakai helpdesk, 831-656-2020 or go here for more information from Blackboard.
This announcement rides close on the heels of, and is directly related to my blog from last week - End of life for Collaborate
What we know is that Blackboard will be discontinuing Collaborate "Original" in favor of their newer web conferencing tool, Collaborate Ultra, in December of this year. We are in the process of making the decision to stay with Blackboard and continue to use Ultra, or break with Blackboard in favor of another product to use in addition to our Zoom account. For this reason, Blackboard won't be fixing any issues as they break, like this camera glitch with Catalina.
If you are using Zoom, don't worry, Catalina works fine.
Blackboard recently announced that they will be discontinuing support and shutting down their Collaborate Original web conference tool at the end of this year, Dec 31, 2020. We have not made an official announcement with regard to its use at NPS because we may end support earlier than that, but I wanted to let you all know. If I had to guess, I would think that we will want to be completely done with all Blackboard products by the start of the Fall 21 Quarter, at the end of September '21, but I don't know. I also don't know if we will be discontinuing Collaborate Ultra as well, but that's my recommendation. With the ITACS leadership in flux, it's not something that we are discussing at this time, so I will let you know what happens.
For students, you don't need to do anything. Once we switch to Zoom (or another web conference tool) you'll just find it in your courses' left-side menu, just like Collaborate.
Instructors, if you are interested in getting in to Zoom ahead of the discontinuation, please let us know! 831-656-2020
April
We get this question almost every day for a few weeks before and after the start of a new quarter: "I'm scheduled to take a course but I can't find it in Sakai. How do I find it?" Here is what you do, whether you're a professor or a student...
- Look in the Sites block - If you know you've been added to a course, but it's not in your top favorites menu, it could be hiding in your "All Sites" bin. Click on the Sites block, find the course, and click on the star to add it to your favorites. If you don't find it there, go to step 2...
2. Your course may be unpublished - If you're a student in a course, or a participant in a project site, it may be that the instructor or the organizer hasn't published the course yet. This happens frequently in the days preceding the actual start of class. If your professor has let you know that the course is available and you still can't see it, let us know.
3. Do you have two Sakai accounts? Many people - students, instructors, and guests - are added to sites with their private email address by well-meaning people when that's not the best idea. Did you get an email to your personal email with a notice that you've been added to a course? This happens very frequently.
4. Contact us here - If none of the above apply, please contact us here at x2020 or clehelp@nps.edu, or visit the office in Ingersoll 267 and we can help you out!
Professors, did you know that you have MAGICAL POWERS? You have complete control over what tools and links appear in your left menu, AND in what order!
To affect this amazing control over your world, start in Site Info. Make sure that you're enrolled as Instructor in courses or Organizer in project sites you want to look at.
Manage Tools |
Manage tools let you add any tools that you need for your course. |
|---|---|
To add Tools: | Go to Manage Tools, then check the tools you want to use. Click Continue, then Finish. Your new menu item will be on the bottom of the menu. |
| Tool Descriptions |
| Tool Order |
Tool order lets you reorder your menu, delete tools you don't need, hide tools from students, and rename your tools. |
|---|---|
| To Delete Tools |
Click the control gear, then choose "Delete this Tool"
|
| To Rename Tools | Click on the control gear, click on "Edit Tool Title."
Click the green check mark, then click on Save to save. |
| To Reorder Tools |
Find the three horizontal lines to the left of the tool row that you want to move, and drag-and-drop it into the desired order. |
If you are instructor using Zoom and Sakai, you have a number of choices for how to give your students access to the lecture recordings.
- Store in the Zoom Cloud - As of right now, we have enough room for you to automatically save your Zoom meetings to the Zoom cloud, and if you create your session from within Sakai, your students will be able to access them from the Zoom tool in the menu. To save your recordings this way, choose to save "Automatically to the cloud" in your session settings. At the end of the quarter, your lectures will need to be deleted, or downloaded then deleted. You can do that, or we can do it for you!
- Store in Sakai - If your recordings are less than 1GB, you can upload them and store them in Resources in Sakai. This works best for infrequent storage since you'll run out of room quickly.
- Store them in nps.box.com or OneDrive - Both of these are good solutions. As NPS network account holders, you are entitled to a huge amount of space in both of these locations, so space or deletion will never be an issue. The only trick is that you'll need to get a sharing link to give to your students so that they can access them there. Many teachers who use this method get the sharing link and send it in an announcement to the students.
If you want to know more about all of this, please contact us at 831-656-2020!
Whether you're a new student or faculty or you've been here for a while, Welcome! Here are some reminders about Sakai and how to get help, should you need it.
- The Sakai helpdesk is available from 0700-1700 weekdays.
- We are located in Ingersoll Hall on the 2nd deck, room 267. Please feel free to stop by and say hello!
- You can also call us at 831-656-2020 for help or recommendations.
- We are a team of tech-minded, student-focused instructional designers, and have been working with Sakai for over 10 years now.
- You can email us at clehelp@nps.edu with any problems or issues. This email will make a ticket which we will generally take care of the same day.
- If you want to email us personally, we are
- April Fertig - Lead - acfertig@nps.edu - 831-656-2176
- Dan Filcek - daniel.filcek.ctr@nps.edu - 831-656-3447
- Check out our Wiki pages for more information than you could ever possibly want or need!
If you're new to Sakai, Zoom, or Collaborate, or new to distance learning, please talk to the CLE team. We can get you up to speed so that you can be an effective and efficient instructor or student. We can work with you over the phone, in a web conference tool, or in person!
Please give us a call at 831-656-2020 to make an appointment!
I'm in a fun position where I get to talk to both students and faculty regularly, and I'm starting to hear what students are saying about Zoom. Most really like it and are happy, but I have heard one thing that the students strongly suggest: Turn off the sound that Zoom plays when someone joins the session! I think most instructors don't realize that the students in their lectures can hear the chime too, or maybe they don't realize it can be really disruptive.
If you have this turned on, you can turn it off to limit the disruption it can cause in your lecture. Here are your steps:
- Go to zoom. us and log in with your NPS Zoom account
- Go to Settings, and stay in the Meeting tab
3. Scroll down to "Play sound when participants join or leave" and make sure that "Heard by host only" is selected.
4. Your selection will save automatically.
DON'T UPGRADE TO CATALINA UNTIL YOU READ THIS!
We just got confirmation from Blackboard that upgrading to Catalina will likely prevent your camera from working in Collaborate. We still don't know how many Catalina users this affects. This means that if you're affected, your camera that shows your image to your participants or your classmates and professor won't work, but you can still participate in your lecture. For more information, please contact us here at the Sakai helpdesk, 831-656-2020 or go here for more information from Blackboard.
Instructors, did you know you can monitor and evaluate your course activity with the Statistics tool? From the time that the tool is installed, you can find out who has visited and what they've done. Please Note: You will only see the results of your course from the time that the tool is added to your course **
Overview: Will show you how many site participants were in the site and on what date, along with what tool, resource, or lesson pages were visited, and by exactly whom.
Reports: This area has seven predefined and editable reports outlining various user activity in the course.
Preferences: Lets you adjust your tool activity selection and chart parameters for printing and viewing.
One of my frequently asked questions related to the statistics tool, is "how can I see if one of my students has been in the site yet, and what have they done?" This can be done with a specialized report that you can create. If you're interested, here are your instructions:
- In the Statistics tool, go to "Reports."
- Under "My Reports" click on "Add."
- (Optional) Give the report a title if you intend on saving
- Leave "Activity" at the default "Visits." If you want to see what tools a participant is accessing, choose "Events."
- Choose your time period; All, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 365 days, or custom, which allows you to choose a day (Specific hours aren't available).
- Under "Users" choose All, or Custom, which allows you to choose a particular individual.
- "How" will show you the results by the User, Tool, or Date you specify.
- Choose your prefered chart format and click on "Generate Report."
**If you would like to see detailed list of user events in a course from before the tool has been added to your course, please contact us at 831-656-2020. We have access to much more detailed data that we can give you.
My dear friend and colleague, Ana Eckhart, (Faculty Associate for Instructional Design & Technology for GSDM) created a really good four-minute introduction to the Lessons tool in Sakai. If you've been putting off looking into Lessons and are curious, please watch!
If you want to know more about how use and incorporate the Lessons tool in your Sakai course, please let me know! As always you can contact me at acfertig@nps.edu or 831-656-2176.
April
Anyone can help me test, but this is particularly important for DL students. If you have about 10 minutes to spare at work, we are testing a new(ish) Blackboard web conference tool called "Collaborate Ultra."
If you want to help, you have two choices: Please follow this link and just see if you can get in, AND/OR contact the CLE helpdesk to also test your audio and complete viewing capability. We are at 831-656-2020 or clehelp@nps.edu
When you're done, please fill out our really short survey by clicking here!
Here is more information about Ultra, if you want: Collaborate Ultra
If one browser doesn't work for you, please try another if you can! Please note that Internet Explorer 11 is not supported by Collaborate Ultra.
This training, led by Wilma Hodges, Ed.D. Director of Training & eLearning Initiatives at Longsight, Inc, will cover tips and tricks in Rubrics, Assignments, Tests & Quizzes, Gradebook, and Lessons.
When: OCT 17, 11:30-1:00 pm PST
Where: online via Zoom - https://zoom.us/j/883622272
Who: ALL INSTRUCTORS ARE WELCOME
If you are new to Sakai or one of my power users, please attend! I personally guarantee that you’ll learn something valuable!
Please go here for the recording of the training.
Agenda:
Time | Topic |
11:30-11:40 | Introductions, goals, and expectations |
11:40-11:55 | Quick Refresher on Basic Tools ● Announcements, Messages, Calendar, Forums |
11:55-12:10 | Rubrics ● Creating/editing/sharing rubrics ● Attaching to items ● Grading with rubrics |
12:10-12:20 | Assignments ● Group/section selection ● Email reminder ● Group assignments ● Peer review assignments |
12:20-12:30 | Tests & Quizzes ● Landing page redesign ● Group/section selection ● Creating exceptions ● Question pools |
12:30-12:40 | Gradebook ● New empty state and tooltips ● Navigating gradebook, show/hide/reorder items ● Grade statistics ● Create and add another ● Exclude items by student |
12:40-12:50 | Lessons ● Section and column layout options ● Adding, editing, and reordering items ● Page/lesson design considerations ● Conditional release ● Checklist options ● Lessons as course landing page |
12:50-1:00 | Q&A |