Week's End Report - February 27, 2015

This week's blog introduces a new feature called "Tip of the Week!" Check in every week for a new tip. We've also included our contact information, please reach out to us if you need assistance or training. We're here to help!

Tip of the Week!

• Respondus StudyMate and StudyMate Class are available free of charge to all Ivy Tech faculty!
• Use the StudyMate products to create study materials for your students. StudyMate can create flash cards, matching games, crosswords, and more!
• StudyMate can be downloaded from the Click for Help tab in Blackboard. Use the license information provided in Click for Help to install (put in a helpdesk ticket to have StudyMate installed on your campus computer).
• StudyMate Class is embedded in Blackboard
• Click on this link to view a demo of StudyMate Class: http://youtu.be/ZdCoY5FBGzE
• Remember we cannot add graded items to online courses, but StudyMate materials can be used to reinforce learning, to help students prepare for exams, and to increase student engagement in your courses!

Distance Education Contact Information

• Lafayette Region Distance Education Support, call 765-269-5154, e-mail laf-distance-ed@lists.ivytech.edu, or visit us on the Lafayette campus in Ivy Hall Room 1117
• Kokomo Region Distance Education Support, call 574-753-5101 ext. 2133, e-mail jbyrd15@ivytech.edu, or visit us on the Logansport campus in Room 132
• If you would like to make an appointment with us for training or support please call and we would be happy to set up a time to work with you!

New Resources

• Accessing Blackboard, for new students, faculty and staff: http://youtu.be/F0JDuzEyFIg
• Basic Blackboard Navigation, for new students, faculty and staff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVpq1uLfy7o 
• Basic Course Navigation, for new students: http://youtu.be/68rEJQ6QbqE

Blackboard

• From Blackboard, regarding Blackboard Collaborate Web Conferencing: Monday, February 23th, 2015 16:39 EST (UTC/GMT - 5) - US-SAS is currently intermittently showing a system maintenance page when user's login to the US-SAS or try to launch web conferencing sessions. Our operations team is actively investigating the issue. Please try launching your session again.

Pearson

• Access issues were reported from approximately 10:20 pm to 11:45 pm EST on MyLab, Modified Mastering, XL MyLab & Pegasus MyLab on Monday, Feb. 23rd

Systems Maintenance

• E-mail migration was completed at 11:30 am on Sunday, Feb. 22nd
• Banner, Campus Connect, CAS and Discoverer will be unavailable from 6:00 am - 6:30 am Sunday, March 8th

Campus Closures/Delays

The following campuses/sites were closed or delayed due to inclement weather. If you had students scheduled to take proctored tests in these locations, please work with them to arrange for alternatives.

• Wabash Valley campuses, open at 3 pm on Saturday, Feb. 21st
• Columbus, closed on Saturday, Feb. 21st
• Central Indiana campuses, closed on Saturday, Feb. 21st
• Lawrenceburg and Batesville, closed on Saturday, Feb. 21st
• Lawrenceburg, closed on Sunday, Feb. 22nd
• Sellersburg, closed Saturday, Feb. 21st, open at 10 am, Monday, Feb. 23rd

Week's End Report - February 20, 2015

We have a lot of updates this week! This weekend the second phase of the e-mail upgrade will take place, multiple Pearson outages were reported, and several new resources were made available.

New Resources

Three new videos have been created for SafeAssign:

• Creating a SafeAssignment: http://youtu.be/UmTOhr_As1w
• Syncing SafeAssign: http://youtu.be/gALiCQP-5Lo
• DirectSubmit through SafeAssign: http://youtu.be/iNRJVGKEgUc

E-mail Upgrade

• The second phase of the e-mail upgrade will place beginning at 11 pm on Saturday, Feb. 21st and will run through noon on Sunday, Feb. 22nd
• The upgrade may result in periodic e-mail system outages
• E-mail delivery may be delayed however no e-mail will be lost
• If possible, prior to the outage, empty your “Deleted Items” folder
• Following the upgrade, a four-digit PIN or password will be required in order to use Ivy Tech e-mail on a mobile device
• Questions or concerns about this upgrade can be directed to Exchange-Deployment-Team@ivytech.edu

Pearson Issues

• Multiple Pearson system issues from 12:04 am – 2:45 am Monday, Feb. 16th. Impacted MyLabs and Mastering systems
• Pearson issues impacting MyLab and Mastering courses occurred beginning approximately 8:03 am on Monday, Feb. 16th and ending around 11:58 am
• Pearson issues impacting MyLab and Mastering courses as well as MyLabsPlus and Learning Studios courses occurred beginning approximately 1:07 pm on Monday, Feb. 16th issues were resolved at approximately 6:31 pm
• Pearson completed emergency maintenance resulting in MyLab and Mastering courses being unavailable between 3:00 am and 4:15 am on Weds. Feb. 18th
• Issue impacting Mastering courses began approximately 11:56 am Feb. 18th and ended approximately 12:09 pm

Training

• LockDown Browser & Respondus Monitor: Prevent cheating during online exams, Fri. Feb. 27 at 12 pm EST
• Register at: http://www.respondus.com/products/webinar/

McGraw-Hill Maintenance

• McGraw-Hill will be performing maintenance on the Connect systems on Friday, Feb. 27th between 4 am and 9 am EST. The systems are not expected to be down during this time, however they may be slower than usual.

System Updates/Maintenance

• Banner and ePrint will be unavailable for maintenance from 6 am to 11 am Sunday, February 22nd

U.Direct Instructions

U.Direct training manual now available! Follow these steps to access:

• Log in to Campus Connect
• Click on Employee Services tab
• Ivy Tech Training Portal
• My Training
• Training Manuals
• In the Discipline drop down select Academic Advising
• U.Direct manual is the only option, click View to view and download
• Full training session available on YouTube: http://youtu.be/z4A_WKBo6F4

Campus Closures/Delays

The following campuses/sites were closed or delayed due to inclement weather. If you had students scheduled to take proctored tests in these locations, please work with them to arrange for alternatives.

• Southwest (Evansville, Princeton, and Tell City), closed Mon., Feb. 16th, open Tues., Feb. 16th at 10:00 am
• Tell City closed at 5 pm Weds., Feb. 18th
• Madison, Feb. 16th & 17th, open Weds. Feb. 18th at noon, closed Weds. Feb. 18th at 5 pm, open Thurs., Feb. 19th at noon
• Sellersburg & Perkins Technology Center, closed Feb. 16th & 17th, open Weds. Feb. 18th at noon, closed Thurs., Feb. 19th, open at 10 am Fri., Feb. 20th
• Mid America Science Park, Scottsburg, closed Mon., Feb. 16th, delayed two hours Tues., Feb. 17th
• Lawrenceburg & Batesville closed at noon Mon., Feb. 16th, open Tues., Feb. 16th and Weds. Feb. 17th at noon
• Bloomington campus closed at noon Mon., Feb. 16th, open Weds. Feb. 18th at noon
• Columbus region closed at 1 pm Mon., Feb. 16th
• Franklin, Mooresville & Shelbyville closed at 5 pm Mon., Feb. 16th
• Elkhart closed at 6 pm Weds., Feb. 18th, closed at 2 pm Thurs. Feb. 19th
• Michigan City, open at 10 am (CST) Thurs., Feb. 19th
• South Bend, open at 10 am (EST) Thurs., Feb. 19th, closed at 2 pm

Week's End Report - February 13, 2015

During the week ending February 13th some new resources were made available for Blackboard. Two course notice reports (CNRs) were released and a virus was distributed via email to a number of Ivy Tech faculty and employees. Respondus has several webinars scheduled for later in the month of February that are still open for registration, free of charge.

New Resources

• A new video has been created for the grade center bug that causes grade center cells to not be editable. The demo video showing the error and the work around is now available on YouTube: http://youtu.be/P8Kx2M_I29E
  

Blackboard

• A demo account for IncludED courses has been made available to us. This account will allow instructors to view the courses from a student role. Please contact your regional Online Technologies staff for more information.
• There is an error that causes text boxes in Blackboard to not display correctly when entering feedback through the grade center. This error does not appear in Google Chrome so that browser can be used as a work around.

Training

• Lockdown Browser &  Respondus Monitor: Prevent cheating during online exams, Fri. Feb. 27 at 12 pm EST
• StudyMate: Engage students with learning activities and games, Weds. Feb. 18 at 3 pm EST
• Register at:  http://www.respondus.com/products/webinar/

Systems Information

• Kokomo School Corporation experienced an e-mail virus on Tuesday. It is advised that you not open any attachments you receive from any e-mail address ending with @kokomo.k12.in.us unless you are expecting the e-mail/attachment. 
• Exchange updates began at 7 a.m. Sunday morning, February 8th. There was some delay in getting mailboxes back online, though everyone should have been operational by noon on Sunday.
• Monday, February 9th there were issues with transferring phone calls and dialing out.

CNRs

• EDUC201- E-textbook activities are not loading or working properly in the class sessions. In order to fix this, a helpdesk ticket needs to be put in. Call our office (765-269-5154) if you need assistance.
• IVYT120- This CNR affects face-to-face sections of IVYT120 in the Lafayette Region only. There was an error with one of the questions on the Orientation Quiz. Directions have been sent by e-mail on how to fix this error.

Week's End Report - February 6, 2015

During the week ending February 6th a few system outages were reported as well as announcements made for upgrades. One course notice report (CNR) was released by the Center for Instructional Technology (C4IT) and several important announcements were made in the Online Technologies Coordinator (OTC) statewide meeting on Thursday. Respondus has several webinars scheduled for the month of February that are open for registration, free of charge.

System reports:

Pearson issues:

• Friday, January 30th, users were unable to register or copy courses from 9:20 pm until 11:51 pm
• Monday, February 2nd, users experienced issues accessing Mastering websites from 4:40 am until 5:20 am EST
• Monday, February 2nd, issues were reported impacting MyLab courses from 1:32 pm until 2:43 pm EST

Cengage Update:

• We have a new Cengage representative, Jim Gauthier. Updated contact information is available on the IDC website in the Resources area under Third Party Support  http://bit.ly/idcresources

Systems information:

• IvyAdvising will be unavailable Saturday, February 7th, from 12 am until 2 pm
• IvyMarket will be unavailable Saturday, February 7th, from 5 am until 9 am
• Microsoft Office 365 is now available to all faculty, staff and students for free (may be downloaded from Campus Connect)

Course Notice Reports (CNRs):

• ANTH154- Session 16 due dates moved due to semester ending on Saturday

Updates from the statewide OTC meeting:

• SafeAssignments that were created prior to the December upgrade (including content in statewide online courses loaded prior to the semester break) will now be broken. Instructors will need to create a new assignment and select the SafeAssign option. The old SafeAssignment and corresponding grade center column can then be deleted.
• Beginning in Fall 2015, all courses (including online and face-to-face) will be available on Blackboard three days before courses begin (courses have previously been available on Sunday, they will now be available on Friday)
• Beginning in Fall 2016, all regional online courses across the state will be required to use the same course materials. More details and information regarding this change will be available at a later date.

Training Opportunities:

• LockDown Browser & Respondus Monitor: Prevent cheating during online exams, Weds. Feb. 11 at 3 pm EST and Fri. Feb. 27 at 12 pm EST
• Respondus 4.0: Create & manage exam content, Thurs. Feb. 12 at 3 pm EST
• StudyMate: Engage students with learning activities and games, Weds. Feb. 18 at 3 pm EST
• Register at:  http://www.respondus.com/products/webinar/

Welcome to the distance education blog!

Welcome to the new Distance Education blog!

The Instructional Design Center (IDC) provides assistance with Blackboard, classroom technology and more! This blog will be used to share information about distance education as it pertains to the Lafayette and Kokomo regions of Ivy Tech Community College.

Check in each week for an update on the events of the week. Information we'll share here includes:

• Blackboard updates
• System outages
• Course notice reports (CNRs) for statewide online courses
• Training opportunities
• and much more!

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