News and Notes from TLT – Summer 2019

In this issue: 
  • Fall ‘19 Courses in Canvas 
  • Inactive vs. Deleted Students 
  • NEW Canvas add-ins: Poll Everywhere and Screencast-O-Matic 
  • Accessible Course Content (coming soon: Video Captions and Transcripts) 
Fall ‘19 Course Load Date – Available in Canvas by the end of the day on June 18th. 
  • To customize your dashboard – in the Courses tab, select the star next to the courses you want to see on your dashboard 
  • If you are interested in getting a head start building your courses, create a Master Class and import the content once courses are loaded. Videos and Guide. 
  • When it’s time to import your course content, be sure to “select specific content”. This will not only prevent duplications, but also prevent unwanted content/settings to transfer.
    • IMPORTANT: If you chose to import ALL, including course “Settings”, and have manually altered course dates in your previous course, those old dates WILL transfer. This may prevent students from participating in your course
“Inactive Students”   

Beginning June 10, 2019, any student who is removed from a course after the start date will be listed as “inactive” in Canvas, instead of disappearing completely. This improvement will allow you to retain submissions, attendance information, etc. within the course. 

Coming Soon! Poll Everywhere in Canvas starting Fall ‘19 

Poll Everywhere will soon be integrated into Canvas. You will be able to: 

  • Import your course roster, automatically giving your students a participant account 
  • Send scores from your poll to the Canvas gradebook
  • Add polls into your course Modules
  • For more information or to get an account, email TLToffice@widener.edu.
*NEW* Screencast-O-Matic in Canvas 

Did you know you can screen capture within your Canvas course? The Screencast-O-Matic integration has been added university wide, allowing you to create instructional videos with a few simple clicks. 

Accessibility 

As you prepare your courses, keep accessibility in mind. For more information on creating an accessible Canvas course and creating accessible documents check out the Digital Accessibility course in Canvas. 

Coming Soon! Video Captioning 

Widener will soon be offering video captioning through Cielo24. If you have instructional videos and want to learn more about the new captioning service, email captions@widener.edu.

Report Your WiFi Issues Here!

After you have successfully registered your device on the wireless network, have you ever experienced one of these symptoms: slow speeds for an extended period, weak to no wireless signal, constant disconnects, strong signal but no internet access, or just cannot connect to the wireless network?

Across all three campuses, we have made significant upgrades to the wireless network in all academic and administrative buildings as well as the residence halls over the last few years. Even after all these upgrades, we are sure that some of you may still have issues that are not reported to ITS. We are always looking to improve our wireless network and with your help, we can make it better. In order to fix the issue, we need to know about it. Now you can quickly report the issue to us.

By going to My.Widener.edu and searching WiFi, you will find the link to

FixMyWiFi.widener.edu

where you can submit a ticket reporting the issue directly to the group that manages this environment. We want to make your wireless experience an enjoyable one, not a stressful one.

News and Notes from TLT – Spring 2019

As the Spring ‘19 semester winds down, it is time for another TLT update…  

Canvas Course Uploads 

Summer ‘19 Courses- Your Summer ‘19 courses were added into Canvas this week.  Now that your courses are loaded, you are able to import your content from a previous semester or from your Master Class. For more information on building and maintaining Master Classes, view the guide and short videos.  

Fall ‘19 Courses– Your Fall ‘19 courses will be loaded into Canvas 10 weeks prior to the start of the semester. You do not need to wait for the upload to build your courses. Simply create a Master Class now and you will be ready to import your course content!  

TLT-led Workshops 

New dates and times, PLUS a new session on utilizing classroom technology! Sign Up Here       

(Hint: Here is the full LIS Event Calendar– Bookmark This Page!)

*Spring ‘19 Breakfast Series*  How Can I Engage My Students in Canvas and Beyond?

Come join TLT for a light fare breakfast during this three-part series to increase student engagement in your Canvas courses. Sign up to attend any or all of these workshops, in any order you wish.

a. Engagement: Student Teamwork

Collaborations, Groups/ group assignments, Wiki pages, Flipgrid 

b. Engagement: Constructive Feedback  

SpeedGrader, Audio and Video, Journaling, PollEverywhere 

c. Engagement: Rubrics and Grades  

Experiencing Rubrics, Turnitin (new Plagiarism Framework), New Gradebook 

Making the Canvas Commons Work for You 

Did you know you can share instructional resources (rubrics, quizzes, pages, etc.) with your colleagues within Canvas? 

“Commons is a learning object repository that enables educators to find, import, and share resources.” In this session, you will explore the free content available to you and learn how to create and utilize a shared resource center for your faculty groups. 

*New*  Getting Comfortable with Your Classroom Technology 

Do you know… 

     How to black out projection without turning off the classroom projector?       How to take advantage of the dozens of Zoom ready rooms?                                   How to incorporate screen sharing from students? 

Topics covered:

  • Classroom controls 
  • Zoom 
  • PrideShare 
  • Tips and tricks 
Training feedback from your colleagues… 

“Real time polling can be an effective pedagogical tool to gauge what students know or don’t know before you begin a subject, and to assess what they’ve learned after you’ve covered something. I had been using Kahoot! but found it to be a little goofy for college level classes and a little difficult to integrate into power point presentations. PollEverywhere offers a more professional presentation and is much easier to utilize in presentations. Following the TLT training I was able to convert my polls from Kahoot! to PollEverywhere, and given the ease of PollEverywhere, am working to add more polls to my presentations.” 

~Stu Eimer, Associate Professor, Sociology 

“My attendance to a workshop on Canvas’ different capabilities regarding Student Teamwork was excellent. I used it almost immediately as I was trying to schedule my field work with students. We went right to “Collaborations” and were able to create a shared document, just like a google doc, that met our needs perfectly. So easy and convenient. And I would never have known that capability was there without our Teaching and Learning Technologies team.” 

~Nadine McHenry, Professor, Education 

“I highly recommend the Canvas training sessions!  I thought I had my Canvas courses working pretty well, but Jessica taught me how to use groups much more effectively- uncovering functionality I never knew existed.” 

~Mark Paterson, Clinical Assistant Professor, Physical Therapy 

myWidener – Shedding Some Light

As we begin our journey with myWidener, let us share a list of some great questions we received over the last couple of days. There are only 15 but we expect them to help shed some light on some of the features of the site. Given our  timely deployment of myWidener, some features have not been fully built out, but expect to finish them soon.

 

Q1: Why does myWidener ask for my location and request to show notifications?

A1: myWidener uses your location to set your device to the correct campus or notify you of an event that may be happening on the campus near your vicinity.

Q2: What do I need to know if I block myWidener from my location?

A2: myWidener will not be able to place you in the correct Campus. By default, the site will assign you to the Chester campus. You will need to go into your profile preferences and select your default campus or manually select it every time.

Q3: Does myWidener track me?

A3: No, myWidener uses geolocation only for placing you on the correct campus and providing you with an update on events that may be happening in your area.

Q4: Why do I keep getting placed on the Chester campus?

A4: You may be placed on the wrong campus because you denied myWidener of your location, or the system could not determine your location. We recommend that you go into your profile settings and set your default campus.

Q5: How can I change my role or campus?

A5: You can manually change your role at any time by selecting the down arrow next to the blue search button on the site.

Q6: How can I lock myself to a campus?

A6: You can go into the settings and set your default campus. There are three; Chester, Delaware, and Harrisburg.

Q7: I can’t find something I am searching for, what should I do?

A7: First, check to make sure you are set to the correct role and campus. You can see this by selecting the down arrow next to the blue search button on the site. Your role and campus should be checked. If they are incorrect, check the one that match you. If they are correct, please send us feedback (click your profile name, and click “Send Feedback”). myWidener is intended to be a central location for students, faculty, and staff to gain access to a broad range of information and services.

Q8: How can I add my personal favorites?

A8: Click on the “star” in the bottom right corner of the task. This task will now appear up in your myWidener favorites.

Q9: How do I create my own personal bookmarks?

A9: Check out this short video to see how it is done.

Q10: How do I change my settings to have my tasks open in a new tab?

A10: Click on your profile name and click Preferences. Check “Always open tasks in new tab/window” and click Save.

Q11: What does the “hamburger menu” () mean?

A11: The “hamburger menu” (displayed as ) is what the collapsed menu icon on websites are called. This menu type is commonly seen on the top right or left on websites especially when viewed on a mobile device.

Q12: What is a task?

A12: A task is a single instruction you may complete on myWidener.

Q13: What is a task center?

A13: A task center is a group of related tasks within the same topic.

Q14: What does the “i” mean on a task or task center on the myWidener site?
A14: Clicking on the “i” provides more information about this task. This page is what we call the “Task Description Page” or TDP.

Q15: What is the Task Description Page (TDP) used for?

A15: This is a page where the owner of the task can provide more information and instructions for the task. It shows you the contact/owner of the task and any announcements the task is or was promoting. The task itself can be launched from this page either by clicking the task title or clicking the “Launch Task” button at the top right of the page.

 

Update Recommended for Chrome Browser

Google recently released an advisory telling users to update their Chrome browser immediately due to a zero-day vulnerability.  The flaw allows a specially-scripted page to read older file data in Chrome’s cache (the quick-read files that browsers store to speed things up).  This could potentially expose personal information such as medical data, banking information, tax returns (’tis the season), and much more.

All that was the bad news – the good news is that Chrome updates itself by default, and it never asks you if you want to turn that off.  Nevertheless, it’s worth a look to see if your Chrome installation has updated.

Users on Windows, Mac and Linux can access Chrome settings by visiting chrome://settings/help and checking to see if the version is up to date.  You can also click on the Customize and Control icon (the three vertical dots in the upper right of the browser) and choose Help > About Google Chrome.  If your browser has 72.0.3626.121 as the version, it is up to date (and will say so). If this isn’t your version, you can manually start a download.

As always, if you need assistance, please contact the Helpdesk at x1047, or open a ticket.

Extra! Extra! myWidener is here! Search. Click. Done.

Today we officially say goodbye to CampusCruiser and move on to myWidener. We hope you agree that the new site makes it easier to find what you need quickly.

MyWidener treats every resource you access as a task, whether it’s a link to a web form, site, or app. While we organized those tasks into logical groupings, like “Library Resources” or “Employee Services,” the most powerful way to use myWidener is simply search for the specific task you’re looking for. Wondering what’s on the menu at the Pride Cafe? Just search for “menu.” Once you’ve found a task you use regularly, click or touch the star in the task’s button. It’ll be added to your favorites, which show up at the top of your window every time you log in.

We wanted to thank our university colleagues for their support through all of the long hours with helping us build out these new sites. Just a little fun info we wanted to share, the following has been built out for myWidener:

  • 187 tasks in 32 task centers
  • 44 public office web sites
  • 20 internal SharePoint web sites

Have a question? Please email us at cruisercloseout@widener.edu. If you have feedback on myWidener, please send us a note by selecting the feedback option under your name (or the hamburger icon on your mobile device), then select “Send Feedback.” We welcome your questions, feedback and support.

5 things you should be doing for the CampusCruiser closeout

Here are the top 5 things you REALLY need to do if you haven’t already:

  1. Download all your data within CampusCruiser.

We have no guarantee that CampusCruiser will be available until March 15th, and even if it is, there is very limited support.  Therefore, we are directing everyone to download their data as soon as possible if you haven’t done so yet.

  1. Move your office data to a Group in Office 365.

Do you currently have an office within CampusCruiser that is only for use by internal students, staff, and faculty of Widener?  If so, you can create an Office 365 group for your office. For assistance with creating the group, please contact the helpdesk by opening a quick ticket. http://quickticket.widener.edu and select “Microsoft Group Creation” from the dropdown.

Also, don’t forget to extract your memberships list out of your offices!

  1. Remove all mail.widener.edu accounts from your contact lists.

We recommend when sending an email to check the address of the person you are sending the message to.  If it shows that it is a mail.widener.edu account, please click on the black X to delete that account for your contact. If you are unsure, please contact the helpdesk for assistance.

  1. Sign up for e2campus alerts.

Remember to sign up for the e2campus alerts.  Please go to the Omnilert page and register.  Click here to register for the e2campus alerts

  1. Subscribe to the blog.

We highly recommend subscribing to this blog to receive notifications when new information is posted.

Do you have a question or concern?  Please send an email to cruisercloseout@widener.edu for further assistance.

What will happen after Campus Cruiser’s sunset

We know that the community is eager for new information about the Campus Cruiser closeout process. Due to Cruiser’s upcoming disappearance, we have had to make a series of quick decisions. The good news is that we are able to consider a lot of options in the weeks before the holiday break, and now we’d like to share more information with you about our progress.

Announcing MyWidener

ITS is already constructing the platform to replace Campus Cruiser. Over the next two months, a sophisticated, mobile-friendly website will emerge, which we will call MyWidener. The essential features of Cruiser (committees, clubs, organizations, WebAdvisor, etc.), will all be available through this single point of access

MyWidener will use keyword searches to navigate and access services directly. While the new site is under construction, you may be interested to see a public version using the same software at University of Michigan: http://maizelink.umich.edu. (Note: everything you see there is just a link to web sites and applications that UMich uses. Our links will be tools that are specific to Widener, e.g. StudentPlanning, WebAdvisor, Office365, etc. The underlying software, rSmart OneCampus, doesn’t provide us with any of the applications or modules, it simply allows us a better way to find and access our own information.)

For departments that currently use Cruiser to publish websites, we have good solutions to offer as well. Members of the Cruiser Closeout team will be reaching out to those departments to coordinate.

In the meantime…

Campus Cruiser is still running for now. You may continue to use it to access administrative services, such as time sheets. Moving our essential services over to MyWidener is a top priority, and we do have a backup plan if we lose access to Campus Cruiser prior to the expected final shutdown in March.

As always, the best way to follow up to this message with questions or comments is to email cruisercloseout@widener.edu. ITS staff also continues to make updates to the Cruiser Closeout FAQ.

A few words about process

ITS is relying on the advice and feedback of Faculty Council TIRC and other stakeholders as we make changes. Even so, the urgency of this project has required us to make some of our decisions faster and with less input than we prefer. Thank you for your cooperation as we’ve worked through this challenging situation. We are also grateful for all the work you have done to move/manage your own information on extremely short notice.

Widener will be in a much better situation once this migration is complete.

January 10th – Canvas Trainer Returns to Widener

Mark your calendars!

We are excited to announce that the excellent Canvas trainer that came to Widener’s Bridge Week in May will visit us again (virtually this time).

There will be two 50 minute live sessions that faculty can attend virtually via Zoom or in person (more details on location to follow).

January 10, 2019
  • 1:00-1:50 PM – Take Student Engagement to the Next Level in Canvas (while taking advantage of some time-saving features for faculty).
  • 2:00-2:50 PM – Incorporate Rubrics, Outcomes, and ILOs in Canvas. We’ve made it easy!

Any questions, please contact TLToffice@widener.edu

 

Campus Cruiser Closeout FAQs

As you may have heard, Cruiser closed their doors on December 31, 2018. This FAQ has been compiled in anticipation of questions you may have. If your question is not addressed in this FAQ, please submit your question to CruiserCloseout@widener.edu.

We highly recommend subscribing to this blog to receive notifications when new information is posted.

Click on any Question button to toggle between showing and hiding its answer.

Cruiser – General

A. Subscribe to the blog! Visit our previous post here for instructions on subscribing to the ITSNews blog. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. You should already have made every attempt to download any data you wished to save. If you have not, please attempt to download your data right away. The portal may continue to be accessible until March 15, 2019 but we are on borrowed time now. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. While Cruiser formally closed their doors on December 31, 2018, the portal may be available until March 15, 2019, but with little to no support from the vendor. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Even though the site may be available until March 15, 2019, Cruiser officially closed their doors on December 31, 2018. As we move forward, there is no guarantee we will have a contact to help with data download issues. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. If you are a current student, staff or faculty, we encourage you to save the files in your OneDrive space in Office365. If you need help moving files to OneDrive, please see our OneDrive resources. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Any email sent to a loginID@mail.widener.edu account will be returned to the sender after March 15, 2019. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. If you would like to setup an auto-reply to instruct senders to update your email address instructions follow the steps below.
1. Log into Cruiser and click on MyCruiser.

a. Click Archived Cruiser Email

2. Click on the Tools tab, and then click Settings.

3. Click on the Auto Reply tab.

a. Click Enable Auto Reply button (correct display should say ENABLED)

b. Target should be ‘All Senders’.

c. Frequency should be ‘Every Time’.

d. Do not enter a Begin or End Date.

e. Enter your reply message that will be sent to any email delivered to your Cruiser email account.

f. A generic message could be: Please note, my email address has changed to loginID@widener.edu. This email address will no longer be valid after March 15, 2019. Please update your address book with my new email address.

4. Click Save.
Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Update your email address on your personal website accounts, i.e. banking, Amazon, iCloud, LinkedIn, utilities, etc. Last updated: 1/11/19

My Cruiser – Personal Tools:

A. This data was moved to the new Office 365 platform as of May 2018. You can access it through the WUMail link on the Widener home page. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Navigate to My Cruiser > Personal Tools. Click on My Files.
Review the list of folders and files you’ve saved. Check the box next to any that you want to save and then click Download. If you need help moving files to OneDrive, please see our OneDrive resources or send us an email with your question to CruiserCloseout@widener.edu Last updated: 1/11/19

Students

A. Students should download any data that they wish to keep for archival purposes. Students should immediately download data located in the shared files of your Campus Cruiser courses, committees, or clubs. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Unfortunately they cannot students need to download the files individually. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Navigate to My Cruiser > Personal Tools. Click on My Files.
Review the list of folders and files you’ve saved. Check the box next to any that you want to save and then click Download. If you need help moving files to OneDrive, please see our OneDrive resources. Last updated: 1/11/19

Academics

A. Now that Cruiser has formally closed their doors, there are no guarantees for how much longer the data will be accessible. It may continue to be accessible until March 15, 2019 but we are on borrowed time now.
Navigate to Academics > Classes > My Cruiser Class Archives. For Assignment Submissions, select the assignment > Detail and choose the document you want downloaded (it should download automatically) For Discussion Boards or Journals you will need to copy/paste your prompts and replies. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. You may find that the data is still accessible and may be available until March 15, 2019. However, we have no way to guarantee for how much longer the data will be available. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Now that Cruiser has formally closed their doors, there are no guarantees for how much longer the data will be accessible. It may continue to be accessible until March 15, 2019 but we are on borrowed time now.
Navigate to Academics > Classes > My Cruiser Class Archives. There is no simple download for anything built in HTML notepads, Discussion Board prompts, Home Page content, Assignments, Assessments, Announcements, or Journals. You will need to Copy/Paste into a Word document or a Canvas course (create a new Master Class or use an existing course in Canvas).The YouTube Playlist “Cruiser Closeout” is a 3 part series that TLT has created to address moving specific course content out of CampusCruiser:
Part 1 – Shared FilesPart 2 – Course Content (ex. HTML Notepad, Assignments, Quizzes, etc)Part 3 – Course Records (Attendance, Gradebook, Student Submissions) Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Back to and including the Fall 2015 term. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. The Provost has requested that the respective Deans serve as custodians of this content. Any request for access to retired/former FT or adjunct faculty course data for assessment and accreditation purposes must include permission from the Dean, along with the Course ID number(s). The complete request with Course ID number(s) and the Dean’s permission should be emailed together to CruiserCloseout@widener.edu. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Canvas classes can be accessed from the Widener home page or the Canvas app on mobile devices. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. You can access Engage classes directly using the link below, or through Canvas (via the same link).
Direct Access: Go to https://engage.widener.edu/learn/ and Log In. We recommend bookmarking this page for future reference. You may receive a message that states “User could not be authenticated.” If that happens, please click the “forgotten username or password” link to update your credentials.

Access through Canvas: You will see a “Course” in Canvas titled, “Access Your Engage Courses Here” on your Canvas Dashboard. This will provide a link (the same one listed above) to log into Engage.

For assistance with technical issues related to Engage, please contact the Personal Support Center (PSC): PSC – Personal Support Center widener@personalsupportcenter.com 1-844-386-7321

Last updated: 1/11/19

A. For every evaluation you need to keep, please access it and use one of the following options:
Use the Overall Download button for a .xls workbook of survey data.

Use the Report Formats button (has 3 options) > use the Print button to get PDF printouts. If you employed the Scale format in your evaluation, the  Additional Results tab may provide additional formats under the “Response Distribution Reports” section (click to expand). Last updated: 1/11/19

@Widener

A. You will continue to receive emergency campus alerts via email and on your phone if you have subscribed to Omnilert (previously E2 CampusAlert). Omnilert Subscription Signup We have signed a contract for a new portal solution, which will be announced shortly. We will broadcast general campus announcements in the new portal. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Office365. The owners or Hosts of these offices, Committees, or clubs will need to move them to Office365. ITS will provide instruction on how to do this in the near future. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. There is no easy or quick way to pull the data off of Campus Cruiser. Everything needs to be save individually. The steps are listed below.
1. Go to your page
2. Right click anywhere on the page
3. Depending on the browser you are using > Select “Save as… or Save Page as…”
4. Your file directory will launch, select the location where you want to store your Campus Cruiser data
Things to remember when saving data:
1. The main page is saved as an html web page, the view will not be the same as Campus Cruiser. This is to preserve your information that is accessed from the page and any external internet links that are contained there.2. If linked content lives in Campus Cruiser it will need to be downloaded separately. Examples are word, excel or pdf documents.3. Images, videos and movies will need to be downloaded separately. ANY LINKS THAT WORKED IN THE PAST MAY NOT WORK NOW THAT CAMPUS CRUISER IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED. THE DATA MAY BE ACCESSIBLE UNTIL MARCH 15, 2019 BUT THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. To copy an Office, Committees and Clubs membership list. Go into the Office, Committee or Club and follow the instructions below.
Member Tools > Address Book > Check “Contact” box to select all > Select “E-mail” > Then copy the list of email address of your members.
Last updated: 1/11/19

A. We have signed a contract for an external-facing website solution, which will be announced shortly. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. If the content is intended for Widener clients only, you will move this content to Office365 into a group or site. If you need help moving files to Office365, please send an email to CruiserCloseout@widener.edu. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. The directory was migrated to the Office365 platform as of May 2018. Office365 directory Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Send us an email with your question to CruiserCloseout@widener.edu Last updated: 1/11/19

WebAdvisor

A. GOOD NEWS — We are NOT losing any of the functionality listed under the Web Advisor tab. All of the services listed under WebAdvisor are links to other web sites or pages. ITS grouped them under the heading of WebAdvisor to make access easier for students, faculty, and staff. We have signed a contract for a new portal solution, which will be announced shortly. The WebAdvisor services will be accessible through the new portal. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. You should locate any customer-facing documentation or instructions you may have prepared and review them for possible updates. You will be changing references to Cruiser and any instructions with regard to navigating to a particular service. Any instructions regarding how to actually use a particular service should not have to change. Last updated: 1/11/19



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