PowerPoint dual screen (in a classroom)

In the new classrooms (and eventually in every classroom) you can use the instructor monitor to show a special presenter view PowerPoint (see current slide, next slide and notes), and display the student view on the screen. Here's how:

How to post a Wiley online test with results in Blackboard grade center

Microsoft Home Use Policy on 2 computers

You are allowed to have your Microsoft Home Use copy of Microsoft Office on 2 computers, but only one purchase.

When you purchase and download Office you will get an email to initiate the download, and then another with the licence number. Keep these emails for when you want to download them on to a second computer. If not you can always phone Microsoft (1-877-248-1220) and get the emails sent to you again.

How to make and use an acrobat signature

Here's how...

How to Google Hangout with someone off campus

If you try to Google Hangout with someone off campus you will see that it says that this is a Google@mtroyal.ca only meeting. Click on that warning...

Change, Allow, then Close. 

Then try again.

Now you need to have a Google+ account in order to make a YouTube channel, in order to upload videos to YouTube

We tried to help someone who had an institutional Google account (that currently does not have Google+) and it just stalls on the page that gets you to choose your channel name!

When changing your password, do it in 3 places

1. Change your password first in MyMRU




2. Then change your wife password (forget it and put the new password in)





3. Then change your password in the Google account

Sometimes you need to clear Acrobat Reader cache

Acrobat reader sometimes shows an old version of a file, so it needs it's cache cleared.

In Windows Exporer, go to C:\Users\{your username}\AppData\Local\Temp and delete everything

Wikis don't import in new Bb course (unless you import the users)

Although first level discussion board threads do import over into a new Bb course (albeit as anonymous)

Wikis do not.

How to submit a Bb test for a student who didn't

Sometimes a student starts a test in Bb and "meant to submit it, but I had this thing come up..." and it's past now and you see their incomplete attempt! Just mouse over, menu, view grade details...

View Attempts

Click the chevron to expand test information (at the top) and Submit Attempt for them.

Bb crocodoc annotated download

You can add annotations to Bb submitted assignments using Crocodocs

that can be downloaded either as the raw (unannotated) Word document, or a PDF file that includes the annotations.

However you can only see it without comments in the Chrome browser pdf view

Whereas you can also see comments when opening it in Adobe Acrobat

Bb test to Word conversion

Blackboard tests don't print well so we use Respondus, or more specifically email Chloe and she'll convert it.

First go into course tools, tests surveys and pools, tests, mouse over the test, export

In the Respondus_conversion Bb site, go to the same place but import

Then email and ask Chloe, she'll send back a Word doc.

The Word document will have asterixes that can be removed by Ctrl+H, replace All

if iOS8 made Google calendar entries not sync...

1. restart iPhone
2. settings
3. mail, contacts, calendar
4. Exchange account
5. turn off calendar
6. delete entries
7. turn calendar back on
8. enjoy

You can subscribe people to receive emails

In Word Press, add the Subscribe2 plugin (not available in courses.mtroyal.ca)

Then mouse over Subscribe2 (now in the menu), Subscribers

Then add email addresses galore

Then, spam 'em good with every new post!

Course duration makes it so students can't remove the course

If an instructor keeps a course available but sets the duration to a set date that has past

Then students can see the course in their list (but can't go into it), but not in the list of courses they can hide!

The only way they can get rid of it is for the instructor to make it unavailable (preferred), or to change the duration to continuous, which would make it available again.

You do not have permission to enroll user(s):

This is a misnomer, because you do have permission. What it "should" say is "Blackboard is so confused, could you try again without hitting Browse?"

The offending button is Browse. Don't hit it (or even think about hitting it) unless the username field is EMPTY. If you know the username, just type it in and hit Submit instead.

Make custom YouTube thumbnail image

By default YouTube just picks some random point in the video to be the thumbnail. You can change this in the video manager. Edit the video you want, then Info and Settings

Then just click Custom thumbnail. It accepts jpegs or pngs.

Putting a title slide on a YouTube video

If you go to www.youtube.com/editor

You can choose a title slide (click "a")

Type a title, double click the small thumbnail to get to the place to type text. You may have to add spaces before it and make multiple lines to fit in the cropped edges of many videos. Make it white text and Blue (RGB 51, 102, 255) background.

Type a name for the project, go back to videos () choose on, then create video. It takes a while.

Linking two Google spreadsheets

Using the =IMPORTRANGE() formula, you can link the content of one Google spreadsheet to another.

The trick is getting the "spreadsheey key", it the stuff between the last two slashes in the URL of teh page you're linking to. Remember to put quotation marks around it

Next, you need the cell address(es) INCLUDING THE SHEET, again with quotation marks around it.

Then click on the REF# and allow access

Blackboard Announcement emails, what they conatin and what they don't

Youtube

It's the link that makes it work, because Gmail interprets a YouTube link by placing a thumbnail of it below the link.

(in this case I also manually added the link)

If you JUST put in the thumbnail in the announcement, it works in the announcement, but an email of that announcements gets...

Attachments

Course links appear in the Blackboard announcement

But not in an email generated by the announcement

You can add attachment links  

which will produce an email that will ask them to login to Bb if they haven't already, but they work.

Make a Google meeting with shared agenda

Trying to attach documents to meeting and meeting attendees not seeing them is happening all over campus. It is a growing problem.

But there is a solution in sharing the document in Google drive, and you don;t even need to send a notification that the document(s) is being shared.

Here's a video I made on how to do it:

You can pre-populate Google form answers

Google support says:

If you'd like to send respondents a form with some fields already filled in, Google Forms makes it easy. Here's how to pre-populate form answer fields:

1. While working on your form, click the Responses menu, then select Get pre-filled URL.
   
   
2. Fill in any answer fields you'd like to pre-populate.
3. Click Submit.
4. To send the pre-populated form to respondents, use the URL provided.

I copied the URL and made that my bookmark URL

I find that I can't just click "Submit another response", I have to click the bookmark again if I want the pre-filled field.

Fixing incorrect possible points on a Blackboard Quiz

Blackboard has a bug wherein when some tests are posted for students, and it creates a column automatically in the grade center, the wrong possible points is assigned (in this case 19)

Yet when you edit the test, you see it's only supposed to be out of 10 (in this case)

Here's a YouTube I made on how to fix that:

From Breeze to Youtube

We have lots of Narrated PowerPoints on Breeze, which will eventually be gone once the Breeze server is retired.

1. download both the PowerPoint source file and the output zip file from breeze.mtroyal.ca

2. Extract the zip output files












Go to each slide and insert Audio from the PC









Go into the upzipped output folder, data, then choose the middle number corresponding to the slide. 









Then go to each slide, click on the sound file within the slide and the Audio Tools ribbon will appear, PLAYBACK, Hide During Show, and Start Automatically










In Animations, open the Animation Pane, then on each slide move the sound file to the top of all the animations (if there are animations)








In Slide show, Rehearse Timings, to coordinate the sound files with the animations.












 Make sure you have Saved in pptx (not just ppt) format! When you're done File, export, Create a video












 Create video button. This make an mp4 file that can be shared in your Google drive, published to YouTube or uploaded in the upcoming Sharestream that integrates in Blackboard.



3. You may have media that needs to be upgraded. If so, click Upgrade and continue.