CITations #76
July 12, 2002
No. 76
CITations is a report featuring information technology-related news of interest to UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members, graduate instructors and the staff who support them. CITations, published twice a month, is an electronic service of the ITS Center for Instructional Technology.
ATN Groups Moving to Undergraduate Library
Form and Quiz Builder Change
New Computer-Based Training Site
Online Skills Test Available
Find Out What Blackboard Can Offer
CIT's Blackboard Classes for August 2002
ATN Training Center Classes for August 2002
ITRC Tip: Get Back to Windows XP the Desktop Quickly
ITRC Tip: How to Accept Repeating Entries in Corporate Time Calendar
CITations Tips Archive
Conference Announcements
2002 CITations Publication Schedule
How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to CITations
ATN GROUPS MOVING TO UNDERGRADUATE LIBRARY
ATN is pleased to announce that several groups are moving into the basement of the newly-renovated R. B. House Undergraduate Library.
The Software Acquisition Office will be closed during their move on Friday, August 16, and will reopen in their new location on Monday, August 19.
The IT Response Center ("Helpdesk") and the Remedy Services Group have not set a final move date pending resolution of outstanding issues. If all goes well, they will move in phases during early August. If they miss that move opportunity, they will probably wait until after the semester rush. Regardless of when they move, services will remain open.
You should not notice the move if you are contacting these groups via the Web or telephone. If you need walk-in services, ITRC will have signs directing you to its location, which will either be Wilson or the Undergraduate Library.
The ATN Lab in the Undergraduate Library will also reopen on August 19.
Have you used CIT's quiz and form builder tools that help you create a web-based quiz or survey and receive the results via email? If you have used these tools in the past, and your quiz or survey is still in use, new responses will not be processed correctly because of a recent server change. This problem will not occur for any new quizzes or surveys you create but will occur for those you created before June 21, 2002.
If your quiz or survey is no longer working, contact the Center for Instructional Technology at tl@unc.edu or 962-8256 and give CIT the URL for your quiz or survey. CIT will make the correction to your quiz or survey file, send the corrected file to you so that you can publish it to your website, and after publishing, your quiz or survey will work. You will also receive instructions on making this correction yourself if you discover any other quizzes or surveys with this problem.
NEW COMPUTER-BASED TRAINING SITE
On July 15, 2002, ATN will be changing over to a new computer-based training (CBT) site. ATN is changing to a new hosted system through SmartForce, which means that courses will be served directly off SmartForce's e-Learning site instead of from a campus-maintained server. ATN will still continue to offer over 250 online or downloadable courses. The URL for CBT will remain the same: http://cbt.unc.edu/
If you would like to preview the new site before July 15, you can view
it at http://testcbt.unc.edu/
If you have any questions or comments, send them to cbt@unc.edu.
To prepare students for a computer-supported or distance education class, faculty can now easily customize and deliver a self-test to students to make sure students have the computer hardware, software, and Internet skills to be successful in their classes. The standard skills test includes seven areas that a faculty member can choose to include in a customized test: Computer Guidelines, Browser, RealPlayer, PDF, Flash, Internet Skills, and Blackboard.
To build your own skills test for your students, or to preview all of the test areas, go to http://cf.unc.edu/skillstest/
The UNC-Chapel Hill online skills test was developed by the Instructional and Information Systems department of the School of Public Health with funding provided by the Office of the Provost and with the active assistance of the Center for Instructional Technology.
Questions can be directed to the Center for Instructional Technology at tl@unc.edu or 962-6042.
FIND OUT WHAT BLACKBOARD CAN OFFER
Want an easy way to post course materials to the web? Easily make announcements to students? Consider using Blackboard (http://blackboard.unc.edu/). ATN Center for Instructional Technology will be conducting two Blackboard demonstrations on Wednesday, July 31.
Join us for one of the two demonstrations and learn how to locate your own Blackboard course websites, what needs Blackboard can easily meet for you, and where to go for training and support.
When: Wednesday, July 31, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
or
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Where: 308 Gardner
To give us an idea of our audience size, RSVP to blackboard_admin@unc.edu or 962-8256.
CIT'S BLACKBOARD CLASSES FOR AUGUST 2002
To register for any Center for Instructional Technology (CIT) courses, call the ATN Training Center at 962-1160 and give the registrar the following information: your complete name, department, affiliation (faculty, staff, or student), daytime phone number, and the course number.
The CIT is offering the following courses in August:
Options for Creating a Course Site
Monday, August 12; 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.; Course #CI05-012
Introduction to Blackboard
Tuesday, August 6; 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.; Course #CI06-026
Wednesday, August 14; 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.; Course #CI06-027
Monday, August 19; 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.; Course #CI06-028
Thursday, August 22; 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.; Course #CI06-029
Blackboard Online Gradebook and Assessments
Wednesday, August 28; 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Course #CI07-010
ATN TRAINING CENTER CLASSES FOR AUGUST 2002
The August 2002 ATN Computer Training Class Schedule is now available
at http://www.unc.edu/atn/training/schedule/schedule.html
ATN's computer classes are open to UNC-Chapel Hill faculty, staff,
undergraduates, and graduate students.
New class offered:
Windows XP: Getting Started
This class is for those who are new to computers and are starting out
with Windows XP.
Wednesday, August 21; 8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.; Course #WI21-001
ITRC TIP: GET BACK TO WINDOWS XP THE DESKTOP QUICKLY
No matter how many windows you have open, you can always minimize all of them at once by clicking the Show Desktop button in the Quick Launch part of the taskbar in Windows XP. (The Show Desktop icon is a desk blotter with paper and pencil.) If you change your mind and don't want to use the desktop, you can click the Show Desktop button again to restore all of your windows. Note: If you don't see the Show Desktop button, right-click on an empty part of the taskbar, point to Toolbars, and make sure Quick Launch is checked. If it's not, then click it.
ITRC TIP: HOW TO ACCEPT REPEATING ENTRIES IN CORPORATE TIME CALENDAR
When you have been scheduled for meetings that occur several times over a period of weeks, months, or years, here is how to accept the repeating entries in one operation:
1. Select a repeating entry in your In-Tray.
2. Double click (or click on the + sign) on the repeating entry so that you can see all of the entries listed.
3. Double click on the first entry in the list so that it opens the View Entry window.
4. All of the repeating entries should be listed at the bottom of the View Entry window. You should then be able to use the shift and/or control keys to select the entries.
5. Click on the "Keep" or "Remove" options in the middle of the window.
For more computing assistance, contact the Information Technology
Response Center, Wilson Library, Suite 300.
Walk-in Hrs: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Phone: 962-HELP -- 24 hours/7 days a week
Email: help@unc.edu
Web: http://www.unc.edu/atn/itrc/
CITations Tips Archive
The ITRC, CBT, and Lyris tips published in CITations are archived on the Web, so you can locate tips without having to search through all the back issues. The tips archive is at http://www.unc.edu/cit/citations/tips.html
Stay informed about technology conferences with the CIT's "Education Technology and Computer-Related Conferences" at http://www.unc.edu/cit/guides/irg-37.html and "Calendar of World-Wide Educational Technology-Related Conferences, Seminars, and Other Events." The calendar is at http://confcal.unc.edu:8086/
Note: due to campus power outages caused by summer storms, we have been experiencing outages for the conference calendar. If you get a message that the calendar is unreachable, don't hesitate to let me know. You can reach me at kotlas@email.unc.edu during CIT's normal hours of operation (M-F, 8-5).
2002 CITATIONS PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
July 26
August 9 & 23
September 13 & 27
October 11 & 25
November 8 & 22
December 6 & 20
CITations welcomes announcements from all UNC-Chapel Hill campus organizations involved in instructional and research technology. To have an announcement considered for publication in CITations, send email to Carolyn Kotlas, kotlas@email.unc.edu, or call 962-9287. The deadline for submissions is 11:00 a.m. the day before the publication date.
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE TO CITATIONS
CITations is published twice a month by the Center for Instructional Technology. Back issues are available on the CIT website at http://www.unc.edu/cit/citations/
For more information about the CIT, see our Website at http://www.unc.edu/cit/ or contact our office at 962-6042.
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