What a semester. Since August, many of us might have been saying to ourselves, “we just have to make it to Thanksgiving.” Well, here we are. And I look back on Fall, and I am exhausted, but it isn’t over yet right? We still have to get through finals! And as we navigate going remote again, I just want to reassure you that Distance Education is here to support you. We aren’t pumping the breaks as we head into the holiday season; we are continuing to blaze through. You’ve worked so hard the past few months, and our job is to make sure we all finish strong together.
While 2020 has been full of so many obstacles that I’ve lost count, I like to think there are just as many wins that I should be grateful for. First of all, I am so grateful to APSU. I’m grateful to be a Gov. Our campus leaders have been working tirelessly to make this year work, and they have been doing a fantastic job. I feel safe at work, and I feel supported by my institution. I will take it personal here, and I hope that’s ok. As a working mother raising school aged children, I am so grateful to this institution for affording me the flexibility to continue to pursue this career that I love while being able to navigate the school year that is 2020. Second, I am grateful to our faculty. I see you moving mountains to support your students, and I am proud to work alongside you as you help them reach their goals and pursue their dreams. I am also grateful to the Distance Education team. The amount of effort you have poured into this semester has been tremendous. Please know that I am truly honored to work with all of you. Finally, I am grateful for pumpkin pie cheesecake. I purchased one at Costco this weekend, and I’m not sure there will be any left for Thursday.
Happy Thanksgiving Govs!
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APSU is approaching our Zoom storage limit. If the limit is met, no one will be able to record any additional videos to the cloud. Your assistance with this is essential. Please review your Zoom cloud recordings and delete where possible. Watch this short video (opens new window) to learn more about deleting entire recordings or specific files from a recording, updating your recording settings, and downloading files from Zoom.
Things to consider:
- Is the recording something you are actively using in a current class and sharing with students via a link?
- These recordings should stay in Zoom while your class is active. After the term, you may reconsider if these recordings can be deleted or saved to your computer and then deleted from Zoom.
- Is the recording not for a course or not something you are actively using, but something you want to keep?
- Download the recording from Zoom and then delete the cloud recording from your Zoom account. In this way, you will have a file copy you can keep as long as you want and it frees up space in Zoom for you to make new recordings.
- What are you actually recording with each recording?
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Zoom is very flexible and allows for several “views” and file types when you make a recording. We have adjusted the default settings to better balance the most common used recordings with the campus’ space needs. You can review and adjust these settings on your individual account.
Have you heard about YuJa? With YuJa, you can upload video files, like those you get from Zoom, and share them with others via a link or use the YuJa Media Chooser tool directly in D2L. YuJa even has a video creation tool and editor so if you are using Zoom to create videos versus recording lectures, you may consider YuJa. Distance Education also has a limited number of licenses to Camtasia and Snagit.
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A direct and compelling headline |
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HONORLOCK TRAINING WEBINAR FOR FACULTY |
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In preparation for finals, Honorlock is hosting a training webinar for faculty: Understanding Honorlock Proctoring and Analyzing Student Results. In this webinar, Nick Carlson, Honorlock Customer Success Manager, will provide an overview of how to use Honorlock, which student behaviors will trigger our AI to create a flag, and how to review proctoring notifications.
To register for this webinar, please select the date and time that works best for you:
If you’re unable to attend but would like a recording emailed to you, please register for either day and a recording will be sent to you within 24 hours after the webinar has ended.
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ADOGE FLASH END OF LIFE
DECEMBER 31ST, 2020
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As you may or may not have heard by now, Adobe will be ending its support of its popular Flash format beginning December 31st, 2020. Since its release in the mid-90s, the Flash player has been used by educators as a convenient way to create and share instructional videos and interactive content with learners. In 2017 Adobe announced that it would begin a three-year period to allow Flash users and content creators enough time to recreate their content in another format such as HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. There were several factors that lead to Adobe’s decision to cease its support of Flash, these reasons include the development of more stable formats, security concerns surrounding the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and most importantly a lack of support from major web browsers such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Safari.
So, what does this mean for those who use Flash content in their courses? The majority of the Flash content used in courses is developed and housed by non-profit organizations and third-party vendors. The outside parties are responsible for converting their Flash content into a newer compatible format. For the most part, websites that utilize Flash videos and animations have made the move to have them converted to another user-friendly format. However, this is not always the case. Converting Flash media to HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript can be quite costly, and many non-profit organizations are struggling to find the funds to make the jump. For this reason, it is highly advised that instructors examine their course materials to ensure that any materials or activities that were previously in Flash have been converted and will still be a viable learning resource after the December, 31st 2020 deadline.
If you are currently using Flash content in your courses or have any questions about converting Flash objects to other formats, please contact Dr. Tim Oneal at (931)221-6484 or onealt@apsu.edu.
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TOP ZOOMTOPIA TAKEAWAYS FOR OUR EDUCATION COMMUNITY |
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This month’s featured Zoom Blog post is Top Zoomtopia Takeaways For Our Education Community. The post covers upcoming Zoom features like immersive scenes (pictured above), animated meeting reactions, and more. Please note a release date was not been provided on all features. They also share top education sessions from Zoomtopia, Zoom’s free conference in October. Zoomtopia was jam packed with sessions. Use this abbreviated list to target your time with those sessions most informative for the education community.
Zoom posts regular updates and how-to articles on their Zoom Blog. Blog posts are very quick reads and often include actionable steps you can take immediately to improve your Zoom meetings. Subscribe to get updates directly in your inbox.
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D2L MAINTENANCE (SCORM CONTENT) |
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On December 6th, D2L will be performing maintenance between 12:00am CT and 2:00am CT. During this time, some SCORM content in D2L may be unavailable.
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BOOST YOUR
WINTER TERM ENROLLMENTS!
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Optimize Faculty Advisor Communication
Email the department’s course offerings to eligible advisees. Inform the students about the benefits of enrolling in the winter term. Some benefits to consider:
- Accelerate your path to graduation by taking a winter term course
- Complete your general education requirements in the winter term
- Lighten your spring load by taking a course in the winter term
Share Winter Term Resources
Share resources and services with students who are interested in the term. The Winter Term FAQ website https://www.apsu.edu/winter/faq.php answers most questions students might have about the term.
Promote Your Courses
This is the best time to toot your own horn and let your advisees know what they can expect to gain from your course during the winter term. So toot-toot on and watch your enrollments grow!
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WINTER TERM 2021 IMPORTANT DATES |
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Winter Term Important Dates
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December 11, 2020: Students who have not paid fees and/or confirm classes by 9 p.m. will be dropped; AP OneStop will not be available beginning 9 p.m. and will reopen December 12 at 8 a.m. Last day to receive 100% fee adjustment.
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December 12, 2020: Classes begin.
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December 18, 2020: 14th day processing of classes; Last day to drop without record; Last day to receive 75% fee adjustment.
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December 28, 2020: Last day drop a class with an automatic "W".
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December 29, 2020: Last day to receive 25% fee adjustment.
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January 8, 2021: Wintermester Extra Compensation Forms are due to HR.
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January 10, 2021: Last day of classes.
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January 29, 2021: Wintermester faculty pay issued.
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CREATING LECTURE VIDEOS
USING POWERPOINT
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Have you ever wanted to create lecture videos for your courses using your existing PowerPoint presentations? This short video tutorial will walk you through how to add narration and annotations to your existing PowerPoint presentations and turn them into a video format that can be uploaded into YuJa. How to Create Lecture Videos Using PowerPoint
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NC-SARA OCTOBER 2020
BOARD MEETING UPDATED
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NC-SARA October 2020 Board Meeting Update!
NC-SARA hosted a webinar on November 19, 2020, to inform stakeholders about policy updates that the NC SARA Board voted on during their October 2020 meeting. For more information about the meeting and policy updates, please view the October NC SARA Board Actions webinar recording and webinar slides.
Below are the webinar and slide links.
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ACCESSIBILITY QUICK GUIDE |
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Are your digital learning materials accessible?? Use this Quick Guide to find out. |
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