Category: Sakai

Christmas is around the corner, and so is Sakai 22!

Christmas is around the corner, and so is Sakai 22!

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Don’t let final exams put a damper on your holiday spirit! Instructional Technology & Research Support (ITRS) is hard at work and preparing to unveil a new version of the Sakai LMS just in time for the holidays. Loyola will upgrade to Sakai version 22 on Wednesday, December 21st. During the upgrade process, Sakai will be unavailable (approximately 7am-11am Central Time). Faculty, staff, and students are not required to make any changes for the upgrade; all course and project sites will be intact and ready for use in Sakai 22. 

The annual Sakai upgrade ensures that Loyola can take advantage of the latest Sakai features and functionality, and we can eliminate pesky software bugs that have been squashed by the Sakai community. A few highlights you can anticipate in Sakai 22 include:

  • A new tool, Conversations, allows for threaded Q&A and discussions. Conversations enables users to filter and bookmark posts so it’s easy to find the content that matters most. 
  • New page layout options in the Lessons tool. 
  • A new integration with Gradescope, an AI-supported grading platform that streamlines grading of paper-based, bubble sheet, and coding assessments. 

Want to learn more? Visit Sakai 22 Upgrade. Here, you’ll find registration links for informational sessions conducted by your friendly ITRS colleagues, a promotional video highlighting new Sakai features, and more! 

Panopto: New & Improved

Panopto: New & Improved

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video cameraPanopto has updated with many significant enhancements! The experience in recording, editing, and sharing asynchronous video content is now more intuitive than ever. The following are just a few examples:

              • Speed – After recording content, video processing speed enables the user to quickly make edits with little to no wait time!
              • Smart Chapters – When recording your screen in a session without slides, Smart Chapters (a table of contents feature) is enabled by default.
              • Interface – Accessing recordings and folders has gotten even easier with a more intuitive layout!
              • Captions – Creators can now use a “find & replace” option for quick edits, specify caption end time, and find support for caption translation!

For a complete list of enhancements/updates, see the Release Notes.

To request assistance with Panopto, contact the Help Desk and/or book an appointment with a member of the ITRS team!

 

Interactive Learning with Top Hat

Interactive Learning with Top Hat

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Top Hat is an interactive web-based response platform at Loyola. Instructors can leverage students’ devices to take attendance, launch discussions and questions, and solicit real-time feedback. Students can use devices they already own, like smartphones, tablets, or laptops.

Top Hat offers several ways for instructors to facilitate engagement with different question types, discussion boards, and gamified elements like polling tournaments. In addition to the instructional benefits, Top Hat provides instructors with learning analytics like daily attendance, student participation, and student performance reports.

In a virtual workshop with our Top Hat partners, Quintin Peirce and his team will provide an overview of how Top Hat can help drive engagement and outcomes in your lectures and labs, both before and during class. The team will also show a walkthrough of accessing Top Hat through Sakai to ensure a smooth technical experience. Student logins will be administered at the beginning of the session to facilitate active participation through the platform.

This session will take place on Thursday, August 11th, 3:00-4:00pm CT: Register Now

Coming Soon…ITRS Workshops for Summer Faculty

Coming Soon…ITRS Workshops for Summer Faculty

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Attention LUC Faculty!

It is our pleasure to announce an upcoming series of academic technology webinars. Please join ITRS for the following events (select the links in the session titles to register):

Monday, April 25th, 11-11:30am 

Zoom Basics –  Learn how to get started with Zoom, set up a recurring meeting for your Sakai course, configure security settings, and more.

Tuesday, April 26th, 12-12:30pm 

Introduction to Labster for Faculty – Discover Labster, a virtual science lab boasting a catalog of over one hundred lab simulations for various scientific disciplines.

Wednesday, April 27th, 4-4:30pm

New Features in Panopto for 2022 – An overview of exciting new tools available in Panopto.

Thursday, April 28th, 10-10:30am

Statistics in Sakai – Learn how to use the Statistics tool in Sakai for evaluating student engagement.

Friday, April 29th, 1-1:30pm

Advanced Zoom: Polling & Breakout Rooms – This session provides an introduction to using these tools for facilitating student engagement in Zoom meetings.

We hope to see you at these sessions. In the meantime, please send any questions to itrs@luc.edu or book a Zoom meeting with a member of the ITRS team here.

New Features in Panopto for 2022

New Features in Panopto for 2022

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Panopto has updated with new and exciting features to significantly improve the processes of editing, sharing, and and viewing recorded sessions. The following features are now active and/or available:

  • Video Reference Copies – The process of copying a session has improved significantly with Reference Copies, or copies that are connected to the original session. After recording and editing a video, Panopto users can create reference copies of the video in different folders to share with different courses/sections. When a user edits the original recording, the changes are applied to all reference copies of that session (if any). Please note that non-Reference copies can still be made in the video settings.
  • Discussion Notifications – All users now have the option to receive a daily summary email of discussion activity on their recordings. These notifications can be activated and managed to preference in the User Settings section.
  • Audio Descriptions – Users can create or upload audio descriptions to their recordings in order to increase accessibility using Panopto Editor. If viewing a recording with audio descriptions added, users can turn them on/off using a button in the Panopto Viewer. When toggled, the video will automatically pause and read audio descriptions.

With these changes, we hope that you will have an even better experience in creating and viewing sessions. For more information on Panopto, be sure to take a look at the ITRS Panopto Site.

If you need assistance with Panopto, feel free to book a live Zoom session with ITRS using this link.

Are you ready for Sakai 21?

Are you ready for Sakai 21?

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Sakai 21 is coming to Loyola, fittingly, on December 21st, 2021. This change is an upgrade-in-place, meaning that Loyola faculty, staff, and students do not need to make any changes to their Sakai sites or accounts. All good things take time, so Sakai will be unavailable from approximately 7am to 12pm on 12/21/21. 

When Sakai returns, better than ever, here are a few things to look forward to: 

  • Dark Theme (also known as Dark Mode) to give tired eyes a break 
  • Enhancements to Lessons (e.g., a reorganized Add Item dialog), Gradebook (e.g., message students directly from the Gradebook), and Rubrics (e.g., search for rubrics by title) 
  • Certifications, a new tool for awarding micro-credentials 

Intrigued? Check out the Sakai 21 Upgrade page to learn more and to register for an upcoming infosession. This page also includes a promotional video showcasing the most exciting improvements, complete Sakai 21 release notes, and other resources. 

As always, ITRS is here to help Loyolans make the most of Sakai 21. Schedule a virtual consultation to work one-on-one with ITRS staff. 

Panopto 10: Coming Soon

Panopto 10: Coming Soon

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Panopto

Panopto 10

Greetings from ITRS! We are pleased to announce the arrival of Panopto 10, Loyola’s official lecture capturing platform. The new version will be available on December 20th, 2020 and will include several new and improved features:

  • Tags — Panopto’s video library has a new way to support content organization and discovery: #tags.  Users can now add tags to their recordings from the video settings, the editor, or in Panopto Capture. 
  • Smart Chapters — The new Smart Chapters tool automatically creates a table of contents for any recording with a screen capture, including recordings from Zoom.
  • Delete Streams in the Editor — Users can now delete or replace video streams in the editor, allowing for greater flexibility in making changes to recordings.
  • Share interesting points in a video — This feature enables viewers to easily share a link to a specific point in the video with others.
  • Audio Normalization — Users can now make audio levels consistent throughout their recordings with the audio normalization feature in the editor.
  • Updated Mobile apps — New updates to the Panopto app (coming soon) will provide users with enhancements for recording and uploading content from their phones.
What’s New in Sakai 20?

What’s New in Sakai 20?

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Sakai 20 is coming to Loyola on Monday, December 21st, 2020! On 12/21 from 7am to 12pm, Sakai will be unavailable. 

Once the upgrade is complete, the following new and improved features will be available: 

  • Sakai Grader with a document preview for the Assignments tool 
  • A date manager that allows instructors to quickly modify all due dates in the Site Info tool 
  • An auto-groups wizard that takes the guesswork out of creating groups 
  • A brand-new Rubrics tool that integrates with Assignments, Forums, and Tests & Quizzes 
  • Gradebook enhancements, including the ability to equally weight items within a Gradebook category 
  • Rich text editor templates to easily create stylized Lessons pages 
  • And more! For a full list of new features, see the Sakai LMS blog. 

Faculty, staff, and students who would like to learn more about the changes coming to Sakai are invited to attend a “What’s New in Sakai 20?” info-session or a Q&A open forum with ITRS staff. For dates and registration information, see Sakai 20 Upgrade. 

Top Hat Training: Discover Interactive Learning Software

Top Hat Training: Discover Interactive Learning Software

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Top Hat

ITRS is proud to announce a series of trainings on Top Hat, a web-based platform that allows students to use their smartphone, tablet, or other mobile devices to participate in and engage with in-class activities.

Top Hat’s student-centric experience engages and motivates learners with captivating virtual classroom features, interactive course content, and built-in assessment capabilities. Instructors can choose between seven different poll question types for instant feedback, create an online discussion board, explore a fun tournaments option, and access an enhanced gradebook.

To learn more about Top Hat, register for a training session or visit the ITRS Top Hat Page.

ITRS Updates: February 2020

ITRS Updates: February 2020

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Greetings!  

Here is a list of upcoming events, services, and other updates from the ITRS team.  

Upcoming Events

The 5th Annual Information Technology Showcase will take place on February 20th from 9am to 3pm in the Damen Student Center on the 2nd floor. Stop by for a program featuring optional breakout sessions and service provider partner presentations on Zoom, LOCUS, Top Hat, VoiceThread, and many more. We encourage you to register for the showcase for free catered lunch and prize opportunities. 

Training & Support

We offer training sessions for Sakai, Panopto, and Zoom.  

For 1:1 assistance, please feel free to utilize our drop-in hours or contact us to schedule an appointment: 

ITSservicedesk@luc.edu 

773.508.4487 

*No drop-ins will be available on February 18th and 20th due to staff conferences and events.