D2L Brightspace Resources

By now you’ve heard that Wentworth selected D2L’s Brightspace as our new LMS. Learning Innovation and Technology (LIT) will be offering open sessions and training on the new system over the summer and fall. Because many faculty prefer to access materials and learn on their own we will also be offering self-paced training. In addition to those training options, I’ve assembled a preliminary list of resources that you may find helpful as we move toward migrating to Brightspace.

An Instructor’s View of Brightspace for Higher Education

Getting Started with Brightspace Instructor Video Playlist

Teaching Tips for Instructors Video Playlist

Between Two Moose Video Podcast Series

Specific episodes of interest:

Visit often as I add new resources to help the transition from Blackboard to Brightspace.

Bb Annotate to Replace Box View

Blackboard has developed a replacement for Box View, the assignment annotation tool in Blackboard that most instructors find an unacceptable replacement for the original annotation tool, Crocodoc. Blackboard deployed the tool to our production environment in late June.

Watch a video:

Documents annotated with Box View were migrated to Bb Annotate. We are hoping this will finally be an annotation tool that works for our community.

New: Zoom Cloud Recordings will now be purged after 2 weeks

New: Zoom Cloud Recording 2-Week Storage Limit

Beginning June 23, 2020, Zoom cloud recordings will be retained for a period of two weeks, then automatically purged. This change is necessary to manage the amount of recording space associated with our Zoom account.

On April 17, 2020, LIT worked with the Panopto support team to set up the Zoom Panopto integration.  As a result of the integration, your Zoom “cloud” recordings are safely stored in Panopto.  There is currently no time limit for file storage space on Panopto.

However, there is a limit to the amount of space that we can maintain on our institution-wide Zoom account.  As you can imagine, saving hour and two-hour long meetings can take up considerable amount of file space on our server.  As a result, we have quickly used up our allotted space.

What can we do to be proactive?

Zoom offers two recording options for Wentworth users.  These include:

  1. Record on this computer
  2. Record to the Cloud.*
Image of Zoom Recording options displaying Record on the Computer and Record to the Cloud

Zoom Recording Options

When you choose “Record to the Cloud,” the session recording will automatically be saved to the Zoom Cloud area as well as uploaded directly into Panopto. It is important to note that the Panopto/Zoom integration occurs only when you use the “Record to the Cloud” option.

Do you have recordings that are stored in the Zoom cloud and not in Panopto?

Users with Zoom cloud recordings that are not currently saved to Panopto (i.e., cloud recordings saved prior to the aforementioned Panopto/Zoom Integration on April 17th) will be notified so you can save them before they are deleted.  In these cases, you will need to export your Zoom recording and upload the file to Panopto. If you need assistance exporting Zoom cloud recordings files and uploading them to Panopto, please contact LIT and we will be happy to assist you.

Existing Panopto users…

Where can I find my Zoom recordings on Panopto?

Log into Panopto directly by accessing https://wentworth-institute.hosted.panopto.com.  Once you log in, navigate to your personal “My Folder” page as shown below. Your Zoom recordings will be found in the subfolder called, Meeting Recordings, inside “My Folder”.

Image of Panopto access screen

How can I share my Zoom recordings stored on Panopto with my students?

For direct access to your Meeting Recordings folder in Panopto use the following URL: https://wentworth-institute.hosted.panopto.com/.  Once you Log in to Panopto, click on My Folder and then click on the Meeting recordings sub folder.

You can move the Zoom recording file(s) to any pre-provisioned (configured) Blackboard course web site by clicking on the small checkbox icon in the upper left corner of the file and clicking “Move” to move the file to your desired course.

Image of how to move files using Panopto

Once you move the file to your desired provisioned course folder, you can embed the Panopto video into Blackboard by following the steps outlined below.

Step 1: To begin, select the desired Content Area where you want to embed the Panopto video session from the Course Menu on the left side of the Blackboard course web site.  In this example, we will select Course Materials. The Course Materials Content Area will appear.

Step 2: Select the desired location (e.g., folder) where you want to embed the Panopto video session.

Step 3: From the Build Content drop down menu, select Panopto Video Embed from the list of options. The Search for a Panopto video screen will appear.

Step 4: Select the radio button associated with the video session that you want to embed in your course for the students to view.

Step 5: Click Insert Video to confirm.
You will return to the folder in which you embedded the video.  There you will see the embedded video.
Note: Repeat steps 2-5 to embed additional video segments in your Blackboard Course website as needed.

Non-Panopto Users…

How do I access Zoom recordings in Panopto, if I haven’t set up a Panopto account?

If you have not used Panopto, but have used the Cloud Recording option in Zoom since April 17, Panopto has automatically created a subfolder titled Zoom recordings which will reside inside your user account folder.  If you are interested in using Panopto to share these files with your students via Panopto, please contact LIT and we will be happy to assist you get started using Panopto.

We hope you found this document helpful.  For more information about the Zoom/Panopto Integration feature, please contact LIT at lit@wit.edu.

 

Reminder – Log into Zoom to attend Wentworth Meetings

As part of our efforts to provide better meeting security (and avoid “Zoom Bombing”) we implemented some changes to our account, including the requirement that users be logged in to Zoom to attend meetings hosted under our site license.  For Wentworth users, this means logging in using the “Sign in with SSO” option.

If users go to https://wentworth.zoom.us they will be prompted to login with Wentworth credentials. Logging in with Wentworth email and password will be successful.

If instead, they try to login at https://zoom.us and try to enter their Wentworth email address and password, the login will fail. Instead of using the standard login fields, click on the “Sign in with SSO” button and enter “wentworth” as the domain and then use your Wentworth email address and password to login.

Zoom Login screen with Use SSO button circled

If you use the desktop application, there will be a similar option:

Zoom Desktop app with SSO button circled

 

screenshot showing wentworth domain

We recognize that the login process is confusing and we have made suggestions to Zoom on ways to make the process better. Hopefully, those suggestions will be adopted in the future.

Engage Students in Remote and Online Courses

We invite you to use explore course resources and leverage lessons learned from Spring remote teaching to prepare your summer courses to maximize student success!

Explore WIT Online Learning Hub Faculty ResourcesWIT Online Webinars and Podcasts, WIT Online Faculty Toolkit Self-Paced Course, the LIT Academic Technology Toolkit create a consistent and engaging student experience by centralizing content, assignments, and assessments in Blackboard Learn. Use the Online Faculty Course Readiness Checklist to guide your preparations.

Lessons from Spring Remote Teaching:

  • Students consensus is to reproduce the on-campus experience of lectures and meetings as much as possible with live classes and virtual office hours.
      • Hold live lectures and office hours in Zoom, use raise your hand, chat, and breakout rooms.
  • Use asynchronous communication methodssuch as prerecorded lectures and email communication, to supplement to synchronous classes, not a replacement. 
      • Record Zoom lectures and post recordings in your Blackboard Course, here’s how
  • Students prefer lectures from the instructor themselves and not simply rely on lectures created by others that are available on YouTube, etc.  Create your own mini-lectures and make them interactive.
  • Create a clear and easy to understand organizational structure for course material, LIT can help! 
  • Communicate clear expectations for:
    • When can students connect live to instructors
    • When can students connect live with other students
    • What communication, deadlines, etc. are you using to keep students motivated. Have clear deadlines for assignments.
    • Engaging students who are in different time zones
    • Managing connectivity issues (lagging internet, technical challenges. Student tips and resources are on the Academic Resources Tab in Blackboard.

 Reach out to LIT at lit@wit.edu to consult with an instructional designer.