Release Notes - 10200 A. East Girard Ave. Denver, CO 80213 Phone 303.873.7400 Fax 303.873.7449
Table of Contents INTRODUCTION...3 Entry... 4 Feature Overview... 5 Graphing Calculator... 7 TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS...8 QUICK TIPS FOR INSTRUCTORS...9 CLASSLIVE FAQS...12 SUGGESTED USES FOR THE CLASSLIVE TOOL...17 KNOWN ISSUES & OTHER NOTES...18 2
Introduction ecollege AU provides a new way for instructors and students to connect by offering an integrated synchronous tool in the Chat area of the course called. It has extensive math, science, and accounting capabilities as well as archiving, graphing, chat, polling, hand raising, multiple file upload, and file sharing*...at no charge. This tool offers faculty the opportunity to lead live sessions where they can solve problems with students in real time, display documents, walk through a PowerPoint presentation, or even share a live application. This document outlines this new tool, technical requirements & limitations, as well as training opportunities for faculty and students by ecollege. We strongly recommend that you take time to practice using before you have your students enter a session with you. You will likely have a much more successful and efficient session with your students. NOTE: If you do not want this tool in your course, simply go to the Course Admin tab, and choose to disable in your course. Students will only have access to the regular chat. Benefits: Instructors can conduct tutoring or office hours online & archive them for reference later. Math/Science/Accounting instructors can facilitate live problem solving with all of the equation editing tools needed. Instructors can pre-upload an entire PowerPoint presentation & present it to students in a live environment. They can also share their applications in order to teach students how to use a particular area of software or to walk them through a website. Students can work collaboratively on group projects in real time. Note: Due to the extensive feature set provided by and the numerous usage options, this document will not cover functional instructions for the tool. The remainder of this section will cover how to access the tool, point out some of the basic offerings, review technical requirements, and known issues. To read more about specific functionality, there are many resources: - Inside your course, go to the Chat/ area: o In the Help button, you will find a detailed downloadable manual as well as Help files on o The Tutorial link will walk you through step by step on how to use. Students also have a version of the tutorial in their view of the course. - In your Special Courses semester, you will find details in the What s New? Course. 3
Should you need assistance accessing the tool, understanding a particular feature of the tool, or answering questions about how to use the tool, please don t hesitate to contact your ecollege Client Services Consultant. Entry How To s: o can be accessed by clicking on the Chat tab on the Course Tools toolbar across the top frame in the course. o Click on the new button o On the entry page (see below): Instructors and students will have access to the Technical Requirements page Instructors and students will have their own version of the tutorial, respectively. Instructors can choose to lead a session or join a session already in progress. Students only have the option to join a session. All sessions are archived for asynchronous viewing later under View Archives. will be accessible from the Chat Tab on Course Tools menu bar. Technical Requirements and Tutorial are available to users on the entry page. All sessions will be archived for later, asynchronous, review. Instructors can choose to lead a session or choose to join a session already in progress. Students 4 will have the option to join a session. The tool bar can be customized with Math, Chemistry, or Accounting symbols to meet the needs of each instructor.
Feature Overview Features & How To s (see screenshot on next page for diagram) o comes equipped with a full equation toolbar for comprehensive mathematical and scientific teaching. The instructor has the ability to customize the tool bar specifically for his or her needs by selecting a Math, Chemistry, or Accounting toolbar on the entry page to the right of the Lead Session link. o To use the toolbar, simply click on a symbol & click the whiteboard to place the symbol. o Instructors have full control over the chat and whiteboard rights of all users in a session. To disable a student from writing or chatting, click on the check mark in the user list. o Students have the ability to raise their hands to signify they have a question or need assistance. o Instructors can upload images to a session or easily cut and paste material into the whiteboard area. To upload an image, click on the Session pull-down menu and then choose Load o Users can share an application with other members of the session. All participants can then watch real-time user interaction with the shared application. To share an application, click on the Tool pull-down menu, and choose start sharing. You must have the application you wish to share open before you start sharing. o Instructors can upload Microsoft Office documents to a session and share them with the class. This will offer instructors, for example, the ability to upload a PowerPoint presentation and then push slides to students one at a time. To do so, click on the Tools pull-down menu, and click MS Office Docs 5
Graphing Abilities Equation Toolbar All users in the session will be listed in the right hand column. The session leader can control the chat and whiteboard access of all users in the session. Multiple Boards Detachable Chat Instructors will have the ability to poll all users. The results will tally in the column above. 6
Graphing Calculator Features & How To s: o The tool is equipped with a graphing calculator, allowing instructors and students to work on equations and then share them with the rest of the class. o The graphing calculator can be found under the Tools menu on the tool. Select Graphing Calculator. It will open in a new window. When the desired equation has been entered into the equation field at the top of the Calculator and the desired graph is displayed, click Send. The Calculator will appear in a new window for all users in the session. 7
Technical Requirements With the addition of, users will want to be aware of the following updated technical requirements. They have been added to the main technical requirements page, as well as in an additional link on the entry page in the course. Microsoft Windows Additional for : 64 MB Ram Sun s Java 2 SDK (Java 1.3.1) Microsoft JVM (Windows XP only) Macintosh OS Additional for : 128 MB Ram MacOS Classic Java (MRJ 2.2.5) In addition to the above requirements, the requirements below are only for users running Windows and Internet Explorer. Macintosh users and Netscape users do not need to make any modifications to their system. 1. Turn off the virtual machine JIT compiler in your browser. To do this: a) Open your browser. b) Click the Tools menu and select Internet Options. c) Click the Advanced tab. d) Scroll down until you see an option or section called Microsoft VM. e) Make sure all the check boxes under Microsoft VM are UNCHECKED. f) Click Ok. You'll need to restart your machine for your changes to take effect. *Note: If you happen to have both Microsoft's and Sun's versions of Java installed, you'll see another section in the Advanced tab of your browser called Java (Sun). You'll need to UNCHECK any options that are checked in this section as well. 2. Make sure you are running the correct Java version on your computer. 8
Quick Tips for Instructors Prepare your session before your students join the session It s a good idea to upload any images, MS office documents, or other items that you plan on sharing with your students into your session BEFORE your students actually join the session. Once these items are uploaded, you will see page numbers at the bottom of screen that you can use to navigate through the boards. Uploading before the students enter the session eliminates waiting during the actual session and is an easy way to stay organized throughout the synchronous session. Maximize the window After launching the session, use the Maximize button in the upper righthand corner of the window to increase the screen area. Increasing the window size will enable you to see more content on the board. You might also suggest that your students or users do this as well. Use the scroll bars to view large boards There are scroll bars along the vertical and horizontal axis of your whiteboard. Use these scroll bars to view whiteboard content that is larger than the default whiteboard area. Three steps for using the whiteboard tools: 1) Click to position, 2) drag to size, and 3) click again to set To use most tools, simply select the tool from the toolbar, click once on the whiteboard to activate the tool and place/anchor the item, drag or stretch the item to the desired size, and finally click once again to set or complete the action. Use the Tab or Enter keys to add numbers in fractions and matrices. Your students do not see anything on the whiteboard until you ve set the item. Also, once you ve started creating an item, you won t be able to do anything else in the session until you either set the item or cancel out of it. Canceling an action You can cancel out of an action by clicking your RIGHT mouse button or by selecting Cancel from the Edit menu. Students do not see content until it s been set. Once you set an item on the whiteboard you cannot cancel the action. You can remove the item by deleting it, however. Add text anywhere on the board The easiest way to enter text onto the whiteboard is to simply start typing. The text will appear wherever your cursor was. Text that was typed directly on the board can be edited character by character. To move, copy, or select an more than a single text character you entered directly onto the board, you'll need to select and modify the area as a region. 9
Format and create a text object Use the Cut & Paste text tool (from the Tools menu Cut & Paste) to change the font, size, and color of your text. Remember that when you place text with this option, you create a text "object." The text will act as a single object rather than like text that is typed directly onto the board, which can be edited letter by letter. When you edit text you placed as a single object, all the text is selected as a single unit. To edit the text, select Modify from the Tools menu. Set numbers and equations on the board BEFORE setting symbols or other special characters If you re using square root signs, parentheses, brackets, integrals, or summation signs in an equation, it s easier to first create the equation (i.e., set the numbers or letters as you d like them to appear) and then add the symbols or special characters into the equation. Use the arrow keys to create exponents and subscripts It s easy to create subscripts and exponents in your equations. Simply press the up or down arrow on your keypad to position your cursor as a superscript or subscript and then type the character. Use the up or down arrow keys to return to your normal text line. Use the Graphing Calculator to create and share graphs includes a Graphing Calculator you and your students can use to create visual representations of equations. You can send plotted graphs to your students or you can have students send you graphs. The Graphing Calculator appears in a separate window from your regular session. As a result, it s a good idea to notify the students beforehand that you re sending them a graph and that a graph window will pop up over their board. The Graphing Calculator also has a History feature that you can use to organize graphs you ve received from other users. It shows you which user sent which graph. You can open graphs from the History feature. Close all applications running on your computer that you don t intend to use with your session Not only will this help improve the performance and speed of your session, but it will help keep you organized, especially if you re using the application sharing feature or the capture functionality. Only windows you know you re using will be available to you. Remember to select Stop Sharing when you re finished sharing an application in your session The application sharing feature will continue to run until you tell it to stop. Select Stop Sharing from the Tools menu to end the application sharing and return to the current whiteboard screen. 10
Detach the chat area and view it in a separate window The live chat area of your session is located at the bottom of your screen. If you d like to enlarge the chat dialogue and view the entire chat session in a separate window, you can detach the chat. Once the chat is detached the chat window will be directly behind the open board, so you may need to rearrange your boards to find the chat window. To re-attach the chat to the board, go to the detached chat window and click Attach. The chat feature will return to the board. Keep the Live Discussion window open The Live Discussion window is a Java applet window that is necessary to keep your session running. If you (or your students) close this window at any time during a session, the session will be terminated and your window will close. You may want to remind students of this as well. Notify students when you are switching from one board to another When you move from one board to another it is important to let your students know BEFOREHAND that you are going to switch boards. This alert reduces the possibility of confusion and gives students the opportunity to let you know if they are not ready to go on. Send a Private Message to another person in the session Use the Private Chat option to select a single student (or students) and then send a text message that is visible to that student only. The student can also send a private message back to you. Private chat entries begin with a (p) in the regular chat area and are only visible to you and the private user. Using the default drawing tool Quick Draw is a way to free-hand draw, point, highlight, circle, etc., any item on the board. Quick Draw will always be the selected tool unless you choose another tool from the toolbar. However, after you complete using another tool the cursor automatically returns to Quick Draw. 11
FAQs How can I see the entire whiteboard area? There are three things you can do to maximize the whiteboard viewing area. First, click the maximize button in the top-right corner of your session window. This will maximize the entire session window so that the session fills your entire screen. Second, you can hide or dismiss the User List on the right side of the session. This extra space becomes absorbed by the whiteboard drawing area. Finally, you can use the scroll bars along both the vertical and horizontal axis to see content that is still not visible. Can I load content into a session before users enter the session? Yes! In fact, we recommend you do this. You can go to your session prior to any students joining the session and create slides, upload MS office documents, or perform any activity. This is a great way to save time and avoid waiting and confusion while you are conducting the live session with your students. On the Edit menu, what is the difference between Clear, Undo, and Cancel? The Clear option clears or erases every single thing that you have added to a particular board, regardless of any other content that s been added by other users. The Undo option removes or undoes only the last thing you added to the board. This option does step back with your actions, meaning that if you added three items to the board, clicking Undo once would remove the third item you created, clicking Undo a second time would remove the second item you created, and clicking it a third time would remove your first item. You cannot Und o a delete action, however. The Cancel option allows you to cancel any action that you are in the process of completing. For example, if you add a matrix to the board and you accidentally make the matrix too large, you can select the Cancel option to remove the incomplete matrix and start again. Once you ve set an item on the board, you cannot use Cancel to delete it. How can I change the color of my drawing tool? There are two ways to change drawing colors: 1) Go to the Color menu at the top of the whiteboard and select a new color from the drop-down list; or 2) Click a new color on the Color toolbar button at the very bottom of the toolbar. Note that you can always tell what your current drawing color is by looking at the hilite button at the top of the toolbar. The hilite color that displays on this button is the current color (this is true once you change to a new color--by default the hilite color is orange). How can I change the color of text I type on the board? You can change the color, font, and size of text you enter on the board. Go to the Tools menu at the top of your whiteboard and select Cut & Paste. A new window opens in which you can select text color, font, and size. 12
What is the Live Discussion window? Can I close it? The Live Discussion window is a Java applet window that is necessary to keep your session running. If you close this window at any time during a session, the session will be terminated and your window will close. How can I let the professor know I have a question? If you have a question for your professor, you can click the My Hand button in the bottom corner of your screen to raise your hand. A hand icon will appear next to your name in the User List, notifying your professor that you have a question. Your professor may have you ask your question in the Chat feature, or he or she may have you type your question directly on the board. Once you ve asked your question, click the My Hand button again to put your hand down. I can t chat and I can t write or add anything on the board. Why? By default, all users can draw on and add content to the whiteboard and use the Chat feature at the bottom of the session. However, your professor can turn off your chatting and drawing capabilities. For example, if you see a large red X in the User List next to your name, your professor has temporarily turned off your Whiteboard [W] or Chat [C] capabilities (or both). Note also that your chatting and drawing capabilities are also temporarily suspended while your professor is switching from one screen to another. As soon as the new board is finished loading, you ll be able to chat and draw again. The professor appears to be moving to the next board. I m not ready can I stop it? When your instructor begins to move to a new board, a red circle with the board number will appear in the upper right-hand corner of the current board. If you are not ready to go on, click on the red circle. This will stop the board from switching to the new board. A graph just appeared on my screen. Where did this come from and what should I do with it? Any time the professor (or any other user) plots a graph using the Graphing Calculator and clicks Send, the graph will automatically be sent to all the other users in the session. The graph will pop-up in a new window on top of the board. If you don t want to look at the graph, simply close the window. If you receive more than one graph and want to select a specific graph to view, use the History feature in the Graphing Calculator to select the graph you d like to view. It s a good idea to notify other users that you re sending a graph BEFORE you send it. What objects can I modify and edit on the board? We have created a table that will help you understand which tools and content you can modify and/or edit. You can find this table in the online Help. I m trying to Move (or Copy or Delete) an object. How do I select the object and complete the action? After selecting Move (or Copy or Delete) an object from the Edit menu, place your cursor over the item you want to edit. Some objects, such as lines and arrows, require you to scroll over the ends of the object to select it (rather than the middle). When the object turns a red/brown color, this means the object is selected. To move or copy the 13
object, click and drag it to its new location, and then click the mouse button to set the object. To delete the object, just click on the selected object. How do I draw a circle or a square? Hold the CONTROL (Ctrl) key down WHILE you select the oval or rectangle tool from the toolbar. You must press and hold the control key, then select the tool. If you re not holding the CONTROL key down while you select the tool, you ll draw an oval or a rectangle. How do I fill an object like a circle or a square? You ll need to fill the object at the time it s created; you can t go back and fill an existing object. To create a filled oval or a rectangle, hold down the SHIFT key WHILE you select the oval or rectangle tool from the toolbar. To fill a circle or a square, hold down both the CONTROL key and the SHIFT key while you select the oval or rectangle tool from the toolbar. Remember that you must hold the CONTROL and SHIFT keys down until you ve finished selecting the tool. I made a mistake on the board. How can I remove or fix it? There are several ways you can change or fix content that you ve added to the whiteboard, depending on what stage of the process you re at. If you are still in the process of adding the object to the board, and, for example, you change your mind, you can simply click your right mouse button to cancel the action. Nothing will display to other users on the whiteboard. (You can also cancel an action by going to the Edit menu and clicking Cancel. ) If you ve just added or set something on the board that you want to remove, you can go to the Edit menu and select Undo. The last action you completed will be undone. Note that you cannot undo something that you deleted from the board. If you added something to the board and it was not your last action to the board, go to Edit Delete Object or Delete Region. Then select the object or region you want to delete and click your mouse button. How can I print or save the Chat portion of the discussion? To print or save the chat log, click the Session menu at the top of the whiteboard and select Chat Log. This will open the entire chat log in a separate browser window. From this window, go to File Print or File Save to print or save the chat log. How can I print or save a whiteboard screen in the discussion? To print or save a whiteboard screen, click the Session menu at the top of the whiteboard and select Print or Save. This will open the current whiteboard in a separate browser window. To print the whiteboard, go to File Print. To save a text-only whiteboard, go to File Save. Note: If you have uploaded images or pictures into your whiteboard and you want to save the images with the board, RIGHT-CLICK in the new browser window (or hold the mouse button down for Mac users) and select Save as from the menu that pops up. This will preserve any images in the whiteboard screen. 14
I detached the Chat section of my session. Where is it now and how do I get it back? When you detach the chat area, it becomes its own window and usually goes directly behind the open board. To view the full chat, you may need to move some of the open windows on your screen until you find the chat window. To re-attach the chat area to the board, click the Attach button located in the Chat window. The chat section will reposition itself at the bottom of the whiteboard. I clicked Dismiss at the bottom of my User List and now my User List is gone. How do I get it back? The Dismiss button hides the User List to give you more space on the whiteboard. To display the list again, go to the Session menu at the top of your screen and select User List. I am trying to upload a Microsoft Office document into my session, but when I try and browse for the file I want to upload, I can t seem to find the file? In the Browse window for the Upload MS Office Documents feature, there is an option at the bottom of the window called Files of Type. This setting automatically defaults to Word documents. If you re trying to upload a PowerPoint presentation or an Excel spreadsheet or any other type of file, the Browse window won t see the file unless you change this setting (that is, it only looks for Word documents by default). Use the dropdown list next to Files of Type to select the file format you re trying to upload. You should then be able to see your file in the Browse window. I uploaded a MS Office document into my session but nothing s happening Be patient. Depending on the size of your file, this process may take a little time. That s why it s a good idea to upload any files into your session before your users join the session. I m using the application sharing feature of and the system keeps switching back and forth between the real application and the application as it displays on the whiteboard. I m having a hard time keeping track of what s real. What s happening? The way that the application feature works is the system essentially takes a picture of what s on your screen (i.e., the application you re sharing) and then pastes the picture onto the whiteboard area. In order to take this picture, the system needs to bring the application to the front of everything else so it can take the picture unobscured. Once the picture is taken, you are taken back to the whiteboard. Are my sessions archived? How can I view an old session? All sessions are archived and can be viewed by both professors and students. You can access an archived session from the Chat tab link in your course. Click the View Archives link to see a list of all archived sessions in the current course. sessions are archived by date and time if no name was given to the session at the time it was closed out. 15
Will the MS Office documents I uploaded into my session be available in the archives? What about the application sharing? Any MS Office documents you uploaded will be visible in the archives. However, there is no way to archive application sharing. Can I edit an archived session? Professors or group leaders of the session can edit a board. However, they cannot edit the chat dialog that took place during the session. To edit a whiteboard, open the appropriate archive and select the board you want to edit. Archived boards contain two identifying numbers: The first number for a board identifies which session in the course it belongs to. The second number indicates its position within that specific session. (For example, a whiteboard named s3.4 would indicate that the board came from the third session in the current course and was the fourth slide or board in the session. Board s1.8 came from the first session and was the eighth board in the session.) Once you select the board, click Edit this board. A private session will launch with the selected board displaying. You can then edit or make any additions to the board. When you are finished editing the board, click Submit. The edited board will replace the original board. Remember, you can respond to the chat portion of the session, but you cannot edit the original chat. (See below.) What does it mean to respond to an archived board? Both professors and students can respond to a board. Responding to a board means that you essentially make an annotation or note to the archived board, which is then saved as a separate board (as opposed to overwriting the original board). This is helpful if you want to clarify something on the board or if you thought of something later that you wanted to include with the session. This option is also helpful for students who perhaps missed the live session. To respond to an archived board, open the appropriate archive and select the board you want to respond to. Archived boards contain two identifying numbers: The first number for a board identifies which session in the course it belongs to. The second number indicates its position within that specific session. (For example, a whiteboard named s3.4 would indicate that the board came from the third session in the current course and was the fourth slide or board in the session. Board s1.8 came from the first session and was the eighth board in the session.) Once you select the board, click Respond to this board. A private session will launch. You will have the option of including the original board, which allows you to view the current board and make any additions or changes to the board. If you opt not to include the board, you will be presented with a clean board on which you can enter your response. Once you have completed your response, click Submit and the response to the board will be archived and appear indented and below the original archived session. Remember that you can only respond to an archived whiteboard you cannot respond to the chat section of the session. 16
How do I exit the Session? To exit the session, click the red Exit button in the bottom-left corner of your screen. If you are the group leader or the instructor for the session, you will be prompted to name the session. Enter a name that will help you and your students easily recognize the session. When you ve entered the session name, click Done. If you do not name the session, the session will be archived based on its date and time. All sessions are archived for later review, whether they are named sessions or not. Suggested Uses for the tool Meet with students one-on-one to help them individually with course work. is especially useful for helping students with mathematics, accounting, and chemistry equations. Use to present a PowerPoint slideshow or display other uploaded images. Use the toolbar to add notes to slides and to point out important sections of the slide or image. Use the Application Sharing feature to teach students how to use applications like Excel, PowerPoint, or any other application on your computer. Students can watch as you walk them through menu options, toolbars, and other features of the application. Use the whiteboard to have students complete work in a synchronous setting, as if they were coming to the chalk board. Share a website with your students with the Application Sharing feature and have your students follow you through the site. Upload course notes and highlight areas of importance. Use instead of the Chat feature. Just detach the chat in your session minimize the whiteboard portion (if not using it). Then, if students need illustration, you can all pull the whiteboard up and interact. Personally help students who may be falling behind the rest of the class by tutoring them individually or in small groups. Use the Graphing Calculator to create visual representations of equations. Have students make modifications to the equation, re-create the graph, and send the new graph back to you. Use the Polling feature to ask your students if they re ready to move to the next slide. You ll know almost immediately whether they re ready to go on. 17
Capture a screen shot from another application on your computer, display the screen on the board, and discuss it with the students. Turn the session into a live forum in which groups can present their projects to the rest of the class. Other Notes Mac Users Notes: o All instructors using Macs will not see the Share, Capture, and MS Upload tools options in their session. These features are not available to Mac users. o If using Netscape, Mac, and your screen resolution is 800x600, when initial session launches, your chat area is hidden. You just have to resize the screen & it will appear. ecompanion users o is included for no charge in all ecompanion courses for a LIMITED TIME. Later this Spring, will be removed from all ecompanion courses. All ecourse (full distance courses) will continue to have for no additional charge. All Users o o o o Application Sharing through will not be captured in the session archives. When sharing a web page as an instructor (leader), do not excessively toggle back and forth between the whiteboard and the web page. This can cause the web page image to be altered in the whiteboard. We are currently working to resolve this issue. If an instructor uses the Mark All option to turn all students whiteboard & chat rights back on, students will not see the chat reappear unless the instructor goes to a new board. If you do not want to go to a new board, individually turn students rights back on by clicking each red X in the user list. We are currently working to resolve this issue. Look for voice over IP to be added to in 2002. In the meantime, you and your students can use any voice over IP software in the background while you are in your session as long as all students have sufficient memory available. 18