by Wesley Steverson
I am happy, and a little hesitant, to announce an upgrade to CourseDen; we will be moving from 10.2 to 10.3 starting January 2015. I have to say a little hesitant because there has been a negative stigma towards any type of change or upgrade to our on-campus learning management system (LMS). This is understandable. We have used three different LMS’s created by three different companies - WebCT, Blackboard and the most current, Desire2Learn (D2L). Through the process of switching from one LMS to another, we announced it as an “upgrade” and not as a complete system switch. Instead of users having to adjust to minor changes, on three separate occasions, they had to learn a completely new system. Furthermore, last year we truly upgraded CourseDen from version 9.4 to version 10.2. This brought a new look and some upgrades that might have felt like you were using a completely different system. We understand that making such big changes can cause a lot of confusion, so we are striving to move forward with smaller steps to gradually improve the learning experience at UWG.
This upcoming upgrade will not bring a major overhaul to the system. Instead, both students and instructors will see minor improvements in the tools that they use most in their courses.
Improvements for Students
Content Tool: instructors will now have the option to notify students when they update existing content or change a file from the Content tool. Instructors will be able to include a custom message that will be sent to students who have their Notifications Settings activated. Whenever a student views a content page, completes a quiz, participates in a discussion, etc., there is a green check mark that is placed next to the assignment’s title in the Content Tool – this is called the completion tracker. When the instructor updates existing content, he or she can choose to have the completion tracker reset for students who have already viewed the content. If a student’s completion tracker is reset, they will see an “Updated” indicator beside the completion indicator. Finally, the Table of Contents will remember the collapsed or expanded state of each of your modules. Students will be able to keep an easy-to-scan list of modules that need to be completed.
Discussions Tool: Students will see some minor changes in the discussion list and have the ability to rate discussions. The new discussion list will provide information in an easy-to-scan format, making it easier to determine the topics that have unread posts and the ability to dive into a conversation with one click. Students will also be able to rate discussion posts based on a voting system. Depending on the instructor’s settings, there will be two types of voting systems:
In both methods of voting, the students’ votes will display along with the cumulative score for the post. This new rating scheme works great for Q&As or class F.A.Qs. Along with the new voting system, students will be able to sort their discussion lists based on the “Highest Rated Thread” or “Lowest Rated Thread."
Rubrics: When submitting a file to the dropbox folder from the Content Tool, students will be able to view the rubric before submission. Students will also be able to view the completed rubric after the instructor finishes the assignment’s evaluation.
Improvements for Instructors
Content Tool: Instructors will see an improvement in editing quizzes that were accessed through the Content Tool and better handling of external links and unsupported files. When an instructor decides to edit a quiz in Content, they will be returned back to the Content workflow when they are finished with their edits. Before, when editing a quiz, the instructor would be brought to the quizzes main page. All external links will automatically open in a new tab or window, as well as the placeholder page within Content. This should help with the mixed content issue that some users were experiencing. Finally, if an instructor includes a file that cannot be displayed in CourseDen, a placeholder will automatically be created that will include a download option for the file.
Discussion Tool: Instructors will see improvements in the discussion rating systems, the ‘must post to participate’ option and discussion statistics. With the new rating system mentioned above, instructors will have the ability to change the rating scheme in the middle of the discussion. All rating data will be preserved if the instructor decides to switch back. When the instructor chooses the option that a student must create a thread before they are able to read and reply to other students’ posts, they will now be able to apply this option to the forum level. This allows the instructor to set this option once and have it propagated throughout all the topics in the forum. Finally, when viewing discussion statistics, the instructor will be able to view the number of threads and replies separately. This will be helpful to the instructor when assessing activities that require the student to provide a certain number of threads and replies.
Quizzes: Instructors will see usability improvements that will help complete tasks faster and more control of the quiz submission view. Instructors will now be able to create questions on the first tab instead of the last. All assessment information related to a quiz (Grade Items, Rubrics and Attempts) are all combined into a new Assessment tab. Finally, instructors will be able to control how long students will have access to the quiz’s submission view. Before, the quiz’s submission view was controlled by a set date and time. This allowed students who submitted a quiz earlier a longer length of time to view the submission screen.
Dropbox: Instructors will now be able to provide an assessment for a Dropbox assignment even if the student did not submit a file. This will help the instructor provide feedback if the student missed the deadline or submitted the file in a different manner.
There are a number of smaller improvements for students, instructors and administrators that was not mentioned in this article. If you like to take a look at all of the changes that come with 10.3, visit: http://web.wilkes.edu/elearning/LE10.3Guide.pdf.
On a final note, Desire2Learn has begun rebranding their company and their products. The company has shortened its name to D2L and they are referring to their learning management system (LMS) as Brightspace. This has caused confusion in the past when our on-campus LMS was referred to as Desire2Learn, D2L and CourseDen. Desire2Learn, now D2L, is the company that produces the LMS, Brightspace. The University of West Georgia uses this system and has named it CourseDen. If you hear Desire2Learn, D2L, Brightspace or CourseDen, it is all referring to the university’s LMS.
If you have any questions, please give us a call at 1-855-933-8946 (Local: 678-839-6248) or online@westga.edu.
Wesley Steverson is the academic instructional support specialist with UWG | Online.
