August 16, 2021 at 1:58 pm
UBC and the LT Hub are no longer offering central support for iClicker Classic and the associated iClicker student remotes (or ‘clickers’).
As such, we are recommending that the UBC Bookstores no longer stock iClicker remotes. Going forward, if you wish to use iClicker remotes in a course you must request the Bookstore stocks them as with other course-specific materials.
This change does not impact iClicker Cloud, which continues to be centrally supported and funded for all UBC faculty and students.
Why is support for iClicker Classic and student remotes ending?
iClicker Cloud is currently funded for all UBC faculty and students and is used through a web browser or app on an existing device — removing the burden of the cost of purchasing a remote that is passed on to students when using iClicker Classic.
iClicker Cloud also offers additional features compared to iClicker Classic, including additional polling types.
I have a specific use case that iClicker Cloud doesn’t address, who should I talk to?
We anticipate that iClicker Cloud should meet the needs of the vast majority of classrooms. If you have exceptional needs, please contact your instructional support unit or contact us at the LT Hub to discuss your use case.
Learn more
Learn more about using iClicker Cloud in UBC’s iClicker Cloud instructor guide and iClicker Cloud student guide.
—
Posted in iClicker Cloud News
June 24, 2021 at 3:50 pm
As part of UBC’s move away from Collaborate Ultra, your access to Collaborate Ultra recordings in Canvas will be turned off on Wednesday, June 30, 2021. This removal is in preparation for UBC’s access to Collaborate Ultra and all stored recordings officially ending on July 31, 2021.
We recommend downloading any course recordings stored in Collaborate Ultra before next Wednesday, June 30. However, should you need time in July to complete the transfer of your recordings, please contact us at the LT Hub to re-enable your access to Collaborate Ultra in Canvas until July 30.
Our step-by-step Collaborate Ultra transition guide explains how to save your recordings, upload them to Kaltura, and get started with Zoom.
—
Posted in Canvas News, Collaborate Ultra News
April 13, 2021 at 4:53 pm
In response to recent UBC Senate motions that restricted the use of remote proctoring tools, the LT Hub developed documentation on alternative invigilation methods for remote exams. One option involved using both Zoom and LockDown Browser — a web browser that ‘locks down’ what students can open or access from their computer during an exam — together.
Based on recent technical issues, we now recommend against using these tools together for invigilation.
Why we recommend against using Zoom with LockDown Browser for invigilation
Zoom and LockDown Browser were not designed to be used together. Using them together is a workaround solution and requires that instructors configuring the exam and students taking it follow instructions precisely and in a particular order. These requirements make it likely that both instructors and students will run into serious technical challenges during the exam.
Additionally, since March, a high number of UBC students have reported difficulty accessing Zoom sessions through LockDown Browser, even when following the instructions correctly. Some students were not able to resolve their issues during the exam time. We have not yet identified the source of these errors.
Get exam invigilation support
Based on these issues, as well as similar feedback from Instructional Support Units, we have removed instructions for using Zoom and LockDown Browser together from the LT Hub and Keep Teaching websites.
We recognize that some instructors may have already designed their final exam around this method of invigilation, and it may not be possible to make a change. For those exams, please reach out to us in the LT Hub for support.
UBC faculty looking for support with exams and assessments can also request individual consultation time with learning designers from the UBCV Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology or the UBCO Centre for Teaching and Learning.
—
Posted in LockDown Browser News, Zoom News
March 31, 2021 at 4:11 pm
Starting April 30, 2021, UBC will adopt a schedule of removing instant chat messages in Microsoft Teams after 90 days. This chat retention schedule only impacts personal chats between individuals or groups.
Conversations that happen within a team channel in Microsoft Teams are not affected. As courses are set up as teams spaces in Microsoft Teams, and channels within those teams are where students formally discuss course topics, the impact in course contexts should be minimal.
Why are chat messages being removed?
The implementation of Records Retention Schedules for data sources like Microsoft Teams is required to comply with UBC Records Management Office policies. Retention schedules are important because, by regularly removing records that do not need to be stored, UBC reduces the risk of data breaches and maximizes the digital storage space available.
How will my conversations and file-sharing be impacted?
On April 30, any personal chats between yourself and another individual or a group (including chats from meetings) that are older than 90 days will be deleted. This deletion refers specifically to conversations accessible by clicking “Chat” in the sidebar navigation from Microsoft Teams.
If you have shared a file in one of your chats, the link to this file will also be removed. However, since files shared through Microsoft Teams are uploaded behind-the-scenes to Microsoft OneDrive, the file will remain in Microsoft OneDrive. It can continue to be accessed there by the file owner, and anyone who has kept the link.
What can I do to prepare for the change?
- Review your personal chat history by clicking “Chat” in the sidebar navigation in Microsoft Teams. Copy any information, links, or files that you want to retain into a more permanent place.
- To share information and files that will be retained beyond 90 days in Microsoft Teams, consider requesting a team. A team allows a group of people to collaborate together in a private space. Invited members can share communications and content through topic-focused areas called channels that are not impacted by this retention schedule.
- Going forward, treat the “Chat” area of Microsoft Teams as a place for casual conversation. Use another means of sharing information that is of ongoing importance, of a confidential or sensitive nature, or for formal decision-making that requires a paper trail — such as a conversation in a Teams channel.
- If you have any questions or concerns, contact the UBC IT Service Centre Help Desk.
—
Posted in Microsoft OneDrive News, Microsoft Teams News
March 18, 2021 at 11:15 am
This post has been updated to reflect that a motion has been passed by both UBC Senates.
The UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan Senates have each passed motions for UBC faculties to restrict the use of automated remote invigilation tools, like Proctorio, that use algorithmic analysis of data recorded during invigilation, except where accreditation bodies explicitly require remote proctoring software.
As these motions are effective immediately, faculty who planned to use such tools to invigilate exams for courses that do not fall under the above exemption will need to investigate alternative tools and/or methods for assessment.
Read details of the Vancouver motion to limit remote proctoring and details of the Okanagan motion on the UBC Provost & Vice-President Academic websites for each campus.
Get support
Faculty looking for support with exams and assessments can request individual consultation time with learning designers from the UBCV Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology or the UBCO Centre for Teaching and Learning. The consultations can be used to answer questions and provide customized support on technologies and strategies for assessment.
You can also learn more about centrally-supported tools and resources that can be used for exam invigilation and are not restricted under the motion:
—
Posted in Proctorio News
March 12, 2021 at 12:29 pm
UBC instructors who teach large courses can now request a large meeting add-on for their Zoom account.
What does the Zoom large meeting add-on change?
Standard UBC Zoom accounts can support sessions of up to 300 participants and allow using up to 100 breakout rooms, whether these rooms are pre-assigned or assigned on the fly. With the large meeting add-on, your account can support sessions of up to 500 or 1000 participants, with the same option to use up to 100 breakout rooms.
In Zoom, breakout rooms are used to split a main session into separate, smaller sessions, allowing students to interact in groups. The large meeting add-on allows instructors of larger courses to also make use of this feature.
How do I request the Zoom large meeting add-on?
To request the large meeting add-on, contact your helpdesk as specified below:
- UBC Vancouver outside the Faculty of Medicine:
- Email the UBC IT Audio/Visual Helpdesk at av.helpdesk@ubc.ca with your UBC email and your faculty, school, or department.
- UBC Vancouver Faculty of Medicine:
- UBC Okanagan:
Keep in mind that larger meetings take up more computer resources and are best run on newer computers using hardwired Internet (rather than a Wi-Fi connection). You may also want to consider adding co-hosts, such as teaching assistants, to help manage the breakout rooms for these larger class sizes.
More information on Zoom
Learn more about using Zoom with UBC’s Zoom instructor guide.
—
Posted in Zoom News
February 3, 2021 at 9:55 am
Following winter term 2, 2021, UBC will no longer be using the virtual classroom tool Collaborate Ultra.
The tool will not be available for new courses from April 2021, and all access, including to stored recordings, will be removed as of July 31, 2021, with your personal access to Collaborate Ultra recordings in Canvas removed June 30, 2021.
What does this mean for UBC faculty members?
Any course recordings stored in Collaborate Ultra must be downloaded and saved elsewhere (i.e., in the video platform Kaltura, which like Collaborate Ultra also works in Canvas). We recommend doing this as soon as possible to ensure you have adequate time to retrieve important recordings.
Starting in summer session 2021, you will need to use alternate tools for video/audio web-conferencing and collaboration, such as Zoom.
Why is Collaborate Ultra being decommissioned?
Our existing contract has come to an end, and with the numerous alternative tools available, we will not be renewing at this time.
How can I get help with downloading my recorded content?
A step-by-step transition guide for transferring your Collaborate Ultra videos to Kaltura is available.
For support with downloading your recordings and exploring the alternative tools available for online teaching, reach out to your faculty’s Instructional Support Unit or contact us in the LT Hub.
What else do I need to know?
Any lecture recordings that show students in an identifiable way require permission from the student(s) before being shown to other courses or student cohorts. Use this opportunity to check for student names and faces, and edit out or seek permission before uploading your recording to Canvas.
—
Posted in Collaborate Ultra News
December 23, 2020 at 2:45 pm
Starting today, all UBC Canvas courses will have the New Rich Content Editor enabled. The New Rich Content Editor is a way to add content that can be styled and arranged to integrate text and multimedia together for display in your Canvas course.
The New Rich Content Editor is an update to the previous Canvas Rich Content Editor. Changes in the New Rich Content Editor include toolbar updates to condense and better group the options available, a resizable content editor area to make editing easier, and new media options such as drag-and-drop and auto-scaling to improve content placement. The changes also include an auto-save feature, which adds the ability to restore unsaved edits that have happened in the last hour.
The New Rich Content Editor appears anywhere the previous Rich Content Editor was used in Canvas, including in pages, assignments, and discussions.
More information on this update is available on the Canvas website:
—
Posted in Canvas News
November 18, 2020 at 10:30 am
Canvas has resolved issues that were impacting grades with New Quizzes, and New Quizzes can be used again without problems.
Part of the resolution did roll back manual grades in Canvas for some courses. We are reaching out to instructors of courses that were affected with options for fixing this rollback.
If you have questions or still encounter issues, please contact us.
—
Posted in Canvas News
October 30, 2020 at 3:35 pm
The LT Hub has been made aware of a bug in the chat feature of Blackboard’s Collaborate Ultra that may impact some classes.
The bug relates to the Profanity Filter functionality in chat. When this setting is enabled in a session, students are unable to type certain terms (as determined by Blackboard, not UBC) in the chat window, and those terms are replaced with asterisks.
Earlier this week, the Profanity Filter was overbroad; Blackboard has now rectified that. If you encounter a term that should not be on the list, please contact the LT Hub.
In addition, the Profanity Filter seems to operate on some occasions whether or not the setting is switched on. Blackboard currently has no estimate of when this bug will be fixed.
If you have had a course session impacted by this bug, you may want to communicate the issue with your students. A draft course announcement is included below:
Collaborate Ultra Chat Filtering Issue
In Collaborate Ultra, some terms are inadvertently filtered in the chat window. This is caused by a software bug related to a profanity filter in Collaborate Ultra that works even if your instructor turns the filter off. UBC has escalated this issue with the vendor to ensure the bug is fixed. Please rest assured that there is no intention to filter the course discussion or to censor any topics in the course. The observed behaviour is due to a technical issue.
—
Posted in Collaborate Ultra News