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.
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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.
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Posted in Collaborate Ultra News
September 11, 2020 at 9:00 am
With UBC returning to in-person classes, the Alibaba Global Accelerator service was discontinued as of April 30, 2022.
Students connecting to their UBC online courses from China now have access to the Alibaba Global Accelerator service, which may help improve their access to online learning resources.
The Alibaba Global Accelerator service works in conjunction with the UBC Virtual Private Network (VPN), an encrypted connection that protects data being transferred between computers and the network.
The Alibaba Global Accelerator is currently set up for three locations in China. Students accessing UBC online course materials from other countries can continue to use the existing UBC VPN.
You and your students in China can learn more about the Alibaba Global Accelerator and access technical support from UBC IT.
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Posted in Other Tool News
September 2, 2020 at 9:00 am
UBC has launched iClicker Cloud, an online student response system for synchronous and asynchronous gradable polling.
Unlike the previous iClicker Classic, no additional devices are required. You download a free app to your computer, and students respond from their browser window.
Most iClicker Cloud data is stored in Canada; however, registration data is stored in the U.S. Students therefore have the option to register with a pseudonym name and email address to protect their privacy. As long as students are informed of the data residency, the iClicker Cloud solution is FIPPA compliant.
iClicker Cloud is also integrated with Canvas. Once you synchronize your course, you can pass grades from the tool into the Canvas gradebook.
Learn more about iClicker Cloud in UBC’s iClicker Cloud instructor guide and iClicker Cloud student guide.
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Posted in iClicker Cloud News
August 23, 2020 at 9:00 am
UBC Zoom data has moved to Canadian data hosting, allowing us to enable cloud recording for Zoom sessions and to integrate Zoom and Canvas.
Cloud recording gives you an additional option when recording a Zoom web-conferencing session. When you start recording, you will have the option to store the recording online. After the recorded session is finished, you will receive a shareable link to the recording via email.
You can also now add Zoom to your Canvas Course Navigation. Once added, you can schedule Zoom sessions from within any Canvas course, and students can access the sessions and cloud recordings from within Canvas as well.
Learn more about Zoom cloud recording in the Zoom help centre. Additional information on cloud recording and the Canvas integration at UBC is available in UBC’s Zoom instructor guide.
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Posted in Canvas News, Zoom News
August 17, 2020 at 9:00 am
Microsoft Teams and OneDrive have now launched and are available to all UBC students, faculty, and staff.
Microsoft Teams is an all-in-one collaboration tool to create virtual meeting spaces and facilitate group work through web-conferencing, group chat, and real-time document collaboration. Microsoft OneDrive is a secure file-hosting service that allows storing, sharing, and synchronizing up to 1TB of files and folders from any connected devices.
At this time, the main focus of the launch is to facilitate student-to-student communication via chat, video conferencing, and document collaboration. In the lead-up to winter term 2, additional communication and resources will be available to support faculty who wish to incorporate the tools in their teaching.
Start exploring these new tools with UBC’s Microsoft Teams instructor guide and Microsoft OneDrive instructor guide.
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Posted in Microsoft OneDrive News, Microsoft Teams News