Category: Learning management systems
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What’s New in VIULearn this Month? (February-March 2016)
Every month, VIULearn is updated by our software provider D2L. Most of the time you won’t even notice the changes, because they are behind-the-scenes improvements. An example of a behind-the-scenes improvement was an improvement to the Import / Export / Copy Components tool that allowed bigger courses to be copied faster. Sometimes, there are improvements…
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Self-Paced Fully-Online VIULearn Orientations for Learners
VIULearn is a learning management system. Some teaching faculty members use it to upload files for you (like your course syllabus or their PowerPoints), create Discussions or Quizzes, and have you upload assignments or view grades. Some teaching faculty members even run fully-online courses in VIULearn. This means that some of your course activities or…
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Orientation to VIULearn (D2L) for Students – Spring 2015
Many courses offered at VIU use our online learning management system, VIULearn. To help prepare you for your course, VIU is offering free orientation workshops to VIULearn. These are available either face-to-face on Nanaimo campus or online for all students. It is not mandatory for you to attend an orientation workshop. During the workshop we will…
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Fast and Furious Learning – An Overview of Desire2Learn Fusion 2013 – Part 1
For the past few months I have been busy converting a multitude of courses from Moodle to Desire2Learn at VIU. When I heard that I was going to have the opportunity to go to Desire2Learn’s Fusion 2013 (Website).I was ecstatic! Not only was I going to learn a great deal I was going to have…
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D2L 10.2 Upgrade
The Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning is very excited about the June 27, 2013 D2L upgrade to the latest version 10.2! Version 10.2 offers a more streamlined navigation for two of the system’s most used tools – Content and Discussions – as well as other improvements. Please be assured this is not a…
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Pros and Cons of Technology Embedded within Teaching and Learning Centres – and Not in IT
At a recent Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Conference (STLHE), I was part of a round table discussion about the pros and cons of including educational technology departments (serving learning management systems, blogging, video streaming, mobile devices, online course instructional design) within higher education teaching and learning centres. In Canadian colleges and…
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Collaborative Documents in your D2L Course
One of the tools which we do not have available in the current version of Desire2Learn is a wiki or collaborative document editor. Collaborative documents allow multiple users, including both instructors and students, to edit a document. These can be used for brainstorming ideas, having students review and edit each others work, or for group projects. One…
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Will understanding the basics of web design help you build better online courses? Yes!
I recently completed a 7-week course titled Designing Online Information/Dreamweaver CS6. This is just one in many web-related courses that I have either taken or facilitated over in the past 20 years. As you can imagine, working with websites has really assisted me in working with various LMS systems and helping faculty with their online…
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Desire2Learn Learning Sessions
This March our Centre began running Desire2Learn Learning Sessions, welcoming 31 instructors from various faculties to 25 different sessions throughout the month. The instructors averaged 2 sessions each! If you didn’t get a chance to attend any sessions, we are offering eleven different 50 minute sessions at many times and days in April, May…
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Personal Message from John Baker, President & CEO of Desire2Learn
We know it has been a tough week for faculty and students working with Desire2Learn at VIU. We thank you all for your patience and perseverance. We’ve just received a personal message from John Baker, President & CEO of Desire2Learn that we wanted to share with the VIU community. Members of the Vancouver Island University…
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D2L 10.1 – How to access your content tools
When I opened up the freshly upgraded D2L today, I was both excited and nervous. I knew there were some great improvements coming (outlined here by Arwen: https://wordpress.viu.ca/ciel/2012/11/14/d2lv101review/ ), but I also knew some of the changes would affect the look and feel of content areas. I spend a lot of my time in content…
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Pushpins in D2L
I recently attended the D2L Regional Users Forum at the BCIT downtown campus in Vancouver and spent a couple of my sessions with a D2L trainer learning about some of the tips and tricks with D2L and came across a little tidbit that may be a bit of a time-saver. In the mini-bar of the…