The Professional, Progression, and Enrichment Learning Division (PROPEL) at PTC is enthusiastic about offering professional development opportunities that empower and support faculty and staff members. These opportunities ensure essential skills and knowledge to effectively meet the diverse needs of higher education students. Click the link below to explore and register for pre-fall professional development opportunities. More opportunities will be available throughout the upcoming 2024-2025 academic year.
H5P is an accessible technology that allows higher educational professionals to create, share dynamic web interactions directly within the browser. H5P can be used to develop videos, presentations, games, and many other interactive experiences for students. Interested in learning more about H5P? Check out free upcoming webinars by clicking the provided link: https://h5p.org/h5p-webinars-2024
Brightspace’s minimum for supported browser versions increases every January and July. The July update increases the minimum supported browser versions to: Chrome 124+, Edge 124+, Safari 17+, and Firefox 124+. The minimum legacy browsers are now: Chrome 81, Edge 81, Safari 14, and Firefox 75. The following browsers are no longer supported: Chrome 66, Edge 18, Safari 11, and Firefox 66.
Grades – Automatic Zero for Missing Submissions | New
The much-requested feature of automatic zeros for missed due dates is finally here! Let’s discuss what this is, how to enable it, and how to keep your gradebooks up to date!
Firstly, what this feature does. PTC gradebooks are, currently, set up to drop ungraded items. This is shown by a “-%” in the gradebook, which means the grade is currently not being calculated in a student’s final grade. Previously, this would remain the case until a “0” was manually put into that grade by an instructor and it added an additional step to the process of keeping a student’s final grade up to date. With this new feature, the gradebook can be configured to set an ungraded item to a “0” automatically once a DUE DATE passes. End Dates are not currently supported for this feature and will not trigger an automatic “0”. Supported submissions include any text-based Assignments, Quizzes, and LTI tools (H5P, Third Party Integrations, etc) that have active gradebook associations.
This is not going to applied to all gradebooks automatically and it can be changed on a course-by-course basis using the gradebook setup tool. This feature will need to be turned on by the instructor of any given course should they wish to utilize it.
Figure: New option in the gradebook setup wizard allow for the automatic submission of “0” grades for overdue assignments.
Below is an image of how this would look in the gradebook. Please note that it does have a tooltip explaining that this was a “0” that was set automatically, indicated by the dotted underline of the grade. An automatic “0” is triggered within one minute of the due date and is based on local time zones for both instructors and students.
Students, on the other hand, will see a “0” in the gradebook for the related item and additional confirmation in their completion status that it was an overdue item.
Please keep in mind that this is an automatic system and you still may need to adjust these grades on a case-by-case basis. After the “0” is implemented, if changed it will not go back to a “0” automatically even if an assignment has not been submitted.
Keeping your gradebook up-to-date is still a top priority for our educational requirements, and it should still be regularly monitored to ensure this even with this new system in place!
D2L Lumi, AI Powered Practice Questions | Coming soon!
Announced last week at the annual D2L conference, the AI-powered Lumi is coming to D2L Creator+! This feature will allow you to generate practice questions in the content area of courses with the power of AI. It will only draw from resources that are currently in your course and all questions will present an opportunity to be vetted before being implemented into your course. This feature is not quite ready yet but we are looking at a late August release, please look forward to it! Below is a link to a completely free webinar for how to use Lumi if you’d like to go ahead and sign up!
If you have not done so already, please feel free to access our D2L guided instructor training course by clicking the link with the D2L moose on your homepage. At first this training looks barren with only a few items, but as you complete each module a new one will open up! This training goes through the basics of D2L all the way through more advanced tools and is available to all instructors of the college. You will also be entered to win some D2L branded prizes such as a Morris the Moose plushie, travel pillows, and tumbler cups!
This workshop will provide an overview of Honorlock online proctoring software, recent updates and improvements made within the system. Questions and answers segment will also be included within this refresher training.
Please note that the date for the Honorlock training moved from Friday July 19th to Friday July 26th. You do not need to register again if you have already registered to attend the PD session.
This workshop will provide an overview of Honorlock online proctoring software, recent updates and improvements made within the system. Questions and answers segment will also be included within this refresher training.
Please note that the date for the Honorlock training has moved from Friday July 19th to Friday July 26th. You do not need to register again if you have already registered to attend the PD session.
