Pasting Text from Word to myLesley

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Kris McElroy

In this Agent L episode, faculty overcome stubborn and ugly formatting in myLesley.

Ben Friday: Agent L, we’ve had reports of faculty not being able to reformat their content in myLesley. We believe it may be a new GITS (Gremlins in the System) plot.

Agent L: GITS? Are you sure? What exactly is happening?

Ben: Faculty copy their content from MS Word and paste it into myLesley. Then they can’t change the formatting. If they try to change the font or size, nothing happens. It must be GITS trying to sabotage their work.

Agent L: Ben, I don’t think this is GITS. It’s just a mismatch between Word and myLesley. Word creates text that is meant to be printed out while myLesley creates text meant to be viewed on the web. Behind the scenes, this looks and acts very different.

Agent L: When faculty copy their text from Word, all of Word’s print code comes with it and myLesley doesn’t know how to read it. We just need to translate that copied text for myLesley.

Ben: How do we do that?

Agent L: Easy. Just clear the formatting. Select the text you wish to reformat. Then click the Remove Formatting button at the end of the first row of the text editor tools.

Agent L: Voila! myLesley will clear the troublesome Word formatting and you can now format your text as you wish.

Ben: That’s brilliant! And so easy!

Agent L: Think nothing of it. It’s all in a day’s work for an agent.

Check back for Agent L’s next exciting mission. For more information on using the text editor in myLesley, see the case file on the Agent Support site.

Faculty Development Community at Lesley

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Kris McElroy

A new faculty community has been created in myLesley as a central place to share information and events from the Dean of Faculty Office and eLearning and Instructional Support. The community is still a work in progress so if there’s content you want to see and would find helpful please let us know.

A key element of the Faculty Development community will be events calendar. The calendar will list events sponsored by the Center for Teaching, Learning and Scholarship, eLearning and Instructional Support, Faculty Development and the Provost Office. We will also post relevant events by other Lesley offices.

To access the Faculty Development at Lesley community, log into myLesley. Click on the “my community” tab at the top. Look for Faculty Development at Lesley in the list and click on the title. my organizations To access the events calendar, click on Faculty Calendar in the left-hand menu. faculty calendar link

Want to add the Faculty Development calendar to your own calendar such as Outlook, Office 365, Google, or your iOS or Android phone? Simply scroll to the bottom of the myLeslsy calendar and click Get External Calendar Link.

Copy the link for the myLesley calendar and add it to your personal calendar. See the instructions on our support site to learn how to add the calendar link to many of the most popular calendar tools.

Using Announcements to Communicate With Your Students

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Kris McElroy

In this episode, Agent L aids faculty to outsmart Gremlins in the System (aka GITS) and get students to their first day of class.

Ben Friday: Agent L, you have a new mission. GITS have struck again. They have managed to rearrange all the room scheduling. Classes start next week and the faculty are in a bit of a pickle. They need to contact their students as soon as possible with the new room locations. How will you handle this? Will you go undercover as a GITS agent? Maybe reprogram their systems? What about…? agent L

Agent L: Wait… Ben, have you heard of Announcements?

Ben Friday: Announcements? What’s that? Some new fiendish plot from GITS?

Agent L: Announcements is a tool in myLesley. Faculty can easily send out timely information to their students whenever they need to. Simply log into your myLesley course and click the Create Announcement button.

Type in a Subject for your Announcement and the Message.

Ben Friday: But what if the students don’t log into the course site between now and class time?

Agent L: Announcements can be emailed to them. The instructors don’t even need to know the students’ email addresses. Just scroll below the Message area to the Web Announcement Options section and check the Email Announcement box.

Click Submit and every member of the course will now have a copy in their inbox.

Ben Friday: That’s brilliant Agent L. I’ll spread the word.

Agent L: Maybe via an Announcement (smirk).

Check back for Agent L’s next exciting mission. For more information on how to use Announcements, see the instructions on the Agent Support site or view the video below.

New Features in Kaltura

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Kris McElroy

The Kaltura Media tool in myLesley has recently been updated to a new and improved version. The basic features of Kaltura remain unchanged. However, there are some nice new features and options available to you.

Kaltura Media Mashup – No Changes

There have been no changes to the Kaltura Media Mashup tool and it still functions the same as the previous version. Kaltura Media is available under Mashups in the myLesley text editor or from the Build Content menu.

Upload Directly From Your Mobile Device

Kaltura Media has been redesigned to allow you to upload videos directly to myLesley from your mobile device. Simply record a video on your iOS or Android device, use the device’s browser to navigate to your myLesley course, and upload as you would if using a laptop or desktop computer. Check out our support site for complete instructions.

iOS	Android

Record Your Computer Screen

You can now use Kaltura Media for screencasting. Record a demo of an application process or give a tour of your myLesley course site. Anything you can show on your computer screen you can record using Kaltura and share with your students. Your students can use it, too. Check out our support site for complete instructions.

Learn More….

The IT and eLearning Support site has step-by-step instructions for using Kaltura. Be sure to visit us to learn how to use the new features or to get started with Kaltura for the first time. Have questions? Email us at elis@lesley.edu.

Track Student Performance for Early Outreach

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Kris McElroy

Once upon a time, Blackboard had an Early Warning System to alert you about students who might need outreach or additional assistance. It was a good idea, but it was clunky, awkward to navigate and hidden away. Therefore, no one used it.

The Early Warning System has now grown up and evolved into the much easier to use Retention Center.

The Retention Center allows you get an at-a-glance view of how your students are doing. Alerts tell you if students haven’t logged in to the course recently, aren’t participating in course activities, have missed due dates or have grades below a certain threshold. You can easily navigate through multiple courses to get an overview or click for more details on a specific course.

You can choose to monitor at-risk students and contact them directly from the Retention Center. The Retention Center will keep track of your notification emails and any private notes about the student such as special accommodations for disabilities, additional assistance provided or extenuating circumstances. You can also set up custom alerts or edit the existing default alerts for a course. Only instructors and teaching assistants can see Retention Center information in myLesley.

Start using the Retention Center now! There is no setup required.

You can access the Retention Center in two ways: the My Blackboard menu in the top right corner of your window or from the Evaluation area of your course’s Control Panel.

Screen Shot 2015-10-06 at 3.16.45 PM

To learn more about how to use the Retention Center and its robust features, check out the Using the Retention Center tutorial.

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