Information Technology Services

by IDLT

In the past few ITSpotlight articles, we’ve highlighted how you can run a course accessibility report and where to get started. Typically, you would start with images missing alternative text, but we’re going to start with one of the more laborious files to enhance...the PDF. These files are not difficult to increase accessibility, it’s just that most people are not as familiar with Adobe Acrobat as they are with Microsoft Word. Here are some t...

by IDLT

As with all new technologies, there will be glitches along the way. Thank you for those who have reported any issues you’ve been having with YuJa. There were some problems with link replacements, and we had a few reported incidents of grades not reporting correctly to Blackboard. We think these have all been resolved, but the only way we will truly know is if we hear from you, the faculty or your students. If things are not acting as expected, please send ...

by IDLT

YuJa has introduced a new feature for recording PowerPoint presentations. This plug-in allows for ease of recording a PowerPoint presentation which automatically uploads to your YuJa account.  
If you have previously recorded audio in PowerPoint and uploaded it to Blackboard, be forewarned – your course will run out of space. The storage capacity of a Blackboard course is 2GB. Students struggle to download and playback large files, especially on mobile devices. Streaming ...

by IDLT

The Blackboard Retention Center is an unsung hero in monitoring and engaging students in your courses. Not only can you see which students are at-risk, you can track their level of engagement with the online course. Additionally, the Retention Center allows you to communicate quickly with students who are inactive or late in meeting assignment deadlines. Want to acknowledge students who are excelling? The Retention Center offers customization options to meet your teaching style. 
U....

By IDLT

Poll Everywhere has informed ITS that the vendor is planning to implement a change to their login process on Monday, October 3rd. The purpose of this update is to provide an additional layer of security for upcoming features to Poll Everywhere. The update will add a small step to the login process for Poll Everywhere’s Presenter Apps (Windows, Mac, and Office 365 versions). During the new login process, presenters will be asked to permit the Poll Everywhere Presenter App access to...

By IDLT

In the last edition of the ITSpotlight, we discussed what Blackboard Ally is, how it can help you increase the accessibility of your course, and how this is beneficial for students. We briefly touched on the Course Accessibility Report. This is a good starting point to see the big picture of where the content in your course is scoring with accessibility.  

To run the report, navigate to Course Tools in the left navigation under Course Management. Then, click the Accessibility R...

By IDLT

YuJa is now available to all SIUE users as a replacement for TechSmith Knowmia (TSK). As a reminder, the end-of-life for TechSmith Knowmia at SIUE is Friday, September 30th. After that date the TSK system will be unavailable to all SIUE users. Visit this ITS KnowledgeBase article for a current timeline of activities and frequently asked questions.

By IDLT

YuJa is now available to all SIUE faculty, staff, and students as a replacement for TechSmith Knowmia, and among its many features is the ability to add quizzing to videos. Video quizzing is a great tool for formative assessment, checking student understanding, and reinforcing important points within lecture videos. These short, informal quizzes can be linked to the Blackboard grade center through the YuJa Video Quizzes and Analytics option under the Build Content menu in Blackboard.&#1...

By IDLT

As a reminder, the Office of Online Services and Educational Outreach provides a service for caption editing with a 3-5 business day turnaround. Through this service, student workers will edit the speech-to-text captions on videos that are stored in YuJa.  

Video captions are a necessity for accessibility, and they support multi-modal learning for improved retention of information. Also, closed captions allow students to view video material without sound if they are watching ...

By Emily Macios

As a new school year draws near, it’s time to make sure your software is updated to the latest version. That includes your Zoom desktop app. Zoom is retiring all desktop client versions below 5.3.0 to address a critical security vulnerability. If you have not updated, please update as soon as possible.

1. Open your Zoom desktop app
2. Click your profile picture/initials icon in the top right corner of the app
3. Scroll down to “Check for Updates”
4. If an update is ...

By Pamela Williams

Dr. Erin Vanderbunt
Exercise Physiology

Exercise Physiology Assistant Professor Erin Vanderbunt keeps a brisk pace! As part of the Department of Applied Health faculty, Dr. Vanderbunt coaches students training for careers as empathetic medical professionals. Part of her coaching and instructional philosophy includes an emphasis on the importance of work/life balance.

Modeling empathy and professionalism, Prof. Vanderbunt maintains high academic standards for her students whi...

By Jennifer Albat

YuJa is now available to all SIUE users as a replacement for TechSmith Knowmia (TSK).

Important Migration Update 
 
As a result of TechSmith’s role in export issues that have resulted in a delay of the migration of SIUE’s video content from TechSmith Knowmia (TSK) to YuJa, the vendor has now agreed to extend access to TSK until September 30, 2022. This extension provides YuJa time to complete the migration and relinking of TSK videos insi...

By Curt Price

For those of you with an Android phone... we salute you! But also... there are a handful of things you may not be aware you can do with your handy, dandy smart phone. Here's six things you can try. (Why not seven? I dunno. Be thankful it's not five.)

1) Make Text & Images More Visible

If you’re struggling to see what’s on the screen or if you want to cram as much content as possible onto the display and don’t mind doing a bit of squinting along the way, you can...

by Curt Price

No. Unfortuntely, Windows God Mode does not turn your PC into Thor...but you might feel like him.

What God Mode does do, is put an icon on your desktop that gives you quick access to almost any Control Panel setting you may need. This is essentially quick access to the good old Windows Control Panel, but with some extra settings you won't find in the regular settings app, and some of the settings you will find in the regular control panel are buried deep and hard to find. So this...

by Pamela Williams

The celebration of Pride Month 2022 at SIUE is amplified with the establishment of the Queer Faculty and Staff Association (QFSA) in the Spring of 2022. QFSA is SIUE’s newest constituency group and it provides community, advocacy, and visibility for LGBTQIA+ faculty and staff. Two of the four co-founders, Rex Jackson (Associate Director of Residence Life) and Nick Niemerg (Assistant Director of Constituent Relations) made time in their busy schedules to discuss the...

By Emily Macios

Here are some hidden and useful iPhone tips and tricks you may not have known about.

Adjust the flashlight intensity

Need to make your iPhone flashlight brighter (or dimmer)? Swipe for Control Center, apply a firm hold to the Flashlight icon, and a slider to adjust the brightness will be displayed.

Use backspace in Calculator

Ever hit the wrong number in the Calculator app? It can be frustrating to clear all of your calculations with the C or AC button after mistypin...

by Curt Price

A handful of tips and tricks for Windows that you may not have been aware of.

Windows-V

You may be aware already that you can highlight text, hit Ctrl-C and then Ctrl-V to paste it. That copies that text to the clipboard and then allows you to paste it in any Windows-10 app. The one problem with this feature is that it only keeps track of the last item you’ve copied to the clipboard but Windows-V makes this even better. Go to the Start menu, go toSettings, into System, and...

By Emily Macios

Here are some of the best new features released by Zoom during early 2022.

Closed Captioning Enhancements

Live Transcription can now be requested by a participant. If the host forgets to manually enable live transcription at the beginning of the meeting, a participant can request for the host to enable it. To request live transcription during the meeting: click the Live Transcript button --> Request 

Breakout Room Enhancements

Screen sharing, including audio, can now be...

by IDLT

YuJa has been selected as the new video platform to replace TechSmith Knowmia at SIUE. The end-of-life for Knowmia at SIUE is June 30, 2022, one of the important dates in the YuJa implementation timeline.

YuJa has a similar look and feel to Knowmia with many more capabilities in video capturing, editing, and searchability within video content. ITS is working with YuJa’s technicians to migrate all video content from Knowmia to SIUE’s YuJa library. In preparation for the migrat...

By Pamela D. Williams

Black Heritage Month at SIUE

[Picture Source: SIUE English Department website for Dr. Rambsy] 

SIUE Distinguished Research Professor Howard Rambsy II is a trailblazer.

When most of the campus was settling in for their well-deserved holiday break at the end of Fall 2021, Professor Howard Rambsy graciously accepted my request for a Zoom meeting. On December 21, to be precise, we met over Zoom. About a week before we met, I received an email from the SIUE Black Facult...