Introduction
Introduction
Connect performance and stability issues in September resulted in disruptions to
teaching and learning and difficulties across campus for Instructors (and students).
Unscheduled outages compounded the impact of roadblocks to teaching and learning and
have had a direct impact on confidence in Connect.
This short guide will provide:
t An overview of technological changes and improvements, as well as functional
upgrades, that have been made in the past few months; and
t Some tips for success and options for using Connect effectively, including during
times when the system is not performing optimally.
Changes and Improvements
t Moved the database to a new server as a proactive measure to ensure that there will
be capacity for increased activity, including during large, concurrent assessments
t Implemented a new caching tool which has improved performance across the system
t Installed monitoring tools to allow us to better analyze performance-related issues
t Moved application servers to the new University Data Centre, made configuration
changes to these servers and added three new application servers to further increase
computing resources and planned a move to newly-purchased hardware
t Moving of application servers to newly-purchased hardware (Dec. 21)
t Began to investigate changes to the Institutional Hierarchy and its possible impact on
performance
t Focused on improvements for specific tools within Connect where performance
continues to be an issue
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Instructor Guide for the New Term
Winter 2013 (Term 2)
Tips for Students
Your students may reach out to you for advice on what to do if they have trouble with
Connect. Here are some tips that you can integrate into your course materials or provide to
students:
t Try to do work outside of peak periods:
° 8:00PM – 11:00PM are “rush hour” times for Connect usage. Minimal load times
are in the evenings before 8:00PM, or in the mornings before 12:00PM.
t Download PDFs, PowerPoint slides, or notes from Connect ahead of time - don’t wait
for the last minute when class is starting or materials are needed.
t Use a folder view of the course Menu to access all course elements directly with only
one click. You can do this by clicking on folder icon at the top right of the menu. This
will open a ‘floating’ menu that allows direct access to all course links and can be
positioned where you want on your screen.
t Clarify with your instructor ahead of time what the policy is if Connect is unavailable
and work is supposed to be completed within the system.
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Tips for Faculty & Instructors
Tips for Faculty & Instructors
Content Delivery
t Improve Navigation in your Course
You can reduce the number of clicks for students to access content and activities
by adding links to specific course content and tools directly to the course menu. For
example, you might want to add links to individual course units or tools.
° How to Create A Tool Link on Menu
(http://elearning.ubc.ca/connect/instructor-resources/course-content/create-atool-link-how-to/)
° How to Create a Link to Course Content on Menu
t Using Video Effectively
Utilize the integrated Kaltura streaming media service to deliver your course videos
rather than uploading videos directly into Connect for students to access.
° How to Upload a Video
(http://elearning.ubc.ca/connect/instructor-resources/course-content/upload3
Instructor Guide for the New Term
Winter 2013 (Term 2)
a-video-how-to/)
t Link directly to Content Collection
To save on the number of clicks to access course materials, you can link from course
pages directly to folders within the Content Collection rather than linking files one at
a time. The limitation of this approach is that it is not possible to sequence the files
(the order of files is based on file name).
You can make these direct links to the Content Collection by creating an Item in a
content area and then linking to the appropriate folder.
Once the direct link has been created, your students will see the following item in the
content area:
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Tips for Faculty & Instructors
They will need to click on the link to download the folder’s contents (Download
Package).
t Relax strict Adaptive Release Rules
You may want to consider relaxing adaptive release rules where appropriate so that
students have a longer period to access content.
° How to Set Adaptive Release for Course Content
(http://elearning.ubc.ca/connect/instructor-resources/course-content/setadaptive-release-for-course-content-how-to/)
t Utilize support
° Ask your Faculty’s Instructional Support Staff (ISS) for ideas on managing your
course and providing ways to deliver content to your students
° Elearning Support Contacts
(http://elearning.ubc.ca/support/contacts)
° Contact CTLT at 604.827.4494 or email ctlt.support@ubc.ca.
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Instructor Guide for the New Term
Winter 2013 (Term 2)
Assessments
Note: In December, Sauder offered and successfully delivered a 600 student synchronous high
stakes exam. Below are some strategies for assessment formatting and delivery that we have found
successful.
If your students are finding test questions are loading slowly or if they have difficulty
accessing their assessments consider:
t Extending the period of test availability and/or duration. Relax the due date
restriction settings.
° See the “Deploy Tests” tab in How to Create a Test.
(http://elearning.ubc.ca/connect/instructor-resources/assess-student-learning/
create-a-test-how-to/)
t Disabling the auto-submit feature (if enabled). Contact your ISS or CTLT’s PD Team if
you need assistance with this.
t If your question contains large images, audio, or video files, you may consider
changing the test setting to deliver questions one at a time. This will ensure each
question loads more quickly.
t If you are having difficulty with multiple choice and calculated formula questions
you can use the WebWork tool to convert Blackboard question types to WebWork
format. WebWork is seamlessly integrated with Connect including syncing of grade
data. CTLT has a tool available to automate this conversion (contact ctlt.support@
ubc.ca).
t If you are finding it slow to create quizzes, you may want to use Respondus to create
your questions and quizzes offline. Once created, these questions and quizzes can be
uploaded to Connect for delivery to your students.
° See “Get Started” tab in the Respondus Toolkit.
(http://elearning.ubc.ca/toolkit/respondus-quiz/)
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Tips for Faculty & Instructors
t If you are finding it very slow to set up tests, this may be caused by the size of the
question pools. Consider splitting question pools by creating additional pools and
selecting subsets of questions to include in the new pools.
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Instructor Guide for the New Term
Winter 2013 (Term 2)
Discussions
If students are having difficulty with the discussion tool, you may want to consider:
t Reordering your discussion forums using the drag and drop functionality to put the
current and most frequently used forums at the top of the discussion listing.
t Reminding your students of the various options for discussion access and display.
t Enabling the ‘subscribe’ option that can be used to deliver new discussion posts to
the users email account if desired.
t Utilize the Connect blog tool or UBC Blogs integration (with commenting enabled) for
simple “post and respond” threads
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Tips for Faculty & Instructors
Grade Centre
The Grade Centre is a complex tool with extensive functionality. To make the Grade
Centre more manageable, you may want to consider:
t Using the Needs Grading options to focus on the specific grading tasks you want to
complete.
t Creating and using Smart Views that can provide a focussed view into the Grade
Centre that pulls out specific columns or rows that you indicate. The Assignments
and Tests links under the Grade Centre are examples of smart views.
° How to Use Smart Views in the Grade Center
(http://elearning.ubc.ca/connect/instructor-resources/course-management/
use-smart-views-in-the-grade-centre-how-to/)
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