Wednesday, October 2 6, 2 011 2 :39:53 P M ET
Subject: Niihka Update & Tips -­‐ 8/19/2011
Date: Friday, August 19, 2011 1:40:09 PM ET
From:
To:
Scoville, David J. (sent by Instructors using Niihka (Sakai)
<NIIHKAINSTRUCTORS@listserv.muohio.edu>)
NIIHKAINSTRUCTORS@listserv.muohio.edu
Hello Instructors,
We are only a few days away from welcoming Niihka as our new Collaboration & Learning Environment. I would like to provide you with some recent updates and tips as you prepare for the start of Fall classes:
Niihka Landing Page and Menubar Updated
Site Naming Convention
Publishing Your Course Site
Exploratory Tools
Assignments 2 Tool Update on Hold
Getting Help
Niihka Landing Page and Menubar Updated
You'll notice the Niihka landing page has been updated as well as the alignment of the tools menubar. The Niihka landing page is now better organized and enhanced with graphics in an effort to make it easier to find the things you need! Also, the tools menubar at the left of each Niihka site is now aligned flush-­‐left. These changes reflect the user feedback we've received over the past several months. Site Naming Convention
Soon you may notice the name of your course site has changed. This is based on feedback from faculty regarding the length of course site names as displayed in tabs across the top of the Niihka window. The new site naming script will include logic to give your course site a shorter, more efficient name which should result in a narrower tab. Here are some examples of how the new site naming logic may be applied:
IMS 101 A -­‐ Single course site
IMS 101 A-­‐F -­‐ Combined course sites with consecutive sections
IMS 101 A-­‐F, H -­‐ Combined course sites with non-­‐consecutive sections
IMS 101 -­‐ Combined course sites with every single section for that course
IMS 101 A Summer 2010-­‐11 – Single course site from a previous semester
You already have noticed that the term has been omitted from the site name for the current term. The term will be appended to the site name of former and future terms so it will be easier to distinguish old sites from current sites, etc. There will always be a few exceptions that do not fit well into this scenario. If you believe one or more of your course sites should be renamed due to excessive tab length in Niihka, please contact IT Help (see Getting Help below).
Publishing Your Course Site
Remember that in order for students to have access to your course site in Niihka, the site must be published! To do this, click the Site Info tool in the left menubar then click the Manage Access link in the top menubar. Tick the check box next to Publish site then click the Update button and your site will be available. You may notice another check box in the Manage Access screen labeled "Can be joined by anyone with authorization to log in." This makes your site "joinable" by anyone with access to login to Niihka. I recommend against ticking this check Page 1 of 3
box unless you have a specific reason why you want others to be able to join your site. Exploratory Tools
When assembling your Niihka site you are presented with a variety of tools you may add to your site. A few tools have the Exploratory tools designation. What this means is that these tools are being evaluated for future inclusion in our standard tool set. One example is the Lesson Builder tool. In testing, we have found this tool to be very useful for creating content modules and sequences that can be organized by week, unit, chapter and so on. An instructor can add multiple instances of the Lesson Builder tool to a course site and assign a custom name to each instance of the tool (e.g., each instance could be a separate lesson, unit, etc.) We have high hopes for the Lesson Builder tool and see it as a likely replacement for the Modules tool. Here are a few things you should keep in mind: -­‐ Exploratory tools do not have embedded Help files
-­‐ Exploratory tools may have known/unknown bugs or flaws
-­‐ Exploratory tools may not be available next semester. So please plan your use of these tools judiciously until they are promoted to the standard tool set.
Assignments 2 Tool Update on Hold
Our Tech Team has been working feverishly over the last few weeks to get the latest version of the Assignments 2 tool (AS2) installed and working properly in Niihka. The new AS2 tool boasts integration with the Gradebook, submission versioning, integration with Turnitin originality reports as well as the ability to import assignments from the original Assignments tool. There are still a few minor issues that prevent us from releasing this for general consumption but it is being tested in limited use. Our goal is to have this available yet this term, in the very near future. For now, we continue to recommend the use of the Assignments tool as assignments created with this tool can be imported into Assignments 2 once it has been made available.
Getting Help
All Niihka support requests and bug reports should be directed to IT Help by sending an email to ITHelp@muohio.edu, calling (513) 529-­‐7900 or via live chat at: https://ithelp.muohio.edu/
A variety of useful resources for faculty and students are always available in the Niihka Training & Support site in the left-­‐hand menubar when logged into Niihka.
Good luck in the coming semester!
Dave
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Dave Scoville
Learning Systems Coordinator
Miami University
307F Laws Hall
Oxford, Ohio
513.593.4478
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