Distance Education Faculty Survey

Did you receive it yet?  If you are teaching online or have taught online in the last three years, we would like to hear from you!

The Faculty Senate DE Committee and CELTT, with OFIE's help, are surveying all DE faculty at KCC.  Your responses will help us develop the vision, policies, programs, and services that will meet the needs of DE faculty and students.

Please respond to this anonymous survey by December 15th.  Mahalo!

Laulima 10.7 Information & Migration Guidance Workshops

We have dates and times for Laulima 10.7 Information & Migration Guidance workshops!

• Tuesday, 11/29, 2pm - 3:30 pm 

• Wednesday, 11/30, 2pm - 3:30pm 

• Friday, 12/9, 9:30am - 11am; 2:30pm - 4 pm  

• Tuesday, Jan 3, 2017, 9:30am - 11am; 2:30pm - 4 pm

During each session, we will preview the new features in Laulima 10.7 and walk you through the migration of your course to the Spring 2017 site.  In November and December, before ITS completes the upgrade, you will get access to the "Sandbox" version of Laulima 10.7.  Sign up for a session at https://ohana.kapiolani.hawaii.edu/training/

A frequently asked question is "Can I import my course into the Spring 2017 site now?  How will it be affected when Laulima is upgraded?"  A short answer: Yes, you can import it now and most of your course should stay the same.  After the winter break, review your site carefully to ensure that everything is in order.  If you use Lessons tool, please follow the Guidelines.

We are in the process of documenting the new features of Laulima 10.7.  The standout features seem to be

• drag-and-drop file upload to Resources
• redesigned Syllabus tool 
• the bug fixes. 

But the teacher in me thinks Extra credit option in the Gradebook and the Assignment comments being pushed to the Gradebook are pretty significant too.  Please email or call CELTT if you have questions!

We hope you can join us at one of the scheduled workshops.  If not, please submit a request for a one-on-one session.

Coming Soon: A New and Improved Laulima 10.7

Change is coming.

Laulima is getting an upgrade during the winter break, and we will all return in January 2017 to a nice  holiday gift -- an improved Laulima.  ITS gave some of us early keys to the sandbox (version 10.7) and so far I like what I see.  A quick review of the sandbox version includes:

• Bug fixes and user interface redesign
• Drag and drop files into Resources:  This is really nice -- I dragged a dozen files and a folder at the same time into Resources and it worked!  Amazing.
• Gradebook has extra credit feature
• Assignment's instructor comments are sent to the Gradebook, along with the grades
• You can send a file to multiple students' Dropboxes
• Forums will display a profile photo of the poster
• Lessons pages can be printed and a URL can be generated
• There's a lot more, and you will find a good list at Sakai 10 Detailed List of Features
• All indications are that the migration should be painless, so let's hope that there will be minimal issues.

Also, ITS will be shifting "Request for Assistance" support to the Help Desk.  In other words, when you send a request, the first response will not be from Yves, Sandra, or Matt.  This flow has been their original intended structure for some time and only now it's being implemented.

If you haven't heard, the UH System Academic Technologies group has formed an LMS Review Committee to review and recommend a new LMS, possibly to replace Laulima.  It has been 10 years since UH adopted Laulima (Sakai), and the group is seriously looking at all options.  The projected date of implementation is Fall 2018, so I'm glad that ITS is still upgrading and supporting Laulima until we get there.

CELTT will be scheduling hands-on training and migration sessions for Laulima 10.7 in November, December, and January.  Stay tuned!