Go to Grademark and click on the Quickmark Editor button located at the top right of the Grademark window.

The Quickmark Manager window will load. The left column shows Grademark sets. The middle column lists individual comments (Quickmarks) included in the selected set. The right column shows options for the selected set.

Click on the name of the set you wish to export (in the left column) so that it becomes highlighted. The individual comments for that set will load into the middle column for you to review/revise if necessary.

Click the small Export icon (looks like a square with an arrow) seen towards the top right of the Quickmark Manager window, then choose Export.

Choose to save the file. Save it somewhere that you can easily find again.

Click the Done button at the bottom-right  to close the QuickMark Editor window and return to Grademark.

Import an exported  Quickmark Set

Go to Grademark in your chosen unit and Assignment Submission Folder. Choose the Quickmark Editor option (as shown for Export a Grademark Set towards the top of this page ), then choose the Export icon. Choose the Import option. A new window will open. Browse for your exported file by clicking on the Browser button. Select your file (it will upload), then click Import.

Click the Done button at the bottom-right when done to close the Quickmark Editor window and return to Grademark. You should now be able to mark with your imported set.

During the most recent MyLO update (November 24, 2016), we (temporarily) lost the ability to copy items from the Interactive Content Builder (ICB) into a MyLO page. The text will copy over, but the formatting wrapped around the text is stripped out.

The MyLO team and ICB template developers are currently working on this issue. In the interim, the following method will allow you to continue to insert ICB elements into your pages in MyLO.

TIP: If a new page will contain the same or similar elements to pages that you have already created, it may be quicker to create a new page based on an existing page.

Step 1

Locate the page in MyLO that you wish to edit. Click on the Edit HTML button (usually seen at the bottom of the page). Alternatively, click the small black arrow head next to the page’s name and select Edit HTML option from the menu.

Step 2

In a separate tab or window, go to the ICB template page (opens in new window), locate the element you wish to copy, and click on the Copy to Clipboard button that appears beneath the element.

Step 3

Return to the MyLO tab/window. Place your cursor where you want the ICB element to appear on your page.  Towards the top left of the editing window, you should see a tool that looks like the one shown below. It should be the first button on the far left side. This is called the Insert Stuff button. Click on the Insert Stuff button.

Step 4

A window will open. Select the Enter Embed Code option from the menu on the left-hand side.

Step 5

You will see a white space to the right-hand side. Place your cursor in the white space, then paste as you normally would. For example, press CTRL + V (PC) or Command + V (Mac) on your keyboard; or right click over the white space and select Paste; etc. You should then see some code appear in the white space.

Step 6

Now click the Next button (bottom left-hand corner). You will see a preview. This may not show you what you expect it to, but trust us, this will work! Finally, click the Insert button.

Done!

You should now see the ICB element in your page. Continue to edit as you normally would.

Use our template to quickly and easily create an introductory Announcement, HTML page, or email (sent from MyLO). The template contains instructions, with matching images, to help students find the Content tool. You can edit the template to meet your needs. 

To use the template, follow these steps:

1 – Use your mouse to select all the text, then copy all the text seen inside the box below.

<p>Hello and welcome to UNIT NAME!</p>
<p>My name is YOUR NAME and I will be your Unit Coordinator and Lecturer for this semester.</p>
<p>To get started, please click on the <em><strong>Content</strong></em> button. You will see it towards the top left of the screen. It looks like this:</p>
<p><img src="http://blogs.utas.edu.au/teaching-at-tsbe/files/2015/01/Content-button.gif" alt="Image of the MyLO Content button" title="Image" /></p>
<p>The <strong><em>Content </em></strong><em></em>button is the place to go to access information, content and activities for this unit.</p>
<p>Next, click on the <em><strong>Begin Here</strong></em> link in the&nbsp;<em><strong>Table of Contents</strong></em> (as seen below). Finally, click on the <em><strong>STEP 1: View this Introduction</strong></em> link to begin (this will appear to the right of the screen).</p>
<p><img src="http://blogs.utas.edu.au/teaching-at-tsbe/files/2015/01/Table-of-Contents-and-Begin-Here-module.gif" alt="Image of the MyLO Table of Contents and Begin Here folder" title="Image of the MyLO Table of Contents and Begin Here folder" /></p>
<p>I&rsquo;m looking forward to meeting each of you, either in person or online.</p>
<p>Kind regards,</p>
<p>YOUR NAME.</p>

2 – In your MyLO unit, create a new Announcement, HTML page, email or a Checklist task.  The example seen below is a new Announcement. Give the new item a title/headline, then move on to the next field (where you put the bulk of your message/content). By default, the WYSIWYG editor will open. Click on the source code symbol, seen at the bottom right of the WYSIWYG editor. It looks like this </>

3 – A pop-up window will open. Place your cursor into the blank field, then paste in the code you copied earlier. The code will appear in the field. Click the Save button.

4 – The window will close. You will now notice that the text and image from the template appears in the WYSIWYG view. You can edit it as you would a Word document, by adding or removing text. We have indicated sections that you may want to edit or remove using brackets <<like this>>. Remember to press Publish or Save (this will depend on which tool you are using) to save your changes.

VideoNote is a tool included with MyLO. It allows you to capture short videos of up to three (3) minutes using a webcam and microphone*. The tool is available anywhere that you can see the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor in MyLO, including: HTML pages; Discussion descriptions and posts; Quiz questions answer options and feedback; the Announcements, Assignment Submission Folder General Feedback field; and more. To learn how to use VideoNote, refer to the How to section below or download this PDF from the MyLO Support Team. The PDF also includes instructions showing how to locate and embed an existing VideoNote.

FAQs

• What is VideoNote best used for?
  VideoNote is best for one-take, short videos, such as module introductions, short explanations/stories to illustrate concepts, and provide video feedback to students.
• Can I capture my screen activity with VideoNote?
  No. VideoNote only captures webcam video. If you’d like to capture activity on your monitor (e.g. a PowerPoint presentation), use Echo360 ALP Personal Capture.
• Can students download a VideoNote video?
  No. VideoNote videos are streamed, meaning they must be viewed online. This is generally OK, as the videos are quite short. Videos uploaded to Echo360 ALP can be downloaded or viewed online.
• Can I edit a VideoNote recording?
  No. VideoNote is designed for short, one-take videos. If you wish to create videos that will need editing, use Echo360 ALP Personal Capture.

How to

NOTE: You must use a device with a recent version of Adobe Flash Player enabled in order to record VideoNotes at this time. This generally means that you will not be able to create a VideoNote

You can use VideoNote anywhere you see the WYSIWYG editor (usually when you are creating something for the first time or editing it). Specifically, you will need to see the Insert Stuff tool. It will be the first tool on the left hand side, and will look like this:

The Insert Stuff window will open. Choose the Video Note option from the side menu.

You will see a preview of your webcam video appear on screen. NOTE: You may be prompted to Allow something at this point. If so, check the Allow option. When you’re ready to record, click on the New Recording button to start recording. The recording will start straight away.

As you’re recording, you will see the time count down towards the bottom right of the window. When you’re ready to stop, click on the Stop Recording button. Note that the recording will end automatically at 3:00 duration.

As soon as you click Stop Recording, a preview of the video will play. If you’re not happy with it and would like to record again, click the New Recording button. If you’re happy with the video, click on the Next button that appears to the bottom left of the screen.

You will be prompted to add a Title and a Description. IMPORTANT: Make note of the title, as it can be very useful when searching for your existing VideoNotes in the future. The Description is shown to users who cannot see the video due to browser limitations.

Click the Next button. You should now see a preview of your video. You may not see the preview immediately, as it can take a while for the video to process. If you see a screen like this…

and you want to see a preview, wait a few moments and click Refresh Preview. If you’re happy to continue, click the Insert button that appears towards the bottom left of the window.

Your video (or the ‘processing’ message) should now appear in the page/description/post/field that you are editing. Once you have finished editing, click Save/Save and Close/Publish.

*Most webcams include a microphone, however, these microphones are not very useful for recording in environments with a lot of background noise (e.g. a shared office). They also tend to have a limited range, so are not very good if you tend move away from your computer (e.g. where the web cam is positioned). Using a USB headset is a good alternative to a webcam microphone, and tends to capture higher quality audio without the background noise. Consult your local IT Hub to ask about acquiring a USB headset.

Pondering how you might ‘flip’ or ‘blend’ your unit?

These excellent videos from the COFA Online program (based at the University of New South Wales) feature interesting examples and plenty of useful tips. Direct links to the videos (hosted on YouTube) are provided as well (for those whose browser does not show the expand to full screen option in the embedded videos).

Direct link to video: https://youtu.be/0-gQVgtNU4w

Direct link to video: https://youtu.be/zL4kwN3aAV4

When designing and creating online learning materials, you should consider the accessibility of the materials.

This tip sheet from the University of New South Wales is a great summary of accessibility considerations surrounding resources like documents, images, audio and video and so on.

How original is the content you are teaching? Could students learn just as well from already existing content? If not, what is the ‘extra’ you are adding? 

This question, from a post by eLearning blogger Tony Bates, may have got you thinking about the content you’re creating and using in your units. But do you always have to create your own content? In this post, Tony discusses how you can find and curate existing content, rather than constantly creating your own.

Respond within a reasonable time-frame.

Respond to questions (in the Ask the Class Discussion) within two (2) business days and apply the same response time to emails. This avoids students defaulting to email thinking that they will get a faster response. Avoid responding immediately, as this feeds the assumption that you are always available. Only respond immediately if the request is urgent (e.g. a student has reported that a Quiz does not appear on MyLO.

Discussion activities for learning require less direct facilitator intervention. These activities usually proceed over a one to two week period. Check in and encourage, correct or re-direct if needed, ideally just before the midpoint of the activity (day 2/3/7), and again just before the end point of the activity (day 5/6/12).

Unless you have a small cohort, it is impossible to respond to every post.

Focus on answering each Q&A style question. Use techniques like weaving and summarising to give the impression of instructor presence in discussion activities for learning.

Include a salutation, preferably addressing the student, or students, directly.

Examples:

• Dear students,…
• Hello everyone,…
• Dear Peta,…
• Hello Peta,…
• Hello ^a{FirstName}/^b{InitiatingUserFirstName} [This can be used to personalise a ^aMyLO Announcement or ^bIntelligent Agent email, as it pulls the user’s first name into the message according to their user details]

Thank the class/individuals for their question or comments.

Thank students by drawing attention to what they have done well, and illustrating this with some important or useful contributions. This will help them recognise that they are ‘on the right track’. Thanking an angry student will help reduce anger levels, as you are responding in a civil and polite manner.

Examples:

• Thank you for your question about…
• Thank you for sharing your concerns about…
• Thank you for alerting me to…
• Thank you for your comment/suggestion about…
• I wanted to extend a big thank you to Peta, who alerted me to a problem with…
• Thank you to Peta for her question about…
• It was great to see you all sharing your ideas. I particularly appreciated Peta’s comment about…

Add a touch of personality (warmth) from time to time.

This helps distance students feel more connected with you, and helps engender a sense of belonging to the class. A short sentence is inviting, but not too distracting from the task at hand.

Examples:

• I hope it is warmer where you are today. In Hobart we’re only expecting to reach a 6 degree maximum!
• Did you watch last night’s episode of Q&A? Some of the questions were directly related to the questions raised in last week’s module. It was really interesting.

Acknowledge errors or problems and apologise for them, even if it isn’t your fault.

Students want acknowledgement that there is a problem and that there may be a solution. While it is fine to tell them what went wrong, avoid lengthy descriptions, laying blame, or the use of emotive language.

Examples:

• You’re absolutely right – the Assessments in the Unit Outline currently add up to 80% and this is an error. I have now uploaded the correct version of the Unit Outline which you will find here. Apologies for the confusion.
• Thank you for spotting that typo for me. I must have looked at that page twenty times and not noticed the mistake! I have now corrected the page according to your suggestions.
• I’m sorry to hear that you had difficulty getting access to last night’s online tutorial. I have now added some additional help materials here, which may be useful. Also, I recommend that you…
• Unfortunately, MyLO was down for unforseen emergency maintenance last night, which is why you couldn’t access the lecture recording at that time. As I use MyLO to email students, I wasn’t able to email you all to let you know about the downtime. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience. The system is back up now, and I have checked that the lecture recording is definitely available.

Provide hyperlinks to resources where possible.

This encourages students to act on your messages immediately and avoids the use of lengthy explanations. To learn how to add a hyperlink to a Announcement, Discussion post or MyLO email, click here.

Examples:

• To access the Unit Outline, click here.
• You’ll find more information about the process here: link goes here.

Summarise the most important message/s in the first few paragraphs.

The first few paragraphs tend to get the most attention from a reader. Supplementary information can be included in later paragraphs.

Use full sentences and an informal tone.

Model the kind of language that you want students to use.  A very formal tone can be intimidating, while he use of slang and contractions can be confusing for students with English as a second language.

Use videos to keep your messages short and interesting.

Using MyLO’s Video Note feature you can easily record a video of up to 3 minutes duration straight into a Discussion post or News Item. For instructions, click here. Alternatively, you could link to a recording you have created with Echo 360 Personal Capture.

Create an FAQ resource to save time during future iterations.

Add common questions and your answers to a Word Document throughout the semester (avoiding references to specific dates, weeks or semesters). Next time you run the unit, upload the document (as a PDF) to your MyLO site, so you can direct students to it, or copy or paste from it to increase the speed of your responses.

Avoid correcting a student’s poor behaviour/breaches of etiquette publicly.

Copy the offending post to a ‘quarantine’ discussion (available to staff only) so that you have a record of it, then email the student to explain what has happened to their post, why you have quarantined it, and how they could post more appropriately in future.

Finish with an informal salutation.

Sign off with something like “Cheers”, “Thanks again”, “Talk soon”, “Kind regards”, “Looking forward to hearing from you”, or “See you soon”.

This template takes you through the process of determine what needs to be covered during a module/week of semester for a unit. It then encourages you to determine how students will use this content according to Bloom’s Taxonomy.  Using the template will also help you construct learning objectives for the module/week, before finalising a sequence of activities. You can access the template here.

From time to time, students may post something that you feel is inappropriate. An inappropriate post may contain a swear word, insensitive or offensive comment, or a put-down. Attempts to promote or sell a product or service, or push a certain idea, belief or agenda – especially when it is not related to the unit or topic – are also inappropriate. You may also feel that some posts are inappropriate given the nature of a discussion task, for example, extended ‘off-task’ social chit-chat is more appropriate in the Social Cafe Discussion.

While it is possible to delete Discussion posts, deleting them means that you will lose the record of the posts. You may prefer to quarantine a post so that you have a record of it, which can be useful should disciplinary action be required down the track. These instructions will show you how to quarantine a post.

Note that you should contact the owner of the post (the student) to inform them of the removal of the post, explain why it was removed, and provide suggestions as to how they can post in a more appropriate manner next time.