Network Accounts
Alrighty…so you have your Moodle account to access your online courses and your AccessCOTR account to see your schedule, grades, etc…but do you have your network account yet? Sigh, I know…Enough with the accounts already. But, as with all the rest, the network account is very important. You need your network account to:
- confirm an exam invigilator and book an exam date for your online courses (if required)
- access your COTR email and receive messages from college administration and student groups
- access Library databases for research projects and assignments
- access the COTR Student Portal for information specific to students
Note: The requirement to confirm an exam invigilator and book an exam is for online students who must write an invigilated (supervised) final exam only.
So, now you know why you need a network account - now how do you get one? The information below should help you out.
Go to an open computer lab and log on with the following information:
- User ID: Enter your student number e.g. XXXXXXX
- Password: Enter your student number* e.g. XXXXXXX
- Domain: COTRNET
You will be required to change your password the first time you log on. Your new password will need to be a minimum of 5 characters.
If you can’t get to a COTR campus (i.e. Online Students):
You must contact the Student Help Desk to activate your network account and email. (Note: This network account is different than the Moodle user name and password you use to access your online courses.)
- Email: studenthelp@cotr.bc.ca
- Phone: 250-489-2751 250-489-2751 or toll free 1-877-489-2687 Extension 3333
Please provide the following information when you contact the Student Help Desk:
- First and Last Name (please spell your last name)
- Student Number (will be shown on your Registration receipt)
- A new password (You can choose whatever you want as long as it is 5 characters long. Just make sure it’s something that you will remember and that someone else couldn’t guess.)
- Information on how to contact you (i.e. email address or phone number)
The Student Help Desk will contact you when your account has been activated.
Forum Frustrations?
Does your online course have Forums? If so, you’ll want to read on. Nothing is more aggravating than spending a long time carefully crafting every word of your Forum post, only to hit the submit button and have it all disappear! Before you start cursing Moodle, however, it might just be your browser that is causing the difficulty. Sometimes it seems that Internet Explorer just doesn’t want to play nice with Moodle and it has timed out while you’re perfecting your submission. :( There are all sorts of technical reasons for that - I’m sure. Bottom line is, sometimes you’re better off trying a new browser (Firefox, Chrome, and Safari are all options). To play it super safe, however, you are probably wise to create your Forum post in Word or Notepad and save it as you go along. When it is done, you can then copy it into the Forum without fear. If something should go wrong - you still have it saved elsewhere so you can post it again.
Good luck!
Checkin’ In
Well, here we are….finishing up week three of the winter semester. Whew! Time flies. So, how are things going in your online courses? Are you able to find your way around in Moodle? Is the online format working for you? If you are having any trouble, I’m here to help (or to hopefully point you in the direction of someone who CAN help).
Don’t forget to check out the links along the sides of the Moodle homepage for tips on taking Quizzes, working with graphics, downloading Adobe Reader and other useful information. Something you’re wondering about that you can’t find information on? Leave me a comment and let me know and I’ll look into it for you.
Until then, Moodle on, my friends….Moodle on!
Welcome back!
Ah, a New Year - which brings with it a new semester…more homework, tests, projects… It will all be worth it in the end, right? Well, that’s what I tell my son anyway! Hopefully you have received your enrolment keys for your online courses by now and are well on your way into the Winter semester fun. As you work through your online courses, don’t forget that the Education Technology Centre is here to support you. If you’re having technical difficulties, I will do my best to help you. You can find me at the back of the Library. Any of the kind Library ladies can point you in the right direction - just don’t be shocked when you round the corner into my office to find that Darryl can actually be a female’s name too 
Best of luck this semester!
Happy Holidays
Another semester has wrapped up, exams have been written, assignments have all been handed in and students can sit back and breathe a sigh of relief for a couple of weeks while your instructors mark furiously over the holidays!
Enrolment keys for Winter 2010 courses have been sent out and courses will be available for students to access as of January 4, 2010. Then the fun all begins anew :)
We hope you found your online course(s) informative, easy to navigate, and well supported over this past semester and that you will be continuing on to take more online courses from College of the Rockies in the future. The Education Technology Centre’s wishes this holiday season are for speedy response times, limited Moodle outages, and a smooth semester!
However you are celebrating during this holiday season - we wish you the very best and look forward to having you back in the New Year!
Best wishes,
The Educational Technology Centre
(Darryl, Ed, Gina, Jesse).
Checking Your Grades
If you are taking an online course, you undoubtedly have been tracking your marks throughout the semester through the “grades” feature of Moodle. If you are unfamiliar with this feature you can see the link to your grades in the “Administration” block of any of your online courses.
When you click on the “grades” link, you are brought to a page showing the “user report” for the specific course you are currently in. This user report shows your mark for each assignment/quiz as well as any feedback you may have received from your instructor.
What you may not have noticed, however, is that in the drop-down menu on the top left hand side of the page you are given the option to go to the “overview report”. This “overview” allows you to see your current grade for all of your active online courses in one spot. If you want details of the grades for a specific course, click on that course name in the overview report and it will bring you to the user report for that course, with the marks for each assignment and quiz clearly outlined - along with the feedback.
Good luck as you finish off the Fall 2009 semester! We hope you’ll take more online courses in the New Year!
Office 2007 Tips
Have you started using Office 2007 recently? If so, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that there have been a lot of changes to the software. Following you’ll find a couple of quick tips to help navigate around.
Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar - this toolbar contains buttons for frequently used commands and can be found right beside the yellow Office button on the top right corner of your screen. The default settings include a save icon and an undo icon. The third icon varies depending on the software you are using (Word, Excel, etc.). You may find, however, that you would like quick access to other commands such as Print Preview or Spelling & Grammar. You can add these icons by clicking the ‘Customize Quick Access Toolbar’ drop-down arrow on the right-hand side of the toolbar and adding command buttons from the list that displays. You can also choose to have the toolbar display where it currently sits - above the ‘ribbon’ or move it so it displays below the ‘ribbon’.
Hiding the Ribbon - speaking of the ribbon (the large strip of visual commands that enables you to perform tasks and includes categories like the clipboard, font, etc.), if you are creating a large document or worksheet, you may find that the Ribbon takes up too much space and interferes with proper viewing of your document. You can hide a large portion of the Ribbon by double-clicking the active tab (ie. Home) to hide all the groups and commands. When you want to display the entire Ribbon, you would once again double-click the active tab. You can also minimize and maximize the Ribbon by pressing Ctrl + F1.
Using Keyboard Shortcuts - like the option of just pressing Ctrl + F1 to make something happen? You can use keyboard shortcuts for the commands on the Ribbon as well. If you don’t know what the shortcuts are, you can just press on the Alt key - this will display the Ribbon and the Quick Access Toolbar with shortcuts called Key Tips. The key tip is the letter or number that diplays over each feature and is the keyboard equivalent that you press (i.e. Ctrl + C allows you to copy text).
There are a few simple tips that will hopefully be helpful as you navigate through Office 2007. Good luck!
What in the world is a NanoGong?
NanoGong is a tool that can be used to record, playback and save your voice in any Moodle application that uses the text editor. To use NanoGong you should have either speakers and a microphone hooked up to your computer or (preferably) a headset with attached microphone. If using a stand-alone microphone, you will want to speak loudly, clearly and record in a room with very minimal background noise.
Some instructors require that students in online courses use NanoGong – especially those teaching language courses or other courses that are enhanced through verbal content. NanoGong, however, is available to any student doing an online COTR course as long as the text editor is available. (The text editor is the box that comes up for you to type information into for assignments, forums, etc. There is a tool bar running along top that has a variety of icons and editing options).
The NanoGong icon is the little yellow speaker icon . When you click on this, it opens the sound recorder window. Press the red button to begin recording and then the round button to stop recording. Once you save your forum post, online text assignment, etc., you can then listen to your recording by clicking on the speaker icon.
So, there you have it. Your basic introduction to NanoGong – a cool and useful tool that both faculty and students can access to enhance the online learning experience. Why not give it a try ?
“I can’t open that document!”
A common question I get asked is why someone cannot open a document within their course. It could be a resource from your instructor or an assignment uploaded by one of your classmates. There are several reasons why this could happen and I’ll touch on a few of them here.
Microsoft made some pretty significant changes to their Office Suite (Word, Exel, PowerPoint, etc.) with their latest (2007) version. Those who have an older version of the software cannot open documents saved in the new version (for example, a Word document saved in the 2007 version would have a .docx extension rather than .doc). Those using the 2007 version can Save As an older version - making it likely that anyone with Microsoft Office could open it. Alternatively, the Microsoft site also offers a “Microsoft Compatibility Pack for Word, Excep & PowerPoint 2007“. When downloaded to your computer, this compatibility pack allows you to open the 2007 version of these documents - without purchasing the newest version of the software.
What do you do if you don’t have Microsoft Office Suite? Does that mean that you can not open documents created using this software? Not at all. There is a cool open-source, free software available called Open Office. Using Open Office allows you to create word processed documents, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. If you create a document using Open Office, you can then choose “Save As” and save your document in a format that can be easily read by your instructor or fellow students using Microsoft Office (ie. An Open Office word processed document can be saved as “Microsoft Word97/2000/XP (.doc)”. This will allow Microsoft Office users to easily open your document.) As an Open Office user, you can also open documents saved by others using Microsoft Office within your Open Office software.
Often your instructor will have resources within your course that are saved as PDFs (.pdf) or portable document format. This format was created by Adobe Systems to allow documents to be shared and opened regardless of the users software, hardware or operating system. In order to be able to open and read PDF documents, however, you do need to have Adobe Reader installed on your computer. This is a free download from a well-respected, safe source. As with most software, there are regular updates that are required, so you may be prompted from time to time to check for updates or to install updates.
I hope this helps to clear up some of the mystery behind why some people run into trouble opening documents. Click on the links above if you would like more information on any of the software options I have mentioned.
Good luck!
What’s an RSS??
You may have heard of RSS or RSS Feeds or you might have seen them in your online course or on various websites (including this one!). What exactly is RSS, though? RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” or sometimes “Rich Site Summary”. But what does that MEAN? Basically, RSS allows the user to stay on top of the websites that most interest them without having to visit each website individually or sign up for the site’s email newsletter.
RSS is a format for delivering to YOU, the user, regularly changing web content. It is a great benefit for readers who want to subscribe to updates from their favourite websites or for those who wish to have updates from many sites all go to one place.
How does it work? You will need to use a RSS Feed Reader or New Aggregator. There are plenty of free options available online including ones from My Yahoo and Google Reader. Once you have your Feed Reader, you just need to find sites that have an RSS option (look for the little orange box 
) and add them to the list of feeds that your Reader checks. It’s really that simple! So now you can get all your breaking news, celebrity gossip - oh and pertinent information for all of your classes - delivered to one place!
Faculty can simply add RSS feeds to their online courses to provide students with regular updates from any variety of educational sites, blogs, etc. A great value-added option for your online students!
