Author Archives: Kris McElroy

Pasting Text from Word to myLesley

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In this Agent L episode, faculty overcome stubborn and ugly formatting in myLesley.

BenBen Friday: Agent L, we’ve had reports of faculty not being able to reformat their content in myLesley. We believe it may be a new GITS (Gremlins in the System) plot.

Agent L: GITS? Are you sure? What exactly is happening?agent L

Ben: Faculty copy their content from MS Word and paste it into myLesley. Then they can’t change the formatting. If they try to change the font or size, nothing happens. It must be GITS trying to sabotage their work.

Agent L: Ben, I don’t think this is GITS. It’s just a mismatch between Word and myLesley. Word creates text that is meant to be printed out while myLesley creates text meant to be viewed on the web. Behind the scenes, this looks and acts very different.

Word vs. web code

Agent L: When faculty copy their text from Word, all of Word’s print code comes with it and myLesley doesn’t know how to read it. We just need to translate that copied text for myLesley.

Ben: How do we do that?

Agent L: Easy. Just clear the formatting. Select the text you wish to reformat. Then click the Remove Formatting button at the end of the first row of the text editor tools.

remove formatting tool

Agent L: Voila! myLesley will clear the troublesome Word formatting and you can now format your text as you wish.

Ben: That’s brilliant! And so easy!

Agent L: Think nothing of it. It’s all in a day’s work for an agent.

Check back for Agent L’s next exciting mission. For more information on using the text editor in myLesley, see the case file on the Agent Support site.

Creative Commons: Can I Use That?

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Has your class kicked off, but you still need some last minute images to reinforce a certain topic? Do your students need to do a presentation that will involve images or media? Planning to just grab stuff off Google?

stop

Just because an image, video or even PDF is online, doesn’t mean that you can use it or share it in your course. Much of this content is copyrighted and you shouldn’t use it without permission from the owner. THOU SHALT NOT VIOLATE COPYRIGHT. “But what about fair use? I’m using it for my course,” you say. Fair use may cover your situation, but the guidelines can be tricky to navigate and you may want to consult your local librarian for assistance.

Fortunately, there’s another option… a free, completely legal option that doesn’t run afoul of copyright. Creative Commons.

Creative Commons is an alternative to copyright that allows individuals to easily share their work with others and to specify how that work can be used. An author or artist can allow you to use and share their work as long as you acknowledge them, but not allow you to edit it. Other authors may allow you to remix and reuse as much as you wish as long as you aren’t making money from it. Look for the Creative Commons – Some Rights Reserved icon.
creative commons

Click on it to get the details on how you can use the work.

Want more info?
Digital ID has a great, easy to read guide written by an educator, not a lawyer. Can I Use That? explains:

  • what Creative Commons is,
  • how to find Creative Commons content that you can use,
  • how to cite Creative Commons licensed content and
  • how to license your own work .

For a quick overview of Creative Commons, check out their short video below.

Faculty Development Community at Lesley

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A new faculty community has been created in myLesley as a central place to share information and events from the Dean of Faculty Office and eLearning and Instructional Support. The community is still a work in progress so if there’s content you want to see and would find helpful please let us know.

A key element of the Faculty Development community will be events calendar. The calendar will list events sponsored by the Center for Teaching, Learning and Scholarship, eLearning and Instructional Support, Faculty Development and the Provost Office. We will also post relevant events by other Lesley offices.

To access the Faculty Development at Lesley community, log into myLesley. Click on the “my community” tab at the top. Look for Faculty Development at Lesley in the list and click on the title.my organizations To access the events calendar, click on Faculty Calendar in the left-hand menu.faculty calendar link

Want to add the Faculty Development calendar to your own calendar such as Outlook, Office 365, Google, or your iOS or Android phone? Simply scroll to the bottom of the myLeslsy calendar and click Get External Calendar Link. get external link

Copy the link for the myLesley calendar and add it to your personal calendar. See the instructions on our support site to learn how to add the calendar link to many of the most popular calendar tools.

Using Announcements to Communicate With Your Students

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In this episode, Agent L aids faculty to outsmart Gremlins in the System (aka GITS) and get students to their first day of class.

ben fridayBen Friday: Agent L, you have a new mission. GITS have struck again. They have managed to rearrange all the room scheduling. Classes start next week and the faculty are in a bit of a pickle. They need to contact their students as soon as possible with the new room locations. How will you handle this? Will you go undercover as a GITS agent? Maybe reprogram their systems? What about…?agent L

Agent L: Wait… Ben, have you heard of Announcements?

Ben Friday: Announcements? What’s that? Some new fiendish plot from GITS?

Agent L: Announcements is a tool in myLesley. Faculty can easily send out timely information to their students whenever they need to. Simply log into your myLesley course and click the Create Announcement button.
create announcement

 

 

Type in a Subject for your Announcement and the Message.
create an announcement

Ben Friday: But what if the students don’t log into the course site between now and class time?

Agent L: Announcements can be emailed to them. The instructors don’t even need to know the students’ email addresses. Just scroll below the Message area to the Web Announcement Options section and check the Email Announcement box.
email announcement

Click Submit and every member of the course will now have a copy in their inbox.

Ben Friday: That’s brilliant Agent L. I’ll spread the word.

Agent L: Maybe via an Announcement (smirk).

Check back for Agent L’s next exciting mission. For more information on how to use Announcements, see the instructions on the Agent Support site or view the video below.

myLesley Upgrade in August 2015

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myLesley is being upgraded to the latest version of Blackboard (Blackboard Learn 9.1 October 2014 Release). The upgrade will begin at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, August 26th and will last until the morning of Friday, August 28th.

What does this mean to you?
During the upgrade, you will not be able access to myLesley. However, LOIS, email, and other Lesley systems will remain available and unaffected.

What’s changing in myLesley?
There will be no major changes to myLesley with this upgrade which means no new tools to learn how to use. Instead, this upgrade is intended to fix minor errors and improve the overall performance of the system.

Should I do anything to prepare?
It’s always a good idea to have a backup of your course materials. You may wish to archive your course(s) prior to the upgrade just in case. You can find instructions for doing this on the Lesley Support site.

We also recommend that you closely review your course content after the upgrade to ensure everything is behaving as intended.

We don’t expect any issues, but it’s good to be prepared.

For the most recent information on the upgrade, please check the myLesley Upgrade page at: http://tinyurl.com/myLesleyUpgrade