SBU will be setting Echo360 to automatically produce Automatic Speech Recognition after a recording is finished. This will bring it into line with Zoom and VoiceThread which already do this.
If the instructor would like to turn this back off, they can follow this link:
After you click on Assignment Builder you will have options of VT assignment types:
This is from the Bb listserv. I thought it might be of interest.
I submitted a support ticket to Bb Support and after submission it gives
you potentially related articles. One of those was a Nov 06,2015 “Article
No.- 000041338- Assessment Images and Other Attached Files Cannot be Viewed
While Inside a Test After Display Until Time”:
https://blackboard.secure.forc
So our particular issue has been around for a while and doesn’t appear is
planned to be fixed anytime soon.
Jeffrey Ries
Applications Administrator/LMS
IT-Educational Technology & Media Services
University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa
This blog entry is going to focus on the options in Blackboard that have to do with the timing of an test.
When you are first creating the Test.. these options are found under the Test Information area and span a few sections. If you have already made the test you can find these options by clicking the chevron next to the test name and clicking “Edit the Test Options”.
When you set this option, if the student looses the connection or accidentally closes the browser, they will be unable to go back and finish the test. (Without you having to intervene anyway.) We don’t recommend enabling this setting.
This option gives the student a visible countdown timer during the test. It begins after the test description and instructions have been displayed. If Auto-Submit is selected, at the end of the count down, it ends the test, no matter where they were. If Auto-Submit is not checked, you will see an exclamation point in the grade center and have the option to adjust the grade, if they went long.
If the Force Completion is not set, and a student looses their connection or accidentally closes the browser, they will be able to continue taking the test, and the timer will continue from when it initially started. (eg., If they loose the connection for 10 minutes, they loose that 10 minutes.)
A better way of handling whether students can see the test, rather than the “Make the Link Available” option. Also consider, they can’t start what they cannot see. *So if you want everyone to be done by 1pm and you have a 30 minute timer with auto-submit enabled, consider Display Until to end around 12:30.
Due dates (and times) do not affect the test availability (unless you choose the Do not allow students to start the Test if the due date has passed option), but rather provide a flag on the test if it was started or ended after the due date/time.
This section allows you to make test rule exceptions for people that need accommodations, or have other needs depending on language or technology situations.
If these settings exist for a test or survey, you can create these exceptions:
Have any interesting testing stories to tell? What other testing options do you have questions about? Please comment below!
This blog is a cross post from https://you.stonybrook.edu/academictechnologyservices
“Force Completion is one of those functions that sounds like it will be useful, but really is just a way of going swimming in cement boots.”
This is about using a echo360 mashup tool to accept video submissions inside of Blackboard and which instructor will be able to grade under Needs Grading in the Grade Center. This is an excellent alternative to high stakes grading via traditional exams.
First you will want to create an assignment. You will go to your Assignments area and go to Assessments -> Assignment.
Give it a name and add instructions for the students to follow.
Create a due date and points possible for the presentation.
Make the assignment available to the students.
Submit.
What the students see: (You can also see this yourself using the student preview mode, entered by clicking on this icon in the upper right part of the screen in blackboard: 
Under assignments, they locate your assignment and click in it’s name.
They see the points possible and the instructions that you wrote previously.
They need to click on Write Submission to get to the Blackboard WYSIWYG editor. They should type the name of their assignment into this text box and then select the Mashups button.
Then they click on Mashups -> Echo360 Video Library
This opens a new window for them where they have three choices. They can choose any video already in their echo360 video library. (That is Choose From My Home), they can create something new (Create New Media) or Upload a video they have on their computer. This is what the different options look like:
Choose from home allows the student to either browse or search for files in their echo360 library.
Create New Media will give them the option to Launch Universal Capture from their computer.
Where they can name the video and start recording from their webcam, desktop and audio.
and finally Upload Existing:
Here they can grab videos from their cloud storage locations or browse from their computer.
After they have typed the name of their presentation and selected the video, they will click submit.
After submitting they will get a submission confirmation:
As the instructor, you can find the student submission under Needs Grading in the Grade Center:
…where I will see the list of submitted assignments and I can either chose Grade All or go through them one by one. Here is the assignment I submitted and you can view the presentation, grade it and leave feedback for the learner right here.
It now allows for live streaming!
I’ve done some tests already. I’m seeing a 10 sec lag on what comes out of my mouth and what comes through the stream. The screen share seems about 3 seconds ahead of my camera’s live video. There is a 15 secondish lag between when you start streaming and the stream actually begins.
I was testing on a laptop that had a hard wire connection to my router at home… the receiving computer was on the wireless.
Here is their documentation which includes technical requirements:
https://learn.echo360.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041458112
I will be doing more tests… but this is awesome news for additional options for synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning!
You don’t have to download a new version of the software. If you have never used it before, the software can be downloaded from echo360.org with your netid and password.
More to follow!
Zoom has been around a while. Many people already have used it, even if their company or school never had it as their official web conferencing platform. Because we have had to suggest that all users be authenticated, it is important that you are arriving in the room with the correct account.
Inside the zoom app, check that you are logged in with your stonybrook.edu email address.
You can see that in the upper right. If you are not, select switch account, and login through SSO. (Not Google)
You made a room from Zoom Meetings in Blackboard. You know it has a forced password. You know students will be logging into Blackboard to find the link. Isn’t that enough to prevent others from joining? And when I say others, I mean truly foul people who apparently have nothing better to do with their time then really and truly mess up your whole class. Nope. We have to do more
After creating your room in Blackboard, leave Blackboard, and sign back into zoom at stonybrook.zoom.us. Your room will be listed under meetings. Click on the name, go to the bottom on the page and click edit meeting. Just above there, in meeting options, you will find the “only authenticated users can join” option. stonybrook.edu will pre-populate for you. This will force them to use a stonybrook.edu email address and they can no longer be anonymous in the session.
Please note that this means that guest speakers from outside the University will not be able to join. Nor would high school students be able to participate. See other methods for tightening up security below the screenshot.
“Require a password when scheduling new meetings” – this is locked on. So you’re good.
“Require a password for Instant Meetings” – default this is on.
“Require a password for Personal Meeting ID” – default this is off.
In addition, you can disable the setting called “Embed password in meeting link for one-click join”. This means you will have to provide the password in a separate communication from the meeting link. This is much less convenient, but is a deterrent to unwanted visitors.
Consider having a Co-Host to handle these items during the meeting.
Shut Down the Meeting
After having said all that…. don’t you wish people were just nicer??
Polling. I love polling. It allows you to engage with a large group of students and comes with all sorts of side reasons to use.. assessment, active learning, demographics, attendance, etc.
But, we are strongly encouraging remote learning these days, as well as asynchronous learning. This means recording things. Turns out that zoom cuts polls clean out during a recording. The screen that is pops up in isn’t part of the recording, and even if you share your display and the poll is on your display when open and as you go through the results, that window is not part of the recording either.
argh. You could speak the poll question and verbally go over the findings, they just won’t be able to see anything or participate. So… perhaps a good time to bring Turning Technologies back into the mix??
Let me know what you think in the comments.