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"Bug Zapper"
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A supplier update patch has been applied to the NILE Blogs and Wikis tools, in order to rectify the bug which prevented certain content being posted when using Windows 7 operating system and Internet Explorer 9. Full functionality is now restored without the need to run IE9 in IE8 compatibility mode.
The original bug was reported on this blog posting
Some images saved from the web, particularly on Windows 7 computers, are saved without the file extension. So for example when you look at a jpeg image file on your computer, you will see the filename, but without the .jpg extension on the end. If you upload this image in to NILE, it’s possible that it will not display properly, and you will see a red ‘x’ in its place (as below).
To work around this, please ensure that your file has the correct extension. If it does not, rename the file and add the appropriate extension before uploading.
Please note that this issue does not seem to apply to Macs, which save file type information in a different way. We would still recommend though that mac users add file extensions before uploading files to NILE, so that the files can also be accessed by Windows users if necessary.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Did you know that you can now change the order of the modules you are enrolled on in NILE?
By default, the courses and modules you’re enrolled on are listed alphabetically in the My Modules box on the front page of NILE. If you are enrolled on lots of courses, this list can sometimes get unmanageable. Now you can re-order the list, to show your most used sites at the top.
To do this, first click on the cog icon at the top right of the My Modules box:
Then click and hold the arrows on the left of a course name to drag it up or down in the list, and click Submit to save your changes:
We have recently discovered that some assistive technologies do not work well with Turnitin. Screen readers like JAWS work when non-standard settings are selected, but are hard to follow and navigate.
So, if you anticipate asking a student with additional needs to submit their work online, please contact the team for advice, at least two weeks before the first submission is due.
Please be aware that there is currently a minor issue for Firefox users who are editing Campus Pack Blogs and Wikis in NILE modules. This issue does not affect users of Internet Explorer, Safari or Chrome, and does not affect the editing of Campus Pack Blogs and Wikis in MyPAD.
Problem: The majority of the text editor functions currently work as expected, however, Firefox users are unable to change either the font family or the font size.
Current Solution or workaround: Use either Internet Explorer, Chrome or Safari when editing Campus Pack Blogs and Wikis in NILE modules
Affected: Campus Pack Blogs and Wikis in NILE Modules.
Unaffected: Campus Pack Blogs and Wikis in MyPAD.
Affected: Firefox (Mac and PC)
Unaffected: Internet Explorer; Safari (Mac and PC); Chrome (Mac and PC)*
*Please note that the Opera web browser is not supported when using Campus Pack Blogs and Wikis both in NILE modules and in MyPAD.
Tested on: Internet Explorer v.8 on PC; Firefox v.8 on Mac and PC; Safari v.5 on Mac and PC; Chrome v.15 on Mac and PC; Opera v.11 on PC
The following bug has been brought to our attention today. Some files created in MS Word 2007, which have charts pasted in from Excel, cannot be reopened by other users because the chart corrupts the file. This results in the following error when you attempt to open the file:
According to Microsoft website this is a known issue with Office 2007. You can see more details about this on Microsoft’s support website.
This error has affected some tutors wanting to download student assignments that have been submitted through NILE. For files submitted to Turnitin, there is a workaround for this, which is to choose to download the submitted files in PDF format rather than the original (.docx) format. You may also be able to open the files using Word 2010 if you have access to this. Please note that this bug does not seem to affect those using the online grading tool (Grademark).
We would also recommend that any members of staff asking students to submit files containing charts should advise them to convert their file to PDF (e.g. using the Save As PDF option in Word) before submitting it.
If you encounter this error and would like advice, please contact the team.
It has come to our attention that the latest versions of the Apple Mac operating system will open open PDF files from NILE if they are set to open in a new window.
If you add PDF files using the Create File option (clicking on the ‘Create Item’ button and then on ‘File’ in the dropdown), we recommend that you use the setting to open the file in a new window, as this seems to solve the problem.
You may want to add a note on the page to let your users know to expect the files to open in a new tab or window.
If you have any questions about this please contact the team.
During the start of the 2011 academic year, the Learning Technology team noticed an issue with staff and students receiving high numbers of old announcements from NILE. Whilst the problem was investigated, we took the decision to reduce the notification functionality.
We have been working with the supplier to investigate the problem in more detail and believe the problem is now solved and we have reactivated the full notification system.
Staff will now notice that when they post important announcements, they will see the ability to push these out to student’s email accounts again regardless of individual notification settings:
Tutors can use the announcements feature in modules on NILE to post important messages about a course or module (e.g. room changes, information on assignments etc.). Students will be able to see these announcements when logging into NILE. It is also possible to receive these via email, by making changes to personal notification settings.
Should staff or students wish to subscribe to these emails, they may need to modify their notification settings (by default most email notifications are set to ‘off’ to prevent unwanted emails being sent out to users). If you are not sure how to do this, please watch the video or follow the steps below:
To edit your preferences, go to the ‘My Places’ link at the top of any screen in NILE, and click on ‘Edit Notification Settings’. From here you have a few options:
- ‘Edit General Settings’ controls whether you receive individual emails, or a daily digest. There is also a shortcut to switch due date reminders on and off (please note these reminders depend on the tutor specifying a due date when an item is added in NILE)
- ‘Individual Module/Organisation Settings’ lets you choose what type of notifications you will receive for each module (e.g. new announcements, new content added, new message on blogs or discussion forums etc.)
- ‘Bulk Module Settings’ allows you to set your preferences for all of your modules at once.
For more details on the notification features in NILE, see the Notifications Dashboard guide.
If you notice large numbers of old announcements being sent to your email account then please email LTSupport@northampton.ac.uk with your username and details of the announcements which are being received.
Please note this bug has now been rectified and no longer exists.
We’ve become aware of an issue affecting the use of blogs and wikis, when the user is working in Internet Explorer version 9, on a Windows 7 operating system. At present users will be unable to save posts or comments if they are using this version of the Internet Explorer web browser.
We are currently working with the software providers to resolve this issue, and will let you know as soon as we have any more information. In the meantime if this issue is affecting you, some of these issues can be resolved by setting IE9 to run in IE8 compatibility mode when using NILE:
Alternatively, you could download and install an alternative browser to use. The Learning Technology team recommend Mozilla Firefox for use with NILE. You can download this for free from the Mozilla website, and it works on both PCs and Macs.
Why have I suddenly got two blog tools appearing in my NILE site?
The blog tools that we have always had in NILE are actually plug-ins (that is, they are made by a different software company to the people who make NILE, and are literally ‘plugged in’ to the NILE platform). If you have used blogs in the past, you will be familiar with the ones that look like this:
These tools are still available for you to use – you will see this option referred to as ‘Campus Pack blog’ in the tools list in your NILE sites. Sadly though this tool does not yet work so well with the mobile version of NILE in the new iNorthampton app. So for those of you who would prefer your students to be able to blog on the move, we have also switched on the blogging tools that are built in to NILE. You will now see extra options for ‘Blogs’ (or Blog Link from the Collaborate button) and ‘Journals’ in your NILE site.
What’s the difference?
The built-in blog tools are better at some things, and worse at others, in comparison to the Campus Pack plug-in blogs. Here are the main things you need to know:
- Both tools will allow you to have a group blog, or a private blog that can only be seen by the individual and the tutor. In the Campus Pack blog this is a setting in the blog tool when you create it, whereas the built-in version has two separate tools for this – the ‘blog’ tool for open groups or shared individual blogs, and the ‘journal’ tool for private individual or group blogging.
- If you are dividing your students into groups within your NILE site, the built in tools will allow you to create a blog and/or journal for each group when you create the group. With the Campus Pack tools, you have to do this separately – create the groups first, then create the blogs and allocate them.
- Both tools will allow you to create a column in the grade centre and specify grades for students’ work. The built-in blog and journal tools will allow you to add grades within the blog itself, while you’re checking the posts. This feature is not available in the Campus pack tool.
The built in tools do not currently have an RSS or email subscription option, or an export option, and they do not have granular permission levels (for example, allowing non-members to view a group blog). If you need this kind of granularity, please ask the team for advice.- The built in blog and journal tools are easy to access on a smartphone, via the iNorthampton app. The Campus Pack blogs do not currently display well in mobile browsers.
Tell us what you think
If you are a regular user of blogs in NILE, we’d love to hear your thoughts on either or both of these tools. Please send us any questions or comments at: LTSupport@northampton.ac.uk.
Switching tools off in NILE
Don’t forget that if you only want to use one of these tools, you can switch the other one off to avoid confusion (or if you prefer, you can switch off both!). To do this, go to your Control Panel and click on Customisation, and then Tool Availability. Remove the ticks for any of the tools you don’t use in your site.
