LearnTech News May 2013

NILE Updates

NILE Upgrade
Between July 21st 3pm BST and July 22nd 3am BST , NILE will be upgraded to the latest version. For any issues with timings please contact Rob Howe
More details at: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/2013/05/05/nile-summer-upgrade-2013/

2013/14 NILE sites now available
The 2013/14 NILE sites are now available to use and area based on the template discussed at SSECs
More details at: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/2013/03/13/201314-nile-site-templates/

Organising your courses and modules in the sites box within NILE
To make ‘My Sites’ far more useable, click the cog icon at the top right – then tick the box next to ‘Group by Term’ to arrange sites by academic year.  You may also wish to untick any sites you do not need to see on the homepage; and/or click and drag in the first column to change the order the sites are listed in.
More details at: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/2013/05/07/organise-your-my-sites-box-on-your-nile-homepage/

Planning for 2013/14 NILE sites
Rachel McCart is working with the team till July to assist academic staff with migrating and setting up NILE sites for the 2013/14 academic year. She is specifically, administrating site copies, merging modules and setting up Turnitin for 13/14 NILE modules – requests for work on modules within the current academic year are being dealt with by the rest of the team.
For more details: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/2013/03/13/201314-nile-site-templates/

Assisting with status updates and Turnitin submissions
The LearnTech team have added a widget in the top right corner of the NILE screen to display the current time and date in the UK. This is to help overseas students to determine the correct deadlines to work to for online submission.
We have also added a box on the login page to notify users that the NILE and Turnitin services are (or are not) working normally. We will change the image to a red cross if there are any problems with either of the systems. At all other times a green tick will be displayed.

New Library Account Service
The new ‘My Library Account’ box embeds live library account information onto your NILE homepage.
More details: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/2013/04/17/new-%E2%80%98my-library-account%E2%80%99-service/

LearnTech Training

LearnTech Training sessions
A range of training to assist staff with SaGE, NILE and other learning technologies is now available.
More details at: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/2013/04/24/learntech-training-may-june-2013/

Video – Out with the old and in with the new

The University has now acquired the Kaltura Video Streaming platform which is used by institutions worldwide and will provide a solid base for future work involving video along with a tight integration into NILE. As part of the migration to this new tool, LearnTech are phasing out the old Video Library Server (VLS) which has been used in the past. All those who have uploaded content onto this service have been contacted and advised on the process to transfer files.
For an overview of Kaltura please look at http://corp.kaltura.com/  

SaGE (Submission and Grading Electronically)

Results of SaGE survey and further planning
SaGE survey and feedback are now available on the SaGE blog
More details at: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/sage/2013/05/05/sage-survey-findings-and-moving-forward/

Mobile Updates

Results of 2012/13 mobile survey
The results of the 2012/13 mobile survey are now available and are informing future developments of iNorthampton and mobile services more generally at Northampton.
More details at: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/2013/04/19/2013-mobile-survey-%E2%80%93-response-and-actions/

LearnTech Staffing and Communications update

Since the last newsletter, Rob Davis has left the team and been replaced by Simon Thompson. Simon will pick up responsibilities as key contact for Social Sciences.
Rachel McCart is working with the team till July to assist staff with migrating and setting up NILE sites for the 2013/14 academic year. She is specifically, administrating site copies, merging modules and setting up Turnitin for 13/14 NILE modules – requests for work on modules within the current academic year are being dealt with by the rest of the team.
The full team list is at: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/info/200309/technology-enhanced-learning/1160/contact-us

New Email
A new support email address has been created for the team for any Learning Technology related issues (LearnTech@northampton.ac.uk) . All emails sent to the old LTSupport email address are now being forwarded on to the new address.