Global Classroom

Moodle 2.0

2011-03-08T12:47:00.003-05:00

In September of 2010, Moodle announced a new version of their product, Moodle 2.0, full of exciting new features and improvements. The newest version of our product (currently in development) will be powered by Moodle 2.0 technology.

Here is a 2 minute youtube video highlighting various aspects of Moodle 2.o.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo7hImBMiHY

Global Classroom Security

2011-01-19T14:31:00.004-05:00

We are pleased to announce that all Global Classroom product web traffic is now secured with the encrypted communication protocol HTTPS. These types of connections (used with online transactions and transmission of sensitive data) will be available on every page you visit and every action you make with Global Classroom.

If you have links to outside resources, you may see security warnings on your browser. Don't panic! This is a notice that lets you know that a resource on the page is being obtained using the un-encrypted communication protocol HTTP, which is used universally across the internet.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-21T13:02:00.002-05:00

Happy Holidays to all! In observance, the Global Classroom office will be closed on December 24th and January 31st. If you have any questions during these days, send an email to rwillis@globalclassroom.us.

New Feature: Custom Background Color

2010-12-06T10:10:00.003-05:00

eSchool Administrators now have the ability to customize their background color! If you click the "My Courses" button on the navigation bar, there is a new link in your portrait block called eSchool Customizations. This will bring up a color picker where you can select any color on the spectrum, or enter your own custom hex code. Click the Set Color button, and your color will be saved!

New Feature: Invite to Your Course

2010-11-08T16:32:00.004-05:00

Invite to Your Course, a new course block, has been installed for current and future collaborative eSchools that will help streamline course enrollment for Teachers. eSchool Administrators can request this feature to be added to their courses automatically.

This block will appear in the upper right corner of a Teacher's course page, viewable ONLY by a Teacher. When a Teacher enters a student's email address and clicks the Invite! button, the student will receive an email with instructions on how to register on your eSchool, and all of the relevant course information for your course, including your name, profile photo, and email address.

More information regarding course enrollment can be found here. If you have any questions regarding this new feature, please email rwillis@globalclassroom.us.

Update: Moodle Video with HTML5

2010-11-02T13:47:00.002-04:00

Global Classroom is pleased to announce that our Moodle Video resource has been enhanced to use browser-dependent HTML5 video technology for playback! As you upload and play videos in a video-enabled eSchool or on any of our eClassroom solutions, you may see a different display then the default flowplayer playback. This is our new HTML5 and javascript powered video player, powered by http://videojs.com/. It should load videos faster without the need for a third-party plugin. Here are some other features:

Use of HTML5 technology for video playback, with a flash based flowplayer fallback.
Can show or hide video for students.
Allows both teachers and admins to download videos.
Browser-dependent support for numerous video types, such as mp4, m4v, mov, and limited webm and ogv formats.

For more information on web video, please visit the Web Video Guide on our support site.

For information for instructors wanting to use the video resource, visit our Instructor How-To.

To request video, or for any further questions, please contact us at rwillis@globalclassroom.us.

New Feature: Course Repair

2010-10-21T13:54:00.003-04:00

Global Classroom is pleased to announce a new course feature, "Repair", located in the Administration block in a course. This tool is designed to fix malformed references to questions, resources, sections, labels, and events within a course. Previous versions of Moodle have had trouble properly backing up data within courses, and this feature was created to address this problem.

If you have any questions, please contact rwillis@globalclassroom.us.

Performance on Cirrus

2010-10-08T13:52:00.003-04:00

We are pleased to announce that with a recent hardware upgrade, Cirrus is performing at a optimal level. If you haven't had a chance to test out Cirrus since our upgrade, we encourage you to do so. You should notice that typical Moodle actions and overall Cirrus management runs smoothly. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Russell Willis at 866-824-8365.

2010-09-01T16:30:00.007-04:00

Ethics By Design announces the launch of Managing Corporate Integrity, its flagship ethics course on Global Classroom. "This course is devoted to the task of developing effective ethics policies in organizations of all shapes and sizes," says Dr. Michael Palmer, author and facilitator of the course. Palmer added, "Good ethics programs

help protect the organization against fraud, theft, and other misconduct by employees and other stakeholders;

build trust among all stakeholders, improving the cooperation that is essential to business success; and

improve the quality of decision making throughout the organization.

"We chose the name 'Ethics By Design' to convey the idea that ethics in organizations must be intentional, something leaders build into the architecture of the business. The idea is to use scientific principles of social and organizational psychology to make sure your company is as good as you are."

Managing Corporate Integrity is a self-paced, on-line course which has been approved for 48 general re-certification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR re-certification through the HR Certification Institute. The course equips HR Professionals and other business leaders with the knowledge and resources needed to develop ethics policies that exceed the requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley and Federal Sentencing Guidelines and form the foundation for growing an ethical culture in any business organization no matter how large or small. (More information on the course is available at www.ethicsbydesign.com.)

A business in which good work, honesty, and fairness are the consistent standards of behavior and decisions - for individuals as well as the company - will have better performance, lower costs, higher profitability, and greater longevity than comparable organizations in which mediocrity, slipshod performance, expediency, short cuts, or sleazy behavior are acceptable. This is not a supposition. Numerous scientific studies support this conclusion, and it is even more the case in financially challenging times. When money is tight, bankers are more likely to lend to an unquestionably honest and trustworthy company than one that cuts ethical corners for short-term gain.

The authors of a 1995 Chamber of Commerce study found that 30% of all business failures are the result of fraud and theft. The major cause of sluggishness in business is employee disengagement, which leads to absenteeism, low productivity, high turnover, and even sabotage - all causes of mediocre financial performance or worse. Both misconduct and disengagement come about when employees feel that they are not involved in a meaningful and emotionally rewarding endeavor or that they are disrespected and treated unfairly. Neglect of ethics leads to misconduct that gives rise to lawsuits, the most exasperating negative return on investment there is.

Ethics By Design also developed The Corporate Integrity Checklist, which may be the only code of conduct your small business ever needs. The company expects to offer a course on this program through Global Classroom shortly.

Appearance Upgrade for Cirrus

2010-08-31T16:56:00.002-04:00

Starting after midnight tonight, Global Classroom's Cirrus platform will have a new and improved look! Our theme upgrade includes enhanced performance in all browsers and larger font and icon sizes to improve viewing, especially when projected on a whiteboard or screen in the classroom setting. Site functionality will not be affected.

Note: The new theme will have a slightly different appearance for Internet Explorer users than in other browsers.

Thanks for using Global Classroom!

Champlain/HR Sentry

2010-08-11T15:49:00.017-04:00

Managing the human resources function of a business or organization can be a real challenge; Ensuring that your workplace is a safe and welcoming place for all employees, keeping the right people and managing them for optimal performance, these are all best practices that need to be supported.

Using best HR practices protects your organization from risk and creates an environment that promotes retention, productivity, inclusion, and fairness. Champlain College has teamed up with nationally-known human resource expert HRSentry® to bring you four instructor-led training opportunities.

These workshops are facilitated by human resource experts, yet are completely asynchronous so you may attend the sessions at whatever time of day is convenient for you.

Best Value! Save 25% by enrolling in all 4 workshops!

Coming Soon!

301: Motivating Employees for Optimal Performance
Effective Performance Management Systems
(20 PHR, SPHR & GPHR re-certification credits)
5-week series
September 27, 2010

401: Finding and Keeping the Right People
HR Best Practices
(20 PHR, SPHR & GPHR re-certification credits)
5-week series
November 1, 2010

For more information, or to enroll, go to:

www.go.champlain.edu/hrsentry

or call Cathy Brotzman at 802-865-5471, ext 1.

These workshops are pre-approved by the HR Certification Institute, the training arm of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) for PHR, SPHR & GPHR re-certification credits. The use of this seal is not an endorsement by the HR Certification Institute of the quality of the program. It means that this program has met the HR Certification Institute's criteria to be pre-approved for recertification credit.

New Feature: Global Classroom Video

2010-08-02T13:35:00.001-04:00

Global Classroom is proud to announce an easy and effective way to embed and view videos directly in your courses! The process of adding video to a course is now very simple. Just go to “Add a resource...”, and select the new “Video” option. All you need to do is browse for the video on your local hard drive, upload it, and start watching! The features of the video resource include:

Use of flowplayer for playback
Show or hide videos for students
Allow both teachers and admins to download videos
Select a specific aspect ratio
Resize with preset small, medium, or large options
Resize to a custom setting within the current page
Support for any video using H.264 compression, as well as mpg, mp3, mp4, flv, and swf files

We are enabling video for customers on a selective basis. If you are interested in trying out our service, please call 802-881-0656 or email rwillis@globalclassroom.us so we can enable this feature for your eSchool.

2010-07-29T13:46:00.002-04:00

Introducing Cirrus: GlobalExpert

“Every classroom, an eClassroom”

GlobalExpert is our collection of eClassrooms for independent educators and subject matter experts. This product will provide instructors with a fully supported eClassroom for creation of online course content that your students, employees, and customers can access from anywhere.

To sign up for a free trial eClassroom on GlobalExpert, click here.

2010-07-28T13:15:00.003-04:00

Introducing Cirrus: GlobalK12

“Every classroom, an eClassroom”

GlobalK12 is our collection of eClassrooms for K-12 teachers and students. This product allows individual teachers to provide their students with access to course materials in a contained, safe, online setting. This option provides many features of Cirrus for a fraction of the cost of an eSchool.

To sign up for a trial eClassroom on GlobalK12, click here.

2010-07-27T14:07:00.004-04:00

Introducing Cirrus: the eSchool

Global Classroom is pleased to announce the featured product on our Cirrus platform, the eSchool. This product is an online service that provides schools, educators, training organizations and businesses the ability to deliver education online. Global Classroom's eSchool can be branded to your organization and managed online through an administrative dashboard. Students and employees can access lectures, assignments, lessons, and collaborate with other students and the instructor in a centralized online community.

To sign up for a free 60 day trial eSchool, click here.

GlobalClassroom Welcomes HR Workshops Delivered by Champlain College with HRSentry

2010-02-22T10:07:00.002-05:00

Managing the human resources function of a business or organization can be a real challenge; ensuring that your workplace is a safe and welcoming place for all employees, keeping the right people and managing them for optimal performance, these are all best practices that need to be supported.

Using best HR practices protects your organization from risk and creates an environment that promotes retention, productivity, inclusion, and fairness. Champlain College has teamed up with nationally-known human resource expert HRSentry® to bring you four instructor-led training opportunities.

For more information, or to enroll, go to:

www.go.champlain.edu/hrsentry

or call Cathy Brotzman at 802-865-5471, ext 1.

These workshops are pre-approved by the HR Certification Institute, the training arm of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) for PHR, SPHR & GPHR re-certification credits. The use of this seal is not an endorsement by the HR Certification Institute of the quality of the program. It means that this program has met the HR Certification Institute’s criteria to be pre-approved for recertification credit.

What You Must Know About Equal Opportunity in Employment under the Law
What is employment “at will”?
Is it sexual harassment?
What is your diversity IQ?
Is your organization socially responsible?
What is the cost of non-compliance?
(32 PHR, SPHR, & GPHR re-certification credits)

Motivating Employees for Optimal Performance
How can an organization ensure that it has the right people?
How do you ensure good matching of employees’ skills with their job duties?
What can you do when you are faced with performance issues?
Why managers ignore poor performance and what is the impact of doing nothing?
What systems can an organization put in place to measure and support excellent performance?
(20 PHR, SPHR, & GPHR re-certification credits)

Preventing Discrimination in Hiring and Managing Employees
What is Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) and when does it apply?
What NOT to ask in a job interview?
How do you avoid the pitfalls of disparate treatment?
What pre-screening in the interview process is appropriate?
Is your organization using best practices?
(20 PHR, SPHR, & GPHR re-certification credits)

Finding and Keeping the Right People: HR Best Practices
What is the cost of finding the right candidate, including interviewing, processing paperwork, training your new hire?
What is the cost of hiring the wrong candidate?
How do you determine when a new hire is needed?
What is the cost of turnover?
(20 PHR, SPHR, & GPHR re-certification credits)

Add an Audio Drop box to your #Moodle Classroom

2010-02-03T13:55:00.004-05:00

Nathan Hammond (http://mrhammond.com/) alerted me to this very cool (and free) service available at http://clear.msu.edu. It's an audio drop box that you can use to have students submit pronunciations, oral presentations or quick notes, right through your Moodle!

Here's how I set one up:

1. First I visited http://clear.msu.edu/clear/ and setup a free account. (you can also check out their other free products: http://clear.msu.edu/clear/store/)

2. Once your account is activated, login to the site and click on the icon for the Audio Drop Box

3. When you enter, click on the command to create a "new drop box". You'll just need to name it by clicking the edit button.

4. Once it's created, click on the HTML icon to get the HTML embed code (highlight and copy it).

5. Enter your Moodle classroom and either create a new label or web page, or even an "offline assignment" where you'll embed the drop box (if you use an offline assignment you can grade the submissions!).

6. Toggle to the plain text view (<>) and paste in the code! If you did it correctly your Moodle should look something like this:

How nifty is that!?

4 tips for teaching an online class

2010-01-18T13:13:00.003-05:00

Faculty Focus (http://www.facultyfocus.com/ or @facultyfocus) sent this nice newsletter to my inbox this morning. The article is a quick and easy read and focuses on "best practices in online classrooms", specifically four things you should never assume about your students in an online classroom. Here are the four main points with my added thoughts about them (and a few helpful tidbits of info/links):

Don't assume students understand the workings of an online course: in a traditional classroom, students know what their desk, pencils, chalk/white board are for. These things have been part and parcel with learning for a looong time. However, even if a student has taken many online courses, a new online course environment can present hurdles to a smooth and easy learning environment. Layouts and tools differ between platforms and even classrooms on the same system. So when you start out your online course be sure students are comfortable with the system before jumping into the first activities. For your reference, here's our GlobalClassroom student guide to Moodle (which very much mirrors the basic activities and actions in a course on our system): http://www.globalclassroom.us/moodle/course/view.php?id=134 and just in case here's the teacher's guide: http://www.globalclassroom.us/moodle/course/view.php?id=131
Don't assume students have the minimum equipment and/or skill requirements needed to be successful in an online course: this goes for #1 as well (be sure they know how to navigate your system) but beyond that, make sure the computers students are using to access your course, and the software on those computers will render/display all of the resources and activities included in your online course. Flash, Java, PDFs, and even Microsoft Office products can turn great resources into links that don't open or even crash browsers. Make sure that your students understand what computer capabilities your online classroom requires. On GlobalClassroom, we suggest that students and teachers meet these technical requirements.
Don't assume students know how to behave in a web course: whether it's typing in all CAPS, starting off topic discussions, responding with one word answers in discussion forums or missing automatic deadlines; be sure that your students understand the rules and behavioral expectations that they should adhere to online. Like in face to face settings rules sometimes have to be outlined and acknowledged by students. Be clear, be upfront, be proactive.
Don't assume students know the more important rules and regulations in the syllabus: links in online classrooms can be easily ignored, so if there are important rules and regulations in your syllabus (which is posted to your online classroom) be sure to call attention to it, or even build a quick assignment check around it to ensure that students have reviewed it entirely.

Here's a direct link to the article: http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/best-practices-in-online-teaching-dont-assume/. If you're interested, sign up for the daily newsletter via email, I often find their articles instructive and valuable.

What's the easiest way to enroll students into courses on the GlobalClasssroom?

2010-01-15T13:21:00.018-05:00

Q. What's the easiest way to enroll students into my Moodle classroom?

This is one of the most frequent questions I've been asked recently (which is a good thing as more and more teachers are getting up and running with Moodle on GlobalClassroom.us. Here's a run down of the two most efficient ways to enroll students into your classroom. Note that the first way is the fastest way for students to enroll themselves into your course. The second is how you can easily enroll students so that they are already linked to your course the first time logging into GlobalClassroom.

Answer, 1: Student enroll themselves. If you do not have an eSchool with administration rights, the easiest way to enroll students it to have them register manually and sign up for your course by searching.

Once a student has registered at Http://globalclassroom.us, they can login and search for your course using the persistent search located at the top right of their profile page:

Before asking your students to search, be sure you've searched for your course itself. Often a unique set of characters (such as your name, or a course number) will help refine the search and display the right course higher in the results. For example, what if we search for a course called "Mr. Thibault's Course".

Searching just "Thibault" should bring up the right information. Here are our results:

Clicking on the course name will bring us to the course enrollment/purchase page (depending on whether or not you have a course price listed). The course enrollment page looks like this;

Students should be advised to click "Course Enrollment". If you course is listed with a price, the next few screens will take users through the Paypal payment process (which we are not covering here). If your course settings include an Course Password the next screen will ask students to enter it:

If the correct password is entered, students will next see an enrollment confirmation.

That's it.

Answer, 2: Enrollment through Bulk upload. If you have your own eSchool setup through GlobalClassroom, you can assign students to courses before they ever login to the site. Here are the steps. Note that you must have access to your eSchool dashboard, or you eSchool administrator will have already completed the bulk upload to be able to add the students in this manner.

First access your eSchool Administration Dashboard (highlighted in yellow);

The next page, choose "Dashboard" for the eSchool you'd like to add students to.

From the Dashboard screen, choose "Bulk User Uploads"

This is where you'll upload your students/teachers in bulk. The instructions on the screen will outline the process in much more detail, but essentially the system calls for students to be uploaded in a .txt file, pipe (or vertical bar, '|' delimited). If you need assistance configuring this document please email support@globalclassroom.us.

Locate and then upload your .txt file to initiate the user creation.

A successful upload will acknowledge that your users were successfully added. In order to add them to an existing course, simply navigate into any classroom where you have editing rights and and use "Assign Roles" to add students.

Click "Manage students" to assign users to the student role in your course.

As long as your course is part of the same eSchool where you uploaded users in bulk you'll see them available as potential students.

Simply highlight them from the "potential users" side (the right);

and click the left facing arrow to assign them to the course.

If you have any questions about this process please contact us. We will work to create video tutorials and post them shortly.

The VTVLC is going BETA!

2010-01-06T17:59:00.003-05:00

The Vermont Virtual Learning Coop is a state-based venture (and our partner) seeking to bring virtual classroom education to students across Vermont. We're very excited for this opportunity to provide high quality hosted classrooms (via Moodle) and look forward to advancing online education in the state!

From the VTVLC site:

VTVLC is very excited about the opportunities we will be offering students throughout Vermont. Beginning next fall (2010), online courses will be offered throughout Vermont by our partner schools. Right now, teachers, guidance, and administrators are hard at work preparing courses and learning best practices to enable students to meet the challenges of online learning head-on. We are creating one of the most student friendly online learning environments in the country so that our students will be able to concentrate on what they want to learn, not how to use the technology. VTVLC gives each of its students a voice. A voice that we listen to and build upon to make your learning experience one of the best in the world.

For more information please visit: http://www.vtvlc.org/

The site has tons of opportunities coming down the pike, including professional development for teachers, courses for students (enroll in Digital Audio and Video Electronics, Technology Essentials, Hospitality management and Medical Terminology) and online hosting infrastructure for your schools. Check it out!

Happy Holidays: here's a bunch of free Moodle

2009-12-21T13:20:00.005-05:00

I find great Moodle stuff on the web every week. I post a lot to Twitter (follow us at http://twitter.com/globalclassroom), but I also accumulate some in my bookmarks. So, in the holiday spirit I wanted to share the most recent clutch of free Moodle resources.

Moodle Good Practice wiki: this one comes via Twitter (Thanks, Moodlerific!). The site is pulling together the best completely open--no authentication, registration or login required--Moodles available to look at. So if you're curious what a Moodle course can look like, this site has some great resources that show you what you can do.
Moodle videos: http://www.slcedtech.net/moodle.htm (a nice list of flash based Moodle tutorials including backing up courses, adding documents, and uploading zip files)
Linux for Education (lots of free courses, all are open to view)
Miguel Guhlin: he's always a great resource for Moodlers. I suggest subscribing to his blog which focuses on using Moodle at the district level, the trials and tribulations and how he and his colleagues are able to foster such a successful Moodle. Most recently he posted this resource of backedup Moodle courses: http://itls.saisd.net/km/uploads/moodle/moodle_example_courses/ which you could download and restore and use.
UPDATED 12/28/09 - Miguel Guhlin's ALL MOODLE wiki: http://mguhlin.net/moodle which compiles everything he writes, presents, creates about Moodle in one place.
LearnCentral.org's Moodle group: if you want to dive a little deeper into Moodle, check out LearnCentral.org and the Moodle group there. Always a lively discussion (about Moodle course creation, using SCORM and more)
Finally, if you're interested in learning how to use Moodle in a collaborative 4 week session, consider joining the 3rd Moodle for Teachers (M4T) session at Integrating-Technology.com. It's free! Next session starts January 4th.

From our family to yours, have a wonderful holiday. We'll be open throughout the holiday break (though closed on Christmas and New Years and with somewhat relaxed schedules from now until January 4th), so please contact us if you have any questions.

Image from Flickr (Andrew*)

Digidoug shows us how to use a wiki as a digital locker for sharing student files

2009-12-17T18:21:00.005-05:00

I found this great, short and very to the point blog post today which shows how you can use a Wiki to store and share student files. It's like a digital locker, but all of your students can have their own page!

The video is about 4 minutes and the audio is high quality. If you watch Digidoug work I think you'll see how to get rolling with this innovative use of a wiki.

Here's a link to the video:

http://www.screencast.com/users/digidoug/folders/Jing/media/25305de3-8ad7-45de-bac5-dcd134097c7c

Here are some additional tips that I found helpful when creating my own repository:

Create your wiki and allow binary files right off the bat (binary files are just another term for files from your computer that you would want to allow as an upload).
Seed your wiki's first page with the various pages you want created. For example, say you want to do a file "show and tell" you could ask students to upload their files depending on the file type by creating a list of file types, i.e. [audio], [video], [text]. Note that by putting brackets around the files the terms will automatically become new pages in your wiki.
add basic instructions on each of the pages so students know where to click. At the very basic, show students how access the "attachments" and show them how to navigate to their file and upload it (see image)
Once the files are uploaded you can click on any of your wiki pages and then click the "this page has attachments" link to access a list of the files.

COOL!

Interested in setting one up in your own class? Contact support@globalclassroom.us

Twitter #tourdemoodle

2009-12-09T14:57:00.004-05:00

The #tourdemoodle on Twitter is an activity started a few days ago by @catspyjamasnz. Basically a few twitter users have been sharing their favorite sites so that everyone can get a look at what other Moodles look like. I submitted GlobalClassroom.us (which has a plain theme on the inside, but a heavily modified landing/company website as the landing page) and a few other sites that I know of.

There are some great Moodle sites available on the world wide web. If you have one, and an account on Twitter then do share with the #tourdemoodle tag.

Even if you're Twitter-less, check out all the submissions at http://wthashtag.com/Tourdemoodle.

If you know of a flashy Moodle or one with some free content, please contribute!

Student dreams do come true

2009-12-05T12:11:00.005-05:00

I got this email from a student today and thought I would share.

Dear Teacher Support,

I would like to say this website is AWESOME. I also would like to say that I Dream to be the president of the U.S when I grow up. I am studying hard on your website. Please vote for me!

-James

James,

All I have to say is 'you got it, dude'. I can't wait to see your name on a presidential ticket.