30 Second How-to Video for Adding Users

There’s something about adding other users to a Compass course that poses significant difficulties for faculty and other administrators. Is the problem caused by too many steps in the process? Perhaps there are too many places to click incorrectly? Are users who struggle just rushed? Is there truly a design flaw that makes this process… Continue reading 30 Second How-to Video for Adding Users

User Permissions Error

It feels like at the beginning of every major academic term we get reports of instructors getting permissions errors when trying to enroll other users in the course. This issue has plagued me for years! Recently we found out the steps that cause this to happen.

Is Central IT Doomed to Always be Late to the Party?

One thing I see a lot of in my job is that the central IT is frequently late to the party when it comes to procuring software services to provide to campus. This usually happens when departmental IT units across campus aquire licenses of new or trending software that does a superior job at fulfilling… Continue reading Is Central IT Doomed to Always be Late to the Party?

Students that can’t upload documents

Every once in awhile I’ll tell my wife about a problem we’re seeing recurring at the office. In this case, it was an issue where students are saving their homework as a draft, then they are emailing support because they can’t find a button to upload anything. This is common with group assignments, where one… Continue reading Students that can’t upload documents

Students! Best Practices for Taking Online Tests

I wrote some documentation that outlines best practices for students taking online tests. As I was writing this I felt there was a lot of advice I could give, but I tried to keep this general enough so that it applies to most readers. I have a feeling I’ll be adding more to this eventually.… Continue reading Students! Best Practices for Taking Online Tests

Illinois Compass 2g: Online Demonstration of Adaptive Release

Do you want to be able to choose which students have access to certain content, folders, or Assignments in your course? Want to ensure that students read the policy on Academic Honesty before taking an online test? Adaptive Release is a rule-based function that allows instructors to set restrictions to course content based on certain… Continue reading Illinois Compass 2g: Online Demonstration of Adaptive Release