Monthly Archives: September 2016

Recording when Using Presenter View in PowerPoint in Lecture Theatres

This is a follow up posting to the Using Presenter View in PowerPoint in Lecture Theatres posting made yesterday. This one explains how to ensure that when you are recording a lecture and you have Presenter View in PowerPoint switched on that you record the main screen version (where your actual presentation is being shown full screen) rather than the Presenter View on the presenter’s PC on the desk (which would include all the slide notes).

The trick is to start the Presentation Show in PowerPoint first, before you start the recording in Camtasia Relay. If the Show is running then Relay will allow you to choose which ‘screen’ you want to record, the Presenter View one (which you probably don’t want to record) or the main screen version that is being shown on the projected screen to the students (this being the one you probably do want to record). This video shows you how to do this and also explains a trick about switching between applications using Alt + Tab to bring Relay back to the front to start the recording after the PowerPoint Show has been started.

Using Presenter View in PowerPoint in Lecture Theatres

Some staff have reported issues displaying presentations properly in lecture theatres. Many of these issues are caused by the existence of something called ‘Presenter View’ in PowerPoint which essentially splits the regular one-screen desktop into two, one of which is shown to the presenter on the PC in front of you on the desk in the lecture theatre (with slide notes and a preview of the forthcoming slide), the other of which is shown to the students on the projected screen behind you. This has implications for things like browser windows opening (and displaying fine to you but not being seen by the students) and Camtasia Relay recording the presenter view rather than the full slides. This video will hopefully explain what’s going on. Sorry it’s not super high quality, it’s been done on a mobile phone and is subject to me putting my fingers over the microphone a bit halfway through. So it’s not going to win any Oscars for Film Production, but it might help you show web sites and record your presentation appropriately.

 

Succeed Scrolling Issues on iPad

There is a known problem scrolling some Succeed content on the iPad when content is being delivered in HTML format. The video below demonstrates the issue.

It shows that scrolling down on a page showing many icons is fine (as shown in the section 00:00 to 00:04 seconds in the video), but then if you go into a Learning Module in Succeed (built up of HTML pages) and try to scroll down on the main part of the page (as shown from 00:10 to 00:12 in the video) then this will not scroll properly. What users have to do is scroll by specifically placing their finger on the bar that separates the main part of the page from the Course Menu on the left and scroll up and down using that (as shown from 00:13 in the video onwards).

Also, it is recommended to set items to open in a new browser tab in Succeed (rather than in the main frame of the page) so they display more readily on tablet devices.

Listen Again Mashup

A ‘mashup’ for Listen Again has been added to Succeed. Like the YouTube and other mashups, the Listen Again mashup allows you to pick individual videos from a Listen Again series and have that lecture embedded into Succeed. This means that it is now straight-forward to add the recorded lectures for, say, Week 2 into the Week 2 folder in Succeed (or phase 2 or section 2 or block 2 …). Thus a link to the complete series of recording can be added via the Tools menu or individual lectures added in the appropriate place via the mashup — ideally both can appear.

Here is an example of what an embedded Listen Again looks like:

Listen Again Mashup
Listen Again Mashup

The video can be played directly from the controls and/or can be expanded to fullscreen.

The mashup can be found in the usual places in Succeed, Build -> (Mashups) -> Listen Again and within the text editor (there is a Mashups button among the buttons on the bottom row).

Information Security Awareness

A new online Information Security Awareness course for staff has been launched by the University.

The course has been developed by the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA) and is aimed at all staff who routinely use IT in their working day but also in their personal lives too.

Participants will develop a broad awareness of information security issues. In today’s online world internet security is paramount not only to protect the University but to protect ourselves from the growing threat of online crime such as internet fraud, ID theft and system breakdowns caused by hackers.

It is therefore important that all staff who use IT also understand the possible security implications for the University and that they know how to protect the data they are working with – particularly if they are working remotely, use multiple devices and are sharing documents though cloud systems such as Box.

Course content
The course is broken down into a number of short sections, covering:

• Why do we need to protect information
• Physical security and good practice
• Accessing and sharing information
• Threats and protection
• Working away from your desk
• Your responsibilities – How can you can help
• Phishing
• Bring your own device (BYOD)
• Cloud computing
• Assessment

The course can be taken either in stages or can be completed as a whole. The entire course will take around an hour and a half culminating in an assessment which is estimated to take 20 minutes.

To access the course staff will need to go on to Succeed, and then follow this path:

Learning and Development – My Learning -> UCISA Information Security Awareness