Category Archives: Documentation

Microsoft Lync – Guides Available

Staff at the University of Stirling can install and make use of the peer-to-peer communication tool Microsoft Lync. Lync allows communication by audio, video and instant messaging, as well as the recording of sessions and distribution and sharing of content such as PowerPoint presentations. Users familiar with Skype or Blackboard Collaborate may wish to try out Lync to test how it compares for meetings and teaching and learning purposes. Lync is also fully integrated with Outlook, allowing meetings to be scheduled and placed in your work calendar, with invitations sent out by email.

A couple of guides to using this software have recently been created and are housed on a new Microsoft Lync page on the Information Services (IS) web site:

http://www.stir.ac.uk/is/staff/it/software/microsoftlync/

The guides are:

  • Using Microsoft Lync – An Introductory Guide
    This guide is aimed at staff wishing to run basic Microsoft Lync sessions, dealing with installing and setting up the software and how to connect to other staff and communicate with them.
  • Recording in Microsoft Lync
    This guide explains how to record sessions in Microsoft Lync, where the recordings are stored, how to change the location of stored recordings and how to process them through Camtasia Studio and Camtasia Relay in order to add them to a Listen Again page.

Further guides on using Lync are in the pipeline, including a guide on how to make use of the presentation features within the product. Watch this space.

Updated Succeed Documentation

Quite a few Succeed-related guides for staff and students have been updated in the past week or so, with the following guides now available containing updated step-by-step instructions and screen shots:

Listen Again and Camtasia Relay
Using the Camtasia Relay Portable Recorder
Creating Listen Again Recordings from Camtasia Studio 8
Lecture Recording (Listen Again) Consent Form
Quick Guide to Lecture Capture using Camtasia Relay
Subscribing to Lecture Podcasts via Listen Again
Recording Using TechSmith Fuse (the mobile version of Relay)

Blackboard Collaborate
Blackboard Collaborate Guide to Scheduling and Joining Sessions
Blackboard Collaborate Moderators’ User Guide
Blackboard Collaborate – Student User Guide

Turnitin and Assignment Submission
Submitting Your Assignment via Succeed

Contribute
Using Contribute With Succeed
Using Macromedia Contribute 3

All these updated guides may be found on either the Staff Succeed Help page at http://www.stir.ac.uk/is/staff/it/software/succeed/ or the Student Succeed Help page at http://www.stir.ac.uk/is/student/it/software/succeed/ and they are marked ‘(updated November 2014)’.

This is part of an on-going attempt to keep the supporting documentation for Succeed as up to date as possible.

Semesters in Succeed

The terms feature has recently been switched on in Succeed and modules that are associated with terms (i.e. all current modules will either be in Spring 2014 or Academic Year 2013/14) have been allocated to that semester. Members of eLD can modify the setting if required.

Terms can be used to organise the My Course panels on the My Succeed page. If you are managing a large number of modules, terms should really help as you can group modules into terms (and hide terms from being displayed).

eLD has written a short guide to using the terms feature in Succeed and this can be found amongst our documentation:

http://www.stir.ac.uk/media/schools/is/documents/succeeddocuments/terms.pdf

At the moment due to a configuration issue with Succeed it is not possible to upload a new language pack that would switch the word term for semester. Once this issue is resolved the new language pack will be installed. The document above assumes that the language pack is installed.

New Help Page for Students using Blackboard Collaborate

A new page has been created on the Information Services (IS) web site to provide students with information on the peer-to-peer communication tool Blackboard Collaborate:

http://www.stir.ac.uk/is/student/it/software/blackboardcollaborate/

If you have students who use Blackboard Collaborate you may want to alert them to this page. It contains a guide to using the package, and also links to the Collaborate web site where users can run tests to check they have a compatible browser and a compatible version of Java installed before trying to run the software.

Using Mashups in Succeed – new guide available

A ‘Mashup’ combines elements from two or more sources. In Succeed, you can use Mashups easily to integrate content that resides on an external web site. Succeed offers three default types of Mashup:

1) Flickr – a web site used for viewing and sharing images
2) YouTube – a web site used for viewing and sharing online videos
3) SlideShare – a web site used for viewing and sharing PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, or Adobe PDF portfolios

A guide on how to incorporate such Mashups is now available on the IS web site:
http://www.stir.ac.uk/media/schools/is/documents/succeeddocuments/mash_ups.pdf