Academic Innovation Blog

Falcon Online Drops Support for Internet Explorer

In the August 2019 update, Falcon Online started the process to bring Internet Explorer to End of Life (EOL). 

This will happen in phases between August 2019 and January 2020 as described below. All support will be dropped by January 2020. Anyone using Internet Explorer is encouraged to move to one of the supported browsers listed on the Browser Support page.

August 2019

• Beginning August 2019, anyone using any version of Internet Explorer that accesses the System Checker will see a warning that support for Internet Explorer is ending and that they should download a different browser as in the screenshot below.
  
  
   
• The retro browser pop-up dialog box will appear when users access Falcon Online using any version of Internet Explorer warning them to upgrade to a different browser.
  
  
   

October 2019

Beginning October 2019, anyone accessing Falcon Online using any version of Internet Explorer will see a warning banner to upgrade their browser displayed above the navigation bar on every page within Falcon Online as in the screenshot below.

January 2020

• Beginning January 2020, anyone accessing Falcon Online using any version of Internet Explorer will be blocked. Users attempting to access Falcon Online with Internet Explorer will see an unsupported browser page and will not be able to proceed. See screenshot of the unsupported browser page below.

Goodbye Internet Explorer and good riddance!

I encourage you to subscribe to this blog to receive notifications of future posts. 

Bill Harrison
Senior Instructional Technologist/Instructional Designer
william.harrison@daytonastate.edu | 386.506.4306

Welcome Back - Distance Learning Track

We're so excited to see many of you back on campus after a long (and hopefully) restful summer hiatus. We've been wrapping up some initiatives, developing new ones, and are excited to share and update our distance learning community. John Brady recently published the Fall 2019 planning schedule, but we've itemized events that are geared towards online and hybrid faculty. We look forward to seeing many of you soon!

As always, we encourage you to subscribe to this blog so you can comment and ask questions. When you subscribe you will also receive email notifications of future posts. You can also contact us in the FIC at fic@daytonastate.edu or 386.506.3485 for assistance or visit us between M-F 8AM - 5PM.

Cheryl Kohen
Director, Division of Online Studies
cheryl.kohen@daytonastate.edu
386-506-3405
http://www.daytonastate.edu/onlinestudies/ 

Let me start by saying thank you to John Brady, Director of Professional Development, and our fantastic leader of Online Studies, Cheryl Kohen, for the opportunity to attend this year’s D2L Fusion conference. Okay, now let me share some insights with you all.

How was the keynote?

John Baker, President & CEO of D2L (pictured above), shared an inspiring vision on the current landscape of teaching and learning. He discussed several trends including the global learner, reimagining study, and preparing learners for an ever-evolving jobscape. He began by redefining soft skills – integrity, communication, adaptability, teamwork, leadership, etc. – as “durable” skills learners need to acquire as the job market changes to include brand new careers. He continued by emphasizing the origin of the term "study" as an enthusiastic process rather than "settled knowledge" and suggested we leverage technology to help free up our human creativity for better engagement.

What about the sessions?

A session titled “Magic of Community and Collaboration in Online and Blended Classrooms” provided quite a few practical ideas and pro tips to increase engagement. Some ideas were to “set the stage” with your course home page using custom widgets to share your instructor profile, the best discussion subject line of the week, a weekly dad joke, etc.. Another best practice is including a Start Here module as an orientation. Additionally, the session “Distinctive Design: How to Brand your Online Program in Brightspace” recommends a “Coffee Shop” discussion forum for learners to share questions and provide peer-to-peer support (while in turn cutting down mass emails regarding common questions).

Another session I attended was "Web Accessibility Concerns of Using External Tools with Brightspace," which advised avoiding tools with little to no accessibility support; otherwise the best practice is to provide another version that is accessible. Prezi and Wordle are both tools to avoid as they have established they are not actively working on improvements to accessibility. In the case of Prezi, you would have to provide an accessible version in PowerPoint. The question to ask yourself is “should I use it” rather than “can I use it.” Check out more resources provided by Barry Dahl of D2L.

Getting back to basics, I attended “Be a Quiz Master: 25+ Tips and Techniques for Building Better Quizzes.” A few simple tips were the best use of the description vs. the introduction, previewing your question to ensure feedback makes sense to the learner (overall vs. answer feedback), why a header and footer may be helpful, using sections and page breaks to create more structure, etc. This session also included some advanced tips for the more experienced and technical users to allow different spellings or common misspellings in questions where learners must write in the answer.

So where do we go from here?

I’m excited to try out what I’ve learned and share it with you during your next visit. Feel free to leave a comment below to keep the conversation going and be sure to subscribe for the latest tips and tricks from the FIC!

Jasmine Checchi
Instructional Designer, Division of Online Studies
jasmine.checchi@daytonastate.edu
386-506-4278
http://www.daytonastate.edu/onlinestudies/ 

Has being located on one of Daytona State's satellite campuses been a hindrance to getting the technical assistance you need? Do you have questions related to tools and features in Falcon Online that require in-person assistance? Have you wanted someone to teach you how to use Screencast-o-matic in your online classes? Perhaps you'd like to film a video to add to one of your course shells, but don't know where to begin. 

The Division of Online Studies is excited to announce the return of FIC on the Go, where the Faculty Innovation Center travels to Daytona State's satellite campuses in order to better serve ALL our faculty. This is your opportunity for one-on-one assistance with one of our instructional designers or members of the Instructional Resources media team. Check out the FIC on the Go schedule below to see when we'll be visiting your home campus.* We look forward to seeing you there!

* Dates, times & locations are subject to change.

Pam Ortiz
Administrative Specialist, Division of Online Studies
pamela.ortiz@daytonastate.edu
386-506-3638
http://www.daytonastate.edu/onlinestudies/