Author: Jenny Spohrer

LITS will shut down rstudio.brynmawr.edu, the college’s RStudio Server installation, on 5 January 2024.

Please download any R projects, files, or data on rstudio.brynmawr.edu that you want to keep before this date. LITS will not save any content stored on rstudio.brynmawr.edu before shutting it down.

If you use the RStudio IDE for data analysis, it will continue to be available as a free download from Posit, on classroom and public library and lab computers, and remotely via LabStats and Apporto.

If you teach with R, we have replaced RStudio Server with an institutional license for a cloud-based alternative called Posit Cloud, which LITS successfully pilot-tested with faculty teaching in the data science program last year. Posit Cloud has features designed explicitly to facilitate teaching with R that were not available with our local RStudio Server install, such as collaborative projects, shared workspaces, and easier student account creation. See our AskAthena article on Teaching with Posit Cloud for more information.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us via the Help Desk (help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440)

In order to fix an issue preventing some instructors from scheduling Zoom meetings through the Moodle Zoom activity, LITS was forced to recreate the Zoom-Moodle connection at around 10:30 am on September 5.

If you see an error message (OpenID Connect Initiation URI is invalid) when accessing a Zoom activity created before this date and time, please delete the activity and create a Zoom (new) activity to your course in its place.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience this causes.

If you have any questions, please contact the Help Desk (help@brynmawr.edu, 610-526-7636).

Our upgrade to Moodle 4.2 is complete and the site is now online.

To learn more what is new/changed: 

1. Take the user tour the first time you log in.
2. Watch our video tour.
3. Read a summary list of changes for teachers or for students.

If you need help:

• LITS has updated the Moodle help guides on Ask Athena to match version 4.2.
• Our summer interns have created video demos for common tasks.
• In-person support is available by appointment.
• Drop in to Canaday 315 on Monday, August 28, 10am-12pm and 1-3pm for Moodle office hours.

Where are my old courses?

• Courses from Fall 2020 to the present are still on moodle.brynmawr.edu.
• LITS has archival copies of fall 2017-summer 2020 academic courses and can copy them into new Moodle shells for instructors on request.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us via the Help Desk (help@brynmawr.edu, 610-526-7440).

In support of the College’s commitment to accessibility, LITS has enabled Microsoft’s accessibility checker by default within college-licensed Microsoft 365 apps (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook). These apps are available to current students, faculty and staff online, on college-owned computers (including public lab computers), and on personal devices.

The accessibility checker works much like a spell checker, alerting you if elements in a document or email might be inaccessible and suggesting possible fixes, which you can often apply by clicking.

For more info, see:

• PowerPoint: Create accessible slides (Ask Athena)
• Microsoft Word: Create accessible documents (Ask Athena)
• Microsoft Outlook: Create accessible emails (Ask Athena)
• Make your Excel documents accessible to people with disabilities (Microsoft Support)

Microsoft also offers online, self-paced training and video tutorials on making documents accessible.

For info about Microsoft 365 features that help you view, read and hear documents and email in more accessible ways, see Office 365: Immersive reader accessibility features (Ask Athena) and  Microsoft Outlook: Accessibility features (Ask Athena).

For more info on the College’s commitment to ensuring that all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, have equal access to courses, programs, and events, see Bryn Mawr’s Web Accessibility Policy, Accessibility Policy for Classroom Instruction, and Accessibility Policy for College Events.

Contact the Help Desk with questions: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

Zoom has streamlined the process for joining a meeting, so that participants wait for the host to start, preview their video, and enter the waiting room (if relevant) in a single window.

Currently, hosts can opt in to this feature for their meetings by:

1. Signing in to the Zoom web portal.
2. Clicking Settings in the left side menu.
3. Clicking the Meetings tab.
4. Under Security, sliding the New waiting room and join before host experience switch to the on (right) position.

During the opt-in period, participants who join using a Zoom desktop or mobile app version 5.12 or higher will see the new join meeting experience if the host has enabled it OR the old experience if the host has not. Participants using older apps will always see the old experience.

On April 22, this feature will become standard for all Zoom accounts. Participants using Zoom apps older than version 5.12 will be forced to update before joining meetings.

Please contact the Help Desk with any questions: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

On January 11, we reported that we had discovered and fixed a configuration error that caused recent Panopto recordings to be erroneously archived — that is, to be placed in a kind of “cold storage” state that requires viewers and creators to manually “restore” or unarchive the recordings to use them.

We are pleased to report that Panopto has finished globally restoring the recordings that were archived by this error.

Moving forward, recordings will be archived once three years have passed since they were last viewed, as per our Panopto Service Policy. Unfortunately, Panopto does not yet have a mechanism for notifying creators before recordings are archived (this is a feature that we and other sysadmins have requested), but you can manually restore archived videos if needed after the fact.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact the Help Desk (610-526-7440, help@brynmawr.edu).

We recently discovered a configuration error that caused Panopto to archive recordings too early. Normally recordings are only archived if they haven’t been viewed in three years. Recently this error caused Panopto to archive recordings created and viewed as recently as a few months ago.

NO CONTENT HAS BEEN LOST. Panopto’s archiving process only puts recordings into a kind of “cold storage” state: you can still see them, but you must “restore” or unarchive them in order to view or edit them, and the restoration can take up to two days.

We have fixed the error that caused the problem and are working with Panopto to find a way to globally restore all recordings that should be available (i.e., everything but recordings that have not been viewed in the past three years). In the meantime, we thank you for your patience and ask that you please manually “restore” or unarchive recordings you need.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Help Desk (610-526-7440, help@brynmawr.edu).