Author: Jenny Spohrer

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).

Currently when a person registers for a Zoom meeting or webinar, they see the link need join the meeting on both a registration confirmation page displayed immediately in the browser and a confirmation email sent to the address they used to register.

In order to help prevent Zoom-bombing, Zoom will stop displaying the join link on registration confirmation pages by default on October 17. Meeting and webinar participants will only be able to find this information in the confirmation email they receive at the email address they used when registering.  (Hosts can resend these emails at any point.) Note that this change will apply to all upcoming meetings, even if registration started before the change took place.

Hosts will be able to optionally reveal join links to participants who register immediately before an event begins if desired. Since this allows participants to enter without verifying their email address, hosts who do this should familiarize themselves with the in-meeting security features for controlling and removing unwanted or disruptive participants.

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

What’s New in Panopto

• Discussion Notifications. By default, you will now receive a daily digest email of comments and replies to video discussions they are participating in. Change your discussion notification preferences by clicking the link in that email or logging into Zoom and updating your user settings.
• Audio Descriptions. Panopto has increased accessibility with support for audio description. Creators can now add timestamped audio descriptions to recordings in the Panopto editor. If viewers turn audio description on, playback is paused and descriptions read aloud using text-to-speech at the appropriate points. See How to add Audio Descriptions to Panopto Videos.
• Reusing/Copying Videos. Creators now have two choices when copying videos: Create full copy (use if you’re going to EDIT the copy) and Create reference copy (use if just reusing, e.g., to copy from old course into new). More about reference copies. Video: How to Copy and Move Videos.
• Opt Out of Zoom Recording Imports. By default, Zoom meetings scheduled in Moodle and recorded to the cloud are also imported to the course’s Panopto folder. Teachers can now turn these Meeting Imports off on the Panopto course folder’s Settings

What’s New in Zoom

Note: Some features are require later versions of the Zoom app/desktop client. If you aren’t seeing a feature below, upgrade your Zoom app to the latest version. Some features may not be supported in iOS and Android apps.

For all participants

• Hide Self View. Use this in-meeting feature to hide your own video from yourself after you turn it on to help prevent Zoom fatigue.
• Stop Incoming Video. Use this in-meeting feature to block other people’s video if you’re having bandwidth issues or to reduce Zoom fatigue.
• Set a custom gallery view. All participants can now reorganize video participants in the Gallery view and save the order for future instances of a recurring meeting. Hosts can create a customized view for participants.
• Other tips for avoiding Zoom fatigue.

For hosts/co-hosts

• Focus mode. Designed for online learning, hosts/co-hosts can turn focus mode on during a meeting to hide non-host/co-hosts participants videos and/or shared screens from other non-host/cohost participants. Hosts can make this the default by checking Enable focus mode when meeting starts under Advanced Options in the meeting settings when setting up the meeting.
• Advanced Polling and Quizzing. Hosts can turn this on in meeting setting to add new question formats (e.g., short answer) and/or turn polls into quizzes by designating a correct answer for questions. (Note: Participants using older Zoom apps may need to exit the meeting, update their Zoom apps, and rejoin to answer advanced polls and quizzes.)
• Broadcast message or screen to all breakout rooms. Hosts/cohosts in the main meeting room can now broadcast messages to and share their screen in all breakout rooms. See Managing Breakout Rooms for updated information.
• Two-way chat with participants in waiting room. Hosts/co-hosts can now message participants in the waiting room individually and receive replies. See How to Use Waiting Room for updated information.

If you have any questions about or issues with these or other features in Panopto or Zoom, please contact the Help Desk (help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440).