Category: Announcements

Announcements/Updates to the BMC community

Changes and Improvements to Moodle

The upgrade to Moodle 3.11.4 during the month of December was successful. This version update included general fixes and improvements, as well as accessibility and security improvements and fixes. For a complete list of changes see Moodle 3.11.4 Release Notes.

The most noticeable changes include:

  • Mark as done buttons under course activities. These buttons are part of Moodle’s ongoing efforts to make it easier for students to keep track of their coursework and for instructors to provide and manage ungraded course activities. See “Using Activity Completion” for examples and instructions. Teachers can disable activity completion and remove all “Mark as done” messages on the Course Settings page (Go to Edit Settings > Completion tracking > Enable completion tracking > No).
  • Word document import button on the text editor box, which allows users to import the contents of a Word document (as opposed to copying and pasting the contents, or attaching the document).
  • Create Merged Course Shell option appearing under the settings for each course.
  • Fixes and minor improvements to activities such as: Attendance, Checklist, Collapsible Topics, OU Blog, and the H5P Content bank.

We have also made the following accessibility improvements to Moodle:

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

Panopto Scheduled Outage starting 9pm Saturday Jan 8

Panopto has announced a scheduled downtime from 9:00 pm ET Saturday, January 8, until 1 am ET Sunday, January 9, 2022.

  • While Panopto is offline, you will NOT be able to record/upload to Panopto or  manage and view recordings on Panopto.
  • If you need to record during the outage, use the Panopto Mac or PC desktop app and choose Continue Offline instead of logging in to record to your computer’s hard drive, then upload the recording to Panopto once service is restored. (See How to Record with Authenticating for details.)
  • If you need to view during the outage and the recording owner allows downloads, download a copy of the recording BEFORE the service outage begins so you can play recordings locally, rather than streaming them.

During this outage, Panopto will be releasing a major update that includes new features. For a demo of these features, register for Panopto’s New Features webinar on Wed, January 26 at 11:00 am-12:00 pm EST (free if you use your brynmawr.edu address). LITS will also providing info on new features of interest to our community. Full January 2022 release notes are here.

Please contact the Bryn Mawr College Help Desk (help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440) if you have any questions or concerns.

Warning: New Phishing Attempt

Please be aware of a recent attempt to gather login, password, and other secure personal or College data from Bryn Mawr College community members.

Be on the lookout for messages that appear to be a password expiration notice from your Microsoft account. This is a scam.

Do not click links or respond in any way. Delete the message or report it as Phishing in Outlook. If you believe you’ve given your information to a phisher, immediately change your password and contact the Help Desk.

Email scams come in many forms. While we work to keep you informed, attacks are increasingly diverse and sophisticated. It’s not possible for us to warn you of every message before you see it. Be cautious and suspicious. If you ever have a question or suspicion, don’t hesitate to contact the Help Desk.

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

Tips to Avoid E-Borrow Delays

As you may have noticed, the E-ZBorrow interlibrary loan system has switched to new software.  While we believe that this software will improve service in the long run, there are some important steps to follow to avoid delays:

  • When searching for a book, if you get more than one correct hit, please click on the title of the book to see how many libraries within E-ZBorrow own that book, and pick the result that is owned by the most libraries.
    • Results which say “Located: Multiple Libraries” are better choices than those that have a single university name next to “Located.”
    • Choosing results owned by multiple libraries allows the system to automatically move on to other libraries if the first library queried does not have the book, which reduces response time and the need to resubmit requests.
  • Once you have chosen a result and clicked the “Request” button, you will be asked to “Select Home Institution” from a drop down list: be sure to choose Bryn Mawr.
  • Your “barcode” is the number below the actual barcode in the lower-right hand corner of your OneCard. Your barcode begins with 2179600; be sure to enter all 14 digits.
    • Do not use the number immediately below your picture; this is your college ID number.

Eventually, we expect that only one hit for each item will appear regardless of how many libraries own it, and that you will be able to use your Bryn Mawr username and password to log into the system. We appreciate your patience while these enhancements are developed, and apologize for the inconvenience.

If you have any questions, please contact us at bmcill@brynmawr.edu.