Otago Capture Ready for 2018
ITS eLearning is excited to announce the arrival of the new and improved Otago Capture. Several papers in Summer School are already using the new system. The Otago Capture Administration Application will be available to use on Thursday 15th of February for 2018 papers. The application has been updated to work with the new version of Otago Capture.
This version of Otago Capture is now available and includes significant advantages over the previous version. Some key improvements are:
- In Lecture: Capture can be used to deliver your lecture, with students following along in real time, asking questions, and sending notifications if they find anything confusing.
- Student Note Taking: Students can now take notes directly within Capture when watching the recording (or when following along with the slides in the Lecture Theatre). These notes are tied to the context they were taken (i.e. the time of the video, or the specific slide), and can be revisited for effective revision.
- Improved Analytics: Analytics are now more specific. Instructors can see how many students followed along during a given lecture, watched the recordings, took notes, and so on.
- Technical improvements: This version of Otago Capture does not use the outdated Flash software, instead it uses HTML5 to display the recordings and slides, which allows for full compatibility with modern browsers, and superior security.
- Mobile App: A mobile app for watching the recordings, and taking notes. Instructors can also upload videos using this app.
You can find more information on the Otago Capture Help Site.
eLearning will be holding demonstrations of the new system on the 16th and 19th of February, more information can be found on our Seminars Page. If you would like us to give a demonstration for your department please contact us at its.elearning@otago.ac.nz or contact the ITS Service Desk.
IT Training will also be running two training sessions in February for Otago Capture, you can sign up for these from the IT Training site.
Reminder: Blackboard Update on Monday 18th of December
On Monday we will be updating Blackboard. Blackboard will be unavailable from 9am until 5pm.
This update includes:
- A new mobile friendly theme
- A change to the Inline Grading Tool
- Bug fixes and security updates
The new theme will allow Blackboard to be more easily used on a mobile phone. It also means we must turn off individual Course Themes.
The current Inline Grading Tool, Crocodocs, is being shut down in January and Blackboard are moving to the new Box View. This change is completely out of our control and affects every institution using Blackboard.
Some known issues that will be fixed with this update include:
- Hotspot question inaccuracies
- Needs Grading errors
If you want to see more about these features we’ve made a handy series of posts about the update.
New Date for Blackboard update
Due to circumstances out of eLearning’s control we are postponing the upcoming update until December 18th. This means there will be no outage for Blackboard on Wednesday the 22nd of November.
We will have more information about the Update on the 18th of December closer to the time.
