University of Illinois Illinois Compass Special Edition
New Features in Illinois Compass Illinois Compass offers new teaching and course management enhancements: The Grading Form allows custom grading rubrics for online assignments The Discussion tool now includes Blog and Journal options that provide greater opportunities for student expression, collaboration, and also a private journaling area visible only to individual students and their instructors. Date Rollover provides a big time saver by utilizing a single page for updating your course dates at the beginning of the semester My Profile allows all users to create a personal profile that can be shared with other users. The new Roster tool, if enabled, allows those enrolled in a course to view the profile (including an optional photo) of the instructors, teaching assistants, and students in their class. For more on these and additional enhancements: HTML or PDF Announcing "Compass Bug Watch" There are many challenges involved in working with online software as complex and powerful as Illinois Compass. These challenges have many sources, one of which is the fact that Illinois Compass isn't perfect. Yes, there are bugs out there, and we thought it would be helpful to provide you with a list of the issues you are most likely to encounter as you work with Illinois Compass, hopefully to help you avoid the nastier ones or at least to help minimize frustration or confusion as you search for workarounds. CITES is always ready and available to help out as well, but if you'd like to see for yourself the more common issues we are seeing along with the status of these issues, you can have a look at the Compass Bug Watch at: https://wiki.cites.uiuc.edu/wiki/display/etcbw/cbw Access to this site is limited to instructors, designers and TAs in Illinois Compass and requires logging in with your Active Directory (AD) password (to set or reset your AD password, go to: https://www-apps.cites.uiuc.edu/password/ ). If you would like to add a bug to our bug guide, please email edtech@uiuc.edu. Compass Bug Countdown The top two Compass bugs at this time, based on frequency of our support cases: Semicolons in the description text of a link on a home page or other folder page prevents the rest of that page from loading. It is possible to edit the description text and remove the semicolons via PowerView under the build tab. [Watch Video] See Compass Bug Watch for two somewhat similar issues involving the number sign (#) and the ampersand (&). Accessing the Student View tab generates a "system exception error" if the course site is not currently available to students. This is not an issue with course sites for the Fall semester since these are available to students, but with older course sites you may want to refer back to, you will not be able to use the Student View tab. The Teach tab should in most cases present an suitable alternative view. Administering Illinois Compass Course Sites Late Student Adds to Class Rosters May Take 24 Hours Before Being Able to Access Illinois Compass Course Sites When students add a course to their schedule in UI-Integrate/Banner, they are not simultaneously added to that course's Illinois Compass course site. It may take students 24 hours (or longer over the weekend) to be added to their Illinois Compass course sites. This is because we retrieve updated rosters from UI-Integrate/Banner nightly, and then begin a 3 hour roster update process each morning, Monday through Friday. Thus, a student that adds a class on Tuesday, might not be added to their Illinois Compass course site until Wednesday afternoon. For quicker access, every instructor of an Illinois Compass course can add students easily, one-by-one via Teach > Grade Book > Enroll Members. For more information on enrolling users, please review our User Management help document. Upcoming Events Illinois Compass Essentials September 4, 2007 10:00 A.M. ~ 12:00 P.M. 23 Illini Hall Illinois Compass Essentials September 5, 2007 2:00 P.M. ~ 4:00 P.M. 23 Illini Hall Use of Online Discussions in Illinois Compass for Student (and Faculty) Engagement September 11, 2007 10:00 A.M. ~ 11:00 A.M. 23 Illini Hall Illinois Compass Essentials September 12, 2007 10:00 A.M. ~ 12:00 P.M. 23 Illini Hall Illinois Compass Essentials September 13, 2007 2:00 P.M. ~ 4:00 P.M. 23 Illini Hall Visit our Workshop Offerings for more information about other workshops offered by EdTech. Resources CITES Educational Technologies http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/edtech/ Illinois Compass Login http://compass.uiuc.edu Course Site Requests http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/edtech/teaching_software/compass/siterequest.html CITES Classroom Technologies http://classtech.cites.uiuc.edu/ CITES Help Desk http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/help/ Center for Teaching Excellence http://www.cte.uiuc.edu/ Blackboard http://www.blackboard.com Educause Learning Initiative http://www.educause.edu/eli	Contact Us CITES Educational Technologies 2304 Digital Computing Lab (DCL) 1304 W. Springfield MC-256 Urbana, Illinois 61801 (217) 333-1078 edtech@uiuc.edu CITES Educational Technologies uses this list for the sole purpose of updating all Compass Designers and Instructors with important announcements and helpful suggestions regarding Illinois Compass.
This e-newsletter This Illinois Compass Special Edition e-newsletter is sent to all Instructors and Designers who use Illinois Compass. If you have comments or suggestions regarding this e-newsletter, please contact edtech@uiuc.edu or 333-1078

edtech header
University of Illinois

Illinois Compass Special Edition

New Features in Illinois Compass

Illinois Compass offers new teaching and course management enhancements:

The Grading Form allows custom grading rubrics for online assignments
The Discussion tool now includes Blog and Journal options that provide greater opportunities for student expression, collaboration, and also a private journaling area visible only to individual students and their instructors.
Date Rollover provides a big time saver by utilizing a single page for updating your course dates at the beginning of the semester
My Profile allows all users to create a personal profile that can be shared with other users.
The new Roster tool, if enabled, allows those enrolled in a course to view the profile (including an optional photo) of the instructors, teaching assistants, and students in their class.
For more on these and additional enhancements: HTML or PDF

Announcing "Compass Bug Watch"

There are many challenges involved in working with online software as complex and powerful as Illinois Compass. These challenges have many sources, one of which is the fact that Illinois Compass isn't perfect. Yes, there are bugs out there, and we thought it would be helpful to provide you with a list of the issues you are most likely to encounter as you work with Illinois Compass, hopefully to help you avoid the nastier ones or at least to help minimize frustration or confusion as you search for workarounds. CITES is always ready and available to help out as well, but if you'd like to see for yourself the more common issues we are seeing along with the status of these issues, you can have a look at the Compass Bug Watch at: https://wiki.cites.uiuc.edu/wiki/display/etcbw/cbw

Access to this site is limited to instructors, designers and TAs in Illinois Compass and requires logging in with your Active Directory (AD) password (to set or reset your AD password, go to:
https://www-apps.cites.uiuc.edu/password/ ).

If you would like to add a bug to our bug guide, please email edtech@uiuc.edu.

Compass Bug Countdown

The top two Compass bugs at this time, based on frequency of our support cases:

Semicolons in the description text of a link on a home page or other folder page prevents the rest of that page from loading. It is possible to edit the description text and remove the semicolons via PowerView under the build tab. [Watch Video] See Compass Bug Watch for two somewhat similar issues involving the number sign (#) and the ampersand (&).
Accessing the Student View tab generates a "system exception error" if the course site is not currently available to students. This is not an issue with course sites for the Fall semester since these are available to students, but with older course sites you may want to refer back to, you will not be able to use the Student View tab. The Teach tab should in most cases present an suitable alternative view.

Administering Illinois Compass Course Sites

Late Student Adds to Class Rosters May Take 24 Hours Before Being Able to Access Illinois Compass Course Sites

When students add a course to their schedule in UI-Integrate/Banner, they are not simultaneously added to that course's Illinois Compass course site. It may take students 24 hours (or longer over the weekend) to be added to their Illinois Compass course sites. This is because we retrieve updated rosters from UI-Integrate/Banner nightly, and then begin a 3 hour roster update process each morning, Monday through Friday. Thus, a student that adds a class on Tuesday, might not be added to their Illinois Compass course site until Wednesday afternoon. For quicker access, every instructor of an Illinois Compass course can add students easily, one-by-one via Teach > Grade Book > Enroll Members. For more information on enrolling users, please review our User Management help document.

Upcoming Events

Illinois Compass Essentials
September 4, 2007
10:00 A.M. ~ 12:00 P.M.
23 Illini Hall

Illinois Compass Essentials
September 5, 2007
2:00 P.M. ~ 4:00 P.M.
23 Illini Hall

Use of Online Discussions in Illinois Compass for Student (and Faculty) Engagement
September 11, 2007
10:00 A.M. ~ 11:00 A.M.
23 Illini Hall

Illinois Compass Essentials
September 12, 2007
10:00 A.M. ~ 12:00 P.M.
23 Illini Hall

Illinois Compass Essentials
September 13, 2007
2:00 P.M. ~ 4:00 P.M.
23 Illini Hall

Visit our Workshop Offerings for more information about other workshops offered by EdTech.

Resources

CITES Educational Technologies
http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/edtech/

Illinois Compass Login
http://compass.uiuc.edu

Course Site Requests
http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/edtech/teaching_software/compass/siterequest.html

CITES Classroom Technologies
http://classtech.cites.uiuc.edu/

CITES Help Desk
http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/help/

Center for Teaching Excellence
http://www.cte.uiuc.edu/

Blackboard
http://www.blackboard.com

Educause Learning Initiative
http://www.educause.edu/eli

Contact Us

CITES Educational Technologies
2304 Digital Computing Lab (DCL) 1304 W. Springfield MC-256
Urbana, Illinois 61801
(217) 333-1078
edtech@uiuc.edu

CITES Educational Technologies uses this list for the sole purpose of updating all Compass Designers and Instructors with important announcements and helpful suggestions regarding Illinois Compass.

This e-newsletter

This Illinois Compass Special Edition e-newsletter is sent to all Instructors and Designers who use Illinois Compass. If you have comments or suggestions regarding this e-newsletter, please contact edtech@uiuc.edu or 333-1078