LIS News

Martin Dougiamas, founder of Moodle (KATIE) spoke this morning from Perth, Australia with 30 participants from NITLE scattered around the globe via MIV (Multi-point Interactive Video-Conferencing). The show was “stunning” with all parties seriously engaged and even more committed to their choice of Moodle for a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment).

As scheduled, KATIE has been given a new look, using a new “theme” — overarching instructions on how it should appear to the user. The new theme, “eSocrates” is more consistent in its presentation of the various aspects of KATIE and includes the re-introduction of AJAX — making several operations much easier in KATIE. The old theme, “Luther Corners” is still available to instructors for their individual course sections through Administration block->Settings. As they are fully tested, more themes will be made available from which individual section instructors may choose.

All J-Term course sections for JT2009 will be uploaded to KATIE on October 16th, early AM. This will slow service from KATIE for users but there should be no interruption of service.

Lucas Welper has been hired as programmer analyst to join the Application Development team starting November 5th. Lucas will be supporting the student records modules and reporting in Datatel and interfaces to other systems.

The Library is installing the first of several new copy devices today with the staff machine and archives machine being replaced with new equipment from IKON. The public coin-operated copiers will also be replaced soon. Print drivers and queues will need to be updated for staff who print directly to the staff copier and a new queue is being added for the Archives copier.

By popular request the myCourses block expands course categories by clicking EITHER the “+” sign OR (now) the “category” link”.

During the first phase of scheduled changes to KATIE course sections were re-organized and hierarchy levels removed to make them more compatible with the new myCourses block and allow easier access by course participants. This process took approximately 11 hours during which some course categories were made invisible before they were removed making all courses contained in them invisible to students. Paideia and History were two identified. As students started reporting inability to access these course sections on KATIE the individual courses were again made visible.

LIS is happy to welcome Lynnette Perry as Help Desk Specialist. She will begin work Monday, October 6th. As Help Desk Specialist she will be assisting to manage daily workflow at our Help Desk, including working closely with our student staff. We look forward to welcoming her to our Help Desk and User Services teams.

The books.luther.edu server is back in service. The library catalog, Magnus, and Encore should be functioning normally. (message added by goodinjo at 4:10)

To optimize the efficiency of the myCourses block, some categories will be eliminated or moved. This change will take place the night of Sunday, October 5th. You will see only:

• “2008FA” with no department sub-categories
• “Past Terms”
• “Miscellaneous” with no subcategories
• “Demonstrations and Training”
• “Surveys, Polls and Elections”

A new “theme” will be used for all KATIE sites. “Themes” govern the color, size, and styling of almost all screen elements on a web page (like KATIE).