Student Editors on a Los Rios Google Apps Site

This is cross-posted on Greg's Google Blog
The Los Rios Google Sites tool can support a group assignment wherein create a web site together. This video shows how to add students' Los Rios Google user accounts as editors to a Los Rios Google Site. The names are taken from the classlist on a Desire2Learn course offering.

Limit quiz attempts to students who attend a class meeting

Here is a question from a colleague:
Is there a way to configure a D2L quiz so it can only be completed from a campus computer lab? I have a hybrid course that has a once-a-week lab meeting, and I'd like to force students to take the lab quiz from the computer lab classroom.

And an answer:
Unfortunately no. Since we use a load balancer the IP address restriction will not work. What I have done in a similar situation is to restrict access with a password. The only students who will know the password are those in the room with me.

Sharing Los Rios GaGA Documents

This is cross-posted on Greg's Google Blog
You can use a Los Rios Google Apps (GaGA) document to collect data from students, say for a sign-up sheet. Here are the steps, starting in your GaGA document:

1. In your GaGA document click the blue Share button to open the Sharing settings dialog box.
2. Paste the list of your students' GaGA usernames separated by commas to the Add people box (be sure to append @apps.losrios.edu after each student's Los Rios username)
3. Because not all students have yet upgraded to Los Rios Gmail, do not check the box to notify people via email (you will do this via D2L)
4. Copy the "Link to share" at the top of the Sharing settings dialog box (this includes a very long string of characters)

Then tell your students the following in D2L:

---

1. Log in to the Los Rios Google Apps domain (http://apps.losrios.edu) using your Los Rios username and password
2. Click on [insert a url quicklink to the "Link to share" you copied from your GaGA document]

If that second step does not work for you, do the following after logging in to Los Rios Google Apps:

1. Click on the link to "Other Google Apps"
2. Click on the link to "Drive and Docs"
3. Click on the link to "Shared with me"
4. Click on the link to "[name of your shared document]"

Rubrics and the Dropbox

The Rubrics tool can be used in conjunction with the Dropbox to make grading student submissions more efficient, with objective-based feedback that can be customized. [VIDEO DEMO]

Note the following about the Rubrics tool and Grades: It is a current weakness of D2L that the only place where the score from a rubric can be pushed to the grades page automatically is in the dropbox. Rubrics attached to a discussion topic and quiz do not push scores into the grades tool. D2L’s design philosophy for the rubric tool is strongly connected to the competencies (SLO) tool and its connection to grades appears to be an afterthought for the programmers. I hope that future versions of D2L will allow for discussion and quiz rubrics to push scores to the grades tool.

Tracking Checklist Progression

The Checklist is a tool that instructors can use to give students a list of to-do items for a course. It does not connect to the Grades tool, and students self-assess whether a particular item has been completed. To view that self-assessment, use the Progress Report. The report shows how many total items the student has marked completed, how many the class has marked completed, and the status for each item for that student.