Print Discussion Messages

Desire2Learn now offers a way to collect several discussion messages on a printer-friendly window:

• You must look at your discussion in grid style, not reading style (choose this option on the Discussion Settings page).
• You can search for messages first, or select "All Messages" on the View menu to get a list of messages that can be sorted by any of the column headings (subject, author, or date).
• Click in the check box for one or more messages to select them.
• Click the printer icon: 

Collecting messages like this can only be done one discussion topic at a time. [VIDEO DEMO]

Students Printing PDFs

When a content topic is a PDF file and it is set to open in the same browser window, Desire2Learn's "Print this topic" button will not print the PDF file. Instead, students have to right-click on the PDF file itself and choose Print from the pop-up menu or (depending on browser and operating system) click the printer icon that appears when you mouse over the PDF file.

*This issue affects Internet Explorer and Safari and Students only. Instructors do have the ability to print while they are viewing the course content.

Printing a quiz

To print all questions and answers, with correct ones indicated, and including feedback for a single quiz, print an attempt. You can preview the quiz to generate an attempt if students have not taken it yet. Make sure to check the box to allow the preview attempt to be graded.

You can then search for the attempt on the grade quiz page and print it. Each question's feedback can be displayed prior to printing the quiz attempt.

Prevent printing

If you have an image or document that you do not want students to be able to print or copy and paste from (e.g., for copyright reasons), there are a couple of ways to do this in Desire2Learn:

1. Use the full version of Adobe Acrobat to attach security to a PDF file. On the Document Properties dialog box (access from the File menu) there is a Security tab. Choose password security and you can require a password to print or copy text and images from the document. Once you set a password, you can upload the document anywhere inside Desire2Learn. Make sure you do not require a password to open the document. Students will be able to download the PDF file to their local computers, even though they will not be able to print it.
2. Use the Respondus LockDown Browser and Desire2Learn's quiz tool to images and text within a Desire2Learn web page. You can create a "quiz" and only include text and/or image information as its "questions," and if you require the LockDown browser to view the "quiz" students will be unable to print, copy, or email the information from that page. For images, you can create an Image Information item. This item allows you to upload an image file from your local computer and add accompanying text. For text, you can create a Text Information item. Like other text boxes in Desire2Learn, you can copy and paste formatted text into this box. Students will need to "submit" the quiz in order to close the LockDown browser.

NOTE: It is important that you do not add a quicklink to a PDF file inside a text box in a LockDown browser quiz. If you do, the email link within the Acrobat Reader application will work. And your students will not be able to submit the quiz, which will force them to shut down their computers using the power button. Ouch!

Respondus LockDown Browser

Respondus LockDown Browser is a tool that instructors can use to add additional security to quizzes. When students use Respondus LockDown Browser they are unable to print, copy, go to another URL, or access other applications. When an quiz is started, students are locked into it until they submit it for grading. This works for both Windows and Macintosh computers.

• Demonstration video
• Instructor QuickStart Guide
• Student QuickStart Guide

This same tool can be used to prevent students from printing, copying, or accessing other applications when viewing quiz feedback if you have that option chosen on the Restrictions tab for that quiz.