Insert Stuff, YouTube, and Mixed Content on a Web Page

The Insert Stuff tool allows you to embed publicly accessible YouTube videos easily. However, there is a trick to avoiding the browser's warning against mixed content.

"Grade All" Means Two Things

Did you ever wonder what would happen if you tried to double infinity? Desire2Learn does this with multiple meanings for the term "Grade All." When looking at the Grade Item page, the action menu includes an option to Grade All that applies the same score to everyone in the class.

Note:If you apply the same score to everyone in the class, this score also applies to withdrawn students' grades.

The same term is an option when looking at the action menu for a grade item on the Enter Grades page, but selecting this takes you to the Grade Item page for that item.

The "Grade All" link means different things depending on where you click on it.

User Progress

Desire2Learn automatically records a variety of data on activity associated with its various tools. In general, this data can be accessed from three areas:

1. The tool itself (e.g., View Reports for the Content tool)
2. Each student's View Progress link from the Classlist
3. The View User Progress link on the Edit Course page

Use Los Rios Google Apps to View PowerPoint

This is cross-posted on Greg's Google Blog

Though Desire2Learn includes an inline file viewer that displays PowerPoint presentations within the browser, there are still situations where students will need or want to download the presentation file to a local computer. For those who are off campus and do not have access to Microsoft Office, one option is to use Los Rios Gmail and Google Apps. A PowerPoint file can be uploaded to Drive and Docs, and Google will convert it to the Google Presentation format. It can then be viewed within the browser and downloaded as a PDF file for printing.

Remove Quiz Results from the Grades Tool

The results of quizzes in Desire2Learn do not have to be posted as grades. Those scores can still be viewed on the Quizzes page, be shared with students, and used as criteria for Release Conditions. In case you decide not to count those results as part of the grade after attempts have been submitted, here are the steps to remove those results from grades after the quiz has been taken by students:

1. On the Properties tab for the quiz, choose the "None" option for Grade Item and then click the Save button.
   
   
   
   Note that the Auto Export to Grades option can no longer be changed.
2. On the Manage Grades page, click on the "Delete" link on the More Actions button. This takes you to the Delete Grade Items and Categories page; from here you can select the grade item that was formerly associated with the quiz and then click the Delete button. Desire2Learn will prompt you to warn that removing the grade item will also remove its associated scores. This does not remove the quiz attempts; they can still be viewed via the quizzes tool.