In each edition we chat with a different Community member. In this issue:
Bill Weber
Bill Weber
E-Learning Systems Administrator
Montana State University, Billings
Community Coordinator (CC): "I always find it interesting to follow the path that leads system administrators to their current position in eLearning with Desire2Learn. Can you share that journey with us?"
Bill Weber (BW): "When I was going to school, I worked as a tech support person for an online teacher preparation program. I also worked for my school's E-Learning center, mostly in the realm of Web 2.0 and audio/video technologies. Currently, I work in E-Learning Operations at Montana State University – Billings."
CC: "I've had the pleasure of conducting training on a few different campuses in the Montana University System-- Billings, Great Falls and Bozeman. How many students are at Billings?"
BW: "Billings is the largest city in Montana. MSUB has a student body of just under 5000 and offers Associates, Bachelors and Master Degrees."
CC: "You've been using Desire2Learn for just under 6 months. As a new user, what tools or features have you developed the greatest appreciation for?"
BW: "I like the availability of the HTML editor and the fact it can be enabled for students as well."
"YouTube videos in Quizzes--too cool!"
CC: "That is cool! You recently commented to me that D2L is now your life. If you could wave a magic wand, what enhancements would make your life easier in Desire2Learn."
BW: "I think the faculty here would like to see more customizable individual instructor defaults in some of the tools. For example, start times and end times, or the availability to have the HTML editor turned on for students by default in a Quiz question."
CC: "The ability to set default Quiz properties is a request we frequently receive. We're working on it. In the meantime, you can create an empty master Quiz that contains the properties you would like to use as your default and copy the master Quiz each time you create a new Quiz."
BW: "I'll give that a try."
CC: "It's great to see you participating in the Community."
BW: "I like the ability to get a question answered and get new ideas about how to approach something. It's nice to be able to hear stuff from a user's perspective as opposed to a purely technical support perspective."
CC: "What suggestions do you have for the Community site?"
BW: "I would like to see it organized differently. As a new user, it was difficult to find what I was looking for. It can be very overwhelming. I also would like to see more consistent NavBars."
CC: "Another site design review is on the roadmap for 2009. I look forward to your input and others as we form usability study groups."
CC: "What's next for MSUB?"
BW: "We will be encouraging MSUB faculty to implement a modular course design utilizing a variety of digital media content as they develop the next generation online course as well as in their on campus courses. We are enthusiastic about the robust functionality of Desire2Learn's Learning Object Repository as it will be central in this effort."
Is there a Community member you'd like to see profiled here? Send your suggestions to Cara Scott, Community Coordinator at Community@Desire2Learn.com