eClass (Moodle and Vista) Outage February 23, 2012

We would like to inform you that the eClass (Moodle and Blackboard Vista) systems will be offline Thursday February 23rd, 2012 from 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM. We will be using this brief outage during Reading Week to upgrade a number of Moodle plugins and make some system administration changes. Some of these changes include:

- Improvements to the eClass Live (Elluminate) plugin

- Integrations for Respondus and Respondus Lockdown browser

- Enhancements to the theme

- Minor changes to system roles

Please do not schedule any teaching or learning tasks during this period. If you have any questions, please contact ctl@ualberta.ca. Thank you for your patience.

CTL Technology Services

Electronic Grade Submission

The University is taking its first steps to move from a paper-based final grade entry process to a system-based final grade entry process by implementing an electronic method for instructors, departments and faculties to enter, submit and approve final grade information for students. This will replace the manual process that is currently in place.

The new functionality will allow instructors to either download a class grade roster spreadsheet from Beartracks to input grades, download an appropriate gradebook spreadsheet from eClass (Moodle), or enter grades directly. Though there will not be a one-click solution to upload grades directly from eClass (Moodle) at this time, this simpler and more transparent process will increase efficiencies and conserve resources across campus.

All instructors, departments and faculties are expected to start using this automated process starting during the Winter 2012 term. An overview of the new grades process is available at  http://www.ais.ualberta.ca/ (see Current AIS Projects - Grades Presentation). If you have any questions regarding this project, please contact Barry Scott (AIS Project Manager) at barry.scott(at)ualberta.ca  or 492-2815.