Karen De Heus is your primary contact for creation of new sections and for questions about making changes to online material.
Course content from the previous year will automatically be migrated over to the new OWL. You will be contacted by our office once this has been completed at which point you will be able to update your course.
Training and Questions About Using the OWL Tools
In collaboration with the Instructional Technology Resource Centre (ITRC), Continuing Studies will be providing small group training sessions that is a requirement for all instructors who teach online or use an online component for their in-class course.
You will be contacted by Karen De Heus to schedule your training session however you can contact Karen any time to schedule your session should you wish to get a jump start. Please note that all training sessions will be held on campus at the Support Services Building (SSB) Room #4320.
Thru the course migrations that have taken place so far we have found that most files were uploaded to WebCT as attachments and as such when the course was migrated to OWL it displays as multiple attachments within a particular unit or week. As a result, and in keeping with best practices in online learning, we will be moving all course content within OWL into Lesson Builder which uses an HTML creator/editor (easy to use and mimics a Word document). This will allow for an entire unit to be viewed with 1 click by the student. They will be able to see instructor notes, PowerPoints, multimedia that you add (e.g. video, pictures, weblinks) and link to specific tasks like forums (discussions), quizzes, polls and assignments.
Please note when uploading powerpoints or word documents, they must be saved in a non editable format. Word documents should be saved as PDF's and Powerpoints should be saved with the extension .pps (not .ppt).
This format will provide the best experience for our students and instructors. Going forward there should no longer be the need to upload separate attachments uploaded to OWL unless it is a PDF article or PowerPoint presentation.
Once we have moved your course content to Lesson Builder, you will receive an email from one of our dedicated staff advising you that your course can now be updated. If this is something you would rather do on your own, please let Karen De Heus know right away.
In the meantime, please see the attached 2 documents outlining what you will need to do to update your course – one from a technical perspective and one from a pedagogical perspective.
If your students are experiencing problems, please direct them to the ITS Help Desk at 519 661-3800. For hours and additional contact information, please visit http://www.uwo.ca/its/helpdesk/
