Monday, November 11, 2013

D2L Update – Some things we would like to mention

For those of you who read the West Georgian, an article was printed today explaining some of the changes that will be coming to CourseDen. UWG | Online would like to expand on some of the topics that were discussed.

We are working very hard to gather instructional material for the 10.2 update. We plan to have walkthroughs and tutorials available on uwgonline.westga.edu before our winter break. Jan. 2nd, 2014 will be the first day that students and instructors will be able to access the updated CourseDen. Courses will be available Jan. 6th, 2014 – the first day of Spring classes.

The biggest improvement to CourseDen is a cleaner navigation. We have designed the new system to better facilitate communication within the system between students and instructors.

More and more students are taking classes online. This growth was discussed in the article, but it might be misinterpreted as the number of helpdesk calls UWG | Online receives. “UWG online had eight inquires a day this time last year, and this year there is an average of 16.” Inquires refer to the unofficial number of potential students seeking information about our online programs. This number has almost doubled over the course of a year. In less than 3 months that is the same amount of students in the graduating class of Spring 2013!

Desire2Learn is the name of the company that provides and supports the software for our learning management system. CourseDen is the name UWG gives our learning management system. When there is a reference to Desire2Learn, it is a reference to CourseDen. We want to stress that this update will be affecting an online system that is used by almost all online and face-to-face students attending UWG.

We would like to mention that the week of November 11th – 15th is Distance Learning Week. UWG | Online will be having daily social media activities, Google hangouts, and online webinars. For students on campus, we will have a booth set-up in the library (next to Starbucks) from 10 – 2. Stop by to learn about the new upgrade and a chance to receive promotional items. Visit http://uwgonline.westga.edu/distance-learning-week.php for more information about Distance Learning Week.

UWG | Online would like to sincerely thank The West Georgian for helping us get the word out about CourseDen’s upgrade! If you would like to learn more about 10.2, please visit http://uwgonline.westga.edu/announcements.php or give us a call at 1-855-933-8946.

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