Student User Guide. October 2017

Transcription

1 October 2017 October 2017

2 Table of Contents Getting Students Started... 1 Initial Account Setup... 1 Recommended Browsers... 2 Supported Browsers for LIVE streaming... 2 Viewing Your Student DASHBOARD... 3 Understanding the Student's LIBRARY Page... 5 How does it get there?... 5 Taking Notes and Asking Questions... 7 Taking and reviewing class notes... 7 Asking and responding to questions... 8 Searching Across a Section Account Settings Supported Languages Creating or Changing Your Echo360 Password Creating a password for direct Echo360 login Logging in Under a Different Institution or Role Viewing Classes and Presentations Understanding the class list page icons Viewing Live Classes (Students) Using Classroom Tools (Student) Navigating Between or Exiting Classes Responding to Activities During Class Multiple Choice Questions Numeric Questions Ordered List Questions Image Questions Free Response Questions Responding via SMS Taking Notes in Class Viewing and Posting Questions During Class (while in the classroom) Responding to Questions About Classroom Content Flagging and Bookmarking Content Setting Content/Location Bookmarks i

3 Table of Contents Setting Flags for confusing content Participating in Q&A Discussions Editing or deleting questions and responses Reviewing your Study Guide Editing your Study Guide Notes Downloading Notes Downloading Content from a Class Creating Copies of Class List (Published) Media Working with Library Content (Students) Uploading Content to your Library Creating Copies of Library Media Supported Content Formats Viewing Student Library Content Details Editing Content Details Editing Videos Using the video editing tools Review/Playback the video Cutting segments from the video Editing a Presentation Downloading Content from your Library Sharing Content from your Library Deleting Content from the Student's Library Echo360 Mobile Apps Echo360 Mobile Apps What the Mobile Apps Can and Cannot Do Using the Echo360 Mobile App Navigating the Echo360 Mobile App Viewing classroom media Showing different courses (select a different term) Uploading a video Viewing Content through the Echo360 App Posting/Responding to Questions in Class through the Mobile App Responding to questions Editing or deleting a question Editing or deleting a response ii

4 Table of Contents Viewing and Interacting with Presentations through the Echo360 App Using Offline Mode to view Echo360 Class Content Removing downloaded videos from your device Uploading Videos through the Echo360 App Recommended Browsers Supported Browsers for LIVE streaming Register Your Account and Log In Viewing Courses and Your HOME Page Understanding the Student's LIBRARY Page How does it get there? Taking Notes and Asking Questions Taking and reviewing class notes Asking and responding to questions Searching Across a Section Logging in Under a Different Institution or Role Viewing Classes and Presentations Understanding the class list page icons Viewing Live Classes (Students) Navigating Between Classes Responding to Activities During Class Responding via SMS Multiple Choice Questions Numeric Questions Ordered List Questions Image Questions Free Response Questions Taking Notes in Class Posting Questions During Class (while in the classroom) Responding to Questions About Classroom Presentations Flagging and Bookmarking Content Setting Content/Location Bookmarks Setting Flags for confusing content Participating in Q&A Discussions Editing or deleting questions and responses Reviewing your Study Guide iii

5 Table of Contents Editing your Study Guide Notes Downloading Notes Downloading Content from a Class Working with Library Content (Students) Uploading Content to your Library Supported Content Formats Viewing Student Library Content Details Editing Content Details Editing Videos Using the video editing tools Review/Playback the video Cutting segments from the video Editing a Presentation Downloading Content from your Library Sharing Content from your Library Deleting Content from the Student's Library iv

6 Getting Students Started Welcome to the Echo360 Online Help and thanks for letting us assist you! First, let's try to figure out why you're here. What do you need help with? Navigating your DASHBOARD (also sometimes called the Echo360 HOME page). Viewing Classes Using Classroom Tools Navigating Between Classes Responding to Classroom Activities Taking Notes in Class Flagging and Bookmarking Content Posting Questions About Class Presentations Participate in Q&A Discussions Reviewing your Study Guide Editing Your Study Guide Notes Downloading Notes Initial Account Setup If your institution uses an LMS (Learning Management System) such as Canvas, Blackboard, or Moodle, it is likely your account was created automatically when you first accessed Echo360 through the LMS. There is no need to register your account with Echo360 because Echo trusts your LMS to authorize you, and simply passes us your name and address. If your institution does NOT use an LMS and you access Echo360 directly through echo360.org, your administrator will create an Echo360 user account for you, generating a registration . Complete your registration by following the link in the to establish your Echo360 password. Your username is the address to which the registration was sent. If you ever need to change anything, open the Account Settings page and edit your account information. 1

7 Recommended Browsers Echo360 is a web-based application, and as such does not have specific OS requirements. It does however, have certain browser requirements. While we can't necessarily test every version of every browser out there, we do test the more recent and most popular browsers/versions. Tested Browsers Google Chrome - most recent version Firefox - most recent version Safari - most recent version Internet Explorer 11 and higher (including Edge, the Windows 10 native browser) Supported Browsers for LIVE streaming Live streams are tested on and supported for viewing using all of the above-listed browsers, as long as your installed version of Adobe Flash is the most recent. (Adobe will probably let you know if it needs to be updated...they're good like that.) Note that our testing indicates that Live streaming from a CCAP appliance works most reliably when viewed through Google Chrome. Provide browser permissions to play Flash content: Chrome and Safari do not natively allow websites to play Adobe Flash content. While you may receive a message that your Flash Player is out of date, it is more likely that you need to update your browser permissions to either always allow Flash to play, or set an exception for the Echo360 URL to allow Flash. If you choose to set an exception, be sure to list your region's URL specifically (echo360.org, echo360.org.uk, echo360.org.au, or echo360.org.ca). See for Chrome instructions, and/or for Safari instructions. If viewing the Live stream on a mobile device, Echo360 automatically buffers 40 seconds of the stream to ensure smooth playback. This means you may experience a delay in the start of the stream, and that your view will lag anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute behind the real-time action. Despite using Flash, ios allows for Live stream viewing. How? ios uses HLS instead of Flash for live streaming. (HLS stands for HTTP Live Streaming Protocol, in case you were interested.) Unfortunately Android devices CANNOT be used to view Live streams. We hope to address this in the reasonably near future. 2

8 Viewing Your Student DASHBOARD After logging into Echo360, your DASHBOARD appears, showing all courses in which you are enrolled, along with previews of the presentations and videos from the most recent classes. Courses are grouped by term. The Dashboard only shows Active Term courses by default. Use the Term drop-down list, located in the top right corner, to select a different term (or All Terms) to view. Courses for terms that have expired will be listed but grayed or dimmed on the page. They are still selectable and you can still view the content for those classes. Within the course tile, you can see a Personal Statistics area showing the following information: Attendance percentage: This is the percentage of classes that have taken place to date that you have "attended". This means you entered the Echo360 Classroom during the time when the class actually took place (e.g., Tuesday between 9 and 10am). Notes Word Count: This is the total number of words that you have entered into the Notes panel for classes in the course. Q&A Posts: This is the number of questions and/or responses you have posted to course discussions, either within classrooms or on the Q&A tab for the course. Click All Classes for a course to go to the class list page, showing a list of all classes by date and title (if one is given for the class). Alternately, you can use the COURSES drop-down from the main navigation bar to select from courses in the Active Term. Selecting a course here takes you to the class list for the course, the same as clicking All Classes for that course. 3

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10 Understanding the Student's LIBRARY Page Student User Guide The LIBRARY page is the repository for all of your content. This topic provides an overview of this page. For more details, see Working with Library Content - Student. How does it get there? There are three ways content gets added to a student's Library page: You upload content to your library. Someone shares content with you. These appear in the Shared with me section of the Library page. You create a copy of content, either from the class list or from your Shared with me Library page (if the copy feature is enabled for students). Hovering over an item in the Library page exposes a menu arrow (also called a "chevron") in the top right corner of the tile, or on the right side of a row if viewing the page in List view. Click the chevron to see a menu of options, which differ slightly, depending on the type of content selected. 5

11 Video content menu Presentation content menu 6

12 Taking Notes and Asking Questions Echo360 lets you take notes while you're viewing a class and maintain your own personal Study Guide for the course. You can also post questions to the Q&A forum that the instructor or other students can view and respond to. This topic provides an overview of these study-aide features. For detailed information, see Taking Notes in Class, Reviewing your Study Guide as well as Posting Questions About Class Presentations and Participate in Class Q&A. Taking and reviewing class notes Notes you enter during class are synced to the video location or presentation slide you're viewing at the time, so that when you go back to look at them later, you have some context for the note you entered. This can be particularly useful if your notes are cryptic or you make a note of an item from the class you want to review again. (You can also just add a Bookmark, if a note is not needed.) Two locations for taking or reviewing notes: Within the classroom - While viewing the class video or presentation, click the Notes icon to open the Notes panel. Click in the Notes panel and begin typing. Your text is entered along with the timed location of the video or slide number showing when you began typing your note. In the Study Guide - From the Class List page, click the Study Guide tab. This allows you to see the notes you've taken for each class (use the drop-down to select a class), and add to or edit them if necessary. You can also to enter general notes about the course, not associated to any particular class. Questions that have posted in the class also appear in your study guide. Only you can see the notes in your study guide, although the Instructor does 7

13 know if you are taking notes through the Echo360 interface. Asking and responding to questions NOTE: Some institutions disable the Q&A functionality; if you do not see the Questions button or Q&A tab described below, check with your school's help desk to see if this is the case with your institution. Questions or comments you post to the class at large can be synced to the video location or presentation slide you're viewing at the time, but do not have to be. Referencing content with your question may provide useful context for the question or comment, however. TIP: Questions you post also appear in your Study Guide for the class. But if you find someone else's question interesting, bookmark it (click the little flag below the question; it turns blue!). Bookmarking a question makes it show up in your Study Guide. Viewing and Responding to classroom discussions: Viewing Discussions while in the classroom - While viewing the class media, click the Discussions icon to open the Discussions panel. Click a question to see any responses to it, or if you want to, enter a response of your own. You can also 8

14 endorse (thumbs up) questions or responses in the Questions panel. Student User Guide Posting a Question in the classroom - While viewing the class video or presentation, click the New Question icon to open the Questions panel with the new question entry box open and ready for input. Posting a response to a question in the classroom - Click the Discussions icon, then click the question or post you want to respond to. The Discussions panel changes to showing only that post and any existing responses. Click Respond to 9

15 Question to post a response. In the Q&A Tab - From the Class List page, click the Q&A tab. This allows you to see the questions and responses posted by specific class or show All Questions for all classes (use the drop-down list). You can also post questions as well as respond to questions via the Q&A tab. 10

16 Searching Across a Section Whether you are a student or an instructor, you may find that your sections become filled with useful but difficult-to-find items, especially if you are looking for something specific. The Section Search feature is designed to help you target the information you may need to find, especially when it comes time for an instructor create a quiz around a class discussion, or for a student to study for a test. To access the Section Search 1. From the DASHBOARD or the COURSES option on the main menu, select a section. 2. Select the SEARCH tab located on the right side of the section tab options. 3. Use the Search text box to enter a term or phrase you want to search all section content for. You must enter text in the search box to return results. 4. Use the filtering drop-down lists, shown below, to narrow your search to specific types of content or to a particular class. The results list shows all the items that match your search criteria. To the left of each item in the list is an icon that identifies the type of content it is. 11

17 5. Click an item from the results list. The item opens in a NEW TAB for viewing. For Q&A matches, the Q&A tab opens showing the selected item so you can see the full discussion (question and responses) context. For Notes, the Study Guide opens showing the selected item. For Class Name matches, the Classroom opens, as if you had clicked on the class from the Class List page. For Slides, the presentation opens in the classroom, showing the slide that matched your search criteria (or at the beginning if a location is not determined). For Videos, the video opens in the classroom, at the location that matched your search criteria (or at the beginning if a location is not determined). 6. When finished, close the new tab to return to your original Echo360 window and the search results. How the Section Search works: The section search is effectively a text search, looking for items in the section that contain whatever text you entered into the search box. You MUST enter text into the search box to return results. For questions, responses, class names, and notes, a text search is fairly straightforward. Items that contain text matching the search word or phrase are returned. (See also the note below regarding one known limitation.) For videos and presentations, the text search is more complicated. Videos, for example, don't have text. What Echo360 does is search the text of closed captions applied to any videos, and returns all the different locations in the video where the captioning contains that text. Presentation files often have text but not all of the text in a presentation can be "read". Where the text in a presentation can be identified and matched, the slide containing the matching text is returned. However images containing text cannot be read and therefore those slides will not be returned. And sometimes it's difficult to know if the text in a slide is part of an image, or was typed onto the slide. PDFs are also sometimes searchable and sometimes not. PDFs are often generated as pictures of text, meaning they cannot be read. However, depending on how the PDF was generated, it may be "readable" by the Echo360 search. This means that the Section Search may match search terms for some PDFs and not for others. NOTE however there is a known limitation: text searches only return results where the text matches the beginning of a word. For example "you" will find all matches with "you" or "your" etc. A search for "our" will find "our" but not "your". A future release of Echo360 is slated to address this text search issue, as well as include the ability for the section search to search content metadata (titles, descriptions, and tags). 12

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19 Account Settings Account settings are accessed by selecting Account Settings from the Settings icon (it looks like a gear) located on the top right of the Echo360 UI. This is shown in the below figure. The Account Settings page contains a variety of fields which include: The First and Last Name. This is the name shown in the top bar of Echo360, as well as throughout the site for other users to identify you. These fields are editable. address. Your address also functions as your username and is unique to each user. This may or may not be editable, depending on your institution's settings. If you use an LMS to access Echo360, or log in through an institution portal, you should never change your address shown unless specifically instructed to do so by a system administrator. Password. You can either create or change your password from this page. See Creating or Changing Your Echo360 Password for additional information. Password Requirements: Echo360 requires passwords of a certain strength in order to secure our system. Here are some tips for generating a usable password: - Avoid single dictionary words (and no, ch@racter substitutions don't h3lp - too easy to guess) - DO use multiple words, foreign words, or an uncommon phrase - include letters/numbers/characters to improve strength - Avoid alphanumeric or keyboard sequences such as abcd, 1234, qwerty, Avoid your name or any location or dates associated with you (including recent/future years) Phone Number. The phone number entered here is only used to recognize you when responding to in-class activity slides via SMS. If you want to respond to activities via text message, be sure to enter your mobile phone number here. Message and data rates will apply. See Responding via SMS for additional information. Time Zone. Select the time zone you live in. By default this is the time zone for the Institution you are enrolled in. Preferred Language. Use this drop-down list to select the preferred language to use for the Echo360 UI. The language selected here overrides your browser setting. See Supported Languages for additional information. Picture. You can upload a picture or avatar for your account profile. This picture appears across the site to identify you along with your name. If you make changes, scroll to the bottom and click SAVE. 14

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21 Supported Languages Many parts of the Echo360 UI support viewing in languages other than English. You can set your language preference in the Account Settings page. The selection here overrides your browser settings and uses the Echo360 translation for the selected language. Not all textual components of the UI have been translated but many have been, and the translations are updated/added to regularly. The languages currently supported by the Echo360 UI include: English (US) English (Great Britain) English (Australia) Finnish French French (Canadian) Spanish (Latin America) Japanese Norwegian Thai Simplified Chinese 16

22 Creating or Changing Your Echo360 Password Some institutions create user accounts directly in Echo360, allowing users to register their accounts and establish their own logins to Echo360. If you have a direct login to Echo360 (you log in through the Echo360 browser page) and ever need to change your Echo360 password, there are two methods to doing so: Use the Forgot your password? link, located below the fields on the main Echo360 login page Use the Account Settings page and click CHANGE for the password field. If you access Echo360 through an institution portal or a learning management system (i.e., you do not log directly into Echo360 through the web page) see the section below on creating an Echo360 password. You do not need to generate an Echo360 password if you do not need to log directly into the system. The Account Settings page is located in the Settings menu, accessed by clicking the Settings icon located in the top right corner of the Echo360 window. If you know your current password, use the below steps to change your Echo360 password. If you do NOT know your current password, click the Forgot your password link on the login page. You will receive an at the address for your account; click the link in the and follow the instructions. To change your password through the Account Settings page 1. Log into Echo360 as you normally do. 2. Click the Settings icon identified in the above figure (it looks like a gear). 17

23 3. Select Account Settings. 4. In the password area of the User Info section, click CHANGE. 5. In the Change your password dialog box that appears, enter your existing password, then enter the new password twice (to confirm you have it correct). The password must be at least eight characters and can be a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. Password Requirements: Echo360 requires passwords of a certain strength in order to secure our system. Here are some tips for generating a usable password: - Avoid single dictionary words (and no, ch@racter substitutions don't h3lp - too easy to guess) - DO use multiple words, foreign words, or an uncommon phrase - include letters/numbers/characters to improve strength - Avoid alphanumeric or keyboard sequences such as abcd, 1234, qwerty, Avoid your name or any location or dates associated with you (including recent/future years) 6. When finished, click SAVE. 7. For best results, log out and log back in again, to ensure proper authentication and access to Echo360 functionality. While this may not be necessary, it is recommended. 18

24 Creating a password for direct Echo360 login Student User Guide Some institutions use a Learning Management System (LMS) such as Canvas or Moodle, or a single sign-on (SSO) authentication system such as PingOne. For these institutions, users are passed through to Echo360 using the external authentication, and do NOT log directly into Echo360. For institutions using LMS or SSO for authentication, Echo360 does NOT maintain passwords for those users. However, in order to use the external Echo360 applications such as the Mobile App, Personal Capture (PCAP), or the Windows PowerPoint Ribbon add-on, LMS users specifically must also establish a direct Echo360 login. SSO users (who access Echo360 via a university portal or other institution authorization) no longer need a separate Echo360 password to use the Mobile Apps, Personal Capture, or Classroom Capture. Those applications now pass SSO users through the institution login process for authentication. LMS users still need to establish an Echo360 login to use these applications, and the PowerPoint Ribbon add-on still requires an Echo360-specific login for both LMS and SSO users. The password you create can be the same as or different from your LMS password, as long as it contains 8 characters. You will continue to use your LMS credentials for logging in through the LMS. Your Echo360 password, however, is used to access Echo360 directly, to use the Mobile App, Personal Capture, Classroom Capture (for adhoc recordings), or the PowerPoint Ribbon add-on. To create a direct Echo360 password: 1. Enter Echo360 as you normally do, via a link to the Echo360 from the LMS or other institution platform. 2. Click the Settings icon identified in the figure at the top of the page (it looks like a gear). 3. Select Account Settings. 4. In the password area of the User Info section, click CREATE PASSWORD. 5. In the Create password dialog box that appears, enter your Echo360 password then confirm it. 19

25 It can be the same as or different than your LMS or institution password, as long as you remember what it is and it meets the Echo360 complexity requirements (see above note). 6. When finished, click SAVE. The address for your account (shown in the user info section of the page) along with the password you just established is the login you will use for the Mobile App, Personal Capture, or the Windows PowerPoint Ribbon add-on. You still have only a single Echo360 account but you can now log in and authenticate directly in the platform itself, as well as through your institution's established authentication method. 20

26 Logging in Under a Different Institution or Role Student User Guide If you have multiple roles in the system (a student in some courses, an instructor in others), or you are a user in more than one institution that uses Echo360, you can switch to another role or institution to view that content without having to log in again. To change the logged in role or institution 1. After logging in, click your name in the upper-right corner of the menu bar. Your profile picture and name appear. 2. Click Change. The Select your institution and role page appears. 3. Use the drop-down lists to select a different Institution and/or Role to work with. The change will persist to the next time you log in. 4. Click OK. 21

27 Viewing Classes and Presentations THIS TOPIC deals with viewing classroom material after the class has been captured and posted to the class list. For viewing classes in real-time (as they are happening) see Viewing Live Classes (Student view). Classes are grouped by courses. To view a list of all classes for a particular course, you can: Find the Course on your DASHBOARD and click ALL CLASSES. Use the COURSES drop-down list on the main menu to select a course. Use the class list to find the class you want to watch and to see what materials your instructor may have posted for upcoming classes. See Understanding class list page icons below for descriptions of the indicators on the Classes page. Playback Bar Auto-hide: To increase the amount of screen space available for classroom materials, the playback bar now auto-hides. It should appear when you first enter the classroom then disappear after a few seconds. To reveal the bar again, hover your mouse over the bottom of the classroom window. See Using Classroom Tools for more information on the functionality located in the playback bar. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE however that if the classroom only has a presentation, you will not see a playback bar, as the controls will not apply. To watch a class 1. From the DASHBOARD, click ALL CLASSES for the section whose class you want to watch. The Class List appears. The page is positioned to show the most recently completed class, meaning you may need to scroll up or down to see other classes. 2. If necessary, use the Search box to find the class you want to view. 3. Click on the class row to enter the Classroom view. The classroom viewer opens, with the video playing automatically if there is one. ALTERNATELY, if you click on the content icon for the class and select View from the menu that appears, the classroom view opens with that content item 22

28 maximized. This allows you to find a particular item to view or view again within the classroom. 4. Use the playbar at the bottom to pause, play, rewind 10 seconds, or scrub through the video as needed. See Using Classroom Tools - Student for details. 5. Use the Volume control and Settings buttons to control quality and speed of playback. See Using Classroom Tools - Student for details. 6. Use the Layout button to change how the items are arranged on the screen, if the classroom contains multiple visual feeds (e.g., the classroom recording captured dual video or video and display, and there is a presentation loaded to the class). See Using Classroom Tools - Student for details. 7. Use the Sources button to remove or return classroom content to the classroom viewing pane. 8. If the video is closed captioned, use the CC button to toggle the captions on or off, and to change the location, size, color, and text justification of the caption text. See Using Classroom Tools - Student for details. 9. Use the classroom toolbar across the top to navigate between classes, enter or respond to questions, and take notes during the classroom viewing. You can also access the most recent classes from your Dashboard. Click the preview thumbnail in the Dashboard for the class to jump directly to that classroom. Understanding the class list page icons Each class is shown with a series of icons, providing information and functionality as follows: Content Icons - Click a content icon for a menu that will allow you to view or download that media. 23

29 o A grey icon ( ) icon indicates that you have already viewed this material. o A green icon ( ) indicates that this content is new to you; you have not yet viewed it. o If there is NO icon shown for the class, the class capture has not yet occurred or the video is not yet available to students. Ask your instructor if it should be. Conversation Bubble icon - Click the conversation bubble icon ( ) located on the row for the class to open the Q&A tab and view the questions and responses posted for that particular class. The number indicates the total number of questions posted for that class (responses are not counted). See which classes will be streamed LIVE. If your classes will be streamed live and in real-time, a LIVE badge appears next to the Class Name. A gray LIVE badge ( ) indicates a future class that will be streamed live. A green LIVE badge ( ) indicates that this class is currently being captured and streamed. Not all classes are live streamed; a class that is happening RIGHT NOW will also appear with a green dot to the left of the class in the Class List. Only classes with a LIVE badge will be captured and streamed in real-time to class participants. 24

30 Viewing Live Classes (Students) Some institutions may configure classes to be viewed in real-time, while they are happening. These are called LIVE classes. Watching classes live is very similar to watching recorded classes except that you can't control the playback (fast forward, rewind, pause). Unless you've invented a time machine, in which case we'd love to hear more about it... If viewing the Live stream on a mobile device: When Echo360 detects you are viewing a live stream from a mobile device, it automatically buffers 40 seconds of the stream to ensure smooth playback. This means you may experience a delay in the start of the stream, and that your view will lag anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute behind the real-time action. Also note that viewing Live streams is not supported on Android devices. Provide browser permissions to play Flash content: Chrome and Safari do not natively allow websites to play Adobe Flash content. While you may receive a message that your Flash Player is out of date, it is more likely that you need to update your browser permissions to either always allow Flash to play, or set an exception for the Echo360 URL to allow Flash. If you choose to set an exception, be sure to list your region's URL specifically (echo360.org, echo360.org.uk, echo360.org.au, or echo360.org.ca). See for Chrome instructions, and/or for Safari instructions. To access a live class: 1. Navigate to the Class List page (click ALL CLASSES from the DASHBOARD) and scroll to the current date. The live class appears with a LIVE badge next to the class name. If the class is happening now, the LIVE badge is green and there is a green dot to the left of the class name, as shown in the below figure. 2. Click the class row to enter the classroom. 3. Since Live streams will not autoplay, click Show Live Stream to see the stream. You can hide the stream at any time if necessary. The classroom toolbar appears across the top of the screen, allowing you navigate out of the classroom, open the Notes panel, or open/close the Questions panel. 25

31 Using Classroom Tools (Student) Student User Guide While viewing classroom media, you can take notes about it, bookmark video or slide locations, and engage with other students and the instructor in discussions about the content. The Classroom toolbar, located across the top of the media player, also allows you to skip to a different class or to exit the classroom and return to the section class list. Playback Bar Auto-hide: To increase the amount of screen space available for classroom materials, the playback bar now auto-hides. It should appear when you first enter the classroom then disappear after a few seconds. To reveal the bar again, hover your mouse over the bottom of the classroom window. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE however that if the classroom only has a presentation, you will not see a playback bar, as the controls will not apply. The following tools are available to you, identified by number in the figure above to correspond with the descriptions in the table below. Tag # 1 2 Purpose/Functionality The Class Name and Date appear in the top left of the Classroom window. The Notes icon opens the Notes panel allowing you to take notes in the class. Each entry is tagged with the video location and current slide showing when you began the note. 26

32 Tag # Purpose/Functionality The Balloons or conversation bubble icon opens the Discussions panel to the right of the media view, allowing you to view any questions or comments the students may have entered, and to respond or ask your own questions as necessary. NOTE: Some institutions disable the Q&A functionality; if you do not see the Questions icon, check with your help desk to see if this is the case with your institution. The balloon icon with the plus sign opens the Discussions panel but with a New question entry box open and ready for input. This is the same view you would get if you clicked New Question from the top of the Discussions panel while viewing posted comments. The bookmark icon allows you to bookmark any location in the video or a slide in the classroom. The bookmark appears in your Study Guide so that you can return to the location and view it as needed. NOTE: If your Notes panel is not open when you bookmark a location, it may not look like anything has happened. Don't worry though, the bookmark is there. Open the Notes panel to see it. The flag icon allows you to mark any content you find confusing. If the class contains both video and presentation media, select whether you are marking the video location or the slide. The list icon opens the class list (sometimes called the Class List Tray) listing all the classes in the section, allowing you to switch to a different classroom. The Course/Section name in the top right corner exits the classroom and returns you to the section Class List page. Playback Controls: these include the standard play/pause button, fast forward, and rewind (each click moves the playback 10 seconds in either direction; click and hold to scrub through playback). You can also click on a location in the playback bar to move the playback to that location. The video timestamp located to the right of the Playback controls shows the total length of the capture/video, the current location in playback, and the currently showing slide if applicable. The right side of the playback bar contains several media control icons that allow you to customize the classroom view how the media it is being played back for you. Each is identified and described in more detail below. 27

33 Tag # Purpose/Functionality Sound Control The volume control button allows you to change the volume of the playback, including clicking the icon to mute the playback. Use the Sources button to enable/disable items in the classroom. If the classroom has multiple visual feeds, you can select to view all or just one or two of them at any given time. Source View Control You must also use the Sources button to re-enable any visual feed you closed using the X icon in the top right corner of the media's panel. In the above example the classroom is only showing the Video 1 and Slides. Video 2 has been closed, as indicated by the gray text in the sources list. To return Video 2 to the classroom, click on it from the source list. 28

34 Tag # Purpose/Functionality If the video has closed captions, you can turn the captions on or off using the CC button. The button itself functions as a toggle, turning the captions on or off with a click. However the CC button also provides a variety of formatting options for the captions, to serve your viewing needs. CC - closed captioning Clicking CC in the toolbar toggles the captions on and off. Font size allows you to make the text bigger or smaller as needed. Contrast allows you to select the text-to-background contrast needed to clearly read the caption text.. Location allows you to move the caption box to the top, middle, or bottom of the screen. Alignment changes the justification of the text in the caption box, using left, centered, or right justification options. 29

35 Tag # Purpose/Functionality The Settings button provides playback quality and speed controls. Playback Quality and Speed Most video media is processed for both low-bandwidth and highbandwidth playback. If your network connection is a problem, you can switch to lower quality playback (or switch back to high definition if applicable). In addition, you can view the classroom at up to 2x speed or as low as.5 speed, at.25 intervals as needed. Click in the Quality and Speed boxes to see and select the options available. The media layout button allows you to change how the media items are displayed, viewing a single feed maximized with others in thumbnail, or with all items at equal size. Media Layout Click through each option to see which layout works best for you. Keep in mind you can also use the Sources button to change which media feeds are being shown or hidden. 30

36 Tag # Purpose/Functionality The maximize or "full screen" icon appears in the top right corner of each media panel in the classroom. It allows you to view that media feed in full screen mode. Full Screen Press the ESC key to exit out of full screen mode. 31

37 Navigating Between or Exiting Classes While viewing the Class list page, you can easily select which class you want to view. To exit the classroom and return to the class list page, click the Section name in the top right corner of the classroom. To view a different class in the section, click the class name/list icon located at the top of the screen. The class list appears (also sometimes called the class list tray), as shown below, listing all other classes for the section. Note that if there is a video playing at the time, the video is paused while the class list is open. The class list allows you to select a different class and open the classroom and view the content for that class. Click the class list icon again to close the class list. Or click the X in the top right corner of the class list. 32

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39 Responding to Activities During Class Instructors may post questions during class for you to answer. The following sections provide instructions for responding to in-class questions or activities: Multiple Choice Questions Multiple choice questions are questions asked where you must pick the correct or best answer(s) from a list of choices. To respond to a multiple choice question For single-answer questions, click the answer then click Submit. For single-answer questions via SMS, type the activity code, space, then the letter of the correct answer. Send the text to the phone number indicated on the question slide. For multiple-answer questions, hold the control key and click all correct answers, then click Submit. For multiple-answer questions via SMS, type the activity code, space, then all letters of the correct answers separated by commas. Send the text to the phone number indicated on the slide. As long as polling stays open, you can click Edit your answer to change the answer you submitted. For SMS responses, simply send a new text with the new response. Once instructors close the question polling, they can show student submissions as well as the correct answer. The correct answer(s) are checked as Correct. Numeric Questions Numeric questions are those that require a specific numeric response to be entered into the answer text box. To respond to a numeric quiz Type in the number for the answer then, click Submit. To respond via SMS, type the activity code, a space, then the number you are submitting as the correct answer. Send the text to the phone number indicated on the question slide. Before polling is closed, you can click Edit your answer to make changes and resubmit. For SMS responses, simply send a new text with the new response. Click View Results to see other student submissions to the answer. This may only be available after the instructor has closed the question to further responses. The correct answer is identified as Correct. 34

40 Ordered List Questions Ordered list questions are questions asked where you must place the given options into the correct or best order. To respond to an ordered list question Press the control key and click-and-drag the options into the correct order on the screen, then click Submit. To respond via SMS, type the activity code, a space, then the letters of the options in the proper order, separated by commas. For example, PZRF A, D, C, B. Send the text to the phone number indicated on the slide. As long as polling stays open, you can click Edit your answer to change the answer you submitted. For SMS responses, simply send a new text with the new response. Once instructors close the question polling, they can show student submissions as well as the correct answer. The correct answer(s) are checked as Correct. Image Questions Image questions are where instructors pose a question associated with a picture. Your answer is provided by clicking a specific location on the image. Image questions cannot be responded to via SMS. To respond to an image quiz 1. Click a specific location on the image to indicate your response. 2. Click Submit. Before polling is closed, you can click Edit your answer to make changes and resubmit. Click View Results to see other student submissions to the answer. This may only be available after the instructor has closed the question to further responses. The correct answer or acceptable response area is highlighted in the image. Free Response Questions Free Response questions are those that require you to enter text into the text box to answer the question posed. The system does not identify correct or incorrect answers to free response questions. SMS responses are limited to 160 characters. Be sure to review your answer closely and edit it as needed before submitting your response. 35

41 To respond to a Free Response question Type your response in the text box provided, review it, then click Submit. To respond via SMS, type the activity code, a space, then the text you are submitting as your response. Send the text to the phone number indicated on the question slide. Before polling is closed, you can click Edit your answer to make changes and resubmit. Click View Results to see other student submissions to the answer. This may only be available after the instructor has closed the question to further responses. The system does not identify correct or incorrect answers to free response questions. Responding via SMS You can respond to in-class questions using SMS (text). SMS instructions appear for all types of in-class activities except for Image quizzes. NOTE that if you do not see these instructions on the activity slides, SMS responses may be disabled for your institution. IMPORTANT: You must have entered your mobile phone number in your account profile, and you must be registered for the class. Otherwise you will receive an error message. Data/Text message rates WILL apply. Because the target phone number for SMS responses should be the same for all courses across the institution, you may want to create a contact for this number, to avoid having to re-enter the number repeatedly. If you need help, text a question mark (?) to the phone number on the question slide. To respond via SMS 1. Create a text message to the phone number listed on the activity slide. 2. Type in the activity code, add a space, then enter the proper response information. Separate multiple entries with commas. For example (noting that the sample activity code "PZRF" in the below examples will be different for each question): 36

42 3. Send the text. Student User Guide To submit a single letter as the response, type: PZRF B To submit multiple letters as the response, type: PZRF B, C, A To submit a text response, type: PZRF Astronomical unit is the average distance between the earth and the sun You should receive a return message confirming receipt of your response. To edit answers submitted via SMS, simply send a new text. The system logs the latest answer it receives while polling remains open. If the instructor has requested justification for your answer, you will receive a message instructing you to complete your response by entering the activity code then typing in your justification and sending the text. 37

43 Taking Notes in Class Once in a classroom, you can take notes while viewing the presentation. The Notes panel appears to the right of the presentation pane, and should appear by default when you open the classroom. If the Notes pane does not appear, click the Notes icon in the class toolbar, shown in the below figure. This is a toggle button which also closes the Notes panel when not needed. All notes entered appear in the Study Guide tab for the course. Only you can see your notes, however Instructors do know which students are taking notes within the interface. To take notes 1. Click the Notes icon in the toolbar to open the Notes panel. 2. Click in the Notes panel and start typing. 3. At the end of each note, press Enter. This allows for the entry and syncing of a new note. Location information (time or slide number) appears in the tag to the left of the note. These tags can be edited (if you need to change the location your note is referencing) or deleted (if video/presentation location doesn't matter). In addition to notes, any Bookmarks you set for classroom content also appear in the Notes panel. 38

44 You can also download your notes from the classroom or from the Study Guide tab. This generates a text file containing your class notes. Open notes in WordPad not Notepad. The notes text file that gets generated opens with proper formatting in WordPad but not in Notepad. Notepad doesn't recognize the linebreaks between notes. To edit location timestamp/slide number tags 1. Hover over the tag until the drop-down arrow (also called a "chevron") appears. 2. Click the chevron and select Edit tag. 3. Type in the change and press Enter. Use colons between the hour, minute, and second digits (h:mm:ss). Alternately, you can select Delete tag from the chevron menu to remove the sync tag altogether. The note will remain. 39

45 Viewing and Posting Questions During Class (while in the classroom) NOTE: Some institutions disable the Q&A functionality; if you do not see the Questions button or panel as described below, check with your school's help desk to see if this is the case with your institution. If you have a question while viewing a classroom presentation, or want to respond to a question someone else asked about the class, select the Questions icon from the toolbar. This is a toggle button which also closes the Questions panel when not needed. Any posted question can generate multiple responses, generating discussions about the class material. For Live streaming classes, the Questions panel appears by default, allowing viewers to chat about the class in real-time. All posts (and responses) entered through the classroom questions panel also appear in the Q&A tab for the course. If a post references a point in the classroom video or a particular slide, that visual cue also appears with the question in the Q&A tab. To post a question from the classroom 1. In the classroom toolbar, click the New Question icon. The Discussions panel opens to show a New Question text box, the same as if you had clicked New Question from the Discussions panel. 2. Enter text into the New question textbox 3. Click the paperclip icon to include an attachment with your question. 40

46 4. Select whether to Reference class content with the question. This simply means that the classroom presentation will synch to the question when another user selects it. 5. Enable the Post anonymously slider to post the question without your name. Instructors can see the authors of all posts; students cannot. 6. Click POST QUESTION. The question can now be viewed and responded to by students or other instructors of the section. To view classroom questions/discussions 1. In the classroom toolbar, click the Discussions icon (shown below) to open the Discussions panel and view student posts and responses, pose questions, and respond to students questions. Bookmarking a question makes it show up in your Study Guide (questions you post are automatically bookmarked). Click the flag below the question to bookmark it (the flag changes from gray to blue). To respond to a question from the classroom 1. In the classroom toolbar, click the Discussions icon (shown below) to open the Discussions panel. 41

47 2. Click the question/post you want to respond to. The Questions panel changes to show a button for responding as well as any previously posted responses. 3. Click RESPOND TO THIS QUESTION. The question panel changes to show a response text box. 4. Enter your response in the text box. 42

48 5. Click the paperclip icon to include an attachment with your response (optional). 6. Enable the Post anonymously slider to post your response without your name. Instructors can see the authors of all posts; students cannot. 7. Click POST. The Discussion panel changes to show you have responded to the question. Click the menu arrow (also called a "chevron") located to the right of a question/response to display the Edit and Delete commands. All users can edit their own (and only their own) questions or responses. To endorse a particular post, click the "thumbs up" icon. The question appears for all users in the Questions panel for this class and in the Q&A tab for the course. Other class members, including instructors, can respond to or endorse your post. 43

49 Responding to Questions About Classroom Content NOTE: Some institutions disable the Q&A functionality; if you do not see the Questions button or panel described below, check with your school's help desk to see if this is the case with your institution. If you want to view or respond to a question while viewing a classroom presentation, select the Discussions icon from the left toolbar. Each question can have multiple responses, functioning as discussion points for class material. All questions and responses entered through the classroom questions panel also appear (for all users) in the Q&A tab for the course. TIP: Bookmarking a question makes it show up in your Study Guide for the class for (questions you post are automatically bookmarked). If another student posts a question or comment you find interesting, click the flag below the question to bookmark it (the flag changes from gray to blue). The Questions icon opens a panel to the right of the presentation, showing all previously posted questions for the class, and allowing you to respond. To respond to an existing question while viewing a presentation 1. While in the classroom, click the Questions icon from the classroom toolbar across the top. The question panel opens to the right of the main panel, listing all previously posted questions about this class/presentation. 2. Click the question you want to answer. The panel changes to show only that question and a RESPOND TO THIS QUESTION button. 44

50 3. Click RESPOND TO THIS QUESTION. A response text box appears where you can enter your response. If applicable, click the paperclip icon to provide an attachment to accompany your response. 45

51 4. Enable the Post anonymously slider to provide the response without identifying you as the responder. The instructor will be able to see who responded but other students will not. 5. When finished, click POST. Your response to the question will appear both in the question panel for the presentation as well as in the Q&A tab for the course. 46

52 Flagging and Bookmarking Content Flags allow you to identify presentation material that you find confusing or for which you need more explanation. Bookmarks allow you to identify presentation material you want to return to later, to rereview or take notes on. Setting Content/Location Bookmarks Bookmarks let you mark locations in presentations or videos so you can find them quickly and easily, without having to page or scrub through the presentation/video. To bookmark content 1. Click the Bookmark icon in the toolbar on the top. 2. If the classroom has both a video and a presentation, select whether you are bookmarking the scene or the slide. Did anything happen? If your Notes panel isn't open when you click to bookmark a location, it will look like nothing happened. Don't worry, the bookmark is there, in your notes. Re-clicking the bookmark within 30 seconds will un-bookmark the item however, so try not to be too click-happy. Once your content is bookmarked, the Bookmark appears with your Notes. This allows you to click the bookmark and go to that location in the presentation/video (whichever you selected to bookmark). 47

53 Setting Flags for confusing content Student User Guide Flags let you mark locations and material that you find confusing or items you feel the instructor may need to explain further to you or the class. Flagging content sends a notification to the instructor, letting them know that a student had some problem with the material. The notification flag includes the location of the presentation at the time it was flagged. To flag content for clarification 1. Click the Flag as confused icon in the classroom toolbar. 2. If the classroom contains both a video and a presentation, you will be asked to select whether the scene is confusing or the slide is confusing. If you want to flag both items of content, click the flag a second time to make a second confusion flag for the other content type. 48

54 Participating in Q&A Discussions Student User Guide NOTE: Some institutions disable the Q&A functionality; if you do not see the Questions button within a classroom or Q&A tab described below, check with your school's help desk to see if this is the case with your institution. Each course contains a Q&A tab where instructors and students can post questions, answers, and comments regarding the class and its content. The Q&A tab contains questions and responses posted from the Questions panel of a classroom, as well as general course-related questions entered directly through the Q&A tab. You can view Q&A entries for each class, view All Questions posted during the course, or view General Questions posted for the class. General questions are those that were posted without identifying a particular class. HELPFUL HINT! If you bookmark another student's question, it will appear in your Study Guide for the class (along with any responses). Click the flag below the question to bookmark it (the flag changes from gray to blue). To view questions and answers 1. Navigate to the class list for the course. 2. Click the Q&A tab. By default, the questions shown are those associated with the class presentation you most recently viewed. 3. Use the drop-down list to view questions for a different class. You can also view General Questions for the class (those associated with the course but not a particular class), or All Questions. 4. Click a question from the list on the left to view any associated responses. 5. Click RESPOND TO QUESTION to provide your own response. 6. Click NEW QUESTION to add a question to the class or course (selecting a particular class or General respectively). 49

55 To change which questions are shown Use the list at the top to select a particular class for which to view question, or you can select All Questions or General Questions. Use the Search box to enter text and search for a particular question title or text within a question. Use the Sort list to sort the questions with newest on top or oldest. Editing or deleting questions and responses You can always go back and edit or delete any question or response you posted. You can only edit or delete your own posts. Understand, however, that Instructors can delete any posts in their classes. Instructors can also see who posted each item, even if you post it anonymously. So don't be rude or inappropriate. To edit/delete a question on the Q&A tab 1. Navigate to the class list for the course. 2. Click the Q&A tab. 3. Find the question or response you want to edit/delete. Use the drop-down list to view questions for a specific class, or view All Questions. 4. Click the question from the list on the left to show it and any responses in the right-pane of the Q&A tab. 5. Click the menu arrow (also called a "chevron") located to the right of the question or response, then click Edit or Delete as appropriate. NOTE: Deleting a question also deletes all responses posted for the original question. 50

56 To edit/delete a question from within a classroom 1. While viewing a class, click the Discussions icon from the classroom toolbar. The Discussions pane opens to the right of the classroom viewer. 2. Find the question/response you want to edit. 3. Click the chevron (menu arrow) located to the right of the question or response. 4. Click Edit. The question or response appears in a text box that allows you to make changes to the text. You can also enable or disable the Post anonymously slider, or change whether to Reference class content location with the question. 5. When finished, click SAVE. 51

57 ALTERNATELY, you can click Delete from the chevron menu to delete the question or response. NOTE: Deleting a question also deletes all responses posted for the original question. 52

58 Reviewing your Study Guide Each course contains a Study Guide tab where your notes are kept. This allows you to quickly page through all of your classroom notes for each class. Only you can see your notes. Study Guide entries are viewed for each class to which they apply. You can also add General notes for the course that may not apply to a specific class. You can also download your notes to a text file, for review outside of the Echo360 interface. How Handy is That! Any questions you post for a class will appear in your Study Guide. BUT if you bookmark other students' questions, they will also appear in your Study Guide (along with any responses). This lets you see your notes along with the bookmarked questions at the same time in the same tab. Click the flag below the question to bookmark it (it turns blue). To view your Study Guide 1. Navigate to the course. 2. Click the Study Guide tab. 3. Use the drop-down list on the left to select a class for which to view notes, bookmarks and other material. 4. Use the Left and Right arrows (< and >) to scroll through classes to see which have notes you need to review. 5. Click on a note or bookmark in the left panel to display the location of the video/presentation in the right panel to which the note or bookmark applies. 53

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60 Editing your Study Guide Notes The Study Guide tab is where all of your classroom and general course notes are kept. Besides viewing your notes, you can edit your notes, edit or remove the timestamp/location tag for each note, and delete a note or bookmark if needed. Only you can see your notes. To edit your Study Guide notes 1. Navigate to the course. 2. Click the Study Guide tab. 3. Use the class drop-down list or the left and right arrows (< or >) to navigate to the notes you want to edit. 4. Click Edit. 5. Click on any existing note and select and edit or remove the text. 6. To delete a note, select all of the text for the note and delete it; this deletes the note, including the timestamp. 7. To delete a bookmark, hover over the bookmark and click the X that appears to the right of the bookmark entry. 8. Click below the list of notes and begin typing to add a new note. NOTE: If an existing note with a timestamp/slide tag is selected at the time you add the new note, it will automatically inherit the same tag, syncing to that location in the class. See the below instructions to edit or delete the tag if this is not applicable to the note. 9. When finished, click Done Editing. To edit the timestamp/slide number for a note 1. Navigate to your study guide. 55

61 2. Use the class drop-down list or the left and right arrows (< or >) to navigate to the notes you want to edit. 3. Click Edit. 4. Hover your mouse over the timestamp/slide number located to the left of a note to reveal the menu arrow. 5. Click the arrow and select Edit tag from the drop-down menu. 6. Edit the timestamp or slide number for the note. Use colons between hour, minute, and second digits (h:mm:ss). 7. Alternately, select Delete tag from the menu to remove the timestamp/slide synchronization for the note. 8. When finished, click Done Editing. 56

62 Downloading Notes You can download your class notes, either from the classroom itself or from the Study Guide tab. Note that class questions/responses as well as classroom bookmarks are not included in the downloaded notes. Timestamp and slide number ARE included with each note that is synced to a location. For Windows users, open notes file in WordPad not Notepad. The notes text file that gets generated opens with proper formatting in WordPad but not in Notepad. Notepad doesn't recognize the line-breaks between notes. To download notes from the Study Guide 1. Navigate to the course. 2. Click the Study Guide tab. 3. Click Download as shown in the below figure. 4. A dialog box appears, asking you to select which set of notes you want to download. By default, the class whose notes you are currently viewing is selected. 5. Use the drop-down list to select a class, or select All Classes from the top of the list to obtain a consolidated list off all classes' notes. 6. Click DOWNLOAD. 57

63 Your notes are downloaded as a text file. If you downloaded All Classes, each class' notes are prefaced with the date and title of the class. To download notes within a classroom 1. Enter the classroom either from the DASHBOARD or the Class List page. 2. If necessary, click the Notes icon in the toolbar to open the Notes panel. 3. Click the Download from the Notes panel. Your notes for this class are downloaded as a text file. 58

64 Downloading Content from a Class NOTE: Instructors have the ability to disable content downloads for a course/section. If the Download options described below are disabled (grayed out), the functionality may be unavailable to you. Check with the instructor if you are not sure. You can download content from Echo360 from the Class List page if you need or want a local copy of the media. This also allows you to download a local copy for offline viewing, or to upload the content so it appears in your Library. With respect to downloading presentations, the item downloaded is the original file that was uploaded. This means that: If the file has not been altered, you will get the same presentation you see in Echo360. If slides have been added, they will not appear in the downloaded file. If slides have been deleted, they do appear in the downloaded file. Interactive activity slides are not included in any download. If the file was created in Echo360, the Download option is grayed out; these presentations do not have an originally uploaded file to download. To download content from the class list page 1. On the DASHBOARD, find the course containing the class you want and click ALL CLASSES. The class list page appears. 2. Click the content icon to show a menu of options for that content. (Clicking the icon opens the classroom page with that item maximized for viewing.) 3. Click Download or Download original (depending on whether you will get the item as shown in the class or the originally uploaded content; if an instructor 59

65 edited the content, the download may not exactly match what you see in the classroom). Depending on your browser settings, you may be prompted to save the file to a specific location, or the browser may automatically save it to your Downloads folder 60

66 Creating Copies of Class List (Published) Media Student User Guide Some institutions allow the instructors and even students to make copies of media that has been published to a section. This allows the class to generate their own copies of content to edit and share with other users as appropriate. You may not see the Create copy option. If your administrator or instructor has disabled the ability to create copies, you will not see the create copy option for your in the class list icon menu. Creating copies of content generates an exact duplicate of the item, including Activity or media slides in presentations. The user who initiated the copy becomes the OWNER of the copy and the item appears in their Library page (My content). Copying can take some time for large files. The create copy feature simply makes a copy of the original, but generating this copy can take some time. While this is happening, the copy will appear to be in "processing" status, and you cannot view the copy until the copy process is complete. The new copy, once created, will appear in your library. To create a copy of classroom published content 1. From the class list, find the item you want to make a copy of. 2. Click the icon (video or presentation ) to open a menu for that media. The options available in the content menu depend on which type of content was selected, whether you are an instructor or student, and what features are enabled for the institution or section. Below is shown a video icon menu for an instructor. 61

67 3. Select Create copy from the menu. Student User Guide You will receive a confirmation flag at the bottom of the screen to note that the copy is being created. After the copy has been generated, it appears in your Library page. You are now the owner of the copy. You may want to use the Edit details feature to rename the copy, which has a default name of "original_name (copy)". 62

68 Working with Library Content (Students) The media listed in the My content section of your LIBRARY page includes any content you have uploaded. You can edit this content or share it with another user. The Shared with me section of the page contains any media that another user has selected to share with you from their content library. Hovering over an item in the Library page exposes a menu arrow (also called a "chevron") in the top right corner of the tile, or on the right side of a row if viewing the page in List view. Click the chevron to see a menu of options, which differ slightly, depending on the type of content selected. The menus shown below are from the My Content section of the page. Shared with me content has fewer options (download and/or delete). Video content menu Presentation content menu The functionality available from the LIBRARY PAGE includes: Uploading content to your library Sharing content from your library Viewing the content and its details Editing content details (title and description) Creating Copies of Library Media Editing presentations in your library Editing a video in your library Deleting content from your Library Downloading content from your Library 63

69 Uploading Content to your Library Any content you add to a class automatically appears in your Library. In fact, the My content section of your Library is the primary location for all of your content. It includes any media you have uploaded. If you are a primary instructor, it also includes captures for your classes. You may want to upload content to your library to edit it or to hold it until you are ready to publish it to a class or share it with another user. The file you upload must be one of the Supported Content Formats or it will not be uploaded or processed. Troubleshooting: If you use a plug-in (such as ChemDraw) to generate equations, molecular drawings, or other items for your PowerPoint presentation, you may find these being stripped or otherwise altered when you upload the file. In this case, convert the PPT to PDF and upload the PDF. Alternately, for Windows users (and Instructors only), use the Echo360 PowerPoint Ribbon add-on to publish the presentation. Both of these methods retain plug-in content in the presentation. Exported graphics to PDF format is not supported. Some graphics programs will allow you to export or save a graphics file (.png,.jpg,.gif, etc.) as a.pdf file. While Echo360 will recognize it as a PDF and allow you to upload it, the media processing will fail. To upload content to your library 1. Click LIBRARY from the main menu to navigate to your library page. My content appears by default. 2. Click UPLOAD CONTENT, located in the top left corner of the library page. 3. In the Filepicker.io window, use the location selection on the left to identify where the file you want to upload resides, then follow the prompts. 4. If the file is saved locally, select My computer from the left, then click the Choose File button located at the bottom of the window. 64

70 Once the file is identified, the Filepicker.io window changes to provide an upload progress bar. When finished, the Filepicker.io window disappears. The newly uploaded file appears in the Library page, but is dimmed while it is processed. Once processing is finished, the chevron menu changes to show the options for the content. 65

71 Creating Copies of Library Media You may not see the Create copy option. If your administrator has disabled the ability to create copies, you will not see the create copy option for your library media. While the Save As feature in the video editor does allow you to create a copy of a video or capture, it assumes you are also making edits and sends the capture through the media processor. If all you want is a copy of an existing capture/video or presentation, use the Create Copy feature. It is available from both the chevron menu for library content as well as from the content details page (which opens when you click on a piece of content in your library). Creating copies of presentations generates an exact duplicate of the presentation, including Activity slides. Any analytics or publishing information associated with the original are of course not copied and the copy of the presentation will act just like a newly generated presentation file. Copying can take some time for large files. The create copy feature simply makes a copy of the original, but generating this copy can take some time. While this is happening, the copy will appear to be in "processing" status, and you cannot view the copy until the copy process is complete. The new copy, once created, will appear in your library. To create a copy of a capture or video 1. From your Library page, find the capture you want. 2. Click on the capture tile. The capture details page appears. A completed capture as shown in the figure below. 66

72 3. Click the Create copy icon, located in the top right corner of the playback pane. It resides immediately to the left of the X used to close the content details page. 4. Alternately you can use the chevron menu on the content tile and select Create copy from the menu. After the copy has been generated, it appears in your Library page. You may want to use the Edit details feature to rename the copy, which has a default name of "original_name (copy)". Click the Info tab to view detailed event information about the copy. The Events information cites when the copy was generated (for videos/captures). To create a copy of a presentation 1. From your Library page, find the presentation you want. 2. Click on the presentation tile. The capture details page appears. A completed capture as shown in the figure below. 3. Click the Create copy icon, located in the top right corner of the playback pane. It resides immediately to the left of the X used to close the content details page. 67

73 4. Alternately you can use the chevron menu on the content tile and select Create copy from the menu. After the copy has been generated, it appears in your Library page. You may want to use the Edit details feature to rename the copy, which has a default name of "original_name (copy)" 68

74 Supported Content Formats You can upload content for slides and presentations to Echo360 both from your computer and popular cloud options such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and OneDrive. The following content formats are accepted. Presentation Video Audio.pdf.3gp.aac.pps.asf.aif.ppsx.avi.aiff.ppt.flv.mka.pptx.m4v.mp3.mkv.mov.mp4.mpg.mpeg.ogv.webm.wmv.ogg.wav.wma 69

75 Viewing Student Library Content Details If you select to view an item from the My content page of your library, you are the content owner, and the viewer also allows you to edit the details of the content and see where it has been published and/or to whom it has been shared. In the My content section of your LIBRARY page, click a content item. The details view appears. The actions you have for the content itself differ depending on whether you are viewing a presentation or video. Both types of content provide icons at the top of the content view, shown in the below figure. Both provide icons at the top of the page (shown below) that allow you to: Click the Pencil icon to edit the details (title, description, tags) of the item. Click the Film (for videos) or Slides (for presentations) icon to edit the item itself. See Editing a Video or Editing a Presentation as needed. 70

76 Click the Trash Can icon to delete the content. Click the X to close the content details page and return to your previous location. You will see the Publishing tab but it is blank. As a student you cannot publish to any sections. Clicking PUBLISH opens the Share to user dialog box. Click the Sharing tab for a variety of options: To share the item with another user, click the Sharing tab, then click the Share button. Enter the address of the user to whom you want to share the content. To "un-share" or remove content access from another user, click the Sharing tab, then click the X located to the right of the user(s) whom you no longer want to have access to the item. To generate a public or embeddable link, click the Sharing tab, then click ADD PUBLIC LINK. Configure the necessary options, then click in the link box to copy the link to your clipboard to paste into an appropriate location. To download the content, scroll below the content preview pane and look for the Processed or Source file list on the bottom of the right column. Click a file link to download that file to your local drive. 71

77 Editing Content Details When media is generated (like a capture) or uploaded to the system, it gets a file name or other title identifier that may or may not be descriptive of the media. Especially in the case of classroom captures, the capture video may have the same title as the section to which it is published, with no differentiation from one captured lecture to another. For uploaded videos or presentations, the original file name may appear as the title of the content. Echo360 allows you to edit the content details as needed, providing a more descriptive title, and making the content easier to find in your library. You can also add a description and keyword tags, to aid in searches for the media. NOTE: Generally, you can only edit the details for content you own (it appears in your LIBRARY). If another user (instructor) published content to a class, the Edit details option is grayed out unless the primary instructor has enabled the co-instructor edits feature for the section. To edit content details: 1. On the My content section of your LIBRARY page, hover your mouse over the content tile or row to expose the menu arrow (also called a "chevron"), then click the chevron. 2. Click Edit details. The Edit media info dialog box appears. 72

78 3. Replace the Title if necessary. 4. Enter a Description of the content, such as a description of the lecture subject. 5. Enter one or more keyword Tags (separated by commas). These tags are used in text searches for content. 6. When finished, click SAVE. 73

79 Editing Videos Echo360 provides a basic video editing function, allowing you to make cuts and trims to video content as needed. In addition, you can make changes and save them to the original video, or you can make changes and Save As. Save As creates a copy of the video with the changes you made. The user performing the Save As function also becomes the owner of the edited copy of the video. If necessary (and you are an Admin) you can change the owner of the video copy to an instructor. IMPORTANT! CHECK PUBLISHING INFO BEFORE SAVING CHANGES!! Any changes you apply to a video will also appear in ALL published (or shared) versions of the video. Publishing (or sharing) simply provides links to the original content. When you edit that content, you change the content being delivered via those links. If desired, you can Save As after making edits. This creates a copy of the video that you now own, but which is not published anywhere. If you are an Instructor, you can select to edit videos from your Library page or from the Class List page. If you are viewing the content details page for the video, use the Edit video icon located in the top right corner. If you are an Administrator, you can select Edit video from a capture's chevron menu in the completed captures list, or click on a completed capture and select the Edit video icon from the content details page. To edit a video 1. Find the video you want to edit, and select Edit video from the chevron menu, or click the Edit video icon from the content details page. The video opens in the editor window. 2. Editing a video consists of the following basics (editing functionality is described in detail below): 74

80 Student User Guide Use the playback controls to find specific locations to mark. Use the Make cut button to mark the location of the playhead. Select a segment between cut marks (or between one end of the video and a cut mark), and use the Delete/Revert (they change depending on status) buttons at the bottom of the editor to make that change to the video. 3. Repeat the above steps as needed to delete segments and/or revert deleted segments to active. 4. Use the buttons across the top to complete your editing and process the video with your changes. These buttons apply to the video as a whole and work as follows: RESTORE - Reverts all changes ever made to the video and restores the original video file. This option is only active if you open a video that had previous edits applied to it. SAVE - Applies the changes you've made to this video. These changes are reflected in the playback bar on the editing screen; gray segments are deleted and blue segments are retained. NOTE: After Save, the changes are applied to all published (and shared) versions of this video. Once processed, the edited version replaces the original version in all locations. SAVE AS - Creates a COPY of the video with your edits. In addition, you are now the owner of the edited copy, regardless of whether you were the owner of the original video or not. 5. To exit without making or saving any changes, click the back arrow in the top left corner of the video editing screen. Processing Occurs Immediately: After selecting to Save, Save As, or Restore, the processing of your changes begins immediately, however processing may take some time to finish, depending on the video length and number of edits. This means two things: 1) Students or other users will not see the edited version until processing is complete. 2) You should not try to re-edit the video until the initial changes are processed. Using the video editing tools The video editor allows you to trim the ends and cut segments from the video. You can review the changes to the video, playing it with the cuts in place, prior to making your changes permanent. 75

81 Review/Playback the video Use the playback controls to play the recording. If you have made cuts in the recording, the playback will skip the cut areas, so you can see how the edits affect the final product. The figure below shows the playback controls, and has the current location of the playhead identified, both as the timed location, and within the playback bar itself. Click play to show the video in the editing window. Click pause to pause the playback. This lets you place the playhead in a specific location for making a cut. See Cutting segments from the video section below. Use the forward and rewind buttons to move through the video as needed. Use your mouse to click-and-drag the playhead to various locations in the playbar. Cutting segments from the video Cutting segments in the video editor involves identifying each end of the cut, then selecting to make the cut. All cuts are temporary until you choose to Apply Edits. Once the cuts are in place, you can review the edited video in the window. The playback head will skip over any cuts so you can see how the recording will look when it is published. Moving the playhead marker - There are three ways to place the playhead marker in a specific location: -- Play the video and pause it where you want to apply a cut -- Click and drag the playhead marker in the playbar to the location for the cut -- Hover the mouse over the playbar, then click in the playbar to the location for the cut To cut a segment from the video 1. Put the playhead marker at the beginning location of the segment you want to cut. 2. Click MAKE CUT. 3. Move the playhead marker to the end location of the segment you want to cut. 4. Click MAKE CUT. 76

82 5. Click into the area between the cuts to select it (yes this also moves the playhead into that area; ignore it). Notice that the selected area in between the two cuts changes to a lighter color than the rest of the playbar, as shown in the below figure. 6. Click DELETE to temporarily cut that segment from the video. The cut segment turns gray, to indicate it is no longer part of the playback. Repeat these steps for each segment you want to remove from the video. The below figure shows a video with multiple cut segments. Remember, these cuts are temporary until you save your changes via Apply Edits. To trim the ends of the recording 1. Put the playhead marker at location where you want the video to start. 2. Click MAKE CUT. 3. Click into the area preceding the cut (the current beginning section of the video) to select it. Notice that the selected area changes to a lighter color than the rest of the playbar. 4. Click DELETE. The opening segment turns gray to indicate it is no longer part of the playback. 5. Move the playhead marker to the location where you want the video to end. 6. Click MAKE CUT. 7. Click into the area immediately following the cut (the current end section of the video) to select it. Notice that the selected area changes to a lighter color than the rest of the playbar. 8. Click DELETE. The end segment turns gray to indicate it is no longer part of the playback. This is shown in the above figure. 77

83 To revert cut segments (undo cut deletion) 1. Click into a gray cut segment on the playbar. Notice that the DELETE button changes to REVERT. 2. Click REVERT. The segment returns to the same color as the rest of the playbar to indicate it is again part of the playback. 78

84 Editing a Presentation You can edit a presentation directly in Echo360 by rearranging slides and by adding new slides and activities. To edit the content within a slide, download the presentation first, edit it in the program you used to create it, then upload it again. You can select to edit a presentation from the LIBRARY page or from the Class List where it is published. You only have permission to edit presentations you have created or uploaded. ALTERNATELY, if you are an instructor, you can download and install the Microsoft Office PowerPoint Ribbon add-on provided by Echo360. This add-on allows you to create and edit a slide deck through PowerPoint, including adding activity slides, then publish it to a class. To edit a presentation in the library 1. From the menu bar, select LIBRARY. 79

85 2. Select the presentation you want to edit. The presentation summary appears. 3. Click Edit Presentation. The slide deck appears. 4. Drag and drop slides to rearrange them as needed. You can also delete slides or add new ones. Your changes take place in the presentation immediately and are reflected in any class that includes the presentation. 80

86 Downloading Content from your Library You can download content from your Echo360 library page if you need or want a local copy of the media. This also allows you to download a local copy of content that was shared with you, then upload the content so it appears as My content in your Library. This provides additional functionality for that media. With respect to downloading presentations, the item downloaded is the original file that was uploaded. This means that: If the file has not been altered, you will get the same presentation you see in Echo360. If slides have been added, they will not appear in the downloaded file. If slides have been deleted, they do appear in the downloaded file. Interactive activity slides are not included in any download. If the file was created in Echo360, the Download original option is grayed out; these presentations do not have an originally uploaded file to download. To download content from your Library 1. Click LIBRARY from the main menu. 2. Find the item you want to download, and hover over your mouse over it to show the menu arrow (chevron) located on the top right corner of a content tile, or on the far right side of a content row if the page is shown in list-view. 3. Click the chevron then click Download or Download original from the options. Depending on your browser settings, you may be prompted to save the file to a specific location, or the browser may automatically save it to your Downloads folder. 81

87 Sharing Content from your Library The content contained in the My Content section of your LIBRARY page is yours to do with as you please. This includes the ability to share it with other Echo360 users via their address. Sharing an item with another Echo360 user makes that item appear in the Shared with me section of their LIBRARY page. From here they can view it, download the original, or delete it as needed. For example, your instructor may want you to produce a video or presentation for a class. You can create the content, upload it to your Library, then share it with the instructor. To share library content 1. Navigate to your LIBRARY page. 2. Find the content you want to share, using the search box or filters across the top of the page as needed. 3. Hover over the item to expose the menu arrow (called a "chevron") for the item. 4. Click the chevron and select Share. 5. In the Share to user dialog box, type in the address of the user you want to share the content with. Separate multiple users with commas. 6. Click SHARE. The recipients will not receive any notice that you have shared content with them, so you may want to let them know to look on their Shared with me Library page for the item. 82

88 Deleting Content from the Student's Library Student User Guide You are effectively the "owner" of any content that appears in the My content page of your Library. You can delete this content if it is no longer needed. Deleting My content media is permanent; you cannot recover the media. Items appearing in the Shared with me page of your library are not associated with any other data; you are seen simply as the recipient of these items. As such, deleting this content deletes only the media. Any other sharing or publishing done by the owner of this content is not affected. WARNING! CHECK SHARING INFO FIRST!! Before deleting My content items, click on the item to open the content and check the sharing information. If you have shared the media with other users, deleting it also removes the content from the Shared with me page of the Library of any user with whom you shared the item. Removing content from your Shared with me page simply removes it from your library. To delete content from your library 1. Open your LIBRARY page. 2. On the My content or Shared with me page, find the content you want to delete and hover over it to expose the menu arrow (chevron). 3. Click the chevron to open the content menu. 4. Click Delete. A warning message appears, indicating that all data associated with the 83

89 content will also be deleted. 5. Click OK to delete the content. If the content had been shared with other individuals, it is removed from the Shared with me page of their Library. 84

90 Echo360 Mobile Apps Student User Guide Echo360 has developed mobile applications that allow Instructors and Students to view classes, including both videos and presentations, and to upload videos to your library using your smartphone or tablet. The mobile apps do not support administrator functionality. The Android app is supported on Android 4.1 and higher. It is available from the Google Play store: The ios app is supported on ios 9.1 or later. It is available from the itunes App store: The Windows Mobile app is supported on Windows 10 PC and Windows 10 Mobile devices, as well as on XBox One. It is available from the Windows App store: While the interfaces between the apps differs slightly, the functionality and basic navigation as described in these topics is the same. Mobile App login process has changed: If you have used the Mobile Apps before, you will notice a change to the login process. In the new version, the App will request your address. It then checks to see if your institution uses a single-sign-on (SSO) solution to authorize you for Echo If your institution uses SSO, a login page appears, similar to the one you typically use to log into your institution portal or other authorization process. Enter your institution credentials. - Otherwise, the Echo360 login page appears, requesting your address and your Echo360 password. - If you typically access Echo360 through an LMS, you will need to create an Echo360 password to use the app. Your Echo360 login will use your LMS/Institution address. See Using the Echo360 Mobile App for instructions. 85

91 Echo360 Mobile Apps Echo360 has developed mobile applications that allow Instructors and Students to view classes, including both videos and presentations, and to upload videos to your library using your smartphone or tablet. The mobile apps do not support administrator functionality. The Android app is supported on Android 4.1 and higher. It is available from the Google Play store: The ios app is supported on ios 9.1 or later. It is available from the itunes App store: The Windows Mobile app is supported on Windows 10 PC and Windows 10 Mobile devices, as well as on XBox One. It is available from the Windows App store: While the interfaces between the apps differs slightly, the functionality and basic navigation as described in these topics is the same. Mobile App login process has changed: If you have used the Mobile Apps before, you will notice a change to the login process. In the new version, the App will request your address. It then checks to see if your institution uses a single-sign-on (SSO) solution to authorize you for Echo If your institution uses SSO, a login page appears, similar to the one you typically use to log into your institution portal or other authorization process. Enter your institution credentials. - Otherwise, the Echo360 login page appears, requesting your address and your Echo360 password. - If you typically access Echo360 through an LMS, you will need to create an Echo360 password to use the app. Your Echo360 login will use your LMS/Institution address. See Using the Echo360 Mobile App for instructions. 86

92 What the Mobile Apps Can and Cannot Do Student User Guide While the Echo360 Mobile app now provides both video and presentation viewing capabilities, and allows students and instructors to interact with the in-class activity slides, there are still some limitations to using the application. The mobile apps are not designed to replace the full capabilities of Echo360 as provided through a browser. The mobile apps do not provide any administrator functionality; administrators, unless they are also instructors and/or students within a section, cannot log into and use the mobile apps. The Echo360 mobile app provides access to the following functionality: View courses by term View classes for each course/section View video media published to a class Once the video is playing in the app, you can turn off your mobile device display and continue listening to the audio feed of the class video. View and interact with presentation media published to a class, including o Answer activity questions (students) o Show or hide student responses (instructors) o Open or close the activity (instructors) o Show or hide slides in the deck (instructors) Post discussion points or questions and responses for the class Students can mark a slide or video location as confusing (click the confusion flag at the top of the viewer). Upload video media to your Library Students can download video media for offline viewing There are also some limitations to the app that you need to know about. These include: Student Analytics are not captured for media views through the app. If your instructor uses media views for engagement assessment, be sure to also view class media using a browser. And yes, the browser on your mobile device counts. You cannot upload to a class; all video uploads via the app are placed into your Echo360 Library. You cannot view your Echo360 Library through the app. You cannot switch institutions once you are logged in. If you need to connect to a different institution, log out and log back in. LMS Users must create a direct login password: If you are an LMS user (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, etc.), you must establish a direct Echo360 login in order to use the app. The LMS passes you through as a user but Echo does not maintain your password (it leaves authentication to the LMS). See Using the Echo360 Mobile App for instructions. 87

93 Using the Echo360 Mobile App Student User Guide After logging into the Echo360 Mobile App, the first thing you see is a list of courses in the current term. Click on a course to see a list of classes for the course. Click on a class from the list to view the classroom content. Select whether to view slides or the video (if the class contains both) If there is a second video, you will see a "swap" icon in the bottom right corner. If there is a presentation or video in the class, you will see a "slide deck" or "video" icon in the top right corner. Tap these to change the displayed media as needed. Once the video is playing in the app, you can turn off your mobile device display and continue listening to the audio feed of the class video. See Navigating the Echo360 Mobile App and Viewing Content through the Echo360 App for the basics. See Viewing and Interacting with Presentations in a Class and Uploading Videos through the Echo360 App for more information on those tasks. If you are an LMS user (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, etc.), you must establish a direct Echo360 login in order to use the app. The LMS passes you through as a user but Echo does not log your password (it leaves authentication to the LMS). Your LMS and Echo360 address are (and must be) the same. To create a direct Echo360 password: 1. Enter Echo360 as you normally do, via a link to the Echo360 through the LMS. 2. Click the Settings icon in the top right corner of the screen (it looks like a gear). 3. Select Account Settings. Be sure to make note of your address if necessary; this is the address you will enter into the app when logging in. 4. Click CREATE PASSWORD. The password you create can be the same as or different from your LMS password, as long as it contains 8 characters. Your Echo360 password is used to access Echo360 directly, to use the Mobile App, Personal Capture, or the PowerPoint Ribbon add-on. Otherwise you will continue to access Echo360 the way you normally do, through your LMS. The apps are designed primarily for mobile viewing of class material, and to allow for mobile videos to be uploaded. It is not designed to replace the capabilities of the full Echo360 site. The mobile apps do not provide any functionality for administrators. For complete Echo360 platform functionality, log in using your browser. 88

94 Navigating the Echo360 Mobile App After downloading the app, the first thing you'll be asked to do is log in. Enter your address. If your institution uses single-sign-on for authentication, you will be prompted for your institution username/password. If you typically log directly into Echo360, you will be prompted for your Echo360 login ( address and password). LMS Users must establish a direct Echo360 login: If you are an LMS user, you must establish a direct Echo360 login in order to use the app. The LMS passes you through as a user but Echo does not log your password (it leaves authentication to the LMS). To create an Echo360 password, navigate directly to the Echo360 browser page for your region, then click Forgot Password and enter your LMS login address. Echo360 will send an with a link. The password you establish here will be used only as your Echo360 login, either through the app or through a browser. Your LMS access/password remains the same. If you are enrolled in multiple institutions, you will be asked to select an institution to log into. If you want to use the app with a different institution, you must log out then log back in again, selecting a different institution. If you are assigned multiple roles in the institution you logged into, you can select which role you want to log in as. Viewing classroom media After logging in, the current or most recent term's courses are listed on the screen. 89

95 Tap a course to view a list of classes. Tap the class whose content you want to view. See Viewing content through the Echo360 App for information on navigating the classroom player. 90

96 Once the video is playing in the app, you can turn off your mobile device display and continue listening to the audio feed of the class video. If the class has a capture with multiple videos, tap the swap icon located to the right of the playback bar to view the other video. If the class has a presentation, you can tap the slide deck icon in the top right corner to view the slides instead. To show closed captions, change playback quality (to accommodate lower bandwidth) or to change the speed of playback, tap the Settings icon in the bottom right corner of the playback window. To mark a video or slide location as confusing, tap the flag icon at the top of the screen. To post a question, or to see the questions and responses already posted in the class, tap the discussions icon located to the right of the confusion flag. See Posting Questions for a Class in the Mobile App for more information. To exit the video player, tap the arrow in the top left corner (you may need to tap on the video to show the controls first). You are returned to the class list, where you can select to view another class. 91

97 Once again, see Viewing content through the Echo360 App for details on the controls available. See Viewing and Interacting with Presentations in a Class for information on what you can do with presentations and activity slides. Showing different courses (select a different term) The main menu for the app allows you to select a different term whose courses to view. The main menu is opened by clicking the menu button located in the top left corner of the app. The menu appears in a flyout, containing a list of available terms, as well as commands for uploading a video and logging out. 92

98 Select a term to view the sections for that term. Tap on a section to view the classes (that contain media) for the section. Tap a class to view the media published to the class. Uploading a video The Upload video command is located in the main menu for the app. The main menu is opened by clicking the menu button located in the top left corner of the app, as shown above. Select Upload Video from the menu, and follow the prompts. You can upload a video that already exists on the device, or you can select the camera icon to take a video to upload. All videos are uploaded to your Library. From there you can publish it to classes and/or edit it as needed through the Echo360 web-browser interface. See Uploading Videos through the Echo360 App. 93

99 Viewing Content through the Echo360 App Clicking on a class from the list allows you to view the class. If the class has both a video and a presentation, you are asked which item you want to view. Both items are available while in the classroom, but the item you select (Slides or Video) is maximized on entry. See Viewing and Interacting with Presentations in a Class for more information on interacting with presentations in the classroom. If there are both a video and a presentation in the classroom, tap the icon in the top right corner to swap between them. If there is a second video feed in the capture, tap the swap icon in the bottom right of the player to switch between them. These icons and the other classroom features and playback controls are identified in the below figure and described below the figure. Once the video is playing in the app, you can turn off your mobile device display and continue listening to the audio feed of the class video. Depending on your connection type, if the video has both HD and SD versions (most do): If connected via wifi, the HD version of the video plays. If connected via 3G or 4g, the SD version of the video plays. You can change which version you are watching, to accommodate bandwidth issues, if necessary. Click the Settings icon in the bottom right corner then select Quality to toggle between the bandwidth versions of the video. 94

100 The video controls appear when the video first begins, then disappear to allow you to watch without interference. To make the controls appear, tap once on the video screen. The video controls are defined as follows, using the numbers shown to identify each: 1. Return: The arrow in the top left corner exits the video and returns you to the class list. 2. Confusion Flag: Indicates confusion about a video location or a slide, depending on what is being viewed at the time it is selected. 3. Discussions/Questions: Opens the questions page to allow viewers to post questions and responses about the classroom material. Users can also edit or delete questions or responses via the questions page. See Posting Questions for a Class in the Mobile App for additional information. 4. Swap Video/Presentation: If the class has both a video and a presentation in it, the icon in the top right corner allows you to swap between the two. If a presentation is showing, the icon indicates a video; if a video is showing, the icon indicates a presentation. If there is no second content in the class, there is no icon. See Viewing and Interacting with Presentations in a Class for additional information on presentations. 95

101 5. Current Location: Shows current location (time elapsed) of playback. The playback bar allows for "scrubbing" to a different location in the video. Tap on the playback bar, or tap and drag the endpoint (dot) of the playback bar to move to a different location in the video. The total duration of the video is shown at the right end of the playback bar. 6. Playback controls: Contains rewind (10 seconds), fast forward (10 seconds) and play/pause button for controlling the video playback. 7. Primary/Secondary Video swap: For captures that have dual visual inputs, this switches the feed between the primary and secondary video/display. The primary input is shown by default. 8. Playback Settings: Opens a popup menu that allows you to control the following items for playback: o o o Captions - If the video has closed captions, select whether to turn them On or Off. If the video does not have closed captions, this option is not shown. Click the Captions option in the settings menu to toggle the captions on or off. Quality - Allows you to select from the normal (HD) playback quality or switch to a lower (SD) playback if your network bandwidth isn't allowing for smooth viewing at normal playback quality. Click the Quality option in the settings menu to toggle between the higher bandwidth and lower bandwidth options Speed - Allows you to select the speed at which the video plays back. Normal is 1X speed, but you can select to slow it down to half-speed (0.5x) or up to 1.75x speed. Click the Speed option in the settings menu to open a list of your playback speed options. 96

102 Posting/Responding to Questions in Class through the Mobile App The mobile app allows you to post or respond to a question or discussion point while viewing the classroom content. Click the Discussions icon located in the top right corner of the class viewer to open the Questions panel. The Questions panel appears full screen, and lists any questions/discussions already posted to the class if there are any. To add a question, click the blue add question button located in the bottom right corner of the questions screen, as shown below. 97

103 When the New Question page appears, tap into the main area of the page to begin typing in your question text. You can also select to post your question "anonymously"; students will not see your name but instructors will. When finished, tap Post Question. Once entered, your question appears along with any other questions posted to the class. 98

104 Responding to questions Student User Guide To respond to a posted question, if necessary, click the Discussions icon from the classroom, as shown above, to open the Questions list. Then tap on the question to which you want to respond. On the responses page for that question, click the blue Add Response button located in the bottom right of the screen. When the New Response page appears, tap on the main section of the page to begin typing your response. As with questions, you can select to post the response "anonymously"; students will not see your name but instructors will. When finished, tap Post Response. 99

105 Editing or deleting a question To edit any question or response you entered (or you are an instructor and want to edit or delete a student's entry), if necessary, open the Questions list by tapping the Discussions icon as shown at the top of this page. Tap on the question you want to edit to open it in a separate page. Click the Edit (pencil) or Delete (trash can) icon to edit or delete the question as appropriate. If you delete the question, all responses are also deleted. Editing or deleting a response To edit any question or response you entered (or you are an instructor and want to edit or delete a student's entry), if necessary, open the Questions list by tapping the Discussions icon as shown at the top of this page. 100

106 Tap on the response you want to edit/delete. Select to Edit or Delete the response as appropriate. 101

107 Viewing and Interacting with Presentations through the Echo360 App Each class in the class list contains an icon for the type of media published to the class. Tapping on the class opens the classroom viewer, showing the video by default. If there is a presentation in the class, there is a slide-deck icon in the top right corner. Tap the slide deck icon in the top right corner to open the slides in the classroom view. Logically, if there is only a presentation published to the class, tapping the class from the class list shows the presentation in the classroom view. Notice how the icon in the top right corner changes to show a video icon (if there is a video in the class). Tapping this icon swaps the main view back to the video. The instructor presentation view allows for: Viewing of slides Swiping left or right to scroll through the slide deck Pinching and Zooming of slides and images. Showing/Hiding slides in the deck - tap the "hide" icon in the top right corner of the slide view (second figure below) to hide/unhide slides from students. Overview of all slides in the deck Activity question actions, including show responses, close polling, reset question, and seeing the number of responses given 102

108 The student presentation view allows for: Viewing of slides (tap a slide to view it - hidden slides are replaced with a "hidden" icon indicating you cannot see it) Swiping left or right to scroll through the slide deck Pinching and Zooming of slides and images. Responding to activity questions Overview of all slides in the deck 103

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110 Using Offline Mode to view Echo360 Class Content The main menu contains an Go offline option that allows you to take the Mobile App offline and still view content. The catch is, you have to download the class video FIRST. The Echo360 app will automatically switch to offline mode if it detects that you do not have an active internet connection. Right now, only class videos can be downloaded for offline viewing. Presentations cannot be viewed offline currently. To download a video for viewing offline: 1. Log into the Echo360 App and find the section whose content you want to view offline. 2. Scroll through the class list to find the class(es) whose content you want to view offline. 105

111 3. Press and hold the class, or select the three dots in the top right corner of the class, to show the download options menu. 4. Select Download Video, or if the classroom capture has a dual-video feed, select whether to download video one or video two (you can download both 106

112 but you have to do so separately). 107

113 When finished, the class entry in the list will note for you that you have downloaded the video for that class and can view it offline. In addition, once you go to offline mode, the section list will identify the latest downloaded class available to watch for each section. Only the Echo360 Mobile App can be used to view downloaded videos: Class content downloaded for offline viewing through the App can ONLY be viewed through the Mobile App. The files are both hidden within the operating system and encrypted so they cannot be played through anything other than the Echo360 player. 108

114 Removing downloaded videos from your device Student User Guide If you no longer need to have the class videos available for offline viewing, you can remove them To remove a downloaded video from your device 1. Log into the Echo360 App and find the section whose content you want to view offline. 2. Scroll through the class list to find the class(es) whose content you have downloaded and wish to remove. 3. Press and hold the class, or select the three dots in the top right corner of the class, to show the options menu. 109

115 4. Select Remove all media to delete the downloaded video(s) from your device. When finished, the Available offline notification no longer appears for the class. 110

116 Uploading Videos through the Echo360 App Student User Guide The main menu contains an Upload Video option that allows you to upload videos from your mobile device to your Echo360 content library. If you are using the Android mobile app, you will also see an Echo360 option within your video recording app. This allows you to select to upload a video to Echo360 the same way you might upload a video to Facebook or Twitter. Both the ios and Android apps allow you to TAKE a video when you select to upload as well. Click the Camera icon from the upload video screen (in ios it's in the top right corner; in Android it's bottom right). Record your video then upload it directly into Echo360. To upload a video from within the mobile app: 1. Click the menu button in the top left corner of the screen. 2. Select Upload Video; a list of the videos on your device appears. 3. At this point you can select a video to upload, or you can click the camera icon to record a video. In ios the icon is in the top right corner; in Android it's bottom right. Prior to uploading, the preview screen appears, allowing you to view the video to make sure it is the item you want to upload. 4. Click Start Upload. A screen appears showing previous uploads, as well as any current uploads that are occurring. You can cancel the upload from this screen by clicking the X located on the right-side of the progress bar. And as with all screens in the app, click the arrow in the top left corner to return to the previous screen. 111

117 As with all uploaded video content, you can edit the video through Echo360 to trim the ends or cut out segments as needed. Upload capabilities differ based on Mobile OS: The Android OS allows you to upload multiple videos simultaneously; the ios allows for one video at a time. In addition, the Android upload runs as a service, meaning you can close the app and video(s) will continue to upload in the background. The ios upload screen must remain open until the upload completes. 112

118 Recommended Browsers The Active Learning Platform is a web-based application, and as such does not have specific OS requirements. It does however, have certain browser requirements. While we can't necessarily test every version of every browser out there, we do test the more recent and most popular browsers/versions. Tested Browsers Google Chrome - most recent version Firefox - most recent version Safari 6+ Internet Explorer 9 and higher. Supported Browsers for LIVE streaming Live streams are tested on and supported for viewing on all of the above-listed browsers. HOWEVER, Live streaming requires the use of the Adobe Flash player, so be sure your installed version of Flash is the most recent. (Adobe will probably let you know if it needs to be updated...they're good like that.) Echo360 does support the use of ios browsers for viewing Live streams. How? ios uses HLS instead of Flash for live streaming (which is good, because ios doesn't support Flash). HLS stands for HTTP live streaming protocol, in case you were interested. 113

119 Register Your Account and Log In You should receive notification that an Active Learning Platform user account has been created for you. This may come as a notification from the system administrator, or be an invitation to a course from an instructor. The notification contains a Complete Registration link to the Active Learning Platform. To complete account registration 1. Click Complete Registration from the notification you receive. 2. In the Account Details page,complete the personal information for your Active Learning Platform account. Those details include: o o o o o o First and Last Name (required) address (required; used for login) Password and Confirm Password (required; used for login) Select Country Code and enter Phone Number (Optional; Mobile number is recommended so you can respond to class questions via SMS. Data/Text charges will apply.) Time Zone (optional but recommended) Profile Image (click Select File to upload an image) 3. Click Create Account to complete the process (you may need to scroll down to get to the bottom of the registration page). 114

120 At this point you should be passed through into ALP, and see your HOME page. If you do not, or you want to log in later, navigate to the ALP server and log in using the address and password you just configured. 115

121 Viewing Courses and Your HOME Page After logging into the Active Learning Platform, your HOME page appears, showing all courses in which you are enrolled, along with previews of the presentations and videos from the most recent classes. Courses are grouped by term. Courses for terms that have expired are grayed out on the page, but they are still selectable and you can still view the content for those classes. Click All Classes for a course to go to the class list page, showing a list of all classes by date and title (if one is given for the class). Use the Term list, located in the upper-right corner, to change which courses are being shown on the home page, targeting only the courses for the selected term. Alternately, click COURSES from the main menu, which opens a list of your courses. Selecting a course here takes you to the class list for the course, the same as clicking All Classes for that course. 116

122 Understanding the Student's LIBRARY Page Student User Guide The LIBRARY page is the repository for all of your content. This topic provides an overview of this page. For more details, see Working with Library Content - Student. How does it get there? There are two ways content gets added to a student's Library page: You Upload content to your library. Someone shares content with you. These appear in the Shared with me section of the Library page. Hovering over an item in the Library page exposes a menu arrow (also called a "chevron") in the top right corner of the tile, or on the right side of a row if viewing the page in List view. Click the chevron to see a menu of options, which differ slightly, depending on the type of content selected. Video content menu Presentation content menu 117

123 Taking Notes and Asking Questions Student User Guide The Active Learning Platform lets you take notes while you're viewing a class and maintain your own personal Study Guide for the course. You can also post questions to the Q&A forum that the instructor or other students can view and respond to. This topic provides an overview of these study-aide features. For detailed information, see Taking Notes in Class, Reviewing your Study Guide as well as Posting Questions About Class Presentations and Participate in Class Q&A. Taking and reviewing class notes Notes you enter during class are synced to the video location or presentation slide you're viewing at the time, so that when you go back to look at them later, you have some context for the note you entered. This can be particularly useful if your notes are cryptic or you make a note of an item from the class you want to review again. (You can also just add a Bookmark, if a note is not needed.) Two locations for taking or reviewing notes: Within the classroom - While viewing the class video or presentation, click the Notes icon to open the Notes panel. Click in the Notes panel and begin typing. Your text is entered along with the timed location of the video or slide number showing when you began typing your note. In the Study Guide - From the Class List page, click the Study Guide tab. This allows you to see the notes you've taken for each class (use the drop-down to select a class), and add to or edit them if necessary. You can also to enter general notes about the course, not associated to any particular class. Questions that have posted in the class also appear in your study guide. Only you can see the notes in your study guide, although the Instructor does 118

124 know if you are taking notes through the ALP interface. Asking and responding to questions NOTE: Some institutions disable the Q&A functionality; if you do not see the Questions button or Q&A tab described below, check with your school's help desk to see if this is the case with your institution. Questions or comments you post to the class at large can be synced to the video location or presentation slide you're viewing at the time, but do not have to be. Referencing content with your question may provide useful context for the question or comment, however. TIP: Questions you post also appear in your Study Guide for the class. But if you find someone else's question interesting, bookmark it (click the little flag below the question; it turns blue!). Bookmarking a question makes it show up in your Study Guide. Two locations for asking and responding to questions: Within the classroom - While viewing the class video or presentation, click the Questions icon to open the Questions panel. Click the New Question button to post a new question, or click on an existing question to read the existing responses or enter a response of your own. You can also endorse (thumbs up) questions or responses in the Questions panel. 119

125 In the Q&A Tab - From the Class List page, click the Q&A tab. This allows you to see the questions and responses posted by specific class or show All Questions for all classes (use the drop-down list). You can also post questions as well as respond to questions via the Q&A tab. 120

126 Searching Across a Section Whether you are a student or an instructor, you may find that your sections become filled with useful but difficult-to-find items, especially if you are looking for something specific. The Section Search feature is designed to help you target the information you may need to find, especially when it comes time for an instructor create a quiz around a class discussion, or for a student to study for a test. To access the Section Search 1. From the HOME page or the COURSES option on the main menu, select a section. 2. Select the SEARCH tab located on the right side of the section tab options. 3. Use the Search text box to enter a term or phrase you want to search all section content for. You must enter text in the search box to return results. 4. Use the filtering drop-down lists, shown below, to narrow your search to specific types of content or to a particular class. The results list shows all the items that match your search criteria. To the left of each item in the list is an icon that identifies the type of content it is. 121

127 5. Click an item from the results list. The item opens in a NEW TAB for viewing. For Q&A matches, the Q&A tab opens showing the selected item so you can see the full discussion (question and responses) context. For Notes, the Study Guide opens showing the selected item. For Class Name matches, the Classroom opens, as if you had clicked GO TO CLASSROOM from the Class List page. For Slides, the presentation opens in the classroom, showing the slide that matched your search criteria (or at the beginning if a location is not determined). For Videos, the video opens in the classroom, at the location that matched your search criteria (or at the beginning if a location is not determined). 6. When finished, close the new tab to return to your original ALP window and the search results. How the Section Search works: The section search is effectively a text search, looking for items in the section that contain whatever text you entered into the search box. You MUST enter text into the search box to return results. For questions, responses, class names, and notes, a text search is fairly straightforward. Items that contain text matching the search word or phrase are returned. (See also the note below regarding one known limitation.) For videos and presentations, the text search is more complicated. Videos, for example, don't have text. What ALP does is search the text of closed captions applied to any videos, and returns all the different locations in the video where the captioning contains that text. Presentation files often have text but not all of the text in a presentation can be "read". Where the text in a presentation can be identified and matched, the slide containing the matching text is returned. However images containing text cannot be read and therefore those slides will not be returned. And sometimes it's difficult to know if the text in a slide is part of an image, or was typed onto the slide. PDFs are also sometimes searchable and sometimes not. PDFs are often generated as pictures of text, meaning they cannot be read. However, depending on how the PDF was generated, it may be "readable" by the ALP search. This means that the Section Search may match search terms for some PDFs and not for others. NOTE however there is a known limitation: text searches only return results where the text matches the beginning of a word. For example "you" will find all matches with "you" or "your" etc. A search for "our" will find "our" but not "your". A future release of ALP is slated to address this text search issue, as well as include the ability for the section search to search content metadata (titles, descriptions, and tags). 122

128 Logging in Under a Different Institution or Role Student User Guide If you have multiple roles in the system (a student in some courses, an instructor in others), or you are a user in more than one institution that uses ALP, you can switch to another role or institution to view that content without having to log in again. To change the logged in role or institution 1. After logging in, click your name in the upper-right corner of the menu bar. Your profile picture and name appear. 2. Click Change. The Select your institution and role page appears. 3. Use the drop-down lists to select a different Institution and/or Role to work with. The change will persist to the next time you log in. 4. Click OK. 123

129 Viewing Classes and Presentations THIS TOPIC deals with viewing classroom material after the class has been captured and posted to the class list. For viewing classes in real-time (as they are happening) see Viewing Live Classes (Student view). Classes are grouped by courses. To view a list of all classes for a particular course, you can: Find the Course on your Home page and click ALL CLASSES. Use the COURSES drop-down list on the main menu to select a course. Use the class list to find the class you want to watch and to see what materials your instructor may have posted for upcoming classes. See Understanding class list page icons below for descriptions of the indicators on the Classes page. To watch a class 1. From the HOME page, click ALL CLASSES for the section whose class you want to watch. The Class List appears, listing all classes by date, oldest to newest. The most recently completed class is selected automatically (meaning you may need to scroll UP to see earlier classes) 2. If necessary, use the Sort drop-down list or Search box to find the class you want to view. 3. Select the class from the list, then click GO TO CLASSROOM from the left panel. 124

130 The classroom viewer opens, with the video playing automatically. If there is no video, the presentation appears at the first page. 4. Use the playbar at the bottom to pause, play, rewind 10 seconds, or scrub through the video as needed. 5. Use the volume control and playback speed buttons to control those aspects of your viewing. 6. Click the thumbnails to switch between visual feeds, if the classroom contains multiple visual feeds (e.g, the classroom recording captured dual video or video and display, and there is a presentation loaded to the class). 7. Use the classroom toolbar on the left to navigate between classes, enter or respond to questions, and take notes during the classroom viewing. Alternately, if the class you want is a recent one, it may be previewed in the course block on your HOME page. Click the preview thumbnail for the class to jump directly to that classroom. Understanding the class list page icons Each class is shown with a series of icons, providing information and functionality as follows: Content Icons - Click a content icon for a menu that will allow you to view or download that media. o A grey icon ( ) icon indicates that you have already viewed this material. o A green icon ( ) indicates that this content is new to you; you have not yet viewed it. 125

131 Conversation Bubble icon - Click the conversation bubble icon ( ) located on the row for the class to open the Q&A tab and view the questions and responses posted for that particular class. The number indicates the total number of questions posted for that class (responses are not counted). See which classes will be streamed LIVE. If your classes will be streamed live and in real-time, a LIVE badge appears next to the Class Name. A gray LIVE badge ( ) indicates a future class that will be streamed live. A green LIVE badge ( ) indicates that this class is currently being captured and streamed. Not all classes are live streamed; a class that is happening RIGHT NOW will also appear in green with a green dot to the left of the class in the Class List. Only classes with a LIVE badge will be captured and streamed in real-time to class participants. 126

132 Viewing Live Classes (Students) Some institutions may configure classes to be viewed in real-time, while they are happening. These are called LIVE classes. Watching classes live is very similar to watching recorded classes except that you can't control the playback (fast forward, rewind, pause). Unless you've invented a time machine, in which case we'd love to hear more about it... To access a live class: 1. Navigate to the Class List page (click ALL CLASSES from the HOME page) and scroll to the current date. The live class appears with the date and class name in green text, a green LIVE badge next to the class name, and a green dot to the left indicating the class is happening right now. 2. Click GO TO CLASSROOM to enter the class and watch it as it is happening. One difference you will notice is that when you enter the classroom, the Questions pane is showing by default. This is designed to allow you and the other students viewing the class to chat, ask questions, and discuss what you are seeing while you are seeing it. 127

133 Think of it less as a Q&A panel and more like a chat pane. All discussions and responses are retained for the class and will appear on the Q&A tab, as well as in the Questions panel when viewing the recording of this class later. Hovering your mouse over the bottom section of the classroom viewer exposes the playbar that shows you the elapsed time, and to the right, view control icons. These icons let you select which visual input to focus on in the viewer (if there is more than one). The classroom toolbar (on the left) also appears when you hover your mouse over the playbar area of the classroom, allowing you navigate out of the classroom, open the Notes panel, or close/open the Questions panel. 128

134 Navigating Between Classes While viewing the Class list page, you can easily select which class you want to view. While in the classroom, switch classes by clicking the list button located at the top of the left toolbar. A class-list navigation panel opens, shown below, listing all other classes for the course. The panel provides you with the following options: Select a different class from the list to open the classroom and view the content for that class. At the top of the list is an Exit Classroom selection, which returns you to the Class list page. Click the X to close the panel and return to the presentation. 129

135 Responding to Activities During Class Instructors may post questions during class for you to answer. The following sections provide instructions for responding to in-class questions or activities: Responding via SMS You can respond to in-class questions using SMS (text). SMS instructions appear for all types of in-class activities except for Image quizzes. IMPORTANT: You must have entered your mobile phone number in your account profile, and you must be registered for the class. Otherwise you will receive an error message. Data/Text message rates WILL apply. Because the target phone number for SMS responses should be the same for all courses across the institution, you may want to create a contact for this number, to avoid having to re-enter the number repeatedly. If you need help, text a question mark (?) to the phone number on the question slide. To respond via SMS 1. Create a text message to the phone number listed on the activity slide. 2. Type in the activity code, add a space, then enter the proper response information. Separate multiple entries with commas. For example (noting that the sample activity code "PZRF" in the below examples will be different for each question): 3. Send the text. To submit a single letter as the response, type: PZRF B To submit multiple letters as the response, type: PZRF B, C, A To submit a text response, type: PZRF Astronomical unit is the average distance between the earth and the sun You should receive a return message confirming receipt of your response. 130

136 To edit answers submitted via SMS, simply send a new text. The system logs the latest answer it receives while polling remains open. If the instructor has requested justification for your answer, you will receive a message instructing you to complete your response by entering the activity code then typing in your justification and sending the text. Multiple Choice Questions Multiple choice questions are questions asked where you must pick the correct or best answer(s) from a list of choices. To respond to a multiple choice question For single-answer questions, click the answer then click Submit. For single-answer questions via SMS, type the activity code, space, then the letter of the correct answer. Send the text to the phone number indicated on the question slide. For multiple-answer questions, hold the control key and click all correct answers, then click Submit. For multiple-answer questions via SMS, type the activity code, space, then all letters of the correct answers separated by commas. Send the text to the phone number indicated on the slide. As long as polling stays open, you can click Edit your answer to change the answer you submitted. For SMS responses, simply send a new text with the new response. Once instructors close the question polling, they can show student submissions as well as the correct answer. The correct answer(s) are checked as Correct. Numeric Questions Numeric questions are those that require a specific numeric response to be entered into the answer text box. To respond to a numeric quiz Type in the number for the answer then, click Submit. To respond via SMS, type the activity code, a space, then the number you are submitting as the correct answer. Send the text to the phone number indicated on the question slide. Before polling is closed, you can click Edit your answer to make changes and resubmit. For SMS responses, simply send a new text with the new response. Click View Results to see other student submissions to the answer. This may only be available after the instructor has closed the question to further responses. The correct answer is identified as Correct. 131

137 Ordered List Questions Ordered list questions are questions asked where you must place the given options into the correct or best order. To respond to an ordered list question Press the control key and click-and-drag the options into the correct order on the screen, then click Submit. To respond via SMS, type the activity code, a space, then the letters of the options in the proper order, separated by commas. For example, PZRF A, D, C, B. Send the text to the phone number indicated on the slide. As long as polling stays open, you can click Edit your answer to change the answer you submitted. For SMS responses, simply send a new text with the new response. Once instructors close the question polling, they can show student submissions as well as the correct answer. The correct answer(s) are checked as Correct. Image Questions Image questions are where instructors pose a question associated with a picture. Your answer is provided by clicking a specific location on the image. Image questions cannot be responded to via SMS. To respond to an image quiz 1. Click a specific location on the image to indicate your response. 2. Click Submit. Before polling is closed, you can click Edit your answer to make changes and resubmit. Click View Results to see other student submissions to the answer. This may only be available after the instructor has closed the question to further responses. The correct answer or acceptable response area is highlighted in the image. Free Response Questions Free Response questions are those that require you to enter text into the text box to answer the question posed. The system does not identify correct or incorrect answers to free response questions. SMS responses are limited to 160 characters. Be sure to review your answer closely and edit it as needed before submitting your response. 132

138 To respond to a Free Response question Type your response in the text box provided, review it, then click Submit. To respond via SMS, type the activity code, a space, then the text you are submitting as your response. Send the text to the phone number indicated on the question slide. Before polling is closed, you can click Edit your answer to make changes and resubmit. Click View Results to see other student submissions to the answer. This may only be available after the instructor has closed the question to further responses. The system does not identify correct or incorrect answers to free response questions. 133

139 Taking Notes in Class Once in a classroom, you can take notes while viewing the presentation. The Notes panel appears to the right of the presentation pane, and should appear by default when you open the classroom. If the Notes pane does not appear, click the Notes icon in the left toolbar, shown in the below figure. This is a toggle button which also closes the Notes panel when not needed. All notes entered appear in the Study Guide tab for the course. Only you can see your notes, however Instructors do know which students are taking notes within the interface. To take notes 1. If necessary, click the Notes icon in the toolbar to open the Notes panel. 2. Click in the Notes panel and start typing. 3. At the end of each note, press Enter. This allows for the entry and syncing of a new note. Location information (time or slide number) appears in the tag to the left of the note. These tags can be edited (if you need to change the location your note is referencing) or deleted (if video/presentation location doesn't matter). You can also download your notes from the classroom or from the Study Guide tab. This generates a text file containing your class notes. Open notes in Wordpad not Notepad. The notes text file that gets generated opens with proper formatting in Wordpad but not in Notepad. Notepad doesn't recognize the linebreaks between notes. To edit presentation location tags 1. Hover over the tag until the drop-down arrow (also called a "chevron") appears. 2. Click the chevron and select Edit tag. 134

140 3. Type in the change and press Enter. Use colons between the hour, minute, and seconds digits (h:mm:ss). Alternately, you can select Delete tag from the chevron menu to remove the sync tag altogether. The note will remain. 135

141 Posting Questions During Class (while in the classroom) Student User Guide NOTE: Some institutions disable the Q&A functionality; if you do not see the Questions button or panel as described below, check with your school's help desk to see if this is the case with your institution. If you have a question while viewing a classroom presentation, or want to respond to a question someone else asked about the class, select the Questions icon from the left toolbar. This is a toggle button which also closes the Questions panel when not needed. Any posted question can generate multiple responses, generating discussions about the class material. For Live streaming classes, the Questions panel appears by default, allowing viewers to chat about the class in real-time. All posts (and responses) entered through the classroom questions panel also appear in the Q&A tab for the course. If a post references a point in the classroom video or a particular slide, that visual cue also appears with the question in the Q&A tab. Bookmarking a question makes it show up in your Study Guide (questions you post are automatically bookmarked). Click the flag below the question to bookmark it (the flag changes from gray to blue). The Questions panel opens to the right of the presentation, as shown below, allowing you to enter or respond to a question. Any previously posted questions for the class are listed, along with a NEW QUESTION button allowing you to post a question to the class. 136

142 To post a question while viewing a class Student User Guide 1. From the presentation screen, hover the mouse over the left side of the screen to display the toolbar. 2. Click the Questions icon. The question panel opens to the right of the main presentation panel. 3. Click NEW QUESTION to enter a question for this class or presentation. 4. Enter your question into the New question text box. 5. If applicable, click the paperclip icon to add an attachment to the post. 6. Enable the Reference class content slider then select the Video location or Slide number as appropriate, if your question is related to a particular moment/slide in the presentation. This provides context for your question. Otherwise, the question is posted without the reference. 7. Enable the Post anonymously slider if you do not want to be identified as the author of this question. The instructor will be able to see who posted the question but other students will not. 8. When finished, click POST QUESTION. The question appears for all users in the Questions panel for this class and in the Q&A tab for the course. Other class members, including instructors, can respond to or endorse your post. 137

143 Responding to Questions About Classroom Presentations Student User Guide NOTE: Some institutions disable the Q&A functionality; if you do not see the Questions button or panel described below, check with your school's help desk to see if this is the case with your institution. If you want to view or respond to a question while viewing a classroom presentation, select the Questions icon from the left toolbar. Each question can have multiple responses, functioning as discussion points for class material. All questions and responses entered through the classroom questions panel also appear (for all users) in the Q&A tab for the course. TIP: Bookmarking a question makes it show up in your Study Guide for the class for (questions you post are automatically bookmarked). If another student posts a question or comment you find interesting, click the flag below the question to bookmark it (the flag changes from gray to blue). The Questions icon opens a panel to the right of the presentation, showing all previously posted questions for the class, and allowing you to respond. To respond to an existing question while viewing a presentation 1. From the presentation screen, hover the mouse over the left side of the screen to display the toolbar. 2. Click the Questions icon. The question panel opens to the right of the main presentation panel, listing all 138

144 previously posted questions about this class/presentation. 3. Click the question you want to answer. The panel changes to show only that question and a RESPOND TO QUESTION button. 4. Click RESPOND TO THIS QUESTION. A response text box appears where you can enter your response. If applicable, click the paperclip icon to provide an attachment to accompany your 139

145 response. 5. Enable the Post anonymously slider to provide the response without identifying you as the responder. The instructor will be able to see who responded but other students will not. 6. When finished, click POST. Your response to the question will appear both in the question panel for the presentation as well as in the Q&A tab for the course. 140

146 Flagging and Bookmarking Content Flags allow you to identify presentation material that you find confusing or for which you need more explanation. Bookmarks allow you to identify presentation material you want to return to later, to rereview or take notes on. Setting Content/Location Bookmarks Bookmarks let you mark locations in presentations or videos so you can find them quickly and easily, without having to page or scrub through the presentation/video. To bookmark content Click the Bookmark icon in the toolbar on the left, or the Bookmark icon above the Notes panel on the right. Both are shown in the image below. Once your content is bookmarked, the Bookmark appears with your Notes. This allows you to click the bookmark and go to that location in the presentation/video. Setting Flags for confusing content Flags let you mark locations and material that you find confusing or items you feel the instructor may need to explain further to you or the class. Flagging content sends a notification to the instructor, letting them know that a student had some problem with the material. The notification flag includes the location of the presentation at the time it was flagged. 141

147 To flag content for clarification Student User Guide Click the Flag as confused icon in the presentation toolbar, located below the Bookmark icon. 142

148 Participating in Q&A Discussions Student User Guide NOTE: Some institutions disable the Q&A functionality; if you do not see the Questions button within a classroom or Q&A tab described below, check with your school's help desk to see if this is the case with your institution. Each course contains a Q&A tab where instructors and students can post questions, answers, and comments regarding the class and its content. The Q&A tab contains questions and responses posted from the Questions panel of a classroom, as well as general course-related questions entered directly through the Q&A tab. You can view Q&A entries for each class, view All Questions posted during the course, or view General Questions posted for the class. General questions are those that were posted without identifying a particular class. HELPFUL HINT! If you bookmark another student's question, it will appear in your Study Guide for the class (along with any responses). Click the flag below the question to bookmark it (the flag changes from gray to blue). To view questions and answers 1. Navigate to the class list for the course. 2. Click the Q&A tab. By default, the questions shown are those associated with the class presentation you most recently viewed. 3. Use the drop-down list to view questions for a different class. You can also view General Questions for the class (those associated with the course but not a particular class), or All Questions. 4. Click a question from the list on the left to view any associated responses. 5. Click RESPOND TO QUESTION to provide your own response. 6. Click NEW QUESTION to add a question to the class or course (selecting a particular class or General respectively). 143

149 To change which questions are shown Use the list at the top to select a particular class for which to view question, or you can select All Questions or General Questions. Use the Search box to enter text and search for a particular question title or text within a question. Use the Sort list to sort the questions with newest on top or oldest. Editing or deleting questions and responses You can always go back and edit or delete any question or response you posted. You can only edit or delete your own posts. Understand, however, that Instructors can delete any posts in their classes. Instructors can also see who posted each item, even if you post it anonymously. So don't be rude or inappropriate. To edit/delete a question on the Q&A tab 1. Navigate to the class list for the course. 2. Click the Q&A tab. 3. Find the question or response you want to edit/delete. Use the drop-down list to view questions for a specific class, or view All Questions. 4. Click the question from the list on the left to show it and any responses in the right-pane of the Q&A tab. 5. Click the menu arrow (also called a "chevron") located to the right of the question or response, then click Edit or Delete as appropriate. 144

150 NOTE: Deleting a question also deletes all responses posted for the original question. To edit/delete a question from within a classroom 1. While viewing a class, click the Questions icon from the classroom toolbar. The Questions pane opens to the right of the classroom viewer. 2. Find the question/response you want to edit. 3. Click the chevron (menu arrow) located to the right of the question or response. 4. Click Edit. The question or response appears in a text box that allows you to make changes to the text. You can also enable or disable the Post anonymously slider, or 145

151 change whether to Reference class content location with the question. Student User Guide 5. When finished, click SAVE. ALTERNATELY, you can click Delete from the chevron menu to delete the question or response. NOTE: Deleting a question also deletes all responses posted for the original question. 146

152 Reviewing your Study Guide Each course contains a Study Guide tab where your notes are kept. This allows you to quickly page through all of your classroom notes for each class. Only you can see your notes. Study Guide entries are viewed for each class to which they apply. You can also add General notes for the course that may not apply to a specific class. You can also download your notes to a text file, for review outside of the ALP interface. How Handy is That! Any questions you post for a class will appear in your Study Guide. BUT if you bookmark other students' questions, they will also appear in your Study Guide (along with any responses), This lets you see your notes along with the bookmarked questions at the same time in the same tab. Click the flag below the question to bookmark it (it turns blue). To view your Study Guide 1. Navigate to the course. 2. Click the Study Guide tab. 3. Use the drop-down list on the left to select a class for which to view notes, bookmarks and other material. 4. Use the Left and Right arrows (< and >) to scroll through classes to see which have notes you need to review. 5. Click on a note or bookmark in the left panel to display the location of the video/presentation in the right panel to which the note or bookmark applies. 147

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154 Editing your Study Guide Notes Student User Guide The Study Guide tab is where all of your classroom and general course notes are kept. Besides viewing your notes, you can edit your notes, edit or remove the timestamp/location tag for each note, and delete a note or bookmark if needed. Only you can see your notes. To edit your Study Guide notes 1. Navigate to the course. 2. Click the Study Guide tab. 3. Use the class drop-down list or the left and right arrows (< or >) to navigate to the notes you want to edit. 4. Click Edit. 5. Click on any existing note and select and edit or remove the text. 6. To delete a note, select all of the text for the note and delete it; this deletes the note, including the timestamp. 7. To delete a bookmark, hover over the bookmark and click the X that appears to the right of the bookmark entry. 8. Click below the list of notes and begin typing to add a new note. NOTE: If an existing note with a timestamp/slide tag is selected at the time you add the new note, it will automatically inherit the same tag, syncing to that location in the class. See the below instructions to edit or delete the tag if this is not applicable to the note. 9. When finished, click Done Editing. To edit the timestamp/slide number for a note 1. Navigate to your study guide. 149

155 2. Use the class drop-down list or the left and right arrows (< or >) to navigate to the notes you want to edit. 3. Click Edit. 4. Hover your mouse over the timestamp/slide number located to the left of a note to reveal the menu arrow. 5. Click the arrow and select Edit tag from the drop-down menu. 6. Edit the timestamp or slide number for the note. Use colons between hour, minute, and seconds digits (h:mm:ss). 7. Alternately, select Delete tag from the menu to remove the timestamp/slide synchronization for the note. 8. When finished, click Done Editing. 150

156 Downloading Notes You can download your class notes, either from the classroom itself or from the Study Guide tab. Note that class questions/responses as well as classroom bookmarks are not included in the downloaded notes. Timestamp and slide number ARE included with each note that is synced to a location. For Windows users, open notes file in Wordpad not Notepad. The notes text file that gets generated opens with proper formatting in Wordpad but not in Notepad. Notepad doesn't recognize the line-breaks between notes. To download notes from the Study Guide 1. Navigate to the course. 2. Click the Study Guide tab. 3. Click Download as shown in the below figure. 4. A dialog box appears, asking you to select which set of notes you want to download. By default, the class whose notes you are currently viewing is selected. 5. Use the drop-down list to select a class, or select All Classes from the top of the list to obtain a consolidated list off all classes' notes. 6. Click DOWNLOAD. 151

157 Your notes are downloaded as a text file. If you downloaded All Classes, each class' notes are prefaced with the date and title of the class. To download notes within a classroom 1. Enter the classroom either from the HOME page or the Class List page. 2. If necessary, click the Notes icon in the toolbar to open the Notes panel. 3. Click Download from the Notes panel. Your notes for this class are downloaded as a text file. 152

158 Downloading Content from a Class NOTE: Instructors have the ability to disable content downloads for a course/section. If the Download options described below are disabled (grayed out), the functionality may be unavailable to you. Check with the instructor if you are not sure. You can download content from the Active Learning Platform from the Class List page if you need or want a local copy of the media. This also allows you to download a local copy for offline viewing, or to upload the content so it appears in your Library. With respect to downloading presentations, the item downloaded is the original file that was uploaded. This means that: If the file has not been altered, you will get the same presentation you see in ALP. If slides have been added, they will not appear in the downloaded file. If slides have been deleted, they do appear in the downloaded file. Interactive activity slides are not included in any download. If the file was created in ALP, the Download option is grayed out; these presentations do not have an originally uploaded file to download. To download content from the class list page 1. On the HOME page, find the course containing the class you want and click ALL CLASSES. The class list page appears. 2. Click the content icon to show a menu of options for that content. 3. Click Download or Download original (depending on whether you selected a video or a presentation). Depending on your browser settings, you may be prompted to save the file to a specific location, or the browser may automatically save it to your Downloads folder. 153

159 Working with Library Content (Students) The media listed in the My content section of your LIBRARY page includes any content you have uploaded. You can edit this content or share it with another user. The Shared with me section of the page contains any media that another user has selected to share with you from their content library. Hovering over an item in the Library page exposes a menu arrow (also called a "chevron") in the top right corner of the tile, or on the right side of a row if viewing the page in List view. Click the chevron to see a menu of options, which differ slightly, depending on the type of content selected. The menus shown below are from the My Content section of the page. Shared with me content has fewer options (download and/or delete). Video content menu Presentation content menu The functionality available from the LIBRARY PAGE includes: Uploading content to your library Sharing content from your library Viewing the content and its details Editing content details (title and description) Editing presentations in your library Editing a video in your library Deleting content from your Library Downloading content from your Library 154

160 Uploading Content to your Library Any content you add to a class automatically appears in your Library. In fact, the My content section of your Library is the primary location for all of your content. It includes any media you have uploaded. If you are a primary instructor, it also includes captures for your classes. You may want to upload content to your library to edit it or to hold it until you are ready to publish it to a class or share it with another user. The file you upload must be one of the Supported Content Formats or it will not be uploaded or processed. Troubleshooting: If you use a plug-in (such as ChemDraw) to generate equations, molecular drawings, or other items for your PowerPoint presentation, you may find these being stripped or otherwise altered when you upload the file. In this case, convert the PPT to PDF and upload the PDF. Alternately, for Windows users (and Instructors only), use the Active Learning Platform PowerPoint Ribbon add-on to publish the presentation. Both of these methods retain plug-in content in the presentation. Exported graphics to PDF format is not supported. Some graphics programs will allow you to export or save a graphics file (.png,.jpg,.gif, etc.) as a.pdf file. While ALP will recognize it as a PDF and allow you to upload it, the media processing will fail. To upload content to your library 1. Click LIBRARY from the main menu to navigate to your library page. My content appears by default. 2. Click UPLOAD CONTENT, located in the top left corner of the library page. 3. In the Filepicker.io window, use the location selection on the left to identify where the file you want to upload resides, then follow the prompts. 4. If the file is saved locally, select My computer from the left, then click the Choose File button located at the bottom of the window. 155

161 Once the file is identified, the Filepicker.io window changes to provide an upload progress bar. When finished, the Filepicker.io window disappears. The newly uploaded file appears in the Library page, but is dimmed while it is processed. Once processing is finished, the chevron menu changes to show the options for the content. 156

162 Supported Content Formats You can upload content for slides and presentations to the Active Learning Platform both from your computer and popular cloud options such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and OneDrive. The following content formats are accepted. Presentation Video Multimedia Audio.pdf.3gp.asf.aac.pps.avi.mpg.aif.ppsx.flv.mpeg.aiff.ppt.m4v.webm.mka.pptx.mkv.mp3.mov.mp4.ogv.wmv.ogg.wav.wma 157

163 Viewing Student Library Content Details Student User Guide Clicking an item from the My content section of your Library page allows you to view the content itself, as well as view/edit the details of the content (name or description), as well as see a list of the people you have shared it with. In the My content section of your LIBRARY page, click a content item. The details view appears. The actions you have for the content itself differ depending on whether you are viewing a presentation or video. Both provide a button for downloading the item. For presentations you also have an EDIT PRESENTATION button. Details about the content, including the name and description appear in the bottom left of the window. To change any of this information, click Edit details. Sharing information appears in the bottom right of the window. The Publish info list shows all of the individuals to whom you have shared this content. To share with another ALP user, click Share with others. This opens the Share to user dialog box. To "un-share" or remove the content from a listed individual, click the X located to the right of the location. This removes the item from the Shared with me page of their Library. 158

164 Editing Content Details When media is generated (like a capture) or uploaded to the system, it gets a file name or other title identifier that may or may not be descriptive of the media. Especially in the case of classroom captures, the capture video may have the same title as the section to which it is published, with no differentiation from one captured lecture to another. For uploaded videos or presentations, the original file name may appear as the title of the content. ALP allows you to edit the content details as needed, providing a more descriptive title, and making the content easier to find in your library. You can also add a description and keyword tags, to aid in searches for the media. NOTE: You can only edit the details for content you own (it appears in your LIBRARY). If another user (instructor) published content to a class, the Edit details option is grayed out. To edit content details: 1. Select Edit details from a content menu in one of two ways: On the My content section of your LIBRARY page, hover your mouse over the content tile or row to expose the menu arrow (also called a "chevron"), then click the chevron. OR 159

165 On the Class List page, Click the content icon to show a menu of options for that content. 2. Click Edit details. The Edit media info dialog box appears. 3. Replace the Title if necessary. 4. Enter a Description of the content, such as a description of the lecture subject. 5. Enter one or more keyword Tags (separated by commas). These tags are used in text searches for content. 6. When finished, click SAVE. 160

166 Editing Videos The Active Learning Platform provides a basic video editing function, allowing you to make cuts and trims to video content as needed. IMPORTANT! CHECK PUBLISHING INFO FIRST!! Any changes you apply to a video in your library will also appear in ALL published (or shared) versions of the video, even if you select to edit the video from the Class List page. Sharing/Publishing simply provides links to the original content located in your library. When you change your library content, you change the content being delivered via those links. To edit a video 1. Open your LIBRARY page. 2. Find the video you want to edit, then hover over the content tile or row to expose the menu arrow (also called a "chevron"). 3. Click the chevron and select Edit video from the options. The video opens in the ALP editor. 4. Use the playback controls, Make cut and Delete/Revert (toggle) buttons at the bottom of the editor to make changes to the video. Editing functionality is described in detail below. 5. Use the Restore and Apply Edits buttons across the top to save or undo all changes made to the video as appropriate. These buttons apply to the video as a whole, and work as follows: RESTORE - Reverts all changes ever made to the video and restores the original video file. 161