Kansas State University

Accessibility in Wimba Live Classroom

If you have a student with a disability, it doesn't mean that they can't attend your online class. A live and archived class can be closed-captioned for the hearing impaired. For students with visual impairments, the Live Classroom also offers various keyboard shortcut keys, hot keys, and compatibility with most screen readers.

If your presentation is being closed-captioned, type /cc in the Text Chat Frame to activate it. Captioning will automatically appear in the Text Chat Frame. To deactivate captioning, type /cc once more.

If your presentation is using slide descriptions, type /sd in the Text Chat Frame to activate them. Slide descriptions will automatically appear in the Text Chat Frame when a new slide is shown. To deactivate slide descriptions, type /sd once more.

See the Wimba screenshot showing the use of sign language to communicate live lecture content.

Wimba is also offering a Desktop Lecture Series on Tuesday, Jan. 8. The topic is "Providing Equal Access of Information to Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students in Online Courses." For more information, contact Web Presentation Services at 785-532-2508.

Security vulnerabilities in QuickTime

QuickTime is a popular media format (especially for video and audio) developed by Apple that is installed by default with iTunes and on every Apple computer. Given its popularity, QuickTime has not escaped the notice of hackers who have identified a number of vulnerabilities in Quicktime over the past year, including a recent vulnerability that is being exploited on the Internet and for which Apple has not yet released a patch. Both Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X computers are vulnerable.

These vulnerabilities have garnered some attention on campus because of the recent announcement of important required training about export controls that is only available in QuickTime format. Viewing the required export control video, or any other legitimate QuickTime video, does not put you at risk! It is completely safe to view the export control training video in K-State Online with any QuickTime player or browser plug-in on any type of computer.

Here is what you can do to prevent having your computer compromised by the QuickTime vulnerability:

• Only view QuickTime videos from trusted sources. The current exploit requires you to play a QuickTime video that has been hacked to include malicious code, so do not play a video if you cannot completely trust the source. Err on the side of caution!
• Make sure your antivirus software is working and up-to-date, since it will catch this type of exploit should you inadvertently view a hacked QuickTime video.
• Configure your QuickTime player to automatically check for updates, then install the update right away when prompted. Apple is generally good about providing patches for known vulnerabilities, so a fix for this one is expected soon.
• Update your player to version 7.3 that was released in early November since it fixes a number of bugs and security issues in earlier versions. Note, however, that this will not fix the current unpatched vulnerability.
• If you do not have QuickTime installed on your computer, you do not have to install it to view the required export control training video -- use a K-State InfoCommons computer in Hale Library or a computer in the university computing labs.

Get ready for next semester

The end of the semester is a great time to begin working on the spring version of your course. There's no need to create a new course each semester. The following are a few suggestions to prepare you course for the next semester:

• Make a version of assignments and groups for the new semester/section.
• Inactivate any components you're not going to use.
• Clean out/archive old announcements.
• Clean out the Trash can.
• Clean up/archive the File Dropbox.
• Zip all content as a backup.
• Archive the Message Board.
• Archive the Chat Room.
• Save work done in student groups.
• Export the Gradebook and Roster.
• Clean up manually added users.

For more information, see K-State Online's help section on how to "Reuse my Course".

Leaving K-State?

Need to know what to do if you are leaving K-State?

Learn more about what you need to do prior to leaving K-State from the Preparing to Leave K-State website.

Wikis

Interest in wikis is gaining ground across campus. What is a wiki? A wiki is an application that allows users to collaboratively create, edit, and update information. An example of a global wiki is Wikipedia. The allure of using a wiki is that everyone can contribute, however, with this ability comes the need for an expert editor to verify the validity of changes made to information in a wiki. Since anyone can contribute, a wiki application saves all versions and thus you can view or revert to a prior version.

Examples of the use of wikis among IT staff include:

• Staff who oversee technology classrooms use a wiki to provide training for student staff and as a knowledge base for the technology classrooms and university computing labs. It serves as a reference tool should there be a problem in one of the rooms or with software in the rooms.
• The Office of Mediated Education use wikis to document programming changes, student staff schedules, and even as an Intranet. They also use a wiki as a forum for discussion, to post contact information (easily updatable), and for training on a specific topic such as completing a form.
• The InfoTech Tuesday newsletter team uses a wiki to post and edit each week's articles ahead of time.

An interesting use of a wiki is wikiHow -- "a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual". The manual offers "solutions to the problems of everyday life. wikiHow currently contains 28,025 articles written, edited, and maintained primarily by volunteers."

Faculty are becoming increasingly interested in the use of wikis in courses. More information will be provided in coming weeks about wikis.