Fall 2008 Online Course Preview

We have just posted the online course list for Fall 2008 semester on GMBA web site.

Please keep in mind these are the courses planned by GMBA and AIM programs for your preview. Some changes may occur. Please check the official UTD Fall 2008 course schedule when it becomes available later on.

WebCT Access Hours *Not* Restricted

Good afternoon everyone.

Earlier today, it was brought to our attention that some of you are experiencing the following error when trying to log into WebCT at very late or very early hours of the day:

* WebCT

The Student Information System is now closed. Hours of operation:
Sunday 1:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Monday 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Tuesday 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Wednesday 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Thursday 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Friday 8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Saturday 9:00 a.m. - 11:59 p.m.

Understandably, this is a big problem for many, if not most, of you, since usage is very high at the very hours this says WebCT is not available. So, we immediately checked with our WebCT Administrators and found out the following:

The direct link to WebCT (http://webct6.utdallas.edu) will always work, even if the link to WebCT is not showing in Galaxy and if it is outside normal SIS operating hours.

The information presented in Galaxy should be updated soon; however, until that time, we recommend that you access WebCT by using the direct WebCT url above.

UTD Library for Online Learners

Hi folks! Not much news currently to report to you guys, so I figured I’d post a little about the UTD Library’s materials that are available completely free to our students, including those of you who are taking online courses from afar. Did you know that you can access full-text copies of newspapers, magazines, journals, and even books? All this without even leaving your home? That’s right — just because you might not be able to physically visit UTD’s library doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of this resource.

So before you consider paying a subscription to access content on the internet, visit UTD’s Distance Learning page and explore the thousands of resources available free to UTD students.

UTD Library’s Distance Learning Page:
http://www.utdallas.edu/library/distlearn/disted.htm

And remember — if you want to chat with a librarian to get some additional information, remember you can IM a Librarian!

Problems with lecture audios

Camtasia Studio Flash content (the format used for our streaming lectures in our online courses) playing on the latest release of the Flash Player (v9.0.115.0) may cause audio to sound garbled and/or contain a high pitched chirp, described as sounding like a chipmunk. Flash Players prior to 9.0.115.0 did not exhibit this problem. We contacted the Adobe Flash Player TechSupport team, who was very helpful and responsive. They confirmed the bug and escalated it to their engineering team. We’re hopeful that Adobe will be able to add a fix to a future version of the Flash Player.

To address this issue in the short term, here are some suggestions:

1. Do not update to the most current Flash Player
2. If you have the most recent version of Flash and you are encountering this problem, access the lectures via the “Optional Downloads” link in your course. This link contains downloadable versions (PowerPoint presentations and mp3 audio files) of the Flash lectures.

We will keep you updated on the issue.

Graduation Applications due January 15th

Another reminder from Corina: The last day to apply for Spring 2008 graduation is January 15th. (After this date, there will be a $100 fee.) Students can find instructions and apply for graduation by visiting the Office of Graduate Studies website.

Late Registration ending soon!

Corina asked that I remind you all that January 14th is the last day of late registration. This will be the last day you guys can add any classes or make any changes to your schedule. Just a friendly reminder — hope classes are going great!

WebCT Issues

We are hearing from faculty and students (and we ourselves have found) that WebCT is experiencing issues this morning. People are trying to load their course lists, but it does not pull up. (We have heard of some other issues that might be related as well — problems uploading files if you are able to get into WebCT, and getting “access has been denied” errors when trying to access a specific course.) We’ve contacted the WebCT admins in Info Resources, and they’re looking into the issue. We’ll post updates here as we get them.

Update (1/7, 3:10pm): IR has opened a ticket with Blackboard/WebCT. They’re working to solve this problem ASAP.

Update (1/7, 6:50pm): The WebCT server was rebooted at around 5:50pm, and things seem to be better. Most of us are now able to log in and access our course lists. If you’re still experiencing problems, however, please be sure and email us.

Update (1/7, 7:08pm): Unfortunately, it seems that we spoke to soon. Server issues still exist. IR is still working with Blackboard/WebCT on this. We’ll post any updates we receive. (FYI — IR also has a page where they post updates on outages.)

Update (1/8, 3:10pm): The IR Outage Updates page is reporting that they have a potential fix. They’re in the process of rebooting the WebCT server in order to implement this fix.

Update (1/8, 6:10pm): Unfortunately, the earlier attempt to fix the WebCT issues we’re seeing did not help. We’ve been assured by IR that they will be working through the night to get this resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your patience.

Update (1/9, 9:10am): Please visit the IR Outage Updates page for further updates to this situation. Thanks.

GMBA/AIM Second Life Virtual Welcome Session

GMBA/AIM Virtual Welcome Session in Second Life

The SOM eLearning Team would like to invite you to our Spring 2008 Virtual Welcome Session on the UTD SOM virtual island in Second Life. Because many of you are spread out across the globe, we feel that Second Life will allow you to “meet” your fellow students, the SOM eLearning Team, and some of our GMBA/AIM faculty.

What is Second Life?

“Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents.” Second life has appeared prominently in the news recently as major corporations, media outlets, and academic institutions have set up virtual locations. The UT Dallas School of Management has set up its own island to be used for special events, recruiting and information dissemination, research, and student meetings and socialization.

To set up an account in Second Life, go to http://www.secondlife.com and click on the “Join Now” button. Membership is free. The registration process involves the following steps:

1. Create an account
2. Choose an avatar
3. Download/install the SL client.

We recommend that you take some time before our Virtual Welcome Session to become familiar with moving around within Second Life.

To visit our UTD SOM island, click on the link below, or while in Second Life, click on the [Map] button and search for “UTD SOM” then click [Teleport].

WHERE:
Second Life, UTD SOM Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/UTD%20SOM/141/70/22/
(Please note, you must have Second Life installed for the above link to work.)

WHEN:
Friday, January 11, 12pm (noon) – 1pm CST

WHO:
Global MBA and Online AIM students

WHAT:

Participate in Q&A sessions, meet one-on-one with the SOM eLearning Team, meet some of our GMBA/AIM faculty, and network with fellow students.

For more information about the UTD SOM island in Second Life, please visit http://som.utdallas.edu/secondlife.

Welcome and Online Course Access

Welcome to the Spring 2008 semester! Many of you should have received the welcome email message we sent out on Fri. Jan 4th. We see a lot of you have already accessed your online courses starting yesterday, although a few may have experienced the server issues as posted. For those who get registered to the online courses after Jan. 4th, please check out this welcome and course access message.

Have a great online semester!

Latest Java Plugin Now Supported/Recommended

Hi folks. Over the holiday break, the good people over in our IR department applied a patch to the WebCT servers that addressed several issues in WebCT. One of these issues pertains to the Java plugin. Last year, we posted about how you needed to install an old version of Java and turn off the auto-update because at that time, WebCT did not yet support the latest version.

Well good news folks! Now, WebCT supports the most recent version of Java. (In fact, the IR team is strongly recommending that students go ahead and update their Java, as they suspect some functions might not work properly if you continue using the old version.) So, below are the steps you need to go through in order to update your Java.

1. Uninstall the old version of Java. (To do this, go to Start >> Control Panel >> Add/Remove Programs, and uninstall the old version — or versions — of Java or “J2SE” that you currently have installed.)
2. Visit http://www.java.com and download and install the latest version of Java.

As always, email us if you have any questions. Thanks, and good luck with classes on Monday!