Springboard
From The University of Akron Support Center Wiki
SpringBoard is the label given to The University of Akron's implementation of Desire2Learn, a content management system (replacing WebCT.
WebCT will no longer be used after the Fall 2007 semester.
Training
Faculty training can be found here through Training Services.
Questions regarding training can be sent to pstrain@uakron.edu
Troubleshooting
Unable to access courses or my courses are not active or I cannot see my courses
If students or faculty call in stating that they cannot see their courses in Springboard!, it may be one of the following causes:
1. They recently enrolled or were recently assigned to a course and PeopleSoft has not passed the data to Springboard! 2. They have not clicked on the plus sign '+' located to the left of the text "Spring2008" to expand the semester offerings. 3. The course has not been made "Active" by the instructor - OR - the instructor is not using Springboard!
How do I Activate My Course (Faculty Only)
To activate a course is Springboard!, faculty must do the following:
1. Log into Springboard! at http://springboard.uakron.edu 2. Click on the name of the course that they want to activate 3. Click on Edit Course (far right located under the UA logo) 4. Click on Course Offering Information 5. Midway down the page is "Make Active" - click the box to the left and click on Save. At the beginning of a semester, the date restriction field is also in play --> so, in this case the faculty member must change the date restriction in one of 2 ways: (a) remove it as a restriction or (b) change the date to match the date they are activating the course.
Unable to access Course Navigation Bar
Several people have reported not being able to access the navigation bar which reveals itself once they click on the name of their course.
This navigation bar appears beneath the Springboard! logo and contains many of the following elements: • Course Home - Contents - Discussion - Email - Chat - Dropbox - Journal - Quizzes - Grades - Classlist - Surveys - Help - Logout To correct this, have the user take the following steps:
Inside Springboard! • On their Homepage of Springboard!, have them click on My Preferences listed under the Welcoeme widget - upper left side of screen • Click on the General Tab • Font Settings - they can select whatever font they like however, the size cannot exceed 14. • If changes were made, click on Save Computer • Go to the Desktop • Right click and select Properties & then Settings • Set screen resolution to 1280 x 800 pixels or 1280 x 1024 pixels • Click on Save
Unable to Access or Post to Discussions
If a student calls in and states that they are unable to access or post to Discussions, have them check to the right of the thread name to see if there is a 'lock' which appears. It will be rather faint - grey in appearance.
If there is a lock, the thread is not accessible and they must email their instructor to notify them of the problem.
Cannot access Course Contents - Files will not open - Nothing Happens
Springboard! accepts many different file types.
When a student reports not being able to access a file (nothing happens when I click on a file), it may be that either their system has blocked the file since it is using a pop-up window OR that the student does not have the appropriate reader/application on their system.
Ask them to turn on their sound and then click on the file -- if they hear a beep, the file is being blocked. They will need to turn off ALL pop-up blockers OR they can hold down the CTRL key and then left-click on the file name. This is the Windows work around pop-up blockers.
All users of Springboard! should click on the System Check on the Homepage to make sure that the appropriate programs are available for optimal use of Springboard!
Unable to play videos
RealPlayer uses the following ports to connect to streaming media. These ports need to be opened for RealPlayer to function correctly behind corporate or hardware firewall.
By default, the RealPlayer uses the following ports:
- Control channel (bi-directional): TCP 80, 554, 7070, 8080, 1755 for MMS Windows Media requests
- Data channel from server to player: TCP 80, 554, 7070, 8080 or UDP 6970 32000, TCP 1755 for MMS Windows Media resend requests
- Authentication and Sign-in require TCP 443 (Secure Socket Layer)
- HTTP 80 for AutoUpdate and Messaging
Specific Proxy and Transport settings within the Player preferences will override some of these ports.
You need to configure RealPlayer to get a better streaming. Try these steps and it should work for you:
- In RealPlayer, click the Tools menu and choose Preferences. The Preferences box opens.
- In the Category pane under Connection, click Network Transports.
- Select the Manually configure connection settings check box.
- Click the RTSP Settings button.
- Clear the top three boxes, then make sure the Attempt to use HTTP for all content check box is selected.
- Click the PNA Settings button.
- Clear the top three boxes, then make sure the Attempt to use HTTP for all content check box is selected.
- Click OK twice to save your changes, then try to connect again.
If you are Unable to upload files
There are several items that may affect someone's ability to upload a file:
1. Check to make sure that the file name DOES NOT contain special characters, such as the ampersand (&), percent symbol (%), or quotes (", or '). These characters interfere with Springboard!'s file system.
2. Make sure that the Discussion Thread is not locked (small lock icon will appear next to the title)
3. Make sure that the Dropbox assignment is active (There may be a date restriction present)
4. File size may exceed browser upload limit at this time of approximately 2.5MB. If file is larger, create a zip file.
5. MAC users need to be sure and include the file type at the end of the name. This is not automatically done when creating & saving a file.
If you go through all steps and user still cannot upload a file, please contact Springboard! Help.
If you are unable to login
Although there are many possible causes for this problem, one that may escape the normal checks made by either the Springboard software or a representative of the Support Center is having uakron.edu domain sites added to the "Trusted Sites" list. This has only be shown to occur with Internet Explorer 7 running on Windows Vista operating systems. To determine if this is the cause of a specific instance, perform the following steps:
1. Close all instances of Internet Explorer.
2. Open Control Panel and choose "Internet Options"
3. Click on the "Security" tab and then highlight "Trusted Sites" by left-clicking on it.
4. Below the icon, there is a button that reads "Sites". Click on it and a window will open.
5. In the lower text box is the list of "trusted sites." Highlight any entry in the list that includes "uakron.edu" or "uanet.edu" and then click "remove" to delete them. Exit out of all windows opened in this process, clicking "OK" whenever applicable.
6. Open Internet Explorer and try to login, again.
If this is the cause of login problems, a more permanent solution is being explored. In the meantime, no University of Akron site can be listed as "trusted" when attempting to login to Springboard.
