Faculty Resources

Learn about the new NLU Online Campus Desire2Learn (D2L) platform.  Below you will find helpful how-to guides and videos designed to give you a thorough introduction to the various areas of The NLU Online Campus D2L platform.

Below are listed the training opportunities for D2L for the month. If you are interested in attending any of these sessions, please RSVP by emailing your requested date and session to learning@nl.edu. Please note, it is very important that you RSVP as we need to know how many will be attending so we can ensure enough space and computers for everyone in the class. 

For a full listing of workshops, open labs, brown bag lunches and dates please download:

D2L Training Opportunities in May

OIT Training Descriptions:

• Online Self Paced D2L Orientation Course (Self Paced - Open enrollment)
  A fullly online self paced D2L faculty training course in Desire2Learn.
  
  
• Full Desire2Learn Training (3 hours)
  In this session, we will run through the basics of D2L from beginning to end. This session is designed to give you a ’30,000 foot view’ of the most common features of D2L. Specifically, we will cover basics of D2L such as logging in, uploading a syllabus, adding content to your course, and communicating to your students though news, calendar and email

• Making Sense of the D2L Grade Book (2 hours)
  Does the grade book in D2L elude you? Are you having trouble finding your way through the grading process? This session will cover the grade book, setting it up, organizing it, and the steps you need to follow when grading your students' work. You'll discuss the grade setup wizard and adjusting the grades settings. You'll learn the difference between points-based grading and weighted grading. We'll be covering other areas such as creating grade schemes, categories and items, entering grades, and calculating final grades.
  
  
• Building and Managing your Content (3 hours)
  In this session, we will focus on the creation and management of content for your course. We will upload, create, and organize a variety of content and manage the way it is presented for student use.

• Collaborative Tools and Discussion (2 hours)
  Are you trying to develop ways by which you can facilitate collaborative work in D2L? By attending this workshop, you will learn about inclusive discussion, how to build a community of learners leveraging the tools in D2L, your various communications options, and the different collaborative tools available to you in D2L. 

• Brown Bag Lunches (1 hour)
  Join us for our new series of brown bag lunches. This will be an opportunity to meet with fellow faculty and discuss your experiences with D2L. What worked for you? What are you trying to get to work? And what great tips and suggestions have you discovered? OIT representatives will be on hand to facilitate and answer any specific questions you may have. Bring your lunch and join us!

Full D2L Orientation Workshop: The following is a list of PDF handouts provided to faculty during the Full D2L Orientation Workshop.

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QUESTION: When should I open a help desk ticket?

ANSWER: Faculty should enter a help desk ticket for any D2L support issues, including: technical issues, error messages, broken links, login problems, and questions and/or concerns. In the event a help desk support member cannot assist in your D2L question or issue, they will escalate the issue to the OIT technical support team so we can assist.  Please be sure to use the help desk for requesting this kind of support rather than sending a direct email in the event that the individual you are contacting is not in the office. A help desk ticket will go to all OIT D2L support staff members. The NLU help desk is available 24x7, at 1-866-813-1177. When you call we suggest having your 5-digit CRN on hand, and be sure to let the technician know that your course uses Desire2Learn.

QUESTION: Where can I find information about Instructor D2L Training at NLU?

ANSWER: Throughout the year OIT is offering a variety D2L training opportunities including: full D2L training, specialized D2L training topics, brown bag lunches, and open labs for individual assistance. We also have a fully online self-paced D2L Faculty Training course house in D2L for those faculty interested in training online. A schedule of training sessions, brown bag lunches, and open labs is sent out via email to faculty, and is posted to the LMS Faculty Support page titled NLU Online Campus (D2L) Faculty Training and Workshops. For a listing of February offerings please download D2L Training Opportunities in February. If you are interested in being enrolled in D2L faculty training please contact Learning@nl.edu.

QUESTION: Why did get an error message when responding to a student email in D2L? (Error “Recipient can't receive/you are not authorized to send email externally”).

ANSWER: The reason D2L issues this error message is that you are attempting to email an external (nl.edu) email address rather than a D2L email address. D2L mail does not allow users to send messages to external email addresses. To email students in D2L you should use the student’s internal D2L email address. An easy way to ensure you are emailing students D2L email is to use the “Classlist” tool in D2L, check off the recipient’s names and the system will automatically select the internal D2L addresses.

QUESTION: What is the difference between a D2L Discussion Forum and a Discussion Topic?

ANSWER: A Discussion forum can be thought of as a category, or a grouping of discussion topics. A good example of a forum would be “Module 1 Discussions” in this forum all the discussion prompts for Module 1 would be created. The Discussion Topic is the area where you create a discussion prompt; it is also where students create postings. A good example of a discussion topic would be “Class Introductions”. The “Class Introduction” topic might be organized as one topic within the “Week 1 Discussion Forum”.

QUESTION: How can I share my course (or portion of a course such as a rubric) with another instructor?  

ANSWER: You can share can share a D2L course or individual course components such as Rubrics, Quizzes, and Content with others by creating an export file. In your D2L course go to the “Course Administration” area to create the export. For a quick guide to creating a course export in D2L visit the OIT YouTube Channel here:  http://www.youtube.com/user/oittutorials

QUESTION: What Internet browser should I use with D2L?

ANSWER: D2L recommends the following browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari version 5.1, and I.E. version 9. The OIT department has noted some video content in D2L courses may not load when viewing with Chrome. OIT has also noted in Internet Explorer version 7 and 10, there are buttons such as the “Submit” button which are not functional. 

QUESTION: How do I submit final grades if I’m teaching in D2L?

ANSWER: Faculty must enter final term grades into Banner for students. If you wish to also post final grades in D2L you can but all faculty are to post final grades for students in Banner by the end of term deadline (typically one week after the last meeting date please check the academic calendar for specific final grade due dates).

Question: But I have still more questions!

ANSWER: Email your question to lms@nl.edu. If it's a popular question, you'll find it, along with an answer, in this FAQ!

‌Faculty Request for D2L or Instructional Design Consultation:

As part of our continued efforts to provide D2L and Instructional Design support, we have recently released a questionnaire that can be filled out for one-on-one support. Please note that these one-on-one sessions are meant to be used along with our D2L Training sessions, not in lieu of, meaning that you should have already attended a training session before you receive on-on-one support. This helps us provide you with the best support possible.

In these sessions you can receive help with any D2L tool or function including Gradebook, Discussions, uploading files, etc. We can also help with course clean-up, best practices training and course design.

Sessions are one hour in length and if we do schedule a session with you, we will work with you to find the best time, date, and location. Please keep in mind that much of this information is available through our scheduled training sessions or in our D2L Post-Training Café. For information on either of these, please contact OIT Learning at Learning@nl.edu or request one-on-one support here.