Monday, December 9, 2013

In January 2014, eLC-New, powered by Desire2Learn, will replace the old eLC, powered by Blackboard Vista, as the sole learning management system (LMS) at UGA. eLC is jointly supported by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS).

The University System of Georgia will upgrade to the latest version of Desire2Learn — which will have a new look and feel — from December 19-24. As a result, eLC-New will not be accessible during that time.

Following the upgrade December 19-24, the University will be closed from December 25 to January 1, at which time the EITS Help Desk will be closed for technical support. Instructors who need technical assistance with eLC-New during that time, or any time, may contact the University System of Georgia’s Desire2Learn Help Center at http://D2Lhelp.view.usg.edu or 855-772-0423.

Students will be able to access spring semester courses on January 5. Also, the name of the UGA LMS will once again be eLearning Commons, or simply eLC.

During the fall 2013 semester, instructors had the option of using either eLC (powered by Blackboard Vista) or eLC-New (powered by Desire2Learn 9.4). During the upgrade, eLC-New will be updated to Desire2Learn 10.2. Faculty and students will benefit from the new features, including:

• New red minibar (toolbar) at the top of the screen that provides convenient access to courses, alerts and personal settings
• Pager, a new communication tool for instant messaging with classmates
• Pinning courses to designate most viewed courses for quick reference
• Improved creation and management options in content area
• New features and streamlined interface in discussions
• Dropdown menu capability added to course navigation
• Restore options available in discussions, gradebook and assignment dropbox

The CTL recently conducted a preview of the eLC-New upgrade. The archive is available now at http://bit.ly/newelc-preview. A document explaining the changes is also available at http://bit.ly/newelc-doc. CTL also will offer daily “drop-in” training sessions about eLC-New for faculty in early January. A list of all training sessions and other resources for faculty is available at http://ctl.uga.edu/elc/faculty.

For more information about eLearning Commons, including a timeline and more upgrade details, see http://ctl.uga.edu/elc/ or contact Sherry Clouser at sac@uga.edu or 706-542-0525. For technical questions, please contact the EITS Help Desk at 706-542-3106 or helpdesk@uga.edu.