What's New to KSOL 8.0
K-State Online version 8.0 will be released on Aug. 11. The system is scheduled to be unavailable Aug. 8 at 11 p.m. - Aug. 11 at 8 a.m., but service will be restored sooner, if possible. Many improvements to K-State Online have been made in this release, and they are based on the feedback we have received from faculty and staff members, and students. Version 8.0 will introduce the new Flash streaming media server and a video conversion tool as well as improvements to the Message Board, Roster, Student Groups and general navigation and page layout improvements. K-State Online 8.0 will also feature more ways to implement the Voice Recording tool.
Important updates to K-State Online
- General
- K-State Online features quick in-line semester switching. You can easily switch between semesters using a pop-up found on every page rather than using Preferences to select and switch your semester view.
- K-State Online's help system features better search capabilities and works across all browser platforms.
- K-State Online supports Unicode, not only Western characters. Unicode supports more than 650 languages. This is especially helpful in language courses.
- There are updates to the course homepages and student side navigation to improve usability for all users.
- You can copy grades to iSIS from K-State Online.
- Student Groups
- You can add students from different sections into the same Student Groups, which is useful for collaboration between sections.
- Students across sections of a course can be viewed in one page, making it easier to create and manage Student Groups.
- At a glance, the number of groups and group names each student is a member of is displayed. This is also helpful when identifying students that are not members of a Student Group.
- The new group assignment submission screen will make it easier for students to view group files available for submission, make comments about files, and to submit group assignment files.
- Recent Student Group component usage per group is displayed on the Group Listings page, similar to Recent Activity on the My Organizer. The component usage tracks and numerically reports changes within a group. Activities such as number of Message Board posts, files uploaded, chatroom entries, and emails sent are and new calendar events are displayed for both instructor and group members.
- Group members and instructors can reply to emails sent from Student Groups, as email addresses are visible in your chosen email client (for example, webmail, Yahoo, and Gmail).
- Message Board
- A Message Board is organized by topics that contain replies to the topic. All topic replies are viewed and printed on one page, rather than by opening individual posts. This helps keep posts applicable to the topic and makes the Message Boards easier to navigate and read for both students and instructors.
- The Reply button is more obvious to ensure people reply to the correct posts.
- The Message Board is semester independent; current students will not be able to see active posts from previous semesters. This eliminates the need to clear the Message Board each semester and separates student usage statistics by section and semester.
- At a glance, you can view the total number of topics, posts, and unread messages per board.
- Instructors have the option to restrict students from creating new topics per Message Board, which makes it so students can only reply to topics the instructor creates. This reduces the problem of multiple top-level posts and keeps the Message Board more organized.
- Student Profiles are linked to students’ names so you can find out more about a poster by visiting their Profile.
- Integration of Voice Recording Tool
- Instructors can now quickly and easily create and publish a voice recording from within the Manage Files tool, Announcements and Welcome Message. The Voice Recording tool is useful for language courses and other courses in which the instructor wishes to communicate orally and is perfect for leaving a custom audio greeting for your students on the course homepage.
- Students can also use the Voice Recording tool to record a voice audio file from within a File Dropbox and submit those audio clips. This is very valuable for pronunciation, language and other assessments that require hearing students’ voices.
- Flash Video
- A Flash media server will allow automatic streaming of .flv, .swf, .mov, .mp3 and .mp4 formats uploaded and published within courses.
- You can convert certain video formats for your course into Streaming Flash Video. Streaming Flash Video is a video format that is available for immediate playback in an Internet browser. Flash video playback is the most common format on the Web and will allow for easier viewing.
- This video conversion feature will initially only be available to a pilot group. Automatic streaming of Flash and mp4 content will be available to all users. If you would like to participate in the pilot group, contact Scott Finkeldei at curtain@k-state.edu.
- Attendance
- Instructors have the option to publish Attendance events so that students may see whether they were present, tardy, absent (excused), absent (unexcused).
- Instructors can update Attendance assignments by adding new events to existing Attendance assignments. This allows for easier grading of attendance progress throughout the semester.
- The total tardies and absences (excused and unexcused) for each student are displayed on the Attendance worksheet.
- Manage Files
- The Archives and Information folder, as well as the File Dropbox are no longer components and will not appear in the homepage menu for students. Components are features that are turned on or off per course. Instead, you can create multiple Information or Archive folders and File Dropboxes without naming restrictions and organize them with Manage Files to best fit your course.
- Roster
- With the integration of iSIS, student major and year in school can be displayed on the Roster.
- Announcements
- Announcements have a title option and a new presentation, which makes Announcements more blog-like and organized.
- Students are able to print announcements.
- Assignments
- Online assignments display only five questions per page, unless the instructor changes this default setting. This helps ensure that students’ work will not be lost due to a session time-out or computer failure, as their progress will be saved when they complete each page of questions.
If you have any questions or would like to provide any suggestions or feedback, please contact the IT Help Desk at or 785-532-7722.
