Secure Quizzing Tools in BOLT

Authenticate Your Results

Your instructor may require you to use some of the secure quizzing tools available in BOLT: Respondus LockDown Browser, Respondus Monitor, and Examity to take online quizzes and exams.

 

These tools are provided to give you flexibility to take your online exams online- without having to come into a classroom.

The use of these tools protects you, making your test-taking secure and aims to preserve academic integrity and the legitimacy of online learning assessments.

If your instructor is requiring you to use these tools, please follow any directions they give you.

You can find out more about these tools at https://www.bloomu.edu/imdc-bolt-quizsurvey

BOLT Support Winter Hours

 BOLT Support Winter Hours
 Monday - Friday, 8am to 4pm
 (570)389-2888 or bolthelp@bloomu.edu

For after hours, holiday, or weekend assistance, call 1-866-921-0473.

We also have 24/7 Blackboard Collaborate support at 1-877-382-2293.

Did You Know... we have BOLT tutorials for you?

The BOLT Support team does more than answer questions about and resolve issues in BOLT. We also work with our supervisors to provide helpful support documentation and video tutorials on BOLT and its integrated tools.

BOLT Student Support page

Last year we helped update the Student Support pages so that you had the most up-to-date and accurate help documentation for BOLT possible. This year we are working on adding new docs and videos on some of the new features that have come to BOLT- Turnitin Feedback Studio, Audio and Video Note, and Virtual Classroom.

Do you need to know how to submit an assignment in BOLT? Set your notifications? What about how to join an online room for a class meeting?

If you want to know how to do things in BOLT, just go to our Student Support page at https://www.bloomu.edu/imdc-bolt-student

We also have a YouTube channel with video tutorials for students and instructors! You can access the videos on the Student Support pages, but subscribing to our channel means you will see our new videos as soon as we release them!

Congratulations 2016 Grads!

Take our advice to get the most out of your BOLT account.

Once you graduate, your BOLT account will only remain active until the semester you
graduated of the next academic year (if you graduate in December 16, your account will be
deactivated in early Fall 2017). Get what you need out of BOLT before then!

	Save and download your work. If you want to keep a copy of your scholarly work, make sure to download your submissions from BOLT assignments.
	Save and download course materials. If you want to keep course resources, download them from the course.
	Export your ePortfolio. Take your ePortfolio with you after you graduate! If you create an EduDentity account, you will be able to export your ePortfolio. Go to https://bolt.bloomu.edu and find the myDesire2Learn Access widget for more information!

Holiday BOLT Support

Enjoy Your Break and Be Thankful... for 24/7 BOLT Support

Whether you are home for the holidays or staying on campus with your Huskies family to study, we want you to know we have you covered if you need BOLT Support.

If you experience any issues in BOLT over the holiday, we have 24/7 holiday and weekend support available for you.

Contact us at (570)389-2888, or call our direct support line at 1-866-921-0473. You can also submit an issue via email on the BOLT My Home page in the BOLT Support widget on the right side of the page!

Working on presentations in Online Rooms and experiencing any technical difficulty? We also have 24/7 Blackboard Collaborate support available at 1-877-382-2293.

Please remember we have student support docs at our Student Support page. You can find this resource in BOLT by clicking on Student Resources and selecting BOLT How-To, or by going to  https://www.bloomu.edu/imdc-bolt-student

We hope you have an enjoyable break, wherever you may be.

Thank you,
BOLT Support Staff and Supervisors

UPDATE: BOLT Performance Issue Resolved and Being Monitored by Vendor

BOLT is now fully operational and should be working as usual. We received this communication from our vendor:

Valued D2L Clients,

Incident: The D2L Network Operations Center (NOC) advises that an infrastructure event may be impacting your site performance (Prod and/or Test sites).

End User Impact: Users may be experiencing intermittent errors and/or performance issues while navigating the site.

Status: 

12:18 PM EST – [Monitoring] - Our Infrastructure Teams have confirmed your sites are now fully operational. All alerts have cleared and we are continuing to monitor closely, but if you experience any issue, please contact the D2L Service Desk immediately.

11:12 AM EST – [Update] - Our Infrastructure Teams have identified the trigger of the performance issue, some Orgs should start seeing improvement, and we are continuing to work diligently to restore full availability.

10:12 AM EST - Our Infrastructure Teams are fully engaged and are working diligently to rectify the issue.

We sincerely apologize for the impact this disruption may cause your organization. We will follow up with further updates as they become available.

D2L Customer Service & Support

D2L Corporation

BOLT Experiencing Performance Issue

BOLT and its D2L counterparts at other PASSHE universities are currently experiencing performance issues. During this time, students and faculty may experience slowness and an intermittent response time from the MyCourses widget. You can still access your courses by using Select a course… at the top of the BOLT homepage.

D2L is actively working to resolve this issue. Please email bolthelp@bloomu.edu if you have any questions.

Thank you for your patience. We will continue to provide updates.

#Assignments!

Follow this advice and save the #hashtags for Twitter.

Don’t log in at 11:58 to submit something due at 11:59.
Do give yourself enough submission time.

Don’t use special characters, punctuation marks, or extra spaces in your assignment filenames. #nohashtag

Don’t hesitate to ask for help if you encounter an issue.
Do contact BOLT Support right away if you can’t upload a file.

Do watch for your submission receipt from BOLT in your BU email. Save it in case you need proof of submission later. This is your only proof of submission!

BOLT assignment submission receipt

Secure Quizzing Tools in BOLT

BOLT comes with several tools instructors may require you to use to take quizzes online.

Your instructor may require you to use Respondus LockDown Browser, Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor, or Examity.

  

If your instructor requires LockDown Browser (or LockDown Browser and Monitor) for a quiz, we suggest

1. Downloading the LockDown Browser using our download link here: http://www.respondus.com/lockdown/download.php?id=666246493
2. Taking any practice quizzes your instructor has provided to make sure you are comfortable with how the browser works
3. Launching LockDown Browser from your desktop and logging into BOLT to take the quiz

If your instructor requires you to use Examity to take an online quiz, we suggest you
1. Go to the Examity dashboard (click the examity link in your course) right away to create your profile
2. Schedule your exam at least 24 hours prior to the posted exam start time (This is required!)
3. Arrive 15 minutes prior to the start of your exam to allow time to connect with the proctor and do any troubleshooting necessary.
4. Make sure your pop-up blocker is disabled.
5. Make sure your internet connection speed is 3 Mbps or higher.  Check here: http://www.speedtest.net/
6. Schedule then take any practice exam your instructor provides.

For step by step guides to using these tools, please go to http://www.bloomu.edu/imdc-bolt-quizsurvey

BOLT Tips: Taking Quizzes

Tips for Successful Quizzing in BOLT (part 2)

	Take the practice quiz. If your instructor provides a practice quiz , take it. This helps resolve any issues with the tools prior to a high stakes exam.
	Give yourself enough time. Make sure you give yourself enough time to take or schedule (if required) your quiz.
	Avoid interruptions. Close other applications and make sure your connection to the Internet is strong.
	Exit and re-enter the quiz. Screen freeze? Exit the quiz and quickly re-enter using another browser (if not in RLDB).
	Contact BOLT Support NOW. If you encounter problems, contact us right away so we can give you the timeliest troubleshooting possible. Call us at (570)389-2888.

Search our blog for more tips on successful quizzing!

BOLT will be unavailable Sunday, November 13 between 1am and 7am EST

Every month, BOLT undergoes a maintenance window. This month’s maintenance window is on Sunday, November 13, 2016 from 1:00am to 7:00am ET. BOLT will be unavailable during this time. Please plan accordingly. 

Maintenance Window FAQ

Q: Where are the maintenance dates announced?

A: Maintenance dates are announced here on our BOLT Students blog, our BOLT Blog for faculty, and in the News items on your My Home page in BOLT.

Q: What will happen if I try to log in during a maintenance period?

A: A page will load that says Desire2Learn is unavailable due to scheduled maintenance.

Q: Why am I still seeing a page that tells me D2L is unavailable after the maintenance window?

A: If you tried to login to BOLT during the maintenance window, your browser may be loading the scheduled maintenance page from its cache memory. If you encounter this page outside of the maintenance window, please clear your browser cache before trying to login to BOLT again.

• Clear your browser cache in Internet Explorer
• Clear your browser cache in Firefox
• Clear your browser cache in Chrome
• Clear your browser cache in Safari

Q: This is a bad time for BOLT to be unavailable. Can maintenance be rescheduled?

A: We understand frustration when BOLT downtime occurs during busy times of the academic year. Unfortunately, we cannot reschedule the maintenance windows. The IMDC has no control over the regularly scheduled maintenance windows. They are scheduled by our vendor and are necessary to keep BOLT working optimally. 

BOLT FAQ for Students During the Strike

Do I still have access to BOLT and my courses during the strike?

Yes. Students will continue to have access to BOLT and to courses available in BOLT during the strike.

I was able to access a course in BOLT but now I don’t see it. What do I do?

If you had access to a 2016Fall course in BOLT but no longer see the course in your MyCourses widget in BOLT, please contact BOLT Support.

My course used to have content but now it is missing. What do I do?

If you had access to content in a 2016Fall course in BOLT but no longer see the content in your course in BOLT, please contact BOLT Support.

How can I view my assignments feedback if it is now missing from BOLT?

If you had feedback from an instructor in a 2016Fall course in BOLT but no longer see that feedback in your course in BOLT, please contact BOLT Support.

If I submit an assignment to BOLT, how will my instructor know when I submitted it or if it was submitted by the due date?

If you are submitting the assignment in BOLT to an Assignment submission folder in your course, it will be stamped with the date and time of submission. Your instructor will be able to see this when they access the course. 

Students have also been asked to submit hard copies of assignments to their Dean.

Students also receive a submission receipt in their Huskies email which has the date/time the assignment was submitted to BOLT. You should keep this email as proof of submission.



Any other questions?

http://www.bloomu.edu/negotiations

Contact BOLT Support: 
Monday through Friday 8am to 5pm
(570)389-2888 or bolthelp@bloomu.edu