Thursday, December 17, 2015

BOLT TIP: If you have a problem, contact BOLT Support ASAP

If you experience technical difficulty taking quizzes, submitting to dropbox, posting to discussions, or taking surveys, contact BOLT Support right away!


The sooner we hear from you, and can get on-the-spot information, the sooner we will get you a resolution to your problem!


Wednesday, November 18, 2015

BOLT TIP: Submitting Work

Sometimes students contact BOLT Support to resolve issues related to submitting their work to instructors via BOLT. BOLT Support has a few tips that can really help Bloomsburg University students submit their assignments successfully.

Plan Ahead
Have a contingency plan in place in case you have difficulty submitting work. Know if and when BOLT will be unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check BOLT news items and the BOLT Students Blog for notifications about downtime.

Keep It Simple
Name your files without punctuation, spaces, or special characters. If you can, submit one document once rather than five separate documents several times. Simplify your submissions.

Keep a Backup
Always back up your work. Keep a digital copy handy. You can keep backups on storage media such as flash drives or external hard drives, on Microsoft One Drive, on other cloud storage solutions, or on your Bloomsburg University P drive.

Give Yourself Time
Give yourself enough time to submit work prior to the due date. If your assignment is due at 11:59pm, give yourself until 11:49pm to submit or post. If you wait until the last minute, taking time to click through BOLT to the submission area might make your submission late!

Check For Verification
BOLT sends submission receipts by email for dropbox submissions. It is good practice to check blogs, journals, wikis, and discussion topics after posting to ensure your work was submitted. If not, re-submit or contact your instructor and BOLT Support immediately.

BOLT TIP: Keep Your Filenames Simple

When you are submitting work to BOLT, keep things simple.

Don't use spaces, punctuation, or special characters in your filenames!



BOLT doesn't like those things in filenames and may not accept your file.


EXAMPLE:

Your professor wants you to submit a paper to the Paper#1 Dropbox. You create a document file called paper#1yourlastname.docx. When you go to submit the document to BOLT, you cannot upload your file.

Q: Why does this happen?

A: BOLT does not like the # sign in your filename. 

Q: How can you fix it?

A: Remove the special character from your filename (paper1yourlastname.docx for example) and make sure there are no spaces or other punctuation marks in your filename. Then try submitting the renamed file to BOLT.

Friday, October 16, 2015

2015Winter Courses in BOLT

The 2015Winter session begins December 14, 2015.

TIP: You will not begin to see your 2015Winter courses in BOLT until December.If you don't see your 2015Winter course in BOLT  and you haven't heard from your instructor, ask your instructor if they are using BOLT for class!

BOLT Session Start Tips

  • Make sure you can login to your Bloomsburg University email with your HuskyID. If you can't access your email, try to reset your password or contact the Help Desk at (570)389-4357. 
  • After December 1, access BOLT using your HuskyID and find your Winter courses in the My Courses widget on the right of the My Home page. If you don't see a course you're registered for listed, it may be because:
    • You just added the course. Courses take 24-48 hours to show up in BOLT after you add them in ISIS.
    • The course is inactive. Instructors need to activate courses before students can access them. Some instructors don't use BOLT so they don't activate the course. 
  • Watch your Bloomsburg University email for messages from your instructors. They may be sending you important information about your course(s) in the weeks leading up to the Winter session.

Respondus LockDown Browser Has Come to BOLT

Respondus LockDown Browser® (RLDB) is now available for Bloomsburg University students.

RLDB is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within BOLT. When professors ask you to use Respondus LockDown Browser you will be unable to print, copy, go to another URL, access other applications, or close a quiz until it is submitted for grading.



If your professors use RLDB, you will need to download and install RLDB to any computer you take quizzes on. 

If your professors allow you to take quizzes on iPad, you will need to download the Respondus LockDown Browser app in iTunes.

There is information at the BOLT Student Support page to get you started downloading and using Respondus LockDown Browser: http://departments.bloomu.edu/imdc/boltstudentsupport.html

For help troubleshooting Respondus LockDown Browser, you can contact BOLT Support at bolthelp@bloomu.edu or by calling (570)389-2888.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

BOLT Will Be Unavailable November 8, 2015 from 1:00AM to 7:00AM

Every month, BOLT undergoes a maintenance window. This month’s maintenance window is on Sunday, November 8, 2015 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. 
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. 

Thursday, September 17, 2015

BOLT TIP: Don't use Safari to access blogs, journals, podcasts, or wikis

a screenshot of the Top Secret wiki in the BOLT SHIELD Ops Training course
A wiki in BOLT
Using Safari to access blogs, journals, podcasts, or wikis in BOLT causes a login error due to the browser's security settings.

We recommend using a different browser such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome to access these tools in BOLT.

If you try to access a blog, journal, podcast, or wiki and are prompted to login, please try using one of the recommended browsers.

ReadSpeaker docReader Coming in September

ReadSpeaker docReader is coming to BOLT in September. docReader lets you view and listen to documents in BOLT on any device.

the BOLT Bulletin loaded into the ReadSpeaker docReader
The BOLT Bulletin in ReadSpeaker docReader

Features



  • View, zoom, and listen to a wide variety of document formats in BOLT
  • Choose between two different layout modes
  • Navigate using the document's table of contents or use thumbnail navigation to go to different pages
  • Use docReader on your PC or your mobile device- docReader has a touch-friendly user interface and HTML5 support for iOS and Android devices

  • docReader lets students view and listen to documents in BOLT from any browser or mobile device. A toolbar at the top of docReader enables you to

    Tuesday, August 4, 2015

    BOLT Will Be Unavailable August 9, 2015 from 1:00AM to 7:00AM

    Every month, BOLT undergoes a maintenance window. This month’s maintenance window is on Sunday, August 9, 2015 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. 
    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. 

    Monday, July 20, 2015

    Overdue assignments list added to the Course Schedule view

    The Upcoming Events tab in Content has been renamed to Course Schedule. A new Overdue tab now appears in the Course Schedule view.

    The Overdue tab only appears in the Course Schedule area when course activities are past the due date

    Students can view a list of overdue assignments in the new Overdue tab in the Course Schedule view of the Content tool. Course activities that have a due date appear automatically in the Overdue list as soon as the due date passes. Only activities with an end date later than the due date (or no end date) appear in the list, to ensure that learners have time to complete the overdue activities. 

    Learners can access an overdue activity directly from the list to complete it. Once the activity has been completed, it disappears from the list, and when all overdue items are completed, the Overdue tab disappears from the Course Schedule view.

    The Overdue tab conveniently lists all overdue course tasks in one place so learners can more easily manage their time and workload. Overdue activities are sorted by most to least overdue.

    Upcoming Events view renamed to Course Schedule view

    The Upcoming Events view in Content has been renamed to Course Schedule.


    You can click on the Course Schedule menu item to show any important dates in the course.