Instructional Technology will be offering several Moodle Training & Work Sessions during winter break for those of you who are interested in learning how to use Moodle, advancing your skills, or simply designating a specific time to work on your course webs.

Please see the schedule below and use the online sign up form if you're interested in participating. If you have questions about the sessions offered, please contact us at courses@albion.edu or call 517.629.0962.

SESSION TYPE: Basic Training for New Moodlers
USER LEVEL: Beginner
DATES: Thursday, January 7th or Tuesday, January 12th
TIMES: 10am - 11:30am and 2pm - 3:30pm
LOCATION: Ferguson Lab
DESCRIPTION: Are you new to Moodle? If so, this training session has been designed just for you! We will show you how to quickly get your course web(s) set up, so your students can begin accessing your course content on the first day of class.

SESSION TYPE: Moodle: Beyond The Basics
USER LEVEL: Moderate
DATE: Friday, January 8th or Wednesday, January 13th
TIMES: 10am - Noon and 2pm - 4pm
LOCATION: Ferguson Lab
DESCRIPTION: Take your course web(s) to the next level this semester by adding additional interactive assignments and features! In this training session we will demonstrate how to use Forums, Quizzes, the Grade book, and many other activity features!

*English Chair and Professor Ian MacInnes will be demonstrating the Moodle grade book and sharing his experience and knowledge about this tool with peers.

SESSION TYPE: Moodle Work Session
USER LEVEL: Any
DATES: Thursday, January 14th &/or Friday, January 15th
TIMES: 10am - 12pm and 2pm - 4pm
LOCATION: Ferguson Lab
DESCRIPTION: Drop in for an hour, or two! This is not a training session, its a time and place for you to sit down, relax, and work on your course web sites. An Instructional Technologists will be available to answer questions and help as needed.

*Complimentary beverages will be served at all sessions.

Sign up:
Each of the sessions listed above are designed to be hands on. Please request a Spring 2010 course web at least 2 days prior to attending a session. A link to the course web request form will be provided on the confirmation page you will see when you sign up for the Moodle sessions. You can also use the link located in the upper left hand corner of the course webs homepage.

Please sign up for the Moodle Training & Work Sessions using the online web form located at:
http://www2.albion.edu/it/index.php?option=com_form&form_id=17

The Albion College Help Desk recently sent out an email message to everyone regarding a new policy on password expiration. The policy begins to take effect today, Tuesday, October 20th for faculty and staff with usernames starting with "a" and "b". If you are having trouble logging in to Course Webs, and fall under this category, please change your password.

The Help Desk will continue to expire passwords in subsequent weeks, beginning with all faculty and staff, followed by students. Passwords that have not been changed in over 6 years will be set to expire immediately along with the first faculty/staff group. When you log into the network, you will see a pop-up window like the one in the attached image, indicating that you need to change your password.

The following are guidelines for new passwords:

Passwords may not contain the username. Users may not re-use any of their three previous passwords. Passwords must be at least 8 characters long and contain characters from at least 3 of the following 4 categories:

* Uppercase (A - Z)
* Lowercase (a - z)
* Digits (0 - 9)
* Non-alphanumeric (!, @, #, %, etc)

Please note that if you forget your password, it will need to be reset by the Help Desk, for security reasons.

If you have questions, please contact the Help Desk at ext. 0479 or helpdesk@albion.edu.

The course webs news forum is used to send general course web site information which occasionally is directed toward faculty. All new users are initially subscribed to this news forum.

If wish to stop receiving these email notices please go to the course webs home page (http://courses.albion.edu) log in and click on the gray "Unsubscribe from this forum" hyperlink located in the top middle dark purple bar that says Site news.