NEED HELP?

Try these Jing learning modules

The videos below provide 'how-to' information that not only talks you through various computer and research functions, but shows you how to use them in video format. Play them as often as you like until you become comfortable with them. (See also the text based how-to, Make It Work)

Want to suggest another module? Just email me to explain what's needed and why.

The following are Jing tutorials unless otherwise noted.

One size does not fit all. Follow, first and foremost, the directions I have provided for your specific course and section within the syllabus, course directions, etc.

  1. Accessing Your Course Learning Materials
  2. Accessing Blackboard (note: if you have any problems using Blackboard, contact their help line right away. Don't waste time contacting me or other students. We aren't the techs, and are unlikely to be helpful. Their number is Blackboard Online Support Center. The support representatives are available 24/7 at 1-866-334-9174
  3. Writing blog entries on Blackboard. You will be asked to discuss the readings on unit blogs. In addition, peer review of papers also takes place on the blogs.
    Important: Do not use a control character (e.g., !, @, #, $, %, ^, &, *, etc.) in either the subject line of Blackboard or the title of any documents you might send along as attachments. If you attach a document, make sure you have saved the file in .rtf or .doc format, also with no control characters in the file name.
  4. Using the Blackboard Discussion Board.
    Important: Do not use a control character (e.g., !, @, #, $, %, ^, &, *, etc.) in either the subject line of Blackboard or the title of any documents you might send along as attachments. That will cause Blackboard's Discussion Board to crash and the class information on the board to be lost. This is one of those 'if you break it, you've bought it' moments, as failing to follow these directions will result in an automatic zero for the assignment. Send documents to the Discussion Board or only in.doc, or .rtf format. If students can't open your documents, they can't be expected to comment on them.

    It can be a real disaster if some idiot crashes a Discussion Board. You can avoid having your work destroyed or made temporarily unavailable, however. Back up your document submission to the Discussion Board by embedding your materials (both originals and peer reviews) in the Wiki for that assignment.

  5. Doing Peer Reviews the Discussion Board. Note: Only the main parts here are Jing Tutorials. The sub-sections represent web pages. See also
    1. Part 1 Regarding the material on "Academic Discourse" explaining Peer Review and Revision:
    2. Part 2: Writing Peer Reviews Using Microsoft Word
      How to place a comment within the text. If you have an earlier version of word (pre-Vista), just use the "Insert" menu and choose "Comment". If you don't have Microsoft Word, you can place a comment directly into the text with brackets around it. To make those comments more visible, I'd put them in red, and/or italics. (See also Jing #13 & 14.) Brief example of peer reviewed material (.doc file).
    3. Part 3: Doing Peer Review on Blackboard's Discussion Board
      Remember: Peer review is just the first step. Now, you as the author of a paper must revise it. To help you do that, I've given you several websites to assist you:
    4. Using Microsoft Word (2007) to make comments and save the file in .doc or .rtf format (also found as #13 below).
    5. Doing Peer Reviews using the blogging tool on Blackboard. Not all of you will be taking a course in which peer review takes place on Blackboard's main Discussion Board. Some of you will do that work within unit Blogging Groups. This tutorial is only for those sections using this alternative.
  1. Submit Assignments on Blackboard. Once the composition process is complete, you are ready to send me your paper. You do that through Blackboard. Before you do, watch this Jing, as it will talk you through the process.

    All Blackboard courses and sections are not alike. Follow the directions provided for your specific course and section. For example, some courses have a separate button for submissions, while others set the submission point within each unit. Be alert to the circumstances and follow the directions provided within your course.

    Remember that if I can't save your file to my file folder on you that's on my computer, or I can't open your file, I can't be expected to grade your paper. That means you need to keep two things in mind:

    Put all the identifying information telling me who you are, what course you're in, what hour, and what assignment this is in the comments section on Blackboard as well as on your paper. I need to know these things in order to save your document to the right place on my computer long before I ever open your document.

    Send your document as either a .rtf, a .docx, or a .doc file. Make sure there are no control characters in the title (i.e., !, @, #,$,%;, ^, &,*, etc.) Note that here, it's fine to send as a .docx file, though it is not acceptable in peer review. Why? Because I have the 2007 version of Word and can open .docx files, while many of your peers do not. As was true in peer review, however, ONLY send documents in those formats I have approved. If I can't open your file, I can't grade it. Note sure how to save a document? See Saving your Word file as a .doc or .rtf file (also found as #13 below). Still not sure? Contact the Help Desk.

  2. Getting information about your assignments using My Grades on Blackboard.
  3. Taking a Test or Quiz on Blackboard (ends abruptly, but has what you need)
  4. Using Using Google vs. Google Scholar
    1. Using and citing things found on Google
    2. Using Google Scholar
    3. Using Google Scholar 2
    4. Using Google Scholar 3

    Please remember: When working with books, articles, websites, WHETHER DIRECTLY QUOTING OR PUTTING THE IDEAS IN YOUR OWN WORDS, you must cite your sources in BOTH parenthetical citation AND the Work Cited section. Only directly quote very, very small hunks of a few words (or lines of poetry, etc.). Putting quotation marks around large hunks of text keeps you fairly safe from academic dishonesty charges, but I then would need to give someone else credit for writing the paper, not you. So, the authors of some articles or books get and A and you (who wrote little or nothing) get an F. Similarly, do not believe that just changing or moving around a word or two avoids plagiarism. Sorry, no luck and no cigar! Why? You're clearly copying all the OTHER words in the sentence as well as trying to pass that author's work and thinking of as your own. When in doubt about how to cite sources, go to either Writing A Paper For Me or the English Department's site on Academic Integrity.

  5. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
    1. Jing: Using the Oxford English Dictionary: Part 1
      (Finding and getting on the OED using your Millersville ID)
    2. Jing: Using the Oxford English Dictionary: Part 2
      (Beginning to find things on the OED)
    3. Jing: Using the Oxford English Dictionary: Part 3
      (Navigating within a word)
    4. Jing: Using the Oxford English Dictionary: Part 4
      (Reading an entry)
    5. Jing: Using the Oxford English Dictionary: Part 5
      (Using the OED Help feature to look up abbreviations)
    6. The following are non-Jing helps (remember that you need to be logged on through our Library's licensing system, which uses your library bar code):
  1. The Middle English Dictionary
  2. Doing Effective Peer Review
    [See also the text-based peer review and revision sections
    of Academic Discourse]
  3. Using Wimba:
    [Note: Wimba requires sound capacity. Most newer computers have built in microphones or can accept stand alone microphones or headsets. Not sure if yours does? Check with your favorite techy! Microphones, as it happens, are cheap. My headset cost less than $12.00 at Circuit City. You can buy expensive audio equipment if you want, but you certainly don't have to do so for my courses.]
    1. Using the Voice Boards
    2. Using the Wimba Live Classroom (Note: Problems with Wimba live classroom? Contact Wimba Live Classroom Support 24/7 at 1- 866-350-4978. Remember that you don't need sound capacity on your computer to use the Live Classroom. Click on the phone icon within your live classroom session, and you'll get a phone number and classroom number that will let you call in that way. It is, unfortunately, not a toll free number.)
    3. Giving a talk on the Wimba Live Classroom. You'll need to present your paper as a talk on Wimba's Live Classroom in your small groups. Here's how

      Keeping track of who's who in the Wimba Classroom: Remember that nobody can see your face! State your name clearly as you enter the room, and also when you begin your talk and as you ask questions. I otherwise can't tell who's talking to give grades. .
    4. Wimba Live Classroom Talks. Second discussion. Also, remember to select a moderator, who'll turn on and off the archive, and to email me to confirm your talk title and when you gave it. One big reason your group needs a moderator is that only one person should be in charge of managing archiving or it will keep getting turned on and off. When everyone is in the room and the group is ready to start doing the talks, make sure a moderator has been selected.

      Archiving:       When you go in to the Wimba Classroom, you'll see that archiving is off. The little button is at the top of the area on the right. The person the group chooses to act as moderator must click it, and will then hear it say that it's starting the archive. It takes a minute, and then it says that archiving is on. At the end of everyone's talk, the person chosen as moderator then clicks the archive button again to turn it off. Again, it speaks, telling the moderator that it's archiving, and then telling you that it's done.

    5. Listening to an archived Wimba Classroom session. This short tutorial teaches you how to go in and listen to your own or other people's Wimba Classroom Talks.
  4. Microsoft Word 2007. It doesn't much matter what software you use for word processing so long as you know how to use your own AND you save the document you want to transmit in a format that is viewable by everyone. This section explains how to make Peer Review Comments using 2007 version of Word. It also discusses saving your word file as a .doc or .rtf file rather than a .docx, .wps, or other file format.
    [Note: If your word processing software doesn't have a comments function, just put brackets after the item upon which you wish to comment and type them in there in red]

    Note: if you have problems saving or transmitting documents, you need to contact the Help Desk. I'm not the tech person, and can only give you these general instructions.

  5. Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism (see also Writing a Paper for Me in the long and short version). Internally, you can cite either using footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical citation AND ALSO show the sources.

15.Allophonic/Phonetic Sounds
      Note: This goes with the Phonetics website, which uses the same
                logon and password as this site.

    1. Consonants Part 1
    2. Consonants Part 2
    3. Consonants Part 3
    4. Vowels
    5. Allophonic Variations on /t/

16. Formatting Reports using Microsoft Word. It can be a bit tricky to format long reports using Word if you've not done it before. The discussion takes about 10 minutes, so it's in two parts. The second part focuses primarily on illustrations (tables and figures).

  • Part 1.  Setting up sections for Roman and Arabic pagination, setting up header levels for the Table of Contents, and creating a Table of Contents.
  • Part 2.  Placing tables and figures within the document, captioning them, and creating the List of Illustrations with its subsets for Figures and Tables.

17.  For Summer 1 316 only:  Because of some improperly posted Subjects and Documents in the Peer Review discussion board, an error in Bb occurred in the first Peer Review 1 discussion board. I know we told you all to repost which we appreciate, but because that Discussion board was erroring... all new attachments had the same problem.

So... we have a new plan.

  1. We are asking you to repost your paper in the "Peer Review 1-Again" discussion board (remembering NOT to include any special characters(#,'$ etc.) in the Subject line and/or in the file name.

    If you have a paper with any characters in them... do a SAVE AS... Do Not just change the name of the paper you originally posted! To do that, DO NOT go in to Unit 1.
  2. The people who were reviewing papers need to repost the reviews that they created. Please follow the same file name procedure as described above.
  3. We have also created a special place just for this paper as a Backup procedure. It is called "Peer Review paper 1-Wiki Backup" located in the "Storage" link on the side menu.
  4. Because email went out, I will be sending generally applicable information to you via the Quick Chat blog at the top of Coursework as well as by Announcements.  Check those regularly.
    Instructions on how to upload/attach your paper are in the Wiki and in the U-Tube video below.

 

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Bookmark it and/or write the address down.

© Bonnie Duncan
Millersville University
bduncan@millersville.edu
Date created: February 20, 2008; last edited January 29, 2009

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