• Audience Response System Survey

    As part of an ongoing effort to understand the teaching and technology needs at Western, Western Technology Services (WTS) is asking all students and faculty members to provide anonymous feedback on audience response systems, often referred to as clickers. Popular audience response systems include iClicker, Kahoot!, Top Hat, and TurningPoint.

    Faculty members and students who may not have used an audience response system before are still encouraged to complete the survey.

    • Take the Faculty Survey
    • Take the Student Survey

    Students who complete the survey may enter a draw for a chance to win Apple Airpods, Bose Speaker, or a Fitbit. Students may enter the draw until November 3rd.

    We appreciate your time and feedback.

    Autumn has arrived!

    Students

    In a forested area, a student sits on the ground with an open laptop Learn how to prepare for online assessments

    Instructors

    A leaf sits on the keyboard of an open laptop beside a mug of coffee Learn about online and alternative assessments

    Looking for your course in OWL?

    Your courses should appear across the top of OWL or under the Sites menu when they are available to you.

    You can also check your "Official Course Enrolments" page:

    1. Log into OWL
    2. Go to "Membership" on the left
    3. Go to "My Official Course Enrolments"

    Your official course enrolments will be listed (with links to the course site, if available).

    If you've changed courses or sections recently, you should see the change in OWL within 24 hours.

    The My Official Course Enrolments page listing courses and links to course sites

    Instructors: Course Site Templates  are available in OWL

    The eLearning Technology Team (ELT) and Instructional Technology Resource Centre (ITRC) have developed OWL templates for course sites. The templates include common OWL tools, course homepage banners, and organized Lessons ready to be populated with content. There are two designs to choose from: Basic and Advanced. You can have a template applied to your course site by completing the request form.

    If you have been using the Basic or Advanced OWL Templates in an OWL site prior to May 1, 2021, there are updates available to address the new formatting. Please see this article about the OWL Template Updates.

    If you're using custom CSS in your OWL sites, changes to Lessons at the beginning of May 2021 may have affected your CSS. Please see this article about what changes to make to your custom Lessons CSS.

    Course sites were unpublished on August 31, 2021

    As previously communicated, OWL course sites for Fall 2019, Winter 2020, and Summer 2020 courses were unpublished on August 31, 2021. Only instructors and site maintainers have access to their unpublished course sites.

    For more information about the course site unpublishing process, please see the OWL Help course sites policies page. If you have any questions, please contact the WTS Helpdesk.

    Blackboard Collaborate has been discontinued at Western

    An open laptop with web conferencing on the screen

    As of July 31, 2021, Blackboard Collaborate has been discontinued at Western and is no longer available from within OWL.

    Please use Zoom or Microsoft Teams Meetings for web conferencing.

    For more information, please check out this article.

    Introducing OWL Help

    OWL Help is the official site of documentation for OWL:

    A screenshot of the OWL Help site

    Customized for Western, OWL Help provides getting-started guides, step-by-step instructions about each of OWL's tools, and other OWL-specific information.

    OWL Help is available from three places on most pages in OWL:

    1. as the last item on the Tool Menu at the left
    2. as contextual help linked from the top right
    3. from the "Help & Support" page linked at the bottom 

    Instructors and Site Maintainers:

    Course sites can be set up for the Fall terms. Start by going to Worksite Setup and then "Create New Site". If you do not see a section that you are teaching, please confirm with your department that you are the "approved instructor for the correct term".