January 2012 eNews – SoftChalk Celebrates 10 Years In 2012

From yesterday’s inbox…

	From the Chief Chalkie – January Highlights Hello Chalkies. 2012 is a special year here at SoftChalk because it marks our 10th anniversary of providing innovative e-learning solutions! We have grown immensely over the past 10 years and we are very thankful for all of our clients, the amazing things they are doing with our software and their continuous support and feedback. Speaking of feedback, a huge thank you goes out to each of you that participated in our online customer satisfaction survey last month. The data we collected is invaluable to us. We are currently going through the responses and making a priority list. We will keep you updated every step of the way as we work to enhance our products. I truly hope that 2012 will be our best year yet! We have a lot of exciting things in store for the coming year – including a new version, which we plan to share more details about soon. Read on to find out who won the customer satisfaction survey giveaway, what conferences we’re attending this spring, important tips from the support center, innovator highlights and more… Happy 2012 to you! -Sue Evans, SoftChalk CEO
	A Review of the 2011 Innovators Series The SoftChalk Innovators Series has always been our favorite set of webinars – mainly because it’s fun to show off the cool things that you, our clients, are creating with SoftChalk! Our mission is to help educators create interactive content that improves learning and our innovators series features educators who are doing just that. As a way to acknowledge those that participated in the series last year and give you a chance to check out any you may have missed, here are a few highlights from 2011. Each webinar has a link to the full archive and to a short preview. Feel free to check out both. Lesson Plans, Multimedia Content and Interactive Whiteboards Dr. Diane D. Painter, Assistant Professor, School of Education and Human Development, Shenandoah University (Full Archive, Short Preview) Creating Clinical Case-based Activities/Lessons from a Template Bonnie Taylor, M.Ed., CAPM, Educational Development Specialist,Online Teaching and Learning, UT Health Science Center San Antonio (Full Archive, Short Preview) MISSION SoftChalk: Secret Agents, Online Gaming and SoftChalk Training Leah MacVie, Instructional Designer, Canisius College (Full Archive, Short Preview) Harnessing the Power of Web 2.0: Combining SoftChalk and Free Digital Technologies to Enhance Learning Landscapes Dr. James S. May, Professor of English as a Second Language, Valencia Community College (Full Archive, Short Preview) Empowering Schools to Teach and Learn Online using Open Educational Resources and SoftChalk CONNECT Deanna Mayers, Curriculum Coordinator, Blendedschools.net (Full Archive, Short Preview) Don’t forget – the 2012 Innovator series starts this month with a new session that features OC Global, an online program at Odessa College, and how they are using SoftChalk to create textbooks. Sign up for the session below! To learn more about the innovative program at Odessa before the webinar, be sure to check out our interview with Corey Davis, the Executive Director of OC Global. Are you a SoftChalk innovator? If you are doing interesting things with SoftChalk and would like to be part of the Innovators Series, simply email marketing@softchalk.com and let us know. We’re always looking for new innovators!
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	The Design of a Completely Online Community with SoftChalk as Textbook OC Global is an approach to an educational environment with asynchronous learning opportunities that support a complete online community. From choosing majors, to time management, to creating portfolios, to flexible start dates – multiple support functions are available to students along with self-paced deadlines. In addition, they plan to make this content available for students of all ages and life situations, and for all mobile devices. This webinar will walk participants through the development of the OC Global, particularly the way in which SoftChalk, and open source content, is used to re-create the course textbook, making it more accessible for diverse learners, including English-language learners, low-performing students, students with learning disabilities, and students with psychological problems. You will see the unique design aesthetic and instructional approach that is driven by models of accessibility, usability and personality. Thursday, January 19 3:00pm ET
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	Where You’ll Find Us Here are the conferences you’ll find SoftChalk this spring. We also want to know which conferences YOU’LL be attending this year! Leave a comment on our spring 2012 conference blog post letting us know. Texas Computer Education Association Date: February 6-10 Location: Austin Convention Center, Austin, Texas Booth: #1920 Visit the Website ITC eLearning Date: February 18 – 20 Location: Westin Long Beach, Long Beach, California Visit the Website League for Innovation in the Community College Date: March 4 – 7 Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Booth: #316 Visit the Website IMS Learning Impact Date: May 14 -17 Location: Toronto, Canada Visit the Website NISOD Date: May 27 – May 30 Location: Austin Convention Center, Austin, Texas Booth: #608 Visit the Website
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	Customer Satisfaction Survey Winner Thank you again to everyone that participated in our online survey last month. The winner of the $100 Amazon.com Gift Card is Nicole Olsson-Dail of New Mexico State University. Congrats Nicole! We plan to have annual customer satisfaction surveys, however if you have a feature request or an immediate issue that needs to be resolved, please email our support team at help@softchalk.com.
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	Tips & Updates From the Support Team Student Guide to SoftChalk Is SoftChalk content working well for most of your students but not for others? Our Student Guide to SoftChalk may be the answer for you. This guide has a troubleshooting section and screen captures for the most common issues students experience. We recommend that you distribute the following URL. (As we update this guide, the URL will remain the same.) http://support.softchalk.com/FileManagement/Download/f63c73ce33fb45f091657ba93a4d92b0 Info for Blackboard Admins We encourage Blackboard administrators to update to the latest SoftChalk building block (1.0.9). (To download this building block, you can go to the SoftChalk Support Center. In the white area, click Download our SoftChalk Blackboard Building Blocks.) Enhancements include breadcrumbs for published zip lessons and archive/import support. (For additional details, please email help@softchalk.com) Please delete your current building block before installing the new building block. If you happen to have a building block several versions older, you can delete the previous version and install the latest version. In other words, you don’t have to update each successive version. If you have registered for a SoftChalk building block with an http:// address and then change to an https:// server, please contact help@softchalk.com to let us know about this change. We will notify you after we make the appropriate updates for you. IMPORTANT: Please do NOT register the https:// server. Other Support Center Items FAQ – I have the Kaspersky anti-virus program. SoftChalk was working fine on my computer until I recently updated my Kaspersky anti-virus database. Now I get an error when I try to launch SoftChalk (or I can’t launch SoftChalk at all). What should I do? UPDATED – Angel Integration Guide (includes Angel 7.4 and Angel 8.0 info) UPDATED – Desire2Learn (D2L) Integration Guide
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	Learn More About SoftChalkShort Courses Check out our FREE online training sessions! SoftChalk Short Courses are live, one-hour training webinars, conducted online by a SoftChalk instructor. The courses typically include a presentation and examples, as well as an opportunity for you to ask questions and receive assistance from the instructor. For more information or to register, go to http://softchalk.com/learn-more/short-courses.Innovator Vignettes SoftChalk’s Innovators in Online Learning webinar series highlights educators who are using SoftChalk in innovative ways. Take a quick look at what all the excitement is about by checking out some of the 5-10 minute Innovators previews. To view the previews or to register for an upcoming Innovators webinar go to http://softchalk.com/learn-more/innovators.

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