We're pleased to announce to Prosite administrators that we've added two configuration choices when creating Exams.

First and most importantly, we've added the ability for students to answer questions in any order (moving forward or backward) when taking the exam.

Question sequence

Option 1: Forward & Backward - Questions may be skipped and answered in any order
Option 2: Forward Only - Each question must be answered before moving to the next

"Option 2" is the old method for taking exams.

Second, we've added ability to display the exam score on the student's My Exam page (apart from also displaying the entire exam, question by question).

Display score--Display the exam score on the student's My Exams page

Option 1: Never
Option 2: Once grades are recorded
Option 3: Immediatlye after finishing exams

Both new configuration choices appear on the first step when creating exams.

We're pleased to announce that 'Content Import' is now available to course administrators under the Settings page. To our Prosite subscribers, 'Import Question Banks' is also available. Thanks to our users who reported issues with Import in the past. Those problems are now fixed.

Now administrators can easily display course statistics on any content page using the dashboard widget (including homepage). The dashboard shows classmate count, announcement count, Blog entry and comment count, and topics and message count. Administrators can enable Dashboard using the command below.

Dashboard - Syntax

[[dashboard]]

Dashboard - Web View

We're pleased to announce to our Prosite subscribers the option to edit course icons in place of the default university icons. For those instructors with multiple courses, this is particularly useful, helping with quick identification of feed events from each course. You can change the course icon on the 'Course Title and Description' section of the 'Course Settings' page.

Today we're pleased to announce support for Facebook Connect allowing users to link their Facebook account to their Nfomedia account. By connecting your Facebook account, you will be able to log in at Nfomedia quickly using the "Connect with Facebook" button. Also, a link to your Facebook profile will appear on your Nfomedia profile. You can expect more features to come from Nfomedia enabling sharing your identity from other social networks with your classmate/colleagues (i.e. Facebook, Twitter).

Sometimes the information on a content page justifies Full Screen mode (i.e. hide the menus and increase the width of content area). This can be accomplished by using a new editor command. Simply enter the following command anywhere on a page to enable Full Screen mode (NOTE: works on any page EXCEPT the home page):

Full Screen - Syntax

[[fullscreen]]

Full Screen - Web View



You can read more about how to enable Full Screen mode in the Help Center at the link below.

http://www.nfomedia.com/fullscreen.nfo

We've added the ability to include dynamic course information within content pages using Content Widgets. Inserting a widget is a simple editing command. Currently widgets include "Recent Announcements", "Course Feed", and "User Welcome". You can read more about how to add widgets in the Help Center at the link below.

http://www.nfomedia.com/widgets.nfo

Big thanks to Lorena Suarez for creating 12 new themes available to our Prosite subscribers (a few previews shown above). Also at this time, we're please to announce 1-month free of Prosite to all administrators. You can activate the free trial via the upgrade page on each course ? this only takes a few clicks. We'd also like to send a warm thanks to those already subscribing, which in turn supports the Nfomedia.com product.

Nfomedia is pleased to announce its new 'Feed' feature which provides you with up-to-the-minute information on all course changes — including changes to blog, announcements, message board, gradebook, journals, exams, etc. Please look for the 'feed' link on the top left menu bar. You can also subscribe to course feed using an RSS or Atom reader by clicking the links at the bottom of the page.

We've added two graphic displays to the course grade book (viewable only by a course administrator). The first represents a ranking of grade averages from highest to lowest and color coded by letter grade (A, B, C, D, F). The second is a distribution of grades (color coded by letter grade).

We're pleased to announce Nfomedia Graphs which uses dynamic images (no plug-in required) to provide fast, real-time overviews for Personal Homepages and Prosite Courses. Currently, graphs are available for Web Traffic and User Activity. You can expect more graphs in the future including a series dedicated to Gradebook.

We're pleased to announce that Web Badges are now available to Course Sites, Personal Homepages, and User Profiles. Web Badges are for promoting your Nfomedia pages elsewhere on the Web (e.g. Facebook, Blogs, University pages). The embed code for your Web Badge can be found on the Site Overview page of your Course/Homepage or at the bottom of your Profile page. Here are some examples:

We've added mobile blogging to Personal Homepages which allows you to easily publish photos and/or text directly to your blog from your mobile phone. Simply go to Blog Settings at your personal blog to obtain your Mobile Upload E-mail then save this to your Address Book on your mobile phone. Now you can easily send camera phone pictures directly to your blog. You can also change your mobile e-mail address at anytime by clicking the reset button.

Nfomedia has a new look! The HOME, BLOG, NFOMAIL, MY SITES and NFOMEDIA menus have been moved to the top of the course home page -- making access to them quick and easy.

Also, professors and course administrators can now add a custom BACKGOUND to their course websites and personal homepages.  Simply click on Site Settings and chose Background.  Features include (1) background color, (2) background image, (3) image alignment, and (4) repeat image.

Professors and students who have created Personal Home Pages can now enable their own personal chat room where they are talk in real time with any registered Nfomedia user. To activate the Chat Room on your Personal Home Page, simply click on ?Site Settings? and select ?Feature Settings & Link Course Sites.?

The Drop Box menu option is now available for use with course websites -- providing an efficient way for professors to accept written assignments/papers in any readable document format (e.g. doc, rtf, pdf, etc). Submitted papers are date and time stamped and can only be seen by a student and his/her professor. When papers are submitted a second or third time, all earlier submissions remain visible and intact. Submitted papers can only be deleted by the course administrator.  As with Journal entries, Drop Box assignments are initially labeled ?new.?  Stay tuned.  Additional Drop Box features are currently under development.

Nfomedia has added a CONTENT search to all course websites. Now users can quickly search an entire site for specific words or phrases. We have also enhanced the search capabilities from the Nfomedia HOME page. By clicking on 'advanced search' users can search content, people, or sites.

To assist professors in the development of their sites, Nfomedia has added an Admin/Student toggle. Admin users can now switch fluidly between the Admin and the Student view without logging out and back in ? making course development and in-class demonstrations much simpler.

Automatic enrollment has been added to course sites allowing for another method of connecting students to your course. At the beginning of the semester simply go to the Course Users section, click Auto-Enroll Users, and enter the e-mail addresses of students who will be participating in the course. Now, when each student registers from anywhere on the Nfomedia network they will be automatically added to your course. Additionally, each student is given a place holder in the gradebook for easier course management while late students continue to register.

We?re pleased to announce Nfomedia has added personal web pages for both course administrators and students. To begin, click on the link Personal Homepage.

When course administrators create their personal web page, it appears at the top of the My Sites list and can serve as a portal to each professor?s courses by simply changing the URL ? for example: http://www.nfomedia.com/janesmith/.  This personal website can include a personal blog, links to all of a professor?s courses, and a range of both personal and professional activities.  

Students can also create personal web pages with links to their courses housed on Nfomedia.  Their sites can also include a personal blog and an array of personal and professional experiences.

Import content from an existing course into another course.  If you are teaching two sections of the same course, you may want to create two Nfomedia course web sites.  Once course content has been developed and entered for one of the two courses, there is no need to enter it a second time.  Simply go to 'Site Settings' and select 'Import Content.'  Nfomedia will provide you with a list of your current courses.  Select the course whose content you want to import and Nfomedia will duplicate the content (including exam question banks) for you.  This process imports content only -- NOT data (e.g. users, grades, exams, blogs, messages, announcements).  

The Exams menu option is now available for use with course websites -- providing a quick and simple way for professors to post exams throughout the semester. Grades can be automatically recorded with a link to Gradebook. Exams are created from banks of question and questions stems can be written in plain text or include flash, videos, or java applets.