Did you know that Red River College Polytechnic offers the latest version of Office 365 applications such as Word, PowerPoint and OneNote, free of charge to students? True story!
Webpage: RRC Polytech, Microsoft Office 365

Now with that being said, Tech Tips wants to highlight a powerful tool within Office 365 – OneNote. For those unfamiliar with OneNote, think of it as a digital 3-ring binder. Take notes, edit your notes, use Immersive Reader to listen to your notes, add in images and visual content, and more, across all of your courses, throughout your program. No more carrying around multiple paper notebooks and heavy binders or forgetting your notebook at home.

OneNote has so many great features built into it that we cannot possibly cover it all in one blog post. So, to start, we are going to look at the basics of OneNote: what is OneNote, creating notebooks, and taking notes.

Step #1 – What is OneNote?
Webpage: What is OneNote (video and text descriptions)

Step #2 – How do you take notes in OneNote?
Webpage: Taking Notes with OneNote (video and text descriptions)

Step #3 – Formatting your notes
Webpage: Format Notes in OneNote (video and text descriptions)

Think of this as a start to exploring all that OneNote has to offer. We’ll be back in the coming weeks to look into more of the amazing features that OneNote, and other Office 365 applications have.

(One)Note: while OneNote does allow for audio recording, this feature may not be used without instructor permission or an approved accommodation through Accessibility Services.

Welcome 2023! We hope you all had a restful, relaxing, and enjoyable holiday season. To returning students, welcome back! To new students, we are happy to have you join

For those of you who are new to the Tech Tips: Work Smarter, Not Harder blog post, our goal here is to show you different technologies, or different ways of using technology, to make your academic life easer.

To start off the new year and the new term, we’d like to take a look back at our posts from 2022 (that’s what are the cool blog posts are doing these days, right?!):

• Kurzweil 3000 – is FREE software primarily designed as Text-To-Speech (read-aloud technology), but also many other features built-in to support writing, comprehension and studying
• Brightspace Pulse – is a FREE app developed by the same company that developed the LEARN platform. This app communicates with LEARN and helps you organize and remember important dates across all your classes
• Accessibility Features of WebEx – this blog post focuses on user-enabled accessibility features built-into WebEx, a web conferencing platform used by many programs within the college
• The Academic Success Centre did a take-over of the Tech Tips blog and highlighted two very important technology resources they have available to students:
  • Technology Literacy Module
  • Tech Peer Tutors
• Pomodoro & Forest – this blog post offers a suggestion to support students with the ever-increasingly difficult task of time management. But, with a fun spin that can lead to trees being planted in the real world!

As for this year, who knows what the tech tips blog will explore! Voice dictation? Immersive reading? Bionic reading? Fonts designed for specific disabilities? Apps for mental health? Citation technology? Website blockers? The possibilities are (quite literally) endless!

Have an idea for a tech tips blog post? We’d love to hear from you! Please email your ideas to eament@rrc.ca.

What is Read&Write?

Read&Write (also known as R&W), is an application available (for free) to all staff and students at Red River College Polytechnic. Features in the application support learners with reading, writing, studying, and more!

Main Features

This page will be expanded as we introduce all of the features of R&W and develop resources for them. For now, here are the main features being introduced: 

Reading

One of the main features of R&W is its ability to read digital text, both off of a file on your computer, or off of the internet, aloud. Simply click on the text you want read and hit play! You can even adjust how content is read to best suit your needs. R&W supports comprehension of the content you are reading in quite a few different ways:

Highlighters

While R&W is reading, use the built-in highlighters to emphasize important information, information that you want to review, or definitions of important terminology (just to name a few examples). Once you are done highlighting, you can export those highlights into a separate document, creating yourself a study guide personalized for you!

Dictionary

R&W has both a dictionary and a picture dictionary built right in, allowing you to generate both a text and image-based definition of a word you may not know (and you can even have R&W read that definition aloud to you!). 

Translate

The translation feature allows you to take text and translate it into another available language, and most translated text may also be read aloud in the new language!

Accessing R&W

We’d suggest that you self-enroll in the Read&Write Tutorial in LEARN. This course will walk you through installing R&W and familiarize you with how to use it to support your studies.

No time to take the LEARN Course?

You can go through the R&W Deployment Guide which will ask you to confirm how you are setting up and accessing R&W:

• On the first page, select “I don’t have a product code”
• On the second page (Products), select Read&Write” and then select all the platforms you want to use R&W on
• On the third page (Licenses), select “Unlimited”
• On the fourth page (Authentication), select “Microsoft 365”
• On the last page, download the products listed in the “Download Products” section (do not download anything from the other sections!)

The Tech Tips Team is back, and before we dive into our next blog post, we wanted to extend a warm welcome to the Academic Success Centre for sharing some of the tech resources available for students!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming! This week we’d like to talk about something we all struggle with at some level – do you need help with staying on task?  Do you get anxiety thinking about deadlines or due dates? Wonder if you are working on the right task at the right time? Or need a little extra motivation when it comes to completing your schoolwork?

You are not the only one! Students these days have more demands and obligations on their shoulders than ever before, and sometimes even deciding what to do can be the biggest hurdle.

So what’s the solution? Well, do you like video games? Or trees? (Yes, we’re still in the same blog post…)

Forest is a fun app built off of the Pomodoro Technique. The Pom-oh-door-oh-what?… The Paa-muh-daw-row Technique. This technique structures your time into smaller chunks of work and break periods, with the thought that it is easier to focus for a short period of time, rather than a longer period of time. Knowing at the end of that work cycle you get a break, also helps motivate you to stay on task during the work cycle. It can be less overwhelming to break your day into short work cycles and stack them on top of one another, than to think about working all day long. The goal is for solid focused work, even in short periods – it’s the quality of your work that matters, not necessarily the quantity (amount of time).

…and if that didn’t sound good enough on its own, let’s throw Forest into this mixture for success.

Forest is an app available for both android and iOS, as well as a web extension, that takes the Pomodoro Technique, and gamifies it! When you start a work cycle, you plant a seed. As your work cycle progresses, your seed grows. If you successfully complete your work cycle, your tree is planted into your (wait for it) Forest! The more successful work cycles you complete, the more trees you plant, the more trees you plant, the more coins you get, which can be used to buy different tree seeds to plant.

Not into growing a digital forest, but like the idea behind the app? What if we told you that instead of using your coins to buy different tree seeds, that you could spend those coins to plant real trees?!?! Now not only are you using the Pomodoro Technique to help motivate you and keep you on track, but you’re having fun while doing it, and making a positive impact in the real world!

Forest has both freemium and premium platforms available, meaning you can give it a try before you spend any of your hard-earned (real-world) coins on it!
Webpage: Forest, Chrome Web Extension
Webpage: Forest, App Store Download
Webpage: Forest, PlayStore Download

Note: this will be our last Tech Tips blog post for the 2022 year. Thank you to all who have read and supported the blog!

ASC here again! We haven’t given up our takeover of the Tech Tips blog just yet!

Last post we talked about the Technology Literacy Module. Maybe you enrolled and worked through the course, but are finding you are still in need of some tech supports? Never fear, the ASC is here!

Did you know you can book an appointment with a Tech Peer Tutor for individualized help with navigating your online courses? (Hint, the answer is yes!)

Tech Peer Tutors can help you familiarize yourself with a specific College application and help you gain the basic-foundational tech literacy skills you need to be successful online.

To book an appointment with a Tech Peer Tutor, please visit Webpage: ASC, Supports for Students – Tech Peer Tutors

Are you feeling a little overwhelmed with all of the different technology platforms that you need to use as a College student? WebEx? LEARN? Teams? Other?… Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

The ASC (or Academic Success Centre) has taken over the Tech Tips Blog this week and is here to tell you about the Technology Literacy course you can self-enroll in!

The Technology Literacy module is a self-directed tutorial designed for students that provides basic skill development for using College-approved applications, including LEARN, HUB, Webex, MS Teams, and Office 365. There is even a section on “Technical Support at RRC” which lists units within the College that provide technical troubleshooting support to students including ITS Service Desk and LEARN Support.

Bonus! This module is developed with UDL or Universal Design for Learning (also known as Inclusive Design for Learning) in mind and provides content through a variety of means.

To find out more, or to self-enroll in this module, please visit – Webpage: ASC, Supports for Students – Technology Literacy

In honor of the college’s inaugural Inclusion Week, this Tech Tips blog post is focused on inclusion and accessibility features of WebEx. Features you can enable for yourself!

Color Themes: allow users to pick a theme with contrasting colors that best suit them
Webpage: Adjusting Color Themes in WebEx

Font Size: control the size of the font in the chat
Webpage: Adjusting Font Size in WebEx

Screen Reader Support: WebEx regularly tests the platform with different screen reading software, and provides guidance on seamlessly using screen reading software in WebEx
Webpage: Screen Reader Support in WebEx

Keyboard Shortcuts: allow a user to navigate and participate in WebEx using their keyboard rather than mouse clicks
Webpage: WebEx Keyboard Shortcuts

Closed Captions: are an automatic text display of spoken content. This allows users to read what is being said, rather than listen. WebEx also allows for captions to be generated in a variety of additional languages other than English!
Webpage: Closed Captioning in WebEx

Do you have trouble staying on top of all of the test dates and assignment due dates across all of your courses? Have you tried to write them all down but forget to look at your calendar (or forget to write them down)? Well we’ve got a bright idea for you!

Brightspace Pulse is an app developed by the same company as the LEARN platform (think of Brightspace Pulse and LEARN and best friends who talk all the time). That means if LEARN knows something, Brightspace Pulse knows it too – if your assignment due date or test date is listed in LEARN, Brightspace Pulse knows about it too.

So if LEARN and Brightspace Pulse have the same information, why do I need the Brightspace Pulse app? The benefit to having the Brightspace Pulse app is that you are able to visually see, across all of your courses, important dates for the week (month, etc…). You can even set up notifications to help remind yourself of upcoming due dates or test dates.

I’m sold! But…what does this cost? Zip, zilch, nada. It’s totally free to download and use. 🙂

Downloads:

• Apple Users – Download Brightspace Pulse App
• Android Users – Download Brightspace Pulse App

Additional Resources:

• RRC Polytech, Brightspace Pulse App
• Webpage: Connecting Brightspace Pulse and LEARN
• Webpage: Viewing Notifications in Brightspace Pulse

NOTE: While this app was developed with integration and communication between the app and LEARN in mind, students are responsible for ensuring accuracy of important dates, or adding in any dates that might not already be reflected.

Kurzweil 3000… what…is that?

Kurzweil is based on the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) which aims to present information to learners in different ways that is accessible to as many people as possible.

The main function of Kurzweil 3000 is text-to-speech. Kurzweil has many versions available for use allowing students (and staff) to have text read aloud to them, including content on the internet (and yes, that includes course content in LEARN!).

So if you are looking for a way to reduce your screen time… reduce eye strain or headaches from computer use… change up how you’re studying or interacting with your course content… or simply like trying new things, we encourage you to sign up for a FREE Kurzweil 3000 account!

Psssssst @RRC Polytech Staff, Kurzweil is a great way for you to check if your documents and course content is accessible!

…did we mention it’s totally free to use? No credit card or payment info required. 100% free. No strings attached.

I’m in!! How do I sign up??

All current students (and staff) of RRC Polytech are able to access Kurzweil for free (did we mention that already?!). In order to register for your account, please visit RRC Polytech, Kurzweil Self-Registration.

Students can download their LEARN (Brightspace) calendar into their main personal calendar (e.g. Outlook, Google Calendar, iPhone, etc…).

Creating a URL for the Calendar in LEARN

First students will need to create a URL for their calendar in LEARN.

1. Navigate to LEARN
2. Select the course you are wanting to sync the calendar from
3. Towards the top left hand corner of your screen, click on “Course Content” and then “Calendar”
   
4. A new page will open. Towards the top of the screen, there is a toolbar containing the “settings” button. Click on the settings button (located on the right of the toolbar).
   
5. A pop-up window will appear. Within the pop-up window, check off the box beside “Enable Calendar Feeds”.
6. Click on save. The pop-up window will close.
   
7. Click on “subscribe” (just to the right of the settings button).
   
8. A pop-up window will appear. In this pop-up window students have the ability to select which courses they’d like to sync calendars for:
   1. You can select each course, one by one – though if you choose this method you’d need to go through this process for each and every course you’d like to sync your calendar for
   2. You can select the option for “all calendars and tasks” – this will sync all calendar info and tasks from any LEARN courses you are currently registered in.
      
9. Copy the URL that is listed in the pop-up window. Click on close.

Importing LEARN Calendars into your Main Calendar

Once you’ve created a URL for your LEARN calendar(s), you can add those calendar(s) to your main/personal calendar. Exactly how to do this is going to differ depending on what platform you use as your main or personal calendar. For details on how to import external calendars into commonly used main/personal calendars, please visit the links below:

• Google Calendar: Adding someone else’s Google calendar (expand the section on “add using a link”)
• Apple Calendar: Set up multiple calendars on iPhone (scroll down to section on “subscribe to a calendar”)