CloudDeakin
CloudDeakin is Deakin University's cloud learning environment.
It incorporates a range of spaces and tools to enable interactive and engaging learning:
- A portfolio where students can collect, reflect and share evidence of their learning achievements with others within and beyond Deakin
- A home page which leads students to their unit sites
- Within each unit site, there is a range of tools so students can:
- Access audio and video resources
- Collaborate: Talk and chat with individuals or groups
- Check the academic integrity of their assignments
Teaching staff can use a range of tools within CloudDeakin to:
- Design and implement units and courses including assessment items using tools such as online quizzes created in CloudDeakin (or using Respondus - a tool used to create and import quizzes from a word document directly into a CloudDeakin unit)
- Have students curate and present their learning achievements (using the CloudDeakin ePortfolio)
- Store, classify, access and share teaching and learning materials from a central location (using the Learning Repository)
- Manage virtual classrooms (using eLive)
- Record audio and video in a lecture theatre (using EchoSystem) or at a desk (using Camtasia and Echo Personal Capture)
- Create and manage blogs (using Drupal) and wikis (using Mediawiki)
- Manage academic integrity (using Turnitin)
CloudDeakin New Features
Transcript for Navigating CloudDeakin
My Home
At the top of the page, you will see the minibar which is always visible wherever you are in the CloudDeakin environment. From the minibar, you're able to switch between units; navigate to My Home page; receive notifications; and update your profile and preferences.
The My Home link will take you back to the main home page of CloudDeakin. My Home is your starting point inside the online learning environment.
From My Tools, you have access to:
- a personal blog,
- calendar which allow you to view important University dates,
- the ePortfolios which is a personal portfolios tool for storing, organising, reflecting on and sharing items that represent your learning
- the Locker which is your personal file storage area of capacity of 25MB
- the Library link will take you to the Library home page.
The News widget displays university wide announcement.
All the units you've accessed to will appear in My Site widget. You may have a different role within different units. Clicking on the name of your unit will take you to the unit homepage.
The Calendar aggregate both important university wide dates and individual unit's entries.
Site Home
This is the unit Site Home page and you can return to this page from anywhere in the site by clicking on the unit code link from the minibar. Site Home is the first page viewed when entering a unit. This is where you access Content, Assessment (including Dropbox, Grades and Quizzes) and Site Tools (which include the Classlist, Discussions and Groups for the unit). As a Unit Chair, you can upload learning resources, create discussion board, quizzes and assignments for the unit.
The primary navigation tool for a unit is the navbar, which is located at the top of the screen and displays links to the tools available in you unit.
Navigation
The following navigation links and groups of links are important tools can be accessed from within your unit.
The Content tool is used to organise unit materials, such as the unit guide, lecture notes and readings. The Content tool enables you to create, edit, organise, and delete modules and topics in your unit. Using the Content tool you can:
- create and edit the modules and topics that make up the unit.
- import unit content in from existing sources
- change the way the learning environment displays your unit content
- create links to other areas of your site where students will complete their work.
The Assessment navigation group displays the Dropbox tool which enables the student to submit assignments online, eliminating the need to mail, fax, or email assignments. Students upload their assignments to the appropriate folder. This tool also helps you track when assignments are submitted. Once assignments are submitted, you can grade assignments, leave feedback, return submissions with comments, download them as zip files, sort assignments by students, and check submission times, all from within the Dropbox tool. Online quizzes and the Grades tool are also accessible from this group of link.
The Site Tool navigation group display the classlist where you can view students who are enrolled in your unit, see who is online and send email and pagers directly to individual students. From the Classlist tool you can also view user profiles, blogs and user progress; print a classlist and check enrolment reports.
The Discussions tool is a collaboration area where you can post, read and reply to messages on different topics, share thoughts about unit materials, ask questions and share files. Unit chairs can create multiple Discussion Topics for various purposes.
Widgets
The News tool enables unit chair to communicate updates, changes and new information to students quickly and effectively.
When you log in to your unit site you will see if there is any new activity since the last time you login under the Update Widget, for example, total unread discussion messages, total new assignment submissions.
The Calendar tool enables you to manage unit-related or personal events. You can view or add entries for units such as assignment due dates, exam information, or even add personal events to track group meetings and milestones.
When you are finished, please Logout.
Read about the new features in detail on the New Features page.