What's new in it's learning 3.3?

• Either/or: In either/or questions the participants are presented with two predefined alternatives and must select one of them when answering.
• Multiple choice: A multiple choice question consists of two parts: the question and the answer options. Only one option can be correct.
• Multiple response: A multiple response question is essentially a multiple choice question, except for one detail: the questions can be made harder by allowing the participants to select multiple alternatives, and more than one of these may be correct.
• Short answer: Short answer questions are quite similar to open questions, but, as the name implies, the answer is supposed to be short.
• Open answer: Open answer questions are also called "essay questions". These are similar to short answer questions, but there is no limit on the answer length.
• Fill-in-the-blank: A fill-in-the-blank question contains a blank space which the participants have to fill in by entering text, such as a word or phrase.
• Select from a list: This question type is essentially similar to fill-in-the-blank, but the participant is presented with alternatives that can be selected from a drop-down list.
• Matching question: In matching questions the participants are presented with two lists. The participants must identify the relationships between the elements in the first list and the elements in the second list.
• Order question: When answering order questions the participants must rearrange a variety of items into the correct order (this question type may not be ready for the first beta version).
• Hotspot - click the picture: Hotspot questions allow the participants to click on a spot in a picture to select the correct answer.

There is a new look and feel in the interface of the new test tool compared to that of the old.

The new test tool features the support of pictures, video and flash in both questions and answers. Hotspot - click the picture, order, and match questions also support drag-and-drop functionality.

The teacher can now select whether to provide feedback during a test. Examples of such feedback are hints if the answer is wrong and immediate feedback on submitted answers.

Users can now resume tests that, for some reason, have been aborted.

The new scoring method allows for a negative score if incorrect answers are selected. In practice this means that the teacher can decide whether to, for example, penalise the participants with a minus score if they enter the wrong answer. Such a scoring method may be used to prevent participants from trying to guess the correct answer.

 The new test tool (05:08 min, 12,5 MB)

In an educational context the sound and video recorder can have a wide variety of uses, for example:

Learning a language in it's learning or any other virtual learning environment has, up until now, been synonymous with written exercises. With the video recorder you can now learn to practice the spoken parts of the language. Teachers can record video with sound in, for example, assignments, that present the assignment in the language that is learned. In turn, the participants answering the assignment can train their pronunciation and the general spoken skills of the language they are learning. In this way you are now allowed to add both written and spoken elements while learning a language through it's learning.

Are you far away from the class you are teaching? Whether you are distance teaching or are away for a short period of time, you can use the video or sound recorder to record lectures and publish them in it's learning. The sound and video recorder cannot substitute a classroom lecture, but it can be useful from time to time.

In drama and music education the sound and video recorder can be useful in, for example, assignments that are submitted in it's learning. Use the video recorder to record acting techniques, such as mime, facial expressions and gestures, stage performance or music.

The sound recorder cannot capture such things as mime or gestures, but it is useful when practising vocal performances and other sound related tasks.

The sound and video recorder is a useful tool for those who are studying both radio and TV journalism. Use the recorders to practice, for example, radio interviewing techniques, or to get accustomed to the camera when working in television.

 Sound and video recorder (03:26 min, 4,26 MB)

In addition, administrators are allowed to:

add courses

delete courses

enrol themselves in courses

withdraw themselves from courses

archive courses

unarchive courses

You can find the course administration by clicking the Administration tab, and then Courses.

Enrolling in and withdrawing from courses is now easier than ever for the administrators. By clicking on the Enrol me or Withdraw me links courses can be easily accessed. Note that if you are an administrator and enrol yourself in a course you are listed in the participant list of the course.

Courses that you are already enrolled in are marked with a red square, while courses you are not a member of are marked with a green square.

The opportunity for customers to add their own logo to their site was accidentally removed a couple of versions ago. This bug has now been fixed, and sites with the standard it's learning skin are now allowed to add their own logos.

An auto-save error in the messaging system duplicated attached files every minute until the message was sent. This caused the database where the attachments are stored to fill up with duplicated files. This bug has now been fixed.

If you tried to send a message with a signature to another person, received a reply from the recipient and then tried to forward the message, your signature and the other person's signature changed place. This bug has now been fixed.

On some sites, adding a new personal activity to the calendar caused it to appear on the main page, but not in the calendar. This bug has now been fixed.

In previous versions, users with a profile that had the library deactivated on a site with library activated could see the Add lesson icon even if they could not add library lessons. This bug has now been fixed.

When the teachers clicked Show on submitted assignments it showed the wrong submission date. It actually showed the date the teacher published the assignment, and not the date it was submitted by the participant. This bug has now been fixed.

If you clicked on a folder in the navigation tree and then clicked Cancel the page turned grey. This bug has now been fixed.

If the title is missing in an imported course content package, the file name on the root folder of the imported structure is now used as a title.

When a participant hands-in an assignment the task in the task list is striked out.

A bug in a ZIP component sometimes caused a "Server error in '/' Application" error message when several users unpacked large SCORM packages simultaneously. This error message also appeared when trying to download assignment answers to a ZIP file This bug has now been fixed.

If you manually created line spaces in a blog comment it did not become visible in the blog. This bug has now been fixed.

On rare occasions the image upload in the rich-text editor failed and resulted in a "Server error in '/' Application" error message. This bug has now been fixed.

A few security related issues have been identified and fixed.