On Tuesday, December 31, 2013, limited administrative access to SPARK will end. If you have course materials on the SPARK servers that you want to keep, you need to get them off before the end of December. There are two options for getting your materials out of SPARK before the December 31st deadline.
Category: SPARK
A Short History of SPARK at UMass Amherst
The SPARK Learning Management System (LMS) was in use for on-campus courses at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from January 2006 until January 2013.
Make The “Moo-ove” to Moodle Starting April 2, 2012
Instructors can request Fall 2012 Moodle courses in SPIRE starting on April 2 2012. Requests for Fall 2012 SPARK courses will be approved under special circumstances. We recommend making the “moo-0ve” to Moodle now! Moodle will replace SPARK (Blackboard Vista) as the LMS for campus-based courses at the end ofthis calendar year. While SPARK will…
SPARK to SPIRE Grade Upload Support
The SPARK to SPIRE Grade Upload process began just after at 11:59 pm on the evening of Monday, December 12. Because grades are due Tuesday, December 27, grades will need to be posted in SPARK before 11:59 pm on Monday, December 26 in order to make the last grade transfer from SPARK to SPIRE. OIT…
Campus Chooses Moodle for New LMS
CIO John Dubach has made the formal announcement about our new LMS system to replace the current Blackboard Vista system we call SPARK: To the Amherst campus faculty: I am writing today with information concerning an important change the campus will be making in its instructional technology over the next two years. As outlined in previous emails,…
SPARK Gradebook not loading? Clear your browser cache
We have been receiving reports of the SPARK Gradebook loading as a blank screen. This is easily fixable by clearing the “cache” from your web browser. Below are the steps for clearing your cache for the 3 most common browsers: To clear the cache in Firefox: 1. In Firefox, click on “Tools” in the top…
Connecting to SPARK using WebDAV on Windows 7
PROBLEM: WebDAV on Windows 7 does not connect with SPARK. WORKAROUND: If you are on Windows 7, use www.anyclient.com as a third-party client to connect with SPARK. We have instructions below.
Fall 2010 SPARK Numbers
Requests for SPARK courses continue to roll in, here are the numbers so far for the semester: Number of SPARK courses: 2,184 Number of instructors in SPARK: 1,119 Departments and programs represented: 95 Number of students in SPARK: 23,030 Number of student “seats”: 78,671 (the average student has SPARK for several courses) Largest course in…
Start of Semester Tip: When can students access SPARK?
Your students will have access to your Fall 2010 SPARK on Monday September 6th(12:01 AM to be exact.) If you have requested and received a SPARK course, but not yet opened it up and begun building it, your students will see that course listed as when the log into SPARK, but receive a “Course not yet available message”…
Start of Semester Tip: Getting TAs into SPARK
As the beginning of the semester approaches and faculty continue to prepare for teaching, Teaching Assistants are also being assigned. Academic Computing would like to remind you of the necessary steps for giving TAs access to your SPARK course: For Graduate TAs: If your TA cannot access your SPARK course, confirm with the Academic Scheduling Representative in your department…
Start of Semester Tip: Request SPARK courses through SPIRE
In SPIRE, find the SPARK Course Request Form in the left Menu, under Faculty Home > SPARK Course Request. If you have already requested your SPARK course for Fall 2010, you may check the status of your request in SPIRE. For more information about requesting a SPARK course in SPIRE please see: http://www.oit.umass.edu/spire/for_instructors/class_information/sparkcourse_request.html Courses are…
Crowdsource Online Discussion Grading in SPARK
Creating class discussions is a strong educational technique that allows students to construct ideas and articulate thoughts with their peers. Putting class discussions on the Web is a great way to extend course content outside of the classroom, and exposes students to online interactions– a crucial 21st century skill. However, motivating students to participate meaningfully…