Some lesser known improvements in CourseCast 2.2

1. Disable podcast feed per folder - Podcasting can now be disabled at the folder level. In previous versions of CourseCast, this could only be done globally for every folder. Certain situations call for the ability to turn this feature off for particular per folder and now that can be done by following the below steps.

Click on Folder details

Un-check "Enable podcast feed for this course"

2. Bulk user creation - For users that don't have Active Directory, Blackboard or Moodle to handle user account management, this feature should come in pretty handy. User accounts can now be created at the folder level in bulk. All users are e-mailed with their logon information. They will be prompted to change their password and set their security question after they log in for the first time.

Click on Folder details

Click on Batch Create Users

Enter username, e-mail address and press verify

Click Create Users. Each user will be e-mailed with a temporary password. When the user logs in for the first time, they are able to set their own password and security question/answer.

3. Create live broadcast URL ahead of time - From the schedule page, a URL for a live broadcast can be created in advance of the actual recording.

From schedule page click "Add New" and select "Create a session in advance to get a broadcast URL. Type in the session name and click Add.

This URL can be distributed or posted to a website or LMS

**Important note** Be sure to record to the already created session from the recorder. You can find the session by clicking on the drop down arrow (upper right hand corner) and finding the session name (live broadcast in this example).

4. Log into recorder with Blackboard/Moodle accounts - Another benefit of the new LMS integration is the ability for presenters to log into the recorder with their LMS username/password. We will use Blackboard for this example.

Click Log in with Blackboard (would be Moodle if that's your LMS).

Log into Blackboard with your usual username/password.

You are now logged in with your Blackboard account and can record to any folder that you have creator rights on.

5. Improved Folder selection/status page - From the Folders page, users can easily click on a drop down list and select a specific folder to display. Once selected, all of the recordings for that folder will be displayed. The Status page now has a "Hide folder with no issues" checkbox. If selected, the status page only show sessions that are incomplete.

Dropdown box on folders page:

Status page:

6. Improved password reset fuctionality - CourseCast administrators now have the option of manually resetting another users password. In the past, they could only issue a temporary system generated password.

Go to Admin - Users - specific user - settings, You can choose specify a password and choose whether or not to force them to change on login and if they should be e-mailed.

7. User Presets - This feature has been available since version 2.1. However, we wanted to bring it to everyone's attention as it's a nice way to streamline the recording process for your presenters. Presets allow an administrator to set a presenters account to automatically select certain devices (including PowerPoint or screencapture) and to choose a specific folder by default.

Click here for more information about Presets.