Hong Kha Students

Students with Issues Accessing Zoom Through Courses

You may have issues accessing Zoom through Courses, and receive an error page (shown below). If this is the case, follow the instructions on this page to fix the problem.

1. Clear Your Browser Cache

First, you will need to clear browsing data and history. See this post for instructions.

2. Update Chrome

Ensure that your Chrome browser has been updated so that it can run the necessary programs. See this page for instructions.

3. Activate Zoom

Next, activate your Zoom account by following these instructions.

4. Reboot Your Computer

After following steps 1-3, reboot your computer to refresh all pages and save your work.

5. Try Courses Again

Now, go ahead and try accessing Zoom from the Courses page again. If you still have issues accessing, please contact the IS desk using the information below.

IF YOU NEED ANY TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANCE, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO REACH OUT TO INFORMATION SERVICES AT (310) 506-7425 OR SUPPORT@LAW.PEPPERDINE.EDU. GOOD LUCK!

David Dickens Students

Tablets in Law School? Not So Much.

While the tablet revolution is changing the way many people think about computing and has turned upside down many aspects of how companies deliver services, these changes have not fully made it into the law school experience.

It’s true that with a keyboard, a tablet can be a great tool for typing, even outlining in a law school class but a tablet still is not a system that is supported for computer-based examinations here at Caruso Law.

At Caruso Law, students are not required to use a computer for exams but we do encourage it and you will find that we use the same system that the California Bar Exam uses (as well as many other state jurisdictions).

The iPad, Android Tablets, and any other tablet-based systems are strongly discouraged for law students as a primary computing platform.

It is our intention to guide law students toward the best possible computing experience during their time in law school. As a law student you have a significant challenge in front of you (law school).  Because of the intense nature of the law school experience you should have the best computer suited for your needs.  This is not to say that you should not own a tablet at all, rather feel free to add a tablet to your stable of tools that includes a reliable laptop.

When taking notes in class, preparing outlines for study, drafting documents, and especially when taking exams, law students should have a reliable laptop computer. Tablet systems have come a long way but are not supported for the administration of exams at Pepperdine University School of Law.

Law students are strongly encouraged to acquire and maintain a reliable laptop computer while in law school.  Use of a tablet system (iOS, Android, Windows RT on an MS Surface (cheap but ancient and not supported anywhere anymore)) is strongly discouraged and is not supported for exam administrations.

David Dickens Faculty

Laptop/Travel Preparation – Law Faculty

If you are planning a trip and will bring your university laptop with you, there are a few things you should do before you get too far along in your planning:

  1. Contact the Information Services Team to schedule a pre-trip checkup of your university laptop
  2. If you are going out of the country, you may need to plan for an adapter or other means to plug in and charge the laptop. Here’s a pretty good resource for checking the power plug requirements around the world: https://www.power-plugs-sockets.com/
  3. Consider your internet connectivity options in that location. Pepperdine offers a WiFi service called “EduRoam” that will enable you to use a trusted network at participating locations. The important thing here is to set up your EduRoam account from a trusted network (your office) before you leave.
  4. Make sure you have backups of your important data. Part of the checkup mentioned in #1 above will include a review of your installed auto backup system.
  5. You will also want to ensure that you have your active research and any course materials synchronized to Google Drive. If you need help with that, the Information Services Team will be glad to assist.
  6. Familiarize yourself with Wifi Calling if you are traveling outside of the country and may not be able to make international calls, or if you are traveling to an area where cell service may be limited. Wifi Calling is a great option if you do not wish to pay for international cell service or may only have access to wifi and not strong cell signal.
  7. If you will need to sign into your device with Secure Connect but will not have access to a secondary device, consider generating one time pass codes to take with you so you can still log in. You can generate multiple codes, each of which will last up to 90 days and will allow you to sign into your account once without another connected device.
  8. Consider how you plan to carry your computer with you… will you use a laptop bag or will you check it inside your luggage? If you plan to carry it with you, note that you must remove it from its bag at the TSA screening checkpoint.
Hong Kha Faculty

How To: Create an RTF File

An RTF file, which stands for Rich Text Format file, is a word processing document file. At the end of a RTF file, you will see the extension “.rtf.” Note that the ideal way to convert documents into RTF is through Microsoft Word, so it is recommended that your text is in that form originally.

When uploading questions to Examsoft, you will need to first convert your files into RTF form. To do so, please follow the instructions for converting from Word and Google Docs below.

Microsoft Word

  1. Open Microsoft Word and click File.

2. Then click Save As.

3. Then, in the File Format drop-down menu, select Rich Text Format (.rtf)

Google Docs

For Google Docs, navigate to the File icon, and then click on Download. Then click the Rich Text Format (.rtf) option.

David Dickens Services, Students

Print Credit for Students at Caruso School of Law

On the first day of each term students enrolled at Caruso Law will receive $30 of non-refundable, non-transferable print/copy credit to be used through the University’s copy/print system called PaperCut.

PaperCut manages the copy and print functions of the Sharp Multi-function printer/copiers.

Note that the credit provided by the Caruso School of Law each term does not carry forward if a balance remains at the end of the term.  The first day of a term is the first day of classes. The last day of a term is the day before the start of the next term (first day of classes for Fall, Spring, Summer).

New students will not receive credit until the first day of classes.

The credit provided by the Caruso School of Law can only be used for copy or print jobs.  This credit cannot be used at the cafeteria for food purchases.

When the credit applied to a student’s PaperCut account is exhausted before the end of the term, further copier or print use must be covered by funds provided by the student in their Waves Cash Global account.  If a student has funds in that account, there is no need for any action to be taken as the system will automatically charge the copy or print usage against the available funds on deposit in that account.  If there are no funds in a student’s Waves Cash Global account, funds must be added to make copies or print.

The Sharp Multi-function printer/copiers are located at all of the Pepperdine University Southern California campuses in student-accessible areas including the Pepperdine libraries.

Hong Kha Faculty, Students

Safari and Courses Zoom Pro

You may receive the message shown in the screenshot below in Safari. To resolve this issue so that you will not receive this message, and will not be re-directed to Chrome, please follow the steps below.

  1. Navigate to Safari and click the Safari tab in the top left of your screen. Click Preferences.

2. Click the “Privacy” tab, and then make sure the following options are unchecked. 

IF YOU NEED ANY TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANCE, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO REACH OUT TO INFORMATION SERVICES AT (310) 506-7425 OR SUPPORT@LAW.PEPPERDINE.EDU. GOOD LUCK!

David Dickens The Law School Classroom

Building a State-of-the-Art Classroom?

What should you consider when you are looking at a new facility, buildout of new classrooms in an existing facility, or just remodeling your current classroom? As anyone can guess, there’s a lot to consider. Everything from lighting, capacity, sight lines, and style of teaching and more.

The great shutdown from the Pandemic of 2020 taught us all more about distance learning, the importance of good lighting, cameras, microphones, and a good measure on how to approach student engagement and assessment under challenging circumstances.

It’s my hope that this blog will address the most important aspects of classroom design. My personal interests lie in the intersection of technology and learning with a lot of emphasis on practical logistics… that is making things work. It’s my belief that good classroom technology should extend and enhance the learning. How to make such technology accessible to all instructors while benefiting all or most students is the $64,000 question.

In the end this blog may raise more questions than it answers but that’s probably ok as there are likely more right answers than anyone can imagine because every school, every instructor, every student, and too often, every classroom is different.

So what can you expect from this blog?

I plan to post information on new technologies as they are released, links to articles on teaching that are topical or strike my fancy for some reason, occasional musings, reviews, rants, and war stories as well as content from collaborators and guests. We might stray a bit into digital signage, conference rooms, study rooms, and other areas that may relate more to communication technology and less to direct teaching and learning systems but a lot of that is related and all of it ties back to serving my own law school’s needs which all boil down to one thing … serving our students.

If you see something lacking, a big hole or a detail, I’m all for learning and adding it to the fabric of what I hope to be a large quilt of resources that will help those of us in legal education navigate through the decisions we have to make for our schools to benefit our students and support our faculty.

Phillip Bohl

  • Assessment Tools
  • Audio Visual Control Systems
  • Projectors & Screens and Large Flat Panel Displays
  • Camera Choices
  • Microphones, Speakers, and Audio Processing
  • Lighting and Lighting Controls
  • Lectern Design: Features to Consider
  • Providing Support to Instructors in the Classroom
  • Back End Logistics: Power, Racking, Conduit, Cabling, etc.
Hong Kha Faculty

Classroom Tech: Audio and Visual Settings in Zoom

If you are teaching a class in person, and will have a zoom screen as well for online students, there are certain audio and visual settings you will need to select. Please see the options below.

Audio

For the microphone, you will need to select the Echo Cancelling Speakerphone (Core-Mendenhall). For speakers, you should select Crestron (Intel(R) Display Audio.

Visual

As you can see in this screenshot, there are a few options for selecting a camera.

The Clearview HD-USB shows a screen of the professor, as shown in the screenshot above.

The Mini USB shows a view of the students, as shown in the screenshot above.

Finally, the Video (Pro Capture) setting is not in use. If selected, you will be presented with a “No signal” screen.

For a more in-depth review of the audio and visual information, please see the video below.

IF YOU NEED ANY TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANCE, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO REACH OUT TO INFORMATION SERVICES AT (310) 506-7425 OR SUPPORT@LAW.PEPPERDINE.EDU. GOOD LUCK!