GROUPBOARD/GROUPWORLD NEWSLETTER - September 2008
This is an occasional newsletter which is sent out to all registered Groupboard and GroupWorld.net customers a few times a year.
CONTENTS
New GroupWorld.net features: desktop sharing control, system tray icon, improved printing, icon library.Queueing tutoring system now available.
New features for graffiti/artist's Groupboard.
Google toolbar and AVG antivirus problems.
Multi-room login page example for GroupWorld.net.
New GroupWorld.net features: desktop sharing control, system tray icon, improved printing, icon library
We have recently added a number of new features to GroupWorld.net, including:
- The ability to give other users keyboard/mouse control during desktop sharing.
- A system tray icon (in the bottom-right corner of the Windows desktop, near the clock), allowing you to view the error log and status and clear the GroupWorld.net cache.
- Improved printing, which now works with all printers, and the option to print all pages of a multi-page document at once.
- A pop-up icon library. If you enable the "math icons" option for a room, you will get an "Icon Library" button which brings up a window containing math icons that can be placed on the whiteboard. Contact us for details about how to add your own icons.
If you are using a hosted GroupWorld.net installation you should pick up the new changes automatically. If using Firefox or Safari you may need to delete and reinstall the plugin.
Queueing tutoring system now available
Due to customer demand, we have developed an online tutoring queueing system, allowing multiple tutors and students to be matched up for online tutoring sessions. To see the demo, click here:
http://www.groupworld.net/tutorqueue.htmlStudents and tutors log on to a waiting room, and are then paired up when a tutor becomes available. The student and tutor then enter their own separate whiteboard/chat room.
New features for graffiti/artist's Groupboard
The graffiti/artist's version of Groupboard has several extra features such as spraycan and calligraphy nibs. We have also recently added load, save and set background buttons, and a text tool. To see demos of the graffiti/artist's Groupboard, click on these links:
http://www.groupboard.com/demo/graff.shtmlhttp://www.groupboard.com/demo/artists_board.shtml
If you have your own Groupboard, you can switch to this version simply by changing the java codebase from "java" to "java.graff".
Google toolbar and AVG antivirus problems
We have discovered that the Google toolbar can cause browser crashes when running GroupWorld.net. It is unclear whether the problem is just with an older version of the toolbar, but if you are experiencing crashes you should try switching off all custom browser toolbars (right-click on the toolbar and untick Google or whichever custom toolbar you wish to disable).
Programs which use a lot of cpu time can cause problems with both Groupboard and GroupWorld.net. Java applets such as Groupboard run at a low priority (which we cannot change), so if anything is using a lot of your computer's cpu time, Groupboard will slow to a crawl. GroupWorld.net isn't affected as much, as it doesn't use java, but if you are using desktop sharing (which requires a lot of cpu time) you will notice severe loss of performance if anything else is using significant cpu time on your computer. The usual suspects are virus checkers such as McAfee/Norton/Symantec. Normally AVG antivirus doesn't cause too many problems, although the latest version of AVG tends to hog the cpu a lot more and some users have experienced performance issues with GroupWorld.net. You can easily check to see what is running on your computer by bringing up task manager (press ctrl+alt+del on Windows).
Multi-room login page example for GroupWorld.net
To see a simple example of a multi-room login page for GroupWorld.net, click here:
http://www.groupboard.com/mp/parse.cgi?filename=roomlogin.html&inst_id=1(note that you must replace 1 with your hosted GroupWorld.net installation id, and you must have individual user accounts set up).