Category Archives: h2o

H2O annotating: easier than ever

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With H2O’s re-done annotator tool, the most commonly used annotation – hiding text – is drastically simplified. Previously, the hiding of text required one to highlight the text, name and create a layer, then navigate to the SHOW/HIDE button and hide that layer.

Now, one has to simply select the text they would like hidden, and click the hide-eyeball from the annotator toolbar that appears, and the text is hidden. The difference between these is demo’d here.

The following demonstrates the entire suite of annotations available: hide text, highlight, comment, and link – here!

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H2O: Changes, updates and new features

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We’ve been hard at work on H2O, focusing on improving site performance and user experience. Here are some of the improvements we’ve unveiled this summer!

1. Advanced Search
General search, playlist creation and dashboard all now have advanced search capability: results can be filtered by item type, creator, or keyword.
Adv Search screenshot

2. Dashboard
In addition to advanced search sorting, the user dashboard allows users to set their Print Defaults through My Settings. New playlists can also be tagged with “Primary” to further assist sorting.
Workshop screenshot

3. Annotator
The annotator tool, used for selecting text to edit (hide, highlight etc.) has been significantly simplified: instead of clicking the first & last word of the section you want to modify, you can now click-and-drag to select the desired text. In addition, item owners (and viewers) now have the option to hide paragraph numbers.

4. Performance improvements & bug fixes
We’ve implemented quite a few improvements and fixes, including deactivating the karma bar & heat map which have given H2O a significant performance boost.

Note: with the annotator change, the way text was layered changed from word-to-word to a full text selection -this allows the click-and-drag that’s now possible.
When this change was implemented, it retained all collages’ layers but toggled the state of any that were “on” (i.e., hidden or highlighted) to off. If you have collages from before this summer’s annotator improvement, this may necessitate re-hiding portions of your collages.

We’re pleased with progress so far and are excited for what’s in store! We appreciate any suggestions as we continue to work on hard enhancing and improving H2O -reach out to us at h2o@cyber.law.harvard.edu !

H2O Presentation at LegalEd Conference

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On April 4th, Adam and Brett from the H2O team presented at LegalEd’s “Igniting Law Teaching” conference. This was a TEDx-styled conference, with presenters given 7 minutes to discuss their topic in a dynamic, energetic style. Brett introduced H2O to those attending, describing it as personal, practical, collaborative and flexible.

Watch the video here!

Screen Shot 2014-09-02 at 4.56.35 PM

 

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H2O’s New Home Page

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If you logged into H2O recently you may’ve seen the new home page:
Screen Shot 2014-08-27 at 6.01.49 PM

The new home page is simplified, giving snappier access to one’s dashboard, a “get started” button, as well as featured playlists and collages. It also gives a snapshot of the functions that H2O can facilitate. In tandem with additional features and bug fixes this is a part of the Summer 2014 H2O overhaul. Happy playlisting!

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New User Guide–How to H2O

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Hot off the (digital) presses: the H2O team is pleased to announce that we’ve updated and significantly expanded the “How to H2O” User Guide. You can find it here: How to H2O User Guide. This version reflects and incorporates many of the design and user-experience changes that we have developed and implemented in recent months. We very much welcome your feedback, especially if anything is unclear or if we missed anything.

UI and design enhancements

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The H2O team is working on UI and design enhancements. With these updates, we hope to make it easier and more seamless for professors and students to create and use playlists; to make and revise collages; and to see the influence of their work. We plan to preview the changes on this blog before they’re deployed. We’re hoping to deploy the UI and design enhancements to http://h2odev.law.harvard.edu at the end of the Harvard Law School spring 2013 semester (around the middle of May). If you have any questions or suggestions, let us know by sending an e-mail to h2o [at] cyber [dot] law [dot] harvard [dot] edu!

H2O

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H2O is a suite of online classroom tools developed and provided by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society in collaboration with the Harvard Law School Library. H2O allows professors to freely develop, remix, and share online textbooks under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License (per the Terms of Service). This blog aims to provide information about H2O-related developments and plans.

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