Table of Contents - T-Square Project Site

Transcription

Table of Contents
Creating a Worksite in T-Square
Site Info
1
6
Site Info: Overview
Edit Site Information
Edit Tools
Web Content Tool (website links)
Manage Access
Duplicate Site and Import from Site
6
7
8
9
10
11
Announcement
13
Announcement: Overview
Create Announcements
Edit/Delete/Merge Announcements
View Announcements
Announcement Options
Announcement FAQ
13
14
16
17
18
20
Schedule
21
Schedule: Overview
Create a New Event
Edit/Delete an Event
Merging/Printing Schedules
21
22
23
24
Syllabus
26
Syllabus: Overview
Create/Edit/Delete a Syllabus item
Display a Web Page, PDF, or Word File for Syllabus
26
27
29
Resources
31
Resources: Overview
Create a New Resource Item
Create Group Folders in Resources
Move and Reorder Resources Items
Make Resources Items Publicly Accessible
31
32
35
36
37
Modules
38
Module Introduction
Licensing Options
Add Modules
Edit Modules
Set Next Steps for a Module
Author/Student View
Delete Modules
Manage Modules
Export/Import Modules
Module FAQs
38
39
40
42
43
45
46
47
49
52
Assignments
53
Assignments: Overview
Create Assignments
53
54
Submit as Students
Edit/Revise Assignments
Add an Attachment to an Assignment
Grade Assignments
Review Student Status
Assignment FAQs
56
58
60
61
64
64
Gradebook
69
Gradebook: Overview
What it is
Gradebook Introduction
Add Assignment in Gradebook
Grade Override and Export
Releasing and Viewing Grades
Upload and Import Gradebook Spreadsheet
Gradebook FAQs
69
70
72
74
75
77
79
Tests and Quizzes
81
About Tests and Quizzes
Create New Assessment
Available Question Types
Question Pools
Creating a Test Entirely From Question Pools
Assessment Settings
81
82
86
90
93
96
Post’Em
102
Post'Em: Overview
Using the Post'Em tool
Viewing a Post'Em File
Downloading/Updating/Deleting a Posted File
102
102
104
105
Message Center
107
Message Center: Overview
Create a Discussion Forum
Creating Discussion Topic
Posting Discussion Item
Revise/Delete a Discussion Forum/Topic
Grade Responses in Discussion Forums
Activate Private Messages
Send and Reply to Private Messages
107
108
110
112
113
114
115
116
Appendix
118
Unsupported Characters
118
Creating a Worksite in T-Square
1. Login to T-Square
2. Make certain you are on the MyWorkspace Tab and click Worksite Setup on the
menu bar.
3. On the Worksite setup screen, you will click the “New” button at the upper left.
4. On the “Creating a New Site” screen, you have two choices. Create a course or
create a project. These choices are nearly the same, but the roles are different in
a project – you have only two roles: owner and participant. Course gives you more
flexibility with 5 roles.
5. On Select classes/sections screen, check the box before “I want to give access to
a roster not listed above”. If you choose the first option, you cannot name your
own course title. Instead, Your course will be named the default “SMPL 001 001
SUM07”
6. Name your new course website, type in your login Id in the “Authorizer’s
username” field, and click Continue button.
7. On the next screen, you will be asked to fill in a description and a short description for your
course (optional). You can also choose the appearance of your site. We suggest you go
with the default.
8. The next screen will be the Tools selection screen. Select the tools that you may use in
your course. Make sure to select Home and Site Info, which is a tool for managing your
worksite.
9. The second half of the screen shows you the choices for reusing (copying) material from
another of your courses. You can also do this after you create the course by using the
Site Info tool.
10. Go with “No, thanks” default and click Continue.
11. If you chose Email Archive and Web Content, you will see the following screen
(Otherwise, you will see the screen of Set Site Access in step 12). Setup an email
address for your site, which can be used to send email to the participants of your course.
If you select an email address already in use, you will get a message telling you to select
a different one. In Web Content, you can type in the URLs of web sites that you and your
course participants use frequently.
12. The next screen allows you to set the access of the course. If you publish then the
participants in the course will be able to go into it. If you do not publish, then only you will
be able to access the course. This is a good choice if you are working on something that
will not be ready for a while.
13. Confirm your site setup and click Request Site If you are Okay with your choices.
14. Once you have finished, the new course tab will appear in your choices.
Site Info
Site Info: Overview
What it is
The Site Info tool provides information about the worksite that you are currently in. If you have a
role that allows it, you can use this tool to make changes to information about the site, tools
available in the site, and access to the site. You can also publish the site using the Site Info tool.
Key concepts
Customizable: Site Info displays a participant list, so that you can edit access to your site. It also
displays a list of tools available in the application, which you may add to or remove from your
worksite. You can alter your site's appearance and description as well.
Things to consider
• The functions of the Site Info tool are also available through the Worksite Setup tool, which
is available on the menubar when you are in My Workspace.
• If you do not have the appropriate permissions, Site Info will show you only the information
about the worksite published by the site owner.
The Site Info area provides information about the current site, such as description, contact
person, and more. There is also a list of participants. Using the tools in the Site Info area, you
can add/remove the left margin links (available tools) from your worksite. You can also edit the
site's appearance and description here.
1. Enter the Site Info area by clicking on Site Info in the left menu bar of your site. You'll see
information about the course and a list of site participants.
2. At the top of the window are links to various editing choices. Click on Edit Site Information.
3. You can edit the description, short description, appearance, site contact name and site
contact email areas. Any boxes with red asterisks are required information.
4. Click on Continue to move on, or Cancel to return without making changes.
5. The next screen, if you hit the Continue button, is a summary of what the course
information is. Click Finish to accept the changes, Back to return to the editing page, or
Cancel to not make any changes.
Edit Tools
1. Enter the Site Info area by clicking on Site Info in the left menu bar.
2. Click on the Edit Tools button at the top of the window.
3. There is a list of tools available to your site. Place check marks in the tools you want, and
make sure there are no checkmarks in tools you don't want. These are on/off switches so
if there is a checkmark in a box, that tool will appear in the tools list on the left of your site.
If there isn't a checkmark in the box next to a tool, that tool won't be available in this site.
4. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to click on Continue to move on, or Cancel to
return without making changes. It is very important to "finish" this procedure all the way to the
end where you'll click Finish.
5. The continuing screen allows you to customize links for web content and to an email archive, if
those options have changed. See those sections for more information about these options. You
won't see this page if you aren't making changes to web content or email archive.
6. The last screen is a summary of what the course information is. Click Finish to accept the
changes, Back to return to the editing page, or Cancel to not make any changes.
Web Content Tool (website links)
Amongst the available tools under "Edit Tools" is the Web Content Tool. This allows you to place
links to web sites on the left menu bar. Ideally, you should place only a few, very important links
here, so as not to clutter the menu bar. If you have many links it is better to put them in the
Resources area or incorporate them into your lessons in the Modules too.
To add a menu item on the left navigation bar that points to a website, follow these steps:
1. Enter the Site Info area by clicking on Site Info in the left menu bar.
2. Click on the Edit Tools button.
3. There is a list of tools available to your site. Scroll down the list to Web Content. Click in
the check box next to that option.
4. Click on Continue at the bottom of the page to move on, or Cancel to return without
making changes.
5. In the next screen, insert the web address for the site you'd like to link to. Be sure to
include the http:// prefix.
6. Change the title of this link from "Web Content" to something short but descriptive, i.e.
"Georgia Tech Library." If you'd like to add more sites, choose how many more from the
drop-down box. Fill in information for all the sites you'd like to link to, and then click on
Continue, Back or Cancel.
7. When you hit the Continue button, the final screen is a summary of tools added or
deleted. Click Finish to accept the changes, Back to return to the editing page, or
Cancel to not make any changes.
If, after this procedure, you see one or more links called Web Content in your left menu
bar, you either forgot to re-title one of your links, or you created too many links. You can
remove unwanted blank Web Content buttons by returning to Site Info - Edit Tools and
clicking to remove the checkmark next to the empty web content item.
Manage Access
Your site must be published before students have access to the class. You can publish your site
in the Site Info area as described below.
If you don't want students to log on that soon, you can unpublish your sites.
The unpublish feature (disables access to your site by students and guests) is most valuable
when a term is over.
Here are the steps for publishing or unpublishing sites:
1. Enter the Site Info area by clicking on Site Info in the left menu bar
2. Click on the Manage Access button.
3. Click on the Publish Site check-box to make your site accessible to students. The course
site must be published in order for site participants (students or guests) to access it.
Uncheck the check-box to disable access to your site by students. This is typically done
during the development of a course site and after a term is over.
4. Once the site is published, it can be accessed by those who are registered for your course
and added to your course site through automatic roster upload or via the add participants
option.
Duplicate Site and Import from Site
Duplicating a site
When you duplicate a course site, you create a copy of the site that's not exactly like the original.
The duplicate site won't include any student-entered material; only content posted by instructors
will be included.
When you duplicate a project site, you create a copy of the site that's exactly like the original. All
participant-entered materials will be included.
To duplicate your site, follow these steps:
1. While you have the site open, from the menubar, click Site Info.
2. Click Duplicate Site.
3. In the "Site Title:" field, type in a name for the duplicate site, and then click Duplicate.
Note: If you don't have sufficient rights to create a site, you'll receive the message, "Alert:
You are not allowed to create a new site."
4. Click Finish.
Import from Site
Import from site (available under Site Info) allows faculty to selectively import materials from one
site that they own to another.
The following tools support import from site: Announcements, Assignments, Discussion,
Resources and Syllabus. If a tool is not enabled in one site or the other, you won't be able to
import its contents. (In other words, if you don't have Syllabus enabled in both sites, you won't be
able to import the syllabus content from one site to the other.)
To use Import from Site, in your NEW site, click on that link at the top of Site Info. Place a check
in the box next to the site(s) you want to import from.
Next you get a list of tool(s) you want to import. After checking, click Continue at the bottom of
the page.
Modules and Tests and Quizzes don't import from site in this manner. Instead, they have their
own import/export functionality that allows material to be moved from one site to another.
Announcement
Announcement: Overview
What it does
The Announcements tool is used to inform site participants about current items of interest.
Announcements can have multiple attachments, such as documents or URLs.
To see the Announcements from all the sites to which you belong, in the menubar of My
Workspace, click Announcements.
Key concepts
Sorting: Announcements can be sorted by subject, sender, access, or date.
Posting: Announcements are posted to a course or project site. Site owners and instructors can
choose to have an announcement automatically sent via email to all site participants by using the
"required" or "high" notification setting.
Things to consider
• Announcements are a useful way to post a notice about an important change in deadlines,
meeting times, or meeting locations.
• You can draft and save an announcement before you send it out to site participants. Your
drafts will be shown with a "Draft" marker in your list of announcements.
• Various other media, such as web page URLs, documents, photos, etc. can be attached to
announcements.
Create Announcements
Note: Announcements can be created in a course or project site. You can view announcements
in My Workspace , but not create them there.
1. Click on Announcements on the left menubar.
2. Click on the Add link in the top navigation area.
3. In the dialog box, enter a title for your announcement and in the larger box, type the
message. Notice that you have the options of formatting your text however you like.
When sent via email, the announcement will be in plain text, however.
4. Check the radio button Display to Public if you want your announcement to be viewable
to people not enrolled in your site. Otherwise be sure the Display to Site button is
checked and the announcement will only be viewable to site participants.
5. You can add any number of attachments, and they can be any combination of local files,
web sites, and resources.
6. If you want your announcement to be sent to all site participants via email, set it to High
Priority. The default is to NOT send an email. There is also a Low Priority option which
sends the announcement to users who haven't opted out of getting email.
7. When you're done creating your announcement, click on the Add Announcement button.
If you want to see what it looks like before posting it, click on the Preview button. If you're
not ready to post the announcement, you can Save Draft. And if you don't ever want to
see this announcement again, click the Cancel button and it will not be saved.
Edit/Delete/Merge Announcements
Edit Announcements
2. In the list of announcements, click on Revise under the announcement you want to edit.
3. Make your changes and then click the appropriate button at the bottom of the page: Save
Changes, Preview, Save Draft, or Cancel.
Delete Announcements
2. In the list of announcements, place a check in the box on the right side next to all
announcements you want to delete.
3. Click on the Update button. You will be asked if you're sure you want to delete the listed
announcements. Click Remove if yes; click Cancel if no.
Merge Announcements
Merging announcements from another site is an option if you have more than one site. For
example, if you have several classes and you want to make the same announcement to all your
classes, use the merge feature. Click on the Merge link at the top of the Announcements page,
then click on the courses you want to merge announcements from and then click on the Save
button at the bottom of the window. The announcements from that class will now show up in this
site's announcement page. You can see from the Site list which class the announcement
originated from.
Unmerge Announcements
If you decide to "unmerge" announcements that were merged in from another class, DO NOT
click the Remove check box and remove that way. That will also remove the announcements
from the original class. Instead, go back into Merge (click on the Merge link at the top of the
Announcements page), uncheck the box(es) for classes which are merged here, and click Save
at the bottom of the page.
View Announcements
When you are in a course site, you will only be able to view the current course’s announcements.
To see announcements from all the sites to which you belong, switch to My Workspace and
click on Announcements from the menubar.
When you click on the Announcements button, either in My Workspace or in a course site, the
page shows a list of all announcement subjects, who created them, and the date each was
created. You can sort the list by clicking on any of the headings. To switch the list from A-Z to
Z-A format (ascending/descending), click on the little pyramid icon next to the heading.
To view all of a particular announcement, click once on the subject title.
If an announcement has an attachment, click on the link to access the attachment:
• If it is document of some sort (PDF, Word, Excel, etc.), it may ask you what program you’d
like to use to open it or ask to save it to the desktop, or it may not give you the option of
doing anything but saving it to the desktop.
• If the attachment or resource is a web page, it will automatically open in a new window.
Click on Return to List to go back to the Announcements list or click on the little "Jiffy Lube" logo
next to Announcements at the top of the window.
Announcement Options
This is a place where you can set up how announcements look. There are three options:
Sortable table view: It doesn't take much room and is a good choice if you have many
announcements.
Sortable table with body: It is a good choice for allowing your viewers to see announcements at
a glance, but it takes much more room, depending on how wordy the announcements are.
List view with body shows the announcement body. It just looks a bit different from the
previous two.
Display Limits pertains to how announcements look on the Home Page awill be discussed in
more detail there.
Sortable Table View
Sortable Table with Body
List View with Body
Announcement FAQ
I tried to get rid of the notices in the Announcements that tell when every single
assignment opens up. I do not want these now; they take up too much space.
To remove an announcement, go to Announcements (on the left menu) and check the box on
the right side on the same line as the announcements you want to remove. The boxes are under
the column headed Remove. Then click Update at the bottom of the page.
To avoid having Assignment announcements, don't check the Announce the Open Date box
when you create the assignment.
I want to change order of announcements that appear on the Home Page. I went to
Announcements and clicked on the date icon and changed it to descending (oldest first).
It changed on the Announcement page, but when I went back to Home it hadn't changed.
You cannot change the order of announcements. They are listed chronologically, with the most
recent first.
Schedule
Schedule: Overview
What it does
Schedule allows instructors or site organizers to post items in a calendar format. The calendar
has day, week, month, year, and flat list views.
Many instructors use Schedule to post readings for each class on the day they are due to be
read.
Research, group, and department projects often use Schedule to post group deadlines.
Key concepts
Activity list: To see a list of all the activities on a calendar, next to "View", click List of Events.
Merging calendars: All calendars on sites you have access to are merged in your My
Workspace Schedule. You can also selectively merge calendars from sites you have access to
using the Merge feature from the site you want to add other calendars to.
Things to consider
• Any Schedule item can have multiple attachments.
• You can print an Adobe PDF file of any view of a Schedule by clicking Printable Version
while in the desired view. This will open a PDF file in a new browser window.
Create a New Event
The schedule allows instructors to post items in a calendar format. The calendar has day, week,
month, year and flat list views. A class schedule will contain events that pertain to only the class.
Schedules can be printed as PDF documents.
Create a New Event
1. Enter the Schedule area by clicking on Schedule in the left menu bar.
2. Click on the Add button (at the top of the window). In the dialog box, give your activity a
title and description (if desired).
3. From the pop-down menus, choose a Date, Start Time, and either Duration or End Time.
4. Insert a message if desired (it's optional).
• If the activity/event occurs more than once, click on the Frequency button and make
appropriate choices for frequency. If desired, fill in the Location box for the activity.
• Choose Item type from the pop-down menu. Types include, but are not limited to: activity,
class section, deadline, exam, special event, and more!
• If you’d like to add an attachment to the activity, click on the Add attachment box.
When all is completed, click the Save Event button to add the activity/event. The calendar will
appear with the new event on it.
View Earlier/Later Times
By default, the calendar shows events between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. To view events scheduled at
other times, click on the Earlier link at the top of the calendar to see Midnight to 9:59 a.m., and
the Later link at the bottom of the calendar to view events from 2 p.m. to Midnight.
Edit/Delete an Event
Edit an Event
1. From the calendar view, click on a posted activity to display that activity/event. Click on the
Revise button under the event listing. The same dialog box you saw when you created
the event appears. Make any desired changes.
2. Just above the Save Event/Cancel buttons at the bottom of the page, there is a
drop-down box for you to choose if you want to modify all occurrences of the activity, or
only this occurrence. Select your choice.
3. Click the Save Event button to change the activity or the Cancel button to exit without
making any changes.
Delete an Event
1. From the calendar view, click on a posted activity to display that activity/event
2. Click on the Delete button. You will be asked Are you sure you want to delete this item?
3. Click the Delete button to delete the activity or the Cancel button to exit without deleting
the activity.
Merging/Printing Schedules
Merging Schedules
If you have access to more than one worksite, you can merge their calendars. To do so:
1. From the calendar view or from any schedule item view, click on Merge.
2. Check the box(es) next to the calendar(s) you would like to merge with the calendar of the
site you currently have open.
3. Click on Save to merge the calendars into this site. Click Cancel to abort the merge.
Be careful using the merge feature. Think carefully before using or you'll end up with too many
events on your calendar. If you don't like your merge results, return to the Merge feature in
Schedule and click off the Show Schedule box.
Printing Schedules
You can print an Adobe PDF file of any view of a schedule by clicking the Printable Version link
at the top of the calendar. Whatever view that is current (day, month, year, etc.) is the view that
will be created as a PDF. This is a one-page deal … if you want to print all twelve months, one
month per page, you need to do it one page at a time.
When you click on the Printable Version link, what happens depends upon how your browser is
set to handle PDFs. In some cases, Adobe Acrobat Reader will launch and the schedule will
open up. If your browser is set to have PDFs saved to the desktop, apparently nothing will
happen, but if you look on your desktop, you should see a new PDF document entitled
Schedule.pdf. When you open that up, it is your schedule.
Syllabus
Syllabus: Overview
What it does
The syllabus is the official outline for your course. As an instructor, if you or your department has
prepared an online syllabus already, you can direct the Syllabus tool to link to it.
Otherwise, you can enter material to post directly to your syllabus. As you create a syllabus, you
can designate that it be visible to the general public or just to members of your course.
Some features of a traditional syllabus are divided between the Syllabus and Schedule tools.
Some instructors use the Syllabus tool to display the department's official online syllabus, and
use the Schedule as a detailed resource for students.
Key concepts
Content format: You can use the buttons at the top of the editing window to format your content.
The buttons supply any needed HTML tags. You can toggle between viewing these HTML tags
in your content or not, and you may enter your own HTML tags instead of relying on the buttons.
Attachments: You can attach files from your Resources or Drop Box folders.
Things to consider
• There are multiple options for making web resources available. Before you link to a web
resource, consider whether it would be better placed as a schedule item (such as a topic
for the week or a dated assignment), or as a resource in the Resources section.
• If you attach a file from one of your other sites (including your My Workspace), your site
participants won't be able to view it unless you chose Display to non-members
(publicly viewable) in that file's properties..
Create/Edit/Delete a Syllabus item
Creating/adding a syllabus item
To add a syllabus item, follow these steps:
1. Click Syllabus in the menubar.
2. Click Create/Edit, and then click Add.
3. Enter a title for your syllabus item, and then enter your content. You can copy and paste
text from another file (e.g., an HTML file or a Word document).
Note: To avoid formatting errors when copying from a Word document, save the document in
Rich Text Format (RTF) before copying and pasting.
4. Choose whether to have the item viewable only by members of the site or by anyone
(Public View).
5. To add an attachment, under "Attachments", click Add Attachments.
6. On the "Add Attachment" screen, you'll have three options:
• To upload a file from your computer, under "Upload local file", click Browse .
Highlight the file you want to attach, and click Open.
• To attach a URL, enter it in the "URL" field and click Add to add it to the "Items
to attach" list.
• Under "Select a resource", you'll see folders representing the Resources and
Drop Boxes of all the sites to which you have access. Click a folder to reveal the
folders and files inside it. Find the file you want to attach, and then click Attach a
copy to add it to the "Items to attach" list.
7. Click Finish to return to the "Add syllabus" screen.
If you'd like to remove a file from the "Items to attach" list, click Remove.
8. Choose whether you would like to have members of the site notified
email when the item is posted.
automatically via
9. When you have finished adding your syllabus item, click Post to post it to your site,
Preview to view it, Save Draft to save it as a draft, or Cancel to cancel.
10. Click Update.
Editing a syllabus item
To edit a syllabus item, follow these steps:
2. Click Create/Edit, and then click the name of the item you wish to edit.
3. Make your changes, and then click Post to post the item to your site, Preview to view it,
Save Draft to save it as a draft, or Cancel to cancel.
Deleting a syllabus item
To delete a syllabus item, follow these steps:
2. Click Create/Edit.
3. To the right of the item you wish to remove, check the box under "Remove".
4. Click Update.
Display a Web Page, PDF, or Word File for Syllabus
Display an external URL
If you wish to display an external URL, such as a web page on
your department's server, follow these steps:
1. From the menubar, click Syllabus.
2. Click Redirect. (If you don't see Redirect, click Create/Edit first, and then Redirect.
3. In the "URL" field, type the URL for the page you wish to display as your syllabus.
4. Click Save.
Display an HTML, PDF, or Word file If you wish to display an HTML, PDF, or Microsoft Word
file that you have posted to the Resources section, follow these steps:
1. Upload your file to your site's Resources section.
2. After you have posted your file to your site, if you do not see a list of your resources, from
the menubar, click Resources.
3. To get your file's URL, right-click (for Mac OS or Mac OS X, Ctrl-click) the filename and
select the copy command for your browser (i.e., for Internet Explorer, select Copy
Shortcut; for Netscape or Mozilla Firefox, select Copy Link Location).
4. From the menubar, click Syllabus.
5. Click Redirect.
6. In the "*URL" field, paste your URL (for Windows, Ctrl-v; for Mac OS or Mac OS X,
Cmd-v).
7. Click Save.
Note: A PDF file as a syllabus will open a new window for Mac users using Internet Explorer or
Mozilla Firefox.
Resources
Resources: Overview
What it does
In the Resources tool, you can make many kinds of materials available online. Resources can
include word processing documents, spreadsheets, slide presentations, links to web sites, and
simple text documents that display right on the page.
In Resources, you can post up to 10 items at a time, post items outside of folders, create folders
inside other folders, and create HTML documents. You can show or hide an item at any time,
and set a start and/or end time for its availability.
Using the Permissions feature, site owners can control which types of users can read, post,
revise, and/or delete files in specific folders. Site owners and instructors can make a resource
available to anyone by choosing to post it with the "public view" setting checked.
Key concepts
Viewing resources: When you click Resources in a site's menubar, you will see a list of that
site's resources and folders containing resources. Click a resource's title to open it. To view the
contents of a folder, click the folder icon next to the folder's name or the name itself to open it, or
click the black arrow next to the folder's name to expand it (i.e., make its contents visible without
opening it).
Sorting resources: You can sort the resources by title, size, resource creator, and last modified
date. Site leaders can customize the order in which items appear.
Sharing resources: Each item is available via a URL, which you can share with site participants.
Group spaces: Resources can be shared with pre-defined groups,which gives you more control
over who has access to resource items.
Things to consider
• Many classes post weekly readings in their Resources. These can include links to websites
as well as to other kinds of documents, like Adobe PDF files. Some classes also post
presentations or slides used in lectures.
• By setting folder Permissions, a large collaboration site can use one folder in Resources as
a space to archive important documents, and allow only certain site participants to modify
those documents.
Create a New Resource Item
Adding a new folder
By default, your Resources has one folder in it, named after your course or project site. To add a
subfolder, next to the existing folder, under "Actions", click Add.
Use the "Add Item Type" drop-down list to select Empty folder, and select the number of folders
you want to create. For each new folder, enter a title and an optional description, choose your
access setting, and then click Add.
Adding resource items
To create a new resource item, in the menubar, click Resources, and then next to the folder in
which you want to create the item, under "Actions", click Add. In the window that opens, from the
"Add Item Type" drop-down list, select your resource type:
File Upload: An existing document or other file from your computer
1. Choose the number of resources you would like to upload (you can upload up to 10).
2. For each resource, click the Browse button, select a file to upload, and then click Open (or
you can type the name of the file in the text box provided).
Note: Filenames that include certain characters cannot be accepted. Please refer to a list
of unsupported characters in Appendix 1.
3. Type a title for the resource (if you don't add a title, the filename will be used for the title),
and add an optional description.
4. Choose your file's copyright status and add optional copyright information (you can also
optionally display a copyright alert).
5. Choose to show or hide your file, or set a beginning and/or ending date for the file's visibility.
6. Next to "Access", put a checkmark in the Display to non-members (publicly viewable)
box if you want to share the file with members of another site to which you belong (e.g.,
as an attachment to a syllabus item for another course or project you're leading).
7. To display the file to all members of the site, check Display to site. To display the file only
to selected groups, check Display to selected groups and then select the group(s) you
wish to access the file (Note: You must have groups created to use this feature).
7. Next to "Email Notification", specify whether or not you want to have members of the site
notified automatically via email when the resource is posted.
8. Click Add to finish.
URL (link to web site): Specify a URL to a web site that will be the resource
1. For each resource, type the URL in the box. (You may omit the http:// prefix.)
2. Repeat step 3-8 above.
HTML Page: Create an HTML document
Note: This feature will not work with Internet Explorer for Mac OS or Mac OS X.
1. Select HTML Page as the item type.
2. Use the WYSIWYG editor to enter the content of your page
3. Repeat step 3-8 for file upload.
Simple Text Document: Create a plain text document
1. Select Simple Text Document as the item type.
2. Enter the content of your page in the text box.
3. Repeat step 3-8 for file upload.
Create Group Folders in Resources
The Resources tool allows you to create folders accessible only by a specified group. To create a
group folder, you must first create a study group.
Creating a group folder
To create a group folder, follow these steps:
1. In the menubar, click Resources. Next to the folder in which you want to create a new
group folder, under "Actions", click Add.
2. Use the "Add Item Type" drop-down list to select Empty folder, and select the number of
folders you want to create.
3. Enter a title and an optional description.
4. Under "Access", select Display to selected groups. Place a checkmark next to the
groups you wish to allow access, and then click Add.
Managing permissions for group folders
Once you have created a group folder, you may need to manage permissions in order to adjust
the level of access for site participants.
1. Next to the folder in which you want to manage permissions, under "Actions", click
Permissions.
2. Check or uncheck the boxes to grant the permissions based on participant role. Options
for permissions include:
• new: Add new resources
• read: View and download resources
• revise: Modify resources
• delete: Remove resources
• all.groups: Allows participants to see all resources, even those assigned to
specific groups
• hidden: Allow participants to see hidden items
3. Click Save. To change your selection, click Cancel.
Move and Reorder Resources Items
Moving Resources Items
To move a file to another location within the Resources section of your site, follow the directions
below:
1. In the menubar of the relevant worksite, click Resources.
2. Find the file you wish to move, and mark the checkbox to its left.
3. Click Move Checked. The item will now be highlighted.
4. Navigate to the location where you wish to move the file, and then click Paste Moved
Items. If you do not see the folder to which you want to move the item, click the arrow
next to "Show other sites"; this will display the folders to which you have access.
Note: To cancel the move, click the reset button (i.e., the circular arrow icon to the left of
"Resources".
Reorder Resources Items
To reorder items in Resources, check the the box to the left of the folder and then click Reorder.
On the Reorder page, move an item by clicking the up or down arrow next to it. Alternatively, you
can use the drop-down list at the far right. To save your changes, click Save.
Make Resources Items Publicly Accessible
When you use the Resources tool to upload an item, you can choose to keep that item
accessible only to members of your site, or you can choose to display the item to anyone who
can log into the system. The latter option also allows you to share an item with the participants of
another site.
To allow people outside your site to see an item in your Resources, follow these steps:
1. Click My Workspace to access your personal items, or click a course or project site tab to
access items there.
2. In the menubar, click Resources.
3. Find the folder or file you wish to make public, and to the right of its name, click Revise.
4. Under "Properties", next to "Access", use the checkbox to select Display to
non-members (publicly viewable).
5. After you've made your files publicly viewable, you can access and share them via the
web. The URL for the resources can be found under Access
6. Click Update.
Note: You can also make files and folders public in Resources while you're uploading an item, or
later, after it's uploaded.
Modules
Module Introduction
A module is the building block of your lessons. For example, you may create a module, or
lecture, for each week.
A module consists of one module page AND one or more content
sections, depending on how you want to organize your information. Module pages are like the
title page of a document -- on a module page you assign a title, set the open dates, and choose
a copyright. The content is published in section pages, which will be discussed in the next
lesson. If you have a short topic, you may only want one section. If your module consists of
multiple topics, resources, and materials, you want to break it up into several sections
(meaningful chunks) for students for easier viewing and processing. When a student is reading a
content section there will be breadcrumb links to other sections of the same module for easy
navigation.
Once in the course site you wish to work in, click Modules on the left navigation
bar to go to the Modules area.
There are three views for Modules: View, Author, and
Manage.
Student View: View and access modules and sections as they look to students.
Author View: Add, edit and delete modules and sections; set access privileges, set start and
end dates, make modules inactive, and create a next steps statement.
Manage View: Handle tasks such as re-activate inactive modules, sort modules and sections,
and import/export modules to new sites.
Licensing Options
Four licensing choices are possible for modules. They are as follows:
Creative Commons License: Select this option if you wish to keep the copyright for your work,
but wish to allow others to reuse your materials. You have the option to select whether others
can modify your materials and where they can use it for commercial purposes. If you choose the
“Creative Commons” license, a form is displayed asking you select the terms and conditions of
use for your materials:
Click on "Add" to accept the license and continue.
Copyright of Author: Any material that is published online is automatically copyright-protected.
No one other than you, the author of the material, can use, modify or sell your content, whether
you included a copyright notice or not. If you select the copyright option, the system will add the
copyright notice on the footer of your module. To retain full copyright of your content, select
“Copyright of Author” from the drop-down list. Click on Add to continue.
A copyright notice, your name, and year will appear at the footer of your module.
Public Domain: This option should be selected if you choose to dedicate your content and
digital materials to the public domain. To dedicate your content to “Public Domain,” select the
“Public Domain” option from the drop-down menu. Click on Add to accept it and continue to add
content to your module.
Fair Use Exception: The last option, “Fair Use Exception”, should be selected when you do
not own all the content of a module that you will publish and therefore cannot claim copyright or
share it. However, the material is subject to fair use exception when used for educational
purposes with a restricted number of students for a term.
Click the small green Question Mark icon next to the “Choose the license” field on the Add
Module page for a detailed description of the different licensing options.
Add Modules
The first steps of creating a new module (lesson) require you to provide information about
Module Title, Description, Keywords and Choice of a License.
Add a module as follows
1. Click on the Author link at the top of the Module page.
2. Click the Add Module link.
3. Define the properties of your module.
Define Properties of a Module
• The module title cannot be less than 5 or more than 50 characters long. Titles can be a
combination of alphabets and numerals. Special characters, such as &, * or %, are not
allowed.
• The description of the module should be less than 700 characters.
• Keywords for the module should be fewer than 250 characters. They should be words or
phrases, separated by commas if necessary. They will be used for keyword searches
when that feature is implemented.
• Author name and term are fixed fields. The information for these fields is provided
automatically by the system when you log into the course as an Instructor. You cannot
alter the fixed field data. Later on, when you access the module to edit it, this information
gets stored in the Modified by field. Modules can be modified by you, a colleague, or a
teaching assistant who has the same access privileges as you do.
• Set the Start and End Date for the module using the Date/time picker.
Note: If you do not set the start and end date and time, the system sets the start time/date as
8:00 a.m. today (module creation date) and the end time/date as 11:59 p.m. one year from today.
• Finally, you must select a license for your module’s content. The choice of license can be
Creative Commons, Copyright of an author, Public Domain, or Fair Use Exception.
(See licensing section for more information.)
Note: If your module title contains unsupported character, you will get a message that the
title is not valid and what characters are supported.
Final Steps When Adding a Module
To proceed with a module addition, click on Add. When you click on Add, you are directed to a
confirmation page where you can Add Content Sections to your modules or return to the
Author View. Notice that you have not yet published any content. The content of your module
will be added into sections. You can return to the module to add more sections at any time.
Edit Modules
To edit a module, follow these steps:
• From the Author View page, click the checkbox next to the module to select it. Then, click
the Edit link at the navigation bar. You will be directed to the Edit Module page where
you can revise a module's properties.
OR (more easily)
• From the Author View page, click the title of the module you want to edit. You will be
directed to the Edit Module page where you can make changes.
The Edit Module page contains five fixed fields that cannot be modified:
• Author name, date and time when the module was first created .
• Author name, date and time when the module was last modified .
• Author Name
• Term/Year
The following information can be edited:
• Module Title
• Description
• Keywords
• Start Date
• End Date
• License Option (if you are the original author)
Once you have changed the module properties, complete the process:
• Click Save to save your changes and return to the Author View page.
• Click Add Content Sections to save changes and continue adding sections.
• Click Cancel to discard changes and go back to the Author View page.
Co-Authoring Tip: It is highly recommended that only one instructor make changes to a module
at a time. If you will co-author content, establish regular authoring times with your partner or split
modules to avoid conflicts when saving your work. If you edit a module or section
simultaneously, the system WILL let you know that someone else has altered it when you
attempt to save it. You will receive the following message when trying to save content that was
altered:
CAUTION! The properties of this module have been modified by another author simultaneously.
Please open a new browser window and log in again to access the most current version of this
module. You may make changes to this newer version.
Set Next Steps for a Module
You can set instructions at the end of every module for students. You may direct them to a quiz,
assignment, or simply ask them to continue with the next module. To include next steps for a
module, follow these steps:
• Click on Author to go to the Author View page.
• Click on the green and white round plus icon in the Next Steps column for the module you
want to set instructions. Or, if editing existing Next Steps, click on the magnifying glass
icon in the same column.
• Type the steps you want students to follow when finished with a module.
• Click Add to submit your content and return to Author View.
• The instructions added will appear at the bottom of the Modules page.
Author/Student View
Descriptions
When you
look at the list
of modules,
you'll notice
little black
arrows on the
left next to
each listing. At
first they are
all "collapsed"
(pointing
right), and you
can't see the
sections
inside the
modules.
AUTHOR VIEW
STUDENT VIEW
Click once on
an arrow next
to a module
listing and that
module will
"expand"
(pointing
down) to allow
you to see all
the sections
inside that
module. This
is an easy way
to go to a
section -- by
expanding the
module and
clicking on the
section title.
Expand All
You can
expand all of
the module
listings at
once by
clicking once
on the
double-heade
d arrow at the
top of the list.
This makes it
quite easy to
see at a
glance what
sections are
inside which
modules.
When you exit
the modules
page, the
modules list
automatically
defaults back
to the
collapsed
view, so you'll
have to
expand again
if you like that
appearance.
Delete Modules
You may select one or more modules to delete at a time.
• On the Author View page, choose the module(s) you want to delete by clicking the
checkbox left of the Module title. Then, click the Delete link at the top of the window.
• A Deletion Warning asks you to confirm the delete action (not recoverable!). When you
delete a module, all its sections and related uploaded files get deleted permanently as
well.
Manage Modules
Make Module/Module Section Inactive
You can make a module invisible to learners by making it inactive. You may have many reasons
for making modules inactive. It could be that you want to reveal material to students as the term
progresses. It could be that you will not be using a module in the current term but you do not wish
to delete it. When you want to make modules invisible but not delete them permanently, you want
to use the Make Inactive feature.
You can restore inactive modules at any time by clicking on Manage and then on the Restore
icon.
How to make modules inactive:
• On the Author View page, click the checkbox located next to the module title you want to
remove from the current list of active modules.
• Then, click the Make Inactive link located below the Author link.
• A confirmation message will alert you that the chosen module is inactive.
Note: Only entire modules can be made inactive. You cannot make separate sections inactive.
When you make modules inactive, they lose their Start and End Date setting. You can access
your inactive modules and restore them from the Manage screen.
Restore Inactive Modules
To restore an inactive module, follow these steps:
• Click on Manage on the top navigation bar.
• Click the Restore Inactive Modules icon.
• A list of inactive modules is displayed, along with their deactivation date and time. By
default, the modules are sorted by "Date Deactivated".
• Click the checkboxes located next to the inactive modules to select them. You can select
and restore to the active list more than one module at a time.
• Click Restore to complete the operation.
• A confirmation page displays the list of Modules that have been restored.
• Click on Return to Modules to view the updated list of modules. Your restored modules are
added at the bottom of the list of active modules.
Sort Modules
To change the sequence of modules, follow these steps:
• Click Manage at the top navigation bar.
• Click Sort
• You will be directed to the Sort Modules page.
• On this page, there are two columns. The first is showing the current sequence of modules.
The second column is your work area.
• In the second column, click the module whose sequence you want to change. Then, click
the up and down arrows to change the sequence.
• After re-sequencing the modules to the desired order, click Save.
• To discard your changes, click Cancel and return to Author View.
Export/Import Modules
Export Modules
You'll want to export all your modules at the end of a term in order to import these same modules
into the next term's site. Exporting modules does not affect the current site's modules. The export
functionality exports all of your modules and sections into an IMS Content Packaging (CP) zip file
that you can import into your next term's sites or other system that supports IMS CP.
You cannot select which modules to export.The export functionality packages all your modules
into a zip file.
• Click on Manage.
• Click on the Export/Import link.
• Click on Export.
• When you export here, what you are exporting is a ZIPPED folder with ALL your modules in
it. Save this folder in a convenient location. You'll need to UNZIP it to see the files.
(WinZIP on a PC or UnStuffIt on a Mac are two programs that will unzip files.)
• When you unzip and open the folder, you'll see several documents plus a folder of
resources. Inside that resources folder are all your module/section pages, identified and
in html format. It is not recommended that you alter this package.
• Just leave the contents of the folder alone. Save this folder. You can import the zip file into
the Melete Lesson Builder (Modules tool) of another site you own or share it with a
colleague if you want to share your materials.
Import Modules
If you want to import modules you've exported from another site, it is a simple thing to do:
• Click on Manage.
• Click on the Export/Import link.
• Browse (in the box provided) to find the folder you exported from the other site. Then click
on Import.
• The files will be imported to the end of list of any existing modules. If there are modules that
were imported that you don't want, you'll have to delete them from the Author View, as
explained in the Delete Modules section.
Special Note about Module Export
If you only want a few of your modules to import into another site, give this a try:
1. In Author View, check the modules you DON'T want to export
2. At the top of the list, click on the Inactive link to make those modules inactive
3. Go to Manage View and export your modules -- only those modules which are active will
be exported
4. In Manage View, restore all the modules you just inactivated.
Module FAQs
What is 508 compliance? Also, is the system "blind friendly."
Section 508 outlines guidelines for complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Yes, the system is accessible to blind learners.
I changed the title of my modules to units. Will modules or units show up on the left
navigation bar?
No. The default name of the left navigation is "Modules." This is to ensure consistency for
learners as they navigate from site to site.
Do all modules need to contain sections? I only have a little bit of information for one
module?
Yes. You will need to create at least 1 section for your content.
When I author and publish a module, who will be able to access it? For example, if
someone goes to Google and enters the keywords I designated, will they hit on my page?
Only registered students and guests that you add to your course site have access to your
materials - no matter what license you choose. Google will not return pages behind these
password-protected sites, nor would they be accessible without registered users with a valid
userid and password.
The idea of the license is so that your students and visitors to your site know your terms of use of
your materials, and if you choose to export and share your content with others, they, too, know
how you wish to make your content available to others.
I would like to incorporate a number of images in my modules. Can you point me to a
source that will cover the legality of using images in online teaching?
There is a great tutorial on copyright issues at Baruch College:
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/copyright/
Why do we need the Assignment tool when the Module sets up all of the assignments?
The Modules tool does not include a place for students to submit work and neither does it have
grading capabilities, due dates, etc. It is a good idea to use the tools as designed, as each has a
unique function. The Assignments tool is designed for posting assignments. The Assignments
tool is where students can type or submit their work inline or as attachments. The Assignments
tool allows you to grade student work and return it to them.
The Modules area is for publishing content. You may use the What's Next? area to direct
students to the assignment that they should complete next.
Assignments
Assignments: Overview
What it does
For courses, the Assignments tool allows instructors to create, distribute, collect, and grade
online assignments. Assignments are private; student submissions are not visible to other users
of the site.
The Assignments tool offers multiple grading options, including letter grades, points,
checkmarks, pass/fail, or ungraded.
Assignments can also be returned, with or without grades, for re-submission. Instructors can
download all submissions to an assignment to their computer at once. When instructors release
grades for an assignment, students can access instructor comments and their grades.
Key concepts
Student View: Student View allows you as an instructor or site leader to view assignments as
they would appear to your students or project participants.
Honor Pledge: This option requires students to click a checkbox affirming that they have neither
given nor received aid on an assignment before they can submit it.
Things to consider
• Instructors can return assignments and allow for re-submission. This feature can be used to
evaluate drafts of final projects or papers, or to allow students to correct and re-submit an
assignment.
• The Assignments tool can post grades to the Gradebook. If you choose this option, you
won't be able to enter grades manually for students who did not complete the assignment
online.
Create Assignments
1. Enter the Assignment area by clicking on Assignment in the left menu bar. Notice that
we're on the Assignment List page (see links at the top of the window).
2. Click on the Add link at the top of the window.
3. In the dialog box, give your assignment a title.
4. Choose an Open Date and Time, Due Date and Time, and Accept Until date and time (if
you accept late work).
5. Student work can be submitted as inline only (done directly inside the system),
attachments only, or a mixture of both. Set the submission style here.
6. Set the grading scale. Options are: Ungraded, Letter grade, Points, Pass/Fail or
Checkmark.
7. Under the assignment description box, you will see three check boxes, as follows:
To have the assignment due date added to the site's calendar schedule, check the box
next to Add due date to schedule. This option (add due date to schedule) is only
available if the Schedule tool is enabled for the site. Otherwise, you will not have the
checkbox option.
To have the open date announced automatically when you post the assignment by putting
an announcement on your site's homepage, check the box next to Announce the open
date.
To have the honor pledge displayed when students are submitting an assignment, check the box
next to Add honor pledge. Students must check a box agreeing to the pledge before their work
can be submitted.
Assignment grades can be automatically posted to the Gradebook. In order to do so, you
must choose Points as your grading type. Also, the Gradebook Tool must be enabled. Then
click on Add Assignment to Gradebook and the points will be automatically posted to the
gradebook.
8. If you'd like to add an attachment to the assignment, click on the Add attachment box.
9. When all is completed, click the Post button to add to the assignment list, click Preview if
you want to see what it will look like before you post, click Save Draft if you want to think
about it and come back later, or click Cancel to leave without posting anything.
About the Honor Pledge
The Honor Pledge wording is not editable. What instructors can do, though, is expand upon the
honor pledge in the course syllabus and have a paragraph that explains to students exactly what
it means when they check that box.
For instance: The Honor Pledge reads " honor pledge verbiage " and when you check that box
you are further stating that _________.
Failure to abide by the above will result in ________.
This gives you the opportunity to include language that is relevant to honor codes and
disciplinary action on your campus, which does vary across the state.
Submit as Students
After you create an assignment, you can go through all the steps of submitting an assignment,
just as a student would. You may want to do this if you're not sure exactly how this procedure
works. This is how to do so:
1. In the Assignments Tool, create an assignment. From the links at the top of the assignment
list, click on Student View.
2. You will see a list of all your assignments. Under the one you just created, you will see a
Submit as Student link. Click there.
3. The assignment shows up exactly how it will look to students.
You will have a large white box into which you can type or copy/paste your answer (if inline
submissions were allowed). If attachments were allowed, you will also be able to add
attachments.
If you required the Honor Pledge, you will see it and need to check it. If you save your
assignment as draft and do not submit when it is due, it will be automatically submitted. However,
if the instructor set Accept unti date later than Due date, the assignment draft automatically
submitted will be marked Late.
4. After
you submit the assignment, click back on the Assignment List link at the top
of the page.
5. In the list of assignments, your new assignment will have Grade link under it, along with an
indication that something has been turned in (In/New). Click the Grade link.
6. On the Grade page, there will be a list of your students. The names of those who have
submitted the assignment will be links. Click on your name to open up your submission.
7. At this step you will see exactly how it will be to grade your student submissions. There are
two main boxes: the upper box has the student's submission. You can make comments
here. It's a good idea to color your text so students will be able to tell your comments
apart from what they wrote. The lower box is a place for Instructor's Comments. This will
be set apart from text the student wrote. You can color this text if you want, or leave it
black.Below there is a place for assigning the grade and returning to student.
Note:
• If
you are grading using points (required to send it to the gradebook), you cannot
assign a higher point total than the assignment is worth.
• Your submission grade will not go to the gradebook, even if you had chosen that option.
That is the only difference between you submitting as a student and your student
submissions. This feature is set up so you can see how it works for students, but since
you are not a student, you don't need a grade. However, your grade will show in the
Assignment Tool's Grade Report area.
• If you ever delete an assignment that has real student submissions, they will also see that
warning under the deleted assignment. They will wonder why they did an assignment that
you deleted and they no longer get points for. It is never a good idea to delete an
assignment that has student submissions. If you don't want an assignment to be counted
in the grades, just click on the Revise link under the assignment and uncheck Add to
gradebook.
Edit/Revise Assignments
Edit/Revise an Assignment
1. Enter the Assignment area by clicking on Assignment in the left menu bar.
2. Click Revise under the assignment you wish to revise.
3. The same dialog box you saw when you created the event appears. Make any desired
changes.
4. Click Preview to view the assignment as students will see it, Post to change the
assignment or the Cancel button to exit without making any changes.
Delete an Assignment
2. Check the remove box next to the assignment you wish to delete, and then click Update at
the bottom of the page. You will be asked "Are you sure you want to delete this item?
3. Click the Delete button to delete the activity or the Cancel button to exit without deleting
the activity.
4. Note: if you click on the Update button at the bottom of the assignment list window without
checking a box, you'll just get a notice that there's nothing to update -- it doesn't hurt
anything.
Duplicate an Assignment
1. You can often save time and effort in creating assignments if they are very similar. To do
so, enter the Assignment area by clicking on Assignment in the left menu bar.
2. Click Duplicate under the assignment you wish to copy.
3. The new assignment will appear in the assignment list, indicated as a copy with a big red
DRAFT notice in front of the title. To revise this draft copy, click Revise. Follow the
instructions for revising an assignment above.
4. The same dialog box you saw when you created the event appears. Make any desired
changes.
5. Click Preview to view the assignment as students will see it, Post to change the
assignment or the Cancel button to exit without making any changes. DRAFT will no
longer appear as part of the title in the list.
Add an Attachment to an Assignment
1. You can add any number of attachments, and they can be any combination of local files,
websites, and resources.
2. If you want to add an attachment to an assignment, follow these steps.
• Click the Add Attachments button.
• Attachments may have already been uploaded into your Resources area, so when you
click on Add Attachments, your resources area will open up. If the attachment is
already in the Resources list, select it for attachment by clicking on the Attach a copy
link to the right of the item. (Refer to the module on miscellaneous features for exactly
how to do upload documents into Resources.)
• If the item you want to attach is NOT already located in your Resources area, simply
click on the Browse box in the Upload local file area, locate the document you want
to use, and click Continue.
• When you upload the local file or attach a resource, the item will be listed at the top of
the Add Attachment page. You can now select more items to attach. When you're
done, click Continue to go back to Add an Assignment page. Click on Post to
complete the assignment creation.
3. After creating the assignment, you can view how it looks by clicking on Student View at
the top of the Assignments page.
Grade Assignments
Grade an Inline Submission
2. You can see if there are assignments turned in that need to be graded in the list under
In/New. In tells you how many assignments have been submitted; New tells you how
many have not yet been graded.
3. Click Grade under the assignment. You will see your assignment along with student
submissions.
4. To view a student's submitted inline assignment for grading, click the student's name.
There are two boxes. The upper box contains the student submission. You can insert
comments into student text by your comments in double curly brackets (i.e., {{your
comment here}} ). Your comments will appear in red to the student (not you). Or, even
easier, use the tools in the editor toolbar to color your text, make it bold, etc.. Basically
you want it to stand out.
The lower box is a place for you to put in your comments. They will appear under the student
work when the student views the graded assignment.
5. Click on Return to complete the grading and return the assignment to students.Click on
Save to complete the grading but not return the assignment to students. You may want to
do this if you want to return all student grades at the same time, rather than as they are
graded.
6. If you choose to save the grade, you can release all the assignments back to students at
once on the student submissions grading page. The Release Grades link is at the top of
the page.
Grade Assignments Posted as Attachments
You can download attached assignments one at a time, or if many of your students have
submitted attachments, you might find it easier to download them all at once. If so, this is the
procedure:
1. Follow steps 1-3 listed above.
2. Instead of clicking on a student's name, click on the Download All link at the top of the
page.
3. This will prompt a bulk download of all student assignments posted as attachments. The
file will be in ZIP format so you'll need a program that unzips these archived files.
4. The resulting folder will contain folders for each student who submitted an attachment.
Inside each folder will be the document the student uploaded. There may also be a text
document containing any text the student included in the inline box in the attachment
area (this is not required). If that text document is missing, it just means that the student
didn't type anything into the inline box.
You can open each student submission to view it. If you want to make comments on the pape,
that can be done, depending on the program the document is in . . . It's very easy to do in MS
Word, but it may be more difficult in some other files. It all depends, and this is not controlled by
the system.
If you prefer, you can put your comments into the Instructor Comments on the Assignment
grading page.
Note: Assignments cannot be turned in after the due date unless you've made the Accept
Until date some time after the due date. Most students will submit their assignments by the due
date. This will make it difficult for them to resubmit their work if necessary and allowed by you. A
work-around is to set a longer grace period (Accept Until date) after the due date. Their work
will be marked late, but it will be accepted.
Review Student Status
You can view a list of your students and see each one's status on each of the assignments. You
can see whether the student has submitted the assignment, the assignment status, and the
grade if one has been given.
2. At the top of the page, click on Grade Report.
3. Sort the list by student name, then scroll until you find the student you're looking for. All
assignments that student has submitted will be listed and you can see how he/she did.
Click on Download Spreadsheet to get a spreadsheet of all student assignment grades. If
students did not submit their assignment, then No Submission is showed in the corresponding
cell.
Assignment grades can be automatically entered into the gradebook. In order to do so, you must
choose the grading option of Points when setting up the assignment. (The gradebook doesn't
understand letter grades or checkmarks.)
Assignment FAQs
How can I keep students from posting in an assignment meant for rewrites if they haven't
posted in the area meant for the first draft?
After grading the first effort, if it is not good enough, say at the end, "please submit rewrite by
mm/dd/year" and check the allow resubmission button. This way the assignment will reopen for
the student. You can have the assignment submissions set to accept attachments so that
students can attach a rewrite WITHOUT affecting the original. You should also ask them to add
"rev1" in the filename. You can repeat the process and ask them to submit a third by allowing
resubmission again.
So, a student can attach more than one file to an assignment? Is there any way to keep
them from removing the first file? (I find my students don't follow instructions very well...)
If you allow resubmissions for an assignment that allowed attachments, when students to go to
resubmit, they get a button "Add/Drop Attachments." They can add new attachments AND
remove previous ones. In a way, it is good to let students clean up junk and leave just good files
for instructors to review and grade.
Remember that if you don't allow students to resubmit, they can't alter or remove already
submitted assignments. However, when you allow a student to resubmit, he/she can make
adjustments, as that's the whole idea. If you want the original submissions to stay intact, you
don't allow resubmissions. Instead, create a brand new assignment and call it "Rewrite - Essay
#1.
Is it possible to delete a student assignment, or is resubmit the only way to give the
student another chance?
You can't delete a submission, but you can allow resubmit. Go to the Assignment >> Click on
Grade >> Click on the student's name who you want to resubmit >> Scroll down and check
Allow Resubmission.
If a student submits an assignment and I allow a resubmit, do they still have to submit by
the final date of the assignment?
Yes. Once the final date/time arrives, the tool closes the submission window.
Is there a way to give special permission to a student to re-open the assignment just for
them, and just for a specified time period?
No, there is no special permissions button in any of the tools. This system allows for a "grace"
period, just like with your credit cards. You can make it as short or long as you want. Once the
late period is over (same for everyone), it's over. You can extend it further, but for everyone.
I don't know how I did this, but after responding to my assignment as a student, I can't
seem to get back in the role of teacher to grade it.
After submitting the assignment as a student, you should see links at the top, where you clicked
to get to the student view. You should see a link at the top for Assignment List. Click this link to
get back to the instructor view.
I created an assignment. Then I completed the assignment as a student. Then I went
back to view it as an instructor to grade, but I was unable to.
Here are the steps:
1. Create an Assignment and click Post.
2. Click on the Student View >> Click on Submit as student under the name of the
assignment you just created.
3. Complete the Assignment and click Submit.
4. Go back to the Assignment List by clicking it in the top menu bar.
5. Click on Grade under the name of the assignment
6. Click on YOUR NAME to open the Assignment to grade it.
7. Grade the Assignment and click Return.
8. You will now be back Submissions/Grading page (Step #6)
Even though the homework is open and it is not yet past the last day of accepting work,
some students don't see the assignment link.
It sounds like some of your students may not have their cache set properly.
Is it OK to have two browser windows open while I'm grading so I don't have to go back
and forth?
It is not recommended that you have two of the same browser windows open at the same time,
sharing the same session. You may overwrite information or log yourself out. If you must do so,
open two different browsers, such as IE and FF on the PC, or FF and Safari on the Mac.
Can students see their assignment grades in the assignments section?
If you have 'returned' grades, yes. To release grades, you can click on Return after grading each
submission. Students will see their grades next time they return to the Assignments. Or, you can
grade all the assignments and click on Save as draft and when done grading all of them, you
click on Release grades. Then, students see their grades/points/comments but not before the
release.
Is there a way to show grades for assignments without the system showing the
cumulative grades?
Under grading options, there is a check box for showing assignments scores AND calculated
grades. It is not an either or option at this time.
When scoring an assignment with an attached file, what do Save, Return, and Allow
Resubmit mean?
RETURN does not mean resubmit. RETURN means that you are done grading (comments
and/or score) and you are returning the assignment to the student. Same as returning homework
back to students in the traditional classroom.
The only way to allow students to resubmit is by checking the Allow resubmission box. Then,
click on RETURN it to the student with the option to resubmit. You see Returned and they see
Resubmit. When they resubmit, you adjust the grade/points based on the value of the
resubmission.
SAVE does simply that. It saves your comments and points so that you can take a break, take
the dog for a walk, and come back later to review them and RETURN to students. For example,
you could grade all your assignments and click on SAVE on each. And, when done, click on
Release Grades so that all of them are now viewable to students at once.
It's a matter of preference or teaching style. Some instructors RETURN assignments as they
grade them, just like some prefer to handle email quickly and get answers out to people.
Students are anxious to get feedback. But it is entirely up to you.
I created an assignment with a maximum of 300 points. Then, while grading, I realized
that I wanted to have a total of 400 points. What would happen if I revise the point total
after grading some submissions?
You CAN change the maximum number of points possible after the fact. You will get a warning
message that you are altering the assignment when some students have submitted work, but it
will let you make changes. It wants you to be aware of your actions.
So revise the assignment and make it worth 400 points. Save it. When you click on Revise and
change the assignment's maximum points to 400, the effect will be available to you immediately
for all submissions not yet scored and any new ones that will come in. The ones already
submitted and given only 300 or other points will need to be opened and manually adjusted by
you and RETURNED to students.
I graded a student assignment and clicked Save. Now I can't find the link to release the
grade. I don't see the Grade List page. I see a Grade Report. Is that the same thing? But I
still don't see the link "Release Grades" I must be blind. Help.
Click on Assignment List > In/New > then Release Grades will be in the upper center portion
of the frame.
I am having a problem inputting a grade for a student. When the student tried to submit
the assignment, she couldn't (the deadline was past) so she emailed it to me. So how do I
input a grade in the gradebook for her when she never submitted the assignment in the
Assignment tool?
You can extend the assignment grace period and allow the student to submit the assignment.
After you set a future grace period date, send a PM to the student and tell her submit her
assignment by the deadline. The rest of the class won't see the grace period. They only see open
and due dates.
In the student view I see deleted assignments with the "assignment has been deleted"
flag. Do the students really see this?
Students will see the Assignment Deleted warning only if they had submitted that assignment
before it was deleted. If you delete an assignment that has no student submissions, students will
not see the Assignment Deleted warning.
Is there a workaround to address the fact that assignments don't have a model answer
field?
If you want to wait to provide a solution until after assignments are turned in, you can provide the
solution as an attachment when you grade the assignment. By choosing Save instead of Return
when you grade, you can then Release all of the graded assignments once your final
accept-date has passed. Once you release the graded assignments, the students will be able to
see your attached solution.
Alternatively, you can add an ungraded assignment, called "Solution to Assignment X"
(immediately after the actually assignment) and make it open a few days after the Assignment is
due (or when you know that you will be done grading the submissions of Assignment X). Not the
best, but it would work.
Two of my students did a group final project together and one of them submitted the
project. I have graded the project. How do I give the grade to the person who did not turn
in the project?
The second student will have to submit something to that assignment. The only way to give a
grade on an assignment is if the assignment has been submitted.
When accepting "attachment only" submissions, if I allow resubmission, what will I get -both the original attachment and the new one?
When you allow resubmission for 'attachments only" types of assignments, students have the
option to remove the previous attachment and add a new attachment, or add a new attachment
in addition to the first, and so on. Then, they click on Resubmit. You can allow as many
resubmissions as you wish. If you don't want them to remove the first one, just tell them - and
that if it's gone, no credit for it.
Gradebook
Gradebook: Overview
What it is
The Gradebook is a tool for instructors to calculate and store grade information and distribute it
to students online.
Key concepts
Features: Using the Gradebook, instructors may:
• Autocalculate course grades
• Create and edit a mapping of the course letter grade to a 100% scale
• Add, view, edit, and release point values of assignments and/or assessments to students
• Manually enter, view, edit, and release to students their scores and grades
• Transmit scores to the Gradebook from tools such as Tests & Quizzes, thereby creating a
corresponding assignment in the Gradebook and recording student scores for that
assignment.
• Export scores and grades to Microsoft Excel (in .xls or .csv format)
• Import assignment scores from spreadsheet (.csv) files.
Viewing scores: The Gradebook will allow students to view their own scores and grades, once
instructors have released them.
Things to consider
• Instructors can view information in the Gradebook in different ways, including a general
overview for each course, assignment detail, course grade detail, student roster, adding
or editing assignments, and gradebook options.
• Students can view their cumulative scores for all assignments and the corresponding
percentage; view their course grades, once an instructor releases them; and sort their
assignments by title, due date, grade, and total possible points per assignment.
Gradebook Introduction
Click on the Gradebook link in the menubar of the relevant course site. This area contains five
links at the top of the page. The first link , Overview, shows a list of each item in the gradebook,
along with the class average score and where the assignment came from.
Scores from the Assignments and Tests & Quizzes tools can be linked automatically to the
Gradebook tool (or not, as you wish). In addition, you can manually create listings for other
graded assignments, such as homework, extra credit, participation, etc.. Notice that manually
added assignments have a white background, while automatically linked scores from
Assignments and Tests & Quizzes are listed in yellow.
From the Overview screen, click on the title of a listing to view information about that
assignment.
This summary page tells how each student did on the assignment.
Roster
The Roster link takes you to what you will recognize as a "gradesheet." Each student is listed,
along with all their scores for all the assignments.
This roster page can be exported into Excel or CSV for submitting to your Admissions & Records
department at the end of a term.
Grade Options
Grade Options is the area where you set your grading scale. Notice that the scale is 0-100%;
not actual point totals. You can set it for +/– grading or not. You might not want to display course
grades to students early in the term, because until they have accumulated a sizeable number of
points, their grades will be very low (in the "F" category).
Things to know about the Gradebook:
• The grade is calculated by the gradebook as a percentage of current points scored out of
the total possible points overall. Consequently, the grades that are listed probably do not
reflect the students' actual grades unless all assignments have been submitted and
graded. (Students have to work their way up from an "F.")
• When calculating a course grade, the student's cumulative average percentage is never
rounded up. For example if a student gets 79.99% overall, and the limit for a B is 80%,
that student will receive a C, unless you adjust the final grade.
• You can over-ride the calculated final grade. That is explained in the Students and Their
Grades section.
Add Assignment in Gradebook
Remember that scores from Assignments and Tests & Quizzes can be sent to the Gradebook
automatically. If you want to add scores from other sources, such as participation grades, or
extra credit, or assignments turned in class, you must create that listing in the gradebook (it's
considered a gradebook assignment or gradebook item).
To do so, click on the Add assignment link at the top of the Gradebook window. Fill in the
blanks and click Submit.
Once you've created a manual assignment (gradebook entry), you need to explore how you can
add grades.
• Return to Overview and click on the title of the assignment you just c
•
students appears. Thwill be a little box next to each student where you can enter the total
points that student. BE SURE to click the Save button at thebottom of the page to save
those points.
added assignments from the gradebook by clicking on the link in the upper parof the window
(Remove assignment from gradebook). If
Quizzes), you need to remove the "Send grade to gradebook" feature on the gradebook item
back in the tool where it came from.
Grade Override and Export
Export Assignment Grades
You can see a list of your students, along with their grades in each assignment in the Roster. A
cumulative point total is kept for each student. If you want to see one particular student's grades,
you can search by their name, and view only that student's scores.
At the bottom of the roster are buttons that export this information into another program (Excel or
CSV format). What gets exported looks just like the roster, but it is in a spreadsheet format. THIS
document does not show grades, but just point values.
Export Course Grade
If you prefer seeing the actual course grade a student is getting, you can do that from the
Overview page. At the very bottom of the list of assignments in the Overview page, there is a
link: Course Grade. Click on the link to bring up a new page: Course Grade.
The Course Grade page has a list of students. Once again, you can search for a particular
student to view only his/her information. There is a column here for Calculated Grade. What is
calculated is based on the total number of points available from all assignments in the
Gradebook, even those which haven't been taken yet. (Remember students start out with an "F"
and work their way up.)
Also notice that there is a Grade Override option here. This gives you the ability to assign a
different grade than was earned by point totals. A good example of that is a student earned
79.99%, which automatically gives him a "C" (based on settings in this example). But you feel
that he's been diligent and worked hard, and so you feel that he's earned a "B." This is where you
can change it. Simply type the new grade into the Grade Override box and click on Save at the
bottom of the page.
When you override a grade, there will be a log that keeps track of who made the change and
when it was made.
At the bottom of the Course Grade page, there are buttons for exporting the grades to Excel or
CSV. This is similar to the export from the Roster page/view, except that this time just the final
grades are exported.
Releasing and Viewing Grades
Using Gradebook, instructors have two options of releasing grades to students. They may
choose whether to display to students "assignment scores" and/or "cumulative score, course
grades and calculated assignment grade". To do so, follow the directions below:
1. In the menubar of the relevant worksite, click Gradebook.
2. Click Grade Options.
3. To show students only the scores for the work they have completed so far, check Display
released assignment scores to students. . Note: Assignments that have been
individually set to "released" will not displayed to students until this is checked. To show
students their cumulative score, course grades, and calculated assignment grades,
check the second box.
4. If you want to display both scores to students, check both boxes. Note: if an assignment
has been marked for inclusion in calculating the final grade (i.e., course grade), its score
still contributes to the cumulative grade and course grade regardless of whether it has
been released.
Student View
What students see and when they see it depends on your settings. On the Grade Options page
there are two check boxes.
• The first allows you to set if students see their individual scores on assignments.
• The second box allows students to see their course grade. It's probably not a good idea to
check that box until late in the term, or else you'll have overachieving students all freaking out
over their low scores.
• If both boxes are check, students will see both assignment grades and course grades.
Upload and Import Gradebook Spreadsheet
To upload and import a gradebook spreadsheet, you have a .csv file of scores stored on your
local computer. The first column of your .csv file must contain individual usernames. The first row
must contain headings for the columns.
1. In your site's menubar, click Gradebook.
2. Click Upload/Import.
3. Click Upload spreadsheet (csv format) to Loading Dock. You will then see a file
selection form for uploading a .csv file to the Gradebook loading dock.
4. Next to "Title", enter a unique name, which will be the name for the uploaded data file once
it is in the loading dock.
5. Next to "Choose a File", you may either type in a filename or click Browse to find and
select the file you want to upload.
6. Click Save to begin the upload. The Verify Upload screen will appear with a preview display of
the file contents, allowing you to confirm that you chose the correct file. If you have the right file,
click OK. If you need to select another file, click Back.
Importing a file
Once a file is uploaded to the Loading Dock, its contents become available to you for importing
as new Gradebook assignments.
To import an uploaded file's contents as a new Gradebook assignment, follow these steps:
1. On the Upload/Import screen, under "Loading Dock", find the appropriate .csv file, and
then, next to that file, click Import.
2. On the Import Preview screen, use the radio buttons to select the assignment scores you
wish to import.
Note: You can import only one set of assignment scores at a time.
3. Click Import Selected.
4. On the Import Assignment and Scores screen, fill in the following information:
• Title: A title is required for all Gradebook assignments. The title can be up to
255 characters in length.
• Assignment Point Value: You must assign a point value to all Gradebook
assignments. Enter a value greater than zero. Decimals are permitted, but values
are limited to two decimal places.
• Due Date: You can optionally designate a due date for a Gradebook
assignment. You can manually enter the due date (e.g., mm/dd/yy), or you can
click the calendar icon to select a date from the pop-up calendar.
5. To include this assignment when calculating the final grade, place a checkmark in the
appropriate box. You can change this option later, if necessary.
6. To make this assignment score available to students, place a checkmark in the box next to
"Release assignment." You can change this option later, if necessary.
7. When you're finished, click Submit. You'll return to the Import Preview screen, where
you'll see confirmation that the assignment has been added.
Gradebook FAQs
When I create an assignment item in Gradebook, it does not show up in Assignments.
Am I doing something wrong?
No, you are not doing anything wrong, just working in the wrong direction. Create your
assignments using the Assignments tool. When you create it, click in the box that sends the
assignment grade to the Gradebook, and be sure to choose Points as the method of grading.
If I want to grade my class so that each project, assignment and midterm, etc. has its own
percentage for the term (i.e. midterm is 30% of overall grade, and 12 weekly assignment
counts as 10%), will the computer be able to compute this?
The gradebook tool does not calculate using a percentage weighting system. There are plans for
much more functionality in future releases.
When I go to gradebook overview, I don't see my tests and quizzes listed.
When you publish an assessment, you need to select in the settings of the test to Send Grades
to Gradebook. Go back and check the settings of your assessment. If the Grading options are set
to "None," it explains why the assessments are not sent to the gradebook.
Do I have to put in an assignment in the Assignments tool for discussions? I'd rather just
put a column in the gradebook.
No, you don't have to add a discussion assignment in Assignments. Just add a column in the
gradebook for discussion/participation.
The gradebook allows you to update the points of any assignments you add by simply tabbing
down (not opening an assignment screen for every student!), and date/time stamps your change!
By adding a participation column in the gradebook, you can go weekly - let's say every Sunday and tab down the list of students in your Participation gradebook column, and add an additional
10 points for everyone who deserves it. The software will accept the new points and will record
(info box) when the updated points were given - while keeping record of when previous updates
were made to the grade.
Tests and Quizzes
About Tests and Quizzes
Introduction
Tests & Quizzes allows you to create online assessments. You will use it mainly to administer
tests and quizzes, but it can also be used to gather survey information and informal course
feedback.
Multiple question types can be included in an assessment, including ones that require students
to upload files. You can choose how to organize, deliver and collect the assessment. You can
choose to scramble questions so that they appear in a different order for each student, and you
can scramble multiple choice answers so that the answers appear in a different order for each
student. You can create a question pools with more questions than necessary so that each
student receives a random choice of questions.
Grading is done automatically for objective questions (true/false, multiple choice, matching), and
grades can be posted automatically to the gradebook tool.
By configuring an assessment's settings, you can determine when an assessment will become
available, set time limits, determine how many times a student can take an assessment, and
indicate whether or not late submissions will be accepted.
Key Concepts
Creating a Test: When you click Create on the Tests & Quizzes page, you are naming and
setting up the test, and entering the assessment editor. From here, you can go on to create test
content, including questions and the parts (sections) that will contain them.
Parts: Within the question editor, you not only create the question and its possible answers, but
you can assign the question to a part or a question pool, add feedback and metadata, and
choose whether or not to require students to add rationale for their answer.
Settings: From the Assessments page, you can view and modify the settings for all your
assessments. Within the settings, you can create an introduction for your assessment, determine
its deliver dates and to whom it will be released, set security levels, specify time limits and the
number of submissions allowed, add graphics, feedback, and metadata, and determine how the
assessment will be graded.
Question Pools: You can organize questions into question pools so that you can reuse and
share them with other instructors. You can subdivide question pools into subpools to organize
questions by subject matter, section number, question type, or any other criteria. For example,
an instructor can create a question pool called "Biology 105", and then create subpools called
"Basic Concepts", "Cell Biology", and "Genetics".
TIPS
• Assume all the issues concerning take-home exams also apply to online tests. You really
have no control over what resources a student accesses during the exam.
• Consider setting up a practice or low-stakes quiz before the first actual assessment. Online
test-taking may be new to students and a practice quiz will acquaint them with how to
take an online quiz. One suggestion: create a low-stakes graded quiz covering your
syllabus material. This way, you'll find out in a low-stress environment if they've read and
understood the important information pertaining to your class.
• Feedback settings for your test can be important. This tool only grades true/false, multiple
choice, and fill-in-the-blank question types. It can't grade short answer, essay or file
upload questions -- you'll have to grade those. If your assessment includes questions that
need to be graded by you, you might prefer that your students not see the results of their
automatically graded questions until you've had a chance to finish the rest of the grading.
• As far as the Tests & Quizzes tool is concerned, there is no difference between a test, an
exam and a quiz. Quizzes generally are less stressful to students because they usually
don't account for as much of the final grade. You can label your assessments whatever
term fits best.
•
When starting out to create an assessment, you can start by generating questions
within the test generation (see section, "Creating Tests and Quizzes"), or you can
start by creating questions in a question pool (see section, "Question Pools") and
add them to the test later.
Create New Assessment
Create a New Assessment
1. Click on Tests & Quizzes in the left navigation menu.
2. You will be in the Assessments area. To start with, we will not choose an Existing
Assessment Type. Assessment types will be discussed in more detail in the Assessment Types
section. So for now, give your test a title and click the Create button.
Note that new tests appear in the Core Assessments area. After you have released a test to
students (in the Settings area), it will appear in the Published Assessments area.
Once a test has been published, it will remain in the Published area, either as an active or
inactive test. Once a test has been published, the only things you can modify are the delivery
date settings and whether the grade goes to gradebook or not. You cannot remove a published
test but you can retract it to make it inactive.
Create Parts
When you create a new assessment, a part (i.e., section) called "Default" is created
automatically. If you leave it named "Default", its title will not appear on your assessment (i.e.,
your assessment won't display a part's title if its title is "Default"; to change the "Default" part's
name, click Modify). You can begin adding questions immediately to "Default", or you can add
your own parts.
To add a part to your assessment, follow these steps:
1. On the editing screen, click Add Part.
2. On the part editing screen, next to "Title", type a name for this part.
3. Under "Information", you may use the WYSIWYG editor to enter a brief description or
instructions.
4. Under "Type", use the radio buttons to indicate that you'll be authoring questions
one-by-one, or use a random draw from one of your question pools. For the latter option,
use the accompanying text box to indicate the number of questions, and use the
drop-down list to choose the name of the pool from which to draw them.
5. Under "Question ordering", use the radio buttons to either dictate the order of questions, or
allow a random ordering within the part.
6. Under "Metadata", you may use the text boxes to record any objectives, keywords, or
rubrics.
7. To save your changes, click Save. To cancel them, click Cancel.
New parts will be listed in the order you create them. To switch the order of two parts, before a
part's name, change the number in the drop-down list (i.e., next to "Part"). For example, if you
have three parts, and you want the third part to appear first, use the drop-down list to change the
3 to 1. The third and first parts will switch places.
To modify the name, and any of the information and settings associated with a part, next to that
part's name, click Modify.
Your assessment must always contain at least one part, but you can remove any of the parts you
create. You can also remove the "Default" part, as long as you've already created another part to
replace it.
If you don't want to make it obvious to students that this is a new part, simply type Default into
the title box. The students will notice no change between questions as they move from part to
part.
If you prefer, you can give the part a title that will visible to students and will obviously separate
the questions into parts.
To remove a part, follow these steps:
1. Next to the part's name, click Remove.
2. On the subsequent confirmation screen, use the radio buttons to choose between the
following:
• Remove part and all questions
• Remove part only and move question(s) to (use the accompanying drop-down list to
choose another part)
3. Click Remove.
Note: The first part listed on the editing screen will not have the Remove option. To remove the
first part, you must switch its order with another part (if you don't have another part, you'll have to
create one), and then click Remove.
Creation Questions
• You can create questions one-at-a-time, which is the default method, or you can assign a
test to be generated with random questions from a previously-created question pool (see
the question pools section).
• Types of questions which can be created include multiple choice, survey, short
answer/essay, fill in the blank, matching, true false, file upload (students have to upload a
file) and copy a question from a question pool. For more details on question types, please
refer to Available Question Types.
• Objective questions, such as true false, multiple choice, matching, and fill in the blank
(spelling counts but not capitalization) are automatically scored. You (or someone) has to
grade short answer/essay and file upload questions. More information on grading
assessment will be discussed in another section.
• Feedback is optional. You can give feedback for both correct and incorrect answers.
• You may attach any kind of file to a question, if needed.
• After you've created an assessment, it's a REALLY GOOD IDEA to preview it before
making it available to students. If there are any problems with the assessment, you will
run into them during the preview process, including exceptions or bug report screens.
• While you are working on a test, it remains in the Core Assessments area. It has not yet
been published and is not yet available to students. Once a test has been published, it
can never be "unpublished." It can be made inactive , but it never goes away!
Available Question Types
Question 1: True False
1. From the Add Question: drop down box, choose a question type. There are several
choices. For now, choose True-False.
2. The resulting page has a series of questions to answer. Make your choices:
• How many points this question is worth
• Type the question in the box provided. You can format the text as desired and
add images.
• Assign this question to a part. Each test starts out with only one part. You may
categorize your questions into parts, for example, all T/F questions in part 1, all
multiple choice in part 2, essay in part 3, etc. Or not. For our first example, all
questions will be in part 1.
• If this is a great question that you want to save, assign it to a Question Pool.
(This feature will be discussed in the Question Pools section.)
• If you want to give students feedback on their answers, you have the option of
filling out boxes with correct answer feedback, and incorrect answer feedback.
This is a great opportunity to steer students in the right direction by providing
feedback on where to look to get the correct answers in the book. However, it is
very time-consuming to do this for all of your questions.
• When all the choices have been made, click on Save to finish or Cancel to
delete the question.
Question 2: Multiple Choice
1. From the Add Question: drop down box, choose a question type. For now, choose
Multiple-Choice.
2. The resulting page has a series of questions to answer. Make your choices:
• How many points this question is worth
• Type the question in the box provided. You can format the text as desired and add images
• Choose if there is a single correct answer, or multiple correct answers
• There are four boxes to fill in answers (A-D). You can add more if you want when you get
past D. Put correct and incorrect answers in each box. Mark the correct answer box by
clicking in the radio button next to the correct answer. You can put in feedback for each
answer and/or feedback at the end of the question.
• If you need more answer boxes, select how many more from the Insert Additional
Answers drop-down box.
• Answers can be randomized, which means that they will show up in a different order for
each student.
• If desired, you can require students to justify their selection by requiring that they add
rationale for their choice.
• Assign this question to a part. Each test starts out with only one part. You may categorize
your questions into parts, for example, all T/F questions in part 1, all multiple choice in
part 2, essay in part 3, etc. Or not. For our first example, all questions will be part 1.
• If this is a great question that you want to use in future tests, assign it to a Question Pool.
• If you want to give students feedback on their answers, you have the option of filling out
boxes with correct answer feedback, and incorrect answer feedback. This is a great
opportunity to steer students in the right direction by providing feedback on where to look
to learn more about the topic in the question. However, it is very time-consuming to do
this for all of your questions and you can add later.
• When all the choices have been entered, click on Save to finish or Cancel to delete the
question.
• If you need to remove one of the answer boxes, click on the Remove link affiliated with that
box.
3. You will be able to preview your questions after each addition.
Question 3: Matching
Creating matching questions can seem tricky. If you study the page, you'll understand the
workflow.
There are two boxes for you to fill out for each pair: the Choice and the Match.
There is no feedback boxes for right and wrong matches. However, you CAN add question-level
feedback at the bottom of the question's window.
• After clicking on Save Pairing, that pair will appear above the boxes you filled in.
• Continue in this manner until you have added all the pairs you want your students to match.
Notice that there is no way to have one more answer than the existing pairs (like you can
in a paper test).
• When you've added enough matches, scroll past the boxes you previously filled in with
matches to circle #4 and continue with the rest of the question-creation.
• Add question-level feedback, and save the question.
Question 4: Fill-in-the-Blank and Numeric Response
Fill-in-the-Blank and Numeric Response questions are very similar. They are objective questions
that are graded automatically by the system.
However, in the case of fill-in, the answers do have to be spelled correctly. The main difference
is that fill-in questions are answered in text, and numeric response questions are answered in
numbers. Numeric Response questions are very useful for math questions.
Question Types 5: Short Answer/Essay or File Upload - Which is best?
Short Answer/Essay questions are really best for questions where the answer won't be too long.
There is a 4,000 character limit to this question type, meaning nothing longer than about two
pages.
File Upload questions are great for essay questions where you expect longer answers and where
the submission may be uploaded in any kind of file format, as required: Word, Excel, pdf, etc. So,
the File upload question type is not limited to text-only answers. You could ask students to create
a spreadsheet, a picture in Photoshop, or a PowerPoint presentation and then upload in the
assessment question . . . The sky's the limit.
Question Type 6: Survey Questions
Survey questions are another question type available. They could be used for classroom
evaluations. Survey questions have no point value and there are no right or wrong answers.
Generally, you would create an evaluation with only survey questions on it and set it so it is
anonymously submitted.
When you create a survey question, you have a wide choice of rating scales to choose from.
Each question can use a different scale. Be sure to set anonymous grading in the settings area.
Be sure to set anonymous grading in the settings area.
Question Pools
To reuse questions in your assessments, you can create one or more question pools. Each
question pool can contain several subpools (and subpools can contain subpools, etc.), so you
can organize questions by subject matter, topics, difficulty, question type, or other categories, as
desired.
If your question pool contains more questions than an exam requires, you can have the system
automatically generate a list of questions for each student (draw random from pool), so that each
student receives a different set of questions.
Your pools are like a central repository of questions; you can access them by clicking on
Question Pools from any of your sites where you are an instructor. Thus, you can create new
assessments in new sites from your question pools. You, as the author of the question pools, are
the only one who can access your question pools. Other instructors or TAs who are members of
your site DO NOT have access to your question pools, even if they also have the instructor role
in your class. Likewise, if you have a TA helping you in your course, if they create tests or
question pool questions while logged into their account, you will not have access to those
question pools. You may want to give them temporary access to your account.
You can move or copy question pools and subpools to any other question pool or subpool that
you create. You can also elevate a subpool to a question pool status by selection Question Pool
Manager on the Copy Pool or Move Pool screens.
Creating a New Question Pool
1. On the left nav bar, click Tests & Quizzes.
2. Click the Question Pools link at the top of the page. You'll see any pools that have
already been created, or none if you haven't yet created any.
3. Click the Add New Pool link
4. Fill in the blanks. The Creator field is automatically filled in with whoever is logged in (you)
and can't be altered. The Pool Name field is the only required field.
5. Click Save when you're done here. You should be returned to the Question Pools list with
the new pool listed.
Creating a New Question Subpool
1. On the Question Pools screen, click the name of the pool in which you want to add a subpool.
2. In the Subpools section, click Add.
3. Fill in the blanks just as described above.
Adding Questions to a Question Pool (or Subpool)
In the Question Pools list, click on the name of the pool or subpool to which you want to add a
question.
Scroll down to the bottom of the box and click on the Add button to the right of Questions.
Proceed with the generation of a question: Select a question type, Save, and in the next dialog
box, fill in the fields required for you question type. Click on Save at the bottom of this box. You
should be returned to the Question Pools list with the new question now listed.
After adding all the questions you want for now, click on the Assessments link at the top of the
window to create a test using questions from the question pool, or go elsewhere inside the
system.
Remove Questions Pools, Subpools and Questions
1. On the Question Pools screen there is a list of question pools. They each have a Remove
check box on the right side. Click in that box and then on the Update button at the bottom
of the screen to delete a question pool. This will remove all questions inside that pool.
2. Similarly, each question will have a remove link on the right side. Click in that link and then
on the Remove button at the bottom of the screen to delete a question.
3. In either case, you will be warned with a confirmation that you are sure you want to delete
the item.
Important Tip about Question Pools
When you create a question pool that you will use to generate random-draw assessment, don't
mix point totals OR different question types in the same pool. Separate out these question types
into unique subpools. Mixing different types of questions and point values can result in problems:
1) Let's say you have a 30 question pool consisting of ten 5-point questions, ten 10-point
questions and ten 15-point questions. You then set up a random-draw exam of 15 questions
from that pool. Student 1's test may have 10 5-point questions and five 10-point questions, giving
them a grand total of only 100 points possible, whereas student 2's test may have five 10-point
questions and ten 15-point questions, giving them a grand total of 200 points possible. So don't
add questions with different point values in one pool or subpool. Group similar point values in the
same (sub) pool.
2) Let's say your question pool consists of ten true/false, ten multiple choice and ten essay
questions. If you create an assessment with random draw from this pool, student 1 may get all
true/false and multiple choice questions, whereas student 2 may get multiple choice and essay
questions. Student 2's test could be much harder and that wouldn't be fair, either. So put
difficulty/question type questions into separate pools or subpools.
Creating a Test Entirely From Question Pools
In the earlier section about creating tests, we created questions one-at-a-time. If there was a
particularly good question, it could be added to a question pool as we went along. In this section,
we will discuss how to create a test of random questions drawn entirely from a previously created
question pool.
1. Click on Tests & Quizzes in the upper left navigation menu. Give the test a title and click
the Create button.
2. In the resulting screen, click on Modify that is located to the right under the Add Question
drop-down box.
3. In the next dialog box you'll see, there are lots of important choices:
Each part of a test needs to have a title. The first part is automatically titled Default. Subsequent
parts will need to have a title entered by you. If you don't want parts to be separated by titles,
type Default into the box. "Default" won't show.
In the information box, type any instructions that you want to appear at the top of each page of
the test.
3. Click the Random draw from question pool radio button to set up that option.
• Type in how many questions you want from the question pool.
• Choose which pool you want the questions to come from. You can only have questions from
one pool/subpool per part. If you want to use more than one pool, create more parts as
described below.
Notice that if you're setting up a random draw, you can't choose questions ordering.
If you want to include information in the metadata boxes, fill it in. Otherwise leave those boxes
blank.
4. Click on the Save button to finish setting up this part. The next dialog box looks like the one
below. At this point you can add another part, choose settings, or preview the assessment.
We HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you go ahead and preview the exam to make sure it looks and
works as you expect it.
Be aware that when you preview a random draw exam that you won't necessarily get the same
questions as all your students. You will only get a random selection from all the questions in the
question pool.
5. This is what the start of the exam looks like. To take the exam, click on the Begin
Assessment button. When you're done previewing the test, click on one of the done buttons
located top and bottom of the screen to return to the T&Q home.
Remember that you are previewing the test. You won't be able to actually answer questions.
(Well, it will appear that you can answer T/F and multiple choice, but you aren't really, and the
other question types won't allow you to even pretend.)
Your question pools are accessible by you from all the sites where you are an instructor. You
can add to your pools from any site or create assessments from random draw. It is a good idea to
title your question pools in a way that you'll know which pools belong to which subject/class.
Assessment Settings
When you are finished creating a test, it must be published to allow students to access it.
• To publish an assessment, you must access its Settings. The 'publish' option is at the
bottom.
• To access the Settings of an assessment, click on the middle choice at the top of your
questions page, or click on an assement's title on the Core Assessments list and then
click on Settings.
There are several categories and options in Settings. What settings are available to you at this
point depends on which assessment type you chose (if any) when you created the test. If you
didn't choose an assessment type, then you have all the Default (template) settings available to
you to set.
Assessment Introduction
When you first create an exam, you give it a title. This exam goes into the Core Assessments
area under that title. Then when you publish the test, it has that same title. However, if you need
to publish the exam with a different name, go into this area and give it a new name.
The test creator is pre-populated and can't be changed, although other authors can be added.
In the Description/Intro box, you can enter instructions to the students. These instructors show
up on the assessment's opening page -- the Table of Contents page.
Important: If you want to have instructions on each question page, that information is added in
the Parts >> Modify area.
Delivery Dates
This is the area you set when the test should be open to students. Notice there is a little calendar
widget to the right of the white box. Click on it to open up the calendar widget.
First set the time, then click on a date. If your test starts after 11:59 a.m., add 12 to the total. Be
sure to set both starting (available) and stopping (due date) settings.
After the test is published, you can retract the test under Delivery Dates, if needed.
Assessment Released To
In general, you'll want to release your quiz/test to your class participants. If the test is released to
Anonymous Users, it is impossible to identify who took the test.
High Security
In this area you set up higher-than-normal security settings. If your test needs to be proctored
in a specific lab on campus, you can add the IP addresses for that lab, and then the system will
only allow students from that web address to take the exam.
Also, there is an area to set up a secondary level of security, where you require students to
add an additional username and password to access a specific assessment.
Timed Assessment
If you want students to complete the exam within a time period, this is where you set up timed
testing. Notice that assessments are automatically submitted when the time is up. Students get a
warning 5 minutes before the time limit that they're getting short on time.
Assessment Organization
Three options here:
Navigation:
Linear navigation - no return to previous questions or random access - with a table of contents
and students can go back to previous questions! If students skip a question and don't answer it,
they will not be able to see it again. Linear order (no previous) is not forgiving. It means students
see questions once. If they 'save and exit,' when they return, they will be taken to the question
after the one they completed prior to exiting. Addition, they will have the remainder of the time
(the clock continues to tick when they left) that they didn't use.
Random access is the default and it is the one that most instructors use for testing, as it allows
students to review their work, change their mind and revise answers, etc.
Question Layout:
Each question on a separate page (default), or each part on a separate page, or everything all on
one page. There are pros and cons for any of these choices.
If you choose to have your questions on one page, and students lose their connectivity while
working, none of their answers will be saved. However, if you choose each question on a
separate page, then students must click on 'save and continue' to proceed, sending their
answers to the database along the way.
We recommend one question per page.
Numbering:
Choose if you want questions numbered sequentially, or if you want each part to start over at 1.
Submissions
If you accept late submissions, make your choice here. You can choose to not accept past the
due date, or to have all late submissions marked but still accepted.
Submission Message
When a student submits their assessment for grading, a message will be returned to them.
Something along the lines of: Thank you, your test has been received. You can expect to receive
the grade sometime before the end of the term. Whatever. You get to type the message here in
this box. You may give them feedback or a model answer here, as well.
Or you can create a webpage that you want to be displayed once the exam has been submitted.
In that case, just put the URL for the webpage into the Final Page URL.
Feedback
Feedback is very important. Your choices are:
• immediate feedback - right now in the middle of the test;
• no feedback (ever);
• feedback at a specific date selected by you.
If you choose feedback at a specific date but neglect to put in that date, you'll be warned that you
have to do it. (When you Save or Publish at the bottom of the page.)
WHAT feedback is returned is determined by which options you check in this area. The meaning
of this options is covered later.
Grading
You can choose to do anonymous grading on any or all of your exams. Students will not be
identifiable to you. If you make that choice, however, be aware that you cannot change your
mind. There is no way for you to tell who turned in what exam.
Often you will want grades sent to the gradebook. Sometimes you may not, like in practice
quizzes. Make that choice here.
The last option allows you to choose to record the highest or last score to the gradebook, if you
allow multiple submissions.
Graphics
You can set a color for the backround of your assessments in this area. You must add a valid
html color #. Light backgrounds are easier on eyes. Leave it blank to display tests with white
background. It is easiest to read.
Metadata
Metadata will be used once searching is implemented in the tool. It will allow you to search for
questions that match certain keywords, objectives, or rubrics.
You can fill in or leave this section blank.
After making your selections on these five setting areas, click Publish to make the test available
to students. Click Cancel if you don't want to publish the test. It will remain in the Core
Assessments for later activity.
Remember, once an assessment has been published, it cannot be "unpublished!" It can only be
made inactive. Also students cannot see an assessment until it is published.
RETRACT a Published Assessment
To inactivate a published assessment, return to the Assessment list page (click on Tests &
Quizzes in left navigation bar, or click on the Assessment link at the top of an assessment page.
In the list of items, click on the settings link below the assessment that you want to inactivate.
In the Delivery Dates area, you now see an option for Retract Date. Put in the date you want the
test to be removed from student view here. Then click on the Save Settings box at the bottom of
the window.
Your assessment will then be removed from the "active" published assessments, and it will be
listed under "inactive" published assessments. Students who never accessed the assessment
will not see it. Those who accessed it will still be able to see it.
Note: You do not have a Retract Date option under Delivery Dates until you have published an
assessment, as there isn't anything to retract.
Understand the Retract Date Setting
When the due date of an assessment is reached, the assessment automatically becomes
inactive. However, you may also choose to make an assessment inactive manually or set it to
be 'retracted' at a pre-specified date/time.
User case for retract: Suppose you published an assessment with a due date of 01/15/07 at
7:00PM, and you allowed late submissions. However, you want the software to make the exam
inactive a day later, 01/16/07 at 7:00PM, ending the extra 24-hours grace period for late
submissions, without your having to remember to log on and retract it. Students who are in the
middle of taking the exam will still be able to finish it after 7PM on 01/16/07, but students who
never bothered to click on it and even review it, will no longer see a link for it. It will be moved to
the inactive list.
An assessment should NOT be retracted BEFORE the due date, or after students have
accessed it and submitted answers.
If you must retract a test because of a mistake in it while students are taking it, make sure that
you (a) inform students of the problems and new version that you'll post, (b) change the 'Grading
Options' under Settings to "None" so that it doesn't send any partial grades to the gradebook for
just some students, and (c) publish another correct version of the test.
Post’Em
Post'Em: Overview
What it does
Using the Post'Em tool, you can upload a comma delimited (CSV) spreadsheet to present
feedback to site participants.
Post'Em provides the following functionality:
• Display a participant's individual feedback to that participant
• Display all participants' feedback to the site leader
• Allow the site leader to view a single participant's feedback
• Calculate and display simple statistics for any numerical data
• Upload more than one feedback file
Key concepts
Spreadsheet formatting: For a spreadsheet file to be compatible with Post'Em, it must be
saved in .csv format. The first column must contain usernames, and the first row must contain
headings. Other data cells may contain text or numerical values.
Things to consider
• A project site leader might use Post'Em to give feedback to members about their
contributions to a report, share feedback from other members, and provide and track
specific goals for each individual.
• A course site leader might use Post'Em to give feedback to students about their
performance in class, which might include scores, percentages, letter grades, and/or
comments.
Using the Post'Em tool
You can use Post'Em to create multiple gradebooks, upload an Excel spreadsheet of grades, or
simply post comments.
Creating a file to post
For Post'Em to import files, there are three requirements:
• Your file must be saved in
.csv format. You can save Microsoft Excel spreadsheets as .csv
files.
• The first column of your file must contain individuals' usernames.
• The first row of your file must contain headings. Every column must have a heading.
Once you have created your file, you can modify it as you wish, as long as you stay within the
guidelines above.
Posting a file
To post a file, follow the directions below:
1. In the menubar of the relevant worksite, click Post'Em.
2. Click Add.
3. In the field next to "Title", enter a title for your file (maximum length is 30 characters) .
4. In the field next to "Choose a file", click Browse, and navigate to your .csv file.
5. If you wish to release the feedback to participants (i.e., allow your students to see the
grades), check Release feedback to participants?
6. To save your file, click Post; to cancel, click Cancel.
7. On the "Verify Upload" page you will see a sample of how the file will appear. To continue
and post the file, click Save. To return to the upload screen, click Back.
To upload additional files, repeat the instructions above.
Viewing a Post'Em File
Instructors or assistants can use Post'Em to post files that include grades, comments, or general
feedback for site participants.
Viewing feedback in a posted file (for students)
If an instructor or assistant has posted a file, you can view your feedback by following these
steps:
1. In your site's menubar, click Post'Em.
2. Find your file, and then click View. Your feedback from the posted file will appear.
3. To return to the main Post'Em screen, click Back.
Viewing feedback in a posted file (for instructor instructors and assistants)
Instructors and assistants can view feedback of the entire posted file, or the feedback for an
individual participant.
To view the entire posted file, follow these steps:
2. Find the file to view, and then click View. The contents of the posted file will appear.
Names of participants who have not checked their feedback will appear in red. Under
"Last Check", you can see the last time participants checked their feedback.
To view feedback for a single participant, follow these steps:
2. Find the appropriate file, and then click View Participant.
3. Use the drop-down list to select a participant. You'll see the feedback as it will appear to
that person.
Downloading/Updating/Deleting a Posted File
Downloading a posted file
To download a posted file, follow these steps:
2. Find the file you want, and then click Download. If prompted, save the file to your
computer.
Updating a posted file
To update a posted file, follow these steps:
Note: A Post'Em file must meet the format requirements; see Using the Post'Em Tool.
2. Find the file to update, and then click Update.
3. In the field next to "Title", you can change the title if needed.
4. In the field next to "Choose a file", click Browse, and navigate to your new .csv file.
5. If you wish to release the feedback to participants (i.e., allow the students to see the
grades), check Release feedback to participants? This option may already be selected
based on the original file.
6. To save your file, click Post; to cancel, click Cancel.
7. On the Verify Upload page, you can preview how the file will appear. To continue and post
the file, click Save. To return to the upload screen, click Back.
Deleting a posted file
To delete a posted file, follow these steps:
2. Find the file you want to delete, and then click Delete.
3. To confirm the deletion, click Delete. To cancel the deletion, click Cancel.
Message Center
Message Center: Overview
What it does
The Message Center is a communication tool that instructors or site leaders can use to create an
unlimited number of discussion forums for their course or project sites. The Private Messages
area allows site participants to communicate using internal course mail. Private messaging
between groups is also supported. The Message Center is designed to be an effective tool for
both academic and collaborative work, and is integrated closely with other tools.
Key concepts
Private messages: Individuals and groups can send internal mail to each other. This function
can be deactivated.
Viewing messages: Unread messages are in bold; viewed messages are permanently marked
as read. By default, messages are listed chronologically. Also, users can select Threaded view to
display messages in indented threads. The Unread Only view will show only those messages
you have not read.
Composing messages: A WYSIWYG interface allows rich text, plain text, and HTML editing.
You can add attachments to any message by linking to files or web links in Resources. By
default, the original message is not included in a reply, but a quote option is available that pastes
the original text into the message.
Discussion forums: Asynchronous discussion provides an opportunity for your site participants
to engage site resources and each other, and allows for the free expression of convergent and
divergent ideas. Interactions can be assigned a point value and sent to the Gradebook.
Viewing forums: On your site's Home page (select Home on the site's menubar), participants
can see how many unread private and discussion forum messages they have. On the Message
Center screen, participants see the number of unread messages and the grand total of
messages for each topic. In the forums list, forums and topics are sorted chronologically by
default.
Settings: The site owner (or another participant with the appropriate role) can require
participants to submit their posts to a topic before they have permission to read the responses of
others. Other settings provide control over access rights (i.e., which individuals or groups can
see forums and contribute) and permissions for creating forums, topics, messages, and
responses.
Things to consider
If private messaging is activated, a participant can send private messages to another individual,
a select number of individuals, or a select number of groups.
Create a
Discussion Forum
There are no default forums or topics in the discussion forums area of the Message Center tool.
No forums will appear in this area until someone with an appropriate role creates them. By
default, participants (e.g., students) in a course site cannot create forums in Discussion Forums
area.
When you create your forum, you'll need to add at least one topic so site members can post
messages.
To create a new discussion forum, follow these steps:
1. In your site's menubar, click Message Center. The Message Center screen will open.
2. Next to "Discussion Forums", click New Forum. The Discussion Forum Settings screen
will open.
3. In the "Forum Title" field, type your forum's title. This is a required field, and is limited to 75
characters.
4. In the "Short Description" field, you have the option of providing a brief description (limited
to 100 characters) that will be displayed along with the title in the Discussion Forums
area.
5. In the "Description" field, you may enter an in-depth description of your forum, and provide
any associated information or resources.
6. Under "Attachments", you can attach a file from your local computer or from Resources,
or specify the URL for a file on the web.
7. To disable forum postings, under "Forum Posting", click the Yes radio button next to "Lock
Topic (Disable topic postings)". The No radio button is selected by default, allowing site
participants to post messages about your forum topic.
8. Under "Permissions", you can modify permission levels for participant roles. To do so, from
the list under "Permissions", select a role for editing by clicking its name. Then, next to
"Permission Level:", use the drop-down list to select from several predefined permission
levels. Additionally, you can create custom permission levels by clicking to enable or
disable the following functions:
• New Forum: Create a new forum. You can modify this option only via Template
Settings.
• New Topic: Create a new topic. You can modify this option only via Template
Settings or Forum Settings.
• New Response: Create a new response to your topic.
• Response to Response: Send responses to a topic response.
• Change Settings: Change the topic settings.
• Read: Read topic responses.
• Post to Gradebook: Grade responses and add comments. Send grades and
comments to Gradebook.
• Mark as Read: Mark messages as read.
• Revise Postings: Use the radio buttons to indicate which postings participants with
the permission level can revise (none, their own, or all postings).
9. Next to "Gradebook Assignment", use the drop-down list to choose an assignment with
which the forum should be associated.
10.When you're finished, click one of the following:
• Save Settings & Add Topic: Save your changes and add the topic to your forum.
You will need to add a topic so site members can post messages.
• Save Draft: Save your forum as a draft. You'll return to the Message Center
screen.
• Cancel: Cancel your changes; you'll return to the Message Center screen.
Creating Discussion Topic
To add a topic while you're creating your forum, first finish creating the forum, and then click
Save Settings & Add Topic.
To add a topic later (i.e., after you've created and saved your forum), go to the Message Center
screen and find your forum's title. To its right, click New Topic.
Either of the above methods takes you to the Topics Settings screen. From there, you can finish
adding your topic. Follow these steps:
1. Next to "Topic Title", enter a title in the text box. This is a required field, and is limited to 75
characters.
2. Next to "Short Description", you have the option of providing a brief description (limited to
100 characters) that will display below the title in the Discussion Forums area.
3. Next to "Description", you may enter an in-depth description of your forum, and provide
any associated information or resources.
4. To add an attachment, under "Attachments", click Add Attachment. The file selector
screen will open .
5. To disable topic postings, under "Topic Postings", click the Yes radio button next to "Lock
Topic (Disable topic postings)". The No radio button is selected by default, allowing site
participants to post messages about your forum topic.
6. Under "Permissions", you can modify permission levels for participant roles. To do so, from
the list under "Permissions", select a role for editing by clicking its name. Then, next to
"Permission Level:", use the drop-down list to select from several predefined permission
levels. Additionally, you can create custom permission levels by clicking to enable or
disable the following functions:
New Forum: Create a new forum. You can modify this option only via Template Settings.
New Topic: Create a new topic. You can modify this option only via Template Settings or
Forum Settings.
New Response: Create a new response to your topic.
Response to Response: Send responses to a topic response.
Change Settings: Change the topic settings.
Read: Read topic responses.
Post to Gradebook: Grade responses and add
comments. Send grades and comments to Gradebook.
Mark as Read: Mark messages as read.
Revise Postings: Use the radio buttons to indicate which postings participants with
the permission level can revise (none, their own, or all postings).
7. When you're finished, click one of the following:
• Save Settings: Save your changes, post the topic, and exit the Discussion
Forum Settings screen. This returns you to the Message Center screen, where
you can see your newly posted topic within your forum.
• Save Settings & Add Topic: Save your changes, and add another topic to your
forum. This opens a blank Topic Settings screen, and allows you to create an
additional topic without returning to the Message Center screen .
• Save Draft: Save your forum as a draft. You'll return to the Message Center
screen.
• Cancel: Cancel your changes. You'll return to the Message Center screen.
Posting Discussion Item
Posting a new discussion forum message
To compose and post a message about a discussion forum topic, follow these steps:
1. From the Message Center screen, under "Discussion Forums", click the title of the topic for
which you'd like to post a message.
2. Click Compose Message. The Compose Discussion Forum Message screen will open.
3. Next to "Title", type the subject (i.e., title) of your message.
4. Under "Message", use the WYSIWYG editor to compose your message.
5. Under "Attachments", you can attach a file from your local computer or from Resources, or
specify the URL for a file on the web.
6. When you're finished:
• To post your message, click Post Message.
• To cancel your message without saving it, click Cancel.
Posting a response to a message or topic
Note: Depending on your role within the site, and how the forum creator configured permissions,
you may or may not be able to post a response to another participant's message.
To compose and post a response to another participant's message, follow these steps:
1. Under "Discussion Forums", click the title of the desired topic.
2. Find and click the subject of the desired message.
3. Click Reply to Message or Reply to Topic.
4. In the text field next to "Reply Title", give your reply a title.
5. In the text field under "Message", type your reply.
6. Under "Attachments", you can attach a file from your local computer or from Resources, or
7. When you're finished:
• To post your message, click Post Message.
• To cancel your message without saving it, click Cancel.
Revise/Delete a Discussion Forum/Topic
Revising a forum or topic
You can choose to revise a forum, a topic, or the default template for newly created forums and
topics. To do so, follow these steps:
1. In your site's menubar, click Message Center, and then click to choose one of the
following:
• Template Settings opens the Default Template Settings screen. Settings from
this template will apply each time you create a new forum or topic. You can
override these settings for an individual forum or topic after you've created it.
• Forum Settings opens the Discussion Forum Settings screen. This setting
overrides the default template settings for an individual forum.
• Topic Settings opens the Topic Settings screen. This setting overrides the
default template and forum settings for an individual topic.
• To edit the settings, at the bottom of the screen, click Revise. For a forum or topic,
you can change the title, descriptions, and attachments. You can also choose to
disable postings. For a forum or topic or the default template, you can choose to
modify permissions.
Deleting a forum or topic
To delete a discussion forum or topic that you've created, follow these steps:
1. On the Message Center screen, find the forum or topic you wish to delete, and next to its
title click one of the following options:
• Forum Settings opens the Discussion Forum Settings screen.
• Topic Settings opens the Topic Settings screen.
2. At the bottom of the screen, click Delete.
3. You'll see a warning message that asks you to confirm the deletion. To delete the item,
click Delete. To cancel, click No.
Grade Responses in Discussion Forums
Note: Before following these directions you must first create an assignment in the Gradebook;
for instructions, see Add Assignment in Gradebook.
To grade a response in Discussion Forums, follow these steps:
1. In your site's menubar, click Message Center .
2. Under "Discussion Forums", click the title of the desired topic.
3. Find and click the response to grade.
4. Click Grade.
5. Enter a point value for a grade, and then use the drop-down list to select tassignment for
which you're posting the grade.
6. To send feedback, next to "Comments", compose a message in the text box, and then
click Send Notification. This will send a message, including the grade and your
comments, to the sPrivate Messages
box has a maximum limit of 255 characters. If you write a longer comment, the recipwill
receive a truncated version.
7. When you're finished, click Submit Grade.
Activate Private Messages
In Message Center, Private Messages lets site participants send email to other individuals or
groups within the site. Messages can be delivered within Message Center to the recipient's
Received folder in Private Messages, or outside Message Center to individual or group email
accounts.
However, by default, Private Messages is not activated. The site leader (or someone with the
appropriate permissions) must activate it. To do so, follow these steps:
1. In your site's menubar, click Message Center.
2. To the right of "Private Message Area", click Settings.
3. Under "Activate Private Messages", click Yes.
Note: Under "Auto Forward Private Messages", you can click Yes to forward private
messages to an email address of your choosing. If you choose auto-forwarding, type the
desired email address in the text box provided.
4. Click Save Settings.
Send and Reply to Private Messages
Sending a message
Note: If you don't see the Private Messages area, your site leader may not have activated
private messaging. For instructions on activating private messaging, site leaders should consult
Activating Private Messages.
To compose and send a message, follow these steps:
2. On the Message Center screen, under "Private Message Area", click Compose Private
Message. Or, while viewing the contents of a Private Messages folder, click Compose
Message.
Note: If you can't see anything under "Private Message Area", try clicking the triangle
next to "Private Message Area" to expand the area.
3. Next to "To", use the drop-down list to select the individual(s) or group(s) you want to
receive the message. To select multiple participants, use Ctrl-click (in Windows) or
Cmd-click (in Mac OS X). You can also choose to send your message to the entire site, or
to all users with a particular role (e.g., all instructors or all assistants).
4. Next to "Send", use the radio buttons to choose to send your message either As Private
Message or To Recipients' Email Address(es).
Note: If you send your message using the To Recipients' Email Address(es) option,
your message will go directly to the recipients' email addresses. Their Received folders
in Private Messages will not receive a copy. However, a copy of your message will be
saved in your Sent folder in Private Messages.
5. Next to "Subject", type the subject (i.e., title) of your message.
6. Under "Message", use the WYSIWYG editor to compose your message.
7. Under "Attachments", you can attach a ffrom your local computer or from Resources, or
8. Under "Label", use the drop-down list to change the priority status of your message.
9. When you're finished, click Send to send your message. Or, click Cancel to cancel your
message.
Replying to a message
To reply to a message someone sent to you, follow these steps:
2. On the Message Center screen, under "Private Message Area", click Received to view the
messages you've received.
Note: If you can't see anything under "Private Message Area", try clicking the triangle
next to "Private Message Area" to expand the area.
3. Find and click the message to which you're replying.
4. Click Reply to message.
5. To compose and send your reply, follow steps 3 through 9 above.
Appendix
Unsupported Characters
When naming an item such as a file, folder, discussion forum, or wiki page, avoid using the
following unsupported characters:
Character
\
/
?
*
"
:
<
>
#
%
Description
Back slash
Forward slash
Question mark
Asterisk
Quotation mark
Colon
Less than
Greater than
Hash mark
Percent sign
These characters can also cause an error when you attempt to upload a file. If your file's name
contains one of these characters, change the filename before attempting to upload it.
T-Square Instructor Manual
Prepared by
Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
Georgia Institute of Technology
Summer 2007
Acknowledgement
We extend our thanks to Foothill College, California for allowing us to use their
in this manual.
documentation

Table of Contents - T-Square Project Site

Transcription

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