Site Info

From e-Learning Documentation

Revision as of 16:51, 4 November 2010

Overview

Site Info is the tool that allows for the control of many aspects of the course. This tool cannot be removed from the Toolbar because if its importance to the course. In this tool, you can select which tools to use in the course, which tools to display to students, create and manage groups, add participants and bring in content from other courses in which you are an Instructor.

You will see here the content that is on your Home Page. Beneath that content you will see a list of all course participants, including the Role and Status. Beneath the list of Participants is a brief description of each of the Roles. A much more complete and accurate description of roles can be found at Participants - Overview of all Roles

While Site Info is valuable to instructors, there is little of value to students. Many instructors choose to hide the tool from the students. See "Page Order" for instructions on hiding tools.

Edit Site Information

This option allows you to edit information that is displayed to the students on your Home Page. This is identical to clicking on Options on the Home Page and making your edits there. But within "Edit Site Information" you can also edit certain information such as a contact information. If all contact information is provided elsewhere in the course, students get no added benefit from seeing the Site Info tool.

Another option that could be of value here is if you are in a Project Site instead of a Course. Project Sites can be "joinable" and appear on a list of all site that people can join. You may add a "Short Description" of no more than 80 characters that will let prospective participants know what your site is about so they can decide if they want to join.

Edit Tools

Some tools are provided in every course created, but there are other tools available for your use. A description of each tool is at: Tools - Overview of all Available Tools. "Edit Tools" allows you to choose which tools to use in your course. Simply check the box beside the tool(s) you want to add and uncheck the box beside the tool(s) you want to remove. Click Continue. You see the tools listed, click Finish.

Web Links

If you choose "Web Links" you will get an additional screen after you click "Continue." You will be asked to give a "Title" to the tool. This Title is what will appear in the course tool bar so brevity is important. You will also be asked to provide the URL (Web Address) to the website where this tool will point. In another tab or browser, go to the website, copy the URL and paste it into the box labeled "[missing key: multiple tools source]." Click Continue. You see the tools listed, including your new Web Link, click Finish.

RSS Feeds

If you choose "RSS Feeds" you will get an additional screen after you click "Continue." You will be asked to give a "Title" to the tool. This Title is what will appear in the course tool bar so brevity is important. You will also be asked to provide the URL (Web Address) to the website where this RSS Feed will point. Many news website offer a list of RSS Feed links. For example, CNN.com has an "RSS" link at the bottom of the Home Page. Here you find a list of URLs for the various news topics. Copy the URL and paste it into the box labeled "[missing key: multiple tools channel-url]." Click Continue. You see the tools listed, including your new RSS Feed, click Finish.

Page Order

When you click this link, you will see a list of all the tools that you are utilizing in this course. This option allows you to reorder the tools in the course toolbar, hide tools and edit the name of a tool.

Reorder Tools

To move a tool to a different place in the list, hold down the left mouse button and drag it to the location where you want it to be. Release the mouse button to drop the tool in that location. NOTE: By default, "Home" is at the top of the list. If you place a different tool at the top of the list, that tool will replace the Home Page as the first thing students see when they go into your course. This is not recommended!

Hide Tools from Students

There are time when you may want to hide a tool or tools from students, but still make it available for your own use. An example might be the Site Info tool, which is of little value to students. You also want to hide one of the Gradebook tools from the students to avoid confusion. If you are using the Resources tool for your own use rather than for distributing files to students, you will hide that tool also. Site Stats is another example of a tool that you might want for your own use, but not allow students to access. NOTE: There are four tools that appear both in the tool bar and also in the right pane of the Home Page - Announcements, Calendar, Messages (Mail) and Forums (Discussions). If you hide the tool in the toolbar, the tools still show up in the right pane of the Home Page. BUT, the Messages and Forums tool no longer works from the right pane of the Home Page. Participants will still see that there are new messages, but when they click the link to go to the Mail or Discussion tool, nothing happens. Announcements and Calendar still work fine if the tool is hidden.

To hide a tool from the students, click the lightbulb icon beside the tool name.

Edit the Name of the Tool

You should be very cautious about renaming tools. While you might think that you want to rename the "Assignments" tool to be called "Homework Submissions," it could create problems for the students. If a student calls the Help Desk asking for assistance with the "Homework Submissions" tool, Help Desk staff will not know how to assist the student. If the student goes to tutorials for help in using this tool, he won't be able to find a tutorial on "Homework Submissions" tool. When you reuse content from one semester to another, the tool in the new course will not retain the name you gave it, but will revert to its system name.

If you still want to change the name of the tool, click the pencil icon beside the tool name. In the Title box, type the name and then click the green check mark.

Add Participants

While all students registered for your class through the Registrar will be automatically loaded, you may want to enroll additional users as Teaching Assistants, Designers, Observers, etc. To enroll participants:

1. Click Add Participants at the top of the "Site Info" page.
2. Enter the gatorlink username or the UFID in the box. To enter more than one participant, hit "Enter" after each entry.
3. Are all participants going to receive the same role?
   • If yes, leave the "Participant Roles" set to the default "Assign all participants to the same role. When you click Continue you will see a screen where you can select the role.
   • If not, select "Assign each participant a role individually." When you click Continue you will see a screen where each user will be listed and you can select a different role for each user.
4. Click Continue
5. If you want to alert these participants that they are no enrolled in the course, change the default from "Don't Send" to "Send Now."
6. On the confirmation page, verify that the users and their roles are correct and click Finish.

Change a Participant's Role

Perhaps you want to change a user from a Designer role to a Teaching Assistant role. On the "Site Info" page list of participants, locate the person's name. In the "Role" drop-down menu, select the new role. Click Update Participants at the bottom of the list.

Make a Participant Inactive

You are not able to remove a student who is enrolled through the Registrar's office, but you can make that person "Inactive," denying access to the site. When you make someone "Inactive," all his/her submissions and grades will be removed, but will reappear if the status is returned to "Active."

On the "Site Info" page list of participants, locate the person's name. In the "Status" drop-down menu, choose "Inactive." Click Update Participants at the bottom of the list.

Remove a Participant

You are not able to remove a student who is enrolled through the Registrar's office, but you may remove other users that you have added, such as CE Students, Teaching Assistants, Facilitators, etc. On the "Site Info" page list of participants, locate the person's name and check the box in the "Remove" column. Click Update Participants at the bottom of the list.

Edit Class Rosters

At the current time, Instructors have no need to access this link.

Manage Groups

Groups are useful in many ways. You may give Assignments, Discussions, Tests & Quizzes, Resources content and other items to specific groups rather than the entire class. You can place "special needs" students into a group that will make it easier to comply with their requirements needs.

Create a New Group

From the Site Info page:

1. Click Manage Groups
2. Click Create New Group
3. "Title" - Enter a title for the group.
4. "Description" - Enter a description if desired. The description is for your own use only. It does not display to the members of the group.
5. Under the "Description" box, you see the "Membership Site Member List" and the "Group Member List." You want to move the desired participants from the Membership Site Member List to the Group Member list using the right and left arrow buttons. #* Select a role or person by clicking once to highlight. Use the right arrow to move it to the list.
   • Select a range of roles and/or persons by clicking the first name and while holding down the Shift key, click the last name in the list. All participants between the two will be highlighted. User the right arrow to move them to the list.
   • Select several non-contingent users by clicking the first name and while holding down the CTRL key, click the other names you want to add. All participants clicked will be highlighted. User the right arrow to move them to the list.
     • To remove from the group, use any of the above processes to select the users to remove and use the left arrow key to remove them from the group.

Click Add

NOTE: "Auto Groups" is supposed to automatically create a group based on a role. This option has presented some problems and we are not recommending its use at this time.

Edit a Group

From the Site Info page:

1. Click Manage Groups
2. Beside the group you want to edit, click Edit.
3. Make your changes and click Update

Delete a Group

From the Site Info page:

1. Click Manage Groups
2. Beside the group you want to delete, check the box in the "Remove?" column.
3. Click Remove Checked.

Manage Access

This option allows you to publish and unpublish your course. At the beginning of the semester, you will want to publish your course when you are ready for students to access your content. At the end of the semester, you may want to unpublish your course so that students no longer access your content.

1. Click Manage Access
   • To publish, check the "Publish site" box and click Update
   • To unpublish, uncheck the "Publish site" box and click Update

Duplicate Site

At this time, Instructors do not have the ability to duplicate their sites.

Import from Site

Instructors can import content from any other course in which they are enrolled as Instructor. This is used for importing content from one semester to another, but can be used at any time to bring in content you've created in a different course.

1. Click Import from Site
   • "I would like to replace my data" - this option replaces your current content. If you have three Assignments in your course and import three Assignments from a different course, your original three Assignments will be removed and replaced by the imported Assignments. If it is the beginning of the semester and the course into which you are importing is empty, this is the option to choose because it also imports Gradebook settings. NOTE: While it does import all Gradebook settings, Gradebook 2 options such as dropping lowest scores and weighting within a category will have to be reentered manually as these are not available in Gradebook.
   1. Click I would like to replace my data
   2. Select the site from which you want to import content.
   3. Click Continue.
   4. Select the tools from which you want to import content. NOTE: The tool must be available in both courses in order to import. If you do not have the Tests & Quizzes tool selected in one of the courses, it will not appear as an option.
   5. Click Finish.
   • "I would like to merge my data" - this option adds the imported content to already existing content. If you have three Assignments in your course and import three Assignments from a different course, you will end up with six Assignments. This is more useful mid-semester when you already have content that you do not want to be removed. This option does not import any Gradebook settings.
   1. Click I would like to merge my data
   2. Select the site from which you want to import content.
   3. Click Continue.
   4. Select the tools from which you want to import content. NOTE: The tool must be available in both courses in order to import. If you do not have the Tests & Quizzes tool selected in one of the courses, it will not appear as an option.
   5. Click Finish.
   • "I would like to merge my user(s)" - This would only be useful if you have non-Registrar courses. This option combines all users in all courses selected.
   1. Click I would like to merge my user(s)
   2. Check the box next to the site(s) you want to merge.
   3. Click Finish

Import from File

This function does not work at this time.