Unit  1:  Asynchronous - Course Home       Help

   

Course Home

Overview:

The Course Home Page is the screen that appears when an instructor enters his or her
course.  The Announcements area is where the Instructor posts announcements to students
in class.  The What's New area of Course Home displays to students and the instructor those
areas of the course that have been updated since the instructor last logged on.  Course
Checklist is the area where students can check their assignments.  The students do this by
selecting the Course Checklist link.

Page Views (Course vs. Author)

Instructors have two different views: Course and Author. Instructors can switch between Course and
Author views by clicking the corresponding tabs. The views are differentiated by color. The Course view
is the student view and is burgundy while the Author view is gray.

The Course view is the view that is seen when a student or an instructor logs into
the course.  Only instructors have the Author tab available to them. Students do
not see the Author tab.

In the Author view, instructors have access to the various functions that enable
them to build a course. Once an instructor enters into author mode, he or she will
be able to add content under the Unit/Week tabs themselves. This will be covered
in the Creating Content Managed section. For more information on creating a
managed content item and a step-by-step process, please review Creating
Managed Items. However, it is recommended that you follow training in the
sequence provided here.

I.  Course Home - Course View 

The Course Homepage is the first page instructors and students see when logging into the course. The Course
Homepage displays Announcements, Course Introduction, What's New, and Course Checklist.  

Syllabus

The Course Home unit contains two pre-loaded content items: Syllabus and Syllabus Part
II.  
Each quarter a copy of the generic syllabus needs to be downloaded from the Online Faculty
Portal (OFP).  The OFP is a website that contains comprehensive information for instructors. 
Access to the OFP is provided once instructors are trained, certified, and assigned an
online class to teach.  This copy of the syllabus is then required to be updated and
customized to each instructor's unique teaching style, contact information, etc.  The
syllabus needs to be uploaded as an MS Word document under the Syllabus tab (located
under Course Home).  

How to upload a Microsoft Word Document as a syllabus in eCollege:

Click the Author tab (top left).

Click the Syllabus content item under Course Home 

Under Add New Syllabus Item select upload MS Word Syllabus from the Type dropdown menu box.

Click the Add This Item button.

Click the Browse button to search for the file to be uploaded.

Click the Save Changes button to save the syllabus.

Click the OK button in the pop up window.

This is the window that will be displayed if the syllabus has successfully loaded.

To view a short demonstration on Uploading a Syllabus, select the following link: Uploading
a syllabus

Note: To edit the syllabus, the instructor will need to replace the already uploaded file. MS
Files that are already uploaded cannot be edited using the Visual Editor.
Syllabus Part II

This is the second part of the syllabus containing all the university services and policies.  This part of the
syllabus is locked to instructors (i.e. it cannot be deleted, updated or switched).  A Syllabus Part II has
been provided in this training shell as an example.

Practice:

Open the practice shell and upload the MS Word syllabus found in Doc Sharing.

II.  Course Home - Author View 

This area contains three tabs to help the instructor manage the course home section of the course.

1. The Course Home tab enables instructors to post annoucements, create or search for an introductory
message and audio/video links.
2. The Course Weeks & Items tab can be used to add content items under the Course Home unit.

3. The File Manager tab is used to upload and download  non-Managed content files.

Adding Content Items

This is an introduction to Managed and non-Managed content items.  We will cover these in more depth when we
get further along in the training.  For now, please familiarize yourself with the basic introduction presented below in
order better understand the Announcements and Course Introduction sections that follow. 

When a managed content item is created, it is placed into an individual repository that is unique to that instructors
login and password.  Currently only Text/Multimedia and MS Office content items can be created, added, or
uploaded into the Content Management library. As a result, the course may include both Managed and non-
Managed content. 

Managed Content:

 is stored in a central location

 can be used in multiple courses

 can be updated once and any changes made will be reflected in all courses using the content

 includes search tags called "Metadata" which make searching for relevant content easy

 accommodates drafts of content, allowing you to "perfect" a draft before making it available to students

 accommodates versions of content, allowing you to edit content that has already been made available to
students
  maintains content security, as content is available to content authors and administrators only

 can be "locked" by administrators to standardized content across courses

 uses an enhanced Visual Editor (for text/multimedia items) which allows you to add metadata to the item

If the instructor wants to add "managed content" to the course, the instructor will need to add a new
"Text/Multimedia (Content Manager)" or "MS Office" item. Any content created within these item types is
automatically added to the content library.

non-Managed Content:

 is stored within an individual course

 can only be used in the course in which it "lives"

All existing or "pre-Content Manager" content is non-managed.  The instructor can continue to add "non-managed
Content" to the course by adding the following types of items:

 Text/Multimedia
 Threaded Discussions

 Exams

 Third-party coursepacks

1a.  Announcements

You will be creating a non-Managed item in the Announcements area. 

Announcements can be posted on the Course Homepage. Every time students log into the
course, they will be able to view all the announcements that have been posted up to that
point.  Instructors are encouraged to post a weekly announcement providing direction and
instruction to students, welcoming them to class and letting them know when weekly
materials have been graded and are available for review in the gradebook.  As an instructor,
the Announcements section allows the instructor to post, edit, or delete course
announcements on the Course Home Page. The students can only view announcements.

To add announcements:

Click Course Home while in the Author view.

   

Click New Annoucement.

 
  
The visual editor will appear. 

Type in Subject.

Select Display Dates.

Type annoucement in text box (white area).

Click here to learn about formatting.

Click on Post New Annoucement

To view a short demonstration on Adding Announcements, select the following link: Adding

Annoucements Demo

Practice

Go to your practice shell and post an announcement reminding students to update their address from
“email@strayer.edu” to their personal e-mail address. 

Download the sample audio link found in doc share.  In the same announcement, create a link to this audio
file called Beethoven. 

1b.  Course Introduction

The Course Introductory area is a content managed environment.  You will be creating managed content in this area.

Along with annoucements, the Course Introduction is the first thing students see when they log in to their course. 
An introduction can include an overview of the course, a graphic, and/or audio/video. Instructors are able to create
new content for annoucements or search and publish previously created introductions. Previously created content in
the Course introduction can only be "pulled" into this area.  This area can not be "pushed" into other areas in the
course.

1c.  Audio/Video Links

In this section, the instructor can upload Audio/Video Links by inserting the URL and the Link text in the
appropriate spaces.
2.  Course Weeks and Items

The Course Weeks & Items tab allows the instructor to add weeks and add items. The instructor can also rename or
delete items that are in the course shell in this area. In order to achieve this, you would first need to click on Course
Home on the left vertical navigation followed by the Author tab which will generate the screen as below.

The Add Week option:

The Add Week option allows the instructor to add weeks or units to course shells.  While the option does exist,
instructors are encouraged not to add Weeks, thus keeping to a standard layout for all courses.  

There are two choices for adding a Week to the course.  They are:

1. ...add Placeholder for Week or Unit

2. ...add with Existing Content

The Add Items option:

The Add Items option allows the instructor to add content to weekly units.

There are two choices for adding an item to a weekly unit.  They are:

1. ...add Placeholder for Content

2. ...add with Existing Content

3.  File Manager

< font>The File Manager provides the option to upload files into a course. Instructors can
access the File Manager in the Author view of the Course Home unit.

To access the File Manager:

Click the Course Home button and then click the Author tab. Click File Manager.

 
 

Current course folders and files display on the left. If the instructor hasn't created any folders for the course or uploaded any files, the fo
structure on the left contains the main course folder and a Streaming Media folder. Use the Streaming Media folder when uploading aud
files to the course.

Note: Avoid using special characters like "*," "-," "%," in the folders and file names when creating or uploadi
files into the file manager. Folders and files that include special characters will be inaccessible in other areas
the course.

To upload a file to the File Manager:

Select the action Upload a file from the drop-down list.

Click a folder in the course files list on the left to determine where the file will be uploaded.
Select the file to upload using the Browse button. The 'Select a Folder' window will appear.

When uploading a zipped file, the system can unzip the file once it has been uploaded to the course. Check
uncheck this option.

Click Upload File to upload the file to the selected course folder.

To view a short demonstration on Uploading files to the File Manager, select the following
link: File Upload Demo

Uploading Streaming Media Files

The instructor can upload or download a streaming media file using the File Manager.

To access the Streaming Media folder from the File Manager:

Click the Course Home button and then click the Author tab. Click File Manager.

Current course folders and files display on the left. If the instructor has not created any new course folders, only the main course folder
Streaming Media folder appear in the tree on the left.

Click the Streaming Media folder.

Please note: When clicking on the Streaming Media folder, instructors have the same file management opt
available in the Select an Action drop-down list on the right as before.  Click the Streaming Media folder to
this.  It may be noted that any action chosen from the menu applies only to streaming media files.

To exit the Streaming Media folder and return to the regular course file structure, simply click the Back fold
the top of the Course Files folder list.

Select Upload a streaming media file from the drop-down list.

Select the file to upload using the Browse button. The Choose File' window will appear.

Select a File Type from the drop-down list.

Enter a Description of the streaming media file. The description should be something that will help the inst
remember what the file is named, such as "Presidential Candidates."
Enter any Comments for the streaming media file. Comments can be added to help the instructor rememb
file.  For example: “Update with new video file once the election is over."

Click Upload File to upload the media file to the selected course folder.

To download a file from File Manager:

Select Download a file from the dropdown list.

 
 

Select the file to download from the files and folders on the left.

 
 

Click Download File to download the file.

Remember to re-upload the modified file in order to use it in the course.

To view a short demonstration on downloading a file, select the following link: Download

Demo

To create a new folder:

Select Create a new folder from the drop-down list.

 
 

Select a parent folder for the new folder by clicking a folder in the list on the left. The new folder will be cre
as a subfolder within the folder selected.

 
Enter a name for the new folder and click Create Folder.

The new folder appears in the folder structure on the left.

Practice:

Open the practice shell, go to File Manager and create a new folder.  Label it with your last name.  Upload
any file of your choosing to this folder (should be small in size).

To delete a file or folder:

Select Delete Files and Folders from the drop-down list.

 
 

Select the file or folder to delete from the existing files and folders on the left. When choosing
to delete a folder, it should be noted that all files in that folder will be deleted as well.

Note: The instructor cannot delete the main course folder or the Streaming
Media main folder.

 
 

Click Delete to delete the file or folder.

End of Course Home Section

Click on Creating Managed Items to continue.