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1 Getting Started mycourses is an interactive, web-based learning management system that enables educators to manage course materials, and to communicate quickly, easily and effectively with their students. It was developed by ANGEL (angellearning.com). Computing & Information Technology (CIT) CIT HelpDesk: , South 225 Some of the contents were obtained with permission from the ANGEL Instructor Reference Manual.

2 CONTENTS Logging on to mycourses... 3 Getting Help... 3 Resources... 3 Data management policy... 4 To Open a Course to Students Before the First Day of Classes... 4 Navigation... 5 Course Tabs Overview... 6 The Course Home Tab... 7 Edit the Course Home Page:... 7 Edit a Specific Section of a page... 8 To Hide Unused or Past Courses... 8 To Post your Syllabus:... 9 To View Your Course Items as a Student would see them... 9 The Course Materials Tab General Settings for All Content Items: Creating and Managing Folders: Inserting a Link: The Manage Tab Customizing the Course Tabs Customizing the Course Theme: Adding someone to your roster Roster syncronization (merging rosters) Copy Course Materials From One Course to Another or Within a Course The Learning Object Repository (LOR) Library electronic Reserves (eres) and mycourses

3 LOGGING ON TO MYCOURSES Use your Geneseo Username and Password to logon from the mycourses main page ( Note on the main page you will find the System Check box. Make sure all the required plug-ins have a green checkmark next to them. If you see a red X, please update your plugin. Call the CIT HelpDesk at x5588, if you need assistance. GETTING HELP The optimum manner to request help is to send an to mycourses@geneseo.edu. This creates a ticket in the CIT Request Tracker system, notifies the entire mycourses team of a need, and insures your question is answered by the appropriate person in a timely manner. RESOURCES For additional mycourses materials, go to the main page (mycourses.geneseo.edu) and see the mycourses Resources section. To request additional courses or groups to your mycourses account (i.e. noncredit courses, committees, workshops, student clubs, etc.), complete the form located at on the main mycourses page in the Resources Section. 3

4 DATA MANAGEMENT POLICY Credited Course and Enrollment Data is automatically available for all Faculty and Student accounts. Important Dates Fall Spring Summer Add Courses and Faculty to mycourses May 1 Dec 1 April 1 Add Student Enrollment June 1 Jan 1 April 1 Student Access begins (unless overwritten by instructor) First Day of Classes First Day of Classes First Day of Classes File updates throughout semester (adds/drops/changes) Disable Courses -- students no longer have access * hourly hourly hourly Dec 31 May 31 Sept 30 Purge Courses and Enrollment December 31 one year later May 31 one year later December years later TO OPEN A COURSE TO STUDENTS BEFORE THE FIRST DAY OF CLASSES 4

5 NAVIGATION System Navigation Your personal home page is what you see when you first logon to mycourses. Your personal home page provides you with access to your courses and groups as well as to a variety of mycourses tools designed to assist you with your work. On the left edge of your home page there is a column of icons referred to as the Power Strip. Icon Name Description Home returns you to your Home page Help displays mycourses online help, guides and resources Log Off logs you out of the mycourses environment Learning Object Repository (LOR) manage learning objects of various types. Preferences opens access to your user settings mycourses IM opens the online mycourses instant messenger Course / Group Specific Navigation When you enter a course or a group, a set of navigation tabs will appear across the top of your mycourses window. To access different aspects of course content and management, click on the appropriate tab. Below the navigation tabs are a row of hyperlinks, referred to as breadcrumbs. You can use these, in addition to the Power Strip, to navigate through your courses. These hyperlinks show your current location. Use these instead of your browser s back button to navigate through your Course. Navigation tabs Bread crumbs Another method of navigation is the Course Guide. You can d open and close the Course Guide by clicking the Course Guide bar located to the right of the home button. You can use this window to access the following tools: Map: Gives you at-a-glance, one-click access to all course content as an alternative to the navigation tabs. What s New: Displays a list of new items for the course. (mail, calendar entries, content) Tasks: Displays Milestones, Personal Tasks, Unread Mail and Ungraded Items as tasks to be completed. Search: Allows you to search your course content, mail, calendar and roster. Design Help: Provides instructional tips for various tools and content items. 5

6 COURSE TABS OVERVIEW When you enter a course or a group, the following course navigation tabs will appear across the top of your mycourses window by default. Course Home: This is the default start page for a course. This tab provides customizable, at-aglance information about a course. Course Materials: This tab is designed to house the majority of your instructional content. Here, you can create lecture notes, hyperlinks, quizzes, discussion forums, drop-boxes for assignments, and more. Calendar: Post course-specific scheduled items for the day, week, month or year. (Note: This calendar does not integrate with the campus calendar system.) Communicate: Access all communication tools (e.g., , live chat, and discussion forums) through this tab. It also displays a course roster, news, events or announcements. Library: Provides access to Milne library resources, Wikipedia and Google Web-Search. Report: Generate and access various types or reports, such as grades or course milestone achievements. Manage: Features a console of tools only available to instructors that allow you to configure and control various course-related items, such as gradebooks and roster functions. You can also import/export content, backup/restore course data, alter environmental settings, change student access to the Navigation Tabs, and more. Automate: This tab allows you to create and run services called agents which automatically perform specific tasks according to a schedule you set. 6

7 THE COURSE HOME TAB This is the start page for a course. This tab provides customizable, at-a-glance information about a course. By default, the Course tab displays the following sections: Syllabus: upload your syllabus here see page 9. About This Section: add information about your section. Course Mail: provides an entry point to Course Mail. Use View Inbox to jump to your inbox, use Quick Message to bypass the inbox and go directly to the compose message page, and use Unread Messages to see a count of unread messages in the course. Grades: displays a grade summary for all enrolled course participants. Course Calendar: enter office hours or key dates/times for your course EDIT THE COURSE HOME PAGE: You can rearrange, add, edit or delete elements on the Course Home. The editor features a drag-anddrop system that makes it easy to configure the display of information. Click the Edit Page link (located under the course s name in the upper left corner of the tab). This will switch you to Page Layout View. From inside the Page Layout View, you can take the following actions: To Move an Item: Click the desired item and drag it to a different location. To Add an Item: Click the Add Components button and select the components you would like to add from the Available Components window that will open. To Delete an Item: Rest the mouse on the item you want to delete. The delete icon (X) will appear on the item s title bar. Click the Delete Icon to hide the item from view. To re-display the item, see the above section to add an item. Remember to save your changes. 7

8 You can also edit what is displayed within sections. For example, some items on the Course tab have configurable settings. You can edit these settings to change the data displayed by the item, to determine who can view the item, and other features specific to the item. EDIT A SPECIFIC SECTION OF A PAGE To Edit a Specific Section of the Course Tab: Mouse over the item. If the section is configurable, the Pencil Icon will appear in the title bar. Click the Pencil Icon to view the item s settings. When you are finished, click the Save button to revert to Normal view. TO HIDE UNUSED OR PAST COURSES 8

9 TO POST YOUR SYLLABUS: Students can access your syllabus by clicking on the Course Syllabus hyperlink when they log into the course. TO VIEW YOUR COURSE ITEMS AS A STUDENT WOULD SEE THEM To view a course as a student would see it, click on the sunglasses next to your name in the upper right hand corner of the window. Check the student area and click Begin Preview. The sunglasses will turn blue. When you are finished, click the sunglasses again, and click Cancel Preview. 9

10 THE COURSE MATERIALS TAB Underneath the title of this tab, there is a list of links that allow you to create and manage course content. The Add Content link brings up the Create an Item page. From here, you can create a variety of content items, such as folders, pages, hyperlinks, discussion forums, assessments, surveys, drop boxes and more. For more information, see the section Adding Content Items. The Rearrange link allows you to change the order in which content is displayed. The Reports, Utilities and Preferences links provide tools to manipulate created content, to monitor each student s activity within the content, and set the preferences for the Course Materials page. The Print link at the right end of the toolbar lets you print the current page. The My Notes link provides an online space to create notes about any content on the Course Materials tab. The Previous and Next links allow you to navigate through lesson content. Adding Content Items: Click the Add Content hyperlink from under the title of the Course Materials tab. The Create an Item page appears. All content is added to a course via this page. A partial view of the page is shown below. 10

11 GENERAL SETTINGS FOR ALL CONTENT ITEMS: All content items have four common tabs: Content, Access, Automate, and Assignment. Content Tab The Content tab provides the page and link settings for the content you are creating. Page settings contain information about the content such as Title, Subtitle, Directions, etc. Link settings are used if you want to change the icon displayed for the item; add a help link for the item; or direct the item to open in a new page. Access Tab The Access tab provides settings for accessing, viewing and editing content items; allowing the instructor to set tracking on content items to control information about visits to an item. This tab also determines who can view items and when items are available to students. Cascade Settings Folders have the unique option to cascade or copy access settings preferences to all subfolders eliminating the need to modify access settings for each sub item. Automate Tab The Automate tab provides an advanced tool that allows you to define actions to be taken when certain events and conditions occur. For example, an action could be defined to allow a student to gain access to previously locked material (action) after the submission of an assessment (event) only if their assessment grade is above 80% (condition). Assignment Tab The Assignment tab provides access to creating Milestones and Gradebook settings for the content item that is being created. 11

12 CREATING AND MANAGING FOLDERS: As the primary tab for course content, the Course Materials tab can include both a high volume and a wide assortment of items. One way to manage your course content effectively is to use folders. Course content can be nested within folders or subfolders. To Add a Folder: 1. Log into your course and click the Course Materials tab. 2. Click the Add content hyperlink located underneath the Course Materials title. 3. Click the Add a Folder hyperlink. The Folder editor appears. 4. Fill in the desired tabs and Save. Managing Folders: To place course materials into a folder, click into the folder and click the Add Content hyperlink (located on the left side of the toolbar). To modify or delete the folder, use the Edit and Delete hyperlinks (located under the folder you created on the Course Content tab main page). To rearrange created folders, click Rearrange (located on the left side of the toolbar). Highlight the folder that you wish to move; then use the Top, Up, Down, or Bottom buttons to relocate your folder. INSERTING A LINK: Link items can be useful for linking to web-based tools, articles, journals, etc. To create a link item: Click the Add Content hyperlink. Click the Link hyperlink or icon ( ). The New Page editor appears on the screen. Type the Link Name you want in the Title field. Type the URL (e.g., in the Link URL field. Select the Advanced checkbox (located in the toolbar) to display the Link Editor advanced options. Optionally select New Window from the Target drop-down list if you would like the hyperlink to open the web site in a new window. Optionally select the no banner checkbox if you prefer the web site being linked to, to display without the mycourses toolbar (banner) at the top of the window. Click the Save button. 12

13 THE MANAGE TAB The Manage Tab features a console of tools that allow you to configure and control various courserelated items, such as gradebooks and course-related functions. You can import/export content, backup/restore course data, alter environmental settings, change student access to the Navigation Tabs, and more. 13

14 CUSTOMIZING THE COURSE TABS Within a course, the tabs shown across can be customized so the students only see what you want them to see. To customize these tabs: 14

15 CUSTOMIZING THE COURSE THEME: 15

16 ADDING SOMEONE TO YOUR ROSTER 16

17 ROSTER SYNCRONIZATION (MERGING ROSTERS) 17

18 COPY COURSE MATERIALS FROM ONE COURSE TO ANOTHER OR WITHIN A COURSE 18

19 THE LEARNING OBJECT REPOSITORY (LOR) The Learning Object Repository (LOR) enables instructors to store, tag, search, share, reuse, and manage learning objects. The ability to easily reuse learning objects across courses, sections, departments, schools, and campuses reduces the investment of effort and time. Every instructor has a personal LOR ( ) accessible from the Power Strip. Clicking the LOR link will bring you to the LOR Tab. The LOR Tab: Entering the LOR will display all repositories to which you have editor access, as well as an LOR Tip. The upper right hand corner indicates that you are in the Learning Object Repository and which repository is active. Many of the same tools available in a course or group are available here, such as the Edit Page feature and Refresh hyperlink. The Repository Tab: The Repository tab is designed to house the majority of your instructional content. The Repository tab is similar to the Course Materials tab in a course. You can create the same type of content in a repository as in a course or group. The Repository Tab toolbar contains an additional link,the Publish link. This allows you to push content into a course or group to which you have editing rights. Publish Content: 1. Click the Publish link on the toolbar. The Publish Selection page appears. 2. Select the checkboxes next to the items you want to publish to a course or group and then click the Continue button. The course search page appears. 3. Type a keyword in the Keyword Search field, select a semester, campus, school, and department, or add Course/Section information and click the Search button. ANGEL displays a list of courses for which you are a course editor. 4. Click the Copy Content button to copy the selected content into the course, or click the Link Content to link the content from your LOR to the selected course. 19

20 LIBRARY ELECTRONIC RESERVES (ERES) AND MYCOURSES Library Assistance The library maintains its course reserve assistance the same way as before mycourses it is just in a new system. As before, faculty should contact Mary Fran Tiede (eres@geneseo.edu, x5036) for help with scanning, transferring files from the old Eres system, and for loading new files. If you already have the files in digital format and they are under Tiede with the corresponding course information. 5 mb in size, you can them to Mary Fran Two Upload Options for Faculty As with eres, faculty may use one or both options for loading their electronic documents. 1. The first option is to contact Mary Fran Tiede (eres@geneseo.edu, x5036) to have her scan and load your documents. She can also transfer documents from your old Eres account into your mycourses account. 2. The second option is to log into your mycourses account and load the documents yourself. If you need assistance with loading your own files, please contact Mary Fran or Mark Sullivan (sullivm@geneseo.edu, x5698). Where are the e-reserve documents in mycourses? The Library has access to a file repository within mycourses from which it can publish files to any course. When published, e reserves will appear in a folder called Electronic Reserves under the Course Materials tab. 20