TABLE OF CONTENTS. EduSocial Online Course Building Copyright EduTech, 2010

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1 EDUSOCIAL ONLINE COURSE BUILDING An EduTech Workshop Copyright EduTech, 2010 All rights reserved. This document may not be reproduced or redistributed by any method, including electronically or by photocopying without the written permission of EduTech

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3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 PREPARING YOUR COURSE... 1 ACCESSING YOUR BLOG... 1 ACCESSING THE EDUSOCIAL MENU BAR... 1 ACCESSING THE BLOG DASHBOARD... 1 MODIFYING YOUR BLOG'S APPEARANCE... 2 MODIFYING YOUR BLOG'S TITLE AND TAGLINE... 2 MODIFYING PRIVACY AND DISCUSSION SETTINGS... 2 CHOOSING A THEME... 3 ADDING WIDGETS... 3 CREATING AN ANNOUNCEMENT POST... 4 EDITING & DELETING POSTS... 5 CHANGING YOUR PROFILE... 5 ADDING PAGES... 6 EDITING & DELETING PAGES... 6 ORGANIZING YOUR COURSE... 6 NAMING AND ORDERING PAGES... 7 COPYING & PASTING CONTENT... 8 INSERTING HYPERLINKS... 8 UPLOADING MEDIA FILES TO YOUR BLOG... 8 ADDING STUDENT USERS... 9 MANAGING STUDENT USER ACCOUNTS ACTIVATING STUDENT ACCOUNTS CREATING STUDENT EDUTECH ACCOUNTS REQUESTING STUDENT BLOGGING SERVICE POSTING AND MANAGING STUDENT COMMENTS EDUSOCIAL COMMUNICATING WITH STUDENTS CREATING STUDENT GROUPS MANAGING GROUP MEMBERS UPLOADING DOCUMENTS TO EDUSOCIAL CREATING AN GROUP EVENTS CALENDAR STARTING A DISCUSSION FORUM IN EDUSOCIAL CREATING STUDENT ASSESSMENTS REQUESTING ADDITIONAL COURSES... 15

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5 Preparing Your Course ACCESSING YOUR BLOG Once you have blogging service, 1. Go to 2. Log in with your EduTech username and password. ACCESSING THE EDUSOCIAL MENU BAR The EduSocial Menu Bar provides easy access to your blogs, as well as all the features of the EduSocial Network. The basic features of the EduSocial menu bar, from left to right and top to bottom are: EduSocial -your home button should you get lost! My Account - contains the Activity, Profile, Blogs, Messages, Friends, Groups, Settings, and Log Out buttons. My Blogs - contains a list of your blogs and the Create a Blog! button. Notifications - area where notifications, requests, messages, approvals will appear. Visit - allows you to visit Random Members, Groups, or Blogs on EduSocial! Log Out- logs you out of your account. Search - allows you to search for blogs, groups or members within EduSocial. ACCESSING THE BLOG DASHBOARD Your dashboard contains all the tools you will need to create posts, pages, and comments, change the appearance and settings of your blog, add student users, and upload and manage content. It is similar to Blackboard's Control Panel. To access your blog's dashboard from the EduSocial menu bar, 1. Select My Blogs. 2. Select the name of your blog. 1

6 3. Select Dashboard. Note: Once the Admin widget (See page 4.) is added to your page, you can easily move back and forth between your Dashboard and Blog/Course Site by selecting either the Visit Site button while on the Dashboard or the Site Admin button while on your Course. Modifying your Blog's Appearance You have many options regarding your blog's appearance and can make changes to your settings at any time. MODIFYING YOUR BLOG'S TITLE AND TAGLINE The blog title and tagline are usually the first thing a person sees when they access your blog. To change the blog title and tagline, 1. From your Dashboard, select Settings. 2. Select General. 3. Highlight the Title text and type the desired title. 4. Highlight the Tagline and type the desired tagline. MODIFYING PRIVACY AND DISCUSSION SETTINGS You will need to make some decisions regarding your blog's visibility and comment settings. To select your privacy setting, 1. From your Dashboard, select Settings. 2. Select Privacy. 3. Select one of the five privacy settings below: 2 o I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Bing, Technorati) and archivers. o I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors o I would like only logged in users to see my blog.

7 o I would like only logged in users who are registered subscribers to see my blog. o I would like only administrators of this blog, and network to see my blog. Note: If you wish to make your blog visible only to your students, select the fourth option: "I would like only logged in users who are registered subscribers to see my blog". If you would like to make your blog visible to others, it is recommended you select the second option: "I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors." The discussion settings allow you to modify how comments are made to your blog. To select your discussion setting, 1. From your Dashboard, select Settings. 2. Select Discussion. 3. Select the desired comment settings. CHOOSING A THEME Perhaps one of the more difficult decisions you will make regarding your online course is which theme to use. Themes are the layout or design of your blog. To change the theme of your blog, 1. From your Dashboard, select Appearance. 2. Select Themes. 3. Click on a theme or select Preview to "try it on". 4. Select Activate to change your theme or click on the X in the upper left of the screen to revert to your former theme. Note: Themes with one sidebar, a large text area, easy readability and indented flexi-pages are recommended for online courses. These themes include Almost Spring, Batavia, Blue Moon, Connections, Contempt, Copyblogger, Cutline, Freshy, Green Marinee, Glossy Blue, Jakarta, Kubrick, LetterHead, Mandigo, Rubric, Simpla, Steam, Suhweet, Thoughts, Twilight, WordPress Classic, WordPress mu, and WordPress II Silver. ADDING WIDGETS Widgets are enhancements to your blog's layout. Some themes come with widgets already added, but you can add almost any widget to any theme. Widgets are usually placed in a Sidebar on the right and/or the left side of the blog content. Some themes may have several sidebars. You may experience odd behavior or problems with widgets. This is beyond our control and we suggest you attempt to use a different widget. Note: Search, Flexi-Pages, Links and Meta widgets are recommended for online courses. To add a widget to your blog, 1. From your Dashboard, select Appearance. 2. Select Widgets. 3. Select and drag a widget from Available Widgets to Sidebar Read the dialogue box that opens when the widget is dropped on Sidebar Make desired changes and click Save. 3

8 Note: Each item in that dialogue box will pertain specifically to the widget selected. Note: If your theme has multiple sidebars, there is no convention to say where Sidebar 1 is in relation to Sidebar 2, etc It may take some experimentation on your part to figure out where each sidebar is within the layout provided within your chosen Theme. Removing Widgets You can remove a Widget by selecting it in Sidebar 1, clicking on the reveal triangle to the right side of widget's title and selecting Delete. Alternately, you can remove a widget by dragging the widget out of the Sidebar1. Reordering Widgets Widgets appear in the Sidebar1 in the order they are added. You can reorder them by simply clicking and dragging them to the desired location. Creating an Announcement Post Blog posts are text entries that appear in reverse chronological order. They are a great way to publicize announcements. For the sake of this instruction, the first page or Homepage of your blog will become your Announcements Page. Each new announcement will appear on the first page of your blog with the most recent post appearing at the top. To create an announcement post, 1. From your Dashboard, select Posts. 2. Select Add New. 3. Enter a title for your post in the white area, just below the Add New Post Push Pin. 4. Click in the Content entry area and type the desired text. 5. To access additional edit functions, select the Kitchen Sink icon on the far right. 6. To save your current work, click the Save Draft button located to the right of the Content entry area. This only saves the current content; it does not make it visible to the world. 4

9 7. To make your post visible to the world, click the Publish button. This simultaneously saves the post and publishes it. 8. To save your post to publish at a later time, click the Publish immediately Edit button. 9. Select the desired date and time you wish your post to appear and click the Publish and the Update buttons. EDITING & DELETING POSTS Once you have created a post, you may wish to modify or delete it later. To modify a post, 1. From your Dashboard, select Posts. 2. Hover your mouse over the post you wish to modify and select Edit. 3. Make the desired changes. 4. Click Update. To delete a post, 1. From your Dashboard, select Posts. 2. Hover your mouse over the post you wish to modify and select Trash. CHANGING YOUR PROFILE You may wish to change Your Profile Nickname. This is the "author" name that appears each time you create a post. By default your profile nickname is your Unix ID. To change your profile settings, 1. From your Dashboard, select Users. 2. Select Your Profile. 3. Type the desired name in the Nickname box. 4. Click Update Profile at the bottom of the screen when you have made your changes. 5

10 Adding Pages Pages will be used to hold your Course Information, Staff Information, Course Documents, Assignments, Discussion Questions, etc. To create a page, 1. From your Dashboard, select Pages. 2. Select Add New. 3. Enter a title for your page in the white area, just below the Add New Page Title. 4. Click in the Content entry area and type the desired text. 5. To access additional edit functions, select the Kitchen Sink icon on the far right. 6. To save your current work, click the Save Draft button located to the right of the Content entry area. This only saves the current content; it does not make it visible to the world. 7. To make your post visible to the world, click the Publish button. This simultaneously saves the page and publishes it. 8. To save your page to publish at a later time, click the Publish immediately Edit button. 9. Select the desired date and time you wish your page to appear and click the Publish and the Update buttons. Note: If you are using the Flexi-Pages widget, you will need to go to Appearance/Widgets and open the Flexi-Page widget. Under Sort by, select Include and select the Then select the pages you would like to appear in your navigation panel. Select Show sub-pages, Show hierarchy and Show home page. Click Save. EDITING & DELETING PAGES Pages can be edited and deleted in a similar manner to editing and deleting posts as described previously. ORGANIZING YOUR COURSE There are many ways of organizing your online course. The examples below are two ways suggested by Waterhouse, S. (2005). The Power of elearning: The Essential Guide for Teaching in the Digital Age. Boston: Pearson Education. Organizing by Topic Introduction o Presentation o Link o Assignment 6

11 o Quiz Lesson 1 o Presentation o Quiz o Assignment o Link o Exam Lesson 2 o Presentation o Quiz o Assignment o Exam Organizing by Resource Types Presentations o Introduction o Lesson 1 o Lesson 2 Links o Introduction o Lesson 1 Assignments o Introduction o Lesson 1 o Lesson 2 Assessments o Introduction o Lesson 1 o Lesson 2 NAMING AND ORDERING PAGES A new page should be created for each section and sub-section of your course and structured according to your organizational choice. Keep in mind that your first page or Homepage will be your Announcements page where you will create posts. None of your other pages will contain posts. Note: It is suggested that you first create pages and organize them prior to adding content. It is helpful to have a copy of your outline in front of you so that you can name and easily order your pages. Pages can be ordered and organized into sections and sub-sections at the time they are first created or modified later. To set the order of a page, 7

12 1. Open the page. 2. Select the Parent dropdown menu from the Attributes section located to the right of the Content section if the current page will be a sub-section. 3. The Template section may or may not be visible depending on your chosen theme. If available, leave this as Default Template for now. 4. Type a number to reflect the desired page order. By default each page is numbered with a 0. COPYING & PASTING CONTENT Once your pages have all been created, ordered and organized, you are ready to copy and paste content from your current Blackboard course or from documents you have on your computer. For the following instructions, use the Control Key (Windows) or the Command Key (Mac). To quickly copy text, 1. Select (highlight) the text you wish to copy. Note: To select all the text on a page, press CTRL+A (CMD+A). 2. Press CTRL+C (CMD+C) to copy the text. 3. Go to the page you wish to paste the text into and press CTRL+V (CMD+V). Note: The text may react differently depending on the browser you are using, the document you are copying from and various other reasons. You may need to experiment using the Paste as Plain Text and Paste from Word options. To use the Paste as Plain Text and Paste from Word options, 1. Select (highlight) the text you wish to copy. 2. Press CTRL+C (CMD+C) to copy the text. 3. Go to the page you wish to paste the text into and select either the Paste as Plain Text or Paste from Word buttons. 4. Once the selected window opens, press CTRL+V (CMD+V). 5. Click the Insert button. INSERTING HYPERLINKS There may be times when you wish to add hyperlinks to your posts or pages. To do this, 1. Copy the URL of the page you wish to hyperlink. 2. Select (highlight) the text you wish to hyperlink. 3. Select the Insert/edit link button. 4. Press CTRL+V(CMD+V) to copy the URL. 5. Select either the Open link in the same window or Open link in a new window from the Target dropdown menu. 6. Type a caption in the Title blank if you wish. 7. Click Insert. UPLOADING MEDIA FILES TO YOUR BLOG Media files such as images, videos, audio files or pdf files from your computer or the Internet can be inserted into a post on onto a page. 8

13 1. While your post is open, select the desired Add an Image, Add a Video, Add Audio or Add Media icon, located to the right of Upload/Insert. 2. Select the From Computer tab when adding a media file located on your computer. 3. Select Browse and navigate to the file. 4. Select Open. 5. Select Upload. 6. Make desired changes and click Insert into Post. 7. Click Update. 8. Select the From URL tab when adding a media file from the Internet. 9. Enter the full web address or Image URL which points to an image found on the Internet (ex Enter the Image Title. 11. Click Insert into Post. 12. Click Update. 13. To embed a video from YouTube, Vimeo, Animoto, Flickr, Photobucket, or GoogleVideo simply paste the URL onto a line all by itself. Note: There is a 2MB maximum file size for media files uploaded to your course blog. Blogs@EduTech will automatically resize pictures when they are uploaded to your blog. You can also automatically 'thumbnail' the picture so it is entered into your post as small picture which links to a larger version of the picture. Adding Student Users Once your course content is complete, you will need to add students as Subscribers to your blog if you selected the fourth blog visibility option (I would like only logged in users who are registered subscribers to see my blog.) These options are discussed on page 3. You can assign student users to any of the following roles, but the Subscriber role is recommended: Administrator-the entire blog--its contents, its settings, users. A person always has this role within their own blog. Editor-the ability to write, publish, and manage people's posts on the blog. Author-the ability to write, edit, publish and manage their own posts, but no one else's. Contributor-can write, edit and manage their own posts, but they cannot publish them. Subscriber-cannot write any articles on a blog, but they can leave comments. The person's name is automatically entered with their comments and they do not have to fill out the "ReCaptcha form" to prove they are human when leaving comments. To add a student user, 1. From your Dashboard, select Users. 2. Select Add User. 3. Enter the person's EduTech username in the box and select the role you wish them to have. 4. Click the Add user button. 9

14 MANAGING STUDENT USER ACCOUNTS You can modify student roles or remove them from your blog/course. You may wish to make this a standard practice at the end of each school year or semester. To modify a student user's role, 1. From your Dashboard, select Users. 2. Select Authors & Users. 3. Check the box next to the desired student's name. 4. From the dropdown menu named Change role to, select their new role. 5. Click Change. To remove a student user, 1. From your Dashboard, select Users. 2. Select Authors & Users. 3. Check the box next to the desired student's name. 4. From the Edit Delete, Click Delete. 5. Click Confirm Deletion. Activating Student Accounts CREATING STUDENT EDUTECH ACCOUNTS As mentioned previously, students will need EduTech Accounts in order to fully participate in your course. Students can apply for an account by going to and following the instructions given. REQUESTING STUDENT BLOGGING SERVICE At least initially, students will need to request blogging service. The EduTech developers are working on making this service immediately available to everyone as soon as they receive an EduTech Account, but for now they will need to request the service in order to view and post comments to your class blog, participate in online class discussions and participate in groups. (This service will also enable students to create their own blogs.) To request blogging service, students will need to: 1. Go to EduTech s Homepage and click the User Resources link located in the lower left corner. 2. Enter their username and password and click Enter. 3. Click on the Blogs link under available services. Please note: Once each student has an EduTech account, student blogging service can be requested by you, the teacher. This will be easier for you and your students. Simply send an request including each student's username (the text before in their address) to sendit.helpdesk@sendit.nodak.edu. Please allow at least 1 business day for processing. Student blogging service will NOT need to be approved by your building facilitator. 10

15 POSTING AND MANAGING STUDENT COMMENTS One of the largest differences between a regular Website and a Blog is the interactive communication that is possible via comments. As your students read your posts, they can leave their viewpoints and responses on that blog post or page. You have significant control over comments made on your blog. As owner of your blog you have the ability to manage comments which have been left by your students. By default, comments will not appear publically unless they are approved. So within this section you can view all comments, change their status (Approved or Unapproved), mark them as spam or just delete them. To manage your comments, 1. From your Dashboard, select Comments. 2. Check the box next to the desired comment. 3. Click the action link. (Approve, Reply, Quick Edit, Edit, Spam, Trash, Unapprove). 11

16 EDUSOCIAL Communicating with Students EduSocial is the social networking side to your classroom blog. It is where students can access the class blog, access course documents, access the class calendar, answer discussion questions and communicate with you and other students. CREATING STUDENT GROUPS To create a student group, Step 1 1. Select the EduSocial home tab from the EduSocial menu bar. 2. Select Community. 3. Select Groups. 4. Click on the Create a Group tab. 5. Enter the Group Name. 6. Enter the Group Description. 7. Enter Tags (separate tags with commas). 8. Click Create Group and Continue. Step 2 9. Make sure Enable discussion forum box is checked. 10. Select This is a hidden group. Select Create events/edit owned under Group calendar: Moderator Capabilities. 11. Select No capabilities under Group calendar: Member Capabilities. 12. Click Next Step. 12

17 Step Check the Enable group blog box. 14. Select Use one of your own available blogs and select your class blog from the dropdown menu. 15. Check the Enable member blog posting box. 16. Keep the Default Administrator Moderator and Member Roles as they appear. 17. Click Next Step. Administrator-the ability to manage the entire blog--its contents, its settings, and its users. A person always has this role within their own blog. Editor-the ability to write, publish, and manage people's posts on the blog. Author-the ability to write, edit, publish and manage their own posts, but no one else's. Contributor-the ability to write, edit and manage their own posts, but they cannot publish them. Subscriber-the ability to read comments, comment on people's posts, and receive updates. The person's name is automatically entered with their comments and they do not have to fill out the "ReCaptcha form". Step Browse for an image file if you wish to change the default avatar image. 19. Select Open. 20. Click Upload Image. 21. Click Next Step. Step Add and RSS feeds of blogs you'd like to attach to this group in the box and separate them with commas. 23. Click Next Step. Step Later you will need to add your students to the group, but for now, click the Finish button. Note: In order to add students, they will first need to be your friends. Once they are, from your Group page, select Invite and check the boxes next to your students' names. 13

18 Note: At any time you will be able to make changes to your group's settings by selecting the Admin tab and the appropriate sub-tab. To go to your blog, select the Blog tab. MANAGING GROUP MEMBERS Once your group has been created, you will need to change the Default Member Role to Subscriber. To do this, 1. From the Groups directory, select the My Groups tab. 2. Select the Group Name. 3. Select the Admin tab. 4. Select the Group Blog tab. 5. Change the Default Member Role to Subscriber. 6. Click Save Changes. UPLOADING DOCUMENTS TO EDUSOCIAL You may wish to upload documents directly into EduSocial. To do this, 1. From your Group, select Documents. 2. Click Upload a New Document. 3. Browse for the desired document. 4. Type a Display Name. 5. Type a Description (You may wish to insert instruction for how students will be using this document here.) 6. Click Submit. Note: By default, your documents are listed with the Newest document at the top. You can also select to have them appear in Alphabetical or Most Popular order. CREATING AN GROUP EVENTS CALENDAR You can create an events calendar in EduSocial that displays upcoming assignments, assessments, and due dates. To create an events calendar, 1. From your Group, select Calendar. 2. Navigate to the desired month/year by using the Previous, Year and Next buttons.. 3. Click on the desired date. 4. Type the Title. 5. Select the Time. 6. Type the Description. 7. Enter the Location. 14

19 8. Check the Map Link box if you wish and make sure the Location has an address if you wish to create a map link. 9. Select Create Event. STARTING A DISCUSSION FORUM IN EDUSOCIAL You can create discussion forums in EduSocial that allow students to respond to you and to each other. To create a discussion forum, 1. From your Group, select Forum. 2. Type the Title. 3. Type your question in the Content box. 4. Type desired Tags (separate tags with commas). 5. Click Post Comment. Creating Student Assessments At this time, EduSocial does not have an assessment tool. Our developers are working to design an assessment tool in the future. So, to create assessments for your course, it is suggested that you use an online assessment tool. One that we believe is a good one to try is Class Marker Here are a few of the features of Class Marker as advertised on their Website: Hosted online testing - no need to install anything, you're up and running in minutes. Create, save and customize tests for each group. Embed tests within your website. Set and reset tests as often as you like. View and analyze results instantly. Provide personal feedback to test takers. All data is kept secure and private. Requesting Additional Courses You can create multiple courses in Blogs@EduTech and create multiple groups in EduSocial. Each course blog will need to be approved by your building facilitator. To create additional course blogs, 1. From the EduSocial menu bar, select My Blogs. 2. Select Create a Blog! Note: Please see the Naming Conventions in the next section BEFORE you enter your Blog Name. 3. Enter your Blog Name. 4. Enter your Blog Title. 5. Under Privacy, select No. 15

20 Naming Conventions Your first course blog uses your unique Unix ID number. However, when you create additional blogs you will need to give them a name and title. Potentially, there may be many blogs named English 12 or Biology 10. Please follow the described naming conventions when creating additional course blogs. The Blog Name should be your username without the period (usually firstlast) followed immediately by the course title. If you have multiple sections of a course, you may wish to identify courses with a letter. (See the example below.) Unix ID: janesmi EduTech Account: jane.smith.1@sendit.nodak.edu Blog Title: English 12 - Section A Blog Name: janesmith1english12a (Note: no punctuation or spaces may be used.) Blog Address: 16