Technology
for
Professors
A Users Guide
for
Eckerd College
By
William (Bill) Junkin
Director of Instructional Technology
June 30, 2008
Introduction
I hope you find this Users Guide helpful when using technology in your courses. It is designed so that you can quickly jump to the section that will provide help in doing what you want to do at a particular time, so it is not necessarily written for people who want to read a document from start to finish. I hope the “Table of Contents” is useful, but the following outline may be helpful as well.
Part I -- The ARC Web Site:
We have created an on-line site, the Academic Resource Center (ARC) web site to duplicate much of the help offered in this document and provide much more help as well. The first section gives a little information about this site. You get to this site by going to MyEckerd (http://my.eckerd.edu) and clicking on the “Information Technology for Professors” link in the “Information Technology” section. (This will take you to http://www.eckerd.edu/its/arc/)
Part II – The Online Course Materials Website (previously, Cyber Lyceum):
The College requires that you post material to the Online Course Materials website each year and require students to access these materials. This section describes why this is important, what parts of this site will update automatically, and how you can control links and access for this site.
Part III -- WebCT:
There is an excellent WebCT Users Guide that has been prepared by the WebCT Company (BlackBoard). This Guide or Manual is 753 pages long, containing an introduction and 37 chapters. The entire document and/or individual chapters can be obtained from the WebCT section of the ARC WebCT website (http://www.eckerd.edu/its/webct/manual/). The material from this WebCT Users guide will not be repeated in this “Technology for Professors” document. Instead, Part III – WebCT – mentions some useful features of WebCT and why you might use it in class, gives information about the WebCT features that are specific to Eckerd College, explains how to get started with a course quickly and easily, and gives answers to Frequently Asked Questions.
Part IV – Most of the features available in WebCT can also be done using programs that we or others have written. In addition there are some programs that allow you to do useful tasks that can’t be done in WebCT. Part IV describes why you might want to use these resources and how to use them. This section explains how to:
· Post materials – Syllabi, class notes, handouts, etc.
· Use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to Post Materials
· Post Unofficial Grades
· Post Office Hours
· Use Warmup or Pre-Class Questions
· Post Electronic Reserves Materials
· Use the Eckerd Wiki
· Use In-class Polling
· Use the Ubiquitous Presenter program
Part V – Changes and information for co-location. If the campus is closed due to an emergency, the Eckerd College web sites will be provided by our co-location site. All of the technologies mentioned in this document will be available and for almost all of these, you will not notice any difference. If there are any differences, these differences have been noted when that technology was discussed. However, in this section, all of these changes (or lack of changes) are noted.
Appendix: -- Other useful things:
The appendix contains information about some things that are useful but not specifically related to teaching a course.
A. Tricks with MSWord
B. Using the MyEckerd web site
If anything is confusing, not clear, or left out of this document, please give me feedback so I can revise this document and make it more useful for you and others.
Bill Junkin, Director of Instructional Technology, Eckerd College, (727) 864-8239
Nick Shaffer, Casey Paquet, Ted Flynn, Steve Weppner, Reggie Hudson, and others helped prepare many of the resources mentioned in this document.
Diana Fuguitt spent many hours proof-reading this document, suggesting ways to improve the clarity, and making many other valuable suggestions.
However,
I am the sole person responsible for any mistakes or errors or lack of clarity.
Table of Contents
Part I: The Academic Resource Center (ARC) Web Site -- A Help Site for Faculty
I. A. How to get to the Academic Resource Center (ARC) web site?
I. B Of what value is the Academic Resource Center (ARC) web site?
I. C. Why did we create this site?
Part II: The Online Course Material website:
II. A. Overview of the Online Course Material website.
· What is the Online Course Materials web site
· What is the Main Online Course Materials Link for Each of My Courses?
· What is seen at the Main Online Course Materials site?
· What Kind of Documents should be Posted?
· Why post more than a syllabus, i.e., class notes, handouts, assignments, etc.?
II. C. Why Use the Online Course Materials web site?
II. D. Are some of the Online Course Materials links controlled automatically?
II. E. What Online Course Material links do I need to control?
II. F. Controlling links in Online Course Materials directly
· How do I Control the Main Online Course Materials Link for Each of My Courses?
· What Other Features are Available at the Online Course Materials web site?
· How do I Control the WebCT link?
· How do I Provide an Online Course Materials Link to my Syllabus?
· How do I Provide an Online Course Materials link to a PDF or MSWord Document?
· How do I Provide an Online Course Materials link to a Folder for Handouts?
· How do I Control the Online Course Materials link to “Hurricane” Materials?
· How do I Control the Online Course Materials Home icon for my Course?
· How do I Control the Online Course Materials icon allowing students to view unofficial grades?
· How do I Control the Online Course Materials Office Hours Icon?
· How do I Control the Online Course Materials Pre-Class (Warmup) Icon?
· How do I Control the Online Course Materials Eckerd Faculty Wiki Icon?
III. B. Is a WebCT Manual or Tutorial or Help available?
· What other help is available for WebCT?
III. C. What can I do using WebCT?
III. D. What is new with WebCT version 6.0?
III. E. Do I have to use WebCT?
III. F. Where do students or professors go to start WebCT?
III. G. What are the top 6 steps for a quick start with WebCT?
2. Using the Build, Teach, and Student View Tabs
4. The “power button” – easy move, delete, hide, examine, etc.
5. Navigating (Avoid using the Back Button)
6. Help within the WebCT program
III. H. Other Frequently Asked Questions (WebCT FAQs) at Eckerd College
1. Can I personalize the background of my web pages in WebCT?
2. How early can I enter material into a course?
3. How long before a course starts or after a course ends can students access material?
5. Which should I use in WebCT, an MSWord file or a web page (HTML document)?
6. Why can’t I edit an MSWord document I posted?
8. How can I allow students from one section to see work submitted by students in another section?
9. Why can’t a student resubmit an assignment?
10. My course isn’t showing up in WebCT. What is wrong?
11. Can I use WebCT for a group that is not part of a course?.
13. How can I see the list of the names of the students in my class in WebCT?
14. How can professors or students forward their WebCT email to another email account?
15. How do I change the number of students displayed in the grade book?
16. How do I delete a document (or assignment or folder)?
17. How do I create links to web sites and documents?
18. Can I allow students to self-register?
19. Can I allow a student helper to help me grade some assignments submitted into WebCT?
20. Why is it unwise to use the WebCT email program?
IV. A. The “Easy Posting” Program
· Should I use the “Easy Posting” or WebCT or another program?
· What can be posted using the “Easy Posting” program?
· How do I post documents with the “Easy Posting” program?
IV. B. The Regular FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Program
· Why Use a Regular FTP Program?
· How do I FTP from my own computer?
· How do I set up an FTP account on academics.eckerd.edu?
· Can I use FireFTP (or other FTP programs) with the home.eckerd.edu server if the campus is closed?
· How can I FTP from a public computer? (The Web-Based FTP program)
· How do I FTP (post) a document?
· How can I FTP from a public computer using drag-and-drop? (Windows ftp.)
· How do I Find the Posted Documents with a Browser?
· What is the Difference Between ftp:// and http://?
· Can Students Change or Edit What I have Posted?
· Can I put Folders on the Server?
· Can I Delete and/or Edit Posted Materials?
IV. C. Restricting Access to Posted Materials.
· Who can see Posted Materials?
· Can I Restrict Access to Posted Material?
IV. D. Posting Unofficial Grades – Why and How?
· How do I Post Unofficial Grades? Step-by-step instructions.
IV. E. Posting Office Hours, Why and How?
IV. F. Using Warmup or Pre-Class Questions -- Why and How?
· Why use Warmup or Pre-Class Questions?
· How do I Post Warmup or Pre-Class questions in WebCT?
· How do I Post Warmup or Pre-Class Questions in the BQ-JiTT (Warmup) program?
IV. G. Using Electronic Reserves – Why and How?
· How do I Control the Online Course Materials Electronic Reserves Icon
· Why Use Electronic Reserves?
· Electronic Reserves Submission Guidelines:
· How do I do Electronic Reserves?
IV. H. Using the Eckerd Wiki – Why and How?
· What are some wiki benefits?
· Why is a wiki more open than WebCT?
· What assignments are suitable for a wiki? For WebCT?
· So this is just like Wikipedia?
· Can I contribute to this faculty wiki?
· Can my course be added to this wiki site?
· Can I add users and students to my course page?
· What permissions do professors, students, and outsiders have?
· Why is “student editing” the default setting?
· Is there a faculty-only wiki site?
· Can you put formulas, equations, pictures, graphs, etc., into wiki pages?
IV. I. Using In-class polling – Why and How?.
· What programs are available for in-class polling?
· Where are Users Manuals for these Programs?
· Who are using these programs?
· Why Use the Ubiquitous Presenter program?
· How do I use the same presentation with several sections of the same class?
· If my computer is not a tablet laptop computer, how do I add ink?
V. B. What is unchanged during co-location?
V. C. What will be available but changed during co-location?
V. C. What will be unavailable during co-location?
Appendix I -- Tricks with MSWord
3. Editing so both the original and the changes can be seen
4. Using Word to create web pages directly
5. Using Word to create PDF documents
6. Putting Internet links into web pages
Appendix II: Using the myEckerd web site
1. How do I use MyPage feature on myEckerd?
2. How is the content organized on MyEckerd?
Part I: The Academic Resource Center (ARC) Web Site -- A Help Site for Faculty
I. A. How to get to the Academic Resource Center (ARC) web site?
You can get to this site from your main Eckerd College page, MyEckerd (http://my.eckerd.edu) by clicking on the “Information Technology for Professors” link in the “Information Technology” section. This takes you directly to the ARC site at http://www.eckerd.edu.
I. B Of what value is the Academic Resource Center (ARC) web site?
On this web site we have tried to create one starting place where you can find links to every technology resource Eckerd professors might want to use and directions for using most of these resources. If you don’t find something there, please let us know.
Do you have trouble remembering different web addresses for doing different things with technology?
Do you have directions for using various programs or resources written down on bits of paper that are located in many different places?
We do too. So we have tried to create one place where you can always go to do anything that involves technology and/or answer your technology questions. We plan to have all the answers here or else direct you to a site that does have the answers. You may want to add this as one of the links on the “MyPage” part of the MyEckerd site. Additional information about customizing and using MyEckerd is given in the Appendix – “Using MyEckerd.”
I. C. Why did we create this site?
We created this site to support faculty in providing Eckerd students with all the advantage of an on-line course while also having the much bigger advantage of meeting together as a group of learners, classmates and professors. Many professors have found technologies that enhance a student’s educational experience. We invite you to try some of these.
But, we don’t want you to spend time learning the details about how-to-do-it (unless you want to). You have more important use for your time – preparing materials, teaching, mentoring, research, etc. If anything mentioned here is difficult or time-consuming, let us know. We probably can make it easier and quicker for you.
Part II: The Online Course Material website:
The site where students access posted materials and other online resources
II. A. Overview of the Online Course Material website.
· What is the Online Course Materials web site
We have created the Online Course Materials web site, (http://my.eckerd.edu/course_materials/ or http://my.eckerd.edu/ and click on the Course Materials link), as the one place for students to go to get access or directions (links) to the material that you have posted. It provides a one-stop location where students can go to easily access any electronic information related to any Eckerd course.
Please note that if you have any material to post for your courses, these must be posted elsewhere. The Online Course Materials web site is nothing more or less than collections of directions (links) telling students how to find your resources; it does not contain your material.
If you post materials but there is no link on the Online Course Materials web site to tell students where to find these materials, they will have trouble finding the material. Many programs described in this document create these links automatically. These programs (and the parts of this document which describes the programs) include the following: WebCT (Part III), “Easy Posting” (Part IV.A), Unofficial Grades (Part IV.D), Office Hours (Part IV.E), Warmups (Part IV.F), Electronic Reserves (Part IV.G), and the Eckerd Wiki (Part IV.H). For other postings you will need to create the links to the posted resources.
If you create a direction (link) on the Online Course Materials web site but fail to post any material there, students will follow the direction (link) and find nothing there.
Instead, if you do post material and there is a link on the Online Course Materials web site to the posted material, students will be able to find the material easily.
· What is the Main Online Course Materials Link for Each of My Courses?
The Online Course Materials web site lists all courses and sections currently taught. It also lists archived courses from previous semesters. The course catalog number, the course title, and the “Main/Syllabus” icon are links to the basic web site, page, or document where you want students to go. Thus, it allows students to find the basic electronic material posted for your course. Some professors want this main link to go to material that posted in WebCT while others want this main link to go to a document or web site posted elsewhere. As is explained later (Section II.F.), if you don’t use the “Easy Posting” program or control the link yourself, the link will go to the catalog description for your course.
· What is seen at the Main Online Course Materials site?
Students (and you) should go to the MyEckerd site (http://my.eckerd.edu) and click on the “Course Materials” link to get to the Online Course Materials web site. This brings students (and you) to the current classes in which they are enrolled. If they click on a class, they get to the class page which contains lots of useful information, such as links to all the materials you have posted for the class, a list of the people in the class and their email addresses, an email address to send messages to everyone in the class, the ability so search for other classes, etc. There is also a link to view all classes by discipline. When students go to classes in which they are not enrolled, there is no list of students enrolled in the class and email addresses, but most of the other information is there.
II. B. Why Post Materials?
People get information from the Internet. By posting materials for students – syllabi, class notes, handouts, assignments, electronic documents, web resources, etc. – you can use the Internet to provide the information and allow more time for discussion and interaction in class. These posted materials can be deleted, updated, and/or augmented at any time from any geographical location. Students can access these materials from any place (even if the campus is closed due to a hurricane).
If you use WebCT, you can use that program to post material.
You can post material for your current classes by using the “Easy Posting” program we have created for you at http://www.eckerd.edu/its/arc/OnlineCourseMaterials/cyberlyceum_ftp1.php. (You can reach this page from MyEckerd (http://my.eckerd.edu/) by the following route: Information Technology à Information Technology for Professors à Online Course Materials à Easy Posting (Online Course Materials).) See Section IV. A. for information about the “Easy Posting” program.
You can also post electronic material in your space at http://academics.eckerd.edu/instructor/ through a process called FTP (File Transfer Protocol). See Section IV. B. or http://www.eckerd.edu/its/arc/Postingmaterial--FTP/index.php for instructions and details about how to do this. For example, if you post your syllabus for your course, current students, other students who may want to take your course next time, and prospective students choosing which college to attend may all find this useful (if you give them permission to access these posted materials).
Any of these or all three ways are fine.
· What Kind of Documents should be Posted?
You can post any kind of document and people can see that the document is posted. However, for people to see what is in the document, they must have a program on their computer that can “read” the document. Usually this is no problem with web pages or pictures and most people have a free program on their computer that allows them to read PDF files. However, if you post a PowerPoint, Word, Excel, WordPerfect, etc. document, some students will not be able to read the posted document. Most students have a program that can read MSWord documents, but few students will be able to read WordPerfect and other word processing documents unless they are saved as MSWord or text documents.
· Why post more than a syllabus, i.e., class notes, handouts, assignments, etc.?
Professors often post notes from class or other handouts. These may provide students with valuable resources for preparing for class or lab, for reviewing what happened in class, for giving access to work by peers, etc.
One way to post these resources is to use the WebCT program. This program has its own way of posting materials for the students in your class. Please see Section III.G.3 for details.
Another way to post these resources is to use the “Easy Posting” method and use the “handouts folder” option. For instructions about doing this, please see Section IV.A. or go to http://www.eckerd.edu/its/arc/OnlineCourseMaterials/cyberlyceum_ftp1.php
Another way is place these electronic resources in a folder in your space at http://academics.eckerd.edu/instructor/. You can provide a link using a special resource in the Online Course Materials web site, the “handouts icon,” to direct students to these resources. For instructions and details about doing this, please see Section II.F. or http://www.eckerd.edu/its/arc/CyberLyceum/Cyber_Lyceum_Handouts_icon.php.
· What about posting materials that are only used when the campus is closed?
When the campus is closed it is especially important that you post materials so that you can continue to deliver your courses. Some professors prepare materials that will only be used in such an emergency and they don’t want students to see these materials. WebCT, the Eckerd Wiki, the Ubiquitous Presenter, and the Warmups program all allow you to hide posted material, and you will need to remember to “unhide” these materials if you want these materials used when the campus is closed. The “Easy Posting” program provides a “hurricane” folder in which you can post documents and the links to these documents will stay hidden until the campus is closed. You don’t have to remember to do anything for this folder, since the links to it will automatically become visible when the campus is closed. The individual sections for each of these programs provide more information about this.
· A little more information about the different program’s postings
Both WebCT and the Easy Posting program allows you to post syllabi, material to a handouts folder; MSWord documents, PDF documents, unofficial grades, material from prior semesters, and other files.
In addition, the “Easy Posting” program allows you to post office hours and Electronic Reserves.
WebCT allows you to post documents and also allows students to submit assignments, answer questions (assessments), contribute to discussions, and participate in chat and whiteboard sessions. (As desired, student responses can be posted to be visible to the professor only OR to the entire class as well.)
You or your students can post almost anything in the Eckerd Wiki program (Section IV. H.). However, its primary function is to provide a place where people can work on documents collaboratively.
The Warmup program (Section IV. F.) does not allow you to post documents, but is designed for you to post questions that students answer and only the instructor can see the response. It is usually used to ask questions on the assignment before students come to class.
The Ubiquitous Presenter program (Section IV. J.) allows you to post PowerPoint slides and/or Whiteboard slides that you plan to use in class. Students with computers can access these resources before class, view them while class is going on as you talk about and annotate the slides, and use them after class as they study the material that was covered in class,
II. C. Why Use the Online Course Materials web site?
Once you have posted something, students can find it at the Online Course Materials web site by going to the MyEckerd web site (http://my.eckerd.edu/ ) and click on the Course Materials (or the Online Course Materials link in the “Courses & Materials” section) link. This can be done from anywhere in the world.
You can also go there to verify what students will see and/or to examine material posted by other professors. Material from prior semesters can be accessed also.
II. D. Are some of the Online Course Materials links controlled automatically?
Yes.
If you post materials using the “Easy Posting” program (described in Section IV.A), WebCT (described in Section III), the Eckerd Wiki (described in section IV.H.), the Electronic Reserves (described in Section IV. G) or the Warmup program (described in Section IV.F.), a program runs that will automatically put a link to these materials in the Online Course Materials web site.
II. E. What Online Course Material links do I need to control?
We have written a number of programs to control some of the Online Course Material links automatically. Section II.D. lists these programs. If you have posted resources without a program on this list, you need to create a link to your resources yourself. If you don’t use the Online Course Materials web site to tell students where to find these materials, they will have trouble finding the material. Thus, giving students easy access to the electronic material associated with your course requires that you use one of the programs listed in Section II.D. OR that you do two things – (1) post the material and (2) put links to these resources on the Online Course Materials web site web site.
For example, you or someone else may have created a web site for your course, you may be using a web site associated with the publisher of a textbook, or you may want students to access material that you have posted using FTP (Section IV.B), etc. You should control the Online Course Materials links directly and provide an easy way for students to get to these materials.
II. F. Controlling links in Online Course Materials directly
You can skip this section (Section II. F.) for any material posted using any of the programs mentioned in Section II. D. (such as WebCT, the “Easy posting” program, etc.). For these programs, the links are created automatically. (If you want to restrict access, please see Section IV. C.)
· How do I Control the Main Online Course Materials Link for Each of My Courses?
You control this link by going to MyEckerd à Information Technology à Information Technology for Professors à Online Course Materials in the left panel à Step-by-step directions in the left panel and then click on the link in that page OR you can go directly to http://academics.eckerd.edu/cyberlyceum/ .
However, before going to this utility, it is recommended that you first make sure that the document (or web site) that you want to use as the main link for your course is already posted. After posting the document (without using WebCT or “Easy posting”), I recommend that you find the document using a browser and copy the web address (URL) for the document. This “main web address” will begin with http://. After doing this, if you go to http://academics.eckerd.edu/cyberlyceum/ and log in using your Eckerd College email username (my username is junkinwf) and password, the web page will display all of your courses. (If you want to have only your current courses displayed, click on the button at the top of the page.) “Paste” or type the “main web address” into the space provided next to that course. You can always go back and edit or even remove this “main web address” at any time. Be sure and click the button (“Submit_Corrections”) to update the information.
· What Other Features are Available at the Online Course Materials web site?
The Online Course Materials web site offers additional features or links for you to use if you wish. Each has a special icon associated with it and each icon provides a link to the resource you specify for that course. By default, no icons are shown for your course. When an icon is showing, the student clicks on the icon to access the material associated with that feature. Each feature or link and its icon is described below. Here is the current list and their use for students:
1. 
Main link -- course web site or syllabus or WebCT
2. 
WebCT,
3. 
Word
document (link to a MSWord document),
4. 
PDF
document (link to a PDF document),
5. 
folder
for class handouts (link to enter handouts folder),
6. 
materials
if the campus is closed (link to “hurricane material”, a document or folder),
7. 
home
site for all sections or discipline (link to “Home” material),
8. 
unofficial
grades (link to view grades),
9. 
office
hours (link to view your office hours)
10. 
pre-
class (Warm-up) questions
11. 
library
information (electronic reserve materials)
12. 
Faculty
Wiki
· How do I Control the WebCT link?
If you are using WebCT for a course, the proper
WebCT icon,, will
automatically appear beside that course as soon as you add resources for students.
You can still change that link by going to http://academics.eckerd.edu/cyberlyceum/
.
If you do not enter any web address for your main link (see above) for your course, the WebCT address will also automatically become your main link. This can also be changed by going to http://academics.eckerd.edu/cyberlyceum/ .
· How do I Provide an Online Course Materials Link to my Syllabus?
If you are using WebCT for a course, you probably have included your syllabus in the WebCT course and the information in this section probably is unnecessary. (One of the WebCT tutorials, http://www.eckerd.edu/its/webct/WebCT.php, provides directions on putting your syllabus into WebCT.)
If you use the “Easy Posting” program or Eckerd Wiki to FTP your syllabus, the link will appear automatically.
Otherwise, I recommend that you create and post your syllabus first. (See Sections IV.B and II.F. for directions on Posting Documents.) If you have made a web page or PDF document, any student will be able to read it. If you have made an MSWord document, most students will be able to read it. With most other types of documents, most students will be able to see that you have posted a syllabus but will not be able to read it.
If your syllabus is a web page, it probably will be the “main document” for your course and probably deserves to be the main link for your course. The directions above give information on controlling the Main Online Course Materials link for your course. If your document is an MSWord or PDF document, you can post it in your handouts folder for your course. However, if you prefer, you can provide a link for one such document with its own icon. The following directions give information on controlling these links.
· How do I Provide an Online Course Materials link to a PDF or MSWord Document?
(If you use WebCT, the Faculty Wiki, or the “Easy Posting” program, you probably want to post such documents within that program and thus can ignore this section.)
You control this link by going to http://academics.eckerd.edu/cyberlyceum/
(An MSWord document should end in .doc and a PDF document should end in .pdf.)
I recommend that you first create and post such a document.
(See Section IV.B. for instructions on Posting Documents.) After posting the
document, I recommend that you find the document using a browser and copy the
web address (URL) for the document. This “document web address” will begin with
http:// After doing this, if you go to http://academics.eckerd.edu/cyberlyceum/
and log in using your Eckerd College email username (my username is junkinwf)
and password, the web page will display all of your courses. (If you only want
to have your current courses displayed, click on the button at the top of the
page.) On the right side there is a list of icons, including one for MSWord
documents,, and
for PDF documents,.
Please click on the appropriate icon and a new web page will open up. “Paste”
or type the “document web address” into the space provided next to that course.
Be sure and “Submit_Corrections.”
You can always go back and edit or
even remove this “document web address” at any time. Please note: The Word icon,, and
the PDF icon,, can
provide a link to only one document respectively. If you have several documents
that you want students to access, I suggest that you use the Online Course
Materials folder or handouts icon,, with
its link.
· How do I Provide an Online Course Materials link to a Folder for Handouts?
(If you use WebCT or the “Easy Posting” program, you probably want to post such documents within that program and thus can ignore this section.)
You control this link by going to http://academics.eckerd.edu/cyberlyceum/
This link is especially useful if you have class notes, PowerPoint presentations, tests from prior years, examples of good work, student documents you want peers to access, etc)
I recommend that you first create a folder for these
documents on the academics Eckerd server. (Please see Section IV.B. for instructions
on creating such a folder.) You may want to create separate folders for each
class or section. After creating the folder, I recommend that you find the
folder using a browser and copy the web address (URL) for the folder. (This
“folder web address” will begin with http://.) After copying the web address
for the handouts folder, if you go to http://academics.eckerd.edu/cyberlyceum/
and log in using your Eckerd College email username (my username is junkinwf)
and password, the web page will display all of your courses. (If you want to
have only your current courses displayed, click on the button at the top of the
page.) On the right side there is a list of icons, including one for handouts,. If
you click on this icon a new web page will open up. “Paste” or type the “folder
web address” into the space provided next to that course. Be sure and
“Submit_Corrections.”
You can always go back and edit or even remove this “folder web address” at any time. If you have several different types of handouts, such as PowerPoint presentations as well as tests from prior years, you may want this link to go to a main handouts folder and put sub-folders inside this main handouts folder.
· How do I Control the Online Course Materials link to “Hurricane” Materials?
(If you use WebCT or the “Easy Posting” program, you probably want to post such documents within that program and thus can ignore this section.)
You may have materials that you don’t want students to view unless the campus is closed. (Some professors have mentioned that students can get confused at times if they have information about one set of assignments to be completed under normal operations and one set of assignments to be completed in emergencies situations.) The “hurricane” icon provides student access to the materials that they should use in emergency situations. However, the link to these materials, a “hurricane icon” will not become visible to students until the campus is closed. When the campus is closed, this icon will automatically become visible and provide student access to these materials.
If you have “hurricane” documents,
I recommend that you first create a folder for hurricane documents on the
academics Eckerd server (academics.eckerd.edu) and post these documents into
that folder. Then use a browser and find the posted “hurricane” folder and copy
the web address (URL) for the “hurricane” material. (This “hurricane web
address” will begin with http://.) After doing this, if you go to http://academics.eckerd.edu/cyberlyceum/
and log in using your Eckerd College email username (my username is junkinwf)
and password, the web page will display all of your courses. (If you want to
have only your current courses displayed, click on the button at the top of the
page.) On the right side there is a list of icons, including the “hurricane”
icon,. If
you click on this icon a new web page will open up. “Paste” or type the “folder
web address” into the space provided next to that course. You can always go
back and edit or even remove this “hurricane web address” at any time. Be sure
and “Submit_Corrections.”
· How do I Control the Online Course Materials Home icon for my Course?
Some courses have a number of class sections and there is a common body of material for that course. If some of this material is in electronic form, the “Home” icon can provide student access to that material if the material is posted. For some courses, such as WHGC and QFM, this icon will be placed on your section by someone in charge of all the sections and you don’t have to worry about managing this icon. In other cases, you may want to control the icon for your course and section.
To control this icon, first be
sure the material is posted. Find its web address. If the material is one
document or a web site with a beginning page (index page) follow the directions
given above for controlling the Online Course Materials link to a MSWord or PDF
document, but this time use the “home” icon, . If
the material is a folder with no index page for the contents, follow the
directions for controlling the Online Course Materials link to a folder, but
this time use the “home” icon instead.
· How do I Control the Online Course Materials icon allowing students to view unofficial grades?
If you keep your grades in an
electronic form (spreadsheet) it is easy to post these grades. This posting
presents unofficial grades and is not related in any way to the final official
grades that are submitted electronically to the registrar. These unofficial
grades do not become any part of the student’s official record. If you choose
to post grades, each student will be able to see his or her grades but not be
able to see the grades of anyone else in the class. I have written the program
so that you can post any part of the grades that you want students to see. If
you want to use this feature, you need to post the grades. Instructions for
doing this can be found in Section IV.C. or at http://www.eckerd.edu/its/arc/CyberLyceum/CyberLyceumGradesIcon.php
. The actual place where you post the grades is this web site: http://academics.eckerd.edu/cyberlyceum/faculty_grades.php
. You will need to use your Eckerd email username and password to post grades.
As soon as you use this program to post grades for any course, the program
automatically puts the “grades” icon,, on
that course for you and you don’t have to worry about managing the link at all.
The program also allows you to remove posted grades and thus remove the icon
from the Online Course Materials web site.
· How do I Control the Online Course Materials Office Hours Icon?
Students made a request to the
Dean of Faculty that faculty post their office hours on-line. At his request I
created a program so you can easily post your office hours. As soon as you post
your office hours, the program automatically puts the office hours icon,,
beside all of your current courses and you don’t have to manage this icon at
all. If you post office hours at the beginning of the semester they will stay
posted (unless you remove them) until the end of the term, but will be removed
at the end of the term. Of course, you can change what you posted at any time.
The program even allows you to place a note about temporary changes to your
office hours. Instructions f