Additional Instructor Information

Introduction

You may notice that myCourses is much different for instructors than it is for students. This guide is to supplement the Basic Introduction page, which is where you should start when getting ready to use myCourses.

My Home

The only difference between your My Home page and students My Home page is the widgets along the right side of the page. The two most used are the Course Shell Request form, and the Course Merge Request form.

The Course Shell Request form is there for you to request empty myCourses shells. These are NOT to be used for credit-bearing courses, and are NOT integrated with the Registrars records. However, if you have a committee that you would like to have a myCourses page for, or a shell that you can use to develop your course in without students having access, feel free to fill out the form and request one. Course Shell Requests are usually completed within 1 business day of the request.

The Course Merge Request form is there for you to request multiple courses to be merged into one. The most popular use for this is instructors who are teaching multiple sections of the same course. This eliminates the need for you to post things multiple times to give all your students access. Course Merge Requests take a bit longer to do, since it is a two step process, so they are usually complete within 2-3 business days.

Course Home

After clicking on a course title from the My Home page, under the My Courses listing, you will be on the entry page for you course. Here you will see a News listing. It is often helpful to post at least one News item introducing yourself, and informing students of how their course will be using myCourses. It is important to always communicate these things to your students! Every year, Online Learning gets calls from confused students and unfortunately we cannot help them. Communication is key!

Also on the course home page is the ability to switch roles, and view your course as a Student or a Teaching Assistant would see it. The Role Switch widget is listed on the right side of the page. Simply pick a role from the dropdown menu, and navigate your course.

Content

The important thing to know about the Content section is that you must create Modules to place your items (topics) into. Some instructors break up content, having a Module for reading assignments and another for lectures, but you must have at least one Module to be able to upload things into your course.

There are many Release Conditions on BOTH Modules and Topics, so be sure you review those carefully - especially the dates/years!

Classlist

You can email your whole class through the following steps:

1. Make sure everyone is on one page. At the bottom of the page, there is an option to view X per page.
2. Once everyone is on one page, click the checkbox at the top or bottom of the classlist, near all the people shaped icons. Not student names, this will only select one user to email instead of everyone.
3. Click the email icon at the top or bottom of the page, it looks like an envelope with a small star.
4. A new window will open where you can type your message. Be sure to CC yourself in on the email, so that you can ensure it was sent because myCourses does NOT keep track of sent emails. *NOTE* if you navigate away from the Classlist page while you are typing the email, the email window will close.

If your classlist is not showing up, please see the Classlist FAQ here.

Discussions

The important thing to realize about the Discussions tool is that you MUST create a Forum and Topics in order for students to see them. If you create a forum, and no topics, students will not see anything.

Additional Support

If you require someone to sit down and help you figure out how you want your course to be run, we have a staff of full time Instructional Design Liaisons who are available to meet with you on an individual level. They are designated by college and their contact information can be found in the table below.