U of S Course Tools. Customizing Tool Availability For Instructors

Transcription

1 U of S Course Tools Customizing Tool Availability For Instructors June 2014

2 Background: If you are using the U of S Course Tools for the first time, please review the Course Tools Basic document before using this document. Note that the screenshots contained within may vary from your course, especially with the options available. Customization of your course allows you as an instructor to add many teaching tools. Additional help is available online using the complete Instructor Guide. Action: Changing Tool Availability Background STEP 1. Tools such as Announcements, Discussion Boards, Groups, Chat, Calendar, , Blog, Portfolios and so on, are available to use within the U of S Course Tools (Blackboard). There may be times during the term when you might want to make available, or restrict, certain tools. The instructor may enable additional tools that have been disabled by the administrator as a default setting. Action: Making a Tool Available With Edit mode ON,, select Customization from the Course Management menu. 2. From the list, choose Tool Availability 3. The result is a Tool Availability Page where tools can be made available on the Tool Page OR in the U of S Course Tools Need More Help? Call OR help.desk@usask.ca 2

3 Content Area (the drop down list that you see when adding content to your course). The following options are available: Available: The tool is available throughout the Course and open to all users that have a role permitting the use of the tool. Visible to Guests: The tool is visible (read- only), but not usable to Guests when Guests are permitted in the Course. Visible to Observers: The tool is visible (read- only), but not usable to Observers when Observers are permitted in the Course. Available in Content Areas: The Instructor can place a link to a tool in one or more Content Areas of the Course. U of S Course Tools Need More Help? Call OR help.desk@usask.ca 3

4 4. On the Tool Availability Page, select tools to enable their availability. Scroll down to see more available tools. In this example, we will make Blogs available by checking all of its associated checkboxes. NOTE: The system administrator has turned off Tools with a grayed check box in a column. Tools with a symbol in a column do not have availability settings in the system that can be changed. 5. When you are finished, click Submit. 6. Result: A Success: Tool Setting Saved message appears at the top of the page in green, notifying you that the changes are complete. U of S Course Tools Need More Help? Call OR help.desk@usask.ca 4

5 7. Select Course Tools from the Course Management menu. The result: The newly added Blogs Tool now appears within the Course Tools dropdown in the Course Management Control Panel. 8. Be sure to access the Tools page to and select the Enable Tool button. If you can see the Enable Tool text on the button, the link is currently HIDDEN from students. If you see Disable Tool Everywhere text on the button, the link is currently AVAIABLE to students. Select Tools, left side course menu to access the Tools page. U of S Course Tools Need More Help? Call OR help.desk@usask.ca 5

6 9. Select ENABLE TOOL if you want the tool to be visible to students. Action: Customizing Settings Background Instructors can send to individuals who participate in their course using the Send function. s are sent to individual users or to groups of users within the course, such as all Teaching Assistants. A copy of this is sent to the sender by default. Note: The link on the left side menu is available TO STUDENTS by default in the U of S Course Tools. Students are able to Instructors, Teaching Assistants and Individual Students ONLY unless you modify the tool setting. As an instructor, you may send to anyone in the class, without changing any settings. STEP Action: Modifying Settings 1. In the Course Management Control Panel on the left, select Customization > Tool Availability 2. Scroll to find the tool, and select the chevron > Settings U of S Course Tools Need More Help? Call OR help.desk@usask.ca 6

7 3. From the Settings Page, select those users to whom the students may send All Users: Sends to all users in the course. All Groups: Sends to all of the groups in a specified course. All Student Users: Sends an to all students in the course. All Teaching Assistant Users: Sends to all of the Teaching Assistants in a specified course. (already selected) All Instructor Users: Sends to all of the instructors for a specified course. (already selected) All Observer Users: Sends to all of the observers for a specified course. Single/ Select Users: Sends to select users. (already selected) Single/ Select Groups: Sends to select groups. Single/ Select Observer users: Send to a single observer or select observers in the course. Note: Recipients of each will not see the addresses of other recipients. U of S Course Tools Need More Help? Call OR help.desk@usask.ca 7

8 4. Click Submit to save the settings. In the next example, we have limited the student s ability to users, allowing them to only Teaching Assistants and Instructors. 5. is by default, available to the students. WHO they may in addition to the instructor, TA s and individual students, is controlled by you, the instructor. They may access from the link on the left menu or from the Tools link and the corresponding Tools page. U of S Course Tools Need More Help? Call OR help.desk@usask.ca 8

9 U of S Course Tools Need More Help? Call OR help.desk@usask.ca 9