Desire2Learn (D2L) Learning Management System (LMS) Training Outline

Desire2Learn (D2L) Learning Management System (LMS) Training Outline  Crew’s Control (Resources) o Initial eLearning account request  Development course created and email notification within 24 hours o eLearning FAQs o Tech Code selection and Online Course Syllabus posting  Required in term the course is being offered D2L System Overview   Login (link to Faculty Orientation Guide) eLearning Home Page o My Home link  Home base. Access to all of your D2L courses and general info o Email link  Recommend avoiding. Utilize “Classlist” email o Locker link – Global Storage of files  Upload any file to be stored and selectively make those files “Public” or viewable by anyone in the course  Good place for students to upload assignment files so other students can view them (unlike Dropbox)  Be advised that any public file in a student’s locker is visible by any other student in ANY D2L class in which that student is enrolled o Glossary link  Definitions of important terms for all of your courses o Pager  Recommend avoiding. Not instantaneous and often easy to miss. Email or scheduled chat works better o Welcome Window o o o o o o o  Avoid “My Preferences” link Update Window  See this topic in Course Home Page (below) Events/Calendar Window  See this in Course Home Page (below) Create Course Window  New Development Course link allows you to instantly create a new course shell or template. The link for the new course will be available under Development courses in the middle of the home page  Use this function to create new course shell, and then copy old course material into the new shell each new semester you offer the course. More about copying courses in Content (below) News Window  Important notifications about D2L or other systems info. More about using the News Window in Course Home Page (below) My University of West Florida Courses Window  Access all of your available active or development courses here. You may need to expand a college window to see all courses. Click on the + icon to view all courses under a heading.  Old Prometheus courses are here also.  Teaching with D2L Tutorial available here too (Under Academic Technology Center heading). This tutorial and others in the future will be your first level of support when having questions about how to utilize D2L functions  Look for new D2L basics online tutorial and new Teaching with D2L online tutorials in the near future. These tutorials are intended to be offered as short term, instructor facilitated, online courses My Admin Tools Window  Recommend avoiding unless you would like to download and print the Instructor Guide (somewhat technical) Request Help Window  Request Help link send email to the ITS Help Desk. They will respond to the email within 24 hours. You can also call the Help Desk (474-2075). This is your second level of support when having questions about how to utilize D2L functions. Please consult the Teaching with D2L online tutorial before emailing or calling the Help Desk.  Course Home Page o Course Home link  Primary course home page for specific class you are instructing. More on course home windows to follow o Content link (and creating or uploading information into D2L)  Location of all course content files either created in D2L or uploaded to the system from your computer  Select the “Manage Content” link at right to begin development  Select the “Add Module” icon to create your first module heading. Recommend first module heading of “Important Course Information” or something similar.  Topics under this module might include: Orientation information, Syllabus, Course and/or Assignment Schedule  Add Topic to Important Course Information module by selecting the “Add Topic” icon associated with the Important Course Info Module  Now you decide if you would like to insert the new topic here by uploading a file you have already created and stored or by creating the new topic from this location o Select the “Upload New File” link for already created files o Select the “Create New File” link to create fresh new file o Creating a Syllabus (See SACS approved Example)  Creating a thorough course syllabus is the foundation and provides the perfect plan from which to design and then develop the Instructional Content Modules and Topics. The Topics Covered, Learning Objectives or Student Learning Outcomes are what your Modules and Topics should be based upon.  Once a syllabus is created for an online course, it must be uploaded to your college database. Once uploaded, a URL or web address is provided. Copy/Paste this URL back to your course listing in Crew’s Control. Establish the Tech Code for your upcoming course and insert the syllabus URL into the appropriate box. Now prospective students know the course requirements and what kind of technology utilization to expect from your course.  Upload Syllabus by selecting the “Upload New File” link, o Provide long and short title of file o Browse your computer for the course syllabus, select the proper file in the window and click on “Save” o Click “Save” again if another dialog box opens o You should now see a new topic titled Syllabus under the Important Course Info Module. Selecting the Syllabus link will open your course syllabus in a new browser window Add anther Topic to Important Course Information module by selecting the “Add Topic” icon associated with the Important Course Info Module o Create a New Course Schedule by selecting the “Create New File” link that provides a blank word processor on which to proceed o Provide long and short title of file o Type new information into the word processor to create new schedule file.    If you choose to copy/paste information from another file, it is Highly Recommended the source file be saved in Rich Text File (.rtf) format.  Open the source file and save as.  Click in the box below the File Name box and select .rtf file format. This helps when D2L converts your wordprocessed information into the HTML format. o Once your word processing is complete, scroll down and click “Save”. Click “Save” again if another dialog box opens o You should now see a new topic titled Schedule under the Important Course Info Module Managing existing content (Select the Manage Content link on right side of page) o You can edit any module title or select when it can be available to your students clicking on the Module title.  Edit or change the title  Select the “Release Conditions” tab to Hide the module or set time and date availability o You can edit any topic content by selecting the “edit topic” icon associated with each topic on the right side of the page  The content opens in a word processor  Edit it and then and select the “Save” button at the bottom right of the page Continue adding modules and topics by either uploading files or creating new files until your course content is fully populated  o Links link  Location to provide your students with descriptions and links to web sites important to your course content  Select the “Manage Links” link on the left side of the page. It takes you to a page where you label the different categories of links you may offer. Select the “New Category” button and provide the label for the category of links you are about add. Select the “Create Category” button to go to another box to add your new web links  Select the “New Link” button  Provide the Title, URL and description of the web site  Select the “Create Link” button o Discussions link  Location to create environments (forums) for interactive student discussions on topics important to the course.  Select the “Create New Forum” button to open a page where you describe the overall theme of discussion topics you are about to create. Some instructors label the forums by week. For example Week 3 Discussions.  Title your forum and provide a description if necessary then select the “Add Topic” button at the bottom right of the page  Title your Topic for discussion and then define the discussion criteria. Select the “Save” button at the bottom right of the page. If you are not returned to the Discussions page, select the Discussions link from the menubar to see your new forum and discussion topic o Chat link – Note: Some technical difficulties still exist with Chat  Location where you can have synchronous communication with your students or where they can communicate with each other  You must create a chat session before students can enter. Do this by selecting the “Create Chat” button  Select “general chat” then the “Next” button  Provide the Chat title and description and select the “Create” button  Your students can now chat anytime by selecting the appropriate chat link you created. This is a synchronous environment so times must be posted for chat or coordination must take place to ensure participants arrive at the same time o Classlist link  Location to view student names, email address, personal information, locker files and course progress  Send individual, group or entire class email  Have students complete biographical information (including picture) to facilitate community building in course o Select the ? icon at the left of the name. Complete form as required o Select “Save Changes” button at bottom right of page  Selecting the “Books” icon at the left of the name allows anyone to see files posted in the locker the student as chosen to make public  Selecting the “Page/Magnifying Glass” icon at the left of the name allows the instructor to see how many times a student as accessed the course and how many discussion postings and content page each student have viewed o Dropbox link  Location where your students submit their assignment files and where you pick them up, grade them and provide feedback  Select the “Admin” button on the lower left of the page. Then select the “Add Folder” button. o Provide the folder name and category if required (For example, you might have several assignments due for Week 3. Week 3 could be your category) o Link the folder to an assessment item if required. Note: The assessment item must have already been created in the Grades section before linking can occur (Grade item creation link also available when creating Dropbox but recommend creating in Grades section first) o Provide assignment description in custom instructions box o Restrict time and date of submissions if required o Add to your calendar of events if required and not done so already o Quizzes link  Location where you construct and grade your quizzes and tests. Also where your students access these assessments  The Question Library is the repository of all test or quiz questions. All questions should be imported to the library or constructed in the question library first. Then, construct your quizzes or tests by taking the questions from the library  To create a new quiz, select the “New Quiz” link. Name your quiz and link it to a grade item if the grade item has already been created in the grades section (Grade item creation link also available when creating Quiz but recommend creating in Grades section first). Make your choices on the proposed questions by clicking in the appropriate circle. Provide a Pretest Description and/or Test Commencement Instructions as required  Select the “Layout/Questions” tab at the top right of the page to format and to begin adding questions to your exam  Select the “Restrictions” tab at the top of the page and select the appropriate availability and timing of the exam  Select the “Attempts” tab at the top of the page and select the appropriate number of attempts you will allow your students and which attempt actually counts for the grade calculation. o Note: If you select only ONE attempt, be sure to select HIGHEST ATTMPT from the grade calculation box  Select “Reports” to determine how your students will be able to view the results of their examination. You can add a custom message and choose whether students see all their answers with or without the correct responses  Once complete with all the tabs, select the “Save Quiz” button on the upper right of the page. Of course you can select the “save quiz” button at any time along the creation process  Once students have completed the assessment, select the appropriate quiz name and then the “Grade Quiz” link to actually grade and provide feedback on the assessment o Grades link  Location where you construct course grade items and determine how the scores will be calculated  Select the “Grade Options” link on the upper right side of the page and determine whether you want your final grades to be calculated with the weighted option or points system   o What you decide here determines how all grades for the course will be calculated and is very hard to change after you have begun o The default is the weighted option. If you choose allow the weighted option, you must ensure that all your items add up to exactly 100%. This is often very difficulty if you have numerous graded items under multiple categories Select the “New Item” link in the upper middle of the page to begin adding grade items that will be used to determine overall course grades o Provide the appropriate general information and grading option information Select the “Grade List” link to see your Grade book where your grade items and students are listed. Here you can input grades, edit grade items and view score statistics o Edit Course Link  Location where you access primarily course files you have uploaded to your course and another location to manage your content  Select the “Green Flag” at the right side of the page to Return to your Course o Help Link  Location for expanded information and the various sections and components of D2L. Great place to explore o Logout link  Always select this link before closing out the browser window that you are using. This logs you out of the eLearning system  Back to Course Home Page o Calendar Window  Open the calendar  Click on the appropriate date  Select the “Add Event” link  Complete the title, date and description entries  Select the “Save” button at the bottom right of the page  Events entered in the Calendar will become visible in the Events window as the appropriate date approaches. This is great for student reminders o Update Window  Location where you quickly determine if your students have posted new files to the Dropbox, Quiz completions or new entries in the Discussion section  Selecting these links takes you directly to the appropriate section o Bookmark Window  Allows students quick return to the last content page they visited as long as they remembered to mark it before leaving o Activate Course Window  Once your development course is completely finished and ready to be linked to an active course, select this link  Link your development section with the actual course reference section and select the “Activate Section” button o Your D2L development course will become and active course o Request E-Reserves Window  Select the E-Reserves link to have the library make course material available online  Complete a form fully  Select the “Submit Form” button o News Window  Location where you provide your students current information about the course. This is a very important window in maintaining the interaction and community among your students. Update this frequently!  Select the “Edit” button in the upper right of the page and a word processor box will appear  Enter the Date, Headline and Post your announcements in the content box  Select the “Save” button at the bottom right of the page  Copy Course Instructions (add here)