January 2006Colby College ITS Setting Up Course Pages

January 2006 Colby College ITS

Setting Up Course Pages


Topics

• Course Pages– Getting to Your Course Page– Authoring– Page Preferences

• Main Page• Content• Resources• Other

• Forums– Discussion area– Homework Drop


Course Pages


Your Course Page URL

• You will have received an email from ITS notifying you of the availability of your course page.

• It contains the course page URL(s) in the format: http://author.colby.edu/academics_cs/courses/ST298/index.cfm

Course number


Accessing Your Page

• Open a browser and input the URL

– http://author.colby.edu/academics_cs/courses/ST298/index.cfm

• Click “Enter” or “Return” on your keyboard


Log into the System

• Click on “LOGIN”


Logging In


CommonSpot Authoring

Notice the Authoring icons:

Display Options

Page Management

Modes & Authoring


CommonSpot Icons

Page & Template Management

View Modes

Knowledge Maps

You will use thesemost often


Author Mode

• Click on the “Modes and Authoring” icon

• Select “Author” on the dropdown menu

• This will allow you to make changes to your page


Accessing Page Properties

• Click on “Page Properties” in the “Page Management” dropdown menu


General Page Information

• The course number for your page is the default title and description

• You can change this and any other editable field on this page

• Click “Next” when you are done


Custom Page Information

• This information is entered when the page is created

• It should not be changed

• The tabs across the top of the page give you access to other tabs where you can input content for your course page


The Content Tab


Content Goes to the Content Well

• Content Well


Content Sections

1. Put content into your page using Content Sections

2. Each Content Section allows you to create and edit title and text areas

3. Content in the text box can include text, links to other URLs, documents and images

1.

2.

2.

3.


To Create a Link

• Select the text you want to serve as the link

• Click on the Link Icon


Select an Option• "No Link" (default)• "Link to Existing Page or

File" links to another web page

• "Link to New Page or Template" links to a page that does not yet exist

• "Link to New Uploaded File" links to a document you wish to upload to the page

• "E-mail Link" creates a link that will open a user’s e-mail client when they click on it, and fill in the desired e-mail address.


Special Content - Assignments

• Enable the Assignments element by checking the “Assignments” checkbox under the Content Tab

• Then click “Finish”


Entering Assignments

• In “Author Mode”, click on the Pencil Icon under “Assignments”

• Click on “Select Rendering Mode”

• Click the “Preview” tab• Click on “Click here to add new

element…”


Building an Assignment List (1)

• Iteratively enter assignments into this form

• You can enter assignments all at once or as you assign them



1. Enter data

2. Click “OK”



3. This is what you see on the page

4. Click on yellow “+”

5. Click on “Submit Entire Page..” to publish the change


How Students will see the List


The Resources Tab


Resources go on the Right

The Resource Container


Resource Sections

1. Put content into your page using Content Sections

2. Each Content Section allows you to create and edit title and text areas

3. Content in the text box can include text, links to other URLs, documents and images

2.

2.

3.

1.

2.

2.

3.


Special Resource – Uploaded Documents

• Enable the Uploaded Documents element by checking the “Uploaded Documents” checkbox under the Resource Tab

• Then click “Finish”


Uploading Documents (1)

• Click on the “Page and Template Management” icon

• Select “Upload New Document”

• Click “Next” in the Upload New Document window



• Browse to the file you want to upload on your laptop or desktop

• Enter a title for your document

• Click on the orange down arrow

• Click “Next” at the bottom of the screen



• Refresh your browser screen to force the Course Page to look in your Documents folder

• The uploaded documents now appear in the Resource space


Image

• “Gallery” allows you to select an image from the combined site images

• “New” allows you to upload a new image


Image

• Use the drop-down menus to select the area you want to browse for an image

• Review images and click to insert


New Image

• Use the “Browse” option to select an image from your computer or media source to insert

• Do not check “Include in Public Image Gallery” unless you want others to have unlimited access to your image


Creating Page Anchors

You can insert an anchor into your page by using the “Element Name” function

1. Click on the layout properties icon

2. Select “Element Name”

3. Enter the anchor name you want in the dialog box

4. Click on “Finish”

1.

2.

3.

Return to “Creating a Link” training


Editing Your Pages

• Select “My Pages” fromthe page managementmenu

• CommonSpot willdisplay a list of allyour pages

• Click on the oneyou want to edit

• Add, delete, editas usual

GO BACK


Getting Students To Your Page

• At this point in time, course pages are NOT searchable on Colby’s web site

• In order for students to “find” your course page, you should:– Provide it to them in class– Have it “linked” to from your department

web page


Forums


Page Preferences Menu