How To
- Assignments and Safe Assignments
- Blogs, Journals, Wikis
- Collaborate Web Conferencing
- Course Settings
- Discussion Board
- Grade Center
- HuskyCT Adding Content/Building Your Site
- HuskyCT Announcements, Messages, Email
- Lockdown Browser
- My Courses Page
- Non-Class HuskyCT Sites
- Personal and Notification Settings
- Rubrics
- Student Resources for HuskyCT
- Student View
- Tests, Surveys, Pools and Respondus
- Users and Groups
HuskyCT Adding Content/Building Your Site
Basic build strategy for new “blank” course sites
A new HuskyCT site, generated when a request is submitted using the Student Admin System (PeopleSoft), has four links in the left hand navigation menu. Announcements, Library Resources and My Grades are all links to “Tools”. The Overview and Syllabus link is to a “Content Area”. This is the only area immediately available in a new site where you can add files your students can access. The gray square indicates that page is currently empty.
All types of files can be added – Word, PowerPoint, and PDF. The most user friendly for your students, however, will be PDF files set to open in a new window. Content Areas are also used to add online Assignments and Tests. Many more Content Areas as well as other Tool links can be added to the navigation menu. It is also possible to link directly to a web site from the menu.
Checklist for preparing HuskyCT sites with restored content
- Remove any files, web links, tests, assignments, or forums that you do not plan to use
- Remove the old syllabus file and add the new one
- Hide links to content and activities that you do not want the students to see as soon as they get access to the site.
- Add new availability dates and due dates to Assignments, Tests, and Graded Discussion Forums
- Check web links to see if they are still active. Delete or edit as needed.
- Check the Grade Center for columns you will no longer be using and delete them.
- Go to “Manage”, then “Column Organization” to view columns currently hidden from you in the Grade Center. Unhide columns that are no longer relevant and then delete them.
- Disable the “Total” External Grade Column
- Be sure Grade Center columns are “Hidden to Users” if you do not want students to see them in “My Grades”
- Use “Edit Mode OFF” to determine what content and links are visible to the students. The true student view is not functional until the site becomes active for the real students.
Basic build strategy migrated course sites
Some instructors request to have the content of old HuskyCT sites copied into new HuskyCT sites for the upcoming semester. If the content copied over is coming from the older version of HuskyCT (Vista), there will be many links in the left-hand navigation area.
Often these links are to tools that were never used in the old system and should be deleted. Some of the links have the names of tools in the old system, such as Assignments or Assessments, but in the new system, these links are for Content Areas that have the assignments or assessments posted on them.
It is highly recommended that instructors working with a migrated site contact the Instructional Resource Center for assistance. We can look at your site with you, either in person or via a web session, and decide how best to clean it up and reorganize it. We will even do much of the work for you!