Just in time for the start of the Spring 2012 semester, CUIT will launch several additional features for New CourseWorks. The following additions will be ready for use on December 29.

My Courses Page:

A new “My Courses” page is being launched to consolidate information for easy access to your content. Users will see three main areas: My Courses, My Workspace and My Projects (for collaboration sites). The My Courses page will provide instructors and students with easy access to information from current, past and future courses. Course numbers, course titles and instructor information will be viewable. My Workspace allows users to view a personal workspace with announcements, calendars, files and resources. Users may also add bookmarks to the left navigation bar and customize the order of tools. The My Projects area displays users’ non-course project sites and research sites. The left navigation bar may be minimized to allow a wider view of content.

Customized quick links, settings, and preferences allow users to organize, rename, add bookmarks to and hide courses. Quick links help users to navigate quickly from one course to another.

A “Profile” tool will also be available, giving users the ability to add details about their major, interests, research, etc. Users can change permissions to allow other users (logged in with a UNI) to search and connect with members of the Columbia community with similar interests. Over time, it is hoped that this tool may facilitate greater collaboration among students, academics and researchers.

Changes within Course Sites:

• The editor window within each tool has been replaced by a rich text editor with an improved interface. This addition makes it easier to copy and paste from MS Word.

• The ability to hide the left navigation bar allows a wider view of the content window.

• Tools that are hidden from students and visible to instructors on the navigation bar are italicized and gray.

• Assignments: Options now exist to show user submissions by groups and use search capabilities.

• Polls: Polls can be duplicated, imported and exported across sites. Polls also can be made public for anonymous voting.

• Roster: This tool will allow instructors and TA’s to view profile photos of students. Pictures may also be viewed by group. The Roster tool makes it easy to view student group assignments.

• Discussion Board: You can now get informed when someone posts to a discussion board. All users, students and instructors, can opt in to receive a daily digest email or emails every time a posting is made.

• Non-Registered Attendees: There is a clearer interface for non-registered attendees or users who are manually added to a course site. A flag of “NRA” is set when users are added manually.
  

Administrative Tools:

Delegated Access: Access may now be delegated to departments or schools to assist faculty and students in the New CourseWorks system. Schools and departments can choose which tools (Syllabus, Test & Quiz, Gradebook, etc.) are available for viewing and editing.

Registration period/Shopping period: Department or school designees as well as individual instructors may now open sections of their courses to users with UNI’s or to the public for predefined dates. This tool will allow students to view content before the registration period.

Pilot set of features/tools:

The following tools will be pilot tested during the Spring 2012 term. You can preview them or use them in your course site by sending an email to [email protected] and specifying the tool you are interested in along with course details.

• Guest access: Instructors may add non-Columbia guests to their course sites using the guest’s email address. Guests will then be able log into the system and access the course. It is recommended that guests only be added as auditors to prevent sharing of student information as required by FERPA regulation.

• Sign up tool: This tool allows Instructors and TA’s to create meeting/office hours and have students to sign up for them. The tool allows single-user and multiple-student sign up. When students sign up, an email is sent to them confirming the event.

• Lesson builder: Instructors can now deliver content in a structured way. For example, you will now have the ability to release content based on the class week, revealing only what is needed for that week. The tool also may be used to deliver online training in a sequence or limit access to content until prerequisites are met.

• Gradebook 2: The new grade book option provides a spreadsheet-like experience for graders, with a listing of all students in a class and all of their grades received by item. This will make it easy for instructors to grade multiple students for multiple items, just as they often do by using Microsoft Excel. Course grades are calculated on the fly based on weightings at the grade item and category level.

Please feel free to send us feedback regarding this New Courseworks upgrade. Many of the current improvements are directly related to suggestions we received from the Columbia community. Let us know how you feel about the new features, and tell us what you’d like to see in future versions of New Courseworks!