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One of the strengths of SmartSite is its expanding and diverse tool set. But when you are getting started, this can be a bit overwhelming. The tools you use will depend on tangibles things such as class size, course format and subject as well as intangibles like your teaching style and comfort with technology. We recommend picking one or two reasons for using a site and starting with the default tool set. You can always add or subtract tools as they are needed. Sites are scalable; so establishing how sophisticated or simple your site will be is a matter of assessing your course's particular needs. Some common reasons for using SmartSite and the tools associated with them are listed below. For a complete list of SmartSites course tools, please visit smartsite.ucdavis.edu
Reasons for using SmartSite's default set of course tools:
Improve and encourage communication
Chat
You can use the Chat Room tool for real-time, unstructured conversations among site participants who are signed on to the site at the same time. Instructors can easily create an "Online Office Hours" chat room for student questions and answers.
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Each site has an automatically generated site email address, which you can view in the Email Archive feature. Email sent to the site email address is copied to all site participants and owners. All messages sent to your site's email address are stored in the Email Archive. Each message sent to site participants will indicate if there is an attachment, and provide a link to get the attachment from the worksite itself.
Encourage collaboration among students
Wiki
A Wiki is a tool for people with no technical knowledge to change and create web pages. Wiki was designed specifically for researchers and lecturers to collaborate on documents, share information and create teaching materials. It is a useful tool for creating Wikipedia-type entries for course terms and topics, developing group projects and collaborative writing assignments.
Promote independent and self-paced learning
Forums
Forums is a communication tool that you can use to create an unlimited number of discussion forums for your course. It is integrated closely with other tools like Resources and Gradebook and is an effective tool for continuing and clarifying class discussions online. It is also useful for posting past essay and short answer exam questions for review.
Collecting, grading and returning assignments
Assignments
For courses, the Assignments tool allows instructors to create, distribute, collect, and grade online assignments. Assignments are private; student submissions are not visible to other users of the site. The Assignments tool offers multiple grading options, including letter grades, points, checkmarks, pass/fail, or ungraded. Assignments can also be returned, with or without grades, for re-submission. Instructors can download all submissions to an assignment to their computer at once. When instructors release grades for an assignment, students can access instructor comments and their grades.
Sharing resources with students, TAs and colleagues
Resources
Using the Resources tool, you can share many kinds of material securely with members of your site, or make them available to the public. You also have your own private Resources area in your My Workspace. You can upload files (e.g., word processing documents, spreadsheets, slide presentations, and videos), as well as create and post HTML (web) pages and simple text documents, and share links to useful web sites. You can organize your Resources items into folders, and you can control which groups or types of users can access and add to different folders. Also, you can show or hide an item at any time, and set a start and/or end time for its availability. Many classes post weekly readings in their Resources. These can include links to websites as well as to other kinds of documents, like Adobe PDF files. Some classes also post presentations or slides used in lectures. By setting folder Permissions, a large collaboration site can use one folder in Resources as a space to archive important documents, and allow only certain site participants to modify those documents.
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The Web Content tool allows site owners to choose external websites to display within their worksite's menubar. Departments, collaborations, or other groups may use the Web Content tool to provide a prominent link to their public worksite. If you want to provide many links to websites for your course or project participants, you can avoid cluttering your menubar by listing most of them in the Resources section.
Automating processes and reducing paperwork
Gradebook
The Gradebook is a tool for instructors to calculate and store grade information and distribute it to students online. Instructors may:
- Autocalculate course grades, with the ability to override any letter grade
- Define course letter grades based on a 100% scale
- Add, view, edit, and release point values of assignments and/or assessments to students
- Enter, view, edit, and release to students scores, grades, and comments
- Transmit scores to the Gradebook from other tools such as Assignments to create an entry and record student scores
- Export class rosters, scores and grades to Microsoft Excel (in .xls or .csv format)
- Import assignment scores from spreadsheet (.csv) files
- Let students view their own scores and grades once instructors have released them
- Submit final grades to the registrar
Organizing and Managing your course
Syllabus
The Syllabus tool is the official outline for your course. As an instructor, if you or your department has prepared an online syllabus already, you can direct the Syllabus tool to link to it. Otherwise, you can enter material to post directly to your syllabus. As you create a syllabus, you can designate that it be visible to the general public or just to members of your course. Some features of a traditional syllabus are divided between the Syllabus and Schedule tools. Some instructors use the Syllabus tool to display the department's official online syllabus, and use the Schedule as a detailed resource for students.
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- Change information about the site
- Select the tools available in the site
- Display a participants list
- Decide who has access to the site
- Publish a course site after its been developed
- Alter your site's appearance and description
For a complete list of SmartSite tools, please visit smartsite.ucdavis.edu
How do I create a SmartSite... Quickly?
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