SmartSite Brochure

Overview

During the 07-08 transition year, the project needs a brochure to provide a first point of contact for instructors who are new to SmartSite.

Audience

Instructors who are not familiar with SmartSite.

Goal

Increase the number of course sites throughout 2007-08

Distribution Points

Copy

Need help managing a class?

Simplify your workload.

Create a SmartSite for your unique teaching needs.

SmartSite can help to:

• Communicate with students
• Encourage collaboration
• Share materials
• Communicate with students
• Organize lectures

smartsite.ucdavis.edu

What is SmartSite?

SmartSite is a sophisticated set of web-tools designed for higher education. It is also UC Davis' new course management and collaboration system powered by Sakai, a software development effort that brings together one hundred plus educational institutions.

Like Mozilla's Firefox web browser, SmartSite is part of an open-source community dedicated to the success of a particular piece of software. UC Davis' active participation in the Sakai Project (sakaiproject.org) insures that our campus and other members like Michigan, Cal and Stanford have an evolving set of web tools that can be tailored to each institutions' community of users.

7 Faculty Profiles spaced throughout document:
Roger MacDonald
Kristina de Korsak
Susan Keen
Milmon Harrison (Need to get Photo/Quote; use place holder if needed)

Why should I use SmartSite?

SmartSite can help simplify your workload by providing useful web-tools for your unique teaching, research and collaboration needs.

Also, MyUCDavis' set of course tools will be retired in 2008-09. We encourage instructors to export content from MyUCDavis' WebSite builder and QuizBuilder tools and import it into SmartSite using a few easy, well-documented steps. MyUCDavis Gradebooks can be exported from the system, but can not be imported into SmartSite at this time. Your data on MyUCDavis will be accessible in the future, but the option to use the course tools will not. Please email smartsite-help@ucdavis.edu with any questions or concerns.

Which tools are right for me?

One of the strengths of SmartSite is its expanding and diverse tool set. The tools you use will depend on tangible 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 of course tools described on the next few pages. You can always add or subtract tools as they are needed.

Communicate with students

Chat

• Have real-time, unstructured conversations
• Hold "Online Office Hours"

Announcements

• Announce last minute changes
• Send reminders about upcoming events, tests, readings, etc.

Mailtool

• Easily contact site members and groups without entering an email address
• Send private or public messages

Email Archive

• Collect and view course related emails without searching your in box
• Contact all site participants with one email
• Send attachments to your site without clogging email accounts

Encourage collaboration

Wiki

• Easily change and create web pages
• Create Wikipedia-like entries for course terms and topics
• Have students collaborate on writing assignments

Forums

• Create an unlimited number of discussion forums for your course
• Continue class discussions online
• Build an "answerbase" for future students

Share materials

Resources

• Securely share course materials
• Upload files like word processing documents, spreadsheets, slide presentations, and videos
• Create and post HTML (web) pages and simple text documents
• Share links to useful web sites
• Use folders to organize your class materials by topic, lecture date, section, etc.
• Control who can access and add to different folders
• Set a start and/or end time to release and hide study guides
• Post weekly readings
• Archive important documents like exams without showing them to students

Web Content

• List web links in your worksite's menubar.
• Provide prominent links to your department, personal homepage, etc.

Organize Classes
Syllabus

• Create an official outline for your course
• Easily edit and enter a course outline directly into SmartSite
• Link to a syllabus you or your department has prepared an online
• Share your course with the general public or just to members of your course

Schedule

• Post items in a calendar format by day, week, month, year, or flat list view
• Post readings for each class on the day they are due to be read
• Set deadlines for research, group, and department projects
• Get an overview of all your course schedules in MyWorkspace
• Add multiple attachments
• Print an Adobe PDF file of any view of a Schedule

Section Info

• Efficiently manage sections of a class that may consist of lectures, labs, discussions, studio work, etc.
• Work with other tools such as Announcements and Gradebook

Manage Grades

Gradebook

• Calculate and store grade information and distribute it to students online
• 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 point based grades 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 a spreadsheet (.csv) files
• Let students view their scores and grades
• Submit final grades to the registrar

Collect Assignments

Assignments

• Create, distribute, collect, and grade online assignments
• Assignments are private; student submissions are not visible to other users of the site
• Choose from multiple grading options, including letter grades, points, checkmarks, pass/fail, or ungraded.
• Return assignments, with or without grades, for re-submission
• Download all student submissions at once
• Release student grades with comments

Visit smartsite.ucdavis.edu for a complete list of SmartSite tools

How do I create my site?

Use WorkSite setup to:

Worksite Setup

• Create a course or project site
• See the sites you own
• Quickly access "Site Info" to edit your sites
• See the other worksites you belong to

Create a course site graphic

How do I manage my site?

Use Site Info to:

Site Info

• View and change information about a site
• Select the tools available to 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

Add your TAs graphic

Where can I find help?

SmartSite features contextualized help. Click the "?" button in the frame of the tool you're working in and SmartSite Help will open to the correct entry. For instance, if you are creating a course site, click the "?" in "WorkSite Setup" to find detailed instructions on this process.

For technical assistance or questions that are not answered in the Help section, please contact:

IT Express

This campus service is available to help you set up a SmartSite account and answer questions about using your SmartSite tools.

Contact IT Express at:
(530) 754-HELP (754-4357)
smartsite-help@ucdavis.edu
or in-person at Shields Library http://itexpress.ucdavis.edu

Is there training available?

Teaching Resource Center (TRC)

The Teaching Resources Center (TRC) has as its primary goal the improvement of instruction at UC Davis by enhancing teaching and learning opportunities for faculty and teaching assistants. Visit their calendar and sign up for one of the many different SmartSite training sessions and pedagogical events like the quarterly series on "More Thoughtful Teaching." Space is limited.

Contact the TRC at:
(530) 752-6050
trc@ucdavis.edu
or in-person at 17 Wellman http://trc.ucdavis.edu

What about one-on-one or drop-in support?

Education Technology (ET) Partners

Student technology advisers specially trained in the applications commonly used in teaching at UC Davis (including all of the tools in SmartSite) are available for ad hoc, one-on-one consultation via drop-in or at a faculty member's office.

Contact the ET Partners program at:
(530) 754-2115
etpartners@ucdavis.edu
or in-person at Surge II http://etpartners.ucdavis.edu

Interested in learning more about how your peers use SmartSite and other educational technology?

Faculty Mentoring Faculty Program (FMFP)

The FMFP provides UC Davis instructors an opportunity to mentor and to learn from other faculty interested in instructional technology and innovative teaching. Visit fmfp.ucdavis.edu to learn more about this quarter's presentations and view videos of past sessions.

Contact Andy Jones, FMFP Program Manager at:
(530) 752-3408
aojones@ucdavis.edu
fmfp.ucdavis.edu
or RSVP for an upcoming at trc.ucdavis.edu http://smartsite.ucdavis.edu

IET Logo
Copyright information