To:  All Learning System Instructors and Associates

In this Issue:
=========

1.  Student load into courses today for student visibility MONDAY 12:01am as promised
2.  Enrolling your own Teaching Assistants...
3.  Faculty/Staff/Teaching Assistants Free Learning System WORKSHOPS...
4.  If you still haven't requested your course sites...
5.  Course Section Email Distribution Lists Up and Running
6.  Student Numbers now available for your Site


1.  Student load into courses today for student visibility on Monday  September 5th as promised
============

This morning I loaded all fall 2011 and fall/winter 2011 courses on the Official LearningSystem List (http://www2.trentu.ca/cgi-bin/mls-courses ) with all registered students.  Your students will not see the sites on their courselists until 12:01am MONDAY (September 5th).   Instructors will be able to see the student enrollment names NOW via teach->gradebook.

7004 unique Trent students were loaded into 623 learningSystem sites for 26,032 'students in section's.  That's 3.7 sites on average per student!    Add 300-400 UOIT students (not yet loaded) most with one or two sites to that total...

Every business day after today, I will be adding new registrants and unenrolling any 'drops/withdrawals' resulting possibly in some names in your gradebooks that appear in red type (unenrolled).

Please be sure to login to the Learning System TODAY and click on the 'Student View' tab.  Ensure that everything that your students can see is what they SHOULD SEE tomorrow.

Check particularly on the 'MY GRADES' left menu item to ensure that the students are not seeing any column names there that they should not see.

Please hide anything that is called 'Assignment Solutions', 'MidTerm Exam', etc. that are still visible from last year if you're reusing course content!!

Faculty teaching courses in OSHawa involving UOIT students will receive a separate email from me with this enrollment information.


2.  Enrolling your own Teaching Assistants...
=============

It's a simple matter to enroll your own Teaching Assistants into your course sites.  Here's a "How Do I?" page that will help:

http://www.trentu.ca/mls/instructors/how-do-i/add-students-and-tas.shtml

If they need to access student submissions, the gradebook, etc., give them 'TEACHING ASSISTANT'.  If they need to post materials, also give them 'SECTION DESIGNER'.

Please do not guess at their TrentNet ID.  Confirm by asking them or checking their Trent email address.

Please DO NOT ADD students to your site manually at this point.   Students that complete course work without proper registration costs the university tuition fees PLUS government funding.   Please insist that the students register for your course officially first.



3.  Faculty/Staff/Teaching Assistants Free Learning System Workshops...
=============

If you're having difficulty with a particular Learning System tool, or would like to talk to one of us about how to take your site to "the next level", please let us know -- we'd be happy to help as time permits.  Feel free to ask about clickers, SMARTboards and webcasting as well.  

Fall workshop schedule: http://www.trentu.ca/mls/instructors/workshops which includes 2 full days in OSHAWA.


4.  If You Still Haven't Requested Your Fall Course Sites...  (please use the form below - don't email me this info)
==============

Official List of Course Sites for the Fall in the Learning System: http://www2.trentu.ca/cgi-bin/mls-courses

Course Request Form Link:   http://www.trentu.ca/mls/instructors/course-request.shtml

If you do not see your course listed on the 'Official Course List' above, please use the 'Course Request' link to let us know about your Learning System plans. 

If your course site in the Learning system does not contain 2011FA or 2011FW  - then it has not been readied for student loading and we need to hear from you!

All requests sent by form will be placed in a request queue in "RequestTracker" for either myself or Chris Boothroyd to process.   If your course already exists in the Learning System from past years, please do feel free to update your materials now even before your request has been resolved/answered.


5.  Email Distribution Lists Up and Running
===============

The Course Section Email Distribution Listsare ready for use... 

See this FAQ for info on emailing your class 'en masse':  http://www.trentu.ca/mls/instructors/how-do-i/emaildistributionlists.shtml

I recommend that if you send out a class email, that you also post the same information as a learningSystem 'Announcement' because announcements cannot be lost, deleted or mis-directed.


6.  Student Number Lists now Available for your Sites
===============

Link to Student Number Self-Serve:  http://www2.trentu.ca/cgi-bin/stunum.cgi

Instructors can choose their course from a list of courses and the student number list is sent to a pre-authorized Trent email address.  It appears in the form of an import file for the learningSystem gradebook.

Instructions for the import come along with the email sent.   Let me know if you have difficulties, or if you can think of a way to make it better?

Note that you cannot use this application until your course has been loaded with students for the first time (TODAY, if there are students in your gradebook already).  Courses that are being manually loaded with students also cannot use this system.

Questions, comments?

mj

MJ Pilgrim/Chris Boothroyd/Lily Chumbley
LearningSystem Team

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