How To's for December 2007

Dealing with Dates on Modules

If you want to reset the dates on imported modules, do it all in one page in author view and click save.

If you want materials always open for them, clear the dates. When you import modules no dates will transfer. The modules will always be open.

• Go to Modules—Author view.
• In "End Date" of modules you want permanently open, select and delete date/time.
• Click on SAVE

How to Give Essay Examp Options

Give a final essay exam with X number of questions. Let students select X number to respond to.

Use Assignments or Tests & Quizzes (essay question type)

In the body of the assignment or  the question of the assessment, place all the questions students may choose from.

If you use an assessment, create as many questions as you are requiring students to answer. If they must answer 2 out of 5, create 2 questions in the assessment,  BUT write out all 5 questions they must choose FROM in the body of both.

Persistence and the Jiffy Lube Icon 

A user posted the following observation

Most students leave the assignment area while inside one particular assignment. When they later click on the Assignment tool, they almost universally expect to see the top menu, and if they haven't read the student guide in fine detail they end up asking how to get back to the main page. I then remind them to read the student guide and click the jiffy lube icon. However, it seems to me that so much time spent explaining this indicates that people simply don't find this an intuitive behavior.

ETUDES responded:

There is no more persistence! It is gone, as of last Monday, Nov 26, 2007, 4:00AM.

When you leave a tool at a deeper level / page and return to it, it will default back to its home page.

Also, all tools, including Jforum, now have the jiffy lube icon (reset button).

Reduce Security Certificate Notices

If you are using the ETUDES images in your home page, re-link them to a new location within the ETUDES environment to reduce the number of security certificate notices you and your students get when logging into the course. The new location for images is http://etudesproject.org/images/ng/