maricklearning.commaricklearning.com/pilotdownload/pilotdoc/llite_doc_de… · web viewversion...

Learning Lite Documentation

for Content Creators

Version 2.1 (April 2015)

About the Learning Lite Software and Documentation

Learning Lite is an open source mini learning management system (LMS) for creating self-contained online courses. Basic tools for quizzes, asynchronous discussion and submitting assignments are available. The software was developed from grant project monies provided through the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) and from additional financial support from Marick Learning Services (http://www.maricklearning.com). No warranty on Learning Lite is implied or given as the software is provided as open source material. As such, any changes to the software coding may require adjustments to the documentation.

If you are teaching or administering a course created using Learning Lite, this documentation is made available free of charge and you may use, modify, or distribute freely as needed.

http://www.maricklearning.com/

4/16/2012

TABLE OF CONTENTSOverviewHow to: Access the Course Development AreasHow to: Develop Navigation and Course Content

How to: Create New Pages (and Generate Navigation) How to: View PagesHow to: Edit Pages’ MetadataHow to: Edit PagesHow to: Upload Files to the ServerHow to: Reorder or Hide PagesHow to: Move Pages or LessonsHow to: Delete PagesHow to: Reuse Pages

HOW TO: MANAGE SYSTEM AND ADMINISTRATION TOOLS How to: Select a Course to EditHow to: Create a New Course and Edit Related MetadataHow to: Create and Manage Quiz SetsHow to: Create and Manage TestsHow to: View and Manage the Discussion ToolHow to: View and Manage the DropboxHow to: Manage Authorization LevelsHow to: Manage User Email AccountsHow to: View User Statistics

How to: Create and Manage the Teacher Resource Page and Asset Archiving

How to: Link to Specific Sections of a CourseHow to: Validate PagesAppendix A: File StructureAppendix B: CSS Classes

1

4/16/2012

<This page intentionally left blank for printing.>

2

4/16/2012

LEARNING LITE DOCUMENTATIONfor Content Creators

OVERVIEW

This documentation assumes you will be:

Creating a course/tutorial using the Learning Lite learning management system (LMS).

Editing course pages that have been created using the Learning Lite.

Each course is created as a self-contained unit that can be located on a variety of servers with minimal technical staff intervention. The site is hosted in a database-driven system developed with MySQL and PHP. The PILOT teacher role allows you to create blank pages and course navigation using a customized web interface. It also allows you to edit pages from PILOT’s online interface.

As a teacher/content creator, you have authorization to:

Create new course pages, including Teacher Resources. Edit existing course pages and page metadata. Reorder, hide and reuse existing course pages. Create and manage quiz sets. Upload supporting graphics and learning assets such as flash animations,

Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and pdf files to the course server.

3

Caution: If you make changes to a single course used by multiple instructors, the changes will affect everyone.

4/16/2012

HOW TO: ACCESS THE COURSE DEVELOPMENT AREAS

Permissions

1. The course administrator will provide the URL of the course web site once needed files are placed on the course server and the appropriate file structure is in place for development.

2. Register using one of your email accounts and create a password to login to the site.

3. Contact the course administrator with the first name and last name you used to register on the site so you can be added to the course with teacher (editing) permissions.

Developer Tools

1. Pages and navigation are dynamically created using the Learning Lite web interface. When you log in with your editing authorization, you will start at the Editing Home menu.

4

Once you register, you will need to contact the course administrator to change your authorization level within the system to teacher.

4/16/2012

HOW TO: DEVELOP NAVIGATION AND COURSE CONTENT

How to: Create New Pages (and Generate Navigation)When you log on the course as a teacher, use the initial Editing Home menu to immediately begin course development or to view existing course content. Choose the link provided at the top of the screen to access the administrative menu. Depending on how many courses you are developing, you may need to first choose the course to access the administrative tools for that course.

1. Log in to the web interface of the course site (Editing Home page).

2. If required, choose the appropriate course from the course list: either from the list provided as you log in, or from the administrative menu by selecting the appropriate course to edit from the course list.

3. Select the Add tab to add a new unit, lesson or page as appropriate and edit the descriptive fields. Note: You will not be able to add lessons until there is a unit to add them to, and you will not be able to add pages until there is a lesson to add them to.

a. Unit tips Unit Name: Enter the name that you wish to display at this level

(level 1) of the menu hierarchy, such as “Evaluate.” Do not add a number or the word “Unit”; these will be automatically generated for you.

Unit Banner: Enter the file name of the unit’s banner graphic, such as U1banner.gif.

o You will need to upload the actual graphic file either via the Administrative Menu (choose the link Upload a banner for course or unit) or via ftp to the /banners directory on the course server.

o Unit graphics are 75 pixels high and 781 pixels wide. Unit Description: Enter a brief description of the unit. 255 characters

max. Verify the course via the drop down menu.

5

This system uses a 3-level hierarchy structure for content organization. These levels must be in place for the dynamically generated menus and headers to display and function properly. Think of a text-book layout: part, chapter, pages.

4/16/2012

Be sure to save changes. This data will be placed in a data table and the code will dynamically

generate the following:o Unit <Number>: <Unit Name> displays as the first line placed

over the unit banner. o Unit <Number>: <Unit Name> displays on the left navigational

course menu; the <Unit Description> appears when the mouse hovers over the unit in the navigation.

o The <Unit Name> displays, but is not linked, in the breadcrumb path.

b. Lesson tips Lesson Name: Enter the tag you wish to display at this level (level 2)

of the menu hierarchy, such as Introduction. Lesson Description: Enter a brief description of the lesson. 255

characters max. Verify the unit this lesson is to be associated with. Be sure to save changes. This data will be placed in a data table and the code will dynamically

generate the following:o Lesson: <Lesson Name> displays as the second line placed

over the unit banner. o <Lesson Name> displays on the left navigational course menu;

the <Lesson Description> appears when the mouse hovers over the lesson in the navigation.

o The <Lesson Name> displays, but is not linked, in the breadcrumb path.

c. Page tips Page Name: Enter the title of the lesson page you wish to display at

level 3 of the menu hierarchy. File Name: The spiffy<#>.php page name is automatically

generated by the system and should not be edited. The file is created and placed on the server in the /pages directory.

Verify the lesson this page is to be associated with. Be sure to save changes. This data will be placed in a data table and code will dynamically

generate the following:o The <Page Name> displays on the left navigational course

menu and a link is created to the appropriate page.o Page <#> of <Total Number of Pages in Lesson> displays, but

is not linked, in the breadcrumb path. Note that the page sequence is set to “0” by default. This means the

page will be hidden from public view until it is assigned an order of 1 or greater. You can change this now via the Reorder tab, or later as your development procedure dictates.

To add content to your new page, follow the steps for editing pages.

6

4/16/2012

To add the title as a header within the course page, you will need to code via html using an <h1> tag on the php page.

Teacher Resource pages are added via the new resource link on the Add tab. These pages work differently than typical pages and are described in the section Create and Manage the Teacher Resource Page later in this document.

How to: View Pages

1. Log in to the web interface of the course site.2. If required, choose the appropriate course from the course list.3. Select the View tab.4. Click the name of the page you would like to view. Note that what you see

as a teacher/developer is different from what students see in these ways:a. Students will not have the pencil icon on the top control bar menu,

which is a link to the editing homepage.b. If you have included a drag/drop question on a graded quiz,

students will not see the error message that you see. There will be nothing to tell them that the drag/drop question exists in the quiz.

5. To return to the editing homepage, click the pencil icon in the control bar near the top left of the screen.

How to: Edit Pages’ MetadataIf you want to update information about a dynamic element, such as change a page title that appears in the left navigational menu, access the metadata. For descriptions of the fields, see the section on creating new pages.

1. Log in to the web interface of the course site.2. If required, choose the appropriate course from the course list.3. Select the Edit tab.4. Select the metadata link for the unit, lesson, or page whose metadata you

would like to edit.5. Make sure you save your changes.

How to: Edit Pages

1. Log in to the web interface of the course site.2. If required, choose the appropriate course from the course list.3. Select the Edit Content tab.4. Select the content link for the page whose content you would like to edit.5. You may either type your own HTML into the text box provided, or select an

element you’d like to add to your page from the list at the top of the page (Biggest heading, smaller heading, etc.).

7

4/16/2012

a. Once you have given the system all the information it needs to generate your HTML tag, the new HTML will be added to the bottom of the text box on this page. You may cut and paste this code to elsewhere in the box if you wish to do so.

6. Make sure you save your changes.

General tips and considerations:

Learning Lite sets the doctype of the web pages to HTML 4.01. Close the tags properly and to avoid problems and to allow for correct code validation, do not use xhtml or xml code.

Use html entities for symbols. The following are examples that are commonly seen in these courses:

long dash: —single quote: 'double quote: "left and right smart quotes: “ and ”

When individual elements need to be centered, use the following formatting: <div align=“center”>text or element to center</div>In most instances, the CSS class you are using will center as appropriate.

The page name that you entered in the metadata is not automatically added to the content area of the page. You will need to add to the editable region via an <h1> tag.

Remember to nest lists and tab in code for readability.

8

Note that you can view the page you’re working on in one window or tab while editing it in another, although no changes will be visible until you have saved them.

4/16/2012

7. CSS classes to use for formatting HTML are found in Appendix B of this document.

How to: Upload Files to the ServerDocuments and images that you want to include or link to on a page can be uploaded without using an FTP client.

To upload a unit banner:

1. Log in to the web interface of the course site.2. From the Editing Home page, select the link Admin menu. 3. If needed, select the link Choose the course to edit.4. Choose the link Upload a banner for course or unit.5. Follow the instructions on the screen carefully so you do not overwrite a file or

have other problems. Be consistent with other banner images in terms of naming and file type. You may want to view files in the /banners directory on the server before performing this action.

6. Once the file is uploaded, you can add the file name to the unit’s metadata.

Note: this process also works to upload course banners.

Other images and documents for use in a course may be uploaded as well, provided that they have one of the following file types: doc, docx, gif, jpg, png, mp3, pdf, xls, or xlsx.

1. Log in to the web interface of the course site.2. If required, choose the appropriate course from the course list.3. Select the Upload File tab.4. Browse for your file, and then click Upload File.

a. Please do not use spaces in your file names.b. Note that the system does not check for duplicate file names. Your

upload will overwrite an existing file of the same name.

How to: Reorder or Hide PagesPages are automatically sequenced as 0 when they are created by the system. They

9

Keep file naming consistent; use lowercase when possible and don’t use spaces in file names.

4/16/2012

will not display in the course navigation until you set the sequence number to something other than 0. To change the sequence:

1. Log in to the web interface of the course site.2. To change the order of pages within a lesson:

a. Choose the Reorder tab and select the link reorder unit’s lessons and pages.

b. Or choose the Edit tab and select the appropriate metadata link. Click on the change this link after the sequence noted on the Edit Page.

c. Change the level numbering as appropriate to reorder as desired. Be sure to click the Update Page Sequence button at the bottom of the list to save your changes.

3. To change the order or lessons/units:a. Choose the Reorder tab and select the link reorder course’s units

and lessons. b. Change the level numbering as appropriate to reorder as desired. Be

sure to click the Update Unit Sequence or the Update Lesson Sequence button at the bottom of each modified list to save your changes.

4. Note: Use 0 to “hide” an item at any level.

How to: Move Pages or Lessons Sometimes you may need to move pages from one lesson to another or to move a lesson to a different unit. By accessing the page metadata, you can associate the page with another lesson or a lesson with a different unit. You can reorder all components as needed.

How to: Delete PagesYou cannot currently delete pages using the web interface. Do not delete spiffy pages from the server--you’ll break the navigation and the file-naming system. Instead, reuse pages.

10

Do not delete the system-created spiffy pages from the server—you will break the navigation and file-naming system.

4/16/2012

How to: Reuse PagesIt is not “safe” to delete spiffy pages, but you can reuse those pages. The following is a suggested method for tracking pages to reuse and the process for re-integrating the page in the course.

Removing a page from view and saving it for reuse:

1. Log in to the web interface of the course site.2. Choose the Edit tab.3. Select the metadata link for the unwanted page.4. Change the name in the Page Name field to “RECYCLE ME.” Do not change

the spiffy file name!5. Save your changes.6. Set the sequence within the lesson to 0. Be sure to click the Update Page

Sequence button.

Reusing a RECYCLE ME page:

1. Log in to the web interface of the course site.2. Choose the Edit tab.3. Select the metadata link for a RECYCLE ME page.4. Change the name in the Page Name field to the name of the new page.

Again, do not change the spiffy file name!5. Select the lesson that the new page will be associated with from the drop

down list of course lessons. You can associate the page with any lesson in any unit.

6. Save your changes.7. Set the sequence within the lesson to the appropriate placement. Be sure to

click the Update Page Sequence button. 8. The “new” page is ready to edit.

HOW TO: MANAGE LEARNING LITE SYSTEM AND ADMINISTRATION TOOLS

How to: Select a Course to EditThere are two main ways to select a course for editing:

1. When you enter the course using the login screen, the next screen provides a list of Learning Lite courses that are hosted on the server. Choose the course you wish to edit from the list displayed.

2. If you are already logged into the course, you can verify or change the course you are editing by using the administrative tools. From the Editing Home page, select the link Admin menu. Select the link Choose the course to edit and select the course you need from the list displayed. Note that this is the same list as in choice 1.

11

4/16/2012

How to: Create a New Course and Edit Related Metadata

Only admin-level users may create a new course (not teacher-level users). To create a new course:

1. Log in to the web interface of the course site.2. From the Editing Home page, select the link Admin menu. 3. Choose the link Add a new course.4. In the Course Title field, enter the title of the course such as World History.

This will create the course title that is displayed in the breadcrumbs.5. In the description, you may enter the text to display when the user rolls their

mouse over the Course Menu title in the left menu navigation.6. Be sure to save changes.

To upload a new course banner (admins only):

7. Log in to the web interface of the course site.8. From the Editing Home page, select the link Admin menu. 9. If needed, select the link Choose the course to edit.10. Choose the link Upload a banner for course or unit.11. Follow the instructions on the screen carefully so you do not overwrite a file or

have other problems. Be consistent with other banner images in terms of naming and file type. You may want to view files in the /banners directory on the server before performing this action.

12. Once the file is uploaded, you can add the file name to the metadata.

Note: this process also works to upload unit banners.

To edit existing course metadata (admins or teachers):

1. Log in to the web interface of the course site.2. From the Editing Home page, select the link Admin menu. 3. If needed, select the link Choose the course to edit.4. Choose the link Update a course’s title and/or description.5. In the Course Title field, edit the title of the course if desired.6. In the description, you may edit the text to display when the user rolls their

mouse over the Course Menu title in the left menu navigation.7. Be sure to save changes.

How to: Create and Manage Quiz SetsAbout the question types you can include:

True/False

12

4/16/2012

o User choice is made via radio buttons (only one answer can be selected).

o The quiz writer may supply feedback for both a correct and an incorrect response.

o This answer can be graded. Multiple Choice

o User choice is made via a checkbox.o Checkboxes allow single or multiple correct answers.o Multiple checkboxes may always be selected.o Up to 5 choices may be provided.o Feedback can be provided for the entire question, but not for

individual choices.o This answer can be graded.

Short Answero A small box allows the user to input a text response to a question.o Text must be input by the student or the following prompt appears

when the submit button is clicked: Please enter an answer.o The input box displayed on the web page allows scrolling and can

handle a long response (up to 350 characters).o This short answer does not work as a fill-in-the blank type of

question.o The answer is a simple text display and cannot be graded.

Drag and Drop (simple matching; 2 or 3 column)o Drag and drop can be a matching exercise where a single fixed

column of descriptions is created and another column has choices that can be dragged to an answer space column to match the criteria in the fixed column (note that this counts as three columns); feedback can be provided for correct and incorrect answers in each answer space; single moves can be checked as can the completed activity.

o Drag and drop can have 2 or 3 category columns to which a fixed

column of choices can be sorted (this counts as four total columns maximum); correct and incorrect feedback can be provided for the

13

4/16/2012

columns; single moves can be checked as can the completed

activity.o Drag and drop quizzes cannot be included in graded quizzes.o Unlike other question types, drag and drop cannot currently be

mixed with other question types.

To create/manage a quiz: From the Editing Home page, select the Quizzes and Tests tab. Then click Click here to create/edit quizzes and tests. There will be three options to create and manage inline quiz sets.

1. To create a new quiz, select the radio button Create a new set of questions.

a. Select the appropriate course from the drop down list. b. Provide a unique name for the quiz.

Note: A set ID number will be created automatically. You do not have to add numbering to the name.

In the name field, enter the name of the quiz (up to 30 characters). Example: Comparing China and USSR.

c. Describe the quiz set in the box provided.

14

The trick to correct layout of a drag and drop quiz is to understand fixed and movable objects. For a 1-1 matching quiz, fixed text creates a list which displays in a Descriptions column. Movable objects in a Choices column are dragged to a box within the Answer Space column adjacent to the appropriate description. For 2 or 3 column sorts, fixed text creates the column headers and movable objects are dragged from a Choices column to one of the 2-3 fixed columns.

4/16/2012

The description will display next to the quiz title in the main quiz list. Tip: include the quiz location and quiz type to help you identify a quiz for later reference or editing. Example: Unit 6 Lesson 1 Pagename: T/F, Multiple Choice.

d. Click on the button Continue to input quiz questions.e. On the page Create an inline question; add quiz question by question

type until you have entered all the quiz questions.f. Select the type of question:

T/F Multiple Choice (you may select multiple correct answers) Short Answer Drag and Drop

Add the question, answer and indicate correct/incorrect as appropriate. When you enter the question and response, you will be able to enter

feedback for correct and incorrect responses. Click the Save Question button when you are finished inputting

question details.g. You can choose to Discard question and return to quiz menu at any

time prior to saving the question.h. Once you save the question, you will be taken to a summary page that

provides a preview of the question. From here, you can add additional questions to the quiz set, create a new set (this is especially useful when a drag and drop is to appear on a page with a separate quiz set that contains t/f, multiple choice or short answer questions as drag and drop cannot be placed in mixed quiz sets), or you can finish working with the quizzes and return to the Editing Home page.

2. To add additional questions to an existing quiz set or to view a quiz set as it will display on the html page, select the radio button Add to an existing set of questions.

a. Select the appropriate set id using the radio button list. b. To view the existing set of questions, choose the link view questions.c. To add additional quiz questions to the selected set, click on the button

Continue to add more quiz questions. Select the type of question. At this point, you can add:

1. T/F2. Multiple Choice (you may select multiple correct answers)3. Short Answer

Add the question, answer and indicate correct/incorrect as appropriate. When you enter the question and response, you will be able to enter

feedback for correct and incorrect responses. Click the Save Question button when you are finished inputting question

details.d. You can choose to Discard question and return to quiz menu at any

time prior to saving the question.

15

4/16/2012

e. Once you save the question, you will be taken to a summary page that provides a preview of the question. From here, you can add additional questions to the quiz set, create a new set (this is especially useful when a drag and drop is to appear on a page with a separate quiz set that contains t/f, multiple choice or short answer questions as drag and drop cannot be placed in mixed quiz sets), or you can finish working with the quizzes and return to the Editing Home page.

3. To edit questions in an existing quiz set, select the radio button Edit an existing set of questions.

a. If you wish, you can first view questions to make sure it’s the right question set.

b. You can also edit name which allows you to edit the name or description of the quiz.

c. Select the appropriate set id using the radio button list. d. Click on the button Edit quiz set.

Choose the edit link to edit the question or answer. Note: while you can edit the content of a question and answer, you cannot change the question type.

Choose the remove from set link to delete the question (you will be asked to verify before the question is actually removed).

For drag and drop questions, you can edit text and edit the correlations.

e. To return to quiz interface, click on the Go back to Manage Quizzes link at the bottom of the page.

16

You can mix true/false, multiple choice and short answer question types in a mixed quiz set. However, drag and drop quizzes should be treated as a 1-1 correspondence with quiz sets. Create each drag and drop quiz as its own unique quiz set. You can embed multiple quiz sets on a web page, but so that the adjustable height displays correctly for drag and drop quizzes, place only one drag and drop quiz set on a web page.

4/16/2012

General Notes Regarding Quizzes

Questions can be set to automatically number (see Grading, below). The default is to not number questions. Why? You may have a single question in a quiz set so it does not make sense to number the question.

The default feedback is Correct! and Please try again. but you can change where noted above.

There is no fill-in-the blank style question. You can turn on grading for true/false and multiple choice questions at the

time when you add the quiz to a page. You can add multiple types of true/false, multiple choice and short answer

questions in a single quiz set. You can only have one drag and drop activity in a single quiz and

may not mix drag and drop with the other question types in the same quiz. You can only place one drag and drop on a web page or the height will not display correctly.

Images cannot be used in questions or answers at this time. HTML code cannot be used in questions or answers.

Grading

“Grading” is a simple report displaying quiz questions with answers given compared to the correct answers. A “graded” quiz will display quiz results and feedback on the course page for the student’s self-evaluation. The tool also allows the student to input an email address to submit a copy of the quiz results. The student can send a copy to themselves. They can also send a copy to you as the instructor if you wish. Simply provide your class with the email address you wish to use.

“Grading” is a simple report displaying quiz questions with answers given compared to the correct answers. The report displays:

The question. The answer submitted. Whether the answer is correct or incorrect. Any feedback that is associated with the question.

The grading option is only available for quiz question types that can be graded. (Exception: While a short answer question cannot be checked in the system as correct or incorrect, if the short answer question is included in a mixed quiz set with other gradable question types, the student’s response and the answer will display in the grade report.)

When you code a quiz to be graded, the questions will be numbered. Once the student takes the quiz and clicks the Check my Answers! button, the report is displayed on the screen. In addition, an input box appears that will allow the student to enter an email address and submit a copy of the quiz results to

17

4/16/2012

that email address. Thus, they can send a copy of the grade report to themselves or to the instructor.

Note that the quiz is not scored. The number of correct answers is not totaled on the screen or on the report. The report is not saved on the server or tracked in any way. If you wish to keep track of scores on the server, you will need to add the question set to the page as a Test (see section on How to Add and Manage Tests).

4. To add the quiz to the HTML page, you can use the automatic HTML generation features of the Edit Content page.

a. Click the link that says Quiz.b. Select the radio button for Graded or Ungraded, and then select the

quiz you wish to add to the page.c. The HTML code to add that quiz to the page will appear at the bottom

of the text box.5. If you wish to add the quiz to the page manually, code according to the

examples below, updating the set id as appropriate.

Quiz that is not numbered and not graded:

<iframe src="../getquiz.php?setId=1" frameborder="0" id=quiziframe></iframe>

Quiz that is graded and numbered (all graded quizzes are numbered):

<iframe src="../getgradedquiz.php?setId=1" frameborder="0" id=quiziframe></iframe>

Quiz that is not graded but is numbered:

<iframe src="../getquiz.php?setId=1&numbered=yes" frameborder="0" id=quiziframe></iframe>

How to: Create and Manage TestsIf you want to keep track of students’ scores for a question set, you can use that question set as a Test.

Creating and editing testsTests are just another application of the same question sets used to created quizzes. Anything that may be added as a Graded Quiz may also be added as a Test.

18

4/16/2012

The distinction between Quizzes and Tests will not matter until you add a question set to a page. Then, the difference between Graded Quizzes and Tests is that scores for Tests are saved on the server; scores for Graded Quizzes are not saved.

See How To: Create and Manage Quiz Sets to learn how to create and edit questions that may be used as a Test or Graded Quiz.

There are two types of tests: Pretests and Posttests. Pretests may only be taken once per student; they may not be retaken in order to achieve a better score. Posttests may be taken as many times as the student desires; only the most recent results will be displayed when you view that user’s results.

Adding a test to a page1. To add a test to the HTML page, you can use the automatic HTML generation

features of the Edit Content page. a. Click the link that says Test.b. Select the radio button for Pretest or Posttest, and then select the test

you wish to add to the page.c. The HTML code to add that test to the page will appear at the bottom

of the text box.2. If you wish to add the test to the page manually, code according to the

example below, updating the set id as appropriate.

Pretest (may only be taken once per student)

<iframe src="../gettest.php?testType=pretest&setId=1" frameborder="0" width="770" id="quiziframe"></iframe>

Posttest (may be taken repeatedly)

<iframe src="../gettest.php?testType=posttest&setId=1" frameborder="0" width="770" id="quiziframe"></iframe>

Viewing aggregate test scoresYou have the option to view test scores in aggregate for everyone who has taken a test, or by searching for a list of names (to see scores for a particular class). To do this:

1. On the Editing Home Page, click Admin menu.2. Click Show Statistics (in the Other category).3. If you want to see all the test results for a given test, select the radio button

for the test you’re interested in, and click the View test stats button.

19

4/16/2012

4. If you want to see scores for a selective list of students, click Get test scores for a class of students.a. Input the names of the students you’re interested in in the format: Last

name 1, First name 1, Last name 2, First name 2, etc. For example:

If you have the students Micky Smith, Rose Tyler, and Donna Noble in your class, you would type in:Smith, Micky, Tyler, Rose, Noble, Donna

b. Click submit.c. Click on the Show class aggregate results for [test name] link for the

test you’re interested in to see the class results for that test. Clicking the link again will hide the results so they are no longer visible on your screen.

Note: If there are five Micky Smiths who have taken the test, all five students’ scores will be included in the class results, even if four of the Micky Smiths are in another class.

Viewing individuals’ test scoresWhile you can search for individuals’ test scores the same way you would search for those of an entire class, there is an easier way to view an individual’s scores.

1. On the Editing Home Page, click on Admin menu.2. Click View a user’s test scores (under the Users category).3. Click on the name of the student whose scores you would like to view.

Note: If your list is very long and you don’t want to scroll, try searching for the name on the page by hitting Ctrl + F on your keyboard, and typing in the name.

How to: View and Manage the Discussion ToolThe Learning Lite LMS provides an asynchronous threaded discussion tool that is installed in each course. You can view the discussion tool from any course page by clicking on the discussion icon in the control bar under the course banner.

Teacher and Admin level users have the ability to create new discussion threads. Note that your name will appear as the person posting the topic.

1. To create topics:

a. From the Editing Home page, select the View Tab and select any page to view the course content.

b. Click on the discussion board icon on the navigation control bar to open a forum window.

c. Choose the New Topic link and add the topic title in the Subject field. d. Input the instructions and question in the Your Message field.

20

4/16/2012

e. Choose the Submit button to complete the posting. Note: Your name will appear as the topic author.

2. To edit posts:

a. Click on the discussion board icon on the navigation control bar to open a forum window.

b. Choose the Topic link and add click Edit Post to change the message text. Your name will appear as the author in the edit window, but will not change the posted author. In this way, you can respond in a message or monitor for inappropriate posts.

c. Input the instructions and question in the Your Message field.d. Choose the Submit button to complete the posting. Note: Your name

will appear as the topic author but the original author will not be changed when you have finished.

3. To delete posts:

a. Click on the discussion board icon on the navigation control bar to open a forum window.

b. Choose the Topic link and add click Delete Post to delete the post.c. You will be asked to confirm your action before the post is deleted.

4. To delete an entire thread:

a. Click on the discussion board icon in the navigation control bar to open a forum window.

b. Click on the first post in the discussion thread.c. Click Delete Entire Thread.

21

4/16/2012

How to: View and Manage the DropboxThe Learning Lite mini LMS provides a dropbox tool that can be used by students to upload doc or docx assignment files to an individual teacher-level user’s dropbox. If you are a teacher, you can access the files in your dropbox from the administrative menu.

1. Log in to the web interface of the course site.2. From the Editing Home page, select the link Admin menu. 3. Choose the link View and manage drop box (in the Other category).4. Click on the appropriate posted file name to download the file. 5. You may also delete files from this menu. Simply click on the delete button to

delete a file. You will be asked to confirm your action before the file is deleted. Only one file can be deleted at a time.

Note that the student’s last name is appended to the file to help avoid file duplication should the students give the assignment file the same name. Duplicate file names will overwrite a previously submitted file of the same name.

How to: Manage Authorization LevelsIf you have admin-level authorization, you can update user authorization levels. For each user, you have the following options:

1. Student

Students can view pages, submit assignments to the dropbox, and post responses to discussion topics. They cannot see the Teacher Resources pages or the edit icon (pencil) to access restricted materials and administrative features.

22

To manage files more easily you may wish to have the students submit the assignment using a standardized file name that you provide. Example: assignment1a.doc. The system will attach the student name to avoid duplication and accidental overwriting of files, and all your assignments will be found together in your personal dropbox.

4/16/2012

2. Teacher

Teachers/Instructors can view all course pages including Teacher Resource pages, and can create discussion topics. Teachers can add and edit units, lessons, pages, and Teacher Resources. Teachers can see the edit icon (pencil) when they are viewing pages. Teachers have limited access to the administrative menu, but cannot add or edit courses, nor can they change email addresses or authorization levels.

3. Admin

Administrators can view all course pages, edit pages and metadata, and develop and manage system authorizations and tools. This is a powerful authorization level that should only be given to administrators and developers who are comfortable with working with LMS system functions and html editing.

Please note that one of the few things the admin level cannot access via the administrative menu is an individual teacher’s dropbox.

4. Disable Account

With an admin level authorization, you have the ability to disable accounts. You may wish to disable test accounts or disable guest accounts used for presentations.

A planned enhancement is to be able to batch delete accounts that have not been active for over a year.

How to: Manage User Email AccountsLearning Lite uses the email address input at the time of registration as the login username. While email addresses are used as the login username as part of common web practice, they are not validated, tracked or otherwise used as communication links in the Learning Lite system.

If a user has a problem with their username (email address), teachers or admins can edit their email address using the administrative menu on the course web site. From the Editing Home page, select admin menu. Then choose the option Change a user’s email address (in the Users category). Note that the username (email account) displayed via the administrative menu is encrypted for FERPA purposes, but can be edited by you. Be sure to click the update user button to save any changes. Notify the user of the new username. You may want to recommend that they reset their course password.

23

Learning Lite complies with FERPA privacy laws. Student data is not tracked and any necessary coding relationships are randomly encrypted.

4/16/2012

How to: View User StatisticsCurrently, Learning Lite is capable of telling you how many unique users the system has at each login level (student, teacher, admin). To view these numbers:

5. Login to the web interface of the course site.6. On the Editing Homepage, click on Admin menu.7. Click on Show statistics (in the Other category).8. Click on System usage counts.

HOW TO: CREATE AND MANAGE THE TEACHER RESOURCE PAGE AND ASSET ARCHIVING

Teacher Resources are optional pages that are visible only to those with teacher or admin access to the course. The link to the page is placed at the end of each lesson in the course menu and is accessible only from that link. The content of the page provides instructional notes for the teacher and a compilation of resources used in that lesson. The content of the page can be edited to embed links to the source files on the server for downloading and modifying as desired by the course instructor.

Note: You will need an FTP connection to the server in order to edit Teacher Resource pages.The process is somewhat more complex than standard pages and should be done once the lesson is complete and the course is ready, or very close to ready, to package as an archived product. It is strongly recommended to have only one resource page per lesson.

To create a new teacher resource page:1. Log in to the web interface of the course site.2. If required, choose the appropriate course to edit from the course list.3. Add a new resource and edit descriptive fields.

a. Choose tab Add from the Editing Home page. b. Select a new resource link in the appropriate lesson.

Resource Name: enter the name of the page to be displayed at the level 3 (page level) of the course menu hierarchy. Example: Teacher Resources. The link to this page will display at the end of the lesson list in the course menu.

Description: enter the data you wish to display as a hover over the link on the course menu.

4. File Name: The resource<#>.php page name is automatically generated by the system and should not be edited. The file is created and placed on the server in the /resources directory.

5. Verify the lesson this page is to be associated with.

24

4/16/2012

6. Be sure to save the changes.

This data will be placed in a data table and code will dynamically generate:

<Resource Name> on the course menu as the last page in the list of lesson pages –only visible for those with teacher or editor level access.

<Description> in the hover/rollover over the <Resource Name> link. A resource<#>.php page, which is placed in the /resources folder on

the server.

To edit a teacher resource page:1. Using your preferred HTML editing program, open the resource<#>.php file.2. Enter your HTML content between these tags, where “Put your content here”

is: 

<p>Put your content here.</p>



3. When embedding links to referenced materials, note that assets and source files must be uploaded via ftp to the corresponding resources/unit<#>/lesson<Designation>/source_assets/ folder. If such a folder does not exist for a lesson, create a new one using this structure.

To move a teacher resource page:Moving a resource page is more complicated than other lesson pages due to the server file structure of the assets. This is why archiving data and creating resource pages is recommended as a last step in the course creation process.

1. Use the Edit tab from the web interface to locate the lesson resource, click its metadata link, and associate the page with a new lesson.

2. Create a new folder in the new lesson and copy the linked-to resources to the new directory. If a folder already exists for the lesson, take care not to overwrite the data as this may need to also be moved. You can see how this can quickly become complicated for tracking and moving source files tied to a lesson.

3. Make sure the files have transferred completely and that links work correctly. Then, remove the old data and directory from the server as appropriate.

HOW TO: LINK TO SPECIFIC SECTIONS OF A COURSE

25

4/16/2012

Instead of teaching the entire course as presented, you may wish use only specific units, lessons, or pages within a course. You can do this by linking to the full URL of a page.

CORRECT: http://yoururl.edu/pages/spiffy17.php?unitNum=1&lessonNum=1&pageNum=2

INCORRECT: http:// yoururl.edu/pages/spiffy17.php

Students will be taken first to the login screen, but once logged in, will be taken to the designated page.

HOW TO: VALIDATE PAGES

Good development practice includes validating your final code.

Good rules to follow to ensure validated code:

Use lowercase code whenever possible. Use proper closing tags for HTML 4.01 (xhtml tags will not validate properly). Avoid using deprecated tags (see

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/default.asp).

You can validate the file content using the W3C Markup Validation Service.

1. Go to http://validator.w3.org/#validate_by_input+with_options2. Click on More Options (just below the text box).3. Select Validate HTML fragment.4. Make sure the doctype is HTML 4.01.5. Click the Check button.

You can then make recommended fixes and revalidate immediately, making any final changes to the server file when finished

APPENDIX A: FILE STRUCTURE

Course (CSS and program files; main.css can be edited to change colors and fonts—refer to comments in file before doing so; do not edit include and other coding files)/banners (contains course, unit, and footer banners; place any new banners here;

course and unit banners may be uploaded to this directory using the administrative menu)

/cgi-bin (for passing program variables; do not place or alter files in this folder)

26

http://validator.w3.org/#validate_by_input+with_options

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/default.asp

4/16/2012

/dboard (discussion board coding files; do not place or alter files in this folder)/dropbox (contains instructor folders and files uploaded by users to the instructor

dropbox; do not place or alter files in this folder)/flash (place folders of flash content here)/iconfiles (contains default icons for course; access only if you change icons)/audio-player (files to allow embedding the jwplayer on course pages to play

audio files)/pages (system generated spiffy php pages are placed here

/doc (student handouts in Word format; recommend Word 97-2003 .doc extension to serve broadest audience)

/images (images embedded in pages, recommend attaching width at end of file as some images are used in various sizes; example: alfonso_150.jpg is displayed and is optionally enlarged in a lightbox to alfonso_720.jpg, use lowercase and underscores as naming conventions)

/pdf (student handouts in Adobe’s PDF format)

/specialpages (pages requiring complex scripting or markup can be written outside of Learning Lite, uploaded via FTP to this folder, and included on a regular page as the content of an iframe. An example of this is the Earned Scholarly Average calculator page.)

/resources (system generated resource php files are placed here; individual teacher resources may be linked via the resource<#>.php page)

/www_redips_net.2.31 (contains the code to generate lightboxes; do not place or alter files in this folder)

27

4/16/2012

APPENDIX B: CSS CLASSES

CSS Classes. A link to the main.css is included in the page template that generates the course php pages. When coding, the appropriate CSS class should be used for styling. For internal consistency, do not insert any inline CSS.CSS

Most commonly used CSS classes and usage notes

<h1> <h2> <h3> <p> etc

These tags are defined and do not require a class unless a color is desired (example: <h3 class=“blue”>). Available color classes are: red, blue, green.

imgright Aligns an image right and sets vspace and hspace automatically.

imgleft Aligns an image left and sets vspace and hspace automatically.

caption_right_100 Sets 100px image on the right with a caption. Type the caption text between the <p> and </p> tags. Do not use with imgright.

caption_right_150 Sets 150px image on the right with a caption. Type the caption text between the <p> and </p> tags. Do not use with imgright.

caption_right_250 This class should be used for a 250px image on the right with a caption. Type the caption text between the <p> and </p> tags. Do not use with imgright.

caption_left_400 This class should be used for a 400px image on the left with a caption. Type the caption text between the <p> and </p> tags.

caption_left_250 This class should be used for a 250px image on the left with a caption. Type the caption text between the <p> and </p> tags.

caption_centered This class should be used to center an image. Type the caption text between the <p> and </p> tags.

textleft Allows the elements following this on the page to appear to the right of the text.

textright Allows the elements following this on the page to appear to the left of the text.

textcenter Centers your text.

directions Sets a colored background around some text. Works best in the form <p class=”directions”> text </p>.

directions_620 Sets a colored background around some text with a

28

4/16/2012

fixed width of 600px. Works best in the form <p class=”directions”> text </p>.

emphasis_575 Sets an indent, a black border, and a color background for a box which is 575px wide. This version works well to the left of caption_right_250 since nothing gets cut off on the right.

emphasis_675 Sets an indent, a black border, and a color background for a box which is 675px wide. This version works well by itself or to the left of caption_right_150.

investigation Sets up a bordered white box for repeatable elements to be highlighted; larger icons are used in these boxes; used for Classroom Activities, Next Steps

keyterms Sets up a bulleted list; black diamonds are the bullets.

list250left Sets the left margin to 260px.

list400left Sets the left margin to 410px

smallcaps Sets fonts to small caps style. Most often used with span.

table_keyterms Assign this class to any table designated for keyterms. The table can have widths of columns set in the <th> tag. <div align=”center”> can be used within a cell. Use <strong> to bold headers.

table_activities Assign this class to any table designated for activities. The table can have widths of columns set in <th> and <div align=”center”> can be used within a cell.

29