Notes and Tips by John Shepherd, August 2023
You can copy info from previous outlines. Not useful this term, but in the future ...
All pages have a Preview function, which simply shows the whole Course Outline.
Make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom of each page.
The wysiwyg editor on text boxes lets you edit raw HTML,
but then throws away most of your HTML
It looks like it only retains a small subset of tags like <p> <br/> and
Some text boxes allow you to edit tables, some don't.
If you leave text boxes empty, the corresponding header
will generally not appear in the course outline.
Although sometimes it will ... with no text
You can probably save some typing by copy-paste from your previous Course Outline, where relevant.
You can't change the content from ECLIPS (tagged by a little blue cloud with a down arrow), but there are places where you can add your own text if you want:
If you leave these boxes empty, nothing appears in the Course Outline for them: no header, no text.
I added the assumed knowledge blurb from my Webcms3 course outline from 23T1 in the Additional Information box.
Add yourself as Course Authority
Edit and make yourself convenor and check the ELS box
You can optionally add other staff such as Administrators
Maybe add the COMPXXXX Class Account (csXXXX@cse.unsw.edu.au)
as a staff with no Position and make it the primary contact
The Course Learning Outcomes from ECLIPS will appear in this section.
You cannot change them.
Unless you have something specific to put in Other Outcomes, leave it blank.
Do not put in the Learning Outcomes that you wish you had put in ECLIPS.
You need to do the below for each assessment.
Click on the [Edit] button. This gives a long pop-up to fill. I'll work through it from top-to-bottom.
The Assessment Overview comes from ECLIPS and can't be modified.
They ask for a Detailed assessment description, by which I think they mean the entire assessment spec.
I think we should all put "Details are on the course website", with "course website" being a link to the top-level of the course website. You can add links with the "chain" icon in the textbox editor..
Choose Yes if there's a Hurdle requirement.
This would typically be only for the exam.
They ask for a Start Date, Due Data and Post Date.
These headings appear in the outline, whether you give them values or not.
The only one I filled was Due date, choosing "Other",
and saying what Week it is due (they don't check whether it's a date ...
any text will do).
Don't choose and option for the Start Date unless you actually
have one. Once you choose an option, you have to supply a value; use '-'
if you want minimal impact on the page).
For Submission notes you could put one of (a) the give command, (b) Submitted via Give, (c) Submitted via Moodle, or whatever is appropriate for your course.
Don't select anything for Turnitin ... unless it is Turnitin'd
If you choose any of the options, you get a heading and some useless text
If not using Turnitin, simply leave as --Select--
Add any Additional information that you think might be useful, or leave it blank (if blank, no heading appears in the final document)
They also ask for Special consideration outcome. I plan to leave this blank, because we don't know exactly what it will be, except for the Final Exam, which will be "Supplementary Assessment". If you really want to put something, "Time Extension" would be typical for assignments.
Then press [Save Assessment].
Attendance requirements ... probably use the first choice
Under General schedule information, you can enter text using the
simple wysiwyg editor.
Using bullet points and judicious use of <br/>
tags (via the [Source] button) can give a reasonable result.
Adding a Course Schedule, is extremely tedious
Add a week, add items for that week. Item by item. Repeat for week 0, 1, 2, 3, ...
The end result is definitely not how I would have presented this information.
Better to ignore this altogether and use General schedule information with your own formatting.
If you don't add anything to Course Schedule, the header still appears in the preview.
If you've already added things to Course Schedule, edit each item and delete.
Check the Learning and Teaching Technologies ... it assumes Moodle
If using Webcms3, check "Other" and type "Webcms3"
If using OpenLearning, check "Other" and type "OpenLearning"
I'm not sure what the expect for Learning and teaching in this course
They've already copied Teaching Strategies and rationale from ECLIPS
in the General section.
For Prescribed resources for students, add textbook information.
For Recommended resources for students, add info in recommended readings.Course evaluation and development is where you put your response to the MyExperience results from the previous offering of the course.
If the course is taught by different people in different terms, ask the convenor of the most recent offering for their course evaluation.
On this page, you get a big list of fields that you have not filled out.
Most of these are optional, but check that you haven't omitted any important fields.
At the bottom of this page is a [Submit for Approval] button.
Don't press this until your outline is in a shape you'd be happy for students to read.
Approval is done at the School level.
Try to get this done before O-week.