Oncourse CL changes and enhancements

Changes for fall 2009

The following enhancements to Oncourse CL will be available for use as of August 19, 2009. For background information about the Oncourse enhancement and development process, see Oncourse Enhancement and Development Process and Oncourse Enhancements Status.

• Blogs Beta, a new blogging tool, is available for use in all course sites, as well as in My Workspace.
  
  
• Customize Tabs is now available from a link under the - more - tab.
  
  
• Enhancements in Pilot: The following enhancements are visible only to faculty and students participating in Oncourse pilot projects. They will be available for general use in a future release. To learn more or participate in one of these pilots, contact your campus teaching and learning center.
  
  
  • Assignments Beta includes an option to perform a Turnitin plagiarism/originality check on submitted assignments.
    
    
  • Turning Technologies clickers:
    
    
    • Ability for students to register clicker devices for one class or all classes via a new Oncourse tool (tentative)
    • Ability to send clicker results to the Gradebook (tentative)

Changes for summer 2009

The following enhancements to Oncourse CL are available for use as of Saturday, June 6, 2009. For background information about the Oncourse enhancement and development process, see Oncourse Enhancement and Development Process and Oncourse Enhancements Status.

• The Announcements tool includes the ability to generate an RSS feed for public announcements.
  
  
• Assignments enhancements include the ability to:
  
  
  • Specify a model answer that can be shown to students at a specific time (e.g., after submission, after accept-until date, etc.)
  • Add private notes viewable by instructors while grading
  • Add content that can be displayed to all or specific users on specific dates
  • Allow multiple student submissions
  • Delete an assignment and all its associated submissions
  • Navigate to the next or previous student while grading submissions
  
  
• ePortfolio provides:
  
  
  • The ability to automate roster updates to portfolio sites based on the membership of associated courses
  • Additional metadata for items added to matrix cells and wizard pages
  • The ability to edit and delete feedback and evaluations
  • The ability to control allowed general and item-specific feedback (0, 1, many) in matrices and wizards
  • A major redesign of the Presentations tool
  • Better group awareness and filtering in the Wizards tool
  • The ability to apply an OSP style to more screens of a matrix
  
  
• Forums additions include:
  
  
  • Automated marking of graded submissions as read
  • The ability for an instructor, while viewing statistics in Forums, to sort and display postings by an individual
  
  
• Global changes include:
  
  
  • Totals for unread Messages and Forums for sites in My Workspace
  • The new Modules tool, a lesson builder for creating and organizing lessons, available for all sites (see further details below)
  • A new look and feel in sites
  • A link to OneStart located between the Search and Contact Us links at the top
  • Two new Librarian roles in new course sites (librarian and librarian+)
  
  
• Gradebook now allows instructors to:
  
  
  • Drop highest and lowest grades
  • Add items for extra credit and penalty adjustments
  • Create items in bulk
  
  
• Messages provides the ability to mark items unread.
  
  
• Modules includes:
  
  
  • An improved workflow of editing sections back-to-back
  • The ability to move sections from one module to another
  • The ability to duplicate a module
  • The ability to export and import modules individually
  • The ability to auto-number modules and sections
  • A helper to upload files, simplifying the upload and deletion of files and URLs
  • The ability to set the default view as expanded or collapsed
  • The option to open file uploads and links in a new window
  • The option to render all sections of a module as a single page for easy printing
  • The ability to import modules from another site (via Site Setup > Import from Site)
  
  
• Preferences lets individuals specify the number of tabs they see.
  
  
• Resources includes the ability to edit details and easily copy URLs.
  
  
• Site Setup provides the option to import a participant roster from another site.
  
  
• Wiki now includes macro support for right-to-left text.

For information about previous changes and enhancements to Oncourse CL, see Past Oncourse CL changes and enhancements.

Comments/Questions/Corrections