SMG IT Services (ITS)
SMGtools Instructions
SMGtools is SMG’s web-based learning management system. It is our customization of Sakai, an open source software package that offers great flexibility in implementation and customization. For more information about Sakai, visit the official Sakai Project website located at http://sakaiproject.org.
Click on a tool below to learn more about its use.
Announcements
Adding Announcements
Use the "Add" button to create a new announcement and complete the fields on the page that follows (e.g., Announcement title, Body, etc.). Your announcement will be posted to your site.
Adding Announcements with Attachments
Click the Attachments button at the bottom of the screen to browse for and attach a file to the announcement.
Display to Selected Groups/Sections
Follow the instructions for Adding Announcements above. Prior to clicking the "Add Announcement" button, click on the "Display to Selected Groups" radio button and check the box next to the group or section intended to view the announcement. The announcement will appear only to those students in the selected group/section. NOTE: groups and/or sections must already exist to use this feature.
Announcement Options
You can preview or save drafts of your announcements. The interface time-out is 60 minutes, which means if you take more than 60 minutes to compose or edit the announcement then your work will not be saved.
Email Notifications
When posting an announcement you can set an email notification option (high or low) so that students are alerted via email that an announcement has been posted. The message body of the announcement will be included in the email notification so that the student does not have to visit the site.
A high priority email notification will be sent by the system regardless of preferences set by each student. A low priority email notification could be blocked depending upon how the student has set his/her preferences on the system.
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Assignments
The Assignments tool in SMGtools is a full featured tool enabling instructors to not only distribute assignments electronically but to accept electronic submissions, make revisions and send comments back to the student, accept resubmissions, and assign grades online as well.
Adding Assignments
To create a new assignment, click the Add button then provide the necessary information for the assignment:
- Title (required)
- Open Date (required) – the date when students will be able to see and access the assignment.
- Due Date (required)
- Accept Until (required) – by setting this date after the Due Date you allow students to submit late assignments.
- Student Submissions (required) – “Inline” means the student must type the answer into the website directly. “Attachments” means the student can attach the answer in a file. You can accept one or the other or both.
- Grade Scale / Points (required)
- Assignment Instructions
- Add due date to Schedule
- Announce the open date – posts an announcement to the site when the assignment opens
- Add honor pledge – requires students to acknowledge that they have done their own work (a checkbox appears when they submit their assignment)
- Add to Gradebook (adds the assignment as a line item to the Gradebook tool. NOTE that grading is done for each individual assignment within the Assignments tool and not within the Gradebook tool)
Click the Add Attachments button to upload any files necessary for the assignment.
You can choose to preview the assignment if desired and from there you can choose to save the assignment as a draft, otherwise click the Post button when done preparing the assignment.
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Viewing and Downloading Submissions
To view student submissions, go to the top level of the Assignments section by clicking the reset arrow next to the Assignments header. Then click the hyperlinked numbers that are divided by a slash (/) under the In/New column (e.g., 4/4). The first number shows how many students have submitted an assignment; the second number shows how many student submissions you have not yet viewed.
After you click the link you will see a list of all the students in your class. You can view individual student submissions by clicking on the student's name in this list or you can download all student submissions by clicking the Download All button at the top of the Assignment section. This will generate a ZIP file containing all of your students' inline submissions as well as their attached files.
TIP: Be sure to have students include their full name as part of the filename for any attachments they will be submitting so that you can associate the attachment to the proper student.
Replying to Submissions (Comments and Grading)
When you are viewing student submissions individually, you can also respond to that student’s submitted assignment by adding comments within their inline submission (use double curvy brackets for emphasis) and/or using the separate instructor comments area. There are also options at the bottom for you to grade the assignment, allow for resubmissions and provide attachments of your own as part of the response.
The Student View button lets you see how the assignment/instructions appear to students and even allows you to run through submitting the assignment as a student.
The Grade Report button shows submissions and grades for each student. Clicking the Download Spreadsheet button puts this information into an Excel file which you can save to your computer.
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Chat Room
Chat Room is an instant messaging tool that can be used for real-time conversations by site participants who are logged into the site at the same time.
Creating Chat Rooms
The Chat Room tool is activated by default whenever a new site is created and a default "main" chat room is created. The administrator of a site may delegate permissions to other site members (depending on their site role) to read and write in existing chat rooms, create new chat rooms, and/or delete just their own or any messages. (Site administrators may view and/or change permissions by selecting the "Permissions" button under the Chat tool.)
Depending on their defined permissions, site members may create new chat rooms (in addition to the "main" chat room.) By default, this capability resides with instructors only.
How to Chat
- Click on the Chat tool for the site you are using.
- Begin composing messages in the main chat room or select the Options button to create/use a new chat room.
- Compose a message in the chat message box.
- Select the Add Message button (or press the enter key on your keyboard) to post your new message to the chat room for other site members to see.
- As you chat, your posted messages will appear in red. Those of other site members who are present will appear in blue. (Site members who are present in the chat room will be displayed on the right side of the screen under "Users in Chat").
Deleting Posted Messages
Depending on your permissions for the site, you may be able to delete either your own or other site members' messages. (Site administrators may view and/or change permissions by selecting the "Permissions" button under the Chat tool.) To delete a message in a chat room, click the trash can icon next to the posted message and then click Delete.
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Message Center
(Messages and Forums, formerly Discussion)
Use the Forums tool to post messages online; other site participants can reply at a later time. Forums differ from the Chat tool in that they are not "instant." Participants do not need to be logged in at the same time to exchange messages.
Creating Forums and Topics
An instructor must enable a discussion by setting up a forum and a topic or topics within that forum.
- Click the "New Forum" button, in the Forums toolbar below the "Messages Area."
- Provide a Forum Title (required).
- Click the "Save Settings & Add Topic" button and complete the fields on the page that follows.
- Provide a Topic Title (required).
- Click the "Save Settings" button to save your topic. If you want to add additional topics, click the "Save Settings & Add Topic" button and repeat the topic-related steps above.
- To add a new topic to an existing Forum, use the "New Topic" button to the right of the Forum Title.
There are a number of optional fields. You may chose to :
- Provide a Short Description which will display to site participants.
- Provide a longer Description which will display to site participants. An HTML editor allows you to choose the size, color, and style of text, add links, etc.
- Click the "Add Attachment" button to browse for and attach a file.
- Provide a Short Description which will display to site participants.
- Provide a Description which will display to site participants (Note the WYSIWYG editor which allows you to choose from a variety of formatting options such as adjusting the size, color, and style of text.)
- Click the "Add Attachment" button to browse for and attach a file.
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Posting Messages
Viewing Messages
- Click on a topic link. You will not see messages listed under a topic until you expand it by clicking.
- Click on the subject link of a message you wish to view; messages marked in bold are those that you have not yet read.
Replying to Messages
- Click on a topic link. You will not see messages listed under a topic until you expand it by clicking.
- Click on the subject link of a message in order to post a reply.
- Click the "Reply to Thread" button at the top of the page or the "Reply" link on the right and complete the fields on the screen that follows.
- Enter the body of the message. An HTML editor lets you to choose the size, color, and style of text for the body of the message.
- Optional: click the "Add Attachment" button to browse for and attach a file.
- Click the "Post Message" button.
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Email
Use the Email tool to send email to individual site members or to groups selected by role within the site: instructors, students, etc.
Sending Email
- Click on the Email tool for the site you are using.
- Within the "To:" area, select recipients.
- Use the "Other Recipients" field to enter email addresses of non-site participants.
- Fill in the Subject.
- Compose the body of the email message. A WYSIWYG editor lets you to choose from a variety of formatting options.
- Attach a file(s) to your email (optional).
- Check the "Send me a copy" box if you would like a copy of the message sent to your email address for record keeping.
- Check the "Add to Email Archive..." box to add your message to the site's Email Archive, where it can be viewed by all site participants.
- When you have finished composing your message and selecting optional items, click the "Send Mail" button to send the message.
Viewing Confirmations
When you click the "Send Mail" button to send your message, a confirmation page will display the names of all recipients.
Setting Default Options for the Site
Site owners or administrators will find an Options button at the top of the page, providing access to an Options page. Changes made on the Options page become the default settings for the site and apply to all site participants. The following options appear:
- Recipient Selection View (e.g., users by role, scrolling list, etc.)
- Copies (send me a copy, append to email archive)
- Reply-to (sender, do not allow reply)
- Message Format (HTML, plain text)
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Email Archive
The Email Archive tool makes it possible for every site to have it's own email address (e.g., sm555b1@smgtools.bu.edu). Site participants can send an email to this address and two things will occur:
1. All members of the site will receive a copy of the message sent to their individual email addresses (e.g., janedoe@bu.edu, johndoe@bu.edu, etc.).
2. A copy of the message will be archived under Email Archive where it can be viewed by all site participants.
Sending Email to the Site Address
- Click on the Email Archive tool for the site you are using.
- Note the email address for the site (e.g., sm555b1@smgtools.bu.edu).
- Open your email client (e.g., Outlook, gmail, etc.) .
- Compose a new message.
- Enter the email address for the site into the "To" field.
- Send your message.
- Check Email Archive on the site for an archived copy of the message.
Searching the Email Archive
Use the search field under Email Archive to search for archived messages. Search by sender, subject line text, or message body text.
Allowing Non-participants to Use the Site Address
Instructors can open up the use of the site email address to those outside of the site participant list. This is particularly useful for student team sites where faculty opt not to be members yet need a way to communicate with the team.
To open up use of the site email address beyond site participants:
- Click on the Email Archive tool for the site you are using.
- Click the Options button.
- Under Message settings, select the Anyone radio button.
- Click the Update Options button.
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Gradebook
Instructors may use the Gradebook tool to assign points to individual assignments and to calculate/distribute overall course grades to students online. Using the tool, instructors add assignments and assign points to the assignments according to their relative weights in determining the overall course grade. The total of the assignment points may equal 100 points (but does not need to).
Managing Gradebook Assignments (instructors)
Adding Assignments
To add an assignment, select the Gradebook tool from the site menu and perform the following steps:
- From the Overview screen, select the Add Assignment button. The Add Assignment screen opens.
- Specify the Title for the Assignment (required).
- Specify the Point Value for the Assignment (required). The Point Value is a number that will be used by the Gradebook tool to determine an Assignment's relative weight in calculating the overall course grade for each student. Instructors may choose to configure Assignment Points in such a way that the total of all Assignment Points equals 100, but this is not a requirement. Whatever the total is, each assignment's weight will be determined by the proportion of the total points that its Assignment Point Value represents.
- Specify the Due Date in mm/dd/yy format (optional). (Not assigning a due date might be appropriate for non-specific assignments such as "class participation").
- Indicate in the check box if the assignment counts towards the overall course grade. (Instructors might wish to assign and grade assignments such as practice tests which will not count towards the overall course grade.)
- Indicate in the check box if the assignment is to be released and made visible to students in the course. (Instructors may wish to set up their course sites, in advance, with all of the assignments for the course and only release them when they are actually assigned.)
- Click the Submit button to add the assignment to the Gradebook
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Editing Assignments
To edit an assignment:
- Select the Gradebook tool from the site menu and choose the appropriate Assignment from the list of assignments in the Title column. The Assignment Summary screen for the chosen screen will open.
- Select "Edit assignment settings" opposite the Options heading. The Edit Assignment screen will open.
- Make changes to the assignment's settings, as required.
- Select Submit to make the changes take effect. You will be returned to the Assignment Summary screen.
- Select the return arrow to return to the Gradebook Overview screen.
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Deleting Assignments
To delete an assignment:
- Select the Gradebook tool from the site menu and choose the appropriate Assignment from the list of assignments in the Title column. The Assignment Summary screen for the chosen screen will open.
- Select "Remove assignment from gradebook " opposite the Options heading. The Remove Assignment screen will open.
- Check the box labeled "Remove this assignment and all associated scores from the gradebook."
- Select Remove. You will return to the Gradebook Overview screen and will see a confirmation message indicating that the assignment has been removed.
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Grading Assignments
To grade an assignment:
- Select the Gradebook tool from the site menu and choose the appropriate Assignment from the list of assignments in the Title column. The Assignment Summary screen for the chosen screen will open.
- In the View drop-down box, select All Sections or a particular section. (If you only wish to grade a particular student, you can enter a student's name and use the Find button.) The list of students you have selected to grade will be displayed.
- Assign points for each student relative to the maximum number of points available for the assignment. (This is the number which was specified when the assignment was added to the gradebook and is shown opposite the Points heading in the Assignment Summary screen.)
For example: If an assignment counted for 25 possible course points and a student got an 80% grade on the assignment, then they should be assigned 25 x 80% = 20 points for the assignment.
- When all points for the assignment have been entered, select Save. The updated scores will be saved and the class average expressed as a percentage of possible points for the assignment will be displayed. You will see a message indicating, "New scores saved."
Note: If scores are not entered for some students (perhaps because they have not yet turned in their assignment), then their score(s) will not be considered in the calculation of the class average.
Score Log: Opposite each student's name and ID is a Log icon. By selecting this icon, you can view a log of what scores were assigned by date and by person.
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Grade Options (Releasing Grades to students)
The Gradebook tool provides options for when and how to release grades to students and for how to define the correspondence between numeric grades and letter grades. These options are described below:
- Select the Gradebook tool from the site menu. The Overview screen will be displayed.
- Select the Grade Options button at the top of the screen. The Grade Options screen will open.
- There are two check boxes under the Grade Display heading (either or both of which may be checked):
- Choose (check) the first box if you wish grades to be made available to students as soon as the scores have been entered for any or all of them. This check box only applies to assignments that have been released (or assigned) to students.
- Choose (check) the second box if you wish to display to students how many cumulative points they have earned so far out of all of the possible points for the entire course and the course letter grade that represents.
Note: If you choose to utilize the second check box, be sure to explain to students that assignments not yet completed or graded are counted as zero points in calculating the cumulative course letter grade to date. (This behavior can be overridden by utilizing the Gradebook Grade Override feature. See separate heading "Course Grade Calculation" below.)
- Grade Type - Select one of three Grade Types from the drop-down box:
- Letter Grades
- Letter Grades with +/-
- Pass/Not Pass
Select the Change grade type button to finalize the selection and open the appropriate grade conversion table.
Modify the grade conversion table (or reset to default values) to reflect the proper minimum % to qualify for each letter grade.
- Select Save to finalize your grade options for the course Gradebook.
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Relationship of the Gradebook tool to the Assignments and Tests & Quizzes tools
Assignments may be added directly to the Gradebook using the editing features of the Gradebook tool itself (as described above). In addition, assignments created independently, using the features of either the Assignments tool or the Tests & Quizzes tool, may be added to the Gradebook. Please refer to the on-line documentation for those tools for details.
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Course Grade Calculation
The Grade book tool will compute an overall course grade based on assignments that have been released to students and have been graded. To utilize this feature, open the Gradebook tool and click on Course Grade at the bottom of the Assignments screen. Individual course grades (based on assignment submissions/grading to date) will be shown for each student as well as an overall score for the class as a whole.
However, the calculated grade for any student may be overridden by entering a valid grade opposite the student's name in the Grade Override column. If you enter a Grade Override you must select Save in order to make it apply. (Clear the Grade Override box and click Save to eliminate a Grade Override for a student.)
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Uploading and Importing Assignments
As an alternative to adding assignments to the Gradebook manually, instructors may wish to import assignments from an Excel .csv file.
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Downloading and Exporting Course Scores
The Gradebook tool provides the ability to download course scores to either a standard Excel or a CSV file.
To do this, open the Gradebook and select Course Grade from the Overview screen. At the bottom of the Course Grade screen select either Export for Excel or Export CSV. You may then choose to either open the chosen file type in an Excel spreadsheet or save it without opening it. It is highly recommended that you elect to first open it as a spreadsheet and then save it with a user-friendly name (instead of the long complicated name that SMGtools assigns to it) and that you save it to a permanent location on your hard drive.
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Viewing Scores (students)
Students may view their scores on assignments that have been released and graded by opening the Gradebook tool for their course site. Their scores may be sorted in either ascending or descending order by clicking on the column headings for Title, Due Date, Score, or Points.
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Group Sites
All course sites are created by ITS, which is able to include registration lists in batch uploading processes.
SMGtools also supports other types of collaborative sites:
Student Team Sites
ITS will create a student team site at the request of a faculty member. To request a Student Team Site, please complete this spreadsheet:
http://smghelp.bu.edu/its/docs/StudentTeams.xls and email it to smgtools@bu.edu.
Student Organizations
An official student organization can request a site by sending email to smgtools@bu.edu with the name and purpose of the organization.
Research, Department, and Other Group Sites
Faculty and staff can create collaborative sites for research, department, or other collaborative purposes:
- Click the My Workspace tab.
- Click on Workspace Setup and then click the "New" button.
- Select the radio button that best suits the collaborative space you need, then click Continue.
- Enter a title for the site and click Continue.
- Check boxes corresponding to the tools you wish to use in your site and click Continue.
- Choose from site access options or leave default values, and click Continue.
- Click Create Site.
Sites will appear on the system right away. If you have a number of other sites in SMGtools, you may not see your new site in the tab display; look in the "More" dropdown at the upper right.
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Home
Every Course site within SMGtools includes a Home tool, the top-most button on the left. The Home tool in a course site has three panels that display:
- A customizable banner or course information for the site
- A calendar summary
- A list of Recent Announcements
Some other tools, including Chat and Messages and Forums, also appear as panels on the home page if added to a course.
Customizing Course Information with your information or a site banner
The default Course Information panel title for a new Course site is "Course Information." Select the Options button to change this to a more descriptive name (e.g., Welcome to SM555 Section A1) if you are the Site owner or administrator. The "Customize Site Info Display" page will open and let you change the Title and Description for the site. You may want to enter office hours or other information in the Description box. Click Update Options for the new Title and/or Description to take effect.
To display a web page instead of a Description: type or paste the page's URL (e.g. http://www.mycompany.com) in the field labeled "Site Info URL." You can adjust the display height of the Frame by choosing the appropriate pixel setting from the Frame Height drop-down box.
You can also use the URL field to display a graphic banner for your site: upload an image file (e.g., jpeg, gif, etc.) to the Resources area of the site and select Actions > Edit Details to show its URL at the bottom of the page. Copy the full URL and paste it into the field labeled "Site Info URL." Be sure the file is shown (not hidden) in Resources. If hidden, it will not display properly on the Home page.
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Calendar Summary
The Calendar Summary displays a calendar for the current month, showing events that have been added in the Schedule tool. Days with posted events are highlighted and underlined on the calendar. Click a linked day to display the details of its events below the calendar. Above and to the right of the calendar summary are navigation buttons which let you scroll backward or forward to other months. Select "Today" from the navigation buttons to return quickly to the current day.
Recent Announcements (Options)
The Recent Announcements panel in the Home tool provides quick access to announcements recently posted to the site. If you are the site owner or administrator, you can select the Options button to customize:
- How many lines of the Announcement to display
- How many past days of Announcements to display
- The maximum number of Announcements to display
After you change Recent Announcements options, select the "Update" button to make them effective.
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Resources (folders, files, and external links)
Resources is a very important and useful tool for every site. Resources is where folders, files and other materials can be posted to the site. Resource items can include:
- New folders
- Word processing documents
- Spreadsheets
- Slide presentations
- Links to web sites
- HTML documents
- Plain text documents
Once Resource items have been posted by site administrators, site participants may either open them for viewing or download them for saving to their computers.
Resource items can be organized into a hierarchy of folders in order to facilitate identification and retrieval. Since there is much flexibility with regard to organizing materials within Resources, site participants may find it beneficial to receive a brief overview of the Resources setup from site administrators.
Resources may be added to a site either individually using the "Add" button in the Resources tool or as multiple uploads using technology known as WebDAV. In addition, site administrators can hide/unhide or set release dates for content according to when it should be made available to site participants.
There is a quota of 600MB for each tab or site on SMGtools and an individual file size limit of 50MB.
Viewing and/or downloading Resources
When you select the Resources tool in the menubar, the Resources page will open and you will see a top-most folder which will have the site name (e.g., SM111 Resources). By default, all sites have a top-most folder reflecting the site name. If content has been added, you will see it appear as a sub-item(s) of the top-most folder. Sub-items may be folders, links to files, URLs, or a combination. Choose from the following options to view content posted within Resources:
- To view the contents of a folder, click the name of the folder or the yellow folder icon next to it. A plus sign within the yellow folder icon indicates that a folder contains sub-items and will open.
If you click on the folder image, it will open and show its contents, still showing all the surrounding folders. If you have scrolled down to find the folder, the page will redraw from the top when you open the folder, and you will have to scroll down again to find it again.
If you click on the folder name, it will open in a new view that no longer shows the folders above and below it. To return to a display of all Resources in the site, click on the reset button at the upper left of the tool.
- To view a particular item within a folder, click the name of the item or the icon next to it. When you click on an item, a dialog box may open to give you the option of either opening it or downloading it and saving a copy to your computer.
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Adding Resources
Site administrators may add, delete, copy or move Resource items. They can also edit Resource items. These functions are described below:
Adding Resources one-at-a-time
Click the Add button to the right of the folder to which you want to add Resource item(s). A drop-down list appears.
In the Add drop-down list, choose the appropriate action (e.g., Upload Files, Create Folder, etc.).
If uploading a file, click the Browse button to search for the file on your computer. Click Open. By default, the Title for the file will be the name of the file (e.g., homework.xls). You can overwrite the default title if you prefer an alternate title be displayed.
If you are adding a file, folder, or web link, you can click "Add details for this item," next to the display name, to show additional fields.
If you are adding a file, folder, or web link, you can click "Add another..." to add additional items on from the same screen.
If you are adding detailed information for an item, you can do any of the following:
Enter a description (optional) for the item. The description will be seen by site participants if they click on an "info" button appearing in their view of Resources. Since the "info" button is not prominent, site administrators should inform site participants if they plan on using it. Alternatively, site administrators can be descriptive when naming Resource items.
Choose a Copyright Status. Decide (or not) to require viewers to acknowledge the copyright status when they view the item.
Enter the appropriate Availability information. Note: Resources may be posted to the site, but remain hidden from site participant view until an appropriate date and time. That date and time can be determined automatically (by setting the Show - Beginning date and time) or by revising the item and manually unchecking the Hide option at a future date.
Choose Access options. Resources can be set to be publicly viewable or only available to site members (the latter is the default). If publicly viewable is selected, the file will be accessible on the SMGtools login page when browsing for the site under "Sites." Finally, if your site has groups or sections, a radio button entitled "Display to selected groups" will appear allowing you to choose an audience for the posted content.
Choose the appropriate Email Notification option (by default, no email notification will be sent to site participants).
If you wish to add still more detailed information to your item, click the "Optional Properties" link at the end of the first listing of optional fields.
Click Add to upload the Resource item to the site.
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Adding Multiple Resources at Once (WebDAV)
Microsoft Windows (2000 and XP) and Mac users may utilize an operating system feature known (in Windows terms) as WebDAV to post multiple resources to a site at once. Specifically, WebDAV technology enables users to map a drive on their operating system to the Resources area of their SMGtools site. Folders and files on the users computer can then be dragged and dropped onto this drive and reflected immediately on the site.
This feature can be initiated by selecting Upload-Download Multiple Resources from the top of the Resources page and following the instructions that pertain to the respective operating system.
Windows XP Users: since XP is the most common operating system at this time, there is a link available for quick WebDAV setup (located near the top of the Upload-Download Multiple Resources page). After clicking on the link, you will be prompted to log in with your SMGtools username and password (tip: the login prompt may be hidden behind other open windows). Upon the successful login, a window resembling Windows Explorer should appear. Click the "Folders" icon along the top toolbar to expose the drives on your machine. Locate "My Network Places" among your drives (click the plus sign to expand it) and you should see a mapping to your Resources area. If it the mapping appears as a long alpha-numeric string, right-click on it to rename it.
Important points to remember concerning WebDAV:
- Once WebDAV is configured on a particular computer for a particular SMGtools site, it may be used multiple times to upload resources. However, a specific WebDAV connection must be created for each computer/site combination that will be utilized.
- By default, content posted via WebDAV will be available to all site participants indefinitely. If necessary, site administrators should revise and/or adjust availability dates from within the Resources page on SMGtools.
Maintaining Resources (move, copy, revise, delete)
Moving Resources
Resources may be moved, either individually or as part of a folder move. The procedures for moving individual resource items and folders are the same and are described below:
- Check the boxe(s) to the left of the resource items and/or folders that are to be moved.
- Select the Moved Checked button at the top of the Resources screen.
- Select the Pasted Moved Items button to the right of the destination folder. The selected items will be moved.
(Note that resources can be moved between your sites by exposing the Show Other Sites link at the bottom on the Resources page)
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Copying Resources
Resources may be copied, either individually or as part of a folder copy. The procedures for copying individual resource items and folders are the same and are described below:
- Check the boxe(s) to the left of the resource items and/or folders that are to be copied.
- Select the Copy Checked button at the top of the Resources screen.
- Select the Pasted Copied Items button to the right of the destination folder. The selected items will be copied.
(Note that resources can be copied between your sites by exposing the Show Other Sites link at the bottom on the Resources page)
Revising (Editing) the Content of Resources
Important Note: The actual content (text, graphics, etc.) of resources may not be edited within SMGtools. It must be edited off-line and then reposted. Even though posted content can be opened using its native application software (e.g. Microsoft Word or PowerPoint), editing the content and selecting File-Save will not actually save the edited content to the site.
Deleting (Removing) Resources
Resources may be deleted, either individually or as part of a folder deletion. The procedures for deleting individual resources and complete folders are the same and are described below:
- Check the boxe(s) to the left of the resource items and/or folders that are to be deleted.
- Select the Removed Checked button at the top of the Resources screen.
- A red confirmation warning will be displayed. Select Remove to delete the checked items.
Reordering Resources
Resources may be reordered individually within a folder or collectively as part of a reordering of all folders. The steps are described below:
- Click the Reorder button to the right of the folder containing items that need to be reordered. The Reordering screen for the selected folder will open.
- Resources within the folder may be reordered by selecting the up and down arrows on the left or by specifying the position within the folder using the numerical drop-down box on the right.
- When reordering of the folder is complete, select the Save button to make the new order take effect.
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Email Notifications
When site administrators add new Resources to a site, they may choose (or not) to send email notifications to site participants. This choice is made by selecting the appropriate option from the Email Notification drop-down box on the Add Item(s) screen of the Resource tool. The choices are:
- High - All participants
- Low - Only participants who have opted in
- None - No notification (default)
If the Low priority setting is selected, only site participants who have not declined to receive low priority Resource announcements in the Preferences Tool of their My Workspace site will receive them. If the High priority setting is selected, the system will send an email notification to all site participants notifying them of the newly added content. Newly posted files will appear as links in the email notification so as not to count against site participant email quota.
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Schedule
The Schedule tool is essentially a calendar for the site. It gives the site administrator(s) the ability to create a calendar of events and/or deadlines (e.g. course assignment due dates, computer lab times, etc.). Once posted, events may be viewed by all site participants in a variety of formats.
Adding (Editing) Schedule Items
To add Schedule items, complete the following steps:
- Open the Schedule tool and select the Add button
- On the New Event page, complete the required fields (indicated by red asterisks) - Title, Date and Start Time.
- Specify either the Duration or the End Time. (They are optional and specifying one will determine the other.)
- Specify other optional items:
- Message - You may add text to be displayed with the scheduled item using the embedded WYSIWYG editor. This text will display under the "description" field when site participants click on the event to see more details.
- Display to Site - By default, all site participants will see the new event. If the site has groups and/or sections, a radio button will appear entitled "Display to Selected Groups." This allows the site administrator to specify that the event be made viewable only to site participants within selected groups and/or sections. Choose groups and/or sections, as appropriate.
- Frequency - By default, the event will be displayed only once. By selecting the Frequency button, you may alter the frequency to be daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.
- Event Type - By default, the event is listed as an activity. However, you may choose any of the options presented in the drop-down box which will also change the icon displayed. A legend showing the various event types and associated icons is located at the bottom of the main Schedule page.
- Event Location - Type a description for the event location.
- Attachments - Add any attachments (files or website links) to be displayed with the event. Note, multiple files and/or website links may be attached to the event. Also, you may specify existing site Resources (either from the current site or other sites of which you are a participant) to be added to the Schedule event.
- Select Save Event to post it to the site calendar.
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To revise Schedule items, complete the following steps:
- Select the event from any Schedule view.
- Click the Revise button for the event.
- Make changes to the event.
- Select Save Event which will post revisions to the site Schedule.
Viewing and Printing the Schedule
Views: Several views of the Schedule are available from the View drop-down box on the Schedule tool screen. They are:
- Calendar by Day
- Calendar by Week
- Calendar by Month
- Calendar by Year
- List of Events
Each view displays posted events as underlined items with an icon identifying the type of activity. A legend showing the various event types and associated icons is located at the bottom of the main Schedule page.
Details of posted events can be displayed by clicking the underlined event title.
The List of Events view in the View drop-down box displays a chronological list of Schedule events. This list can be toggled between "Sort by date ascending" and "Sort by date descending" by clicking on the heading for the date column.
Also, the List of Events view provides the ability to filter events by start/end dates. To use this feature, set the appropriate start/end dates using the filter drop-down boxes (or the Popup date selector next to the drop-down box) and select Filter Events.
By default, the start and end dates for the List of Events view are set to coincide with whatever Calendar view was last selected (day, month, year). For example, if a user chose to view events by month and selected the month of March, then the start/end dates for the filter would be March 1/March 31 when they subsequently switched to the List of Events view.
Printable Versions: The Day, Week, Month and List of Events views of the Schedule provide an option for the user to view a printable version of the calendar using Adobe Reader. Once the calendar has been opened in the printable version, it may be viewed, printed, saved or otherwise managed as any standard PDF document.
Navigation Buttons: The Day Week, Month and Year views of the calendar provide navigation buttons (in the upper right part of the screen) to allow users to quickly go to the previous, next or current time period, as appropriate.
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Merging Schedules
The Schedule tool allows site administrators to merge events from other sites into the current site's Schedule.
Merging Schedules: In order to merge schedules from other sites, follow the steps below:
- Select the Merge button on the Schedule screen. This will open the Merging Calendars screen and display the calendars from sites that the current user had permission to view.
- In the Show Schedule column, check the boxes for the sites for which you wish to merge events.
- Select the Save button to effect the merge. (Merged calendars may be subsequently separated by unchecking the appropriate Show Schedule check box at a future time.)
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Adding or Deleting Fields (data) to an Event
In addition to the standard data fields that are available for all events, users with appropriate permissions may add additional data fields to further characterize site events (e.g. keynote speaker, readings due, etc.)
To add a field to an event, select the Fields button on the Schedule screen and follow the steps below:
- On the Add/Revise Fields screen, enter the name for the new field in the Field Name box and select Create Field. The new field will be displayed in the Field Name list. Repeat this step for as many additional fields as are necessary.
- Select the Save Field Changes button to add the additional field(s) and return to the Schedule screen.
- In order to populate the additional fields with data, select any existing event and click its Revise button (or create a new event). The Revising schedule item screen will open and the new field(s) will be displayed with text box(es) for data entry.
To delete a custom field from an event, select the Fields button on the Schedule screen and follow the steps below:
- Check the Remove? button for the field(s) you wish to delete.
- Select Field Changes. You will receive a warning asking you to confirm that you want to remove the field. If so, select Save Field Changes a second time.
- The checked field(s) will be removed.
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Search
The Search tool enables all site participants to search for content posted to the site.
To search for content posted to the site , type the key words you wish to search for into the search field. You can search for content found in messages, documents, spreadsheets and more.
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Site Info
Site Info is an important tool for all site administrators. Within Site Info, a site administrator can publish the site for site participant (e.g., student) access, quickly view a roster of site participants, change site participant roles, and add/remove site tools.
Manage Access (publishing your site for student access)
By default, new sites are created in an "unpublished" state and thus are not available to site participants (e.g., students). To publish the site for site participant access, go to Site Info and click on "Manage Access" at the top of the page . Check the " Publish site" box and then click the Update button for the change to take effect.
Add/Remove Participants
To add site participants, go to Site Info and click on "Add Participants" at the top of the page. This will open up the Add participants page, exposing two text boxes. When adding a member of the BU Community, type their username into the first text box. (Note: you can add multiple usernames at once.) Next, select the appropriate radio button for assigning participant roles and click Continue. On the next screen, assign the appropriate role(s) and click Continue. Continue on to the next page until finishing the process.
To remove site participants, go to Site Info and check the remove box at the far right of the page next to the appropriate site participant(s). Click Update Participants at the bottom of the page for the change(s) to take effect.
Adding Guest Participants
To add guests to your site, go to Site Info and click on "Add Participants" at the top of the page. This will open up the Add participants page, exposing two text boxes. When adding a guest (someone outside of the BU Community), type their full email address into the second text box (e.g., johndoe@cnn.com). Next, select the appropriate radio button for assigning guest participant role(s) and click Continue. On the next screen, assign the appropriate role(s) and click Continue. When prompted to send an email message to the user notifying them of the site's availability, be certain to select "Send Now." The email notification sent will contain an auto-generated password that the guest will use to log into SMGtools and access your site. Continue on to the next page until finishing the process.
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Changing Participant Roles
To change the role of a site participant (e.g., from student to teaching assistant), go to Site Info and use the drop-down box in the Role column next to the appropriate site participant(s). Click Update Participants at the bottom of the page for the change(s) to take effect.
Add/Remove Tools (buttons)
There may be tools (buttons) that you do not plan to use in your site and you may want to remove them. Alternatively, you may wish to add some site tools that are not part of the standard site template. In either case, go to Site Info and click on "Edit Tools" to expose a list of site tools and a brief description of each. Simply check the boxes next to tools you wish to add to the site and uncheck boxes for any tools you wish to remove from the site. When done, click Continue and then Finish to confirm your site tool changes.
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Syllabus
The Syllabus tool allows site administrators to display a course syllabus on the site. The Syllabus can either be a text document composed on the site (using an embedded editor), an uploaded file, or a link to a web page. The Syllabus for a site may include one or more Syllabus items.
Creating/adding a syllabus item
To create/add a Syllabus item, follow the steps below:
- Open the Syllabus tool and select Create/Edit.
- Select the Add button. The Add syllabus screen opens.
- Specify a Title for the Syllabus (required field).
- Specify other optional items:
- Content - You may compose a message to be displayed with the Syllabus using the embedded WYSIWYG editor.
- Select Public View or Only for Site, as appropriate (public view will make your syllabus file available under "Sites" on the SMGtools login page)
- Select the Add attachments button to add one or more attachments to the syllabus (e.g., if your syllabus is in Word or PDF format you would want to add it as an attachment). This opens the Select item screen. The Syllabus tool offers several options for adding attachments:
- Upload local file
- Specify a URL (link to a website)
- Select an existing site Resource from either the current site or other sites to which the administrator has access.
- Select an Email Notification option from the drop-down box if you want the system to send the syllabus to site participants in an email message.
- Select the Post button to post the Syllabus to the site immediately or select Save Draft to allow the Syllabus item to be posted at a later time.
Note: Prior to selecting the Post button, site administrators may select the Preview button in order to see how the Syllabus will be displayed to site participants.
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Redirecting a Syllabus Item
As an alternative to composing inline (typing into the WYSIWYG editor) or uploading a Syllabus, site administrators may wish to redirect site participants to web content that already exists. To do this, select the Redirect button in the Syllabus screen and specify (or paste) the URL into the URL text box. Then, select Save. Site participants will now see the contents of the designated web page when they open the Syllabus tool.
Note: Once the Syllabus is redirected to a URL, site participants will only see the contents of the designated web page. Previously posted files, etc. will not be accessible. Eliminating the URL redirection reestablishes any attachments may have been present prior to the redirection.
Deleting a Syllabus Item
To delete a Syllabus item, check the Remove box located on the far right of the Syllabus screen. Then select Update and the item will be deleted.
Reordering Syllabus Items
Syllabus items may be reordered by choosing the up and down arrows within the Syllabus screen. Once they are reordered, select the Update button to save the new arrangement.
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