dotLRN 1.0 Administrator Info

1. I am a TA and there are several cross-registered students in my class. How can they get access to the materials in the class?
2. How can I keep unregistered students or non-members from getting in the class or community?
3. How do students and members join if the group enrollment is closed?
4. How can I let non-institution people have access to my community?
5. How do I use the "Add to Outlook" feature for a calendar event?
6. How do I request a new class or community?
7. I created a forum and it sends email alerts to all group members. How do I shut this off? How can an individual user shut them off?
8. Note about Forums and email away messages.
9. How do users change their passwords?
10. How do I use the Homework portlet for student assignments?

1. Q: I am a TA and there are several cross-registered students in my class. How can they get access to the class materials?

   A: You can create Limited Access user accounts for cross-registered students through the "Create a Limited Access user” link in the Control Panel. If someone already has an account in the system, you will receive a message that they are already in the system when you try to create an account for them. In that case, add them to the class or community through the “Manage Membership” page link.

2. Q: How can I keep unregistered students or non-members from getting in the class or community?

   A: Go to the Control Panel page for the class or community and change the Enrollment Policy to "closed" or "needs approval." "Closed" makes the group invisible to all but its members -- it will no longer be listed on the Join a Group page. "Needs Approval" means that users can request membership from the Join a Group page. You will receive an email from the user asking for approval. You can approve their membership request from the Manage Membership page of the class Control Panel.

3. Q: How do students and members join if the group enrollment is closed?

   A: The only way to add users to a closed group is to add their names one at a time. Go to the group's Control Panel page and go to the Manage Membership link. Click the Add a Student link, type in their email name or last name, select the user from the list of names returned and confirm the choice. If they are not already registered in the system, you can't add them to the group until they register, but if they are cross-registered students or non-institution people, you should create Limited Access users accounts for them (through the Control Panel).

4. Q: How can I let non-institution people have access to my community?

   A: You can add them as Limited Access users or guests. Limited Access users have full access to the group, but cannot join other groups; Limited Access Guests have limited access to your group (they do not see other users’ personal information) and cannot join other groups. Assign non-institution students Limited Access accounts and non-students (speakers, guest lecturers, colleagues) Limited Access Guest accounts.

5. Q: How do I use the "Add to Outlook" feature for a calendar event?

   A: Both one-time and recurring events can be added to a user's Outlook calendar. On each event description is a link to “synch with Outlook: single event." If it is a recurring event, there will also be a second link, "all events." In Internet Explorer, clicking this link brings up an Outlook New Appointment window to save the item. In Netscape, clicking the link brings up a window to choose whether to "Open" or "Save" the file. Click "Open" and then the Outlook New Appointment window will open. The first time this is executed in a Netscape browser session, the user may see an "Unknown File Type" window. Choose "Pick App" and click "OK" when the "Configure External Viewer" window appears. The user is then prompted to "Open" or "Save" the file. Outlook does not need to be open before these steps are executed.

6. Q: How do I request a new class or community?

   A: Send email to sloanspace-help@sloan.mit.edu with the following information. For classes: class number, class name, semester, professor(s), TAs. For communities: community name, student administrator, faculty/staff administrator (someone who has "blessed" your community and will be working with you), and a brief statement of the community's purpose.

7. Q: I created a forum and it sends email alerts to all group members. How do I shut this off? How can an individual user shut them off?

   A: You can turn off email alerts for the forum through the Forum Administration section of the Control Panel. There are links to subscribe/unsubscribe group members. Additionally, every user can manage forum alerts through the “Edit My Forum Email Alerts” page on the user Control Panel. Users can also subscribe to/unsubscribe from forum alerts at the top level page of an individual forum.

8. Q: Note about Forums and email away messages.

   A: If a user activates an automated vacation/away message, all the user's forums will get caught in a loop of emails. To prevent this, advise students to cancel all their forum email alerts before going away. If this happens while they are away, you will have to remove the user from your group to stop the looping.

9. Q: How do users change their passwords?

   A: Full access users can change their passwords through their Control Panel page on their personal portal. Limited Access users and Limited Access Guests can access their Control Panel page through the Help icon in the page banner.

10. Q: How do I use the Homework portlet for student assignments?

    A: Students can submit homework through the portlet and read comments on their assignments. Students can only see their own assignments and related comments. All class admins can read submissions and comment on all submissions by uploading multiple versions of comments through the Details link for the first Comment file. Admins can opt to receive an email when each student submit homework. Admins can delete their own comments, but cannot delete the comments of others or delete the homework submissions. Students receive an email when a Comment file is uploaded.