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This tutorial will familiarize you with the overall layout and features of PolyLearn.
One of the first things you'll notice about PolyLearn is its block style design.
PolyLearn organizes course content by topics or weeks. Students simply scroll down to the
appropriate topic for a week and view relevant assignments documents and tests.
On the left there are also two standard blocks on every page; navigation and settings.
The navigation block shows contextual the links like home and my profile
and course partisipants. The bread crumb navigation bar in the header
allows you to keep track of your location within PolyLearn.
The settings but provides the course administration and settings as well as the settings for a anything else you have
permission for, while creating an activity or resource the settings will change to fit that tool.
These blocks can be minimized to a dock on the left side of the window to facilitate quicker access
or larger view of the main content area by clicking on the button in the upper right hand corner
of the block. The newly docked block expands into in
menu when clicked and can be moved back to its original position by clicking on this button and upper right corner of the menu.
Note the turning editing on or off button are in the upper right corner of the PolyLearn course page and within the
settings block. This allows you to edit directly on the course page.
Turning editing on allows you to add, change, delete or move items within the course.
This is what the course looks like when editing is turned off. Similar to how a student views the course.
But when editing is turned on, as you see here,
editing icons appear to the right of the tools.
Instructors can click on these icons to edit titles,
move vertically, move horizontally
update, duplicate, delete, hide, managed groups and assigned roles.
While editing is turned on the first tool selection, Edit Summary tool, of the topic or weekly outline
can be edited to include a course image, name and summary using the HTML editor.
This section is a great place to post your course information, like the syllabus, calendar and office hours.
The Edit Summary tool is also available on the top of the other topic or week sections.
One handy editing tool is duplicate. Activities like quizzes, wiki's, and assignments can be duplicated in placed elsewhere in the course
This is useful for reoccurring activities at homework and assignments.
Let's look at the topic sections a little closer.
Each week or topic section has a add activity or resource link.
Choosing the link enables the instructor to add activities such as Assignment, Chat, Choice,
Forum, Glossary, Lesson, Wiki,
Questionnaire, Quiz, Survey and Workshop. As well as Resources such as Books, File, Folder, Label, Page and URL.
Now let's look at the other bocks on the course home page. The Calendar block is a
great way for students to quickly view what's due and requirements.
While the calendar due dates are generated automatically by creating a due date within an activity, you can add new events by clicking on
the new event button. Students can only add a user type of event. Whereas instructor can add course, user, and group types of events.
The QuickMail block allows you to compose an e-mail to all the students in your course. Select individual students or e-mail by group.
This tool also includes saving drafts, using a signature, viewing history, and attaching files and zipped folders.
You can also configure QuickMail to make it available to students for emailing their classmates and instructor.
The Activities block is another feature of PolyLearn that makes finding course content and breeze for students.
They'll no longer need to scroll through a long list of documents, folders, and assignments to find single item.
The Activities block segregates activities by Assignments, Forms, Quizzes, and Resources.
A student will be able to view all the assignments ever posted to the course by clicking
on the assignments link. The same goes for the other three types of activities.
When activities chosen, additional information like; due dates, submission status and grades is presented for the students to view.
Finally, a feature instructors will find very usefully is, switch role to. This tool is located in the Settings block.
This tool allows instructors to view the course as a grader or student.
Instructors can return to their role by clicking on the Return to my role link.
Don't forget to visit the PolyLearn Support site for quick videos and tutorials
if you're confused about features of PolyLearn. You can access it easily from PolyLearn by scrolling up to the top
right hand corner or go to the PolyLearn Support site. polylearnsupport.calpoly.edu
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