When students enter your MyLO unit, the latest Announcement is the first thing that they are likely to see. This Announcement should briefly explain how to get started. This post explains how to create a simple welcome Announcement based on a template. The template includes an image directing students to click on the Content tool to get started.
Make your site reflect your unit.
Most MyLO sites are based on generic Faculty or School templates that often come with Modules in the Content tool. inside the Modules you will find a range of items such as HTML pages: you may need to replace some of the text in these items to reflect the details of your unit. Consult your local blended learning support team if you unsure what needs to be changed and/or how to make the changes.
If your unit is delivered to distance students, consider using short videos to address the students at the start or end of each week or module. Using videos not only allows your personality to shine through, but helps to grab students’ attention when so many other online learning experiences are text-based. If you’re interested in using videos in your unit, whether to welcome students or to give them a quick overview of each week, you may find this resource about creating videos helpful.
Make it easy to find unit materials and activities.
Make it predictable – at least to some extent.
Using a Faculty or School template allows students to have a good idea of where to find information based on their past experiences, while still allowing you to customise your MyLO site.
Maintain a logical structure that suits your unit and your students.
Within Faculty or School templates, you will usually have some freedom to organise content and activities in the in a manner that suits your unit, for example by week or by module. We do not recommend organising resources by type, as students can quickly lose track of where they are up to.
Give links names that make sense.
When you upload a file, or create a new file or activity, in a Content Module, MyLO will generally use the title of the file as the title of the link. For example, if you upload the file LECT1_S1_2014_Slide.ppt, students will see a link that says LECT1_S1_2014_Slide. By renaming the link, you can easily communicate the following information: what students will see when they click on the link; what they should do with it; and, if necessary, the order in which they should open the links/complete activities. Peta shows you how to rename links and discusses different naming methods in this video.
Out with the old, in with the new.
If your MyLO unit has run in the past, it is possible to have the content copied over from the old unit to the new unit. While this can be convenient, it does come with a catch: almost everything is copied over, including old Announcements, Group names, date restrictions on items (e.g. due dates on Assignment Submission Folders) and so forth.
Here are some things to watch out for if you have content copied from an old unit to a new unit. You will need to edit, hide or remove these items.
Date-based restrictions
These are often applied to assessment items like Quizzes and Assignment Submission Folders, but may also apply to Content Modules, links (e.g. to PDF files) and activities like Discussions.
Old Announcements
If you wish to re-use old Announcements, you will need to change the Start Date associated with them.
Dates/week numbers referred to in link titles, HTML pages and so forth
These are often incorporated into the text of Announcements, HTML pages in Content or the names of links or the names of folders/modules in Content. You will need to edit or remove them.
Assignment Submission Folders & Turnitin
You will need to change the Due Date. You may need to edit them to account for changes to an assessment task (for example, the weighting or grade).Be aware that you should reconnect the Assignment Submission Folder to Turnitin. When you do this, you must ensure that the correct settings are in place. View this post for more information on Turnitin settings.
Grade Items
You may find that there are Grade Items that you no longer wish to use (e.g. because you have stopped using a particular assessment task), or that you need to revise due to a change in the weighting of an assessment task. Also check if there are any Grade Items you would like to hide for now (so students can’t see them).
Old exam or assignment tips, answers to assessment questions, marks or generic feedback
If results, answers to questions, generic feedback or assignment hints have been published in a News Item or in Content, you will need to either hide them for later use or delete them.
Groups
There may be Groups – other than cohort or study mode groups – that you no longer need, and you may wish to delete them. In some cases, you may wish to change the set-up of Groups (e.g. the number of students to be allocated to each group, or the number or groups in a particular category) due to student numbers.
Rubrics
Rubrics will be copied across. Are there any criteria you wish to change, or (if using scoring rubrics) do you need to change the value of any criteria and associated points? If so, this must be done before you start marking with the Rubrics.
Here are some items that will not copy across. These items may need to be set up again.
Discussion Posts
While Discussion Forums and Topics will copy over, the Posts contributed by staff and students in past units will not appear. Any groups attached to Discussion Topics will need to be reset.
Assignment Submission Folder submissions
Submissions from past students will no longer appear in the Assignment Submission Folders.
Grades
Grades of past students will no longer appear in the Grades tool.
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