Most communication in your classes will occur through the Oncourse Messages (e-mail) and Forums tools. You may also participate in chat sessions with other class members in some of your classes.
When you log into OncourseCL you will see an area titled "Messages and Forums Notifications" on the right side of the page. That will show you if you have unread Messages (email) or Forum posts in any of your classes. Clicking on the Message or Forum icon by a given class will take you directly to the Message or Forum post. DO NOT use the Back button on your browser to return to that Notification list. In general, the Back button on your browser does not work in OncourseCL. To return to the Notification list, click "My Workspace" in the top left of the screen. There is a similar Notification list for each individual course on the Home page of the course.
Forums
This is the place where most of the class discussion occurs. The title in the white rectangle is the Forum Title. The titles below the Forum Title in the blue area are Topic Titles. Different instructors will set up the forums differently. Some may have one Forum per module with one or more topics in that forum. Some may have one Forum for the class that includes one topic for each module.
When you click on a Topic Title you enter the Topic. There you will see any discussion Threads that have been started. Threads are like sub-topics. When you are given an assignment to post your thoughts/reflections/answers to discussion questions/etc. to a forum you will do so on this page. Unless directed otherwise by your instructor, to post your initial response click the "Post New Thread" link at the top left. Give your post an appropriate title based on the content of the post and then type or paste in your message.
We recommend typing longer posts in a word processing software and then pasting them into Oncourse just in case you have connection issues. You don't want to spend 15-20 minutes writing and then loose everything you have just done. When pasting text, please use the little clipboard icons on the top row of editing tools. The third one over is Paste from Microsoft Word. If you are pasting from Word it is very helpful to use this tool as it removes most of the garbage html code that Word inserts. Your posts will look much better if you do this.
There are several formatting features in the Message Entry Area. The main ones you will most likely use are:
- the standard Bold, Italics, and Underline tools on the top row of editing buttons
- the numbered and bulleted lists (though be careful with these as they don't always behave the way you expect them to)
- the internet link button (globe with little chain links in front of it). This allows you to link to web addresses or to files in your Resources area of My Workspace. When you create a link PLEASE click on the Target tab and set the Target to New Window. This will open your link in a new window and allow the reader to have both your link and your post open at the same time. If you do not do this, clicking on your link will take people out of Oncourse.
- the insert picture button is the yellow one with the mountain and sun on it. Clicking this will allow you to paste in the url for a picture and then that picture will be embedded in your post.
- the insert table button (blue square with smaller squares in it) will allow you to insert a table and specify the number of rows and columns.
The bottom row of editing tools are four drop down boxes that you probably won't use too often. The main one of interest might be the Format one which allows you to set headings but 99.9% of posts aren't going to be long enough to need levels of headings and sub headings.
We STRONGLY recommend spell checking your postings. If you typed them in a word processor please use the spell check feature there. For the times you are typing into the message box, If you use Internet Explorer you need to download the ieSpell extension you can use the spell check function in Oncourse (the little ABC-check mark button on the top row. If you use Firefox the spell check function will not work. It will also not show you what is misspelled with the little red squiggly line under like you may have come to expect from Firefox. If you click "Source" you will see the plain text editor that includes the html code. In that view the built-in Firefox spell checker will work and you can right click on words and correct them. When you are done checking just click on Source again to get back to the regular view.
We don't recommend attaching files to forum postings if you can avoid it. Other students may have difficulty downloading files and viewing them due to connection speed, virus protection software, firewalls, and software incompatibility. If you so attach a file to a discussion forum post, OncourseCL will let you attach Word 2007 files but keep in mind that some of your classmates may not be able to read them if the are still running 2003 and have not installed the compatibility patch.
The ability to edit your own posts can be activated by the instructor. Keep in mind, not all instructors will do this automatically. However, if you need to fix something in a post, the instructor can let you edit the post yourself instead of deleting it and having you repost it. This is especially nice when others have already responded to your post. To edit posts click on "Other action" and if it is activated you should see link that says "edit".
To read other people's posts you have two options. One way to do it is to click the "Display entire message" link at the top of any given Topic page. That will expand all of the threads in the topic for you to read on one screen. The thing to note here is that reading this way WILL NOT mark the posts are being "read." To mark posts as "read" you have to click the "Mark as Read" link at the top of the page. The other way to do it is to click on the title of the thread you want to read which expands only that thread. You would still need to click "Mark all as Read" to mark the messages only in that thread as read. If you want to mark an individual message in a thread as read but not another you can mark them one at a time by clicking on the title of each individual post.
You can print all the messages in a thread by clicking the printer icon next to the Mark as Read link at the top of the Forum page.
To reply to a post you can either click the "Reply to Thread" link at the top of the page or you can click "Reply" on any individual message. If you are responding to someone else's reply , please click "Reply" on that individual message so the thread will be maintained in order.
The reply formatting options are the same as the options for an original post but there is one addition. You may insert the original text of the message to which you are replying. I strongly recommend NOT doing this. It is easy to see what message you are replying to as your reply will post directly below it. Inserting the original message just makes the forum longer.
Messages (aka email)
Unless specifically directed otherwise always send messages within Oncourse only by selecting "As Message". Do not use the "To Recipients' Email Address(es)" option. All instructors prefer that course messages to them remain in Oncourse.
Please be aware that if you do send a message to another student using "To Recipients' Email Address(es)" the message they receive shows up as coming from ude.ui.esruocno|retsamtsop#ude.ui.esruocno|retsamtsop and as an automatically generated email may very easily be caught in most email spam filters.
If you personally want all messages sent to you in a given class to be forwarded to an external email, click the "Settings" link and you will be asked for an email address to use for forwarding.
The same formatting options and attachment process exists for email as for the discussion forums.
If you delete a message it will be moved to the Deleted folder. It will not be permanently deleted.
Chat Room
You will use the synchronous chat function in about half of your courses. We will have a chat session in Orientation to let you practice. A chat is where everyone that is available will "talk" together at the same time. If you are connecting from work it is very important that you try the chat function in advance. Several people have had problems accessing chat from work because of network security and have had to work with their IT people at work to get things working. Don't wait until the last minute to find out that you are in this situation!
When you click on the Chat Room tool it places you in the default room. If there is more than one room set up you may change rooms by clicking on Change Room.
Chats are not private even though different chat rooms may be set up for different groups. Any student may read any message in any chat room. If you have a need for private, archived chats for group projects I recommend using Campfire, a web-based free chat site that allows for private meetings with archiving.
