Beginning with the Fall 2024 semester, Brandeis will move from LATTE to Moodle 4. Please visit our Moodle 4 documentation. LATTE courses will be available through Fall 2024.
All Brandeis courses have a consistent course structure in LATTE. We call this our "shell," and it means that when you enter an online course, you will consistently be able to retrieve material of interest in the same location.
Brandeis University regularly review and update the standard shell to ensure that is it functional and accessible for all students.
Why did Brandeis switch from the buttons format to the collapsible sections format? Unfortunately the buttons are not accessible for students who use screen readers to navigate their courses. The new Collapsible Sections format allows Brandeis to be accessible and inclusive to our students.
Each course will display the name of the course and your contact information. Below is the Course Announcements area.
The top section of each course is a static resource section that you can return to at any point in the course. You should include a brief message providing an overview of yourself and the course. This section also includes links to find support, information about any books or tools you may need to purchase, and the grading rubrics used for your assignments and discussions.
Write a short bio introducing yourself and your background. Also write an overview of the course. The length and content is up to you, but we recommend 1-3 paragraphs covering the topic/content of the course, any special tools or software students will need, your communication preferences, your expectations of students, and/or what students can expect from you.
Optional We recommend recording a short intro video for a very personalized welcome. You can host this on Ensemble or Echo360.
This section includes links and information to contact the Online Course Support Center where support staff are available 24/7 to address any questions or problems you're having with LATTE. It also includes links to the library services for students. All of this information is also included in the sidebar blocks in each course as well as in the navigation sidebar in this guide. The Online Course Support center is a resource for both faculty and students - please use this service for any problems you encounter with your course and direct students to do the same.
You should include information and links (as appropriate) to any textbooks and tools required for this course here. If there are no textbooks or external tools for a course, you can delete this area.
You can list your rubrics for discussions and assignments in this area so students can refer to them without needing to navigate to the week when the assignment is due. If you choose to not do this, please hide this area rather than deleting it. Hidden items are not visible to students.
Your materials and activities for each week are located within a collapsible section. You can keep any sections that you don't need collapsed to reduce the amount of scrolling. Each section is organized in similar ways to help students locate what they need.
Tip: You can click on either the arrow or the text with the dates to expand and collapse each section.
At the top of each section, you'll should enter a brief overview of the week. This should help students know what to expect from the week and what they should focus on. The learning objectives are displayed below this summary so students can track for themselves how well they're mastering the content.
Read and Review
All readings and videos for the week should be listed here. Any materials that are available digitally will include links. There is space to include an estimate for how long you think students should expect to spend on that week's materials so they can manage their time and expectations effectively.
Complete Assignments
If you have an assignment due that week, you will see a Complete Assignments area in that week's section. You should include a brief overview of the assignment on the course page with the full description and grading criteria in an attached document or in the assignment activity itself. There is space to include an estimate for how long you think students should expect to spend on that assignment so they can manage their time and expectations effectively.
Although we recommend including the assignment title and description, you can hide this from students for the upcoming term if you don't have time to adjust it at this time.
Participation Feedback or Reflection and Participation Feedback
IMPORTANT You must choose one of these two options. Hide or delete the option you don't want.
We strongly recommend including the Reflection to help students process and internalize that week's learning and to give you regular feedback on how well students are processing the content. General prompts are available in the activity so you don't have to come up with them yourself - but feel free to change them to be more specific to your course! Although we recommend choosing this option, you can opt out of the Reflection. If you choose to do so, delete this section and use the Participation Feedback section above instead.
For the experience you're used to from past courses, select the Participation Feedback option and delete the Reflection and Participation Feedback section.
Along the left side of the course, you will see a series of blocks. These blocks contain resources to support you and your students. The standard blocks are displayed horizontally below for convenience, they will display vertically in your courses. You may choose to add additional blocks at your discretion.
LATTE Helpdesk and Library Resources: Contains a link to contact the dedicated LATTE support services (email, chat, and Brandeis faculty and students. It also includes links to commonly accessed library resources for students.
Accessibility: The accessibility block allows you to customize LATTE pages to meet your accessibility requirements.
LATTE Course Tools: Contains links to help you to manage your LATTE courses. Students do not see this block.
Tip: LATTE courses are fully responsive to your screen size and will adjust the layout accordingly. If you're on a small screen like a tablet or mobile phone, the blocks will relocate to the bottom of the page so the most important content (your coursework) is accessible with less scrolling. Blocks are not available at all if you're using the mobile app.