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.
Approximately two months before the term begins, you will gain access to your upcoming courses in LATTE. This has been delayed in 2020-2021 as the university upgrades its technology services. Once you have been notified that the course is ready for you, you can start updating the course and the materials.
This page outlines each item you need to create or update to prepare your course and a recommended timeframe for doing so. We strongly recommend working through the items according to the timeline rather than waiting until the last minute.
IMPORTANT Many boxes in this guide contain multiple tabs, each with important information. Make sure you click on each tab to update all items completely. We will be updating this guide regularly with more detailed guidance and screenshots to help your development process.
Courses should open for students one week before the start of the term. See the bottom of this page for instructions on opening the course. At this time, students should have access to:
We recommend hiding Weeks 4-10 at this time. If you hide the weeks, you will need to re-open them two weeks before the start of that week.
Three weeks before the course starts
As soon as you have access to your course
Once you have access to the course in LATTE, take some time to familiarize yourself with the course even if you’ve taught it before. Open all of the sections, click each of the links, and read through the assignment and evaluation criteria. Please update any typos or broken links that you encounter.
After your initial review of the course, work through each item in this guide to update and prepare your course.
Four weeks before the course starts
Top Section
Course Overview and Resources
Weekly Sections
Whole Course
Three weeks before the course starts
Four weeks before the course starts
Most GPS courses will use groups. Each course comes with a Private Forum with Professor that uses groups for easy and secure one-on-one conversations between you and each student individually. Some instructors have found that their students prefer to keep all communication within the course and its Private Forums rather than via email or other LATTE messaging options. As busy working professionals, many GPS students prefer consolidating all course communications in one place so they're easier to find.
You can also use LATTE groups for team assignments and conversations within your course. If you use any other groups in addition to the Private Forums, you will need to set up Groupings as detailed on one of the tabs in this box.
IMPORTANT Private Forums must be set up in a grouping if additional groups are created for assignments. Set up a grouping for the Private Forum groups according to the directions in the Groupings tab, then change the Grouping setting in the screenshot above to the appropriate grouping.
A grouping is a cluster of related groups. For example, all of the Private Forum groups are related, as are groups you would create for an assignment. If you don’t create groupings to organize your groups, students would be able to submit their assignment using their Private Forum group or post to their assignment group in the Private Forum.
Three weeks before the course starts
Draft the Welcome Message
Sunday prior to first week of class
The Course Announcements forum allows you to push emails to all enrolled students. Instructors are strongly encouraged to send an announcement welcoming students to the course on the Sunday prior to first week of class. Many faculty members choose to write their announcements in advance and schedule them to appear on their preferred days of the week (see the next tab in this box for instructions).
The exact content of the Welcome Message is up to you. We recommend including:
IMPORTANT You must open the course before sending any announcements. If scheduling announcements, you must open the course before the display start date of the Welcome Message.
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Scheduling Announcements
You can send announcements instantly or schedule them in advance. Scheduling announcements gives you the flexibility to send messages at a set time, even when you're busy with something else. The announcement will be stored in LATTE but hidden from students until the display time. There is no limit to the number of announcements you can schedule.
Three weeks before the course starts
At least one week before the course starts
All courses are hidden by default so students cannot access them before they are ready. Faculty are responsible for opening their own courses at least one week before the term starts.
IMPORTANT You must open the course before sending any announcements. If scheduling announcements, you must open the course before the display start date of the Welcome Message.