Instructor Guide: Assessment for Credit

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 assessment and grading criteria. Please update any typos, broken links, or incorrect information. If there are any egregious errors, please let Andie and/or Ashley know.

This will ensure that all material is up-to-date and that you are prepared to answer questions from your students.

At least one month before the course opens

Top Section

If you are not the most recent instructor, replace the image with your headshot and update your name. 

• Use a square image for your headshot. Edit your image before uploading to LATTE if it isn’t already square
• Update the alt text to say “headshot of [your name]”
• For a high-resolution headshot, set the height and width to 250 pixels. For a low-resolution image, set them both to 200 pixels.
• Toggle to the HTML editor with the button in the WYSIWYG editor. Locate the img tag for your headshot and replace the class attribute with class="rounded-circle mx-auto d-block img-responsive". You can skip this step if you aren't comfortable editing HTML.

Getting Started

The Getting Started section provides initial guidance and support for students as they enter your course. In this section you should include:

• A brief introduction to yourself
• Logistical information for navigating and completing this assessment
• Your communication preferences
• First steps after students access the course

This section should not be a verbatim copy of your Welcome Message. Instead, this should include information that helps students get started with their work.

IMPORTANT Do not edit or delete the "Where to Get Help" section

Assessment for Credit: Portfolio 

Review the Recommended Milestones section. Adjust this section as needed to reflect the milestones you would like to aim for with the students.

Open the Final Portfolio Submission activity and confirm that all of the information is up-to-date and accurate.

IMPORTANT Be careful when copying and pasting text into LATTE! Text copied from Google Docs, Microsoft Word, emails, and most websites will almost always copy some of the underlying code and formatting from the original location in addition to the text. When you paste this text into your LATTE course, that code will be pasted as well. This can cause issues with how your text appears, your ability to edit or style the text, and sometimes even lead to serious display problems with your entire course! To avoid these problems, you can:

1. Type directly into the text editor. This is the best way to ensure you don't add any unexpected code/formatting into your course. You can format your text directly in LATTE using the buttons above the text editor (e.g., bold text, hyperlinks).
2. Paste as plain text. This will strip all coding and formatting from the text. You can reapply the stripped formatting directly in LATTE using the buttons above the text editor (e.g., bold text, hyperlinks). To paste as plain text:
   • In Chrome, Edge, or Firefox: press Ctrl + Shift + V (Windows) or Cmd + Shift + V (Mac)
   • In Safari: press Cmd + Option + Shift + V
   • Alternative option in Windows: right click in the text editor then select Paste as plain text from the menu
3. Advanced option: Use the HTML editor. If you are comfortable modifying HTML code, you can paste text into the HTML editor then apply your formatting through code or the WYSIWYG editor.

At least one week before the course opens

We recommend using the Private Forum for all communication with students whenever possible as this creates a log in the case of any dispute. Students can only access their own communication with you, they cannot see any messages you have with any other students.

IMPORTANT. You must create groups if you want to message students privately using this forum. Students cannot respond to posts that are not sent specifically to their group.

Steps

1. If you keep the drawer menu on the left side of the course page closed, click the icon in the upper left corner of the page to expand it.
2. Click Participants in the left-side menu.
3. Click the Actions menu  icon in the upper right of the Participants block (above the gray Enrol Users button) to expand the action menu, then click Groups.
   
4. Create one group per each enrolled student. Title each group with the student’s full name. 
5. Select a group and click the Add/remove users button. Enroll that student and the instructor (yourself) in that group. 
6. Click the Back to groups button and repeat for each group. 

At least three days before the course opens

The Course Announcements forum allows you to push emails to all enrolled students. We strongly recommend scheduling a Welcome Message for the Sunday before the course starts to introduce yourself and set expectations for the course. 

You may choose to send additional announcements throughout the course. The content and frequency of those announcements is up to you. 

Scheduling Announcements

You can write announcements to send immediately. For more flexibility, you can schedule announcements to be sent at specific times.

 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.

1. Access the Course News & Announcements forum at the top of the course
2. Click the blue Add a new topic button
3. Type the subject line and message (order can be switched with step 4)
4. Click the Advanced link (order can be switched with step 3)
   
5. Expand the Display period settings if not already expanded
6. Enable Display Start. Set it to the date and time that students can see the post.
7. Do not enable Display End.
8. Click the blue Post to forum button

One week before the course starts

All courses are hidden by default so students cannot access them before they are ready. The GPS standard is to open all courses one week before the term begins.

 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.

1. Click the gear icon in the upper right corner of your course then click Edit settings.
   
2. Change the Course visibility from Hide to Show.
   
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the blue Save and display button.