eCollege User Tips

Browser Window Attempts to Close or Closes When Site Loads

In some browsers, the browser window will close or attempt to close immediately after the site loads. This does not occur when using Firefox or Netscape on a Macintosh.

In Internet Explorer for Windows, a warning box will ask you if you want the window to close and you can choose to leave it open.

On Macintoshes using Safari or Internet Explorer you do not get this option. However, there is a workaround to this problem:

1. Prior to opening the site, go to preferences and disable JavaScript.
2. Open the site.
3. Prior to logging on, enable JavaScript.
4. Log on.

Below is the screen in Safari that allows you to disable and enable JavaScript (click the image for a larger view). You will find this under Menu>Preferences and choose the "Security" Tab. Toggle the checkbox "Enable JavaScript."

Below is the screen from IE that allows you to enable and disable JavaScript. Go to Menu>Preferences and under "Web Browser" choose "Web Content." At the bottom of the dialog box find "Active Content" and toggle the checkbox "Enable Scripting."

Fine Tuning Text Display in Different Browsers

There are three different ways to fine-tune the way text is displayed in on Mac OSX. These are to turn off Font Smoothing for small fonts, magnify text in Safari, or to prevent Safari from showing any small fonts at all. Here are the steps for each of these methods:

• To adjust Font Smoothing options, which can make smaller text clearer, follow these steps:
  • Open System Preferences by clicking on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen then click on System Preferences.
  • When the Preferences window opens, click the Appearance button on the top toolbar.
  • At the bottom of the Appearance pane, change the font size to a larger number on the line that says "Turn off text smoothing for font sizes ___ and smaller."
  • This preference fine-tunes the way Mac OS X displays small text on screen and may make some smaller fonts easier to read.
• If this does not resolve the problem that you're encountering, you can also increase the font size that is displayed within some web pages. To do this in the Safari browser, follow these steps:
  1. Open Safari
  2. Click the View menu at the top of the screen
  3. Click on the item that says Make Text Bigger-alternatively, you can press and hold the Command key and press the + key at the top of the keyboard to make text larger. To reverse the process, press and hold the Command key and press the - key.
• Finally, you can also prevent Safari from showing very small fonts at all by forcing it to never use tiny fonts. To do this, try these steps:
  1. Open Safari
  2. Click on the Safari menu at the top of the screen then click Preferences
  3. When the Preferences box appears, click the Advanced button at the top
  4. On the Advanced page, you'll see a line that says "Universal Access:" followed by two checkboxes. Make sure the first checkbox, next to "Never use font sizes smaller than ___" is selected and change the font size shown to a larger size.
  5. Close the preferences box to return to the web page.

  You may need to quit then restart Safari for the change to take effect.

Using the Visual Editor on a Macintosh

Macintosh users can do almost everything Windows users can do in eCollege. The only significant feature that doesn't work on a Mac is eCollege's built-in Visual Editor, which allows instructors to more easily edit and format content in the author view of the Announcements area or other course Content Items, as well as in Discussion Area posts.

For Mac-using instructors, when creating Announcements or other Content Items within the course, HTML must be used to apply text formatting. This is explained within their Workshop or Orientation classroom's "Software Lesson 1b: The Homepage and the Announcements Area" in the "How to add an Announcement" header. There you will see a link to a brief tutorial for Mac users.

When creating Discussion Area posts however, HTML cannot be used to apply text formatting. The HTML tags will simply be rendered as text within the post. Unfortunately, there is currently no way for Mac-users to generate text-formatting within the discussion areas, although line breaks entered inside the Response box when typing a post will hold.

Posting an Announcement

To post an Announcement, such as a welcome announcement at the start of the course, simply follow these steps:

1. Select the "Course Home" unit in the left margin.
2. Enter Author mode by clicking the "Author" tab at the upper left
3. This will take you to "Edit Course Home", where you can create new Announcements or edit existing ones.
4. To create a new Announcement, click the blue link "Add New Announcement". In the resulting screen, enter your subject line, type your message into the Announcement box, and select Start and End dates for the announcement to display. The announcement will terminate at 12:00a on the end date you specify (it will not display on the end date itself). Then click "Post Announcement"
5. To edit a pre-existing Announcement, click on the subject of the Announcement in the Announcements box to expand the message. Then click on the Edit link at the bottom of the Announcement, make the appropriate changes in the resulting screen, then click "Post Updated Announcement"

Your announcement will then greet students when they logon to the classroom. It will not be a pop-up, but rather a message on the "Course Home" screen. You can have any number of announcements active at one time.

Viewing your Class Roster

You can view a list of students enrolled in your class, along with their email addresses, under the Course Admin tab at the top of any page. Once inside the Course Admin area, click on the Course Enrollment button to view your class roster. Clicking on a student name will reveal additional information about that student such as his or her phone number.

Sending Class Email

You can send an email to an individual student, a select group of students, or the entire class by clicking on the Email tab at the top of any page. Simply highlight the name for each student and click "Add" to move that student to the Recipients list. Adding the "(All Class Members)" item to the Recipients list will send an email to the entire class.

Using "See What's New" to find recent posts

After first entering a course, you can set the "See What's New Since Last:" value on the Course Home page to see what forums have posts from a recent number of days.

Creating a "Subject Line"

You can use the first few words of a discussion post to act as a "header" or "subject" for the rest of your message since the first 30 characters of the message are shown when the message is collapsed.

Marking messages as Read/Unread

Marking discussion posts as Read or Unread will allow you to keep track of what messages are new since your last visit to class:

1. When you click directly on a message that is collapsed, it will open and change its status to Read
2. When you click Expand All, all collapsed messages are opened and their read status does not change
3. Clicking on the read status icon (the little envelope) will toggle the message between Read and Unread
4. Clicking Show Options allows you to select a series of individual messages and mark them all as Read or Unread. Clicking on the "sort by:" Unread link in the upper right hand corner of the discussion area will filter all of the unread messages to the top of the discussion area, allowing for easy selection.

Viewing Uploaded Files

To ensure that all members of a class can read each other's work, RTF and HTML are the recommended formats. Pages and some versions of ClarisWorks or AppleWorks come with translators for other programs, so you may be able to translate the file if you drag and drop the document onto your word processor's icon. If this doesn't open the file, you may have to open it from within your word processor. To do this, launch your word processor, then click on the File menu and drag down to Open. Locate the document you want to open in the window (you may have to click on the File Format button and change it to "All Available") and double-click on it."

Viewing Uploaded JPGs, GIFs, PSDs or Other Files

JPGs and GIFs may be viewed by clicking on the link in the post. To ensure easy viewing of other files, such as PSDs, keep a download folder on your desktop. Leave Adobe Photoshop, or the appropriate native software, open so you can view the files as soon as you download them.

Using the Gradebook

The Gradebook in eCollege will become the sole method for entering, tracking, calculating, and providing grades and feedback for students:

1. Start by selecting the appropriate week in the Select Gradebook View: pop-up menu.
2. A star indicates that there is no grade submitted for that student for that weekly assignment. Clicking on the star brings up the Grade Details window for that student for that assignment. Here, you can see all student activity towards that assignment, enter a grade for the assignment, and provide comments. For text entered into the Comments field of the Grade Details window, you must use HTML for any desired formatting, including line breaks. Clicking Save and Next will bring up the Grade Detail window for that assignment for the next student in the class.
3. Clicking on the assignment name in the Gradebook allows you to enter scores and comments for the entire class for that assignment.
4. Clicking on the student name will allow you to see all course grades for that student.
5. If a student does not submit an assignment, you must enter a grade of zero for that student for that assignment. Otherwise, the assignment will not be included in the total possible points for that student.

For more information on using the Gradebook, please visit:
www.socratesdistancelearning.com/gradebook_tutorial/

Viewing Attachments in the Gradebook

When grading an assignment that has been submitted as an attachment, the attachments are not included with their corresponding message or date in the Gradebook Detail window. Rather, they are provided as a running list above the discussion responses. While the attachments are listed in chronological order (oldest to newest), you may want to encourage your students to use some sort of naming convention so that you can better identify which attachment to grade.

Viewing your own responses to students when grading

If you would like to see your own discussion responses to students when grading, you can leave the Grade Details window for a particular student's assignment open, go back to the main classroom window, and then navigate to the appropriate discussion area for that assignment. There you can reference all activity for that assignment, including your own comments, while entering information into the Grade Details window.

Grading Exams/Quizzes

If the course you are teaching has exams or quizzes, eCollege will automatically grade student submissions, but you must manually transfer the score into the Gradebook and share it with the student.

1. Start by clicking on the asterisk in the Gradebook indicating that the student has taken the exam, but that it has not yet been scored in the Gradebook.
2. In the Gradebook Detail window, locate the Points Received value in the Autograde Summary, and enter that score into the Numeric Grade field at the top of the window.
3. Check the "Show grade to student" option
4. Click Save and Close. The score will be entered into the Gradebook, and the student should then be able to review the exam, including the correct answers.

eCollege Support

For additional assistance with eCollege, please call: 1.800.351.3846