Updating Your Newly Restored Course - START HERE

The current default process is to directly copy the previous semester course (ie. Winter 2023) that matches both the instructor and course sections into the coming semester (ie. Winter 2024). 

That is:

• Same course code and section combinations,
• Offered by the same instructor,
• In the same semester from the year before (ie. Winter 2023),
• Applying the same start date in the coming semester (based on a Monday start, ie. Mon Jan 01)

To request a different course restore, you can reach out to the COTROnline eLearning team directly or there is usually a form provided via email that you can fill out each semester.

What if I want to change the source after the course is already restored?

You can request a different course be restored into your new course shell. Please email the COTROnline help desk to make this request: cotronline@cotr.bc.ca

Please provide the Short Name and URL Link for both A) the newly created course shell and B) the course you want restored into that shell.

The following chapters of this book provide a step-by-step process for you to make sure your newly restored course is ready for the next semester.

Course Title and Short Name

• Your course title and short-title are set with a particular format so any changes should be made via a request to COTROnline. 
• You can confirm accuracy by looking for key signifiiers: 
  • Course Name
  • Mode of Delivery: F2F or OL, etc.
  • Semester: Winter 2024, or 2024WI, etc.
  • Instructor: Your Name or Initials (YN) etc.

Course Description/Summary

The course description > course summary field displays for students in their Course Dashboard, (see below). As such, it is really important that this information is up-to-date.

• Even if you did not personally enter information here, it might be here from a previous copy of the course
• You can opt to provide no description, but you might as well as it provides a useful touchstone for students

We also encourage you to set a default course image, this helps differentiate your course from others in student course lists.

• The default start date for COTROnline courses is the Monday of the first week of classes, regardless of the first day of the actual class. 
  • For example: your course starts on Wednesday September 3rd, the start date for the course will be Monday September 2nd.
    
    
• This automatically populates your course with Mon-Sun weekly drop-down sections, labelled by the Mon-Fri dates of the week.
  
• • On a given week, the current section will be highlighted in green
  • **When you use the Collapsed Topics- Week (default) setting
    

Default Course Format

Adding Additional Sections

e.g. assignment information, course policies, etc.

e.g.

There are two methods to approach additional topics in your course. 

Method 1: For using the "Week" Structure

• Push the Start Date back one week for every extra topic (e.g. in the example above, the start date would be August 16, allowing three extra weeks to hold pre-course content)

Method 2: Using the "Topic" Structure

• Switch your Course format to "Topic". This removes the auto-date function from the weekly sections and allows you to add as many extra topics as you want. 
• This turns off the 'active week' function and the auto-date function - you will have to label your weekly sections yourself.

Ensure you have set your "Hidden Sections" setting to either:

1. "Hidden Sections are shown as not available" - meaning they are listed on the course page along with their descriptions, but they are faded and the activity content is not available.
   OR
2. "Hidden Sections are completely invisible" - meaning that they are completely hidden and unlisted on the course homepage.
   
   

For more detailed information on adjusting your Section Settings, see our Adding & Removing Sections help guide.

For detailed information on setting up your gradebook, please see our Gradebook section. 

The default should be set to Yes - your gradebook should be ready for student viewing by the first day of classes. 

If for any reason you will be making larger changes to the gradebook, you can temporarily switch this to No. However, you should inform students that you are hiding the gradebook so that they aren't wondering where it went!!

• Course outlines are the College's contract with the students taking a course and were identified as a mandatory component of a course page (as per Doug McLachlan, VP Academic, 2014).
  
  
• To avoid problems in the event of a grade challenge, the Evaluation and Assessment in the course outline should provide the basic structure for a course grade book.
  
  
• The course outline is linked to the official version on SharePoint. If the link is broken, this is the URL https://outlines.cotr.bc.ca/pdf/courses/course-outline-AAAA-123-Fall-2024.pdf; update the highlighted part of the URL with the course ID information.
• You can locate your Course Outline here: https://cotr.bc.ca/courses

• The announcements forum appears automatically in all courses - it is a guaranteed mass-announcement tool which alerts students automatically
• You are encouraged to leave it in place in the Welcome area, but if you have a clear alternative for announcements - ie. in Microsoft Teams or via Email you may consider one of the two following options:
• To Hide when not in use;
  
  • move the element to the bottom of your course and hide it from students if you will not be using this forum to communicate with students
  • remove the block element from the course so it is not visible to students
• To permanently remove:
• • go into your Settings and adjust course Appearance settings. 
  • set number of announcements available to 0
  • delete the element from your course

• Instructor information including name, office hours, preferred contact methods and times, etc. are key elements of the course Welcome 
• Ensure this information is up--to-date for the new semester, including any date or time changes
• This is particularly important if you are changing instructors for a course! 

Location, Location, Location

• Your instructor information should be presented in detail in a document format, whether a Moodle Page or Book element or an uploaded PDF. However, you can also display the essential elements of this info in short form in other locations on the course page.
• See our "Meet your Instructor" block setup for more details.

• Ensure the Course Syllabus is up-to-date and relevant to the course design you are presenting to students. 
• You might want to create "Course Info" block or element that summarizes key highlights outside the core Syllabus document
  • ie. Class location or Teams link, class hours, short-link to syllabus document
• Additionally, consider developing a virtual resource such as a Graphic Syllabus. 
  • Powerpoint Template
    
  • Canva Template 1
    
  • Canva Template 2
    

• The Categories should reflect the Evaluation and Assessment in the Course Outline.
  
• Assignments can be combined under one general heading as can Exams providing the category value is equal to the value of the combined items  and the items within the category are weighted appropriately.
  
• If Grade Book Categories are missing, directions for adding them can be found here
  

• Totals should be out of 100.  Any other number means that students grades will be calculated as a percentage of the total (e.g.  a student earns 100% for a category, but if the total for the category is set to 40, the student will only be attributed 40% of their 100%).

• Each Category, as well as the Course, should be set to Include empty grades.  This is the site standard; except in VERY particular circumstances, DO NOT change.
• Include Empty Grades means that what students see at any given time is the grade they would get at that time, providing everything submitted has been marked 
  

When completion tracking is enabled, course content and assessments can be assigned completion conditions.

• You can make the completion of one activity - for example, a course reading - a requirement in order to access a quiz.
• Or you can make passing a quiz a requirement to view the next course section
• etc.

e.g. 

You can have completion tracking enabled, but set Show activity completion conditions to No.

Under your course admin is a Course Completion menu:

From this window, you can set completion settings and requirements for ALL ACTIVITIES in your course - or even to just apply to some activities and not others.

For example, to turn off activity completion on all elements. Select Bulk edit activity completion from the dropdown menu.

To use this model, request access to the COTROnline Experience from the CITL. To simply use the drop-downs, see the Adding and Removing sections guide in the Faculty Help Manual.

To use this feature, see the Blocks information section of the Faculty Help Manual.