What is myCourses?
myCourses is a robust learning management system that allows faculty to easily
prepare and deliver course content either through a blended or fully
online course environment. myCourses provides a "shell" to upload
course content using a variety of course tools that easily help organize the
structure of the course as well as integrate communications, assessment and
course management components.
myCourses Training
In order for faculty members to receive access to myCourses course sites,
they must first successfully complete the myCourses Online Teaching & Learning Strategies Course. This 10 day
course, which is conducted online with two face-to-face meetings, takes place
several times throughout the year. The course requires a 5-6 hour time commitment
per week from faculty, as well as a one hour start-up meeting before the class
begins to receive user names and passwords and a two hour meeting in the second
week of the course for a hands-on lesson in creating course content. The policy
of the Instructional Development (ID) team at CITS is that each faculty member
must participate actively in the training course and learn to be a self-sufficient
user of myCourses before receiving course sites for class use. If a faculty
member is not participating in the class, the ID Team reserves the right to
remove the individual from the training course and to deny access to the
myCourses learning management systems.
Click here for further information on the
myCourses online training course.
myCourses Training offerings:
| June 9 - 20, 2008 |
On campus meetings:
Monday, June 9, from 11:00am-12:00pm (optional session)
Tuesday, June 17, from 10:00pm-12:00pm
|
To request myCourses training, please fill
out and submit the Training Course Request
Form
Acceptance to the myCourses training session(s) is on a first come, first
served basis and is limited to 15 participants.
Faculty should request their course sites using the online site request form here : http://www.umassd.edu/cits/id/testform.html
Technical Requirements
Basic Computer Skills
Online teaching and learning requires a certain level of comfort using the computer.
You should feel comfortable with:
- creating, opening, saving, and closing files
- using your mouse to navigate around your desktop/laptop
- sending, replying, and forwarding email messages
- sending/saving an email attachment
- using a browser and searching the web
- using a word processing application such as Word
- copying and pasting text
- minimizing and maximizing your application windows
- navigating between several open software applications with ease
If you need further training with some of these common tasks you can access
online tutorials here, Entry
Level Computer Skills
Computer Requirements
The minimum technical requirements for access to myCourses System are:
PC Users:
Pentium II processor or better
Windows 98/NT/2000/XP
128MB Ram
Macintosh Users:
Power PC G3 or better
Mac OS 8.6 or higher or Mac OSX 10.1 or higher
128MB Ram
Internet Connection
An internet connection of 56K or better is required for both the faculty and
students. A DSL or cable modem connection is preferred but not required. Remember
that not all users have access to high speed internet, and this should be a
consideration for faculty as they design their online courses.
AOL subscribers:
AOL and certain other Internet service provider browsers – the Web browser provided with AOL's software and certain other Internet service providers is, in fact, either Internet Explorer or Netscape, depending on the provider. These Internet service providers, however, have changed some of the functionality of the browser. We recommend that you connect to the Internet using your Internet service provider account; minimize the account’s window, and then launch one of the above supported web browsers (depending on your computer platform).
Browser Requirements
Access to the myCourses learning system requires a Java capable web browser.
Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator/Communicator are the browsers recommended
by the ID team as the most reliable.
myCourses Supported Browsers
(myCourses runs on Blackboard Vista Enterprise 4.2 software)
Blackboard "validates" browsers for use with their system by extensively
checking and testing the software versions with various browsers on the
standard platforms. The browsers validated for use with myCourses are:
Windows
| Browsers |
Browser Versions |
| Supported |
Unsupported |
| Microsoft IE |
6 SP2; 7 see note 2 |
-- |
| Netscape |
-- |
8 |
| AOL* |
-- |
-- |
| Mozilla |
-- |
1.5, 1.6 |
| Firefox |
1.5.x (PC only), 2.0.x |
-- |
Mac
| Browsers |
Browser Versions |
| Supported |
Unsupported |
| Mozilla |
-- |
Browsers running under Mac OS 9 and earlier; Firefox 1.5, Mozilla 1.5, 1.6, and 1.7 |
| Firefox |
TBD with 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 |
| Safari |
1.3, 2.x; and 2.x for Intel x86 platform |
|
