For basic users, we suggest setting up your course in a hierarchical structure called a "book." Students will be able to go to the root page -- the course page -- and find all information on the course. An example is at http://instructors.cwrl.utexas.edu/spinuzzi/2005summer/rhe306.
To set up a page for your course,
1. Log in. The instructor's login should have administrator privileges.
2. In the navigation box (the left top box, which should have your login name at the top), click on "Create Content."
3. Click on "book page"
4. Fill out the form, entering the course title in the Title field and the course's information in the Body field.
5. When you are done, click "Submit."
Once you have created the root page, you can add a syllabus, project descriptions, and other information. If you know HTML, you can embed heading tags; if not, we suggest using ALL CAPS for headings.
1. Go to the root page for the course.
2. Scroll to the bottom and click on "Add a child page." Drupal will bring up a form for adding the new page.
3. Fill out the form, using a descriptive title (e.g., "Syllabus") and entering the appropriate information into the Body.
4. When you are done, click "Submit."
This procedure works for any book page. So if you want to add supplemental information related to a project, for instance, you can attach it directly to the project page. Here's an example.
By default, Drupal allows students and instructors to add comments to any page. This feature can be useful for asking questions and adding clarifications. For instance, if a student has a question about an assignment, she or he can attach her question directly to the assignment page. Similarly, the instructor can add comments that elaborate on the assignment or resources that can be used to complete it.
By default, students and instructors can blog -- that is, contribute pages to the site. Blogs tend to be daily observations. In most blogs, authors describe events, record their thoughts about their current projects or current events, and include links to other sites. In your class, you might use your blog to share links and make announcements, and you might suggest that students do the same with their blogs.
Blogs are located under your course page. To get to the blogs page, go to the course page and add ?q=blog. For instance, on Clay Spinuzzi's course site, the blogs are at
http://instructors.cwrl.utexas.edu/spinuzzi/?q=blog
To create a blog entry,
1. Log in.
2. In the navigation box (the left top box, which should have your login name at the top), click on "Create Content."
3. Click on "personal blog entry"
4. Fill out the form, entering an appropriate title in the Title field and the information in the Body field.
5. When you are done, click "Submit."
Once you have set up your course, it's time to use it to support your class.
Creating logins
Have your students go to your course page and click on "Create New Account" (under the login/password form). They will then follow instructions to create their own accounts.
Assigning roles to students
If you set up a role for students (such as "Enrolled"), wait until they are all registered, then
1. Log in and click on "Administer->Users."
2. For each user who is a student in your class,
1. click "Edit"
2. scroll down to "Roles" and click the students' role ("Enrolled").
Blogs, comments, forums, and policy
Students will often be intrigued by the possibility of adding their own content to the site. Sometimes this content will be directly germane; at other times, it may be inappropriate. We suggest spelling out a policy for what constitutes worthwhile contributions, including a clear process of mediation for inappropriate content and a clear path for escalating issues. Mediation might include
Attachments
If you set up your class along the lines described in Setting Up a Course, only enrolled students will be able to upload and view attachments. By default, users can upload certain types of files: Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, HTML, TXT, and some graphics files. Again, we recommend a policy for appropriate content for attachments.
Links
To put it mildly, there is a lot of content to which students should probably not link. We recommend spelling our your policy on links as well.