Setting Up Your Course Site

Whether you are teaching an online course, a traditional face-to-face class, or a combination/hybrid section, we strongly recommend that you create an online course site within your college’s course management system (Moodle, WebCT, ETUDES NG, Blackboard, etc.). This makes it easier to communicate with students; for students to communicate with each other; for everyone to find the syllabus, schedule, assignments, scenario site, and other information essential to the success of the course; for students to submit written assignments; to post and access resources; and for students to check their grades as the term progresses.

In a scenario-based classroom, the students and instructor move back and forth from traditional classroom roles to scenario roles. The scenario website supports your students in their scenario roles. The course management site you create will provide support for their student selves. Use that space to post the syllabus, information on grading policy, grades, schedules, rules and regulations for your institution (computer lab passwords, textbooks, honor policy, etc.), and any other information you feel will aid their success as students in your classroom. You can support both roles for your students by setting up   threaded discussions for the student (a place for questions about the class itself). If possible, provide a threaded discussion area where students can post questions to you. This will save you from answering the same question over and over (once your students learn to look in the discussion area). Some instructors give students points for answering each other’s questions.

Threaded discussion can also be organized for each team. Ideally, they should be private, for the team only, but this is not always possible with academic technology.
Include a brief explanation of how your class will be using the scenario-based tasks and a link to the scenario site. That way, students don’t have to remember the URL for the site. They can get there from your class site. Post news bulletins, updates, reminders, or whatever other information you want them to see when they log into the site.