Organize and Manage Your Course
Organizing and managing a class can be time-consuming, particularly when course materials are diverse and complex. Information technologies can help. A Web site can be a dependable and accessible place to store and access course materials, relieving you of the burden of photocopying handouts. Online quizzes and assignment collection can save precious class time as well.
Common Goals
- Reduce time and resources used for administrative tasks.
- Provide a dependable location for resources that can be accessed anytime and from anywhere.
- Provide clear expectations for students.
Options
Options for efficiently organizing and managing your course are suggested below.
Catalyst CommonView
A course workspace created with CommonView can provide a
gateway to course resources for
students. CommonView workspaces give students online
access to course materials like syllabi, schedules,
lecture slides/notes, handouts, homework assignments, and
announcements whenever and wherever they have Web access.
Getting Started
Catalyst Collect It
The easy-to-use interface of the Collect It tool allows
your students to submit homework assignments to you
over the Web. With electronic submission of
assignments, instructors no longer have to worry about
cumbersome email attachments or misplaced hard copies.
Collect It also provides several ways to sort, download,
and give feedback on assignments.
Planning
Considerations
Catalyst WebQ
WebQ makes it easy to create online surveys, quizzes,
and questionnaires that you can use to assess students'
interests and proficiecies, evaluate their learning, and
get feedback on your course. In
addition to facilitating the grading of quizzes, you
could use a WebQ survey to check in with students on their level
of experience with technology early in a course that
uses computers to get a sense of their technical
proficiency and level of comfort. WebQ can also be used
to collect feedback from students on anything from a
single class meeting to an entire term project at any
point throughout the quarter.
Planning Considerations
Catalyst UMail
UMail allows your students to send email messages to
you or to your assistants through an online form.
Depending on the settings you select the messages can
be anonymous so that students feel more comfortable sharing their
thoughts and opinions. You can control the flow of
information from your students by directing UMail to
yourself, your assistants, or whomever you
designate.
Planning Considerations
UW Libraries' Electronic Course Reserves
The electronic course reserves allow you to make course materials available in digital format to your students 24 hours a day. By requiring a UW NetID for access, electronic reserve protects your course materials as well. Posting to the electronic reserve system is easy! Find out how to manage your own electronic course reserves page.
My UWClass
Designed for instructors, MyUWClass is a tool that collects and displays class information and useful links in one easy place. Use it to find class lists, edit your course descriptions in the time schedule, access Catalyst tools associated with your courses, and more. To access MyUWClass, log into MyUW at http://myuw.washington.edu. Then select the "Teaching" Tab on the left. In the "Teaching Class Schedule", you will see a button for "MyUWClass". Each class you teach will have this button which leads to a separate informational page specific to that class.
Course Web site
A course Web site can be the gateway to resources for
students. By creating a course Web site you can allow
students to easily access course requirements, syllabi,
lecture overheads, homework assignments, and
announcements at any time, from home or school.
Planning
Considerations
MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching)
MERLOT is an online educational portal that contains links to thousands of online learning materials created by college faculty in all subject areas. All material is peer-reviewed. You can easily find the material you need to support your teaching and improve the organization of your courses.
