Course Tools allow the instructor to select which tools are to be made available for a specific course. As Tools are turned on in the Control Panels under Manage Tools --> Tool Availability, they become visible in the Course Tools, Control Panel. 
 
 There are 13 Course Tools:

• Announcements
• Course Calendar
• Staff Information
• Tasks
• Send E-mail
• Discussion Board
• Collaboration
• Glossary Manager
• Content Collection
• Check Collection Links
• Copy Files to Collection
• Voice Announcements
• SafeAssign

NOTE: If all the course tools are deselected in the Control Panels under Manage Tools ---> Tool Availability the Course Tools Option will NOT be visible in this Control Panel.

Announcements

Announcements post timely information critical to the course. The instructor can add, modify, and remove announcements from the Announcements page. This is an ideal place to post time-sensitive material such as:

• When assignments are due
• Changes in the syllabus
• Corrections/Clarifications of materials
• Exam schedules
  

Course Calendar

Instructors can use the calendar to indicate important course related events. The dates and events that appear on the Course Calendar are for all students registered in a specific course.

• Suggested items to include in the calendar:
• Section Meetings
• Assignments Due
• Exams
• Guest Speakers

Collaboration (Virtual Classroom)

The Virtual Classroom allows the instructor and students to participate in online, real time lessons and discussions, and to view archives of previous classroom sessions. Guest speakers and subject matter experts can participate with the class in the Virtual Classroom from any remote location. The Virtual Classroom features a white board for graphical information and an internet interface (Group Browser) to allow all participants to view a specific web page within the chat session. There is also a Lite Chat feature that allows for groups to communicate without the whiteboard and internet interface features. Participants who participate in an online chat session must have a browser that has Java capabilities.

Discussion Board Forum Page

The Discussion Board is another communication tool that can be used to enhance a course Web site. This feature is similar to the chat, but is designed for asynchronous use, users are not present at the same time to converse on-line. For example email is asynchronous. An additional advantage of the discussion board is that student conversations are logged and organized. Conversations are grouped into threads that contain a main posting and all related replies. The Discussion Board Forum page is the first page accessed when Discussion Board is clicked from the Instructor Control Panel.

Send Email

Instructors can send email to individuals, selected students or groups who participate in a particular course.

Glossary Manager

Glossary Manager allows the instruct or build a glossary tailored to a specific course. Terms and definitions are made available to the student via Student Tools.

Staff Information

Staff information provides information as to the instructor’s Title, Name, email, office location, phone, office hours, and any other notes that the instructor wishes to share. Pictures and hyper links to web pages may also be selected for inclusion on this page.

Tasks

The Tasks page organizes projects (referred to as tasks), defines task priority, and tracks task status. A user can create tasks and post them to the Tasks page. Each user can post personal tasks to their page, instructors and managers can post tasks to users participating in their course and system administrators can post tasks to all users' Tasks pages.